Influx Insights Tag Feed: branding

being true to your brandself- lessons from crumpler

Influx Insights — 2008-08-15T00:07:21Z

A nice (old!!!) CNN profile on Australian bag brand Crumpler (nice new site!) and the importance of staying true to your brand self.

The CNN story mentions the brand's beer for bags promotions and the tagging of their logo, even as stickers on fruit, as some of the more unconventional approaches the brand has taken.

Posted by Ed Cotton

is homogeneity dead?

Influx Insights — 2008-08-05T04:23:35Z

Homogeneity and it's close relative, consistency are cited as critical components of brand success.

Many analysts tell us that brands have to deliver consistent experiences if they want succeed and that homogeneity is what consumers want and desire.

It's therefore interesting to read about the demise of Starbucks in Australia.

According to the BBC..

"The mighty Starbucks coffee empire has been handed a heavy defeat by thousands of small Australian cafes in the fight for a nation's taste buds.

Eight years after it began selling its espressos and frappucinos in Australia, the US giant has succumbed to powerful financial and cultural pressures and has closed 61 of its 85 shops across the country.

Savouring a morning cup of coffee has become a ritual for millions of Australians - yet one that Starbucks failed to capitalise on, in spite of the way the chain had become a global cultural phenomenon during the 1990s.

"It was maybe too standardised," says Michael Edwardson, a consumer psychologist in Melbourne.

"Early on it was unique and different, but as it became a global chain the standardisation made it lose some of that coolness and edginess. It was quickly copied and lost its lustre.”

What does this suggest for brands?

Perhaps brands need both consistency and inconsistency; they need to flex and play with both elements. It's clear that consumers today probably need a mix of both. Certainly parts of brands need standardized elements, but they also need to surprise and delight their customers. They need to get ahead of the curve, rather than behind it.

This is incredibly demanding and challenging for brands; the idea of staying ahead and bringing surprise to consumers depends on having great intelligence and brilliant execution, not to mention the investment required to support change.

Too often, brands sit back and wait too long to make changes. Instead of getting ahead, they wait until the last minute to do something. They try to get away for the longest possible time without making changes.

As this story shows, culture has the power to move much faster than brands. Brands need to recognize the rapid pace of change and invest not just in the intelligence to stay ahead, but act on it before it's too late.

Posted by Ed Cotton

brand transparency- patagonia

Influx Insights — 2008-04-02T16:47:25Z

It might be tempting for a brand that's built a reputation for environmental concerns to rest on its laurels and continue on with the same old strategy.

However, that's not the case with Patagonia, who despite building a brand that's focused on supporting the environment, it's recently turned its attention to the eco-footprints of its products.

There's a dedicated space on its website that examines the footprints of four of its products.

While this is a very limited selection of its total SKUs, the manner and honesty in which the information is presented is refreshing for the following reasons.

1. It explores the breadth of the issue from materials to transportation

2. They acknowledge that things aren't perfect

3. They highlight the fact they want to improve

4. They encourage others to comment

5. The translate the impact into language we can all understand- the energy to produce a rain jacket is the same as leaving a regular lightbulb on constantly for 42 days!!

It would be good to see other brands follow Patagonia's lead.

Posted by Ed Cotton

entertainment-driven brand creation

Influx Insights — 2008-03-07T18:13:17Z

A well-known British actor gets his dream assignment, the chance to make a program about the perfect pint of beer.

Nice work if you can get it, but there's even more upside because the show is all about creating beer that actually makes it into production.

Apparently, leading grocery chain Sainsbury's is interested in carrying the new brand.

The integration here is fantastic, no bolt-on or add on association, but a deep education in the form of programing that becomes a three hour ad for a new brand.

Although, it will be tough for this fledgling brand to compete against the established players, the rich level of content and the emotional journey that the programming will take viewers on, will be so much deeper than any ad campaign from one of the leading brewers.

The challenge will be building and maintaining the momentum after the initial wave of coverage and PR.

However, it does show an opportunity for a new way to think about branded content.

What if Bud was to develop a new brew with a programming idea like this, rather than simply attach its name as a show sponsor or have featured product placement?

Obviously Anthony Bourdain, is the one guy who could do this in the US- let's see what he does next after the success of No Reservations.

Posted by Ed Cotton

invite your customers to come and see you

Influx Insights — 2008-03-02T16:55:50Z

Innocent Drinks has always thought differently about the relationship it has with its customers.

It's constantly looking to level the playing field, which can be something of a challenge as the company grows.

However, they are continuing to innovate in this area of outreach, as witnessed by its announcement for an AGM in April.

"We’ve always liked to know what you think of our drinks. That’s why we ask you to ring the banana phone or pop into Fruit Towers. And it’s great when you do because we get to have a chat, and find out what you’d like to see innocent doing next.

This year, we thought we’d go a step further and have our very own AGM. It’s not going to be particularly formal (no men in suits telling you about profit engineering). We see it as being more like a get together in a village hall where you find out what’s going on, have a bit of a debate and then vote on a few things.

We’ve never done anything like this before, but the general idea is to try and get about a hundred of our drinkers to come along and find out a bit more about life at Fruit Towers. And, more importantly, get involved in voting on what we should be doing next as a business.

So you get to tell us what to do, and we’ll give you lots of free smoothies. And that’s it really. It would be great if we could get every single person who ever drank a smoothie to come along, but we think it might be a bit of a squeeze. Which means we’re going to have a ballot where everyone who fancies it lets us know their name, and says why they’d be a good person to have along on the day.

It would be great to hear your thoughts about what you’d like to know about most. And if you don’t get picked, we promise to make sure we update you on everything that happened on the day, and give you a chance to have your say too."

Posted by Ed Cotton

apple cult- the movie

Influx Insights — 2008-01-26T05:02:52Z

There's a new documentary all about the cult that surrounds the Apple brand.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the death of the core proposition

Influx Insights — 2008-01-13T18:01:23Z

Mohamed Iqbal is a Senior Planning Director at Ogilvy in Bangalore, he is also a member of our Planning for Good team.

A couple of years back, he wrote a paper that connected The Long Tail to brand communication. It won him a top prize from WPP.

He has now distilled the paper down into a Change This manifesto and it makes a great read.

The essence of his argument is that for years brands and agencies have followed a disciplined approach to uncovering and communicating ONE thing about a brand.

Mohamed believes this thinking is now flawed because of the widespread availablity of free and cheap media. He doesn't suggest that it's wrong to have one lead proposition, it's just that you can have a number of others and target specific groups with them.

In addition, armed with real-time data, you can easily calculate the ones that aren't working and the ones that are.

One really interesting point he makes is that agencies believe when they launch a new campaign, they are making a clean break with the past. It's a pre-internet notion, today, nothing is forgotten because every message ever created is now accessible and informs our brand understanding.

Finally, he recommends letting the consumers work it out for themselves, put the messages out there and they will find the nuances that work for them.

For all the planners out there, this suggests there's a new way to work and that our briefs needs to change to reflect the opportunity. The world has certainly gotten more complex because we can tell more stories, so the critical component becomes, media, because we need to know where we can tell these stories.

Posted by Ed Cotton

does your business card sell your busines?

Influx Insights — 2008-01-04T06:06:57Z

I picked up this card sometime ago at Frog Design event, it's certainly not subtle or minimal, it shouts and screams at you, but it does give you a great flavor of the place.

Most business cards, don't work this hard.

Posted by Ed Cotton

presentation: 2007- the year in quotes

Influx Insights — 2008-01-01T20:46:55Z

I just quickly pulled together a deck that highlights some interesting quotes from experts, observers and the media in general on a variety of topics including; advertising, China, economy, environment, food, media/technology, etc.

It's a smorgasboard of smart thinking that sums up the year rather nicely and should provide some food for thought for all of us starting this new year.

It's been sourced from some of the raw material we've collected at Influx over the past 12 months.

| View | Upload your own

Posted by Ed Cotton

building the youtube brand-part2

Influx Insights — 2007-12-23T01:41:51Z

A few days back, I wrote about the rise of YouTube as a serious media entity; often ridiculed for hamster videos and teenage rants, the channel is now moving into the big leagues; playing a significant role in the US 2008 Election debates and its recent announcement to partner with the World Economic Forum for its Davos event in January 08.

In the post, I speculated, somewhat in jest, that the brand would soon be launching a channel for the Queen of England.

Clearly, we all now inhabiting a world where fiction is fast becoming fact, today, t he BBC announced the launch of YouTube's Royal Channel.

Posted by Ed Cotton

making health insurance tangible- florida blue

Influx Insights — 2007-12-03T16:54:40Z

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida is a health insurer with its own store, Florida Blue, in Jacksonville.

It's been created and staffed to help explain products and help move people closer to BCBSF's brand of health insurance.

It's a smart move because despite being its importance, it's an area that it's hard to get people interested in. Going beyond ads to create a three dimensional experience makes a lot of sense.

Welcome Area:

Kids Play Area:

Posted by Ed Cotton

what are your top 5 marketing and branding predictions for 2008?

Influx Insights — 2007-12-02T00:40:33Z

Please share your top 5 predictions for marketing and brands in 2008.

Post your thoughts in the comments section and we will publish them in a forthcoming series of blog posts.

Posted by Ed Cotton

bringing your community to life- learning from prosper

Influx Insights — 2007-11-28T08:37:11Z

Prosper is one of the few 2.0 success stories in the world of finance. The peer-2 -peer lending community seems to have gained some traction and with close to 500,000 members, it's caught the attention of some of the bigger players in the financial world.

Clearly, community is critical to Prosper’s success and as a demonstration of Prosper’s desire to ensure it thrives, they hold conferences (Prosper Days) for their community, the next one is in February of 2008.

The sessions include presentations from key executives, brainstorming and a keynote from the author of Freakonomics.

This is the second year Prosper has hosted such an event, videos from this year’s Prosper Day can be seen here.

It’s all too easy in a web 2.0 world to rely on the Internet to do everything, despite increasing communication and collaboration technology, there's something about meeting face-to-face that technology can’t replace.

Web 2.0 companies and others with communities need to give significant thought to and consider the value of events to galvanize and energize their bases.

Via Bankwatch

Posted by Ed Cotton

brands on facebook-part one

Influx Insights — 2007-11-25T16:53:34Z

In the last week or so everyone has been commenting on Facebook's Beacon and the problems and privacy pitfalls of opening up the "social graph" to brands and other third parties. Some have mentioned they don't think it's a good idea for brands to be people's friends, where others have argued that brands are important social currency, so they naturally fit into social actions and display.

I thought it made sense to explore what brands are up to on Facebook.

This is a two-part post.

Part one is a look at some basic counts and part two will examine some strategies behind the successfull brand efforts.

This is by no means exhaustive, but it's a very quick glance at who is doing what and it's pretty interesting to see the inconsistent approaches. The simple analysis here is just to look at the brands and to do a simple count for the member or fan base for their group or page. This doesn't include consumer generated efforts on behalf of brands, there are lots of those, just the ones that appear to be initated by the brand itself.

You can see clearly that some brands are leveraging the presence, while others have just put their toe in and have yet to take real action. It's surprising to see product brands that are well loved, like iPhone and Halo 3, have so little traction. It's also clear that some brands have a lot of catching up to do- United against Southwest, is just one example. You can also see how brands are using Facebook for campaigns- Reebok's "Run Easy" is a good example.

What distinguishes success from failure here appears to revolve around execution and content; you've got to offer content and offers direct to your Facebook audience and you've also have to give them a reason to belong and take actions, but more of that in Part 2.

Here are the counts:

Abercrombie and Fitch- 235 fans

Adidas- 148 fans

Altoids- 2 fans

Amazon- 18 fans

Apple Students -431,288 fans

BMW- 264 fans

Coca-Cola- 803 fans

Dell Spot- 2,485 members

The Economist- 41 fans

Halo 3- 329 fans

H&M- 25,449 members

i Phone- 476 fans

iPod Touch- 145 fans

Mountain Dew-Dew Uncapped

New York Times- 3,318 fans

Nike-14 fans

Nike- Greatest Team You Have Never Heard Of (US Women's Soccer Team)- 26,345 members

Patagonia- 29 fans

PBS- 827 fans

Pepsi- 58 fans

Pepsi Platinum- 20,144 members

Pizza Hut- 5 fans

Ralph Lauren- 136 fans

Reebok- Run Easy- 13,162 members

Saturn Astra- 212 fans

Sony Playstation 3- 277 fans

Southwest -46,670 members

Target- 16,869 members

Taco Bell -33 fans

Toyota Prius- 48 fans

United Airlines- 13 fans

Victoria's Secret-Pink- 351,622 members

Posted by Ed Cotton

brand hacking- ikea and beyond

Influx Insights — 2007-11-08T11:56:11Z

One of the more colorful aspects of the 2.0 world of blogs and unbridled consumer creativity is finding the occasion when a random individual picks on a brand, creates a space to play with it and stretches it above and beyond the original attentions of its owners.

A great example of this is Ikeahacker; a blog devoted to “playing” with Ikea’s flat pack furniture, in ways that don’t appear on the official list of instructions.

It’s the furniture equivalent of voiding your car warranty by installing nitro tanks. While many of this efforts is playful and come out of an endearing relationship with the brand, others might be of the “Fight Club” variety, all cynical and full of spite.

This type of attack was unleashed recently with this film that apparently exposes the contradictory motivations of consumer goods giant Unilever.

While Madison Avenue maybe cooling on the consumer-created trend, with the fabulous exception of the newish Apple’s iPod Touch spot (see below-original upload first- agency-consumer co-produced version-second), people are still going to do this stuff, regardless of whether you pay them, entice them and brands are just going to have to live with the consequences. The genie is out of the bottle, live with it.

Posted by Ed Cotton

google: half the company has been hired in the past 12 months

Influx Insights — 2007-10-25T04:31:46Z

CNET has an interesting story about the rapid fire hiring practices at Google.

The company added over 2,000 workers in the last quarter alone and wasn't without financial impact,it caused a 3 cent miss in earnings. However, one analyst pointed out a more troubling fact that half the company has been hired in the past 12 month. That means someone who has been at Google for more than two years is not only a millionaire, they’re also a veteran.

Google’s internal brand culture is in danger of diluting to the point of meaninglessness, unless the HR people can step up and successfully “Googlewash” the new employee base.

Google is a classic example of a company that starts out as a challenger to the incumbents and the established norms, just like Microsoft did to IBM, but in a very short period of time, finds itself just like the incumbents it was rallying against.

In Google’s case, this has happened really fast, it clearly knows it needs to do everything it can to protect its unique culture.

There are some interesting thoughts on this notion from the company’s founders in this video. (warning...it's long, but comments about culture and scale are at 29m 25s)

Posted by Ed Cotton

branding through creative class association

Influx Insights — 2007-10-02T20:03:50Z

Dopplr, the social networky travel site has done something very clever, they've associated themselves with some of the smartest, most creative companies around by launching the Dopplr 100.

While you may not have heard of Dopplr, you've certainly heard of many of the companies on the 100- including the likes of McKinsey, Muji, Red Bull and many others, including ad agencies, the names of which I can't possibly mention.

Individuals working at any of the Dopplr 100 with a valid email address get the invitation to join.

It's branding by creative class association, it's the company you keep.

We are certainly upset that BSSP didn't make the list of 100 and I am sure hundreds of other folks feel the same way and that's exactly what Dopplr wants.

It's a nice way to get your company out there and to build a network where people can be certain that "people like them" will be a part of it. There's an in-built social incentive to join up.

Posted by Ed Cotton

report from the uk- the run on the rock

Influx Insights — 2007-09-19T08:31:31Z

There are some very rare occasions when brand strength doesn’t matter because the an event comes along that's so huge it threatens the stability of your business and your brand.

Such an occasion happened last week to the Northern Rock bank. Media images of people lined up to withdraw their savings harkened back to stories we had heard from our grandparents about the 1929 depression, something we’ve never seen in our lifetime or expected to see.

Only an intervention by the British government saved the bank. At the last minute, it decided to step in and guarantee all the bank’s funds. They had to make a swift change because existing legislation guaranteed only 90% of funds up to 33,000 pounds ($70k) and nothing above and beyond that.

The announcement changed everything and the lines stopped forming at the bank and its share price started rising yesterday.

While the UK Government defended their action, which some critics had described as belated, it was clear from the government’s comments that the Northern Rock situation was something almost beyond their control and entirely symptomatic of the world of global finance.

In the wilds of global finance, it was almost as if the wolves had gathered around the weakest deer and were intent on killing it.

For the Northern Rock brand, it’s going to be a long hard journey back. While they have certainly gained infamy and awareness the fundamental element of brand trust that consumers need to have will need to be won back piece by piece.

It will be need to be open and honest and explain what went wrong and what they intend to do about it.

Here’s the start of the re-building campaign; a letter that’s running as full page ads and on the front page of the bank’s website.

May I begin by offering our customers my sincere apologies for the anxiety and inconvenience that we have caused you. I know how worried many of you must have been.

Today I want to make it emphatically clear to all Northern Rock customers that we are open for business as usual.

We remain a well-managed company and continue to be a safe place for your savings, loans and mortgages.

The simple fact now is that the Chancellor has made it clear that all existing deposits in Northern Rock are fully backed by The Bank of England and are totally secure during the current instability in the financial markets.

We are all working night and day to provide you with the service that you expect from us and deserve from us. And I would like to express my appreciation to our staff for their work and commitment over the last few difficult days.

Above all I would also like to thank all our customers for their support and understanding.

I am also pleased to announce that any customer who has paid a penalty for withdrawing their investment, will have the penalty refunded if they re-invest the same amount in the same type of account by 5th October 2007.

These have been troubled times but Northern Rock will prevail. We will not let you down.

Clearly, they have a lot more work to do.

Posted by Ed Cotton

when category impressions overshadow brands

Influx Insights — 2007-09-16T01:51:58Z

There was a good piece in the New Yorker, a couple of weeks back, by James "Wisdom of the Crowds" Surowiecki on why consumers tolerate delays on airlines.

"In other words, we’re stuck with the current system, because it isn’t really in any airline’s interest to try to change it. As long as no airline makes a dedicated effort to distinguish itself from the pack, all the airlines can stay lean, even at the expense of quality. In that sense, the most honest thing about the airlines may be their advertising, which tends to emphasize the flying experience—lulling us with talk of leg room and fully reclining seats. You may end up waiting on the runway for a couple of hours, the message seems to be, but at least you’ll do it in a comfortable chair."

The challenge appears to be for those who are trying to do something genuinely different- Jet Blue, Southwest and Virgin.

How do they avoid getting lumped into the category?

How do they also motivate their staff to care and raise standards, when the competition is doing such a bad job?

How and can do they do more than promise a comfortable chair?

It's interesting to think of other categories were the image of the category is so strongly ingrained, it's very tough for brands to push against it.

Banking is an obvious one.

Posted by Ed Cotton

marketing's three options- a) entertain b) provide utility c) die

Influx Insights — 2007-09-13T04:35:02Z

We are rapidly moving into a landscape where there will only be two models of marketing communication.

1. An entertainment based model where marketers work hard to breakthrough the clutter. The goal is to raise awareness and to get people to like you.

2. A utility based model- the brand provides something useful, good and meaningful to its consumers and perhaps the world beyond. Instead of just running regular ads, they are big idea platforms that inspire, encourage engagement and give something back.

If you don’t do either of these, you will die.

The “shouting” benefits model of marketing communication is about to become as extinct as a dodo.

So the challenge for brands that operate is to understand how they get to entertainment and/or utility.

The secret is the same as it has always been.

It’s all about having a disciplined strategic process that allows you to uncover the big idea.

Something that allows you to stand for something that’s way bigger than yourself or your category.

Once you have it, the opportunities become boundless.

It’s a place that comes from a brand truth, but expands way beyond that.

It can be like over the top entertaining emotional “Joy” of Cadbury’s chocolate or Omo’s philosophical belief that “Dirt is Good”.

Think only about small functional benefits and you will die.

It’s time to think big.

What are you about?

What do you believe in?

Posted by Ed Cotton

what do brands mean to cfos?

Influx Insights — 2007-09-11T15:17:19Z

Consolidation is happening everywhere and it's always assumed that brands get brought and sold.

Although the whole notion of branding is based on making strong emotional connections with consumers, I wonder if many CFOs really understand branding.

Perhaps they see branding as a tool for operational efficiency- a way to make everything the same, so there don't have to be multiple versions or ad, signage and training binders.

Most of the time this consoldiation happens and it goes un-noticed, consumers have come to expect it, especially in categories like banking and teleommunications.

However, once in a while, consumers get upset when they see one of their beloved brands crushed by another, It looks like Macy's might be under attack in Chicago for getting rid of Marshall Field's.

"It’s been a year since Marshall Field’s vanished to make way for Macy’s. To mark the occasion, dozens of protesters gathered outside Macy’s huge State Street store, suggesting shoppers boycott the retailer and demanding a return of the Field’s imprint.

Chants of “Field’s is Chicago, Boycott Macy’s!” were heard and signs reading “Macy’s Go Home!” fluttered in the air. Protesters wore the green that distinguished Marshall Field’s shopping bags -- and a handful of women decked out in colorful 1890s-style dresses and hats -- marched around the square-block store, and drew honks from passing cars.

The store is one of about 400 properties nationwide converted last year to the Macy’s nameplate by Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores Inc., which acquired them when it bought May Department Stores Co. in 2005. The move gave Federated more than 800 Macy’s stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. Federated then changed its name to Macy’s Inc."

Via Pantagraph

One would think that Macy's did a little bit of research before they made the decision, perhaps a survey and some focus groups. They also would know that authenticity is an important consumer trend and that brands with heritage and history have considerable value. Perhaps they did all this and ignored the findings, because in the end, operational efficiency trumps brand meaning.

Finally, if anyone knows of any research on CFOs attitudes to brands and branding, please share.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the brand invasion of facebook begins now

Influx Insights — 2007-09-09T22:15:58Z

Posted by Ed Cotton

couldn't brands be more topical?

Influx Insights — 2007-08-26T14:07:21Z

Relevance is an important component of brand success; consumers need to know that the brand gets and understands them and their needs. What happens if relevance is changing at a faster pace than brands imagine? Most big brands keep track on trends and it’s widely understood that trends move at a relatively slow pace, so using the trends yardstick, brands usually feel they have time to respond.

What if they are looking at the wrong yardstick?

What if the new yardstick is conversation?

Interestingly, that’s where blog measurement tools come in. Again, most of the big brands are tracking these. However, the tend to be being used mainly by the PR and quality control departments, so they can respond to problems and crises, as and when they occur. It’s a glass half full approach. They are being used to fix problems.

Suppose they were used to find opportunities. Opportunities that allowed brands to positively enter the conversation and obtain that all-important relevance. Agencies tend to think about production schedules that stretch into weeks and months because their focus is on traditional media and even with the web, the turn around time for a decent website, is several months.

Agencies have become slaves to production and lengthy production schedules, partly because of the financial upside.

Surely, new opportunists are going to emerge that find help brands to seize the relevance. They will use shorter and lower cost production alternatives; highly topical low-cost films posted to You Tube and other video sharing sites and rich web media that’s placed precisely in the right context at precisely the right time.

Posted by Ed Cotton

forget lovemarks, it's all about trustmarks

Influx Insights — 2007-08-21T13:20:10Z

In their original incarnation, brands were signifiers and guarantees of quality, something consumers could rely and depend upon.

In the later part of the C20th, two forces emerged that changed branding.

The first was the drive by marketing experts and ad agencies to suggest that brands needed emotional differentiation in a world where all brands were functionally similar.

Secondly, businesses discovered that a quick way to improve shareholder value was to strip out as much of the costs as possible.

We are now starting to feel the consequences of both these actions. We are starting to see a "brand vacuum" emerge, a fault line between what brands say they do and what they actually do. The rapid rise of the Internet is making it hard for brands to manage and control this ever widening chasm.

Recently, the notion of marketing experts that brands are at parity and that it’s therefore impossible to provide rational brand differentiation is being severely tested.

If the global factory, producing all our goods, China, can’t be trusted for safety, what does that say about the quality of the brands produced there?

What If airlines can no longer guarantee that their planes fly on time?

How about if banks can’t guarantee that their customers will be able to withdraw funds from ATMs?

We’ve got so enamored with the development of emotional connections and business strategists have driven down costs to such a point that brand trust, the fundamental platform for brands has been eroded.

While brand experts may still wax lyrical about Lovemarks and emotional bonds, isn’t it time to go back to basics?

I don’t think you can become a Lovemark without being a Trustmark first.

Agencies may hate me for saying it, but the rational has just suddenly taken on a whole new level of importance.

For brands, proof has now become the order of the day.

Posted by Ed Cotton

branding's next wave-consumer created brands

Influx Insights — 2007-08-19T23:39:28Z

We’ve currently going through the first wave of consumer generation; brands have reached out to consumers and ask them to help in their marketing efforts, Heinz’s recent ketchupfest attracted an incredible 4,000 entries, with 5 winners making it onto TV. They company staging a repeat of the contest to run in the Fall.

Sitting across the highway from these efforts, are brands like Threadless, who’ve capitalized on the artistry of creative individuals, allowing them to design product and make some money.

At the fringes there are signs of a new revolution brewing, one that turns the notion of producer and consumer on its head. The idea that the consumers develop, create and control the destiny of the brands they create.

The best example of this is Myfootballclub.co.uk, where 50,000 soccer fans have signed up and paid a fee of $70. This has given the group access to considerable funds, in fact they have enough money to purchase as soccer club and are currently in negotiations to do just that.

Is there a possible future where thousands of consumers get together to form buying clubs and create products and services with no direct involvement from corporations?

Posted by Ed Cotton

the zillion-dollar brand challenge

Influx Insights — 2007-07-30T04:18:07Z

It appears there’s no shortage of brands trying to grasp the concept of Web 2.0, but do they know what they are doing?

Bruce Nussbaum in a post for Business Week, believes clients can longer trust big ad agencies, because they are pushing them “lemming like” into the 2.0 world, without first understanding consumer needs.

“I've been spending much time with ad agencies and focus groups lately and can only conclude that--with some exceptions--they are mostly clueless. Three years ago they had a traditional knowledge about consumers but didn't know much about social networking and web 2.0 technology. Today, most of them don't know about consumers and don't know much about social networking and web 2.0 technology either. Mainstream ad agencies have one refrain--one message to their corporate clients--do social networking, do social networking, do social networking.”

However, it’s not just agencies that are rushing, everyone is and agencies are being dragged along in the wake.

Here’s a sampling of some of the headlines from the last month.

Media:

The BBC files reports on YouTube for the recent elections in Turkey

Sony launches Crackle to pioneer a new studio model

Nokia purchases social networking site Twango

Brands:

Some efforts might be agency induced, but it looks like most of these were client driven.

Finish Line launches its own social networking site

HP launches a back to school campaign with ads on YouTube and 80 social networking and web sites

Jeep launches the Havefunoutthere.com social network

Although I agree with Bruce that agencies need to inform their clients about what’s going on before rushing into the fray, but this is hard to do, there’s an unstoppable force behind this “meme”.

As Bruce suggests, agencies should spend more time understanding the consumer and need to do more than focus groups to get there.

However, the challenge with all this is to gain enough insight to create content that's compelling enough to ATTRACT and KEEP people’s attention.

As always, this is a massive creative challenge that needs to be fuelled by insight, imagination and intuition and that’s why Bruce is right, compelling experiences won’t happen by simply re-creating what exist.

This is no easy task as the very nature of brands and brand communication is in a state of flux, it doesn’t matter if you are MySpace or Buick.

The acuteness of the problem is neatly expressed in this quote from an article published in the Times (London) on July 3rd.

“Social networks are spawning a generation of Internet tarts, research suggests: online consumers with little brand loyalty and no qualms about keeping several sites on the go at once.

Users of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are “chronically unfaithful”, a survey by Parks Associates, the analysts, has found. Half of users regularly use more than one site, most of which are free. One in six actively uses three or more.

This phenomenon of “network promiscuity” extends across web commerce. Analysts say that it is symptomatic of a new consumer scepticism over traditional branding.”

How does an old-school brand change it's spots and adapt to the new environment?

It appears that many brand efforts are Web 2.0 in theory, but not in practice, because it's so hard for brands to get away from the "command and control" model.

Brands seem so enamored their own self importance and insist on building social network destinations, but is that what consumers want?

We should hire some ethnographers to find out.

Posted by Ed Cotton

crocs- fast branding

Influx Insights — 2007-07-11T13:17:58Z

The ugly footwear brand Crocs has in a couple of years come from knowhere to cultural phenom. I don't recall ever having seen any form of traditional communication for the brand- no ads of any type, but a ton of people talk about them and you sure remember them when you see them around.

Clearly Crocs is trying to battle the "fad cycle" that often destroys fashion companies; they are expanding globally and diversifying the brand beyond footwear.

Anyone remember Von Dutch?

"The future for Von Dutch seems to be limitless. The unofficial princess of white-trash glam, Anna Nicole Smith, has signed a development deal with the company--just one of the many promotional plans that they've set their sights set on. Fashion fanatics can also expect to see cosmetics and haute couture lines in the upcoming months, as well as an onslaught of celebrity involvement."

From a 2003- web news story

How Crocs engineered it's rapid expansion is fascinating; it brought in an expert from outside the category, Ron Snyder from Flextronics, an electronics manaufacturer that makes X-Boxes for Microsoft among other things.

According to Fast Company, Snyder's contribution is all about making Crocs more responsive to the changing color tastes of consumer.

"And he brought on some of his pals from Flextronics to set up more-sophisticated operations that would bring to footwear the speed and flexibility of electronics manufacturing. For one, they set up systems allowing Crocs to respond quickly to demand: If the lime-green Athens shoe is hot in mid-June, the company can make more in two to four weeks."

They might be getting this right for their core business, but their diversification strategies have met with criticism.

"But now my ardor of last year has cooled. I am underwhelmed by the company’s choices so far. It seems like Crox moved in this direction before thinking it through. Sure, ball caps are a must, but the backpacks are just backpacks. White socks with prints on them? Who cares? The spin-off products so far sadly lack the funky style that made Crox shoes so in your face and I dare you to make fun of me. Why isn’t Crox teaming with Swatch to make big, bold watches a comeback? Why don’t the arm and wristbands do something teens and fashion-firsts would value, like hold an iPod? In fact, why aren't they anklebands just to be different? Why aren’t there Crox gummy bears or funny-colored sunscreen that blends into the skin? Crox needs a product designer with a funkier vision and a tighter grip on what it is about Crox that got it to this level. The new products on offer now look like the company borrowed an aging product manager from the Mattel’s Barbie doll division."

Seeking Alpha

Crocs have defied convention, built a powerful brand that people have strong emotions towards, survived the intiital fad phase and have taken on the mutitude of copy-cats. Bringing outside expertese from the fast-paced world of electronics has clearly helped, but it now appears they also need to bring in critical design skills if they want to innovate behind their core product and survive.

Posted by Ed Cotton

can "next fatigue" help brands?

Influx Insights — 2007-07-09T13:39:33Z

It appears the relentless innovation of Web 2.0 is already sapping the mental strength and willpower of some of its most ardent supporters.

“I just got a Pownce invite yesterday and was excited to try it out, but I must admit a sense of horror came over me as I realized that I had to find everyone all over again.

I mean, I have spent a lot of time adding friends on Facebook - I have used it to reconnect with people from eras throughout my entire life and I have poured days of time into the effort. I have done it to a certain extent on Twitter, where I have a pretty solid snapshot of my industry colleagues. I have done it with my MSN friends list, but it is becoming less important these days as I forget who most of the people I have added are - there is very little context with traditional chat applications as you have to rely on remembering silly screen names.

Then I thought, what about everything else, like Xbox Live, Finetune, LastFM, AIM, MySpace, and so many many more.

This has turned into a nightmare.”

Teknision

No one has time to read blogs any more; “the weberati” are spending so much time downloading, trying out new web applications and plugging their friends in.

This is a huge issue for social networks as they evolve and fragment and as brands try to create their own, but does it all become too much?

Maybe it’s just one example of the constant quest for the “next” now characterizes contemporary consumption. Brand loyalty is fast disappearing and has been replaced a constant search for the “next” thing.

It explains marketing’s latest fetish for innovation; brands constantly need to have something new and “next” to talk about, if they want to engage.

However, in an “attention starved” world, how much work do people really want to do? When does the trade off between the cache of discovering something new and the effort required to discover it become too much?

Will people get “next fatigue”?

Brands have to hope this is the case.

It’s what they are supposed to do, simplify.

Or

Has the quest and display of the shiny and new now become more powerful than the cache of brand, because the consumer no longer trusts brands to stay ahead and look after all of their interests?

Posted by Ed Cotton

every company is now a media company

Influx Insights — 2007-06-14T14:13:52Z

Cisco's Dan Sheinman spoke at this week's BPCC conference about the revolution in corporate communication. He suggests PR is "the new advertising" and companies need to embrace the fact they are now media companies.

He showed stats (shown below) highlighting how Cisco's web traffic has swtiched from page views to RSS feeds and blog posts.

Although Cisco and its users represent the cutting edge of technology, there's a broad desire from consumers for richer informaton from companies, material that goes beyond the press release.

Whether all companies can create their own TV networks, like Audi and others have done in the UK, remains to be seen. However, there's certainly the opportunity to move well beyond the static web site and press release.

Ad agencies can either sit on the sidelines and watch in-house teams and PR agencies help make this a reality or bring their creativity to the party and help create compelling media content for their clients.

Via PopPR

Posted by Ed Cotton

worship the brand onion

Influx Insights — 2007-06-12T15:31:44Z

Tom Fishburne at Brand Camp attacks the Brand Onion.
Via Jon Howard

Posted by Ed Cotton

should japanese brands talk up their nationality?

Influx Insights — 2007-06-07T18:13:02Z

Anderson Analytics recently conducted an interesting study to understand if US college students (1,000 sample) knew the country of origin of certain brands and rank the best countries of origin for specific categories.

Students want their cellphones, MP3 players, stereo systems and cars to be Japanese and their computers, clothing and chocolate to be American. They would also like their watches to be Swiss.

The problem is that they appear to have no idea the country of origin for the world’s leading brands:

58% thought Samsung was Japanese, not Korean

53% thought Nokia was Japanese, not Finnish

49% thought Adidas was American, not German

Clearly, for certain brands, it pays to stay quiet, but perhaps now is the time for the Japanese brands to come out of their shell and to take pride in their nationality.

That was BBDO's plan when it won the Mitsubishi account in 2005.

"The advertising recognizes the influence of Japanese pop culture on American popular culture. It embraces Mitsubishi's hip, cool Japanese roots, which is reflected in the music, design, structure and animation of the campaign. From the syncopated beat of Kodo drums to the distinctly current spin of the Mitsubishi logo, the advertising boldly speaks to consumers, asking 'why satisfy when you can thrill?'"

Dave Lubars-BBDO

saab's new brand video

Influx Insights — 2007-05-28T01:50:53Z

GM’s relationship with Saab has always been an uneasy one. Influx thought things were moving in the right direction with establishment of the Saab Brand Center and the stunning Aero X concept (which won 2006 concept car of the year).

With these two new initiatives,we assumed Saab had discovered a core idea that it could center itself around and build from.

However, we stumbled across a recent brand video, that turns out to be more confusing than it is revealing.

can gateway make a comeback?

Influx Insights — 2007-05-16T13:54:21Z

Gateway is gingerly coming back, stating that it's going to place more emphasis on its consumer business, recognizing laptops are style statements for consumers and promising to work with the world’s best design houses to create new product.

However, Gateway’s stock currently stands at $1.75.

Once the darling of Wall St and for the business press Gateway was once a brand that could seemingly do no wrong

"A Brand is a promise, and you have to keep your promises. There's no difference between what we sell and who we are." At Gateway 2000, Jim Taylor practices what he and his partner Watts Wacker preach

Fast Company – December 2006

This Fast Company piece covered a couple of interesting topics in the conversation with Watts Wacker and Jim Taylor.

1. They saw a social networking future, way ahead of time

Q: You've come to Gateway to help position the company for the next round of competition. What will it take to win in the future?

The future of the personal computer is as a tool to connect what Watts and I call "communities of strangers." These are people linked together based on common ideas and values -- shared identity -- rather than social proximity. This is an absolutely revolutionary change. By using the computer to find people who share your views, you can live in whatever kind of world you want. Reality is no longer a defined constant. It is a choice.

2. Speed isn’t all you need to compete.

Q: What else will it take for computer companies to prosper in the future?

“Winning companies will help people maintain their personal rates of change. The speed at which computer technology changes -- the speed at which Gateway operates is unreal. We change parts to the line every three hours. We change product configurations every three days. We change prices every day. If memory chip prices drop, our prices drop. If we get unexpected production efficiency, our prices drop.

That's why I love the direct channel. We talk to 100,000 people a day -- people calling to order a computer, shopping around, looking for tech support. Our Web site gets 1.1 million hits per day. The time it takes for an idea to enter this organization, get processed, and then go to customers for feedback is down to minutes. We've designed the company around speed and feedback.”

Gateway’s revenues collapsed dramatically from $9.6 billion in 2006 to $4.6 billion in 2002. With a booming PC market in the late 90s, there was enough business for everyone, but when it contracted, pricing pressures meant Gateway wasn’t in a position to compete with Dell. Going head to head with Dell, trying to compete with Dell’s ad spending and breaking away from its own direct model to build retail stores was disastrous.

Today company revenues stand at $3.9 billion, brand awareness is 96%, it has the famous “cow” boxes, they are the no 3 US computer brand and have a 13% share of US laptop sales. It’s a long road back, but it’s not an impossibility.

For all nostalgic ad industry folks out there, the same Fast Company’s December 1996 issue also contained a piece on St Luke’s, entitled The Ad Agency to End All Ad Agencies. Seems like December 1996's Fast Company wasn't the "lucky" issue.

a self-deprecating kodak brand video

Influx Insights — 2007-05-15T14:21:14Z

This is refreshing change from most of the chest-beating crap we usually see in corporate and brand videos.

If anyone knows the story behind this, please tell us.

4 ways for brands to be entertaining

Influx Insights — 2007-05-12T14:02:36Z

"People don't love brands. This is an elemental economic truth. If they did, firms wouldn't have to pay for advertising."

Bubble Generation

This comment was made in reference to the latest attempt to create branded entertainment venue.The idea that a brand or brands can build its own TV network and expect people to tune in and drop by to be entertained.

The problem is that most brands haven’t built equity as entertainers, at best, their spots are tolerated as a break between the stuff that really entertains, but they can be considered as entertainment experts. They haven’t earned the right.

When consumers see branded entertainment, they see branded first and entertainment second. They find it hard to get through the idea that at sometime during the entertainment, they are going to be sold something or that the whole thing is really a giant ad. Branded entertainment is starting off with a couple of hands behind its back; it has no track record and it's perceived to be a giant ad.

What can brands do to compete?

There are a couple of options

1.   Keep Trying- Entertainers and entertainment companies have more failures than hits. Even in the controlled world of television; entertainment doesn’t work and get cancelled. However, they keep trying to make it work. The more you try, the more likely you are to have some success.

2.   Be Credible- To be an entertainer you need to work with the best. Ad agencies need to learn to collaborate with entertainers with a track record who can bring credibility to their efforts.

3.   Quit the Hard Sell- To be credible, put the brand and the selling to one side and let the entertaining ideas breathe. They can disguise themselves as entertainment or content- such deception might not be popular.

4.   Do Something Useful- Do more than entertain-The shift to entertain is motivated by the attention challenges of television space. It’s not the only thing a brand can do to communicate. It can do the really important stuff like make better products, introduce better services, provide brand utility and act as a catalyst for its community.

brands and retailers need to sell experiences

Influx Insights — 2007-05-09T05:47:15Z

In 1999, when Pine and Gilmore wrote the “Experience Economy”, marketers rushed to bring more experience to their brands and especially their retail environments.

NikeTown’s evolution exemplified the movement, starting off as celebration of the brand, more like a museum and then shifting emphasis to become more of a traditional retailer, with specks of experience.

Brands moved into retail experiences because they liked the idea of control and they saw an opportunity to immerse consumers in the brand.

Today, the concept appears to have evolved into two strains.

a.    Pure branded retail- Apple Stores- are the best example and in fact deliver the highest sales/sqft of any retailer in the US. These are stores; they don’t deliver much in the way of experience or celebrating the legacy and history of the brand. Apple is very much about the latest and the now, its stores don’t need to dwell on the past.

b.    Museums-Brands that have equity in the past are using brand experiences as an additional arm of their brand communication strategies. Mercedes is a great example of a brand that’s building museums to communicate its history and heritage.

Yesterday, Sharper Image announced it was selling flights with the Zero Gravity Corp.

“The experience starts with a brief training session followed by a 90-minute flight aboard G-Force One, a Boeing 727, during which parabolic maneuvers are performed. The controlled ascent and descent of the plane allows flyers to experience apparent Martian gravity (1/3 Earth's gravity), Lunar gravity (1/6 Earth's gravity), and weightlessness.

ZERO-G flights depart from Las Vegas and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.”

This announcement moves Sharper Image into the experience selling game.

Yankelovich has been telling us for years that consumers value experiences more than material possessions, but it’s taken ages for retailers and traditional brands to get in on the act.

However, the potential is boundless for those that get it right, just imagine:

-    The Container Store should be selling “life simplification” courses and consulting
-    BevMo could sell wine tours and wine tasting classes
-    Pottery Barn could package interior design courses
-    Car dealers should be aggressively selling courses for performance racetrack driving and rallying
-    PF Chang’s could be selling cooking experience tours to China
-    Target could sell overseas trips to accompany their buyers

Consumers want to these things, if only brands and retailers could find a way to sell them. Beyond the obvious revenue benefits, these experiences would generate greater loyalty for brands.

Influx believes we are likely to see a shift towards “experience selling” that will demand imagination and ingenuity. It offers an interesting opportunity for retailers and brands that are bold enough to make the leap and prepared to experiment and develop new ways to sell experience.

Eight years on, the “Experience Economy” is finally becoming a reality.

ice cream tales - brand storytelling and poker

Influx Insights — 2007-06-07T15:32:53Z

These days, every brand expert is talking about the power of storytelling. There are many reasons for it, not least, the desire to inject more humanity into brands. The problem is that storytelling is like a game of poker, because a better story can always come along to trump yours.

Let’s look at ice cream as an example.

There used to be a time when Haagen Dazs had the premium ice cream market to itself. It made up a name and sold its “specialness”. Along came Ben and Jerry’s, the name was real and there was a good reason to believe the ice cream was special, it came from Vermont.

Josh Friedland at The Food Section informs us that there’s a new player in the ice cream storytelling stakes, GROM a mini-ice cream chain (12 stores worldwide) who has just opened a store in New York.

Here are the components of the GROM story.

-    It’s from Turin, Italy – one of the centers of good ice cream
-    The founders are young entrepreneurs
-    The ice cream’s ingredients are sanctioned by the Slow Food movement and include; Sfusato lemons from Amalfi and pistachios from Bronte in Sicilly
-    The ice cream is mixed in Italy and whipped when they arrive in NYC
-    The sorbets are made of 50% fruit and 50% San Bernado mineral water
-    The company will soon be growing its own some of its own fruit
-    The chocolate they use comes from Ecuador and Venezula

GROM’s story is multi-dimensional; it has a lot of interesting layers and elements; stretching from the founders, to the process and the ingredients. This is important for a couple of reasons.

1.    Word of Mouth Power: It gives the “Mavens” who want to spread the story, good content for the viruses.

2.    Proof: Months back Influx wrote a post on the critical drivers of C21st Branding- Proof was one of the core components. In a world where Internet search dominates, rational elements help to prove your case. However, if these elements can have an added emotional layer, the more powerful they become. GROM has the romance and purity of Italy and the Slow Food movement. The more layers, the more chance you have to differentiate and the more reasons you are giving consumers to check you out.

Weaving together stories has always been a part of the brand communication process. Advertising agencies were often hired to make up and exaggerate these stories.

Today, it’s important that your brand possesses not only an authentic story, but it also needs multiple layers. Brand development and refreshment is simply about adding more layers to the story making it more robust and therefore harder to competitors to trump.

brand ego-snapple

Influx Insights — 2007-05-01T02:45:02Z

If you are a small player in a category dominated by a couple of strong brands, it’s easy to feel intimidated and look for any opportunity to punch beyond your weight.

There’s a desire to simply be heard and noticed when you are up against higher spending and noisier competitors. However, your size is a strength that should be exploited, you should be proud of your size and think of your self as a leader in a niche. You should be a brand with a human, friendly personality that doesn’t chest beat or embrace the tactics of your larger competitors.

Snapple is a homegrown brand that charmed consumers with its homespun wisdom. It presented itself as an alternative beverage, in its product formulation, but also in the way it marketed itself.

That’s why it’s strange to see Snapple resorting to big brand tactics to reinforce its brand positioning of “Best Stuff on Earth”.

This is from the a recent press release.

"Everybody knows that Snapple tastes out of this world," said Randy Gier, Chief Consumer Officer for Snapple. "We believe the first thing anyone from this new world will request is the Best Stuff on Earth. NASA should seriously consider our petition because Snapple Green, White and Red teas boost metabolism, offer light taste and contribute to a healthy immune system -- great benefits for any life form."
While the as yet unnamed planet is more than 20 light years away, Snapple is already preparing to make its first delivery to the cosmos. Obtaining distribution rights for the new planet will give Snapple a first-to-market advantage. If the request is granted, the one-of-a-kind ready-to-drink tea maker may change all SKUs so packaging will read "Best Stuff in the Universe" rather than "Best Stuff on Earth."

Obviously, jumping on the news bandwagon is classic opportunistic marketing from a brand with a limited budget. However, the brand ego is out of control, Snapple is no longer just the “Best Stuff on Earth”, it’s the “Best Stuff in the Universe”.

Be careful what you wish for. This ego driven effort really calls to attention Snapple’s brand ingredients. The positioning may have been great years ago, when Snapple was better than a can of soda, but now it’s up against different “stuff”, is it better than organic, is it better than Honest Tea?

Is this something you really want to draw attention to?

london psfk conference- june 1st

Influx Insights — 2007-04-25T04:47:07Z

Lots of smart folks speaking at this one.

On 1st June, PSFK presents a series of presentations and discussions by leading innovators over the course of a day. The morning will focus on evolving new trends and ideas; the afternoon will look at future design and new marketing.

Confirmed Speakers

Niku Banaie, Naked Communications
Mike Butcher, TBites
Russell Davies, Open Intelligence Agency
R�gine Debatty, We Make Money Not Art
Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin Books
John Grant
Tamara Giltsoff, OZOlab brand
Beeker Northam
George Parker, Madscam
Iain Tait, Poke
Diana Verde Nieto, Clownfish
Faris Yakob, Naked Communications
Johnny Vulkan, Anomaly

Many more speakers to be confirmed. Register your interest in attending this conference here.

in the petri dish of attention- digg

Influx Insights — 2007-04-25T04:29:56Z

According to a report in the New Scientist magazine, researchers at HP Labs calculated that the average story posted onto the front page of the news site Digg, has a life expectancy of 69 minutes.

Although Digg isn't yet the mass market place of attention, it indicates that in an over abundant world, attention is fleeting at best.

It demonstrates just how hard it is to get noticed and even if you manage it, attention quickly wanes.

These days there are two things brands need to do:

1. Get noticed

2. Sustain attention

Both things are getting tougher and tougher to achieve, but as we keep saying, it's all about doing more and experimenting more.

the world's fastest growing brands

Influx Insights — 2007-06-06T23:46:45Z

Millward Brown has just published its 2007 ranking of the world’s largest brands from the BrandZ study.

Influx thought it would be good to look at the ranking of the fastest growing brands from the study.

BrandZ Millward Brown Top 10 Fastest Growing Brands

1. Marks and Spencer +192% (68)
2. Best Buy +113% (86)
3. Target +88% (52)
4. Google +77% (1)
5. ABN Amro +72 (95)
6. Apple +55% (16)
7. Gucci +49% (89)
8. Starbucks +45% (35)
9. Hermes +44% (85)
10. Cingular Wireless +39%(70)

()= Brand value ranking

Interesting to see three retailers leading the ranking, the leader, Marks and Spencer a UK retailer experienced one of the most incredible turnarounds, thanks to some great advertising.

marketing's panacea- creative risk and accountability

Influx Insights — 2007-04-20T14:32:04Z

“Our objective is to reduce uncertainty so we can take more creative risks.”

This is a quote from an agency chairman given at yesterday's AAAAs conference and it sums up the challenge that faces every marketer today.

The problem with the statement is that it’s a little nebulous; it looks like a couple of starter questions for a 20,000 word mid-term paper.

Q: Define the reduction of uncertainty in a complex world

Q: What is creative and what is risk?

The debate about the demise of traditional marketing has been raging for at least a decade, but the threats that eat at its core, seem stronger these days.

While many boil the debate down to the simplicity of two camps, “new school” vs. “old school”, it’s just not like that.

Here’s the problem; the old world doesn’t work and the new one provides us with even fewer guarantees, no certainty and even more risk.

Instead of becoming a “black box”, marketing has become a “black hole”

Stephen Hawking recently described his new theory of Black Holes.

"Information is not lost, but it is not returned in a useful way. It is like burning an encyclopedia. Information is not lost, but it is very hard to read."

One can happily seduce ourselves into thinking that we have great ROI toolsets and sophisticated tracking mechanisms, at best, they are guides.

The problem is that many clients don’t even know what success looks like. They don’t even have any real goals or objectives for their communication.

So, what are we supposed to measuring?

Then there’s the issue of taking a creative risk- are we talking about copying the user-generated program someone else did a week ago, or something revolutionary?

Marketing has now become like the record industry trying anything to get a radio hit and falsely thinking it could predict one.

This new world requires and demands failure and unfortunately because many companies still live in the industrial age where failure can’t be tolerated, CMOs and agencies will be fired with increasing regularity.

The marketing world today isn’t binary it’s schizoid.

Dealing with a schizoid, needs passion, guts, a level head and the willingness to accept failure.

Sure communication needs more creativity and accountability (whatever that is?), but that’s not all, it needs brave clients, clients ready to accept failure and learn from it, clients give their CMO the freedom to experiment, clients willing to understand that there’s nothing advertising can do to help sell their crappy product and clients with the guts and imagination to create something new.

Here are some pointers, from a client.

"I guess that when it started to spread on the web, it became 'viral'. 'Viral' is my least favourite term in the pantheon of adspeak, but it did make me take five minutes to have a think about how stuff 'becomes' viral? How does it spread?

The answer is, of course, that nobody really knows. Nobody can guarantee viralness. In this case, the fact that it's a bit weird and that it's also at odds (tonally) with what people have seen from us before means that it's interesting/unusual. Sometimes weird is good. Unexpected is good.

So I'm guessing that some people are more likely to want to watch it than an Innocent ad that features a pile of fruit and a packshot. People like new and unusual, especially on the web.

Of course, I'm still extremely wary of those who talk about 'viral'. I believe that the people who email me every day, telling me that they can make us excellent viral clips at the drop of a hat, are missing the point. You can't make things viral to order.

But you can do something else if you want to make stuff that people will send to their friends and post on their blogs. I think it's fairly simple. The more stuff you make, the more chance there is of something turning out to be good. And then people will watch it.

So in 2007 we will be making more stuff, writing more stuff, posting more stuff and filming more stuff. Some of it will be rubbish and some of it might work. And seeing as we don't know which bits will work until we've done them, I guess we'd better get cracking."

Dan Germain-Innocent Drinks

the $1.7 million car

Influx Insights — 2007-04-19T00:14:57Z

If you were fortunate enough to have $1.7 million in spare change and the skills of a race car driver, Ferrari would have sold you an FFX (race ready Enzo) sadly the program is now sold out.

The car comes complete with its own pit crew and 6 races over a 2 year period. The FFXs were out in force at last week's Ferrari Challenge event at Infineon Raceway in Napa, California.

It's an amazing example of the ultimate in luxury brand experiences.

brand as educators-howies

Influx Insights — 2007-06-14T18:09:23Z

David Hieatt used to work at Weiden and Kennedy, became a consultant for non-profits and then established his own clothing company, Howies.

David sees Howies as an extension of his thinking and a tool by which to educate people about responsible consumerism and environmental causes.

Howies applied many of Patagonia’s core principles and made them relevant for a different marketplace, the UK.

However, Howies is not merely an imitator, it continues to defy the concept of the corporation.

Its latest idea is a lecture series, Little Big Voice, designed to for people who help causes, understand how to use media “sell” their ideas.

It’s a smart way for the brand to give back, instead out handing out checks, it’s doing something better, it’s giving away learning.

These lectures take place in Cardigan Bay, Wales, this weekend with the following speakers.

Howies initiative gets Influx thinking.

What kind of lectures would your brand host?

Who would speak?

Who would you invite?

Who would attend?

social networks and micro-brands

Influx Insights — 2007-06-14T18:08:57Z

Most cellular networks go for an “all things to all people approach”, a few MVNO’s like, Helio. Amp’d and Boost focus in on a target segment, but it seems some new entrants are prepared to refine their segmentation down to a micro level.

Japanese operator, KDDI, recently announced plans to move into the US and their initial target segment is Japanese ex-pats.

Credit-card issuer MBNA built a huge business out of affinity based cards, now Sonopia is looking to do the same with cellphones, but with even smaller groups of micro-segments. The new start up packages Verizon’s service to groups of 35 or more and gives back up to 8% of the revenues. This could work for small start-ups looking to save on cellphone costs, non-profits, clubs, churches and sports groups.

Small clubs and groups have been meeting up and organizing since the dawn of time, but in the Web 2.0 era, many of these groups are forming on the fly and many never even meet-up.

Ning, a site that allows people to form their own social networks, could have a new business opportunity offering finely targeted services to these networks that help them develop and enhance their own micro-brands.

The only question...

Are brands prepared to provide customized and tailored versions to support these small groups?

youtube talks human

Influx Insights — 2007-06-14T18:08:22Z

YouTube explains itself using its own technology.

It's a great example of getting beyond corporatespeak- real people explaining things in a way we can all understand, not hiding behind a product or a press release.

Via Beet.tv

brands and online video- 7 new rules

Influx Insights — 2007-03-26T23:24:06Z

Here are 7 new rules for brands wanting to play in the new landscape of online video, it's a follow up to the previous post on big brands experimenting with online video.

1.    Creativity Rules- The bar has been raised to 11

In the past, when brands used to look at creativity, they were comparing themselves to each other, so the bar was pretty low, often anything that got people to laugh, was deemed a success.

Now, engagement has gotten so much harder. The competition is that much tougher and new modes of consumption place new pressures on content to be compelling. The switching cost is very low.

Brands are used to competing in a war that was often based on throwing lots of money going at the best talent and the best and most media. The playing field has changed. With such low barriers to entry- everyone with an imagination is now a potential competitor for your audience's attention.

2.    Brands Must Push Boundaries

Consumers are flocking to entertainment that pushes extremes.

a.    realness and rawness- reality tv
b.    violence and language- premium cable-like HBO
c.    speed and spontaneity- user generated

Brands have to be prepared to go there; otherwise their content will always be second-tier in comparison to the competition.

3.    Give Up Control of Content

Consumers want content distributed in the places they inhabit, they don’t want to be forced to consume it on your website. Content needs to be widely distributed and consumers should be allowed to place it in their own social media environments, like on My Space pages.

4.    Study the Landscape

Brands must have their pulse on this rapidly changing landscape. This isn’t about knowing who the next YouTube is, but learning how consumers consume this new media and understanding what forms of content appear to be working best.

5.    Partner

There’s a lot of merit in what Coke did, they went directly to the source with a proven track record of viral success and worked with them. Imagine if Budweiser, instead of trying to build it’s own network, had given some seed money to dozens of people who had already achieved viral success, the result of BudTV might have been different.

6.    Encourage the User to Engage

Brands are so used to the broadcast model, that they forget the internet offers countless opportunities for the audience to interact with the content. Whether this is just simply allowing them to comment on the content or remixing it, you have to let the user in.

7.    Simpler is Better

It’s easy to get carried away with the belief that your content is so compelling you can create multiple layers around it. Make it too complex and you will end up turning people away. Think video games, the best sports games have an instant play function, where you can just play, they also have layers and added complexity, if strategy is your bag.

Overall, brands face a radically transformed landscape and in order to play, they have to be prepared to experiment and be willing to learn from failure.