Kodak's 2.0 Game Plan

read it here

Brand Next : The Store For Tomorrow

On Thursday, March 27th, along with a few colleagues I attended the opening for " The Store For Tomorrow," at Wolf Olin's very cool office. I wasn't sure what to expect other than what I read on their site:
"Held in London and New York, the show highlights ten platform brands that invite people to take part, to give as well as get. And the more people who join in, the better it becomes for everybody."
It wasn't actually a store but 10 stands being tended to by Wolff Olins employees for different brands. Nike's store was aptly called," Fitter City," where you pledged to give a certain amount of miles per week to selected destinations and in return you received a Nike+ kit. Every store was dully mobbed, but Fitter City was one of the first to sell out their quota of pledges.
Exposing people experientially to their ideology of how brands need to act in the future was a genius way for Wolf Olin's to brand itself. And what they proposed is that if brands want to have more of an impact they need to became a platform to helping people enhance their lifestyle. Brands notoriously tout "Buy our product and it will help you do what you really want to do."
The sort of thinking that Wolf Olins is preaching is what JetBlue and Nike are practicing. Purchasing Nikes sneakers, may help people run better but along with a program like Fitter City where they encourage people to share their training, competing and goal setting data online to help motivate people helps really fulfill that promise. By going above and beyond to understand their consumer, the message Nike is now sending to their consumers is that they authentically care about helping them do what they want.
Its this kind of pertinent engagement with the consumer that creates an emotional connection. Both Nike and Jetblue's initiatives clearly demonstrate that a fool proof way for consumer generated content to succeed is to simply base it around what the consumer actually needs.

A brand that gets Twitter

Darryl Ohrt, from Brandflakes For Breakfast, tells how he noticed a tweet from Jet Blue warning NY travelers about impending whether delays. This prospect is so simple and so obvious, one would think other companies would already be doing this.
All it took was for this brand to figure out how this existing tool could be of service to its consumers. Through this simple gesture Jet Blue shows that the brand gets them, knows what they need and from a branding perspective gets how to be a part of their day in a relevant way.
One industry that could I could think of that could sorely use this tool to build their brand, are doctors. Rather than the typical waiting time of up to an hour in the waiting room, how great and easy would it be for a doctor's office to twitter their patients that the doctor is running late? Nix the cards on my birthday, a doctor could show me they care by showing me they respect my time.

Worker Generated Content

Great article on how interactive shops are following a Google initiative called,"20 Percent Time," which allows engineers to work on side projects. Besides being another revenue maker these independent digital agencies are adding the creation of applications to its repertoire as showcases that carry added weight with potential clients.
Read It Here