I am just on way back from presenting at the Beijing London Advertising Forum 2009 in China on the subject of branding in the post-advertising world, or even post digital world as Russell Davies calls it. In my presentation I used a quote by former P&G Global CMO Jim Stengel, who commenting on the challenge of building consumer relationships in the 21st century at the 2007 AAAA Media Conference, said:
"What we really need is a mindset shift. A mindset shift that will make us relevant to today's consumers. A mindset shift from "telling and selling" to building relationships."
Fine words but even the most ardent P&G marketing enthusiast would have to agree that two years later P&G still has some way to go in turning them into a compelling reality.
Of course, we increasingly live in an ‘and’ as opposed to ‘or’ world so throwing the proverbial branding baby out with the bath water doesn’t make much sense but it did get me thinking about brands who have made a successful transformation from the traditional awareness based advertising approach to a more contemporary conversation orientated communications strategy.
Some relatively obvious smaller challenger brands like 42 Below, my perennial favourite, immediately
sprung to mind but I have to admit that I was struggling to think of a mainstream consumer brand that had made this transition convincingly until I started to piece together the different strands of Nike’s marketing activity over the last couple of years.
The 28 million, and counting, views of Nike’s Ronaldinho: 'Touch of Gold' video on YouTube alone suggests that they have understood that the pen of content is indeed more powerful than the sword of advertising in a pull as opposed to push world.
The way that they seeded their Kobe Bryant HyperDunk viral, and the resulting 35,000 comments generated within weeks of its release, shows that they recognise that as the social media era replaces the broadcast media era conversation is more effective than messaging.
Their commitment to Nike ID demonstrates an acceptance that as advances in digital technology continue to tip the balance of power between consumers and brands back in favour of the consumer that successful brands will need to embrace collaboration at the expense of control.
And the extraordinary success of the Nike+ concept is a testament to the benefits of thinking about people as communities rather than audiences as the media landscape continues to fragment.
Finally the fact that I could have chosen a myriad of different examples of their marketing activity to support my proposition depending on which geographic region I was looking at highlights how Nike seem to have placed context above the false god of matching luggage in the name of consistency.
Of course in linking these examples together in such a way I may well have fallen into the all too common trap of putting the cart of strategy before the horse of tactics but a recent comment from UK marketing chief Simon Pestridge in January’s edition of Revolution magazine reflecting on their approach to marketing communications suggests otherwise:
"We don't do advertising any more. We just do cool stuff. It sounds a bit wanky, but that's just the way it is. Advertising is all about achieving awareness, and we no longer need awareness. We need to become part of people's lives and digital allows us to do that."
From that it seems somewhat reassuringly, given their brand promise, that Nike is one of the only mainstream brands who have just got on and done it and as a result they may well be the best connected brand on the planet. Enough said.
"What we really need is a mindset shift. A mindset shift that will make us relevant to today's consumers. A mindset shift from "telling and selling" to building relationships."
Fine words but even the most ardent P&G marketing enthusiast would have to agree that two years later P&G still has some way to go in turning them into a compelling reality.
Of course, we increasingly live in an ‘and’ as opposed to ‘or’ world so throwing the proverbial branding baby out with the bath water doesn’t make much sense but it did get me thinking about brands who have made a successful transformation from the traditional awareness based advertising approach to a more contemporary conversation orientated communications strategy.
Some relatively obvious smaller challenger brands like 42 Below, my perennial favourite, immediately
The 28 million, and counting, views of Nike’s Ronaldinho: 'Touch of Gold' video on YouTube alone suggests that they have understood that the pen of content is indeed more powerful than the sword of advertising in a pull as opposed to push world.
The way that they seeded their Kobe Bryant HyperDunk viral, and the resulting 35,000 comments generated within weeks of its release, shows that they recognise that as the social media era replaces the broadcast media era conversation is more effective than messaging.
Their commitment to Nike ID demonstrates an acceptance that as advances in digital technology continue to tip the balance of power between consumers and brands back in favour of the consumer that successful brands will need to embrace collaboration at the expense of control.
And the extraordinary success of the Nike+ concept is a testament to the benefits of thinking about people as communities rather than audiences as the media landscape continues to fragment.
Finally the fact that I could have chosen a myriad of different examples of their marketing activity to support my proposition depending on which geographic region I was looking at highlights how Nike seem to have placed context above the false god of matching luggage in the name of consistency.
Of course in linking these examples together in such a way I may well have fallen into the all too common trap of putting the cart of strategy before the horse of tactics but a recent comment from UK marketing chief Simon Pestridge in January’s edition of Revolution magazine reflecting on their approach to marketing communications suggests otherwise:
"We don't do advertising any more. We just do cool stuff. It sounds a bit wanky, but that's just the way it is. Advertising is all about achieving awareness, and we no longer need awareness. We need to become part of people's lives and digital allows us to do that."
From that it seems somewhat reassuringly, given their brand promise, that Nike is one of the only mainstream brands who have just got on and done it and as a result they may well be the best connected brand on the planet. Enough said.
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