Building Engaged and Sustainable Communities Using Holistically Interactive Techniques
Speaker(s): Matthew Wettergreen & Grace Rodriquez
Interactive marketing aims to influence audiences to feel and behave positively towards a product or service. It focuses on engaging audiences through online tools, such as social media networks. While it facilitates conversations and helps marketers build relationships in the virtual world, however, the concept of “interactive marketing” tends to stop at the borders of the World Wide Web. It rarely ventures into the real world. We propose to expand the definition of “interactive marketing” beyond its common perception as “internet marketing,” and show how true interactive marketing – engaging both online and offline methods – can be a more effective framework for developing engaged audiences and sustainable communities for the long-term. We will highlight several examples where a holistic approach of integrated offline and online interaction was responsible for successfully engaging audiences and building sustainable communities, namely Caroline Collective, Bandcamp and Twestival.