Clubhouse: Why It's A Game Changer For Brands
The new invite only app Clubhouse seems to be everywhere these days. People are scrambling to get invites even though it’s still an iphone only service. It was recently valued at a billion dollars, and it’s already smartly working on ways to empower it’s rising stars. Today I want to talk about the two reasons I think the app is so intriguing to people and then close this bad boy out with why I think the app is going to be wild for brands.
The first reason Clubhouse is connecting is that the human voice is popular. I’m not talking about the metaphorical impact of one person’s voice to move millions (although that is cool) - I’m talking about the actual impact of a human voice. Think about it - huge innovations in culture: radio broadcasts, movies becoming “talkies,” and even the telephone supercharged our capacity for connection. Enter Clubhouse - where instead of @ replying people on Twitter, DM’ing on Instagram, or texting your friends - you actually hear other strangers' voices. It’s so simple that it’s actually pretty wild. For the first time you know what that woman who’s always tweeting about zodiac signs actually sounds like. Does she sound like what you imagined? Hard to say!
The other secret sauce of Clubhouse is how it organizes all the action into “Ted Talk” style rooms where there is an expert that can allow people in the room who “raise their hand” to talk. This empowers leaders of the room to keep the conversation on track. No one wants to be part of some bogus meandering conversation, but people also want to be engaged. They want to be heard and, of course, they want to be part of the story. Clubhouse is successful because humans by their nature want to be connected to others. Maybe they don’t want to talk and instead just care to listen, but for now Clubhouse feels like a virtual town square where you can soak up knowledge and share some as well, and that’s powerful.
Speaking of powerful, soon I think brands are going to join the app. Here’s where it gets interesting to me because while it’s easy to establish a communications guide for a brand for a static platform (Twitter, Facebook) or even a reactive platform (like Twitch) - having to lead the conversation is going to be a new one. Who’s going to lead it? The CEO? The VP of Communications? The highly charismatic sales guy? Remember this isn’t just giving a speech, but rather being able to manage the flow of a conversation while dropping knowledge along the way. The influencer space could prove the answer but I think many brands may not want their celebrity/influencer to say the wrong thing. This is tricky too because what if they can’t keep the conversation moving? Tom Brady may be great in TV commercials and look great in ads for Under Armour - but what if he’s boring or can’t go deep on certain topics if the conversation goes there?
Secondly, will the platform force brands to really identify what they stand for? I think so. Who wants to hear your favorite brand talk about their cool products for an hour? Perhaps some, but it better be interesting! I believe that Clubhouse will expose brands who don’t stand for anything as ultimately standing for nothing. It will be the next evolution of the sometimes wacky world of brand twitter - except this time a human voice will be speaking for them and answering questions in real time. Let’s just hope brands are ready to keep it engaging.