Co-authored by Dick Bondy, this article first ran on iMediaConnection.com.

The lessons of the “rags to riches” Obama campaign continue to inspire marketers of all disciplines; even those involved in corporate rebranding and launch events. Having looked at the general lessons that I describe in In-bound from Obama: 10 Ideas for 2009, this article applies the Obama playbook to the launch of a new corporate brand and is based on interviews, conducted by Dick Bondy, with communications leaders at major corporations including Xerox, ArcelorMittal, Grant Thornton and Thomson Reuters among others.

Stand for Something
Obama combined a simple, rational message – Change, with an emotional and empowering call to action – Yes we can. Competing candidates quickly adopted the change mantra but Obama’s status as an outsider and the fact that he was there first, rendered his positioning unassailable. Allen Adamson, Managing Director of Landor Associates, NY, writes, “The most successful brands today are based on ideas that are not just different and relevant, but simple.” Johnson Controls, in their 2007 rebranding, adopted a simple tagline, “Ingenuity Welcome” – a signal to customers, prospects, current and future employees. And they followed this up with an annual “Ingenuity Day” devoted to new product brainstorming by all employees. Smith & Nephew, the British medical products conglomerate, restructured and identified their mission as “helping people regain their lives by repairing and healing the human body.” When AkzoNobel rebranded after the ’08 acquisition of ICI, they identified the simple and clear goal of becoming “one company in one year.”

Capture and Empower Your Fan Base
Obama broke new ground for a political candidate by his use of the web to build a database of supporters and to engage them in a conversation, ultimately using his disciples to spread his message. Deloitte Touche recently encouraged employees worldwide to create short videos on what Deloitte means to them. The Deloitte Film Festival, resulted in 370 videos, created by employees at all levels of the firm, engaging more than 1,200 participants. This initiative substantially strengthened the firm’s global community. Released to YouTube, the films introduce the firm to potential young employees in a uniquely relevant way.

Turn on the Videos
YouTube was a vital medium for Obama’s campaign, and continues after inauguration – the weekly Presidential address, traditionally on radio, is now a video released to YouTube and also available on the White House website. Not many corporations have used the internet to support a rebranding, but when the 2007 ArcelorMittal merger created the world’s largest steel company it was necessary to quickly create a dialogue with 330,000 employees in 60 countries, to allay concerns and maintain focus on the business, during the five months required to build and launch the new brand. The web played a key role, hosting ArcelorMittalTV.com – a series of 12 films featuring employees raising questions/concerns about the merger, the new company’s mission, and business strategies going forward. Management addressed questions in a blog accompanying each video episode. The video series is available on YouTube for the public as well, and has been downloaded at the rate of 15,000 per day.

Lighten Things Up
Obama’s campaign was notable for its sense of humor, in many cases, forcing his opponents on to the late night talk circuit, to their comparative disadvantage. Levity hasn’t played much of a role in recent rebrandings but two companies have staged launch events in a decentralized way that encourages employee creativity and cements their relationship to the new brand. Both Grant Thornton and Johnson Controls faced the need to foster greater collaboration between offices across the world and encourage consistent use of the new corporate identity. Rather than a single, corporate-staged brand launch, these firms had each office create their own event, with HQ providing only identity guidelines and materials. From office to office, there were cakes baked featuring the new logo; people arrived at work dressed in the corporate colors; offices were painted in the corporate palette; flag raisings and tent meetings were held. In both cases, the ceremonies were videoed and edited into a corporate film distributed back to all employees on the websites. No doubt the freedom of each office to incorporate levity, local customs and cultures, helped to build relevance for the corporate brand.

Touch Your Target
Inclusive events and personal conversations were also hallmarks of the Obama campaign. Corporate communicators ignore the power of one-on-one communication at their peril, when projecting a new brand and mission. Several of the companies in my study went to extraordinary lengths to connect to the broad employee base. There’s no better example than CEC Bank – the former Romanian state banking monopoly, rebranded in 2008 to compete with global banks for the first time. In order to introduce employees to the general concept of a brand, let alone CEC’s own brand, there were engagement sessions averaging 15 hours with all 6,700 of the bank’s employees, as well as their union’s officials. After the Thomson Reuters rebranding was broadcast around the world by satellite, CEO, Tom Glocer embarked on a 30-day world tour. The primary objective – speak with employees about the goal of “One Company in one Year”. Likewise, after Rockwell Collins introduced its new brand, Dave Yeoman, Director of Corporate Communications, held informal, brown bag lunches with employees in his travels to company facilities around the world.

Measure Green, Make Green
Clearly the Obama campaign benefited from the support of environmentalists. Every organization is being judged by its sustainability. Outside of companies whose business is the environment (BP, GE, etc.) this is an area that has been largely ignored in corporate rebranding events. A few bright spots: Smith & Nephew, in its rebranding, shipped flat corrugated boxes, printed with the new brand identity elements, to all offices, to be assembled and displayed on site – a cost and energy saving tactic. Of course, Grant Thornton and Johnson Controls’ locally staged events saved the energy that would have been required to send large groups of employees to central locations. The same with CSC, which used a “follow the sun” strategy to launch their brand, country by country, at noon in each time zone. But by in large, environmental concerns have not been at the forefront when launching new corporate brands. No doubt this will change.

Do Well by Doing Good
Obama raised unprecedented sums by convincing millions to “give a little money for the cause of change” making people feel they were part of a “movement.” With this as a backdrop, it has never been clearer that social responsibility will increasingly drive consumer loyalty. The launch of a new identity is an excellent opportunity to communicate the corporate mission and vision by incorporating strategic social responsibility. I haven’t seen this done yet. Perhaps Smith & Nephew, (“Helping people regain their lives by repairing and healing the human body.”) could initiate a program to donate artificial joints to people in need, and involve employees as well. Or Johnson Controls could donate thermostats to Habitat for Humanity. No matter what the corporate mission, there is an opportunity to use charity as a strategic reinforcement of the brand position. This should be baked into every brand launch.

Define your Value
Corporations, just like political candidates, increasingly need to define their value in simple, unambiguous terms. This is job number one for every corporate rebranding. Of the recent examples, Thomson Reuters illustrates this best. Their value proposition is the transformation of an increasing amount of raw information into “intelligent information” for professionals and businesses. As their advertising tagline describes it, “Information to Act”. The nexus of their brand launch was Times Square, arguably the most chaotic place on earth. The identity reveal, on six Jumbotron screens, created the new logo out of a random array of swirling shapes, metaphorically creating order out of chaos – transforming information to “intelligent information.

Spend it if You’ve Got It
The current economy, while producing fear in most marketers, provides ample opportunity to those with relevant, differentiated positions, willing to take advantage of retreating competition. When a company rebrands, it’s a mistake to downplay the launch event in an effort to conserve budget. The launch event is key to the success of a corporate rebranding. It serves as a platform for management to inspire and lead. It can signal the promise of a merger or acquisition. It can help capitalize on a strategic shift, and set the tone to guide relationships between a corporation, its employees and customers. But, no matter how skillfully crafted the strategy and design of the new identity, without a well thought-out and executed launch, the message sent can be quite the opposite of what is intended.

About the Authors…
Dick Bondy and Drew Neisser met “100” years ago when they both worked at Lord, Geller, Federico & Einstein. Since then, Dick has focused on B2B marketing and become a leading expert in corporate rebranding and their accompanying launch events. Drew has focused on more non-traditional marketing approaches, founding Renegade in 1996, the company he now owns and continues to helm. You can reach them at dickbondy@gmail.com and dneisser@rengade.com.

To succeed in social media, brands would be wise to LIAISE, a six-step process to connect with consumers: Listen, Identify, Activate, Integrate, Socialize, Evaluate.

Today’s issue of BRANDWEEK provided a rather scaled back overview of 2008 Guerrilla Marketing which included a short and sweet quote from yours truly. Given the brevity of the article, I thought I’d post my full interview notes.

BW: Can you see the current economic downturn as having a direct effect on guerrilla marketing either how it’s done, its frequency of use, or anything else?

DN: Here’s the good news, our phone is ringing off the hook from clients looking to gain more impact out of limited resources. The bad news is that when they say “limited” they really mean next to nothing so its getting a lot harder to manage expectations! One huge change is the number of clients requesting “social media” and/or viral marketing programs. There is a clear perception in the marketplace that these non-traditional approaches could have exponential impact for the dollars invested. Undoubtedly, when dollars get short, clients will look for innovative ways to cut through.

BW: Aside from the recession, are there any big trends affecting guerrilla marketing that you’re seeing?

DN: Several. Consumers are increasingly savvy and resilient to street team activity. Unless you are offering a clear value proposition (like cool free stuff) or have a truly entertaining “show,” consumers will simply ignore your efforts. Today more than ever, guerrilla marketing needs to deliver a demonstrable exchange of value. The same holds true for online guerrilla efforts. As many wishful thinking viral video producers have discovered, very few videos actually get discovered and most of those are consumer generated versus corporate creations. In the “wild west” of viral, slick messages rarely cut it. Consumers find the genuine, the raw, the crazy, far more appealing than the slick, the packaged or the profound.

BW: In the age of the iPod, with people so shut off from normal streetawareness, is guerrilla marketing less effective than it used to be? I mean, not too long ago, a pedestrian might be wearing a Walkman, but in general he or she was pretty plugged in to the street landscape. But these days, thanks to digital devices like cell phones and iPods, you can hermetically seal yourself in a world of your choosing, even as you walk around. Does that theoretically render guerrilla marketing less effective?

DN: First, let me note that we consider guerrilla marketing to be broader than street team stuff. Like the man who first defined the term, Jay Conrad Levinson, we consider guerrilla marketing to be a mindset that overcomes a lack of funds with resourcefulness and innovation. Under that definition, guerrilla marketing is constantly evolving, addressing the realities of changes in consumer behavior. To be effective, guerrilla marketing has to be more than disruptive. It has to be appealing enough that someone in a walking cocoon actually wants to stop and engage. Ironically, guerrilla approaches actually have an advantage these days over traditional TV advertising which are getting zapped before they even get a chance to be seen. Guerrilla marketers are figuring out how to engage consumers with all their devices, such as having billboards that interact with mobile devices, etc. Also, for many “too hip for ad” brands, the guerrilla medium is the message. These brands can’t be seen as selling out by doing mainstream advertising and instead present themselves in ways that are as fresh as the brand and the target themselves. Street art, viral videos, widgets and on-premise stunts all fall into the “we’re cool cats” category.

All that said, consumers are more savvy about all types of marketing these days. The bar is higher for everyone. True engagement requires a fresh idea regardless of the medium. If people are wearing headphones, guerrilla marketers need to offer music to their ears, literally or physically.

If you think the marketing challenges of 2009 look daunting, imagine for a moment you were Barack Hussein Obama back in 2007. Being an unknown, untested, awkwardly-named black man with limited resources going against one of the biggest brand names in Democratic politics, you’d hardly anticipate a victory in the playoffs, much less a win in the finals. Yet, that is exactly what happened. Obama’s remarkable success offers a clear and prescient 10-point playbook for marketers who want to beat the odds in 2009.

Stand for Something
Knowing that 70% of the country thought the government was headed in the wrong direction, Obama offered a simple, consistent and rational message: “change.” He coupled that with an empowering and emotional call to action, “yes we can.” By appealing to both the rational desire for change and the emotional need for hope, Obama presented his brand as a movement and embraced the notion that former P&G CMO Jim Stengel calls “purpose-based marketing.” As the game gets rougher in 2009 and resources tighter, clarifying your purpose as a brand will be that much more significant. It will help you keep communications on point, your internal team inspired and your target more inclined to cast their vote for your brand.

Capture Your Fan Base
President-elect Obama’s use of the internet to build his fan base was unprecedented by all measures. As of November 4th, his website database included over 3 million hard-core fans that not only contributed millions in campaign funding but also volunteered to make calls, send emails and knock on doors. Members received a steady stream of emails including video, with specific calls to action keeping the fans motivated and on-point. He even had over 128,000 tweets tracking him via Twitter.

In what may be an historic use of email, he reached out to this group before his acceptance speech noting “I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.” This legion of supporters was ready for mobilization at a click of a mouse, something that any marketer could find invaluable. While the notion of building a large database of users is not new, the importance of having such a base is compounded in a weak economy since email can be so cost effective at driving sales, word-of-mouth and loyalty. Make it a priority in 2009 to build an army of followers.

Empower Your Fan Base
Some marketing pundits are calling Obama’s campaign the first to truly apply web 2.0 techniques to the presidential race. According to exit polls, Obama won nearly 70% of the under 25 vote, a share percentage that any marketer would covet. If you haven’t looked at My.BarackObama.com, I highly recommend you take a tour (for a short cut watch the introductory video) and imagine this was your customer loyalty program. Then pop over to Facebook and MySpace, where Obama gathered over 4 million combined supporters, and imagine that this was how your brand leveraged social networks.

The key will be to truly engage your target, inviting them to join a conversation versus peddling your wares. If you do it right, at least 1 in 4 social networkers will gladly download branded content and 1 in 5 will post marketer-related content on their home page. One way or another, be sure to cast your marketing vote for social media in 2009.

Turn on the Videos
This campaign inspired unprecedented levels of online video viewing. On YouTube alone there were over 30 million views of Obama-related videos including the Yes We Can music video (14mm), Obama Girl (12.1mm) and his interview on Ellen (4.8mm). And of course millions more watched the highly damaging interview of Sarah Palin by Katie Couric.

While few brands can hope to gain this kind of following for their videos on YouTube, marketers would be remiss not to create them and use the videos for a variety of purposes from sales presentations to PR, online ads to viral. If you can get you fans to create the videos via user generated content programs, all the better. If not, be sure to keep your production costs low so you have some money to drive “seed” traffic.

Lighten Things Up
One of the more remarkable aspects of the Obama campaign is how he never lost his cool and in fact found moments for levity throughout. His appearance on Letterman a week before the election showed his lighter side as they laughed about Sarah Palin’s “lipstick on a pig” line. Not that Obama can take credit for it but I’m sure he is grateful to Tina Fey and the folks at Saturday Night Live who brilliantly lampooned Palin to the point that her only hope was to face the SNL camera directly—which of course was too little too late.

The point of all this is that comedy is still king and, as marketers, we need to keep things light especially in this dark economic period. Even typically serious B2B companies can find a place for humor. Tibco’s hilarious Greg The Architect video series has helped them connect with IT professionals who welcome a break from endless coding and relentlessly boring vendor pitches.

Touch Your Target
Despite all the success of his emails and videos, Obama never forgot the importance of the meet and greet. His campaign went to extraordinary lengths to have personal conversations with millions of Americans. His events were inclusive versus exclusive, holding his nomination acceptance speech at INVESCO Field in Denver and his victory speech at Grant Park in Chicago.

With budgets declining and the “stay at home economy” emerging, marketers might be inclined to rely on advertising and cut back on event/experiential marketing. This would be a mistake. Savvy marketers like Dress Barn have figured out that their customers actually want to get out of their homes and connect with their friends, which explains why Dress Barn’s in-store Very Indulgent Parties are so popular they are struggling to get them all on the calendar in each of their markets.

Measure Green, Make Green
While the economy was clearly the focus of the presidential campaign, during the primaries Obama credited the support of environmentalists who among others helped push him to victory. The Obama-Biden “New Energy for America” plan is an aggressive call for all companies to examine their carbon footprint and do something about it.

Expect to hear more about “supply chain environmentalism” which calls for marketers not only to consider what goes into their products but also to track the environmental impact of their entire supply chains. This in turn will create opportunities for companies like Enviance, whose software helps large companies measure and track emissions, and sites like GoodGuide.com, which rates products by their “greenness.” Green-savvy marketers will make the tracking of their environmental initiatives transparent, which will appeal to shareholders, regulators and potential consumers.

Do Well by Doing Good
The Obama campaign enlisted millions to give a little money for the cause of “change.” People stepped up because they felt part of something bigger than themselves. Now with donations to non-profits declining in lock step with the tanking economy, marketers have a unique opportunity to step up and show consumers they care about more than just sales, and prove that they are concerned with the well being of the community.

A recent PR Week study shows a close relationship between consumer perception and corporate social responsibility—companies that are well known for doing good have stronger word of mouth and more loyal customers. For example, 63% of Americans claim to have purchased a product because of a charitable association with the brand. The key is to pick a non-profit that makes sense for your organization, get employees involved and to make the support meaningful like Home Depot’s commitment to Habitat for Humanity to whom it is donating $30 million for a national green building project called “Partners in Sustainable Building.”

Define your Value
Taxes remained a dirty word in the 2008 presidential race as rising unemployment and falling home prices led to tightened pocketbooks. Marketers are facing a newly chastened non-consuming consumer with 65% of moms eliminating purchases that aren’t “absolutely necessary” and 52% who are just plain “cutting back” according to an Allen & Gerritsen study. It’s gotten so bad that orders for mall Santa Clauses are down 50% from 2007.

Few consumer-dependent companies can hope to thrive is this environment, but those with a clear value proposition will do less poorly. Wal-Mart is still seeing modest year-on-year increases, no doubt because of their clear value position. Starbucks, once an affordable luxury, has suddenly become an expensive afterthought. To compete in this dismal economy, your value proposition will be tested like never before as businesses and consumers ask, “Do I really need that?”

Spend It if You Got It
Ultimately, Obama ended up with the largest war chest in history, outspending McCain in some markets by as much as 4 to 1. In a zero sum game like politics, where the loser goes home, there is no holding back and you spend every last penny you raise (and then some.) Marketers, on the other hand, need to align their budgets with sales goals and make the most of what they’ve got. Ironically, with so many marketers cutting back, there are rare opportunities: from inexpensive sponsorships to remnant ad space both offline and online. Even search prices are expected to soften.

Category leaders will use this downturn to increase their share and upstart innovators will take advantage of retreating competition. Opportunity abounds for those marketers who classify marketing as an investment for their future, who believe that regardless of the short-term economic obstacles, brands will be built and history will be made.

Published: July 28, 2008 in AdAge

It’s just common sense that if you give a little, you’ll usually get a little in return. But to paraphrase President Harry S. Truman, that (inadvertent) font of marketing wisdom, “If common sense were so common, more [marketers] would have it.” Marketing is nothing more or less than an exchange of value. The better the value the marketer provides, the more time and attention they’ll usually get back from their target. If the value delivered by the marketer is exceptional, then the consumer will pay back the marketer with loyalty and brand evangelism in good times and bad.

Marketing as service is about transforming your communications from mere messaging into an exceptional value that consumers will seek out. To quote Ad Age Editor Jonah Bloom, “Marketing as service is where brands actually give consumers something they want or need,” as opposed to hitting them over the head with messaging they’d rather zap or ignore. While Ad Age and others have chronicled examples of this savvy approach, no one to my knowledge has put forth a how-to guide for marketing as service, so let’s just say, the buck starts here.

Because of our relentless desire to cut through, we are an industry that always likes to focus on the latest and greatest. Ironically, much could be learned from the past. As President Truman put it, “There is nothing new in the world except the history [of marketing] you do not know.” Ad Age recently reported on a “new path” being pursued by Crocs to help pedestrian explorers with online walking guides. And while Cities by Foot is indeed a fine example of marketing as service, it is by no means a true innovation.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Michelin Guide. Way back in 1900, André Michelin created a driver’s guidebook to France to help drivers see the best restaurants of the country while keeping their cars in good shape. It included addresses of places such as gas stations, garages, tire repair shops, and public toilets. Set up 108 years before Cities by Foot, the Michelin Guide remains a quintessential example of marketing as service, educating customers, enhancing their lives and doing so in a highly relevant manner.

It’s hard to create a meaningful service for your customers and prospects if you don’t know all that much about them. And while some might choose to follow President Truman’s advice to “Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it,” it is essential to have a genuine insight when pursuing marketing as service. Find that insight somewhere within the passions and miseries, the days and nights, the aspirations and disappointments, and the loves and hates of your target universe. Genuine insight will uncover a service that matters, a service the target will truly appreciate.

Street cred
Nike spent years hangin’ with action sports enthusiasts before it launched a social network on Loop’d to target them. After struggling to crack the code, Nike learned the hard way that this group is keenly sensitive to “posers” and will call out a false note faster than you can say “backside 360 ollie.” According to a Nike 6.0 spokesperson, “we reach out to our athletes for insight and validation. They are a crucial part of our brand, and we would not be where we are at without them.”

Some marketers have expressed concern about losing control of their brand in this newfangled Web 2.0 world. I urge them to consider these prescient words from the first president to address the American people from the White House, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” My advice to marketers is to just let go, because you aren’t in control anyway. Offer your customers a way to inspire subversive comic books, and reward their creativity with outrageous parties like Colt 45. “The Tales of Colt 45″ program, now in its second year, celebrates “the most notable [customer] adventures involving the famed malt liquor” in a four-booklet series that also promote a five-market nightclub tour where new adventures will undoubtedly unfold. Or, like Jones Soda, maintain your cult following by letting your customers design your product labels.

Similarly, T-shirt company Threadless has built a reportedly multimillion-dollar business in eight years by encouraging its customers to submit designs and choose the shirts it will print. Best yet is Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade goods. Etsy has over 1 million registered users that it supports creatively with online classes and resource locations and conversationally with forums, blogs and chat rooms. They have also created a request-based marketplace where buyers can post what they want and sellers can bid on the job. In a recommendation economy, all of these represent powerful ways to drive positive word of mouth and build brand loyalty.

Marketers have a tendency to get tired of their successes far sooner than most consumers. The reality is that when you hit upon a really good marketing as service program, you need to stick with it for a while. Maybe you can’t foresee a 100-year-plus commitment such as Michelin, but how about more than a decade such as Camp Jeep? American Express has offered exclusives for gold- and platinum-card members for more than 20 years, and the BankCab has been driving customers to HSBC for more than six years. And lest we fall victim to the Truman proverb, “Being too good is apt to be uninteresting,” keep things fresh with periodic upgrades, ensuring that your marketing buck never stops working for you.

this article was published by iMediaConnection on July 25th, 2008:

Recent Nike and Visa campaigns provide true value to customers and prospects. Learn how to boost your brand through similar online strategies.

Leading brands can maintain their competitive edge by transforming their communications from mere messaging to campaigns that provide genuine value to customers and prospects alike. Although a number of smaller brands have embraced the concept of “marketing as service” to expand their customer base and increase loyalty within their niches, it is even more telling when two savvy marketers like Nike and Visa shift ad dollars in this direction.

The notion of providing what some call “brand utility” via marketing communications is not necessarily new. (Consider Michelin guides, for example.) However, the ubiquity of the web and social media has created extraordinary opportunities in this area for big and small companies. And while neither Nike nor Visa is a newcomer to this pursuit, they have recently upped the ante with their respective online efforts.

Nike Boot Camp is a veritable tour de force that no aspiring soccer player should miss. Aiming to provide a “world-class training program,” Nike immodestly boasts that it can “turn you into a high-performance soccer player.” The company attempts to demonstrate its promise of “30 percent improvement in your power, speed and stamina” through action-packed, handheld video and inspirational comments from top players.

As one blogger described it, “It’s basically a digital soccer class you can take for either 4 or 6 weeks. Genius.” By providing this so-called class, Nike is demonstrating that it truly appreciates the ambitions of serious young soccer players. (Keep in mind that soccer is now the single largest participation sport in the U.S.) I’m personally not a fan of the company’s emphasis on the phrase “next level” (see my rant). However, after watching the site’s videos of men running with parachutes on their backs for resistance, I have to admit that Nike is setting new standards here.

Nike is hardly a newbie when it comes to using the web to provide valuable content to its targets. Earlier NikeFootball.com renditions included soccer trick video clips from all over the world that viewers could rate. This feature was both entertaining and useful, especially since kids could attempt the tricks they saw at home. Indeed, the utility of the old site was indisputable. Further, soccer isn’t the only sport for which Nike is allocating more marketing dollars and spending less on traditional advertising — the Nike+ program has been keeping pace with runners’ needs for the past two years.Just a few weeks ago, Nike 6.0 — which focuses on action sports products — launched a branded community for skaters, bikers and surfers on Loop’d. With its profiles and photo sharing, this community offers the usual functionality of a social network, but its users are also given the opportunity to compete for commercial partnerships — a pretty darn cool feature for enthusiasts. This program provides further utility with a mix-and-match mashup that can be ported over to other social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

Like Nike, Visa is an overall market leader — but not necessarily in every market segment. In order to gain currency with small business owners who have many other options, including both MasterCard and American Express, Visa recently launched the Visa Business Network on Facebook. Rather than simply running more ads (Visa spends a whopping $675 million or so annually), the company elected to provide real utility in multiple ways for the small office–home office, or SOHO, crowd.

Recognizing that small business owners might not have discovered the power of Facebook, Visa provides a series of pleasantly digestible bite-sized videos. Each video includes a real-life business, such as a cheese shop and an eyeglasses store, and demonstrates how the company tapped into Facebook’s highly viral network. Additionally, to make it easy for small businesses to get started, Visa is offering a $100 advertising credit to the first 20,000 that sign up. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is.

Visa is not just dipping its toes into this effort — it is diving in head first. Partners including AllBusiness, Entrepreneur, Forbes.com and the Wall Street Journal will provide relevant news and commentary to network subscribers. Google will provide support with mashups and online software, while Microsoft will bring its software heft to the party. All in all, Visa has arranged a veritable armada of content, tool kits and savvy that no small business would want to be without.

By helping these businesses connect with their customers online, Visa is providing a truly valuable service that should help the cash registers ring all the way around. We can certainly expect MasterCard and American Express to watch this social networking experiment very carefully and to serve up their own iterations at some point. Undoubtedly, they won’t be giving credit where credit is due.Even to the trained skeptic, the logic of befriending your best customers on Facebook is inescapable. Small business owners are particularly susceptible to word of mouth; positive WOM can drive customer acquisition, and negative WOM can send sales into a tailspin. A 2007 study by McKinsey found that 27 percent of all one-on-one conversations included some serious discussion of products or services.

The formula being employed by Nike and Visa is reasonably simple: create a service that prospects and customers can use, make it easy for them to share this service with their friends, and use advertising to jumpstart initial interest in the program. If the utility is there, prospects will inevitably become customers, customers will become brand evangelists, and neither will consider zapping the companies’ efforts.

This approach is not just for the big guys. Smaller companies can establish leadership within their niches by delivering genuine utility through their marketing activities. Constant Contact, a leading email marketing service, has managed to build a customer base of more than 100,000 small and medium-size businesses. About a year and a half ago, the company built a social network, ConnectUp!, for its customer base. ConnectUp brings together thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs who help each other solve real business problems, as well as share and gain insights on marketing and other topics of interest. To date, more than 8,000 members have joined ConnectUp. As a result, Constant Contact has expanded its leadership position and increased its market share.

So whether you are a global giant or just hoping to be the largest fish in your pond, you can maintain and enhance your position by using your marketing dollars to deliver real and ongoing utility to your customers and prospects. The web has opened a number of ways to transform your marketing into service — service that will boost word of mouth, increase conversation rates and keep the cash register ringing all the way through this sluggish economy.

This article appeared on iMediaConnection on July 7, 2008.

Check out these simple ways to convert prospects into customers and then into card-carrying brand evangelists.

#1. Consider marketing as service

Brand experiences, whether physical or virtual, if done correctly can convert prospects into customers and then customers into card-carrying brand evangelists. These experiences are by definition interactive, encouraging dialogue and ideally an intimate and unforgettable dance between brand and consumer. Here are four thoughts on how to turn your brand experiences into dances of a lifetime.

When brands create experiences that provide a real service, magical things happen. Because “marketing as service” provides a real value, the brand pulls customers and prospects into it, rather than pushing a message at them. This natural engagement deepens relationships with existing customers, forms strong bonds with new ones and helps generate favorable word of mouth.

Charmin showed its get-up-and-go when it installed restrooms in Times Square, providing welcome relief for more than a half million holiday tourists. The service was unexpected, memorable, relevant and good clean fun. Samsung has electrified road warriors by installing mobile device charging stations in five major U.S. airports. Given the annoying paucity of outlets in terminals, this service is pumping up Samsung’s image as a friend indeed to the mobile world.

#2. It all starts with an insight — even chotchkes!

In order to cut through effectively, the experience must derive from a sound strategic insight relevant to the brand. While handing out fun premiums might drive traffic, it rarely builds brand loyalty unless it extends the conversation and reinforces what the brand stands for. When my company’s client, Panasonic, wanted to engage action sports enthusiasts, they needed an insight that gave them permission to “hang” with this otherwise skeptical crowd. The insight they found was that capturing and sharing tricks was an inherent part of the action sports lifestyle. Since Panasonic made the video and still cameras that captured the tricks, and the TVs to see them on, they had a legitimate reason to “Share the Air” with this community.

Panasonic’s Share the Air program featured a camera loaner program at each of the five stops of the AST Dew Tour. With the swipe of a driver’s license, attendees got their hands on a new video or digital still camera to record the cool tricks that they saw during the day’s competition. And to make the experience memorable, participants could take a Panasonic-branded SD card home containing all of their pictures. The Share the Air microsite kept the experience alive, allowing attendees to blog with their favorite athletes on a daily basis, and deliver incentives to purchase Panasonic products at local dealers. All of these elements combined to make Panasonic a brand of choice among action sports enthusiasts.

#3. Extend the experience seamlessly

Ideally, an event will accomplish a variety of goals beyond informing and engaging an audience and generating buzz/PR. One essential function of an event is to drive prospects and customers to a complimentary online experience. Not only will this help amortize the high cost-per-touch of an event, but also it will lead to a long-term customer relationship by extending the experience.

In a perfect world, a single agency should have the capabilities to execute these complimentary event and online experiences. This approach is the most cost effective and ensures consistency of look and tonality across all channels of communication.

#4. Measure, measure and measure again

The goal should always be to cut through the first time. To accomplish this, metrics for success must be established upfront. Marketers need to set benchmarks via pre-event research to compare with post-event data.

In addition to tracking event attendance; time with brand and perceptual changes and sell-in and sell-through, consider adding Net Promoter Score to your measurement arsenal. NPS is a simple and reliable way to measure the likelihood of someone recommending your brand to a friend (i.e., word of mouth). Since NPS can be measured online as well, it will also help you understand if your online experience is as strong as the offline one.

Additional online metrics, including unique visitors, time-on-site, pre/post NPS and online commerce data (if relevant), will help complete the tally, ensuring you know which elements should be cut and which cut through.

as appeared on TheCMOclub.com 5/28/08:

#1. EMBRACE MARKETING AS SERVICE
Because “marketing as service” provides a real value, magical things happen, prospects turn into customers and customers turn into brand evangelists. When HSBC wanted to bring their position “The World’s Local Bank” to life in New York City, Renegade developed the HSBC BankCab. The iconic Checker Cab, wrapped in HSBC red and white, drives the streets of New York five days a week, offering free rides to existing customers. Research has shown that customers exposed to the BankCab recommend HSBC to at least 5 of their friends and are twice as likely to stay loyal to HSBC for years to come. For more examples, see Marketing as Service.com.

#2. EXECUTE STRATEGY, NOT TACTICS
In order to cut through, effective brand experiences must be borne of relevant strategic insights. Handing out free stuff might drive booth traffic but the end result is rarely lasting. Since the goal is engagement, the marketer must truly understand their prospects. At the AST Dew Tour, Panasonic understood the target’s desire to get closer to the athletes. So, Panasonic set up a free camera loaner program that let fans zoom in and record the cool tricks that they saw during the day’s competition. At days end, they got to take home a Panasonic SD card saving all their memories that they could then enter into a photo contest at the complementary online experience–ShareTheAir.net.

#3. SEAMLESSLY INTEGRATE YOUR EVENT AND ONLINE EXPERIENCE
One essential function of an event is to start a conversation that can be continued online long after the event. Not only will this defer the high cost-per-touch of the event, but also, it will extend the brand experience leading to a long-term customer relationship. For the most impact, the event and the online experiences should be planned at the same time supporting each other (event drives to online, online drives to event) and complementing each other. Consider hiring one agency that is equally adept at creating both event and online experiences. This approach is more cost effective and assures consistency across all channels of communication.

#4. MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE
The goal must be to cut through the first time. To do this, metrics for success must be established upfront. Marketers need to set benchmarks via pre-event research to compare with post-event data. In addition to tracking event attendance, time with brand and perceptual changes, sell-in and sell-through, consider adding Net Promoter Score to your measurement arsenal. NPS is a simple and reliable way word of mouth. Offline line metrics should be compared and tracked to online data including unique visitors, time on site, pre/post NPS and online commerce data (if relevant.)

This is the second of two columns on nonprofit branding (first appeared 5/13/08 on PhilanthropyJournal.com)

Branding began with cows, as a way to keep ranchers’ herds distinct. But in the nonprofit world, brands play an equally important role in helping donors and constituents determine which herd to join and which to steer away from.

Changing cows mid-stream

A lot of non-profits start out with a core group of supporters that are well attuned to the group’s initial mission. These special friends have contributed the blood, sweat and cash that has sustained and nurtured the organization. They often live and breathe your brand and have a proprietary feeling about the cause.

And this is all goodness until the organization starts to grow and the services offered expand, often beyond the original mission and interests of the early supporters. This is the point at which you will wish you had a name that wasn’t so restrictive, and there may be a temptation among some to change the name to address this expanded purview. My advice-don’t do it. Don’t change cows mid stream. It is far more dangerous than you think and could set the organization back for years. Awareness takes time and money to build, time and money that you can put to better purposes.

Blazing new trails

Just because I suggested you shouldn’t change your name doesn’t mean you can’t expand your mission. The trick is to do this and not completely alienate your early supporters. Part of the trick is not trying to do everything at once. Pick your new trails carefully and don’t overreach. Invite the core group of supporters into the process and ask them both to trouble-shoot and lead one of the new expeditions.

At the same time, start to mix in a fresh group of supporters that are truly enthusiastic about the new path forward. Their enthusiasm will be infectious and many of the old guard will see the light. For those that don’t, it might be time to create an “emeritus board of advisors” that focuses on the old mission and provides a place for them to remain comfortable with the organization.

Divide the herd

If you are truly concerned about losing the financial support of your early supporters, you may need to think about dividing your communications into two segments, one for the old guard and one for the new. This assumes you have a database of your constituents and can segment your email and mailing lists. If you don’t know how to do this, reach out to any number of organizations like Charity Focus that can help you set up the required technical infrastructure.

Once you have the lists divided, you can send customized communications and solicitations that promote the interests of that particular segment. It’s a little more work but it will pay off very quickly since you won’t have to replace your old fans with a bunch of new ones. Don’t panic if your new course frightens the herd. While there are unknown dangers in uncharted courses, going backwards is rarely a good alternative.

You must be brave, holding the reins of your brand with steadfast determination.

This article was written in two parts for Philanthropy Journal, the first appearing May 6, 2008:

Good Brands Don’t Hurt (part 1)
The first brands were burned into the hides of cows. This was painful for the cow but good for the rancher who wanted to keep track of his herd. Later on, certain brands began to be known for the quality of the beef and this helped that rancher get more money per pound than his lesser-known competitors. Other brands become known for always being on time to market, while still others found a position as the low-cost, high volume offering. In the nonprofit world, brands play an equally important role, helping donors and constituents determine which herd to join and which to steer away from.

Start off on the right hoof
Choose your name wisely since you’ll be living with the implications for years to come. Brand names that have a specific meaning are helpful at the beginning by providing some context for your various constituents. “Make a Wish” is such a name as it clearly defines the end benefit of the organization. “Children for Children” is another such name identifying the operational “playground” of that charity. “Doctors without Borders” is another example of a name that encapsulates the mission quite succinctly.

All that said, because of the specific nature of these names, at some point in their growth cycles they may find it difficult to evolve past their original tactically-focused mission. Names like Red Cross and United Way, while less specific, have the advantage of being easy to remember and general enough to encompass many forms of charitable activities.

Careful grooming pays off
With a carefully crafted name in hand, take some time to get your logo right. Run a contest at a local design school or online to collect some options to review with your board of directors/advisors. A great logo will set the tone for the brand and all subsequent communications. A boring logo will be lost in the sea of sameness.

One example of a great logo is Children for Children’s. It is sophisticated yet simple, appealing to both kids and adults, a move that is essential for this particular charity. The Children for Children logo has inspired the graphic look and feel of its website, and all other communications. The logo even plays a prominent role in the invitation to their annual benefit, which has an art theme and features variations of the logo inspired by famous artists like Van Gogh and Chagall.

Getting the right name and logo are essential in the early stages of brand development. These will force you to define your mission, values and target audience since without these prerequisites, you’ll just have a cow.

A fellow Renegade recently took a job on the Client side and asked for some advice to ease the transition. Here’s what I suggested:

1. Know your brand: Seems simple enough but you’d be amazed at how many folks on the client side can’t articulate their brand’s values and aspirations. Without this understanding, how can you possibly judge creative work and arbitrate between what is and isn’t on brand? Knowing your brand means knowing its history, its customers, its competition and its strengths and weaknesses. This takes time and a deep sense of curiosity but is well worth the trouble. Once you know your brand, your job will become much easier and the work you get to approve, much better.
2. Know your company: Again, this seems like a no brainer, but if you, as a top marketer, don’t know the ins and outs of your company, you don’t stand a chance of getting great work through your company’s hierarchy. This understanding is especially important for new arrivals who are eager to make their mark but stumble when they incorrectly read the politics of their company. Before you jump in and set a new direction, make sure you have a firm foundation of support both intellectually and politically. The expression “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” comes to mind.
3. Own the integration process: Lots of clients allow each of their agency partners to have their own creative strategy for each of the marketing disciplines. This is not a bad practice in and of itself, but it can lead to disintegrated communication programs. A great client insists that their agencies work together to develop one over-arching strategy and one over-arching campaign. This approach leads to big campaign ideas like the Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty” and GE’s “Ecomagination.”
4. Have some chutzpah: Let’s face it, cutting through these days is tough and it takes some chutzpah. In the era of the ad-zapping DVRs, perhaps the biggest risk is not taking one at all. If you are uncomfortable trying to do something fresh, then marketing is probably a bad career choice. Imagine the chutzpah it took to tell the board of a conservative insurance company that their new spokesperson was a duck? Ten years later that same duck has increase shareholder value by a zillion and made Aflac a household brand. So the next time you are reviewing campaign ideas, keep in mind that one you are certain you could never sell to the CEO might be the campaign that makes you and your company famous.
5. When in doubt, test online: Since too much chutzpah could cost you your job, especially if you haven’t been there very long, you might need some ammunition to convince the boss that a particular ad or campaign is worth the risk. One way to do this is to test the campaign online. Online testing has the advantage of being incredibly targeted and swift to produce. We recently ran a campaign that was meant to drive online sales and included a pool of 5 different ads, one of which was a little racy. Turns out that the slightly racy ad outsold the others in the pool three to one. Ironically, we still ended up pulling that ad because of one complaint letter!
6. Be nice: Linda Kaplan Thaler wrote a whole book on the “Power of Nice” in business and in life. Unfortunately, her book is not on the “must read” list at many companies. For those of you just starting out in the business, it may not be obvious that being nice is a prerequisite to maximizing your ROA (Return on Agency). In fact, you may get the sense that the opposite is true, what with procurement beating up on the financial side, CEO’s crying “to heck with brand just give me sales,” and everyone else placing the blame on the agency for just about everything but product defects. It is a tough time to be Nice, but the rewards, I assure you, are extraordinary. Be nice and you’ll inspire a level of dedication reserved for the worthy, the heroic, the best of the best. And even if that doesn’t happen, at least you’ll have a “nice” answer to your kid’s question, “How was work today?”

Of course, I’m just an agency guy—what do I know?

A memorable moment in Monty Python and the Holy Grail is when a galloping minstrel sings of Brave Sir Robin and how “he ran away, he ran away” when faced with adversity. With a downturn (dare I say recession) looming, my advice is simple: don’t be Brave Sir. Robin. As the old saying goes, with each challenge comes opportunity and opportunities abound even in downturns.

1. Don’t Kill Your Budget (Yet)

The first thing we marketers must do is save the budget. I have no doubt your CFO is already calling for reductions in head count and spending. Now is the time to be brave. Since all your competitors won’t have the chutzpah to say no to their CFO, you must make the case that this is your chance to gain true competitive advantage with a share of voice you’ve been dreaming about all these years. Remind your CFO that top-of-mind awareness is an asset of the company that will devalue faster than he/she can say ROI. In truth, awareness can decline as fast as 50% a month when you go silent and the cost of buying back that awareness will be horrendous.

2. Cut Wisely
Given that my first point is probably a pipedream and that you will no more be able to avoid cuts than a deer can turn away from oncoming headlights, let’s consider where to cut. Traditional advertising has always been the first to go and depending on your media mix, that may make sense now. The one advertising channel that will be harder to cut is online since a steady stream of metrics provide the ROI data that is so often missing in other areas. Promotional dollars are harder to cut because your channel partners may very well depend (like the addicts they are) on the sales boosts coupons and other discounts provide. Events and trade shows should be reviewed on case-by-case basis, saving those that can demonstrate ROI and tossing the ones that have been of questionable worth all along.

3. Stay Focused
Now that you have less money to work with, it is all the more important that you concentrate your spending where it can have the greatest impact. This is not the time to consider new targets or new channels if that means losing focus on your core constituents. But staying focused doesn’t mean doing the same old same old. Get out there and talk to your customers and find out how the downturn is affecting their lives and their product choices. Just the mere process of talking to your customers will make them feel special and cement the bond you’ll really need to weather the economic storm.

4. New Stuff for the Old Gang
What you hear from your current customers may really surprise you and push your product or service offerings in new directions. With austerity looming like a black cloud on the horizon, some consumers may turn to affordable luxuries even more than usual. While more “value packs” seems like an obvious direction, it is also possible consumers will turn to smaller sizes just to keep their monthly spend down. On the other end, luxury customers may temporarily discard their “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” attitude choosing to spend their dollars more discretely. For example, furriers might want to think about putting the fur on the inside of the coat, offering the same warmth without the showy statement (animal rights activists would encourage you to put fake fur on the inside!) On the services side, tighter economic times could create all sorts of new opportunities. Those with two jobs might need more help at home, keeping things organized, walking the dogs and/or shopping for groceries (online services like Fresh Direct could indeed thrive in a downturn.)

5. Keep it Light
Just because the economy is sadly wanting doesn’t mean consumers want to be reminded of their uneasiness in every communication. A little humor, particularly of the self-deprecating variety, will be most appreciated by your otherwise stressed-out target. If there is humor to be found in your DNA, now is the time to unleash the smiles. Entertainment companies will be wise to breakout the comedies after finding a happy ending to the writer’s strike. I’m reminded of the depression era-based movie Sullivan’s Travels in which the protagonist (a movie director played by Joel McCrae) searches for a serious theme for his next feature. What he learns is that laughter is the ultimate tonic during tough times.

6. Avoid the Middle
A waning tide may lower all boats but some will surely ride this out better than others. My money is on strong brands with high net promoter scores who are consistently delivering genuine and perceived value. Weaker brands with little customer loyalty will find themselves stuck in the middle, neither cheap enough to overcome their shortcomings or expensive enough to attract the ever-spending affluent crowd. This is a bad time to be Sears and a better time to be Best Buy or Bergdorf’s. Sears is stuck in the middle without competitive advantage on price, value or service. Best Buy offers both value and service (via Geek Squad) and Bergdorf’s regulars are unlikely to cut back drastically. Mass consumer brands with a wide range of products would be smart to emphasize their high-end and entry-level models again with the goal of avoiding the middle.

7. Partner with Non-Profits
Non-profits will undoubtedly feel the pinch as their supports cut back on donations. This happens in every downturn and is really painful for the non-profits who continue to perform an incredible range of socially beneficial services. Mobilize your employees and your customers behind the non-profits you truly believe in and you will be amazed at the good will and good business you will do as a result. The non-profits will be so grateful for your support that they will bend over backwards to ensure you achieve your business goals not just now but for many years to come. It may seem counterintuitive to increase your CSR (corporate social responsibility) now BUT that is exactly why it is worth considering. Your employees will undoubtedly respond with increased loyalty that will also translate into higher productivity.

8. Hedge your Bets
Market volatility is not a new concept yet many companies are remarkably vulnerable to changes in the weather not to mention the economy. Savvy marketers are turning to sophisticated forecasters who can not only anticipate changes but also offer hedging solutions. With some progressive thinking, marketers can find some means of hedging against the key variables that impact their particular industry. In the field of weather, a new company called Storm (www.stormexchange.com) is helping a variety of companies from makers of outerwear to power companies determine the business cost of variable weather conditions and then helping them hedge against abnormal conditions.

9. Keep your Ear to the Ground
If you don’t have a full-time “social media director” on staff, get one quick. This individual needs to be on the internet every day, monitoring the chatter about your brand. Since bad news spreads faster than a blaze in the Malibu hills, active blog monitoring is the first line of defense, offering a firewall between your brand and an image-burning disaster. Your clearly identified (no pseudonyms please Mr. Mackey ) representative can set the record straight, respond to performance complaints and keep you informed when problems aren’t being addressed in the field. He/she may even turn a customer into an advocate simply by acknowledging their comments. Given how few companies bother to engage their customers, those that do are frequently met with “wow, I didn’t know you cared that much” and vows of eternal loyalty—loyalty that will float your boat long after your competitors succumb to the economic down currents.

A new year awaits, ripe with promise. Time to pounce on the opportunities that guarantee higher ROA in 2008. Here are a few for your consideration:

1. Stand for something—Sounds simple enough but few brands or companies for that matter, really stand for anything. Those that do seem to thrive and inspire endless amounts of creativity from their agency partners. Apple stands for originality, consistently delivering products and services that are intuitive, elegant and a joy to use. (For more on how Apple got here, see this great summary on basement.org). Dove stands for self-esteem, striving to help women find “real beauty.” What will you stand for in 2008?
2. Fix your product—Is there some aspect of your product or service that you simply know is not competitive? This is the year to get it right before you spend millions on marketing the same old same old. The ancient adage that ‘there is nothing like a great ad campaign to kill a bad product’ applies now more than ever. With bloggers waiting to pounce faster than you can say Digg, your flaws will be paraded for all to see. You need look no further than Dell and Jet Blue to know how quick and painful an avalanche of negative cyberink can truly be.
3. Provide vision not tactics—It’s your brand. Tell us where you want to go, share your vision, loud and proud. But don’t be ultra-prescriptive, detailing every last tactic you want to pursue. Nothing inspires a clever agency like a clear destination AND an open road. You’ll be amazed at the creative solutions your agency (partners) will discover to help you get where you want to go. With so many tactical options to consider, the most effective combination of tactics is rarely clear until the big idea is discovered. Limit the tactics upfront and you’ll undoubtedly be asking yourself later “why isn’t my agency thinking out of the box?”
4. Think about marketing as service—Instead of investing your precious marketing dollars on ads that explain why your widget is superior use your marketing to provide a genuine service that benefits customers & prospects alike. Your customers will thank you with increased loyalty and your prospects will appreciate the added value you delivered. The HSBC BankCab provides a service, giving customers a free ride in NYC. It also generates tons of good will and PR in the process. For many more examples visit MarketingForGood.net.
5. Dance with your customers—Everyone talks about having a dialogue with your customers and this has spawned the user generated content craze. And a dialogue is certainly better than a monologue–but a dance is better still. A dance is a far more intimate and memorable affair. It requires being in sync with your customers, creating interactive brand experiences both offline and online that are simply unforgettable. Channel Al Pacino in “Scent of a Woman” and you’ll be dancing into the marketing history books in 2008.
6. Measure what matters—Of course, the ultimate goal of marketing is to support sales. However, when was the last time you made a significant purchase decision without doing some research first? The reality is that most of us collect all sorts of information from all sorts of sources, narrow our list to a reasonable consideration set and then make a purchase decision based on price, availability, convenience, reputation and a myriad of intangibles including that bane of rational marketers: “I just like that brand better.” Marketing can and does impact the consumer across their journey. You need to measure the critical milestones along this journey not just the sales at the end. If your CEO asks “are your communications working?” then you need to be able to show your “dashboard” with all the critical datapoints from awareness to trial, purchase consideration to Net Promoter Score, web traffic to social media buzz and so forth. This sounds so obvious but you’d be amazed how few CMO’s have the metrics they need to defend their campaigns.
7. Say thanks—We agency types are like faithful workhorses, toiling 24/7 to please our masters. A heart-felt bit of praise is cheaper than a crisp apple or sugar cube and goes a long way to ensure continued dedication. We know it is our job to meet your deadlines, to deliver big ideas and to flawlessly execute them. Just the same, a little praise goes a country mile on our side of the fence. Think about it, offering up a thank you for a job well done costs you nothing and could be the glue that holds your high-performing agency team together for another campaign or six.
8. Your welcome—Make a point of sitting down with your agencies this January to discuss how the relationship could be more productive. You might be surprised how an open dialog could identify some simply fixes on both sides that can speed up the process, increase the work quality and improve overall program results. Make sure you ask for a frank appraisal of your staff as well. You might learn about an abusive product manager who is a thorn in everyone’s side, gumming up the works and is in need of a “fresh” opportunity in the shipping department at your Des Moines warehouse.
9. RIP RFPs—Here’s a wacky thought, forget the RFP’s for small projects this year. The time your staff will spend preparing, briefing and reviewing redundant proposals could surely be put to better use and negates any possible cost-savings procurement might squeeze out of your otherwise demoralized agency. Instead, give the project to one of your long-time agency partners as a reward for all their hard work to-date and as an incentive to making your business their most important and beloved. Not only will you save time but also you’ll probably end with a more cost-effective marketing campaign. Cheers to that!

Optimistic by nature, we marketers tend to rally behind the next big thing faster than you can say
“sub-prime mortgage.” In 2008, marketers should avoid “strategic planning” hyperbole and focus instead on measuring their success one satisfied customer at a time. The following is a brief look at ten ideas that could help you engage prospects, bond with your customers and maybe even make the world a better place.

Time to Green
Having a “green” plan is no longer a luxury. Every day, another venerable brand, from HSBC to BP, Wal-Mart to Intel, Toyota to Aveda announces its commitment to a sustainable future. While much is hype, “green washing,” that delivers modest environmental impact, new rating services like B Corporation will help all of us tell the “difference between good companies and just good marketing.” As GE announces billions in green-related sales, and BP fends off bad eco-press, you might even find a new eco-seat in the boardroom – Chief Green Officer, or CGO. Dupont and Dow Chemical already have Chief Sustainability Officers. Regardless of the title, make sure someone in your organization is evaluating the environmental impact of your company and setting measurable goals for the three “r’s” in green — reducing, recycling and reusing.

Outdoor Activity
The big surprise this year was the rebound in out-of-home advertising, growing faster than every medium except the Internet. This old standby reinvented itself as a technology-rich means of engaging, entertaining and educating commuters who find themselves trapped in ever longer commutes. Mini Cooper tested RFID-activated billboards that personalized messages to drive by customers. This highly customized approach linked “old” (outdoor) with “new” (online), transforming an integrated media platform into a cult-building private club.

“Narrowcasting” video networks continue to sprout, enabling marketers to put their messages in front of selective targets from health clubbers, to deli shoppers (Captive Audience), moviegoers (IdeaCast), pet owners (SeeSaw Networks) and elevator riders (Captivate Network). Innovations like these will drive out-of-home to new heights.

Get in the Game
Gaming now permeates our society, creating fresh ways for marketers to connect. Millions of non-golfers started swinging virtual clubs as the Nintendo Wii transformed the notion of video games. Senior citizen centers bought Wiis to entertain guests and to help connect with grandkids. MTV has invested $500 million in online games, on top of the millions it spent acquiring AddictingGames. And although gaming accounts for 13% of online time it accounts for just 1% of online ad dollars. Even B2B marketers will be smart to give gaming a fresh look while seeking to blend messaging, training or recruiting with gaming.

Mobile – I Can Hear You Now
This may be the year to give mobile a closer look as technological improvements and new products create fresh opportunities for marketers. On the tech front, Bluetooth-enabled phones have made it easier for mobile marketers to provide contextually relevant information. The Air Force set up Bluetooth transmitters at racetracks to communicate with potential recruits. Apple’s iPhone, which seamlessly moves from cell to WiFi, partnered with Google and Yahoo to enable ad-supported programming. A new service, Cellfire, has enlisted a million people to receive coupons for burgers to videos. The promise of mobile marketing is that it can deliver highly personalized and useful information when and where you need it. As long as marketers don’t spam, mobile marketing could be the missing link in personalized communications.

Join the Club
Marketers will be wise to capitalize on the growing appeal of social networks in 2008. Besides the Goliaths, MySpace and Facebook, social networks exist in niches, from teens (Pizco and Tagged) to seniors (Eons) to photographers (Flickr) to young do-gooders (AllDayBuffet) to B2B (LinkedIn & Plaxo) to just about every interest group (MeetUp). Two more are under construction by Renegade including a virtual Gilda’s Club for people living with cancer and networking site for CMO’s. For Chase, creating a partnership with Facebook has helped make their “+1” credit card the card of choice among college students. Other marketers might be smart to create a social network or to take an existing virtual social network and make it physical (Second Life had its first offline convention in 2007).

Rise of the Widgets
New mini-software applications, “widgets,” provide marketers unprecedented access to hard-to-reach targets as Facebook and MySpace can attest. According to ComScore, over 220 million folks used widgets last May. iLike, which allows Facebook users to share iTunes playlists, grew to over 15 million users in under a year. Slide, which allows users to create slideshows and embed them in their social network homepages, claims to be the largest personal media network in the world, reaching 120 million unique viewers monthly. That’s but the beginning of the widget avalanche.

Roll Video
With +70% broadband penetration in the US, streaming video is no longer optional, it’s a must have tool for marketers. eMarketer reports 123 million Americans watch a video at least once a month; three-quarters tell a friend about a video. Whether you are a B2B or B2C marketer, video is an enormous opportunity to engage, educate and entertain, the three new “Es” of successful marketing. 92% of newspaper websites have video content, up from 61% in 2006. Lots of brands now produce instructional videos to help customers understand how to install or use their product or service. Others create pure entertainment, hoping it will build brand affinity or drive web traffic. But the ubiquity of video is not without its challenges. With 7+ million hours of video online, cutting through will require quality storytelling and judicious editing. One 2007 study notes that video viewing drops off dramatically after 30 seconds. Short and sweet videos will be the “up and down” of 2008, getting web traffic up and complaint calls down.

From Behavioral to Contextual
Marketers would be smart to add behavioral targeting to contextual “search” efforts. AOL certainly believes in the future of behavioral targeting, having spent $275 million for Tacoda Systems, which claims to reach 120 million people in 31 discrete audience segments monthly. eMarketer predicted behavioral targeting will increase ten-fold over the next five years, growing from a $350 million to $3.8 billion ad spend. A test Renegade ran for Panasonic yielded 50% more imminent buyers of a particular consumer electronics product, making it far and away better than a simple search buy.

Focus on the Experience
Marketers’ need to focus on an integrated approach to marketing is not news, nor will it be tomorrow. What will be news is how brand experiences will move to the top of the integration food chain, becoming the driving force of communications. It used to be that events and online initiatives were treated by marketers as “below the line” after thoughts. Increasingly, marketers are coming to realize that interactive brand experiences can be far more effective than passive advertising and should be the starting point of a customer conversation. The Nike+ program which helps runners be runners physically (at Niketown stores) and virtually (at Nike+’s website) is a great example of experience as marketing driver. Market research supports this approach as study after study reveals the enormous impact of brand experiences on consumer purchase intent, loyalty and likelihood to recommend.

Marketing as Service
For years, marketers were more concerned with what they said than what the target heard, resulting in endless monologues that fell on deaf ears. Marketers who continually support customers through the course of life, providing genuine value in each communication, will score big in 2008. This value exchange can take many forms, but only if the marketer understands the needs and aspirations of its target AND commits to a genuine dialogue at every point of contact. The HSBC BankCab, which provides free rides to HSBC customers in New York City, is but one example of marketing as service, transforming customers into brand evangelists with every ride. Marketers who treat marketing as service and deliver real value to customers and prospects alike will undoubtedly triumph in 2008.

Consumers around the world are taking charge, transforming their relationships with brands from buyer to reviewer, inventor, designer, ad creator, champion or critic. The insightful folk at trendwatching.com call this phenomenon “Customer-Made,” and believe, like I do, that this is not a fad. If anything, brand democratization is a global movement that will just get stronger as consumers thrive on their increased control. The challenge for marketers is to determine how to ride this wave without crashing into the rocks.

Like most tidal waves, this one was caused by seismic shifts, as the internet, new digital technologies and even Reality TV all converged to create a perfect storm of consumer power. The internet is by far the most significant force, shifting the balance of power from seller to buyer.

Savvy marketers have responded by enlisting the consumer to create their own entertainment (MySpace, Current TV), products (Peugeot, Lego), packaging (Jones Soda) and, of course, advertising (MasterCard, L’Oreal, Chevy, Converse, Firefox and Sony Pictures, to name a few). In fact, with so many riding this wave, one can’t help but wonder what a marketer needs to do to cut through. Here are five tips:

1. Renew focus on customer satisfaction
In this new realm, all client houses are made of glass and consumers can wield some pretty big stones. As such, the first order of business is to focus on customer satisfaction like never before. Satisfied customers won’t throw stones –in fact, they’ll do just the opposite, tossing praise to all who will listen.

In Fred Reichheld’s new book, The Ultimate Question, he describes the success enjoyed by a number of companies focused on customer satisfaction. One such company is Chick-fil-A, a quick-service restaurant chain that enjoys incredible customer and employee loyalty. Very curious about how a fast food place had gained such notoriety, I visited a Chick-fil-A restaurant on a recent business trip to Atlanta. Sure enough, my chicken sandwich was delicious and the lemonade was fresh. But the real surprise was the service –as I was sitting eating my sandwich, a women came up to ask me if everything was okay– I almost fell off my chair –this would never happen at McDonald’s.

A few moments later, I noticed they were selling a book by the founder called Eat Mor Chicken: Inspire More People. When I asked for a copy the manager brought it from the back and subsequently told me his story: he had been with Chick-fil-A since high school, and even though he got a college degree in engineering, he enjoyed the company too much to leave. This kind of loyalty is unheard of in the fast food industry but was completely understandable once I read the founder’s book –it all boils down to this simple notion– give more than you get and you’ll do just fine.

2. Keep it real
In the world of brand democratization, where everyone can know everything about your company, it is essential to keep it real. One of the ways to do this is to support blogs –allowing employees to state the truth as they see it, sharing the good and bad about your company and products. Companies like IBM and Microsoft have done a good job enabling employee blogs, making these companies appear more human and less bureaucratic.

Another approach to keeping it real is by employing a “blog monitor.” Starwood Hotels has the Starwood Lurker, an employee who spends 40 hours a week in the blogosphere responding to consumer comments. In the last four years, he has generated over 11,000 postings, engaging in conversations with Starwood’s most valued customers and undoubtedly calming some of the disgruntled. By being identified as the Starwood Lurker, not posing as an everyday consumer, Starwood is enhancing its credibility and showing its willingness to listen to customers.

3. Reward content generators
As more and more companies ask their customers to create ads or other content, consumers are going to wise up about giving away all this content for free. The smart marketer will find a way to reward content creators, especially those that are generating revenue as a result of consumer contributions. Consumers are motivated by a number of reasons –status, employment, fun, access, connection– find the one that makes most sense for your target and make sure you deliver.

Current TV is running a contest that pays $500 for the first ‘pod’ selected for airing and $1000 for the fourth selected submission. While this is unlikely to make any aspiring commercial designer rich, its certainly likely to keep students and other creative types engaged in the process.

4. Filter out the lame stuff
In an environment, where seemingly every marketer has a user generated ad program, marketers that become recognized for filtering out the weak content, will enjoy the most success. The Converse Gallery is a great example of a quality filtering system and their success is largely due to their ability to screen out duds. Because they have become a reliable filter, aspiring filmmakers and ad types consider a posting in the Converse Gallery to be a badge of honor, a critical portfolio piece.

Renegade recently launched a user generated film contest for Panasonic targeting action sports enthusiasts (www.sharetheair.net ) . We seeded the site with content created by professional skate videographers from Girl and Chocolate. We will continue the filtering process as submissions arrive, posting the best and trashing the rest.

5. Create brand experiences

Finally, in this new world order of customers in charge, marketers should seek to deliver a brand experience, not just a product. Apple Computer provides one of the best examples with their highly successful Apple retail stores that have become a haven for the Mac faithful. A few weeks ago, Apple launched a new retail store in heart of New York City on 5th Avenue. The glass cube above the store sets an expectation that this is a special place, that Apple thinks different like its ads promise.

As part of the launch, Apple had a web cam focused on the cube for Apple fans worldwide to see. One enterprising individual actually proposed marriage to his girlfriend via the web cam. Very few brands inspire the kind of devotion that would literally marry the consumer to their brand. Because Apple consistently focuses on customer satisfaction, keeps it fresh, keeps it real and continuously delivers a rich brand experience, they are riding the wave of brand democratization better than most.

Follow these five tips and you too will be able to ride this wave like a pro.

Aye, we approached the ship armed with two muskets, one saber and a long knife fully intent on seizing our share of the treasure aboard–one way or another. We strolled toward the waiting wenches, one of whom asked for our papers, a dance and finally our room number. The security team gave us suspicious looks and beseeched the captain to bar our entry. Instead he waved us through and chuckled after my pirate matey Trip Hunter boasted, “we’ll be seein’ ya later Cap’n!”

So began our adventure on the Marketing Forum, a three-day cruise to nowhere on the sparkling Norwegian Dawn. This was our third year on what one former passenger described as “the cruise from hell,” where clients can find no escape from the relentless assaults of a hundred or so rapacious vendors. Somewhat similar to a speed dating service, the folks at Richmond Events strive to match client needs with agency wants, pre-arranging breakfast, lunch and dinner “dates” with hundreds of half-hour meetings stacked in-between. Miraculously, it all works out and thus many return year after year, like the lemmings to cliffs.

Cutting through in this environment isn’t easy. Every vendor sends their best pitchmen and women; all seemingly capable of striking up instantaneous friendships with their prospects, all shamelessly determined to sell their services as “best of breed.” After the first four hours of pitches, many clients lose their will to live as they realize that they are stuck at sea for two more days. The only potential relief happens at night when cocktails, casino and comedians promise to drown most sorrow.

Yet even the evening isn’t pain free—everyone is supposed to dress up, men in black tie, women in fancy evening gowns, which is not on top of anyone’s list after an exhausting day of pitching or being pitched. With the casino fully inclined to take every last nickel, the ship’s comedian being as funny as mud and some vendors still circling prospects like sharks, the situation could be bleak for all but the most valiant of marketeers.

As veterans of this voyage, we knew there was indeed buried treasure on board; the trick would be to search in an entirely unexpected way, a way that not only engaged our prospects but also reinforced our position as renegade marketers. The question was did we have the guts to do something different, to take the kind of risks we often advise our clients to take. It was not without trepidation that we boarded the ship as pirates and then reappeared in the same costumes both black tie evenings.

On the first night of black tie, an unsuspecting client was already seated at our dinner table. Dinners are pre-arranged with the vendors having the same table every night and the clients moving from place to place. Wonderfully Midwestern, she really did not know what to say when the two pirates introduced themselves as her hosts. After catching her breath, she realized that this was not going to be a boring night of sales pitches, and she played along as waiters, busboys and fellow shipmates barraged the table with “ayes” and “arrrs”.

Despite the initial awkwardness of trying to have a serious conversation with two guys wearing silk bandanas on their heads, not to mention the rest of our brocaded buccaneer vestments, we actually enjoyed an inspired repartee with all of our dinner guests. Sure we covered their business needs but not before sauntering through their personal passions. One was a reader, another a mountain biker and so on. Somehow it just seemed right to tell the pirates whatever they wanted to know, personal or otherwise.

We left the dinner table both nights with promises in hand, mainly that they’d take our call when we followed up. On this ship, the gold is often found, not immediately, but down the river a bit, when the needs and timing align like a sail on a yardarm. For example, we just got a call from a prospect we had met two years earlier on the very same ship. The challenge, therefore, is to make sure your initial encounter is sufficiently memorable, a notion that any pirate could firmly grasp.

Practically bouncing into the casino, we were greeted with “yars” at every table. Turns out, we weren’t the only ones who’d spent time on the “International Talk Like A Pirate Day” website. There’s just something about being a pirate that inspires otherwise normal men to growl and otherwise stalwart women to swoon. And not just the dopes–we had a bonafide female rocket scientist join our merry band of pirate wannabees.

By the second day of meetings, about half the ship had either seen “the pirates” or heard about them. When visitors came to our little meeting space, which was sprinkled with gold doubloons, it didn’t take long before they exclaimed, “You guys were the pirates, weren’t you?” to which we responded “Avast ye matey, you’re smarter than a Gordian knot!” And though we expected some would question our sanity, most simply lauded our vivid demonstration of cutting through in a sea of sameness.

By the morning of our departure, we seemed to be friends with just about everyone on the slowly waking vessel. Wearing just our eye patches–anything more would have been too much for 8AM–we were hounded by choruses of “thar go the Renegade pirates”. The night before, we ran out of business cards greeting a flurry of prospects and parrying with competitors who nodded their heads to our daring (and undoubtedly contemplated their wardrobe options for the next voyage). As we threw our legs over the railhead, scaled the gangway and headed back to our offices, we knew without question that it’s good to a pirate.

AS MARKETERS scramble to mine the “consumer-generated content” boom many will soon discover that while there is some gold in them there hills, only a few brands will be enriched by their efforts.

Chevy Tahoe is the most recent example of a marketer looking to capitalize on the idea. Their new Web site, (www.tahoeapprentice.ca /index_ca.php) gives consumers an easy way to create a Chevy Tahoe commercial. Consumers are invited to enter their creation in a contest and to send their video to a friend. What Chevy Tahoe quickly learned is that if you put the consumer in the driver seat sometimes they will crash the car. Various environmental groups had a field day with the content creating clever anti-SUV videos that have been played over and over again on YouTube.com.

Fortunately, it seems that Chevy anticipated some negative ads and as of this moment is not planning on taking the site down. This form of marketing is not for the feint of heart. Rather than backing down, Chevy would be smarter to circulate some of the better ads consumers have created thus far, crank out a couple funny faux ads for YouTube.com and even engage in a dialogue with the environmental groups. Doing all this will be proof positive Chevy “gets it”.

Given the flack Chevy is taking from the press, one might then ask why would any marketer risk ceding control of their brand to the consumer? The answer: the spoils of marketing warfare go to the brave of heart. Cutting through requires taking chances, doing something noteworthy.
One reward is that the consumer creator will do the marketers’ work taking the brand in a wonderfully original direction that captivates the media and ultimately millions of other consumers, at a relatively low cost. This has certainly been the case with Burger King, as online viral activity helped further reinforce the King as a media celebrity. Even the Chevy Tahoe situation may ultimately pay out from the millions of free PR impressions that should help keep Tahoe top-of-mind.

That said, marketers who expect consumers to “play nice” will be deeply disappointed and must be prepared for their content to be used illicitly, as was the case with BK’s King, who found himself in various pornographic situations. The emerging genre of online viral videos is dominated by consumer cynicism and comedy. We all love the quick laughs provided by funny clips. Marketers who provide earnest content generally don’t find much of a viral following so they can assume the consumer will take images and twist them to their cynical worst. If this poses too much risk, marketers can simply control the submission process.

Moreover, a built-in screening process will not necessarily dilute the effectiveness of these programs. Converse sneakers, for example, promises that the best consumer-generated ads will be posted on its Web site, and some might even air on TV. For the creative community, it’s become a badge of honor, and a portfolio showcase, to have an ad featured in the Converse
Gallery. Similarly, Mercedes asks “proud owners” to submit snapshots of themselves next to their car, with the promise that a select few will be featured in a print campaign. In both examples, the marketer remains in control by offering an incentive for the consumer to play nice with the
brand.

Unfortunately, the very profusion of consumer-generated content programs could spell the tactics’ downfall. Consider for a moment that Converse, Adidas, Chevy, Mercedes, Mazda, Burger King and Coors Light have all created programs that call on their customers to create imagery of some kind. Hundreds of other marketers are undoubtedly cooking up their own versions as you read this. Their hyper-activity springs from the logic that if you let the consumer create the content, they will demonstrate their appreciation for a particular brand and share that affection with others.
This is all happening now because of the timely convergence of expansive broadband access, easy-to-use software for manipulating images/video, a growing class of highly creative people and sites that host such content (like YouTube) and the proliferation of e-mail.

Given this nexus of media, messenger and momentum, the promise of striking it rich with a successful viral initiative is just too tempting to ignore. Marketers will succeed when they figure out how to put consumers in the driver’s seat—and let them have their way in a fresh and engaging manner without totaling the car.

In a desperate bid to win back its fans, the National Hockey League announced a number of changes in 2005; changes that they hoped would make the game more competitive, more memorable and ultimately more engaging. In a similarly desperate bid to connect with their target, brand marketers took a shot at a number of innovative approaches in 2005, ranging from branded entertainment to blogs, alternate reality games to consumer created content. While the lasting effect of these changes may not be clear for some time, 2006 will definitely be the year of the marketing face-off, as the traditionalists hold on to the tried and true while the innovators continue to shout, “Change or die.”

Skating Backwards
But before we skate into predictions for 2006, let’s do a reality check on 2005. Exactly 12 months ago, I ventured out onto thin ice suggesting that CMO’s would lose their jobs, pop-up stores would be all the rage, direct mail would ignite as email tanked and discounting would dominate retail as the economy slowed. I even went so far as to suggest that a select group of marketers would demand and get ideas—really big ideas—ideas that slid gracefully between the offline and online worlds. So, sure enough a few CMO’s did get pink slips and several engaging pop-up stores popped up like the Self Center and Soave’s Salons. Direct mail did grow as email open rates continued to drop (down 24% vs. 2004). Discounting did dominate one major retail category, automotive, as “employee discounts” propped up Detroit’s sales efforts. And finally a few, really big ideas like Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty emerged with great fanfare, forcing other marketers to ask, “Why didn’t our campaign do all that?”

My predictions aside, 2005 was a year of experimentation for a few, courageous marketers. Big TV buyers hedged their bets against commercial-zapping DVRs by shifting traditional TV dollars into product placement and so-called branded entertainment properties. Even modest-budgeted brands like Lamborghini and Marquis Jets raced into the product placement. Others tapped into the blogging phenomena, creating their own (GM’s Fast Lane blog http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/ ) and advertising on others (www.gawker.com). Alternate reality games like “I Love Bees” for the Xbox game Halo and Audi’s “Art of the Heist” caused a big buzz among marketers and consumers alike. And consumer created content, like the Converse “gallery”, became all the rage as pundits suggested that marketers needed to relinquish control of their brands to their customers.

“Brand Democratization”
2006 promises to be another exciting year both on and off the ice. For hockey fans, the subtle rule changes should result in faster, higher scoring games, hopefully melting away any residual anger over the lost season. This nod to the fans parallels heightened consumer sensitivity in the marketing world in general. More and more marketers will undoubtedly yield to “brand democratization” finding ways to involve the consumer in their marketing programs. While this is theoretically a good idea, those who hit the puck in an unexpected direction will be the ultimate winners. Copycats to the Converse “gallery”, and there will be lots of copycats, will attract smaller and smaller audiences much like those who tried and failed to replicate the success of BMW films.

Blogs To Become Standard Equipment
Expect blogs to be standard items in marketer’s playbook in 2006. Corporate blogs will continue to proliferate, some earning kudos for honesty and insight, others being ignored as obvious, homogenized propaganda. Content blogs (like www.AfterHoursCity.com) will deliver “street cred” for marketers smart enough to create their own slice of aggregated info and brave enough to let the consumer-generated content run unfiltered. “Blog Monitor” will be the newest job in corporate communications as marketers try to stay up on both the positive and negative buzz in the marketplace. Dell found out the hard way the importance of this role as Jeff Jarvis’s Buzz Machine shamed them into replacing his malfunctioning computer. Consumer blogs will continue to multiply as mobile devices like Sony’s AIBO and Nokia’s LifeBlog support blogging on the fly. Blog networks like WebLogsInc will make it easier for marketers to advertise on these sites, especially the ones that attract consistent audiences with quality writing.

Podcasting-Over Hyped Again
Podcasting, perhaps the most over-hyped medium in 2005, will continue to be over-hyped in 2006. Even with the arrival of Apple’s new video-enabled iPod, podcasting as an advertising vehicle will be a shard of ice on a melting glacier, barely noticeable even if you happen to step on it barefoot. Nonetheless, expect every network to rush out “vodcasts” (my term for video podcasts) of their hit programs. Though the initial plan by ABC is to sell Desperate Housewives episodes for $1.99, you can expect the networks will negotiate sponsorship deals real soon. Left out of this discussion is the questionable desirability of watching video on a two-inch screen. After buying six million HD-enabled TVs in 2005, raising the installed based to 16 million, it is hard to imagine TV-centric Americans forsaking the entertainment center of their dreams for a tiny peak at Eva Longoria’s curvaceous…hair. (Important caveat: all bets are off if pornographers figure out ways to circumvent Steve Job’s proprietary licensed electronic code.)

Social Networking, On the Front Line
Social networking, on the hand, deserves some of the hype it received in 2005 and will blossom into an important part of online marketing plans in 2006. MySpace.com has attracted over 36 million avid users in less than two years; FaceBook.com has taken college campuses by storm with millions already on board and a high school edition gaining steam. Professional networks like Plaxo and LinkedIn have close to 9 million users between them. With all these communities reaching critical mass, the challenge for marketers will be to find ways to get beyond the banner and ingratiate themselves with the target. Tickle, one of the largest social networking locales with over 16 million registered users across its network, embeds advertising into its many quizzes, allowing advertisers to engage the consumer without having to leave the site.

New Technology Inspiring Innovation
Just as hockey’s new rules should lead to more scoring on the ice, new technologies will offer marketers the chance to score on the desktop in 2006. Not since the heady days of PointCast have their been so many promising web-based applications that could give marketers on-going access to personal computers. Throwing aside the buzzwords like web 2.0 and AJAX, consumers will have real web-based software to work with, much of it better than the stuff they currently use. Gmail, with its superior interface and huge storage capacity, is already getting marketers front and center. Custom applications like Ding! have not only placed Southwest on the desktop of millions of loyal customers but also allowed the airline to move otherwise empty seats in a matter of minutes. With broadband penetration finally reaching critical mass, there will be no limitations to what marketers can do to engage the consumer on their desktop.

Reality Show Fatigue
Hockey great Brett Hull finally retired in 2005. Could the demise of reality shows be far behind? Probably not but reality show fatigue has definitely set in for a few good reasons. First, it is a simple case of too many players on the ice. Did America really need another version of “Apprentice”? Apparently not as ratings for Martha’s new show are criminally poor. Second, as these shows have gotten better at integrating ads into the content, consumers are beginning to consider these shows as long-form infomercials. This is a scary harbinger for branded entertainment in general as the potential for a consumer backlash looming on the horizon. So, while we can expect one or two new reality shows to enjoy at least introductory success in 2006, TV fans can only hope that the networks re-discovery the joys of well-written comedies like “My Name is Earl” and dramas like “Medium.”

The Rise of the Idea Agency
Perhaps the biggest face-off of all will be between the nimble “idea” agencies and the media-centric giants. Mother, Strawberry Frog, Renegade Marketing Group and the Wayne Gretsky of “idea agencies”, Crispin Porter and Bogusky, are among a cadre of firms that are a building a reputation for delivering innovative multi-disciplined campaigns. In the last few months alone, smaller agencies have taken slap shots to the biggies, stealing away such prestigious accounts as Heineken, Volkswagen, Sprite and British Airways. And while these shifts are newsworthy, we anticipate an even bigger shift in how clients approach their agencies in 2006. Big clients are already starting to see the benefits again of having multiple partners, asking each for “media neutral” ideas. Could it be long before clients designate one firm to be their “idea agency”? This firm would be tasked with coming up with the media & channel neutral idea while single discipline agencies would be tasked with execution according to their specialty. As the president of an “idea agency”, I can assure you that 2006 is like an ice rink after the Zamboni cleans it, wide-open with possibilities and fraught with slippery challenges—so don’t forget to sharpen your skates.