While You Were Working (Live) Ep. 15 – It’s All About The Consumer, Baby!

Even us marketers have to play the consumer at times. If you consider your personal data as a commodity, then the consumer could soon be flipping the table on companies. For now though, companies can enjoy mining your data and all the things you share on social media for free, as long as you the consumer give them the go-ahead.

In our While You Were Working (LIVE) episode 15 we discuss some really interesting topics surrounding the things we share in the digital space. We take a look at one company using it to their HUGE advantage for the Superbowl this Sunday, flip our way of thinking about personal data and who has the rights to it and take a look at 4 simple words that turned a company into a $600 Million company.

Here are episode 15 #WYWWLive topics:

1. The crowdsourced Superbowl ad
2. What happens if we were to be paid for our personal data
3. The $600 Million no B.S. health bar

WYWWLive Episode 15 Article Links:

1. Who’s ready for their 15 minutes of fame: Kraft Crowdsourced Superbowl Spot for Sunday
   
   Consumers of the brand Kraft can be seen enjoying salad dressings or macaroni and cheese most often, but these are not requirements to be a part of their big commercial on Sunday.
   
   YOU, the consumer, will be fully sourcing all the content for Kraft’s Superbowl commercial during the 3rd quarter of this Sunday’s game. It’s an ingenius idea for their super expensive ($5 million to be exact) ad spot as it eliminates all those pesky additional expenses of commercials – actors, music, lighting, etc. Anyone who posts photos or videos on February 4th between the hours of 6AM – 8:30PM EST and uses the hashtags #FamilyGreatly or #KraftEntry are elligible to have their content used in the commercial.
   
   Kraft said they also plan to use their consumer-generated content throughout the year for various other marketing campaigns. Talk about efficient content curation.
   
   
2. Your side hustle made easy: Can Big Tech Companies Find A Way to Reward Users For Their Data?
   
   “If the service is free, then you are the product.”
   
   We’ve all grown accustomed to sharing information within the digital space. But did you ever stop to think about how valuable those nuggets of data are to big companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and many others? Now, not all consumer data is created equal, but all the data being shared right now is essentially coming to these companies for free. Then they are able to turn around and build AI (artificial intelligence) systems based off the things consumers have shared, ultimately profiting. This doesn’t seem very consumer-centric at all?
   
   According to The Economist, personal data is the “new oil.” In this article it suggests some ideas on how the way we share data now can have an effect on everything from data advantages stifling competition, stopping any new companies from every taking hold, resulting in more job automation thus increased job loss and more.

3. Shut up and make a sale: The Co-Founder of The Mostly Bootstrapped RXBar Shares How He Was Able to Sell His Startup for $600 Million
   
   Sometimes as marketers or entrepreneurs, it’s easy to get bogged down with the whatifs and the perfectionisim.
   
   Luckily for the Founders of RXBar, four simple words created a pivotal moment for how they conducted business. The message was simple, it was to just go sell the product. So they took the time to find their core consumer base and sell to them. What this did in turn was create a very loyal fan base, brand advocates and ultimately a huge stake in the health bar market space. Ultimately leading to their $600 Million sale to Kellogg in 2017.
   
   Bottom line, you can look to investors, research until you’re blue in the face but ultimately the consumer will dictate how your product performs.