Do you know what your brand did last night?

Lindstrom was a keynote speaker, along with the Disney Institute's Sara Jones and Liz Bigham, vice president: branding of Jack Morton Worldwide, as well as our illustrious local brand experts, at the summit in Johannesburg yesterday. Sponsors were Absa, Exp., Ukubona, Show-co and TBM. Bizcommunity.com was the official media partner to the event and used the opportunity to launch our push into Africa with our expanded country-by-country continent offering: www.www.bizcommunity.com.

The whole concept of working differently and building marketing strategies online is the main topic which should be on every boardroom agenda. To illustrate his point, Lindstrom asked the audience who had seen three TV ads in the last 24 hours (most of the audience raised their hands). Only one person raised their hand when he asked who remembered any of the three ads that they had seen...

Here are some more of his rather scary stats:

• In 1980 seven out of 10 new product releases flopped. Despite budget spend on research increasing, by 2004, eight out of every 10 new product releases failed!
  
• In Japan, which is often used as a brand barometer of trends, 9.8 out of 10 new product releases fail.

There is now a Japanese store concept called RanQueen, where each product on the shelf changes constantly - due to its online shopping portal where consumers vote for their favourite products with their cash - and the bricks and mortar shop reflects those choices.

"All the brands I work with globally have big brand manuals," said Lindstrom. But no brand manual has prepared brands for what is taking place online in what the cyber generation call "The Second Life", which is also a virtual game where people live and interact online - and where savvy brands are already catching on and interacting online with their virtual consumers, who are also consumers in the real world.

Consumer holds the power

The power has moved away from the brand to the consumer, Lindstrom emphasises. The consumer became the broadcaster when the power of social media (all the interactive tools that allow you to connect any which way with friends and anyone else globally) became the communication of choice for millions of consumers globally.

Here's one example: two young girls from the UK who do a mildly amusing mime to the song "Respect Yourself" has been seen by 16 million people globally. They originally approached Unilever for sponsorship - they wanted new camera equipment. Unilever turned them down.

Can you say for certain whether 16 million people will ever see your brand and interact with it in a fun and "human" way that Lindstrom says is essential these days for brand recognition?

Tearing down trust

Of course the key point and most dangerous aspect of the web 2.0 world is that your brand can be as easily annihilated as built up. When an irate consumer was refused permission by the innovative Nike 'design your own shoe' website for his design (he wanted the words 'sweat shop' on them, which understandably, Nike felt a bit uncomfortable about), it sent him a 16-page lawyer’s letter detailing why it could not grant his request. Big mistake - that letter was blogged about by the consumer and sent around the world subsequently, causing an estimated US$120 million dollars damage to the Nike brand. The consumer eventually got his shoes!

On the positive side, an 11-year-old boy came up with the inspiration for a new McDonalds global campaign 'push to the limits" after his posting on one of the social media video sharing sites; a GAP employee in Chicago who drones on about his favourite shirt bought at GAP, tripled sales in the GAPs in his Chicago area because of the boring, but human, video.

The marketing landscape has changed forever, Lindstrom emphasises. We have gone from the TRADITIONAL MEDIA: TV, radio, print, cinema, outdoor – to ONLINE MEDIA: blogs, chat rooms, SMS, games, ITV, PSPs - and still further to WIRELESS MEDIA options: podcasting, iChat, brand tagging , video blogging, contextual branding, tribe support, viral programs; and lastly, IN FIELD media options or experiential media, with person-to-person scouts, product demos, community support, talent support and other personal mediums, where the next generation of consumers can interact with the people they trust the most to influence their brand and purchase decisions: their friends, families, peer groups and those with similar interests (i.e., their communities on the various blog sites they interact with, and online networks, like Friendster, LinkedIn and others).

The Pepsi experience

Here's another classic example: Pepsi spent US$29 million dollars on a TV commercial for the brand linking in to the world cup. It featured some of the most famous soccer players in the world and a Bavarian dance team. It received a good reception and was seen to be quite a successful commercial by advertising and marketing standards.

However, it was not nearly as successful as the You Tube video which Pepsi got two Chinese bloggers to do after seeing them mime to a silly song on the video sharing site. They dressed the two guys subsequently in Pepsi shirts and had them mime to the reprobate Trio song "Da da da". That video was seen by 162 million viewers over a year and cost Pepsi just one year's supply of free Pepsi to the bloggers that did it for them. It was only posted on You Tube, not flighted on any other media (the quality is too bad anyway) – but it has been emailed around the world several times.

Doesn't this question every brand rule in the book?

Click here to see for yourself on You Tube. First up is the official Pepsi TV commercial, followed by the Pepsi Vlog:

'Da da da' Pepsi Ad: Bavaria and football
BackDormBoys: DaDaDa

And, not for the faint-hearted, here's another one by Lindstrom that is currently being emailed around (it's actually for a caffeine drink, not a car ad, as the email legend goes...):

Ghost Car

'Advertainment'

And here's a new word for every marketing director, brand manager and creative to learn: "Advertainment" which Lindstrom says is mixing editorial with commercial content. There are no lines anymore, which make life more difficult for editorial purists, editors and journalists, but as Lindstrom says, the young generation is able to filter it.

It will mean product placement will increase, but be transparent about your intentions as the blogosphere will find you out! There have been many examples of brands outed on the web for pretending to be natural viral campaigns when actually paying for and orchestrating various so-called 'blogging phenomenon'. These are called 'flogs' - fake blogs.

"In the future we won't use the logo as a communication tool as we can't put a logo into a You Tube ad as the consumer is controlling that. We need to own a whole lot of other things. iPod advertising has no logo or branding on it." The iconic ads with the white earphones and distinctive box with silhouette ads are however still memorable, Lindstrom points out. And 87% of kids remember product placement in PSP games.

In the future - which is here already - Lindstrom says that in order for your brand to be memorable to the consumer, you will need to make sure consumers have ownership of the brands. You have to get them to talk about your brands - you won't be talking to them remotely through advertising, but will be trying to lead them into interacting with your brands and thereby starting a conversation all by themselves, but to your benefit.

To do this you have to focus on the human side - entertain them, tug at their heart strings, make them laugh. "If it is human then consumers want to tell other people about it," Lindstrom emphasises.

Contextual branding, he advises is the only way:

1. Make sure the consumer is in the focus.
   
2. Make sure the consumer is in the power seat - they are in control.
   
3. Make sure you are breaking rules.
   
4. Make sure it's human, otherwise I won't risk my money.
   
5. Your communication has to be instant and so quick at using experiential marketing as a weapon.
   
6. Your brand message has to be contextual - the right message at the right time to the right audience and instantaneously.
   
7. Make sure it's sensory and magical - that's the golden rule to make things happen.
   

Here is your checklist from Lindstrom:

• Be instant
  
• Be sensory
  
• Be human
  
• Be 'smashable'
  
• Be contextual
  
• Stand out
  
• Be unique
  
• Be iterative

To conclude, Lindstrom quoted from Benjamin Franklin, who even 100 years ago, captured the essence of what makes something memorable - the key to experiential marketing: "Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I might remember. Involve me and I'll understand".

And in the spirit of web 2.0, where sharing is the new communication principle, Lindstrom invites you to download his presentation for free at www.martinlindstrom.com. The password is: perfect.