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07
Dear friends!
Its arrived. And come in a hurry. 2014 has just
whizzed past us and it is difficult to imagine that
this indeed is the last issue of the year. Well, as
has been the case with every Brand Knew edition,
there is lots to read in this issue. How about some
lessons in re branding from Monica Lewinsky? Or
Scott Goodsons insightful and compelling version
of the threats that are hampering global brand
building? As marketing gets more bottom up, we
examine the need for more left brain thinking. No
veil or cloak here, brand is the experience and
experience is the brand,as vividly articulated by
Vikram Chadha in his inaugural column for the
magazine. We also evaluate some of the Social
Trends that will gain currency in 2015. This issue
also looks at a toss up between Television & the
Internet as the best place to build brands. Lots
more to look forward to as we thank you for your
continued patronage, sign off for the year and
prepare to welcome another year of opportunities,
challenges and brand stories. Peace & Goodluck!
Best always

09
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15
19
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Suresh Dinakaran
@sureshdinakaran
linkd.in/1dsjYaW
bit.ly/1h95tgO
suresh@groupisd.com

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Managing Editor: Suresh Dinakaran

Creative Head/Director Operations: Pravin Ahir
Magazine Concept & Design/ New Media Specialist: Mufaddal Joher
Country Head, UK: Sagar Patil
Country Head, India: Rohit Unni
Digital/Social Media Marketing: Loknath Swain, Vishnu Nath
Associate: Brand Success: Andre Van Helsdingen
Web Specialist: Prasanta Kumar Sahu
Online Support: Mahendra Kumar Behera

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41

CONTENTS

Why Left-Brained Thinkers Are Becoming More

Important in Marketing
How to Read (and Decide) Your Marketings Fate [Infographic]
The five worst threats to global brand building
Brand is the experience & experience is the Brand
Are marketers as tech-savvy as we think?
Why Your Data Scientists Need to Be Storytellers, and
How to Get Them There
Do you need to be a certain type of person to work in marketing?
A Lesson in Rebranding From Monica Lewinsky
Why James Bond Still Drives an Aston Martin,
Even If Hes Not Helping Sales.
Nike Lawsuit: How 3 Top Designers
Allegedly Stole IP And Left For Adidas
How brands can join the wearable revolution
7 social trends you need to know for 2015
Wesley R. Hartmann: Where to Build a Better
Brand Television or the Internet?
The Sony Logo That Never Was
Book, Line & Sinker

Why Left-Brained Thinkers

Are Becoming More Important
in Marketing
Derek Slayton

brandknewmag.com

08

Marketing has long had a reputation as the domain for more

creative typeswordsmiths, artists, conceptual thinkers, and
message-makers. Though that reputation is partially earned
and accurate, it has also been inflated by the Mad Mendefined persona who focuses primarily on design ideas and
creative copy before knocking off for the day (and knocking
back three fingers of scotcheven if it happens to be 11AM).
While creative, right-brained thinking will always have a
place in the marketing suite (can anyone contest the message
is more important than ever?), the other half of the brain is
increasingly importantand seems to be getting a little more
respect as of late.
More importantly, we are seeing best-in-class marketing
shops building teams that effectively use both sides of the
cerebrumcreative and data-driven thinking and execution.

A Shift in Thinking
In the B2B world, a great side effect of these combined forces
has been marketings shifting role in business as a strategic
player with a more respected seat at the executive table.
Unlike sales and engineering, marketing has historically
struggled for this spot.
Perhaps for the first time ever, a dollar invested in marketing
can deliver a higher return than a dollar invested in sales.
Thats not to say its a zero-sum game, but the discussion
about how the dollar gets split is more relevant (and
important) than ever. That has made the C-suite sit up and
pay attention, and it has required marketing to become a
lot more accountable. Along with the ability to measure and
show results comes the ability to influence go-to-market
strategy. Theres never been a more exciting time to be in the
marketing business.
Personally, I am excited to be a part of this shift. Not because
I value creativity less, but because I value the balance of leftand right-brained thinking more. We are living through this
here at NetProspex as we growand we are working with
many other B2B marketing organizations as customers who
are leading the charge.
From that set of influences, I see (at least) a few key forces
driving the evolution of marketing and its role in the business:
Mass adoption of marketing technology. Marketing
technology spend is on the rise, and it doesnt appear
to be stopping anytime soon. Weve seen the stats to
back it up: Laura McLellan of Gartner predicts that by
2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs. And we
have had some great conversations that reinforce those
facts. For most companies, the conversation is not about
whether they need to adopt new marketing technology
but when and what tools and platforms to use. But like
any IT investment, marketing is being tasked with showing
ROI for these investments. How is this technology helping

to generate interest, reduce costs and, most importantly,

drive revenue?
The evolution of the buyers journey. To say the
buyers journey has changed is a vast understatement.
Weve all heard the stat: the B2B buyer is 57% through
the purchase decision before engaging a supplier sales
rep [PDF]. Other stats state its even higher. Either way,
todays marketers are required to carry the ball much
farther down the field. Theyre focused on educating
and engaging prospects, uncovering who they are, and
how and where they can deliver value. This demands a
whole new level of analysis on the lead funnel (or buyer
journey) and a greater understanding of where and how
prospects are coming in, whats meaningful to them, and
where and why they are dropping off.
Increase in marketing channels. Ann Handley
(chief content officer at MarketingProfs) recently said
to me that online is the new tradeshow a simple, yet
profound statement. It used to be that in B2B, you went
to tradeshows to get educated on vendors. Now, you go
online. You read content, you join Twitter conversations
on your areas of interest, you follow companies on
LinkedIn, and you engage with like-minded people with
similar problems to help find your solution. Todays
marketer has to understand which of these channels
to turn up, and which to turn off. The only way to do
that is to understand which are working and why theyre
working.
Enhanced focus on measurement. More and more
companies are adopting the philosophy that if it cant
be measured, it didnt happen. All the influences above
require a more sophisticated approach to measurement.
Companies must understand what channels are truly
helping move the needle in building their brand and
driving sales. Todays successful marketers are delivering
the measurement goods.
Those influences arent just affecting what types of marketers
companies are looking for, but also what kinds of jobs are
opening up. Some proof: How many times have you heard
the term chief marketing technologist mentioned in the last
six months? Compare that with six years ago. A premium is
being placed on tech savvy, digital expertise, process, and
analytics.
Im not one for crystal-ball predictions, but I think its safe
to say well continue this shift toward left-brain thinking and
data-focused, technology-oriented capabilities.

Derek Slayton is CMO of NetProspex, a provider of B2B

data services. He has over 20 years of experience in
technology sales and marketing.

How to Read (and Decide) Your

Marketings Fate [Infographic]
Vernica Maria Jarski

Can you read whats in the cards for your marketing

campaigns? Some companies canwhen they use the right
tools and techniques.
Heres a look at three ways to predict the possible future of
your marketing, according to Marketo.
One tip is to write your marketing destiny. Compared with
ill-prepared companies, those with documented marketing
plans were nearly 2X more likely to stay on strategy most or
all of the time, states Marketo.

When you plan, make sure you have the right calendar.
More than 2/3 of marketers agree that using a marketing
calendar is important, but most are unsatisfied with their
current tools, reports Marketo.
Popular tools include online calendar tracking software,
Outlook, Google calendar, desktop calendar program,
spreadsheets, and whiteboard calendar.
To learn more about calendar must-haves and planning for
the future, check out the infographic:

groupisd.com

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Veronica Maria Jarski is the Opinions editor and a

senior writer at MarketingProfs.

The five worst threats to

global brand building
Scott Goodson

Brands hurdle through the sky and around the world with
unprecedented speed. At least the brand and its values, its
vision and point of view can be spread quickly like wildfire
across oceans and geography.
The ancient brands of the past, built over decades, and
centuries have a different attitude. Quick? They quip. Not
possible. Weve been the brand of choice for the most famous
people in the history of the human race. It takes time and
huge investments and gazillions of dollars.
No, not true say the young upstarts aiming for global
relevance and adoration and an ever increasing slice of the
global middle classs daily spend.
After 30 years building some of the worlds most iconic
brands, I see positives from both sides of this debate.
In early part of this century, I was the creative lead behind
Heinekens push to establish one global brand, one global
advertising campaign across all territories. An achievement
that never had happened prior to this before. It took
incredible patience, relationships and a great idea and
finally we managed to achieve this objective past politics and
challenges. One brand, one name. It was the reason I moved
from StrawberryFrog Amsterdam to start StrawberryFrog
11 years ago. Since then I had the pleasure to lead the
global brand advertising for Emirates Airline and wrote the
movement motto Hello Tomorrow, oversaw LGs new global
brand idea Its all possible, the global digital and social

branding for Pampers. I pinned the words Make History

on a wall that articulated the global strategy to build the Jim
Beam brand across all territories. Google, Morgan Stanley,
and one of my most favorites the global cultural movement
RISE for one of Indias most powerful
companies: Mahindra. These were brands built on an idea
thats highly relevant to a wide range of people, based on
universal insights and the familiar echoes of human desires.
Always the same two or three words repeated back to
crystallize a common and relevant point of view, that many
people can rally around. In my best selling book UPRISING:
HOW TO BUILD A BRAND AND CHANGE THE WORLD BY
SPARKING CULTURAL MOVEMENTS argues that brands
should be striving to design global movements, after all. Not
just doing traditional positioning thats so 2005.

brandknewmag.com

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So many different examples of big idea brand building that

buttress entire companies, with an immense workforce or
hothouses of innovation.
But increasingly there are examples of brands that spread
their story like lightning compared to traditional brands. And
yet these modern brands, while they spread, they also live
off of the violent waves of the global internet feeding off
positive stories and on the benefit of strangers who spread
the positive word via social media - brands such as Airbnb
and Uber. But for these new brands it can be a forest of
spikes and dark caves. Today for example Uber was banned
in Delhi because one driver was accused of rape but yet word
of this spread across the social space in the blink of an eye.
My gut says to me that while speed can be a virtue it feels
that the cornerstones of global brand building remain
unchanged. And that avoiding or worst ignoring them will
bring you bad voodoo.
Heres the path you must take. These are threats to global
brand building that you should take heed.
1. Your mouth may drop open but must build a global brand
based on a big movement idea that is relevant across all

territories and not just talking about yourself and your

great company. The idea must be bigger and richer
than the product, service you provide or your company.
Whats relevant to the daily lives of your consumers?
What matters in their daily lives? Its not about your
company.
2. A global brand faces many hurdles to birth. Differences
between countries shouldnt be one of them. Weve
developed a process that overcomes these obstacles. We
disconnect all things that we can disconnect. And connect
the important things that companies need to connect to
build the brand across borders. One wire goes to ground
and one goes to sky.
3. Global brand building happens slowly and meticulously.
It cannot be rushed, yet the building blocks are needed
even in exciting times. Plant your feet firmly in the earth.
And aim for global. It cannot remain in the echoes of the
global management teams head.
4. Be a brain against a microphone and become a
courageous confident thought leader with a rising
purpose. Be the movement that employees and consumers
cannot help but join and be a part of.
5. Maximize all of this through creative that people press
their nose against the window to get a peek at. Express
your ideas with cunning creative content that begets an
unconditional devotion to the brand.
You fidget in anticipation about a glorious global brand--all
absolutely doable. Without a global brand, eventually the big
handsome global brands will come and drag your consumers
away, creating frustrations.
Scott Goodson is founder of the worlds first movement
marketing agency strawberryfrog. Hes best selling
author of Uprising: how to build a brand and change the
world by sparking cultural movements. Scott developed
the idea of movement marketing as the modern way to
build a brand and has worked with Emirates Airline,
Heineken, Jim Beam, Google and Mahindra.

Brand is the experience &

experience is the Brand
Vikram Chadha

In the 80s and early 90s it was the product economy which
ruled the roost. From mid 90s to till about 2010 the products
differentiators started becoming the same and services
gained prominence. Over the last 3 to 5 years services are
also becoming the same. Both products and services have
become passe, and there is a new economy which puts the
journey of the customer at the centre of everything. I call it
the experience economy. Here I will share some examples of
new companies and old companies of what they are doing
in this experience economy and then we will lay some key
principles and attributes which are required in building the
brand and the experience. In the experience economy, brand
is the experience and experience is the brand.
The first example I want to share is of a company which built
its entire brand and service based on experience. Besides
the disruptive business model it is the experience that the
customers of Netflix rave about. Building a great brand,

especially online, starts with offering exceptional value to the

customers. In the eyes of the Netflix subscriber, the brand
Netflix is built through amazing customer experiences, which
is what makes the Netflix subscribers highly engaged with
the brand, loyal and strong passionate advocates of the
brand. Netflix experience has created a plethora of wowsthe Netflix subscriber is spoilt for choice. In his onboarding
process he has a huge selection of movies to choose from, he
can find and select what he wants easily, he gets the movie
delivered to him or streamed in time, all this happens with
simple ease of use and convenience. All this is available to
the subscriber at a very fair price and offered through very
simple monthly based value proposition. These capabilities
have been made available by technology, but it is this simple
experience which is at the centre of Netflix brand building
efforts.
The first experience differentiator is in the selection of titles.

groupisd.com

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Netflix removed the physical constraints of the store and

the geographic constraints of reaching a location. Netflix
selection choice gives the customers an advantage to select
the popular, not so popular, critics choice, most importantly
their own choice which the traditional stores simply cannot
match. One of the stellar experiences that Netflix worked out
is matching content with the customers. They have developed
a proprietary recommendation system called cinematch.
Every time the subscriber sends back a movie, Netflix requests
for a rating of the movie, the subscriber with a single click can
rate the movie. With this data and based on the millions of
feedback by other users, Netflix has developed a map of user
ratings and steers its customers towards movies and shows
preferred by people with tastes that are most like yours. In the
experience economy the community collaboration has a big
role and we see this coming into play here as well. I call this
system as collaborative analytics as this adds a high level of
sophistication to the customers experience. This experience is
fantastic as it monitors trends among customers and uses this
this data to personalize an individuals customer experience.
This input is then reflected on the web and mobile page of
Netflix of each subscriber as each one is displayed with a
customized web page with only the titles that he is most likely
to be interested in. This enables the customer to request for
the new titles easily and creates a superlative experience
chain reaction. It is simple, personalized and relevant which
are the key attributes of this experience economy. From my
point of view this experience on Netflix has created a very
strong following for the brand Netflix. This powerful engine
enables experiences which makes the Netflix subscribers a
strong advocate of the Netflix brand. I am one of them. The
experience they offer to the customers is platinum standard.
My second example is of UBER. Though UBER has been in
the news lately for all the wrong reasons however UBER is a
testimony of what experience should be and this experience
has ultimately led to define the UBER brand. One has these
services at your fingertips whenever you need a ride and you
are in complete control. Once you open the app you can
visually see how many UBER vehicles are in the vicinity. One
can make out which vehicles are free for a ride and which
vehicles are carrying passengers. As a member one can set
up the pickup location, one can choose the car which you
want. Within five minutes, you have a professional UBER
driver at your service.

Once you have chosen the vehicle, UBER creates a wow

experience for you. One receives a text confirmation indicating
the time of arrival, vehicle make, along with the license plate
number, the photo of the driver and his rating. After you
have taken your ride, you have the opportunity to provide
complete feedback, you rate the vehicle, the driving along
with the professionalism of the driver who took you to the
location. The entire experience that one gets is outstanding
driven by a simple user friendly app. This kind of experience
propels the ecosystem of an experience which is memorable.
The drivers want a good rating as it equates to more selection
for them which means more trips, which in turn means more
money. For the customer the simplicity of hailing a vehicle at
your convenience in your location and the experience you get
creates a service which you want to use often.

UBER has built its brand by taking the experience to another

level. The premium it is able to command from the consumer
is because of the awesome experience it offers. There is
no money exchanged with the driver, there is no tipping
involved as the UBER experience offers a hassle free cashless
transaction, as the UBER experience already has your credit
card details registered with them. The cherry on the cake is
when you get an UBER receipt, besides getting the fare one
also gets the miles travelled and map, the average speed
and the duration of your ride.
To sum up what is unbelievably cool is the entire experience.
They have been able to turn the entire transportation and taxi
industry upside down because of their simple differentiated
experience. Consumers love the experience and they share
their real time experiences with others. This results in positive
word of mouth which eventually leads to building a brand.
From the incredibly simple app, one can ride a car service
which you get within five minutes of your request. Next in

your experience journey you get all the text messages

with your updates. The ride and the quality of the car is
an experience in itself as it is comfortable and classy. The
feedback mechanism and the cashless transaction makes it
a ride to remember everytime. This is the key in building the
brand as this entire journey is enjoyable, memorable, and
hence the reason the consumer calls this as an UBERESQUE
experience.
My next example is of
Coca-Cola which for many
decades has been the most
valuable brand. The reason
Coca Cola has managed
to do this is because of the
strong connect they have
been able to have with their
consumers consistently. In
2014 Coca Cola has been
displaced from the top by
Apple and this is clearly a
reflection of the times we
live in. However as always
Cola Cola is adapting and
becoming relevant to its
consumers. I do not know
how many of you have seen
the new Coca-Cola ad of
Vietnam. If you have not
seen the ad you may check out the same on http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=xbwKPSbL0jw. What is special about
the ad is that it provides a connect with the everyday lives
of the people. Coca Cola here is delving into the everyday
experiences of people. By going into this space where people
can experience the product and make it part of their daily
lives. The product (bottle) is being made useful and relevant to
each of them in their own lives. Each individual is customizing
the relevance based on their personal needs. As each user
is designing, curating and creating his own experiences. The
connect with the brand becomes even stronger. Another fact
of paramount importance is that these personal experiences
are being shared on community which builds the community
experiences. This enables consumers to become advocates
of the brand. These engaged customers then become the
stimuli of the brand. They spread the word around. This is
what the brands of today must do. Rather than telling people
of how cool they are, let people work with the brands
product and services and let them tell you how cool they
are. The storytelling by people has much more significance
and this is what creates engaged consumers. These engaged
consumers create the community for the brand and become
true advocates of the brand.
Some key principles that one needs to remember to create
these memorable experiences, which creates your connect
with the brand. These are:
1. Keep it simple: The value proposition and the
experience has to be simple so that it is easily understood
by people. It is important to be easily found, example
Netflix and Amazon makes it easy for you to select and
with one click you buy.
2. Make it engaging: Make connect with your customers.
Dont tell your customer that you are cool, let your

customers share their experiences and let them tell you

that they are cool. example Google, which is now the
most valuable brand in the world does so. The self driven
car concept from Google has engaged the users from
many perspectives across many industries. This is the
kind of content that make people want to follow you.
These engagement builds community, these are very
powerful as they fuel your brand. Google embraces this
community. Today if you want to build a brand make the
experiences of your brand engaging with your customers.
3. Dont confuse branding with advertising:
Advertising can build awareness but brands are built
through customer experience.
4. Personalization relevance: Superior experience is
delivered when it is made relevant to the type of customer.
The Netflix service is platinum standard as the experience
to the subscriber is made personalized because
of their excellent recommendation engine. Online
world, smartphones and software driven technologies
are powerful tools which has enabled the world of
personalization. In both the examples used as a case
study for this paper Netflix and UBER, the experience of
getting the service when you want it, where you want it
in one click is a killer differentiator. The personalization
of experience creates a very strong emotional connect
between the customers and the brand. The customers
share these experiences online and word of mouth which
build the brand.
5. Innovation counts: Innovation inspires people. People
become subscribers of brands who are constantly
innovating and keep themselves fresh. Brands have to
be keep remaining fresh so that their subscribers keep
coming back. Take the example of Apple, it has been
able to redefine categories because of the innovation
they were able to create through iPods/ iTunes which
transformed the music player, iPhones which changed
the landscape of how phones are used by consumers.
Google is now the new innovation brand as its product
spans across diverse categories from map systems,
wearable devices, productivity tools, cloud services and
driver-less car. People connect with this as it inspires
them and they share these inspirations with others and
promotes Google further.
All of the above should be done in a way that it is fun and
professional. Make the experiences for your customers
memorable so that they share their experiences and stories
with friends, family and communities, and these experiences
make the Brand. Once you are on the journey keep this cycle
going as the brand will define the experiences and in turn
these experiences will define the brand.
Vikram Chadha is a seasoned telecom professional with
over 17 years of experience in Asia, Africa, America
and Middle East in the telecommunication sector with
du, MTN, Globacom, Reliance etc.Presently he is the
Vice President of Marketing at du. Recently he has been
honored by the World Marketing Congress and CMO
Council as Top 100 Marketing leaders in the world.He
was also awarded for Thought Leadership Award at Indian Innovation
Awards 2014. Vikram Chadha is a thought leader on Mobile Data, Pricing,
Digital and Cloud services for SMBs, Building Brands and Innovation.
He speaks regularly and shares his vision at leading industry events and
writes for many top publications.

Are
marketers
as tech-savvy
as we think?
Nicole McNab

Are marketers really driving digital development?

Weve reached the point where it no longer seems helpful
to debate whether digital is separate from marketing activity
since digital is so prolific. Or that, seeking personalised
customer engagement, the chief marketing officer will become
the orchestrator of new technology-driven experiences and
services. Analysts Gartner even predicted that the head of
marketing would outspend the IT director by 2017.
The problem is, however, that the way marketing and digital
activities are organised isnt yet synonymous and marketers
may not actually be the ones driving, technology-based
innovations in their organisation.
When we looked at what information sources b2b marketers
use, a healthy majority of them use market data reports
(69%), customer feedback surveys (68%) and market research
(64%). But fewer than half of them are using social media
and analytics (44%), and less than one third social media
tools (31%). Marketers are still to make sense of the data
blizzard, it appears.
In a separate study, we asked IT and business decisionmakers in the UK and US to what extent departments in
their organisation are, with permission or not, by-passing
corporate IT channels and developing their own apps,
databases or buying cloud services otherwise known as
shadow IT.
IT heads seem resigned to its inevitability: 77% said there
was some shadow IT going on in their organisation. Given
resource constraints and the need to satisfy 24/7 customer

needs, everyone with business targets is pushing the

boundaries to get a lot more done with a lot less.
But most surprising is which departments are most active
in shadow IT. 36% say business strategy, 27% say finance,
but marketing is referenced by only 14% of these senior
executives.
What are we to make of b2b marketings low uptake of social
media analytics and untraditional IT development?
Perhaps we can say that the chief marketing officers team
will naturally be outsourcing tasks such as analytics to
the sharpest digital agencies it cant be expected to do
everything, after all. Or marketing teams may be driving
innovative developments via the corporate IT channels.
Perhaps they dont need their own programme of technology
acquisition and development, even though those who are
doing it this way say its an easier and quicker option.
It needs further investigation but these findings raise the
suspicion that marketing disciplines in large companies are
not yet the orchestrator of agile, technology-led development.
In a world of higher expectations and shrinking resources,
marketers must find new approaches to leading the way on
digital innovation and ensure they are not left behind by
their colleagues when it comes to smarter (if unorthodox)
approaches to doing so.
Nicole McNab, project manager, Vanson Bourne

Why Your Data

Scientists Need to Be
Storytellers, and How to
Get Them There
Laura Patterson

Youve probably heard or read this stanza from Samuel Taylor

Coleridges The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Water, water,
everywhere, / And all the boards did shrink; / Water, water,
everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink.

manage, as well as shorter product lifecycles, greater price

transparency, and higher customer experience expectations,
are creating an exponential increase in the amount of
available marketing data.

Are you wondering what that quote has to do with marketing?

Like the volume of water in the worlds oceans, the volume of
data available to marketers is simply overwhelming.

But unless all that data can be effectively collected, analyzed,

and transformed into meaningful and actionable insights
and then used to tell a compelling, actionable storyit is as
useless as salt water to someone who is parched and adrift
on the ocean.

More new channels, competition, and distinct segments to

brandknewmag.com

22

Data Skills Vital to Marketing

A recent study from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
revealed that business leaders rate creating a data strategy
for marketing and predictive analytics as one of Marketings
most important priorities. Survey participants suggested that
marketing pros often lack the data science and business
analytics skills to extract valuable, actionable insights from
both large and small data setsand that many organizations
lack an information, technology, and data science strategy.
That capability gap has created enormous opportunities
for data scientists from other disciplines to join the ranks of
marketers. The demand for data scientists has skyrocketed
(Harvard Business Review termed it the sexiest job of the
21st century).
For marketing executives who do not yet have this role on
staff, here is a short job/skills description. Data scientists
capture, manipulate, and transform data to create meaning.
They need superb technical skills, such as the ability to devise
algorithmic solutions to solve complex business problems.
Ideally, data scientists employ both internal and external data
and structured and unstructured data to help an organization
make better decisions and gain competitive advantage.

Storytelling as Data Skill

The ultimate challenge for data scientists is to use the data
to create stories. Data scientists worth their salt can use
spreadsheets and visualization tools to support analysis.
Their real value lies in their ability to transform the data
into a narrative experience for both internal and external
communication.
Johnathan Harris, the creator of We Feel Fine and Whale
Hunt, reminds us that the data is just part of the story. He
adds, I think people have begun to forget how powerful
human stories are, exchanging their sense of empathy for a
fetishistic fascination with data, networks, patterns, and total
information... The human stuff is the main stuff, and the data
should enrich it.

Five Tips for Data Storytelling

Many marketing executives we work with have asked us for
ideas on how to help their data scientists go beyond the data
to become storytellers. Here are five coaching tips for doing
just that:
1. Start with the business question that needs to be
answered (think of it as a mystery to be solved), such
as which customers are most likely to buy a particular
product/service, or what is the next best vertical segment

to pursue, or what are the key customer touchpoints that

are affecting customer experience post-sale? Knowing
the answers is what help you make the story relevant to
your audience.
2. Ask the right questions of your data to collect the
evidence needed to solve the mystery. Trying to glean
insights from the abundance of data without the business
questions may take you down numerous rabbit holes.
3. Craft the story, set the stage, and identify the characters,
such as which customers, or which competitors. Make
the narrative clear and memorable. A good story has a
plotare you a challenger in an established market or
the category leader facing niche players nipping at your
heels? It is essential that the story inspire action and/or
have a compelling takeaway. Convey the intentions and
perceptions of the characters.
4. Decide what data to include and organize the data to
complement the narrative, support the characters, and
reveal the plot. Most people cannot discern the salient
points from tables. They need pictures. Visualize the data
so it captivates the audience. Visualization is the process
of telling a story via the graphical depiction of statistical
information. Daniel Waisberg, analytics advocate at
Google, says, Good data visualization stands on its
own.
5. Adapt the story to fit the audience. The language, tone,
and focus may need to be adjusted depending on who
is hearing the story. The C-suite may prefer a shorter
version of the storyjust the highlights and recommended
action. The person responsible for developing the action
plan may want a more in-depth version of the story,
along with an understanding of the interrelationships of
all the players and pieces.
More than ever, marketers need to be able to use data in
a variety of waysto inform the organization of customer
buying preferences or to match personas with channels and
touchpoints, for example.
Data scientists who can bring the art of storytelling to those
challenges can help you both prove and improve the value
of Marketing in your organization and ultimately to achieve
market prominence.
Laura Patterson is president and founder of VisionEdge
Marketing. For 20+ years, she has been helping CEOs
and marketing executives at companies such as Cisco,
Elsevier, ING, Intel, Kennametal, and Southwest Airlines
prove and improve the value of marketing.

Do you need to be
a certain type of
person to work in
marketing?
Geoff Trickey

The ultimate goal of those working in marketing is to promote

a product and generates sales, but what does it take?
Earlier this year, Brand Republic asked readers to complete
an online personality survey from PCL that identified the key
personality traits and skills required to work in the marketing
profession. The results are in.
Marketeers need to focus on the bigger picture with a clear
vision about the marketing tactics and strategies that will
deliver results. A wide frame of reference fuels creativity with
fresh ideas and a keen awareness of upcoming and declining
trends.
They need to be agile, able to think on their feet, keep up
with rapidly changing communications technology and
to embrace change with enthusiasm. They also require
the communication and interpersonal skills to meet the
changing needs and attitudes of their clients, the trends in
their industries, and to deploy most persuasive marketing
approaches.
The distribution of competency ratings achieved by the
sample of 122 marketing professionals who completed PCLs
Profile:Match assessment is illustrated below, as compared to
a general population sample of over 4,000.
Statistically, the most distinctive features of the group are high
levels of persuasive communication and strategic awareness.
In line with perceptions about marketing, participants also
scored highly on creativity and bring strong analytic skills to
their role.
Marketeers scored lowest overall in attention to detail,
which might have been expected since this is in some ways

the obverse of a big picture orientation. It is something that

marketing departments may need to recruit specifically for in
areas such as proofing, compiling bids, and other areas that
emphasise vigilance and quality control.
Low scores on development of others suggest that agencies
may rely on hiring in developed talent, something that
is understandable in a highly competitive and pressured
environment.
The relatively low self-confidence result probably reflects the
edgy aspects of the creative personality.
The motivation competence scores are around average for
a working population but are compensated here by results
orientation and project management, which are reassuring
signs of purposefulness. The team orientation may also play
a part, suggesting that cooperation and teamwork may be
more significant than driving personal ambition.
The results also looked at the relationship between
competencies and job satisfaction. The findings revealed
that those with higher customer focus, project management,
resilience and motivation scores had the strongest links with
job satisfaction.
Finding all of the most desirable competencies in a single
individual will be extremely difficult. Understanding the spread
of skills and personality characteristics that are required and
ensuring that a suitably diverse set of complimentary skills is
available amongst the team and department is likely to be
fundamental to marketing success.
Geoff Trickey, managing director, Psychological Consultancy

Peter Gasca

The shamed and infamous White House intern is stepping out of the shadows
and attempting to rebrand herself. Her brave move provides lessons for all
entrepreneurs.
Twitter has a new account as of last week, and it is one you
should watch.

was an absolute media circus--a happy distraction from our

obsession with O.J. Simpson.

Monica Lewinsky.

For Lewinsky, the scandal turned into one of the first true
Internet defaming campaigns after being picked up and
shared globally online by the Drudge Report--all of this before
Google existed. The relentless humiliation and shaming
turned her into an instant and infamous public figure, and
eventually forced Lewinsky to retreat into what shadows she
could find.

In case you were born late in this century or were living under
a rock in the 1990s, Monica Lewinsky is the former White
House intern during the Bill Clinton presidency whose affair
with the sitting president from 1995 to 1997 eventually led
to Clintons impeachment. For those of us who remember, it

groupisd.com

26

After an unsuccessful attempt to repair her image in 2001

for the documentary Monica in Black and White, Lewinsky is
stepping out again. In June 2014, she published a poignant
article in Vanity Fair discussing her life over the past decade
and how she has managed to deal with the omnipresent
public scrutiny.
Last week, she joined Twitter--amassing more than 73,000
followers in just a few days.
It is clear that she is stepping out again to leverage the same
power of the Internet that destroyed her reputation in an
attempt to repair it. Social media is a powerful beast in this
regard, but it is also capricious. Whether she succeeds at
repairing her image or not, her brave attempt to rebrand
herself provides great lessons for others. Here are four:

1. Control your reputation online, or

someone else will.
For years, the news and social media constructed Lewinskys
reputation. Filled with embellishments and lies, often
politically motivated, her reputation was destroyed. Because
her terms of immunity restricted her from speaking about her
affair or defending herself for years, the Internet relentlessly
pounced unanswered. It became so bad that when she did
attempt to repair her reputation in 2001, the gap to make up
was just too great.
These days, it is incredibly important for everyone to control
his or her reputation online, and for the most part, it is quite
easy to do. More important, you need to make sure that there
is as much positive content about you and your company as
there is negative content. And if you do not believe that you
need to worry about scandal or controversy, good for you.
But the ease and remarkable speed at which even a rumor
can spread is enough to destroy a reputation in a few hours.
Stay ahead of the game.

2. Always take the high road.

In her public appearances since the scandal, Lewinsky has
never attacked or defamed anyone involved with her trial or
scandal, some sarcasm excepted. She has instead done her
best to accept the truths and attempt to rebuild her reputation
on a platform of who she really is. Of course, Lewinsky
understands the Internets feedback loop of defame and
shame, so the slightest misstep in her personal rebranding
would spread faster and more furiously than her original
scandal.
This approach is very admirable and smart. It might be difficult
for many people to look past those who are attempting or
have succeeded at defaming us to instead take the high road.
While it often seems the Internet feeds off of vitriol and hate,
it is still a place for occasional healing and reconciliation. It
is more difficult to earn forgiveness, but you will never get it if
you come out of the gates firing back defensively.

3. Ignore the noise.

Lewinsky has been called every hateful name in the book,

and there is no shortage of lingering hate remaining. She is
older and more mature now and, like a professional athlete,
has learned to tune out most of the noise. Instead, she is
choosing to outpace the noise by emphasizing the positive
lessons from her experience. Whether she can win over older
generations who know only the medias side of the story is
to be determined. What is important is that this strategy will
build the counter viewpoint online for future generations to
consider.
Without a doubt, the Internet is full of noise. As entrepreneurs
and business owners, it is just a matter of time before an
angry customer, disgruntled employee, or random individual
with a grudge decides to take to the Internet to spill his or her
grievances. As you become more successful, the more you
should expect it. There are times when you should react, and
as long as you are reacting properly, the experience can help
improve your reputation. Other times, however, it is just noise
and should be ignored. Often, engaging in the noise does
more harm than good.

4. If you cannot beat them, re-imagine

yourself.
In the Vanity Fair piece, Lewinsky points out that she has been
unsuccessful at finding a good job, despite her skills and
training, because her reputation carries too much baggage.
In one case, the recruiter for a government-funded company
asks for a Letter of Indemnification from the Clintons (since)
there is a 25 percent chance that Mrs. Clinton will be the next
president.
Unable to find an employer willing to take a chance on her,
Lewinsky is putting her introverted nature aside to speak
publicly about online bullying. Her goal is to help other
victims of the shame game put her suffering to good use,
and give purpose to her past. Recently, she nervously spoke
for the first time publicly at the Forbes Under 30 Event and
focused her speech on the problem of online bullying. And
while she has turned down lucrative deals to secure the rights
to her story to avoid being perceived as an opportunistic
victim, now she can comfortably leverage her experience to
create a positive impact and make a living.
For the rest of us, a professional failure can carry the
embarrassing weight of shame like a sack of bricks. What
we must keep in mind is that how we react to these failures
is far more important to our reputation and character. More
than likely, we will not be remembered for a specific failure
but rather the failure to learn from our mistakes. We can all
learn from Monica Lewinsky.
Peter Gasca is the co-founder of Wild Creations, an Inc
5000 company that focuses on kid-related products and
supports kid entrepreneurs. He is also a small-business
consultant, youth entrepreneur mentor, and business
adjunct lecturer.

Why James Bond

Still Drives an Aston
Martin, Even If Hes
Not Helping Sales.
An obscure British
car and the spy who
loved it
Robert Klara, Robert Mann

brandknewmag.com

28

When Desmond Llewelyn (better known as Q) displayed

the Aston Martin DB5 to James Bond in 1964, he was
unveiling a sports car version of the license to kill. The movie
was Goldfinger, the third in the Bond series, and the sleek,
silver sports carpacked with predatory perks like front-wing
machine guns and tire-slashing hubcapswas really the costar of the film, assuring Aston Martin a place in the annals
of cultural cool.
Now, as a mark of brand continuity, the newest Bond flick
Spectre, set for release in November of 2015will also
feature an Aston Martin. This latest little sport is called the
DB10. Itll be the 11th time the pricey British nameplate has
appeared in the Bond franchise. As Aston Martin CEO Andy
Palmer said recently, Everybody around the worldloves to
see Bond at the wheel of an Aston Martin.
No doubt thats trueeven though (just for the record) 007
has driven lots of cars, including Bentleys, Jaguars, Lotuses,
Rolls Royces, and even Toyotas and Fords. But Aston Martin is
Bonds preferred ride, and the relationship between the car
brand and the film franchise is well into its fifth decade. Its
easy to see what EON Productions and Sony Pictures gets out
of this partnershipnot just money, but a swell fleet of cars
(Aston-Martin made 10 DB10s for the film.)
Still, aside from glamor and media buzz, whats in it for Aston
Martin? Two years ago, FrontRow Analytics computed that the
brands in Skyfall enjoyed $7.6 million in brand value on
opening weekend for the cost of placement. But that figure is
spread out over a slew of brands that paid for a part of the
action, among them Macallan whiskey, Omega watches, Tom
Ford suits and Heineken beerwhich ponied up a reported
$45 million for the honor of being sipped by Mr. Bond.
Whats more, Aston Martin is not even producing the DB10
for public sale; the DB9 is as close as one can get. And at
$198,700 for the convertible model, it doesnt seem likely the

brand will find many customers among weekend moviegoers

at the mall. In fact, last year Aston Martin sold 4,200
vehicles, not exactly one in every garage. In comparison,
Bentley (which isnt cheap, either) moved 10,000 vehicles out
of showrooms.
Does [placement in the film] actually sell Astons? Considering
how few they sell, probably not, said Paul A. Eisenstein,
publisher of automotive news site The Detroit Bureau. But
the link creates something of an exclusivity, a sense of mystery
and excitement to the brand, and thats rare.
For its part, Aston Martin corporate has gone on the record
saying plain-old brand awareness is enough return on
investment for them. Last year, Aston Martins vp for the
Americas Julian Jenkins observed that undoubtedly this
long-standing association [with James Bond] has enabled us
to achieve greater brand awareness globally, particularly in
areas and nations where our brand is perhaps otherwise not
as well known.
Bond films do seem to have a measurable effect on the resale
arena. The franchise has worked wonders for the value of
older cars. Four years ago, one of the original Goldfinger
DB5s used in the filming sold for $4.6 million. The other one
was stolen in 1997 from the Boca Raton Airport and has yet
to turn up.
Investors stymied by meager interest rates have also
discovered that vintage Aston Martins arent just fine vehicles,
but fine growth vehicles. U.K.-based Aston Workshop reports
the value of a classic Aston Martin can rise by 100 percent in
just five years. Purchasing an Aston Martin and maintaining
it in good condition enables you to enjoy the pleasure of
driving one of Britains most stunning cars while feeling
confident in the knowledge that its value to you and to others
will not diminish, states the site.

Nike Lawsuit: How 3 Top Designers

Allegedly Stole IP And Left For Adidas
Mark Wilson

Co.Design obtained Nikes lawsuit

against three former designers who
left to found an Adidas design studio.
Here are the highlights.
There are no two bigger rivals in business than Nike and
Adidas. Nike owns a 17% share of the global sportswear
market, Adidas owns 12%. Nike has leveraged cutting-edge
design to increase its foothold, while Adidas has watched
sales plummet, even following its $150 million World Cup
sponsorship.
So it was a major coup for Adidas last September, when three
high-profile Nike designersMarc Dolce, Mark Miner, and
Denis Dekovicleft to found a Brooklyn design studio for
Adidas. But last week, Nike filed a $10 million lawsuit against
the designers, alleging that they leveraged trade secrets to
get the job.
Co.Design has acquired the 50-page suit from the Multnomah
County Circuit Court, where it was filed, and embedded it at
the bottom of this story for you to explore. The document
reads like a white-collar crime novel, as Nike portrays the
three designers as bartering corporate secrets in exchange
for freedom, fame, and fortune. In Nikes telling, theyre so
insecure that they purchase social media followers to boost
their perceived popularity. And theyre so dissatisfied with
their own selling out, Nike claims, that they plan to ditch
Adidas anyway. For those who dont have the wherewithal
to read a 50-page lawsuit, here are the documents juiciest
allegations.

The Designers Copied Nike Corporate IP On

Their Way Out
As Nike tells the story, Dolce, Miner, and Dekovic decided to

open their own shoe design studio, an independent brand

that could eventually compete in the global market, in April
2014. But without financial backing, they began negotiations
to open a Brooklyn design studio under Adidas. By August,
they each had contract offers with the company. And in
September of the same year, the team left Nike together,
proclaiming their new allegiance for Adidas on their last day.

groupisd.com

30

But before leaving Nike, the designers promised Adidas

a wealth of information and knowledge that would give
Adidas the advantage over Nike, and they allegedly copied
thousands of proprietary documents on Nikes upcoming
product and promotional road mapscomplete with
performance details, testing methodologies, and information
on new materialsto bring with them.
The three designers had all signed very similar noncompete
agreements, which prohibited them specifically from working
for Adidas during or for one year after leaving Nike. It also
prohibited them from copying corporate IP.

The Designers Not-So-Carefully Covered

Their Tracks
To avoid detection while planning their departure, the
designers stopped using their Nike email accounts to
communicate as early as April, but they continued to use
their Nike-owned iPhones and laptops. In an unspecified
communication, Miner expressed that it probably wasnt
a good idea to be chatting on corporate equipment, and
suggested they at least switch to WhatsApp for more private
communications.

The caution, and lack-there-of, failed. Nike claims to have

tens of thousands of messages shared between Dolce,
Miner, and Dekovic that trace months of plotting to leave
the company.

Dekovic May Have Handed Nike The Very

Pile Of Evidence Needed For This Lawsuit
Nowhere in the suit does Nike reveal exactly how it acquired all
of these communications, though the document implies that
Nike may have been monitoring the designers. Furthermore,
Nike used digital forensics to mine the corporate laptops and
iPhones that the trio had been using to communicate. The
Oregonian reported that Nike worked with Virginias CyTech
Services to perform data forensics.

Less than two weeks before leaving the company, Dekovic

had the contents of his corporate laptop copied (Miner
and Dolce suggested just ripping out the hard drive, but
concluded that might look too suspicious). And three days
before leaving, Nike says Dolce emailed himself a .ZIP file
containing confidential documents including a yet-to-bereleased shoe design for a Nike-sponsored athlete.
According to the suit, Dolce and Miner both erased their
iPhones before handing them back to the company, but
apparently Dekovic turned in his gear physically damaged
rather than erased wrongfully believ[ing] that both items [his
phone and his laptop] had been damaged so badly that Nike
could not access their contents, the suit says.

So Dekovic may have served as Nikes chief source of intel

though its technically feasible that Nike may have been able
to extract data from Dolce and Miners wiped iPhones, too.

They Never Really Wanted To Work For

Adidas, And Planned To Jump Ship ASAP
Nike claims the designers original plan had been to open
an independent design studio, which they dubbed names like
H-Design and Satellite. Without financial backing, though,
they decided the best course of action would be to pitch
Adidas on the idea. Adidas had already expressed interest in
recruiting Dolce and Dekovic, as Brian Foresta, an Adidas VP
and former Nike executive, reached out in March of 2014 to
discuss their professional careers.

The trio had hoped the studio could be independently

operated, and proposed to one another that such an
arrangement might work around Nikes noncompete
agreement. Adidas wanted more buy-in, though, and the
designers decided to cash in and temporarily give up their
plan for independence. But they said that they didnt really
want to work for the company, the suit claims.

So in May 2014, a month after initiating talks with Adidas,

Dolce and Dekovic agreed to buy fake followers on Instagram
and Twitter, Nike says. Nike concludes that 85% of their
followers have been purchased.

Dekovic Had a Side Business He Hid From

His Partners
The suit outlines a private venture Dekovic had started that
even Dolce, Miner, and Adidas didnt know about that violates
Dekovics non-compete, Nike claims. He was working on a
Michael Jackson-inspired throwback shoe and sportswear
line called Moonwalker, complete with investors and product
launches planned for 2015 and 2017.

Dekovic projected Moonwalker making $93 million in revenue

in the first six years, according to recovered documents. Nike
writes that the first three shoe designs discovered in a Dekovic
PowerPoint presentation are essentially copies of vintage
Nike footwear. Nike claims ownership over Dekovics
Moonwalker creations.

Miner Almost Asked Nike HR For His

Noncompete Agreement To Give To Adidas
Concerned that Nike might sue them for breach of contract
when they left the company, the designers got Adidas to agree
to provide legal representation as part of their employment.
The legal team wanted to see a copy of their noncompete
agreements. Miner then asked Dolce and Dekovic if he
should just ask Abby in Nike HR for the document. Dolce
replied, No way!!! Dekovic already had a copy.
As one of the designers is said to have communicated, As
soon as we are ready, we can terminate the agreement with
Adidas and being the [independent] studio.

The Designers Purchased Social Media

Followers To Boost Their Appeal To Adidas
Though Dolce, Miner, and Dekovic have helped design some
of Nikes biggest recent hits across running, basketball, and
soccerlike Nikes Free running shoes and Magista soccer
cleatsthey apparently felt they needed to appear more
famous to attract investment from Adidas or anyone else.

On His Way Out, Dekovic Left The Door To

Nike Open
Despite months of alleged collusion, Nike says that the three
designers all left the company graciously. In this moment,
Dekovic, who had developed side projects with both Adidas
and independent investors for his Moonwalker line, was the
one to try the hardest to keep his reputation with Nike in
good standing.
We have reached out to Dolce, Miner, and Dekovic for
comment but have not heard back.

Mark Wilson is a writer who started Philanthroper.com,

a simple way to give back every day. His work has
also appeared at Gizmodo, Kotaku, PopMech, PopSci,
Esquire, American Photo and Lucky Peach.

How brands
can join the
wearable
revolution
John Newbold

As we wait for the arrival of the hotly anticipated Apple Watch

in the New Year, in the last month we also heard that Samsung
and LG are in the process of adding new, potentially more
fashionable, smartwatches to their ranges.
Like the smartphone and tablet revolutions before it, an
explosion of hardware choices for smartwatches seems just
around the corner.
The huge variety of new hardware is a good indicator that
amongst the myriad devices, no single ideal user experience
for how customers will actually live with these devices has
been defined. Theres a sense of history repeating itself here
when you look back to the early days of the mobile phone.
In those early years we saw a vast array of phones of all
shapes and sizes, running all sorts of different software and
trying to provide different services to customers. As customer
adoption increased, so too did the common user experiences
were now familiar with. And, as with the device in our
pockets, it may take some time before we understand the
true value of any new device on our wrists.
So, if manufacturers cant agree on what the hardware should
deliver, where should brands be starting when thinking about
the experiences that they deliver on top of the hardware?
Anything that wont sell, I dont want to invent. Its sale is
proof of utility, and utility is success. These wise words from
Thomas Edison should be the mantra of any brand looking
to deliver experiences on wearables.
Think back to when the iPhone first launched, customers were
barraged with a flurry of crap apps offering little or no utility.
Many brands got caught up in an app gold rush, forgetting
that in between them and the carrot of a million downloads
they would first need to make something useful that customers

would actually want to keep

on their phones.
If brands really want to play
in the wearable space they
should think first about what
experiences are emerging as
most useful to the customer
and where they might offer something new.
By focusing on customer experience brands can also avoid the
pitfalls of seeing the screen as another advertising medium.
The reality is that people typically only use up to ten apps
on the device in their pocket, so a stream of unnecessary
promotions on their wrist will be far from a winning formula.
Instead, brands need to think carefully about how they can
become one of the apps that customers will use regularly by
designing around the customer behaviours that emerge in
the first months of wearables hitting the shelves.
As for the brands that are likely to be first out the door with
decent integrations, look no further than those brands that
are already leveraging the utility on our existing devices.
Starbucks will likely look to carry their success with passbook
on mobile across to our wrists. And popular services like
Shazam and MyFitnessPal may see natural extensions across
to wearable devices.
Whatever customer behaviours emerge, its a safe bet that
if a new wearable app doesnt offer utility, it shouldnt be
created. This time around lets look to address the digital
mediocrity of the crap app boom and instead demonstrate
how customer experience can be genuinely improved through
new wearable applications.
John Newbold, founder and creative director at 383

social trends you need

to know for 2015
Harry Cymbler

Tis the season for all-knowing prediction stories, folks. Today

is the turn of social media trends and how brands can make
the most of them.

insights in real-time.

1) Predictive social analysis

What is it: Sensors in a physical place allowing app users to

benefit from personalised micro-location notifications.

What is it: Predictive analysis with real consumer benefits.

Why it will be hot in 2015: Expect 2015 to be the year brands
apply big insight in cool ways as prediction analysis helps to
create social content around upcoming trends.
Why this is good for brands: Identify next big trend up to three
months before it happens with a high degree of accuracy
(expert opinion: 90%).

2) Social engagement in a physical space

What is it: Using social insight to engage with users in a real
physical space.
Why it will be hot in 2015: Industry experts believe 2015 is
the year new technology and geo-targeted, contextualised
real-time social content will dominate. Brands will monitor
conversations for audience sectors allowing them to deliver
relevant messaging which influences brand conversation and
conversion.
Why this is good for brands: Opens the possibility to create
bespoke lifestyle wow experiences.

3) Ephemeral social communications

What is it: Photo and video exchange social platforms and
apps allowing recipients to view a senders image or video
clip for short periods.
Why it will be hot in 2015: Global Web Index (September
2014) predicts adults will become key adopters in 2015 as
attention span on social media continues to wane.
Why this is good for brands: Make audience aware of what
you have to offer, great for unveiling instant and exclusive

4) Geo-targeted personalised social content

Why it will be hot in 2015: Industry experts predict 2015 to

be the year that social engagement relevant to that moment
and place in time will become the norm. Improvements in
technology will also allow brands to capture data and offer
real consumer benefits.
Why this is good for brands: Unique wow moments with
social content that is geo-targeted, contextualised and in
real-time direct to a users mobile.

5) New social platforms

What is it: New subject-based social network connecting
users with topics they care about.
Why it will be hot in 2015: The endless stream of social
content will make 2015 users demand a more refined social
experience.
Why this is good for brands: Focus engagement, build a more
relevant audience and, therefore, more likely to convert.

6) Geo-targeted visual content

What is it: In 2014, Twitter, Instagram, Vine and Snapchat
foresaw the significance of visual content and reacted
accordingly.
Why it will be hot in 2015: Whilst Instagram already has
100m users, industry experts predict 2015 will be the year
dominated by brands using geo-targeted image based,
graphics and micro-clip content.
Why this is good for brands: Improved social engagement,
creating visually rich moments.

7) Cool wearable tech

What is it: Wearable lifestyle technology.
Why it will be hot in 2015: Expect 2015 to be the year
wearable technology looks cool, delivers functional benefits
and becomes fashionable and increasingly part of the
digital strategy for the worlds most innovative brands.
Why this is good for brands: Foster links with fashion, design
and tech communities.
Harry Cymbler, founder of social media agency Hot Cherry

Wesley R. Hartmann: Where

to Build a Better Brand
Television or the Internet?
Eilene Zimmerman

Shifting marketing dollars from television to online advertising can pay off.
When it comes to brand building, advertisers typically put their
faith and marketing dollars in the power of television
over other forms of media, even though the internet is now
the fastest growing medium by a long shot. What has been
lacking is a solid understanding of exactly how digital ads
stack up against television ads, either as substitute for them
or a complement to them.
New research from Stanford Graduate School of Business
Professor Wesley R. Hartmann finds that online advertising
performs just as well as television advertising when evaluated
on brands trusted metrics. Hartmann teamed up with
Drexel University Professor Michaela Draganska and Gena
Stanglein, advertising research manager at Google.
In their paper, published in the Journal of Marketing Research

in October, Hartmann and his colleagues compared the

performance of internet and television ads in 20 different
campaigns across a variety of industries. That is easier said
than done. The difference between the two mediums makes
it challenging to compare their effectiveness. A fundamental
issue with television advertising is that its intended for
branding, so you are influencing someones mindset about
a brand for a purchase that might happen two or six months
from now, says Hartmann. Its not as clean a number to
extract as wed like. Online advertising would seem easier to
measure because researchers can identify the person seeing
an ad and follow them around the web to observe if they buy
the product. But, Hartmann says, its not that straightforward.
People are hit with a lot of online advertising, but purchases
are quite rare, so brand surveys are often used as an
intermediate metric.

brandknewmag.com

38

Although the performance rates of ads in both mediums

have been studied before, this is the first apples-to-apples
comparison, with researchers using questions structured
the same way for both mediums. All respondents answered
questions by logging onto RewardTV.com, a portal created by
Nielsen to survey television viewers. We tried to make it as
literally comparable as possible, so that ad recall rates were
measured the same way on both television and the internet,
says Hartmann.
They gave participants a presurvey to determine if they had
any pre-existing knowledge of the brands whose ads they
were about to see. Then, researchers compared ad recall
rates on both mediums after adjusting for what people
already knew about a brand. Both the pre- and postsurveys
asked respondents to read a statement associated with a
particular brand and then, from a list of four choices, choose
the brand the statement was describing.
For example, if 40 percent of people guessed that a
toothpaste being discussed was Colgate the researchers knew
that subsequent ads for Colgate are only effective if people
recall the brand at higher than 40 percent. That difference
between the baseline knowledge and the level of recognition
after exposure to an ad is known as lift. Establishing that
baseline hasnt been done before and those presurveys
turned out to be one of the most important parts of this
paper, says Hartmann. Being able to adjust for what people
knew of a brand before they saw the ad produced a more
accurate measure of lift from the various campaigns. The
presurvey found that people who are consistently exposed
to the internet have lower recognition of brands than those
systematically exposed to television. Brands spend so much
money on television advertising that they are losing those
that are part of the digital economy and spend more time
online than they do watching TV, he said.
The results surprised Hartmann and his colleagues. Recall

rates after exposure to

IF YOU ARE
the ad campaigns
EVALUATING BRAND
and after adjusting for
previous
knowledge
ADVERTISING

were
statistically
AND HAVE A
indistinguishable between
PRECONCEIVED
online and television. It
shows that internet ads
NOTION THAT
can be just as effective
TELEVISION IS
as television ads, says
BETTER, YOU NEED
Hartmann. The results run
contrary to the prevailing
TO RETHINK THAT.
belief in the industry.
Based on those metrics
WESLEY R. HARTMANN
advertisers do not have a
reason now to favor television over internet advertising. If you
are evaluating brand advertising and have a preconceived
notion that television is better, you need to rethink that, he
said. The metrics the industry uses and trusts dont suggest
television is any better. This should guide advertisers to
budget more of their money toward online ads.
Hartmann hopes to further this research and learn how
television and internet advertising can complement each
other. Television ads tell a story to get peoples attention,
and at the end of the story, they see the brand. Thats why for
some really great ads like ones we see during the Super
Bowl game we often cant remember what brand it was,
he says. But internet ads can reconnect the brand to the
message, and that might be why seeing an online ad after
a television commercial is more beneficial than having it the
other way around.
Wesley R. Hartmann is an associate professor of marketing at
Stanford Universitys Graduate School of Business. Internet
Versus Television Advertising: A Brand-Building Comparison
was published in the October 2014 issue of the Journal of
Marketing Research.

The Sony Logo That

Never Was
John Brownlee

IN 1981, SONY ASKED THE PUBLIC TO REDESIGN THEIR LOGO. THEN IT

REALIZED IT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE.
Except for some subtle refinements, Japanese electronics maker Sony has had the same logo since 1956. But to celebrate the
companys 35th anniversary in 1981, someone at Sony had a brilliant idea: lets throw a contest, and get the unwashed masses
to redesign our logo for us!
According to the ad, Sony received almost 30,000 entries for a new logo from the United Kingdom, Europe, North and South
America, Japan, and Asia. They then narrowed these 30,000 entries down to three winners, and proceeded to not use any of
them.
The three winning designs recorded for posterity in this vintage ad from Time, and rediscovered by Greg Prichard arent
just a fascinating look at a new Sony logo that never was, but serve as an object lesson on why you shouldnt try to crowdsource
design.
It was the decision of the judges that there was no clear first, second, or third place winner and that the prize money should
therefore be divided equally among the three finalists, Sonys copy reads. And until the time comes in the future that we
decide to make a change, the Sony logo will remain the same and continue to represent our commitment to innovative thinking
and quality projects. Because what better represents innovation than leaving things the same?
Yet with the hindsight of history, its sort of hard to fault Sony. All three winning logos are super 80s in design, like they
belong on the side of a VHS tape. That said, its impossible to imagine any of them surviving the decade because theyre
virtually illegible. Comparatively, Sonys current logo -rendered in Clarendon Bold Expanded, or something similar seems
timeless. Its simple. Its recognizable. It renders well in a number of different mediums. And it has class.
So while it seems like bad form to get 30,000 people to design a logo for you, only to shriek PSYKE! at the end, its hard to
argue Sony didnt make the right choice.

groupisd.com

40

John Brownlee is a writer who lives in Somerville,

Massachusetts with two irate parakeets and his
wife, who has more exquisite plumage. His work has
appeared at Wired, Playboy, PopMech, CNN, Boing
Boing, Gizmodo, and more.

Book,

&

Line

Sinker

The Anatomy of Buzz: How

to Create Word of Mouth
Marketing

The Art of the Pitch:

Persuasion and Presentation
Skills that Win Business

By Emanuel Rosen

By Peter Coughter
Occasionally, a great idea will sell itself. The
other 99% of the time, you have to find a way to
persuade others that it is, in fact, a great idea.
Most executives spend the vast majority of their
time creating their work, and almost no time
on the presentation. Through an engaging and
humorous narrative, Peter Coughter presents the
tools he designed to help advertising...

The first guide to creating the word-of-mouth

magic that breaks through the skepticism and
information overload of todays consumers, and
drive sales--and profits--to new heights.
As Newsweek recently proclaimed, Buzz greases
the great conveyor belt of culture and commerce,
moving everything from movies to fashions of the
body and mind faster and faster.

The Cluetrain Manifesto: 10th

Anniversary Edition
By Rick Levine, Christopher Locke,
Doc Searls, David Weinberge, McKee Jake
The Cluetrain Manifesto began as a Web site
(cluetrain.com) in 1999 when the authors, who
have worked variously at IBM, Sun Microsystems,
the Linux Journal, and NPR, posted 95 theses about
the new reality of the networked marketplace. Ten
years after its original publication, their message
remains more relevant than ever. For example,
thesis no. 2: Markets consist of human beings,
not demographic sectors...

Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This:

The Classic Guide to Creating
Great Ads
By Luke Sullivan, Sam Bennett (Contributor)
The classic (and irreverent) bestselling guide to
creating great advertising
Hey Whipple, Squeeze This has inspired a
generation of ad students, copywriters, and young
creatives to make their mark in the industry. But
students need new guidance to ply their craft
now in the digital world. This new fourth edition
explains how to bring brand stories...

The Innovators Dilemma:

When New Technologies Cause
Great Firms to Fail
By Clayton M. Christensen
His work is cited by the worlds best-known thought
leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In
this classic bestseller, innovation expert Clayton
Christensen shows how even the most outstanding
companies can do everything rightyet still lose
market leadership. Read this international bestseller
to avoid a similar fate.

Here Comes Everybody: The

Power of Organizing Without
Organizations
By Clay Shirky
A revelatory examination of how the wildfirelike
spread of new forms of social interaction enabled
by technology is changing the way humans form
groups and exist within them, with profound longterm economic and social effects-for good and
for ill

Influence: The Psychology of

Persuasion
By Robert B. Cialdini
Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains
the psychology of why people say yesand how
to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini
is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field
of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years
of rigorous, evidence-based research along with
a three-year program of study on what moves
people to change behavior has resulted in this
highly acclaimed book.

Life After the 30-Second Spot:

Energize Your Brand With a
Bold Mix of Alternatives to
Traditional Advertising
By Joseph Jaffe
The old media strategies advertisers used for
decades no longer work. Heres what does!
Traditional advertising, in the form of print, radio,
and most notably, television, is far less effective than
it used to be. Advertising strategies using only these
mediums no longer work. Life After the 30-Second
Spot explains how savvy marketers...

brandknewmag.com

42

Little Red Book of Selling:

12.5 Principles of Sales
Greatness

Made to Stick: Why Some

Ideas Survive and Others Die

By Jeffrey Gitomer
Salespeople hate to read. Thats why Little
Red Book of Selling is short, sweet, and to the
point. Its packed with answers that people are
searching for in order to help them make sales for
the momentand the rest of their lives.

Mark Twain once observed, A lie can get halfway

around the world before the truth can even get
its boots on. His observation rings true: Urban
legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus publichealth scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile,
people with important ideasbusiness people,
teachers, politicians, journalists, and others
struggle to make their ideas stick.

Never Eat Alone: And Other

Secrets to Success, One
Relationship at a Time

The New Rules of Marketing

& PR: How to Use Social
Media, Online Video, Mobile
Applications, Blogs, News
Releases, and Viral Marketing
to Reach Buyers Directly

By Keith Ferrazzi, Tahl Raz

The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi
claims, is in reaching out to other people. As
Ferrazzi discovered in early life, what distinguishes
highly successful people from everyone else is the
way they use the power of relationshipsso that
everyone wins.

Re-Imagine! Business
Excellence in a Disruptive Age
By Tom Peters
More than just a how-to book for the 21st
Century, Re-imagine! is a call to arms -- a
passionate wake-up call for the business world,
educators, and society as a whole. Focusing
on how the business climate has changed, this
inspirational book outlines how the new world
of business works, explores radical ways of
overcoming outdated, traditional company
values, and embraces an aggressive strategy that
empowers talent and brand-driven organizations
where everyone has a voice.

By Chip Heath, Dan Heath

By David Meerman Scott

The benchmark guide to marketing and PR,
updated with the latest social media and
marketing trends, tools, and real-world examples
of success

Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?:

Persuading Customers When
They Ignore Marketing
By Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg,
Lisa T. Davis (Contributor)
Evolving from the premise that customers have
always behaved more like cats than Pavlovs
dogs, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? examines
how emerging media have undermined the
effectiveness of prevailing mass marketing
models. At the same time, emerging media have
created an unprecedented opportunity...

Web Analytics 2.0: The Art

of Online Accountability and
Science of Customer Centricity

Where the Suckers Moon: The

Life and Death of an Advertising
Campaign

By Avinash Kaushik
Adeptly address todays business challenges
with this powerful new book from web analytics
thought leader Avinash Kaushik. Web Analytics 2.0
presents a new framework that will permanently
change how you think about analytics. It provides
specific recommendations for creating an
actionable strategy, applying analytical techniques
correctly, solving challenges such as...

By Randall Rothenberg
Rothenberg chronicles the brief, turbulent
marriage between a recession-plagued auto
company and an aggressively hip ad agency
(whose creative director despised cars), capturing
both the ad worlds tantalizing gossip and the
broader significance of its creations. Simply the
best book about advertising I have ever read.-Neil Postman (Technopoly).