Branding - Servant of Chaos

Being Playful – From Poseur to Flaneur

Branding, Creativity, Flaneurs, Pop Culture, Social Media, Storytelling

Regular readers will know that I love the idea of play. In fact, I love it so much I built a mnemonic around it – the P-L-A-Y framework for storytelling. But “play” goes so much further for me – it goes to the very heart of our existence. It manifests as what theorists would call a “libidinal drive” – something that compels us to do something – an action that creates an exchange.

But to “be” playful means inhabiting “playfulness”. It also means letting playfulness inhabit you. In many ways, this is what we call “personality” – those traits that show through while you are being yourself – being playful. Being serious.

Russell Davies has a great post on being playful – which actually leads in a different direction from what I was expecting (surprise #1). Rather than investigating playfulness, he looks, instead at “pretending” – and how our various consumer purchases open the door to our imaginary life.

Think, for example, of the link between an iPhone and a Star Trek communicator (so thoughtfully captured in this image!). You can’t tell me that iPhone and other gadget users don’t get a secret buzz out of living out their childhood fantasies. Brands that win are able to facilitate a sense of transference – allowing us to put ourselves into an imaginary space and project an alternative vision of ourselves. After all, I may ride a Ducati (or used to), but I’m never going to be a MotoGP world champion. As Russell points out:

But it's not just a matter of dressing up. A successful pretending object has to delicately balance pretending affordance with not making you look like an idiot. That's why so many successful pretending objects are also highly functional.

If the “pretending object” goes too far – it does indeed make us look idiotic. We become poseurs – mere representations of something more serious. But of the pretending object doesn’t go far enough – then it is trashed, considered lame, and discarded or ignored by its intended audience.

And this is the art in design and the fine line in communications. How do we allow people into the process of creating meaning without restricting their creativity unduly? I think the approach is to turn our “consumers” into Flaneurs. It’s about the experience – but on another person’s terms – not ours. It’s the placing of a product/service/offering in the service of another’s contextual experience. It means that the Flaneur’s experience is paramount – and the “thing-that-is-your-brand” will be recombined, re-absorbed and recontextualised according to its use-life.

Now, that’s what I call a “value exchange”.

Holiday Card – From Idea to Finished Product

Branding, Creativity, Videos

When I worked in an agency I was always amazed at how much time it would take to put together the year end holiday greeting card. We would have illustrators, designers and programmers poring over the details in the last minute rush before holidays. Hundreds of hours would be racked up. But the end result was, perhaps, the best advertisement for our work – internally and externally. Internally it would remind the Board of what we were capable of and externally it would show what COULD be possible if creativity could be unleashed.

Unfortunately, most corporate holiday cards don’t take this approach. Too many appear like a tick in the box – something to be done and sent. It’s a shame, because they really do provide a great vehicle for your own branded story.

Here’s a nice video showing how the folks from MindCastle Studios turned some sketches into a holiday gift card. It steps you through the various key points of creative production – and shows just how good photography can transform your branding. And the video builds a fantastic story that highlights not just capabilities, but personality and approach. We could all learn a little something on that front!

our creative process/. 01 from Casey Warren | MIND CASTLE on Vimeo.

Why Rockstars are Rockstars

Branding, Social Media, Storytelling

Mack Collier has a great post about rockstars and rockstar ideas. He talks about the way that we identify rockstars in social media – and suggests that we need to look not at the biggest names, largest followings or loudest voices. He recommends:

Spending less time identifying the 'rockstars' and more time focusing on the great ideas
Stop focusing on numbers to determine influence
Listening closely to new ideas from new voices, and magnify both when you hear them

I thought this was interesting – especially in light of the U2 Webcast that occurred live the other day (and of course you can login at any time to watch the replay – excellent!). Here we have a band that have been at the cutting edge, moved into the mainstream and redefined what we call stadium rock. They have used their music to awaken and activate our social conscience through their connection with good causes such as red. And they have carefully aligned the U2 brand with consumer product innovation – firstly with the launch of the iPod and now again with YouTube.

It made me think that the reason rockstars ARE rockstars is that they are constantly reinventing their story. They continuously test, refine and extend their creative output that works from the edge of their audience back to the centre. And they align strategically not only with emerging trends – they blend their ideas into them – adding their weight to the story in-action. (I am sure you realise I am not talking about U2 now.)

But how do they do this?

The P-L-A-Y Framework

Using the P-L-A-Y framework it is possible to see how this reinvention takes place, how it works not just for the band but also for the brand, and why consumers are attracted to it. Jye Smith has an excellent presentation on how P-L-A-Y can be applied to a Gen Y market which is well worth checking out.

When you are structuring your communications, by factoring this framework into your storytelling you can dramatically scale the engagement of your audience, and perhaps, more importantly, you can allow them to OWN that story (which is also your story) – or what I call The Auchterlonie Effect.

P — for Power

Demanding of attention
Testing limits (boundaries around behaviour, responsibility etc)
Controlling the controllable
Belonging

L — for learning and curiosity

Beyond the message, tapping into behaviour
Skills development
Negotiation

A — for adventure

Exploring an ever changing world
Actively making the world a better place

Y — the yelp of surprise and delight

Recognition and reward
Self expression

How U2 P-L-A-Y

P … Clearly rockstars understand our tribal desire to belong. It gives us power, strength in numbers and affiliation. By loudly playing their music, sharing it with others via Twitter, blogs or even shared iPod lists, we announce our allegiance – which also allows other “like minds” to come to us. We are moths drawn to one-another’s flames.

L …There is plenty of back story available with a rock band like U2. From their early punk days to their social conscience (Live Aid, red etc), the band has consistently moved beyond the message – influencing and leading behaviour not just amongst their fan base, but on the global, political stage.

A …Their passion for reinvention is clearly at work. They are adventurous, creative and not afraid to put their music, their image and their reputation on the line.

Y … Bono’s personal interest in sunglasses, the shift in visual style and appeal of the whole band (and as individuals) demonstrates self-expression. But no matter how they change on the surface, it is their music which sparks us to remember, to connect and to empathise. The band constantly plays with our sense of expectation – surprising and delighting us with each song, each new stunt – or even the unexpected cover version (eg Frankie Goes to Hollywood).

And, of course, it is the music that we are able to hum to ourselves, share on our iPods and perform at karaoke (oh yes, I have seen it done) that allows us to really step inside the U2 brand story. The band are larger than life. They need to be to walk on stage in front of a packed Rose Bowl. But in mastering performance of this scale, rockstars live the story and aspirations that many of us harbour deep inside us. Maybe we just need to think about our own stories – on a smaller scale. Think fishbowl rather than Rose Bowl … and maybe one day you’ll step out onto a much larger stage than you could have imagined.

It starts with the first word of your story. What’s yours, rockstar?

Branding is a Marathon

Branding, Digital Strategy, Social Media, Storytelling

One of the greatest, and perhaps hardest to quantify, benefits of social media is in the area of branding. But then again, this is nothing new. Trying to quantify the value of your brand is exceptionally difficult – just ask yourself how many businesses actually have their brands’ value represented as line items on a balance sheet?

One of the crowning achievements of the marketing industry over the last 50 years or so is the general acceptance of the value of branding. For despite the slipperiness of brand “valuations”, businesses AND consumers clearly “get” brands and branding. On the business side, solid and established brands provide a ready platform for our demand generation and other marketing activities. And as consumers, we are more than ready to mould our lifestyles around those rare brands that we have come to love – indeed, in some instances brands are intrinsically linked to the way that we create our identities (just think, for example, of the tribes of car fans).

Yet despite branding’s elusive nature, a well planned and executed, continuous digital strategy can create a very real, very tangible brand platform. And this is where social media presents a powerful opportunity. As you begin to execute on your strategy, you create multiple points of conversation across your business ecosystem – what can best be called your “digital footprint”. The more points of interaction that occur across your ecosystem create points of connection and exchanges of value. And as these are personal networks (not broadcast), there is a weighting – with one-to-one relationships the exchange involves trust and reputation. This is FAT VALUE.

And the more Fat Value that is created in an ecosystem, the faster GRAVITY begins to take shape. So every piece of content that you create, every link that you share and every idea that you set loose allows someone else to benefit from their interaction with your brand. And in this exchange of benefit, you are fulfilling your brand promise and creating branded experiences. And if you have your strategy right – this gravity will eventually begin to pull participants towards your brand.

This sounds great in theory, but making gravity takes a great deal of effort. In fact, branding in the social media space is more like a marathon than a sprint – hence the need to beware of those selling or offering quick viral wins. As Amy Mengel suggests, while the lure and attractiveness of a quick, viral hit is great for the adrenaline, the subsequent fall from attention is usually just as fast:

Despite the excitement it generates for a few days, the video your brand launched that “went viral” on YouTube may be entirely forgotten in a few months or weeks and ultimately do nothing for long-term growth.

A great example is Skittles. Remember Skittles.com? For a day or two – maybe even a week, Skittles.com was hotly reported across the web. Blogs were alight with idea that a brand would reflect not itself, but the consumers who were talking about the brand and their products. They did this by featuring their Wikipedia page, Twitter stream or Facebook group. David Berkowitz explained:

Here’s the message Skittles is sending: What consumers say about the brand is more important than what the brand has to say to consumers.

But where do brands go after the high? Freddie Laker at Ad Age wondered what would happen next, and this chart from Google Trends seems to indicate that this great experiment went nowhere. Then again, the Facebook fan page boasts 3.5 million members. It makes me think that FAT VALUE – those brand exchanges that take place between PEOPLE networks happens in places that even Google can’t adequately penetrate.

Now that is a fascinating thought.

Paid or Earned Media – Making Gravity is Hard Work

Branding, Digital Strategy, earned media, Media, Old Media, Social Judgement, Social Media, Storytelling

Whether you are walking down the street, watching the TV, surfing the net or even driving a car, you are the subject of some form of advertising. From the branded cap on the boy walking down the street to the billboard behind him – marketing is hard at work trying to capture your attention. Constance Hill and Bruce Henry suggest that we see around 3000 marketing messages each day. But no matter whether we see 100 or 10,000 messages – clearly we are exposed to a significant number. But how many do you recall? How many seep into your unconscious, adding a negative or positive neuron to your thoughts around these brands?

Now, add into this mix the dozens or even hundreds of blogs that you read and the tweets that you view on Twitter each day. Combine this with podcasts, music streams via blip.fm, videos on YouTube and email – and suddenly you have an abundant media stream that can appear overwhelming. As Sean Howard says, “In today's world everyone is a publisher, everyone has some level of influence, and everyone has a network of influence that is difficult to define let alone measure”. It makes the life of the media consumer rather complex.

As a marketer, however, you do have a specific objective. What you are aiming for is MAKING GRAVITY. With paid media you are using your marketing budget to have your content inserted into spaces that your audience inhabit. It is an expense which you measure in terms of how many people you have reached with your communication.

Earned media (or what Craig Wilson calls engagement marketing), on the other hand, is both different in nature and in measurement. Rather than being an expense, it is an investment. Its effectiveness is directly related to what you DO rather than what you SAY, and the value that is exchanged is not currency, but trust. As I have explained previously – it is about changing behaviours:

Every time we forward on a link, retweet a message read on Twitter or any other type of social network interaction, we are CHOOSING to act. We are not just using our network of connections to FILTER the noise, we are using it to SHAPE our experience. It is a choice. And understanding this distinction places us in a context where STORYTELLING emerges as vitally important?

Paid media has been an effective marketing approach for hundreds of years (if not longer). But it thrived in a time where attention was abundant and our media consumption choices were limited to a set number of channels. These days, media is abundant but our attention (and maybe more importantly, our respect) is scarce. Graham Brown has an excellent five minute piece on the challenges presented by these changes.

But the fundamental difference with paid vs earned media is the refocusing of effort. No longer do you spend your creative energies (and budgets) on producing executions that gain attention – you spend it on building trust and creating Auchterlonie Effects (stories that can be easily shared). Indeed, in the best traditions of storytelling, earned media propagates itself – becoming promiscuous in the process.

The reason that promiscuous ideas are important to your brand is that you WANT them to be shared. In social media, every shared idea, link or concept creates an exchange of value within a PERSONAL network – so the act of sharing is a recommendation of sorts. Over time the person who “adds value” to their network builds an abundant store of social capital. It is like branding – we can’t necessarily point to a PARTICULAR item – but to the recurring and ongoing sense of positive exchange relating to that person.

When YOUR brand story or content is the subject of that exchange, you are effectively providing a reason for connection between people in a network. And as these connections grow, as they are passed from person to person, you are creating points of gravity around your brand ecosystem. Your challenge then is to work with a continuous digital strategy to “share the message” but “own the destination”. The thing is, gravity can only be earned. And while you can employ paid media to complement your earned media – you need to make sure you have a compelling story to tell and to share.

Do YOUR Products Live Up To The Type?

Branding, Influence, Smart Bloggers

“Advertising is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product or service.” – Jeff Bezos (via Ruth Mortimer)

I was reminded of this quote by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos whilst reading Alan Wolk’s excellent rant on VW’s decision to fire Crispin Porter Bogusky:

You see the problem with VW isn’t the advertising, it’s the cars themselves. At a time when most people’s first stop in the car buying process is Google (or Bing) it’s clear that what VW needs is not better advertising, but better cars.

Alan then goes on to list various problems identified by a quick search on various car forums and blogs. But the same is likely to be found for any other car brand – you can find my own rant about Tim Jackson’s ill-fated Saturn here. Simply do a search on the name of your next (or current) car and add the word “problem” or “lemon” and you will see page after page of owner gripes, rants and issues.

This is something that advertising is simply not going to fix. It’s actually not possible. You see, it no longer takes a big budget and a sexy image to reach an audience. Anyone can start a blog for free and begin corralling opinion. And you know what? It is all captured by Google. Every word, every rant, every unsubstantiated comment (and every truth) is indexed by Google, assessed for inbound links, page rank and a number of other elements and then presented as fact to the unwary web surfer.

For brands, sticking your head in the sand is no longer an option. Consumers are increasingly turning to online opinion, blogs, social media, ratings and reviews as a way of framing their own purchase decisions – and if your voice is not part of the mix, then you are leaving your brand entirely in the hands of others. Is this a bad thing? It can be. It can also astoundingly positive.

The challenge now is not JUST good products and services – these are the new cost of entry into the market. What you need now is love, sweet love. You need the love of your fans. You need products that live up to the TYPE – to the words and stories of your consumers. For without that, no amount of advertising will permanently buy you the front page of Google.

Ad-Tech Sydney – Rethinking the Conference

Branding, Conferences

You know what it is like. There are faces everywhere. Banners. Stands. Noise. The bustle through the aisles urge you ever forward to where the scalding coffee waits your grasping, pre-keynote fingers. There are people you need to meet, folks you’d like to know better, and friends and colleagues waiting for you at the double doors. Someone, somewhere is in possession of a powerboard and will become your new best friend for the day. You are just three steps and a chance meeting away from your next big gig.

And then it starts.

The sessions fly past you at a rate of knots. There are networking drinks. Dinners. Meetings for coffee. Your brain sags like an overworked sponge and you think, at some point, that the stream of same-same Twitter responses may just make sense. In between workshops, the occasional donut beckons. And then, before you know it, you cocoon yourself in your car and shuttle back to the office. The conference over. Swag secured. Notes to digest and summaries to write. Your boss will be expecting a report first thing Monday.

Yes. You know it’s true. Ad-Tech Sydney is a festival.

But what happens a month on? Three months? Six? After the bold curation of ideas – of jamming social media cheek-by-jowl with electronic direct mail, strategy and ad networks, SEO, virtual worlds and innovation – what happens next?

Every time I attend a conference I always see them as lost opportunities. They can be intense hives of activity, leaving participants with dozens of ideas to work on – to digest and execute. But rarely does a conference event extend beyond its immediate horizon. Rarely does a conference work with the biorhythms of the business world to enthuse, engage and energise its community over the longer term.

But the folks behind Ad-Tech Sydney are taking on such a challenge – and doing admirably well. Not only do they have the Ad-Tech Brain operating as a blog and industry news aggregator, they have now run two free, breakfast briefings that provide us all with an intellectual caffeine hit just before the work day begins. Dr Jeffrey Cole, founder of the World Internet Project, will no doubt continue this new tradition and jolt us awake at next week’s briefing.

I like the way that Lucy James, Ad-Tech Content Director, is taking this opportunity to weave a story around the conference brand. The briefings are run with neat precision – setting a cracking pre-work day pace and leaving us all with a line or two, or an anecdote that we can easily relay back in the office. And the line-up of quality speakers adds to the experience – yes, you can read about Zappos until you fall out of your ergonomic chair, but it’s not the same as hearing Aaron Magness, tell the stories in his own words.

If authenticity is what we crave in social media, it doesn’t get any grittier than an intimate 80 seat room face-to-face discussion with the people who are taking these ideas and transforming them into successful businesses.

Is this the future of conferences? It certainly changes the way that you think of the conference “value exchange”. It’s not just a one-time event. It creates a sense of involvement, connection – and dare I say, “community”. It establishes an intellectual agenda and serves as a constant reminder of our participation in the world of ideas. I have a feeling other brands could learn some lessons here.

Brands are the Stories We Tell

Branding, Storytelling

This neat persona/profile tool by the clever folks over at MIT Media Labs allows you to visually construct your own persona. After you enter your name, it goes off and scours the web for any trace of “you”, sorting and categorising as it goes. Of course, there are bound to be errors as well as insights. Imagine, for example, if you lived in Campbelltown and your name was Seth Godin. You are bound to be swamped in the results by THE Seth Godin. But this tool does, nevertheless, yield some impressive information. In the end you end up with something that resembles Dr Who’s famous intergalactic scarf.

But what I liked most about this, was not the pretty, segmented ribbon. I loved the way that the “Persona Machine” captured story snippets and analysed them. It captured the stories that OTHERS have told about me – providing insight not into the things I write and my personal interests, but also capturing some sense of the context in which I live – as created by others.

Stories about Gavin Heaton

So then I thought, what happens if we apply this to brands? What stories would flash by as the Persona Machine trawled the web for, say, Coca-Cola? Some of the snippets I noticed include “the history of coca-cola is a story of special moments”, or “Mr Dealer: The 1912 advertising campaign for coca cola is on”.

But while the stories were most interesting on the individual level, it was the aggregated story – the brand persona ribbon – that most intrigued me for Coca-Cola. “Management”, “sports” and “fashion” segment strongly, with “politics” and “aggression” also appearing. It makes me wonder what the detail is underlying this analysis. It makes me think there is work to do on even the most famous of brands. And if that is the case – what appears in your brand persona ribbon?

Bufori – It Takes Your Breath Away

Branding, Life, Storytelling

You don’t notice it happening, but the effects are instantaneous. Your pupils dilate, your heartbeat quickens and your jaw drops. Is it love? Perhaps. Lust? Grrrr. It is an emotional and a bodily response.

When Ian Lyons, Jane Glasson and I pulled up to park, we happened to stop next to Cameron Pollard, marketing manager for Bufori. A comment, led to a conversation – and next thing you know, we are blocking traffic as Cameron gave us an impromptu tour of his beautiful, hand crafted car.

From the stitched leather seats to the meticulously laid out dashboard gauges, it was clear that this was no ordinary car. I would catch, moment by moment, a smile flicking across Ian’s face. We were all gasping at the design features – monogrammed toolkits embedded in the long engine cover, whisper quiet engine idling, chrome more dazzling than Miranda Kerr’s smile … with every moment we were, each of us, falling in love.

Reluctantly we parted ways. Cameron to talk to AC/DC, and we to our work days. But on reflection, there is much for brands to learn from Bufori – from the attention to detail, the craftsmanship and the passion that fires your imagination. Think about the story of your brand. Think about the way that people SHARE your story – who, how and where. Consider the way that you can use the P-L-A-Y framework to craft your engagement strategy:

P — for power
L — for learning and curiosity
A — for adventure
Y — the yelp of surprise and delight

Most importantly, think about that element that is intrinsic to your product, service or experience. Distil your features list and turn them inside out. What is that one thing that makes your fans pant with excitement? That is what you should be marketing – forget the rest.