Brand Experience.
TED Stuff and Great Charts.
(Technology, Entertainment and Design)
Brand Experience is now generally recognized as a key metric in developing brand>consumer relationships: experiences create involvement and participation; they can be shared; passed on to friends and get talked about.
Lately a number of CRM, Event Marketing, DM and PR agencies have been trying to recast themselves as Brand Experience Agencies. The truth is that designers and Design Agencies have the inside track, because they really "get" what TED is all about.
David Armano is a designer who blogs at Logic+Emotion and is currently VP Experience Design at Critical Mass , has put together some interesting charts outlining a planning process for Creating (Brand) Experiences and an "Agency Eco-System" for developing ideas.


As a Planner, I can't agree with everything David is putting up. I get stuck around "emotional and rational mindsets". But the idea of rooting the process in business, brand and consumer insights is solid ground indeed. Good stuff.

Where do Ideas Come From?

The short answer, of course, is that ideas can come from anywhere.
Another, more honest, answer is "you steal them from other people".
Stealing one good idea is called "plagiarism", stealing a lot of good ideas is called good "desk research."

John Grant at Brand Tarot is doing some interesting interviews with planning directors, about the processes they use to come up with inspired ideas.

Brands, lost in translation?
The the more you look at media brands, "En Español", you get the feeling something is missing. The character and personality of the original seems to have been lost somewhere in the translation. Here are I few pointers that we have run into on their way to the "weaknesses" box on the brand´s SWOT analysis chart:

• The content tends to be incoherent and muddled. There is a lack of the authority, authenticity and enthusiasm that made the original brand so compelling, engaging and different. This is exacerbated when local content is developed and local producers and presenters are contracted, who have not come through the formative brand culture.
  
• When you look at how people are interacting (or not) with them, audiences seem have difficulty relating to any central brand essence or DNA.
  
• Some claim to have found a "special audience niche". OK but to add value, niche brands need develop deep relationships with their audiences across a number of platforms and interactive channels.
  
• So, there is no clear strategy for partnering with brands: advertisers, sponsors, or marketing partners. In other words, limited options for growing revenues.
  
• And without that, you have to question the basic business model that was supposed to be driving the Global Brand Plan in the first place.
  

So, pity the brand that gets lost in translation. It must be a weird and frustrating place!