Impact = C x (R + E + A + T + E)
In an age when everyone is connected, how to be heard and noticed is a major challenge. Today, anyone can write a blog post, but not everyone can get it liked thousands of times on Facebook and build blog subscribers. You’ve engaged in creating or producing something for the web, not because you’re a natural or somebody extraordinary, but because you persisted. You tried and failed, tried again and failed again, until you mastered the idea of how to move successfully from point A to point B, and completely covered all the points.
Why is it that many previously nameless people get on a social platform like Facebook or YouTube and attract millions of visitors and followers while some sit there with few to none? You may have produced a YouTube video and hoped that it goes viral, or created a website and prayed that it rises to the number-one spot in a Google search for your subject, or you may have written a novel hoping shoots to the top of the bestseller list. But that doesn’t come about just because you’ve produced, created or written something. To make your wishes come alive, you need concepts that fascinate, ideas that stick, and thoughts that are not just cool but useful to your audience needs as well.
You now have access to inexpensive or free website creation and to a video-distribution channel: YouTube and hundreds of other similar platforms. You can build email lists that rival the distribution of any mainstream newspaper. You can build social networks whose size dwarfs the populations of some cities. You can also buy a video camera for a few thousand pesos and create your own shows, if you’re so inclined.
Chicken Pork Adobo
ABS-CBN recently launched its multi-channel network called “Chicken Pork Adobo” to boost its online content and build a roster of personalities or ordinary people with innovative ideas that will attract fast-growing online audiences.
“The new online platform is where creators who may not have a chance to go on TV are empowered,” says Donald Lim, ABS-CBN Digital Media Division head. “It democratizes it for everyone by harnessing and gathering all of them to leverage on each others’ strengths. We want to showcase the Filipino talent to the world, not only to Filipino audiences.”
As of now, “Chicken Pork Adobo” has 90 creators whose channels on YouTube tackle a variety of topics: toys, fashion, comedy, music, lifestyle, vlogs, entertainment, arts and crafts, food, parenting, and inspirational.
As proven by the mid-year 2014 data from the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP), more and more Filipinos are consuming content online. According to IMMAP, 38 million Filipinos are Internet users, two-thirds of which are under 30 years old. Recognizing that TV may not be the only platform to reach target audiences, Lim said “Chicken Pork Adobo” is meant to help online content creators make a mark in the digital space and help them become superstars “in whatever way or form.” These creators produce their own material on a regular basis and sometimes let their fans into their own private lives. “They have different niches, personalities, and material that won’t make it on TV, but on YouTube they are popular, spectacular, fascinating, and have their own following,” Lim added.
One of Chicken Pork Adobo’s creators is actress Melissa Ricks, who recently launched her own YouTube channel dedicated to parenting. Her first video documents her experience with her daughter Kiera joining a pictorial contest, showing Melissa’s foray into motherhood. Another is Philippine Volcano team member and It’s Showtime host Eric “Eruption” Tai, who showcases his dancing skills, often backed up by a dance group, and sometimes lets his fans in on his workout routines.
But Chicken Pork Adobo does not just sign celebrities already known in the industry; they also tap those who have already gained a following or are known for their unique appeal. The multi-channel network’s most subscribed and most viewed channel is Kids’ Toys, which feature sisters Faye and Laurice Tendilla unboxing toys that range from dollhouses and action figures to ice-cream makers and play sets. Launched in May 2012, Kids’ Toys already has 1.14 million subscribers and has amassed almost 1.5 billion views.
There is also the famous YouTuber Lloyd Cadena, who gained popularity for his funny videos about love and school and parody videos; The Soshal Network, which features three lawyers commenting on anything and everything under the sun by poking fun at themselves, and Plump Pinay, headlined by Cai Cortez, who advocates being comfortable in one’s own skin and body acceptance.
Giving your idea some handles
Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, authors of the book The Impact Equation, state that this process of making things happen is all about “giving your idea some handles.” They believe that people can hold onto it and put it in their mind where it fits alongside other concepts. “The difference between an idea that resonates with millions and an idea that’s ignored is the measure of their impact on a targeted audience, and their equation gives you a tool to analyze and tweak your idea’s impact.”
Brogan and Smith have developed a framework for helping an idea serve your needs. They call it Impact = C x (R + E + A + T + E), which requires six attributes you need to efficiently mix to catch and hold an audience’s attention and resonate with them. In other words, the combination needs to cause an impact, make noise, but more importantly, achieve your goals. C is Contrast, R is Reach, E is Exposure, A is Articulation, T is trust and E is Echo.
• Differentiate or die. To marketers, “contrast” means “differentiation” or “positioning,” something that offers both similarity and a noticeable difference. Your message has to rise above the clutter, stand out and clamor for attention in the same field. The authors made Contrast the multiplier of the equation because it’s the single most critical characteristic. In their view, the other attributes are meaningless without it.
• You can reach the stars if you get off the ground. Reach is the number of people you connect with in as many channels as possible. At the heart of reach is your platform, which is basically, the authors write, a combination of all the tools you use to reach others. It is the size of your list, and the number of subscribers who will receive your message. Among the attributes in the equation, Reach is perhaps the easiest to measure. It’s easy to compare how many Twitter followers, Facebook fans, or whatever social media platform you are using. That’s why it’s also very easy to get discouraged by looking at comparative Reach figures. Some have huge audiences and others are not doing so well. Reach doesn’t follow a linear curve, and it accelerates over time. So you have to go easy on it. Brogan says that it took eight years for his website to get its first hundred readers. For Smith, it’s about the same. Reach can get depressing if you look backward. So instead, look forward and work hard to improve it.
• Ubiquity makes people decide in your favor. Exposure is the art of hitting people, again and again, until they finally decide to take some kind of action. It’s what makes a prospective car buyer finally walk into a car dealership or what happens when the blogger is finally able to convince readers to give him their email addresses. All it comes down to is that you make sure that you are ubiquitous without offending your prospective audience. It is an art, and those who manage it do it very well. Those who fail are tossed in the spam folder.
• “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” This Albert Einstein quote says a lot about “articulation,” which is making your audience understand your ideas quickly. The key to articulation is using small, simple words as you connect the dots. This is an important element of the equation because you only get one chance to leave a strong impression. Ideas no longer get second chances. You need to know how to express yourself clearly the first time. Simplicity is a key part of clarity and if you can give an idea a name, your ideas capture the imagination much faster. Telling a story is another way to simplify a complex idea. You naturally learn through stories and metaphors, and so expressing ideas with them becomes simple and effective, plus they resonate emotionally with readers.
• Trust is a measure of how well people believe in you as the conveyor of a message. It is about confidence, integrity and reliability. It is about feeling close to someone. It is easy to understand if you trust someone else, but how can you tell if someone trusts you? With trust, you want to rate yourself by thinking about whether people trust you professionally. Will people reply to emails you send? Will they share private information with you? Do people seek your advice? Do you find yourself in arguments more often than regular conversations? Do you get invited into important conversations and meetings? If you’re not saying yes, then your trust factor is low with the people you’ve surrounded yourself with.
• Echo is the degree to which your message connects with the audience. The real dilemma with Echo is that you can’t really measure it yourself. Whether you’re an individual or a company, you can’t measure the touchy-feely aspects of the impact from the inside as well as you can from the outside. The simplest way to resolve this is to find someone you’ve known for a long time and someone else you just met, and ask them similar questions: Do I make people feel comfortable? Can I look people in the eye? Do I talk about myself or about others? Am I relatable? Do I let myself be vulnerable around others? Like trust, echo isn’t something you find overnight. It takes a lot of relationship building to get it just so, lots of experience and error to see what you’re doing wrong or right. When done correctly, however, it ends up being among the most powerful parts of impact.
You can use the Impact Equation to figure out what you’re doing right and wrong. Apply it to a blog, tweet, video, or mainstream ad campaign, and you will surely get to where you want to go.
* * *
Email bongosorio@yahoo.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.
