YouTube, Social Network, Web 2.0, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram: these are words that had no meaning just a few decades ago. Why? Simply because they did not exist. Today they have become everyday terms and essential instruments for a 360° corporate communication.
Martina Giusti
Browsing through traditional communication manuals we can read – right from the very first pages – how simple every act of communication is and how just six elementary concepts are involved. The first is the existence of a sender, i.e., the person sending the message. The second is a receiver, as the name says, the person receiving it. The third indispensable element is “the something that is being communicated”, the message itself and it must contain the object we are speaking about, called the reference. Additionally, the sender and the receiver must know a common code, a set of signs that comprise the message. Finally, a medium through which the message is transmitted is needed.
In the last few years communication has broadened its horizons, discovering new worlds. The basic concepts of the act of communicating still hold true, but thanks to new technologies, the media through which messages are transmitted change and evolve. Today, most acts of communicating take place through the web, a river overflowing with information and languages that has become the means to effectively and quickly diffuse messages, usable in every part of the world. On the web we can find information, buy products, socialize. It is a crucial instrument for companies wanting to promote their brand, capture the attention of consumers, disseminate their messages and be in contact with the entire world.
From Internet sites up to profiles on social networks, everyone is looking for their own space in this immense universe. With smartphones and tablets, we are connected 24/7 and can get to know, appreciate and choose a product by a given company rather than another.
The goods offer has multiplied in the course of these last few years; that’s why it is important to catch the attention of potential consumers by creating strong emotions. And the web seems to be the perfect place for this. Companies face off against one another using creativity, corporate messages get transmitted through emotional videos on YouTube, products are presented through Facebook profiles, discussions are started on Twitter and photos are admired on Pinterest. Social networks are becoming increasingly popular, they are foundational for interacting with final consumers and trying and understand needs and opinions.
Facebook, chosen by most companies, dominates the social networks. Twitter is right behind, followed by YouTube, then come all the rest: LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram. They are advancing little by little, contributing to a global digital communication. Inside companies, specific professional figures are arising who manage web communication, a parallel world that increasingly interacts with our daily lives.
How are companies involved in the field of tissue approaching this new way of communicating? By trying to ensure their presence on the web because they have understood its potential and are exploiting its benefits. Let’s see some examples.
Lucart debuts online with an advert campaign integrated with all the instruments of the digital world to promote Grazie Natural, the line of products made of 100% ecological paper. The main communication instrument is the video “la vendetta degli alberi” that, with entertaining irony, reminds everyone that trees must not be cut down. The video can be seen on many instruments made available by the world of the web: from Youtube (www.youtube.com/user/GrazieNatural) to Facebook (www.facebook.com/GrazieNatural), to the banners on the product’s website (www.grazie.it).
Another example is the video used to promote the product Tutto Pannocarta, created by the Meloria agency for Lucart Group through a technique called hand drawing. Besides TV, it can also be viewed on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYviyw84ljE). A series of hand-illustrated scenes shows the peculiarities of a product that can be used in the kitchen like a cloth, an absorbent towel or a sponge. A new website dedicated to the product is also now online, www.tuttopannocarta.it, as well as a Facebook page – Tutto Pannocarta – where consumers can express their opinions.
Sofidel, too, uses the web to promote itself and its products. The video entitled “Il libro aperto della sostenibilità” (Sustainability – an open book) on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwK2UFzvOJE) underscores the company’s constant commitment to the environment. Present for a few months also on Twitter, Sofidel keeps us consistently updated on corporate news and activities.
Promoted through a video on YouTube is also the innovative Nuevo Confort Dúo product (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2jaLYyC8A0). Besides presenting the product, the video also describes its different applications.
But these are just some examples of how companies are using the new technologies. In the last few years we have been witnessing a new approach to communication where social networks have become protagonists and the consumer assumes an active role by expressing desires and opinions.
But what will the future hold? In the universe of the web there’s still a lot to propose and to discover. *