Organised Chaos – An Introduction

In 2009 when we were strategizing on how we could differentiate ourselves from other agencies with a digital practice; we felt we need to stand for something. It could very well be a philosophy that is relevant to what the medium’s strength is and also showcases our decade long experience (there are very few agencies in India with a decade long digital experience).

We started with what we called as “Digital Relevance”. It would consider various aspects of digital; as it existed then; and map the possibilities against the objectives. It clearly tells that there is no fixed entry point for brands; it is purely dependent on the goals.

It has been five years since; and a lot has changed in digital. Though the idea of “Digital Relevance” still holds good; it was important to take it to the next level. A context setting was required. Indians have adopted technologies as soon as it was being made available. In case of digital in India; that dependency was being dwarfed by the rapid growth of mobile.

In today’s day and age, rather digital age, a consumer is the most tortured soul. Tortured by brands, by the choice he has, due to the decisions he has to make, peer pressure, family pressure…and whatever else. This is unlikely to change. In fact, the clutter is just going to increase. Not just in terms of brands, but also in terms of different digital assets/technologies the consumers will adopt. In simple terms it will be absolute chaos.

While I was trying to understand what chaos means in advertising and what it means specifically in digital, I thought of the “Chaos Theory”.

Chaos: When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future. (Edward Lorenz)

It also is an apt definition of where the digital world is headed or will be. A state of perpetual beta.

In this rather chaotic scenario; brands will find it increasingly difficult to grab the consumers attention, build/retain loyalty, engage with them, have conversations, be forgiven, increase awareness, build consideration, anticipate, transact… etc.

Hence, what could possibly work is a possible is an “Organised Chaos” strategy.

Organised Chaos – is a planned way of putting some method in the madness and expose consumers to different levels of communications. It is in by no means intended to be linear; cannot be one. These are well planned/orchestrated communication patterns.

How can you organise chaos? There are 10 different key points I have mentioned, a combination of these should ideally work across all digital touch points; including social.

1. Know your consumer – listen, learn and most importantly remember
2. Communicate – it cannot be campaign to campaign or a new product launch
3. Define touch points – know what is irrelevant
4. Create patterns of communication – not for the brand or product but for the consumer
5. Data visualization – don’t just visualize data, visualize messaging
6. Real-time messaging – these patterns are dynamic
7. Story telling patterns – inspire, surprise and flirt
8. Everything is an opportunity – including a crisis
9. In crisis – identify pigeons
10. End with consumer(s)

If you apply the “Organised Chaos” strategy to any campaign; according to me it will work at any stage. Maybe the order might change. The unfortunate reality of some digital campaigns today is the lack of a planned approach; to make sense out of data and understanding what each touch point means to the consumer. The natural tendency is to be present everywhere.

Unfortunately in doing so; we tend to forget on what we set out to communicate to the consumer. This results in similar messaging across touch points without taking into account the strength of each. While social means fish where the fish is; you cannot catch all kinds of fish with a fishing rod. Consumers are too smart for it. Social is part of almost everything; but one shouldn’t forget that Social is not everything on digital.

To be able to lure consumers and stay connected with them all through their journey with the brand is a science in itself.Our attempt with “Organised Chaos” is to look at possibilities to that science.