Online Brand Experiences Count: Razorfish

Users who engage with brands in digital experiences of almost any kind are more likely than not to turn into actual customers of those brands, according to new research from digital agency Razorfish. And what’s most persuasive in getting them to turn from friend to buyer? Special deals.

Fully 64% of 1,000 “connected consumers” surveyed in August 2009 by the agency for its Digital Brand Experience Study said that they made their first purchase from a brand because of a digital experience, either with a Web site, a microsite, and mobile coupon or an e-mail communication.

For the study’s purposes, “connected consumers” were defined as those with certain characteristics:

Broadband access

• Spent $150 online in the previous six months on travel, tickets, shopping, entertainment, etc.)
• Visited a community site from Facebook or MySpace to YouTube or Yelp
• Consumed or created some form of digital media, including photos, videos, music or news
• The Razorfish research finds high proportions of this group—highly desirable to marketers—are showing very social online behaviors. For example, nearly 40% say they have friended a brand on a social network and 26% say they have followed one on Twitter.

But they don’t do those things out of pure love, according to the agency’s findings, 44% of respondents say they follow a brand on Twitter primarily to get access to exclusive deals, compared to 25% who say they do so because they’re already a customer. And 37% friend brands on Facebook or MySpace to get those online-only deals and offers, against 33% who do so because they are current customers.

Beyond participating in social networks, 70% of respondents to the Razorfish survey said they have entered a brand-sponsored contest or sweepstakes, while 24% have produced some kind of content for submission to a brand-sponsored contest. Twenty-six percent said they have attended a brand-sponsored live event, and 24% have downloaded a branded application to their mobile phone.

These experiences help to build brands and move them into purchase consideration. For example, the study found, among “connected consumers” who took part in a branded contest or sweeps, 96% reported greater brand awareness, and the same proportion said they were more likely to consider than brand when in-market. Ninety-two percent of those participants said they were more likely to recommends that brand to others.

“The ‘connected consumer’ is hungry for engaging online brand experiences,” said Razorfish group vice president of experience planning Garrick Schmitt in a release. “Conventional wisdom says consumers don’t want brands encroaching on their social space, but according to our findings, this simply isn’t true. Consumers are actively engaging with brands online…and these experiences are shaping their perceptions of—and loyalty to—these brands.”

Sixty-five percent of the highly plugged-in consumers studied by Razorfish said that a digital experience had changed their opinion of a brand—either for better or for worse. And among that subset, almost all of those respondents (97%) said their digital experience influenced ultimately influenced whether or not they bought from that brand.