Engage your customer. Give them a great experience. AND help them reach their goal.

The digital consumer has multiple communication channels and it's great that companies, or more specifically the marketing departments of companies are catching on. But this should not detract from basic principals of consumer engagement.

Dragon Catcher is cool. It's on your mobile devise. It's exclusive to the attendees of the event (social needs). It closes the gap between reality and internet, an augmented form of reality. It has game mechanics. It has a fun creative idea behind it. It's a cool package.

An entertaining shiny new toy is a great short term tactic to get attention. Customers experience a deeper use of their digital channels and focus shifts from one campaign to the next. But was it truly useful? Did it have high brand utility? Did it create or add to the customer relationship to the brand?

This campaign did not engrain the Qualcomm brand into the values of the consumer. It did not add a benefit and did not help the consumer reach a goal. It could have done that better. The game should have helped people connect to eachother. The game should have helped the user explore the Qualcomm brand to realize the effect on their business.

Help your customer fulfill their goals. How does your marketing move your brand forward? How do you campaigns fulfill their needs?

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How the internet is changing story telling, and how this should change brand/consumer relationship

Every new medium has given rise to a new form of narrative.

Story telling is a powerful tool in anyones arsenal. Sales people use it to get clients emotionally engaged in the product, advertising uses it to change consumer behavior, and parents use it to put children to sleep (imagine such a powerful tool). Story telling has been around since the beginning of man kind when we were drawing how to's of the hunt.

The last few years has seen a revival of story telling. People in marketing who talk about the importance of a narrative. But this has been around for so long, why suddenly the interest.

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The rise of the internet has given the narrative a new medium. Consumers haven't seen such a shift since the rise of TV, and marketeers need to catch up.

The internet is interactive, immersive, and a hot bed for co-creation. Yet where are the great online customer experiences tied in with the brand story? I can count the notable ones on one hand.

Ex1: Old Spice Guy
Ex2: Huggies Social Bus
Ex3: Levi's after dark

In order of immersion, these brands are leading the storm into the interactive story. From the responsive Old Spice Guy singling out consumers, speaking to them one to one. To the Huggies campaign which highlights parents proud of their babies. To the Levi's after dark campaign which put the narrative in the hands of the consumer, successfully letting their brand ambassadors integrate the brand into a real life game.

The new future will see brands focusing on true dialog with their customers and expanding this relationship. The future where the advertising of brands is useful to the consumer, ensuring brand utility. A future where the customer experience is central to every undertaking by the brand, including its traditionally linear advertising.

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