Future of Branding

Advertising during this week’s Super Bowl XLVI will likely be different than any other Super Bowl before. Television viewership of the Super Bowl continues on an upward trajectory and this year’s big game is expected to be the most watched in history. There’s no doubt that TV viewers have not only become accustomed to watching advertising during the big game, but also that they will eagerly anticipate it.

Twitter has recently launched a whole bunch of new features to their website, simplifying & unifying the user experience on the desktop & mobile apps.With the introduction of the new Home, @Connect, and #Discover tabs, somewhat lost in the shuffle were some massive updates to brand pages. To bring you up to speed, here's what the enhanced brand profile pages offer, and why it matters.

http://t.co/7HgEej2

Mr. Jobs’s departure “leaves a void in the largest tech brand on the planet,” Raqib Sheikh, a senior strategic planner at Modea in Blacksburg, Va., wrote in an e-mail.

“This is the realization of most Apple fan-boys’ biggest fear,” he added, referring to ardent admirers of the brand and company, and is, at the same time, “the most exciting challenge faced by the best tech/business/cultural success story of this decade yet.”

After twenty-five years of building marketing campaigns in partnership with some of the best and brightest clients --  in service of their global blue-chip brands -- I must take a breath and reflect upon being afforded such a rich opportunity. Pause.  Happy sigh.  Like everything else in life, there are trade-offs.  Having had such a fortunate career, one downside might be a sense of complacency, and ennui.  Well, for the rest of you 25-year veterans of this game; three words: Making Digital Work. Wow!  I had the enormous privilege of attending this conference created & supported through Boulder Digital Works.  Yes  ... Boulder is the home of Bogusky, CU and Ten-Ten Brassier, but it is also the forum for the most forward thinking digital killers in this business.  I learned a very important lesson, you are never too old -- or are too arrogant -- to learn from the likes of Matt Howell, Gareth Kay, Edward Boches, Matt Britton, Sheena Matheiken (could go on forever).

Last week Zediva sent the email above to it's customers. Stating that they will no longer be able to provide service - with much grace and humor I might add.
Why does this matter? Well read on fair reader

Getting people to share your message online has become somewhat of a holy grail for marketers these days. It is interesting though, that with the importance that is sometimes placed on sharing, there seems to be precious little time spent determining why or how someone would want to share the content. If sharing is a part of your strategy then it is important to understand the motivations behind someone’s choice to share or not share.

 “You can have a car in any color you want -  as long as it’s Black. Capiche?!”
- Don Henry Ford
(Image via: poncнo☭penguιn flickr.com)

Instead of adhering to a single, centralized big idea, a brand must create coherence around multiple, smaller ideas. Embracing small ideas is a powerful way to navigate a rapidly evolving, connected world. Small ideas are fresh and immediate. Flexible and accurate, they can be defined in the immediacy of the present context, allowing brands to respond quickly in moments of crisis or celebration.
- via Fastcodesign.com