"Branded Utility"

This, via Ad Age: some thoughts on the future of advertising:

"I believe the next stage of brand advertising is going to be in the realm of ’branded utility,"’ says Palmer. (He co-credits Anomaly partner Johnny Vulcan with coining the phrase.)

In a column in the current issue of Creativity, R/GA CEO-Chief Creative Officer Bob Greenberg speaks of his own personal epiphany at Cannes, when he became certain that brand culture would move away from the metaphorical (as embodied in the TV spot and its interactive extensions) and toward the useful. It’s no coincidence that it’s the interactive types and ad people with interactive chops who are touting this application-based marketing opportunity; it requires technical as well as creative prowess. "You have to understand applications and media; you have to have a tech capability in order to even think up some of these concepts," says Greenberg, who also notes that projects of this nature have sprung from the planning function in his shop.

The suggestion is that brands and their agencies will need to really understand people (i.e. the consumers) better, and discover meaningful ways in which they can contribute to their lives. This may or may not happen online, but given the degree to which much of what we do is online, it would certainly help to have a grasp of that world.

Benjamin Palmer of The Barbarian Group says:

"[Consumers] are watching us more than we are watching them. We are not
in control anymore, but that’s OK. If we do this right, we can actually
have a good relationship with ’the consumer’ for once. How nice would
that be?"

Comments

[Simon Andrews]

I think this is right on the money. One of the things I've always remembered from John Grants first book was the idea of brands having a "noble cause" - and that's essential right now. Brands need to demonstrate utility.
Ads that say - our beans are good - have no value - its not believed and it gets ignored. An ad that says - here are 100 great ways to use our beans to get your kids to eat well- is valuable and will create engagement.
The arrival of widgets is going to have a huge impact - we're looking at how brands could give people useful widgets for (say) their myspace page. We've done a simple permission based branded application for a UK bank - you get a pop up on your desktop 4 times a day of the latest price on stocks you're watching. The bank runs some relevant banners ads on the window which have been really effective - and research shows users really value the (free) service.
The role of traditional ads will be to invite people to interact - and that offering branded applications or utilities will be a key element of that interaction.

[Dino]

Great stuff Simon, love the idea of a "noble cause", it brings things right back to the heart of it for us idealists :)

The work you're describing with widgets sounds excellent, and given the tools that are out there, from maps, video, photo, tags and all of the fun possibilities with Web 2.0 stuff there is a huge opportunity for interesting things there. D

uring the World Cup, for instance, I had thought that it would be great for someone to supply branded widgets for the countdown leading up to the games, a calendar, ticker, all sorts of things.

[Simon Andrews]

Despite all the hype about this being the first digital world cup (and Yahoo as a sponsor) i don't think we saw the real potential of digital. Maybe we have to wait for Euro 2008.
Even areas like fantasy football have real potential to be made more interesting.

[Dino]

Very true.

Funny, just before it kicked off, I had a conversation with the head of a very highly regarded ad agency, one of the cool kids on the block that everone is always talking about (in fairness I won't mention names!), and I asked them about any cool digital stuff they had coming up.

They had nothing, despite the fact that at least one of their brands had a huge presence there. Very disappointing.

[darrellart]

Just a heads up: you spelled "occasional" wrong in your banner tag line.

[Dino]

thank you! it's terrible, i never ever check spelling, a bad habit :(