Interesting post on Monday from econsultancy highlighting that at TechCrunch Disrupt the feeling seemed to be that media owners need to concentrate on providing access to content rather than ‘owning it’. The notion of content or brand ownership and control is looking increasingly more desperate and if we are honest…is sometimes  unnecessary in terms of achieving what is important – Interaction with the user, regardless of the environmnet.

Here’s an analogy a friend from Chicago gave me.

A guy walks into a bar and spots an attractive girl. He walks up to her and asks if he can buy her a drink. She says “sure, that would be lovely”. Here’s what happens next…

The guy puts the girl in a headlock and marches her out of the bar and into a taxi outside. With the headlock still firmly applied, the taxi makes the journey back to the guy’s apartment. When it arrives, the guy drags the girl out of the car and up to his apartment…when they get inside, he releases his strangle hold and gives her the drink!

Brands do this all the time with their customers. Many are still in the mindset that any interaction needs to take place on their website or their ‘virtual home’ and sometimes only after the customer has filled in a registration form. The same results could be achieved by doing their work within ‘outposts’ such as social media and the consumer will feel far less violated if they can have a good experience on neutral territory or in an environment they are comfortable in. If brands are patient enough then there will be plenty of opportunities to take the relationship to the ‘next level’ and get them back to their apartment where, maybe…they can close the deal. But don’t ruin it by applying the virtual headlock too early.

Just a thought!