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The Anti-Exposure

We have all witnessed the anti-exposure: a commercial that is so annoying it not only wore out its brand welcome, but has also became a detriment to the brand — degrading the brand with each successive viewing.

Finally, a viral video where the brand is the hero.

Any brand can create a successful video by adopting one or more of the genres. The problem is most brands are not interesting, and in order to create a highly entertaining video, the focus becomes about something other than the brand; therefore the brand is lost and does not receive cognitive credit from the viewer.

The Power of the Almighty Penny

Back to School is the second largest retail period of the year. It is also a hectic time. Consumers do not want to be ripped off, and most are looking for deals. Every retailer has a sale, but I think the penny breaks through the clutter. The penny says deal. The fact OfficeMax is consistent in their approach over the past several years bodes well.

The Social Architecture Revolution

I believe moving to a social architecture will require a revolution, because it will require marketers to think differently about consumer to brand interactions; it will change core marketing procedures (e.g. content creation, budgeting;, and it will require a certain level of brand self-awareness (i.e. btw not everyone is an advocate for your brand).

Gum, Gas Pumps, Dodgeball, and Dancing Matt

Stride Gum’s commercial uses the cheesy infomercial formula to entertain. And forget about selling the gum. The commercial centers around alternative uses for the long lasting gum like balancing a boomerang or replacement eyebrows. Oh yeah, they need your help. The commercial culminates in a call to action to go to StrideGum.com to help them name the new Nonstop Mint gum.

So, I’m a fan of Skittles. Now what?

Instead of a web site, Skittles has deployed an aggregation of social tools. Their primary site is a twitter feed. Product information is stored on wikipedia. Ads have been posted on YouTube and flickr. Oh yeah, I am also a fan on facebook with 581,772 other facebook users.