Peer-to-peer: an overrated trend?

In America, Starbucks is so popular with young people that even 11-year-olds know what a "Rolo Frap" is. Because Starbucks has the "Secret Menu". With the help of the Starbuckssecretmenu.net website, children can choose their own trendy drinks, even if they are not yet on offer. All they have to do is download the corresponding recipe from the website and pass it on to the barista. The description of the new drink on the website indicates that the drink in question is "extra Facebook and Instagram worthy". So cotton candy Frappuccino is ordered and shared with friends on Instagram a few seconds later - this is how the new insider secret drinks are created. Or as Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz would say: "Our customers are driving change. This allows Starbucks to better adapt its offerings to different cultures around the world". The Starbucks "Secret Menu" also caught the attention of the former CEO of PIMCO, Mohamed A. El-Erian, a few weeks ago - so much so that he tweeted about the appeal of the "Secret Menu", with reference to his 11-year-old daughter. El-Erian is a senior economic advisor at Allianz and sits on President Obama's Global Development Council.

From banal to viral

But it's not just Starbucks that is countering the tenor of "Promote Teleclub to your friends" or "Share your trust in Helsana and recommend us to friends and acquaintances" with a clever peer-to-peer measure. More and more new P2P measures are springing up that avoid traditional friend mailings and instead allow fans and friends to share recommendations with each other. Refer a friend is no longer as banal as it seems when you look at Teleclub or Helsana. And it's not just Starbucks that is one step ahead with its "Secret Menu":

In Zurich, for example, a small restaurant has chosen the concept of peer-to-peer as a fully integrated measure: At "Dini Muetter", customers can "hand in a recipe from your mother" and then invite her to the corresponding "z Mittag" (lunch). Or leave her a greeting message from the living room. Even more original - but also more social than media - is the "Pumpipumpe" idea from the Bern-based "Meteor Collectif". The project consists of simple stickers with pictures of appliances. If you own a barbecue, for example, and are willing to lend it out from time to time, you simply stick a sticker with the corresponding picture on your letterbox. That way, your neighbor knows: "If you need a barbecue, you can ring my doorbell." All stickers can be ordered free of charge on the website. This is an as yet little-used trend towards friendly or neighborly advertising, even if this trend will most likely fizzle out again - after all, "No advertising please" signs are almost standard equipment for letterboxes. However, Swiss Post is also targeting friend advertising via letterboxes and has integrated P2P marketing directly into its services. Their service center is developing a special postcard that is not only sent from the client to their customers. This is because the customer can forward the postcard received as a recommendation card at no cost. The costs are charged to the client and the recommendation goes directly from customer to new customer. Switzerland Tourism, on the other hand, has placed the rock cleaning spot on social media. It was shared on Likemag, among others, and generated a few clicks there. Content is sometimes liked and shared more often on websites such as Likemag or Heftig than on conventional news websites. But what benefit do these clicks bring? Is peer-to-peer really a forward-looking method? And if so, to what extent is it worthwhile?

P2P - The piece of the puzzle at the edge

Peer-to-peer is actually an old method, says Andreas Freimüller, Managing Director of Kampaweb. "It generally involves people who are convinced of something and then spread it with a certain sense of mission." The idea of word-of-mouth has also been around for some time. The fact that people are social beings who interact - and that trust is central to this - is nothing new. However, this does not mean that user-generated content and P2P are not good methods, Freimüller adds. McDonald's, for example, has pursued one of the more successful user-generated content strategies in Europe: "Create your own burger, which is then also in the store", accompanied by posters. Of course, users are then very happy to actively spread their own creations and reach their peers. However, Andreas Freimüller is very cautious when it comes to defining P2P methods as a credible instrument. It is not just a question of whether P2P is a credible method, but above all of how to build trust in general before peer-to-peer can even be used as a method. Freimüller cites as a deterrent example of P2P the well-known financial advisors who call people from their circle of acquaintances unsolicited to sell advisory services. "In my case, I tend to avoid these acquaintances," he says with a laugh. You do catch a few nice people who can't say no with this method, but that's why it's not particularly popular. On the other hand, he likes to tell everyone about Apple, for example, because he thinks the product is good and it also looks good. This is why peer-to-peer in the fundraising process is a method that can only be used relatively late in the relationship building process - as one of many methods. However, this only happens when the relationship with the donor is no longer at the very beginning or the contact person has already reached a higher level on the ladder of engagement. The stages of this ladder include "initial contact, sign-up, participation in a campaign, e.g. a petition, then perhaps a first donation, followed by a physical event. Finally comes volunteering, possibly also working as a board member or even as an employee of an organization. According to Freimüller, both donation requests and peer-to-peer measures can only be applied at a relatively high level of leadership. "In my opinion, too little consideration and care is given to this," emphasizes Freimüller. This is because the potential donor must first know more about the organization and be able to build trust. It's the same with peer-to-peer: only when a person knows a relatively large amount and is familiar with the organization is there a latent sense of mission. And even then, this method is not a sure-fire success. Andreas Freimüller suspects that this probably also has something to do with the fact that people too often think in terms of the P2P method and not the story: the aim should be to be able to make a P2P offer at the moment when many people feel very concerned and want to help more than just with a donation. Once again, it is the story and the feelings associated with it that are decisive, not the technology. According to Freimüller, in order for a P2P method to be relevant in fundraising at all, a large number of pieces of the puzzle must already be in place. He explains: "Peer-to-peer is not an effective method in itself, but I can develop people towards peer-to-peer." P2P is something of an interesting special path. But in terms of weight, individual donations are far more important in a crisis, such as a tsunami. In fundraising, 90 percent is raised via individual donations and then perhaps 10-20 percent via P2P. This is because the donation itself takes the customer perhaps one or two minutes, while P2P takes much more time. And anything that is difficult or takes time reduces the conversion or completion of the process. Only when engagement is already high anyway does P2P have a higher success rate. "I therefore optimize the returns on a segment-specific basis," explains Freimüller. This can also be seen from the fact that many P2P campaigns are only moderately successful financially. The few examples in Switzerland that are known have a marginal response in terms of volume. For example, the tenants' association's "tenant swarm". "That was a great media story," says Freimüller, assessing this campaign, which almost certainly cost more than it brought in. In Switzerland, peer-to-peer is therefore more of a trial and error process, "the economic relevance is currently tending towards zero", Freimüller is convinced. He also sees the significance of P2P in America as rather small.

This is for the simple reason that address and donation acquisition via traditional advocacy and donation processes are much more important, says Freimüller, assessing the situation. P2P is more of a sideshow there too. "Assuming that the markets in America are five years more developed than ours and that P2P does not play a central role, it cannot be assumed that this method will become a central pillar of fundraising here," he predicts a modest future for P2P. Email, on the other hand, is much more important in online communication and online fundraising. "For us, the focus is still on e-mail and increasingly also on online donations, because the old donors are slowly disappearing and need to be replaced," explains Freimüller. The discussion of P2P distracts from what actually needs to be discussed; social media is of little relevance compared to email. The long-term development of high-quality address lists and their maintenance should be at the heart of an organization's efforts. The rapid loss in value of social media investments illustrates this well: organic reach on Facebook has fallen from 16% to 6% in just one year. The invested franc has therefore lost more than half of its value. Freimüller sees Digitec and Migros as the absolute leaders in e-commerce. Digitec was one of the first to set up a clean, easily accessible e-commerce process. They are now also the first to run really good user-generated content campaigns. Migros, for example, is leading the way with Migipedia. "And everyone else is now chasing after them a little," concludes Freimüller.

Relevant for customer loyalty

In terms of pure monetization, it is perhaps true that peer-to-peer does not generate much direct response, says Thomas Schrämli, Director Campaigns and Deputy Managing Director at Goldbach Interactive. "If you look at it from the sales-oriented function of advertising, peer-to-peer is not primarily a method I would use," he adds. However, to make the brand relevant in the area of customer loyalty, peer-to-peer is very important. "If the customer has already made a purchase or had contact in some other way, the brand takes on greater significance," explains Schrämli. This is where the added value lies and this is where peer-to-peer comes in. Not only do you get closer to the target group, you also have a very wide reach, as the vast majority of potential customers are now digitally accessible and interact with each other on social platforms. The real value of social media therefore lies in customer loyalty. This is because the brand has the opportunity to communicate personally with the customer without any barriers and to answer questions directly or to pass on its experience to existing customers by means of a recommendation. Even if digitalization is accompanied by the problem of a large number of channels, social media in particular can influence advertising recall and thus active participation in an ongoing campaign. However, peer-to-peer as a method only makes sense in interaction if other channels are also used and orchestrated at the same time. For example, a TV commercial can be adapted to the relevant channel and shared on social platforms via viral distribution, whereby interaction is then redirected to a campaign site and the messages are resolved accordingly, stimulating the involvement of the target group. However, it is essential to ensure that the message is adapted to the respective channel. "The message comes before the channel," emphasizes Schrämli. Although it is not possible to generate money directly in the social media sector, viral effects can trigger a very positive perception of a brand within a campaign. And today, their effect can also be recorded more quickly and centrally through appropriate monitoring, says Schrämli, explaining: "With many social media campaigns, we find that it is difficult to achieve a direct profit in the form of sales, but that it is certainly possible to promote sales and turnover in the long term through corresponding customer loyalty". Customers acquired through peer-to-peer also exhibit stronger customer loyalty from the very first brand contact. In this context, Schrämli mentions the Starbucks campaign with the Secret Menu mentioned at the beginning. He is convinced that such methods can work very well, as there is a corresponding added value for the target group. As long as these activities do not only take place on social media, but also in interaction with other channels. To summarize, he says: "Teasers and triggers work very well on social media, as a basis for reach, so to speak, in order to achieve the corresponding campaign goals of sales promotion together with traditional media." As an advertiser, you have to think carefully about how to use which channel, only then does it really have a benefit. It is either sales-oriented or an element to build up and expand your own branding. For customer loyalty, it is also more relevant that the potential reach of this form of advertising is enormous than the fear that the response rate might be too low. Schrämli is convinced that the extent to which peer-to-peer ultimately serves as a trigger for a purchase is of secondary importance: "What is more important is the correct use and appropriate evaluation of such measures. I would rather call it a mistake to ignore peer-to-peer out of uncertainty about this type of brand communication".

Ursina mason