The Decline Of Brands And Why I Hate Content Curation

A recent Adweek Infographic indicates the decline of consumer brand loyalty as represented by factors that include a decline in the interest of people in sharing information about a brand.

At the risk of leaning on causality instead of correlation I want to throw out this might in some small part be based on or at least not helped by the growing brand dependence on using curated content to connect with people.  It was initially thrilling that companies found interesting ways to collect and distribute content with a tangential connection to their customers but, please stop (or at least slow down).

We want customers to have a strong relationship with our brands and yet we send them shite that is only lightly connected to our brand?  If you look at brands that have used social and digital to create deeper connections you’ll find nary a curated piece among them.  Red Bull, Zappos, IBM, and others like them depend on connection experiences that are based entirely on products, and more importantly at times, product experiences that give us deeper insight into their brands.  Red Bull is an odd one since its brand is now of course more about a thrill-seeking lifestyle than a caffeinated beverage but regardless they nail it every time.

 

 

LEGO Takes Over The World

If there’s been a better marketer than Lego this year I’d be stunned. Hard to imagine anyone’s been better even for the last 10 years with a couple years where you could vote for Apple or Red Bull.

Between the brilliant product tie-ins, crazy amount of cool consumer content on YouTube, and now great movie with really rich extended content (without the overkill of Anchorman 2) it is a relentless march of great customer engagement.

Chanel Nails Long Form Video: Again

We’ve been flapping our gums about the merits of long form video for a long time and lately enjoying what Chanel is doing with the history of Gabrielle Chanel.

We’ll say it again — why do we know more about the the origins of a few different spirits brands (like Johnnie Walker), fashion icons (like Chanel) than we do about any brand of car we can buy?

Seriously Chevy, if you made a new Malibu and it’s really different this time then for Christ’s sake, can you please wax poetic for a few minutes in some inspiring way on what went into this rev?  Please?

The Problem With Kimmel’s Twerk Fire Stunt

Somewhere along the way in the development of the recent stunt in which Jimmy Kimmel and his team staged a fake twerk scene somebody forgot to shoot down the idea and defend the voice of the show.

But wait, I thought it was the most brilliant fake video content of all time, right?  Wrong, because there can be no brilliant fake video content.  Why?  Because the wonderfulness of YouTube and all this consumer content is seeing real scenes of silliness or sorrow or hilarity or disaster.  The reveal that the video is a fake ALWAYS makes the content less than it was.  The video is awesome when it was real in our minds and less than awesome when it was revealed to be fake.  The job of the comedian is to make things more than they are not less.  Upon seeing the reveal we feel deflated not pumped.

Also, the ham-fisted reveal felt off-voice for Kimmel.  Dumber maybe?  Normally we’d expect Kimmel to have on the girl who caught on fire if the video was real and he’d help her get it right this time.  That I’d like to see.

Hollywood’s Obsession With The Blackwing 602

Love this story about the beauty, utility, demise and resurrection (sort of) of The Blackwing 602.

If you ever wondered if a story could help sell a product then I defy you to not want to pick up a box of these rare pencils after reading about Hollywood’s obsession and history of creation with The Blackwing 602.