“People will continue to buy and pay more for reliable brand reputations that enrich the depth and breadth of their own identity. The future belongs to any product that can give users a unique identity and place, be it real or virtual. 2010 will be about combining an engaging story with an immersive experience so that the brand becomes an avatar and the communications investment becomes an extension of the brand experience. Communications technology is now the enabler, source and subject matter of human entertainment as a result the concept of the “Avatar” has crossed the chasm into mainstream culture and branding.”

Finally, confirmation that those of us working in marketing agencies are really contributing something important.

© stan@velocitypartners.co.uk for Velocity Partners, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Advertising, B2B branding, B2B marketing agency, Branding, Marketing

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The reason I keep Fallon in sight is that they’re a pretty smart bunch and the company behind many top-notch, super-creative ad campaigns here in the UK, like the Cadbury’s Gorilla, the latest Eyebrows work, as well as the truly great Sony TV campaign (though Laurence would always say that great work comes from having great clients). And they aren’t just big budget only TV-oriented Mad Men: they’re really exploring the range of social media techniques and applying them to consumer branding and promotion. For example, they took advantage of a a clamour from consumers on Facebook for the return of the Cadbury’s Wispa chocolate bar with a clever FaceBook group, website and ads.

Here’s one of the really interesting examples of that. Fallon’s Aki Spicer has done a great presentation on a social media experiment conducted by one of his colleagues. In September 2008, Fallon’s Executive Creative director, Al Kelly, posted a video to YouTube called ‘Kittens Inspired by Kittens’.

Within five months, the video had had 4.8 million views on YouTube, 95,000 references on blogs around the world, 64,000 Tweets and 1.5 million Google searches (and had inspired 28 traditional media stories). Aki’s presentation identifies five lessons we can all learn from this feline story when developing conversational ideas for brands. The thought process is obviously aimed at consumer brands (you don’t really get those numbers in B2B), but the five lessons nevertheless feel important:

• Never underestimate the power of networks
• You never know where the social network fire may get lit, so be generous with the matches – allow people to steal liberally
• Social media groundswells tend to bubble up in the fringes, among nerds, geeks and weirdos, before spreading to the mainstream (and then back again)
• Don’t be bland or grey – embrace your creativity and prepare to be outrageous
• Broadcast-level style and glossy production values simply won’t cut it.

Lots of our clients are asking us to get involved in viral marketing now and this Fallon learning is instructive. What’s cool about the video is the spontaneity  of the little girl (she’s so fluent, but can you script someone so young?) combined with the hand-flung, but sophisticated camera work. A hard act to follow.

Check out the presentation…

© stan@velocitypartners.co.uk for Velocity Partners, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: B2B branding, B2B marketing, B2B social media, B2B social media marketing, B2B technology marketing, social media marketing, Technology Marketing

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