The transformation of gaming from a niche audience to an influencer of popular culture is something that should be on the radar of every Brand Marketer.  The below embedded video is a great place to start in learning why.

Read more: http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation#ixzz0gwDevhbm

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Amazing to see that over 6 out of 10 iPod Touch users are 17 years old or younger.  And only 2 out of 10 are over the age of 25.  Talk about a strong statement for the iPod Touch being a targeted way to reach teens and tweens.

1. A Brand Manager’s Call for Change: My riff on what Brand Manager’s need to do in order to be a Brand Leader in the 21st Century.
2. Now is the time to become a Marketing Technopologist: The term was originally coined by the Wall Street Journal but I have embraced it fully. Marketing Technopologists are people who combines the skills of marketer, technologist, and social anthropologist.
3. The new job of a Brand Manager is to facilitate conversations & community: Part of my series on Brand Manager 2.0, this posts talks about a change in who tells the brand story.
4. Start-ups need to invest in building brands, not just products: Based on the comments, I riled the feathers of some entrepreneurs who took offense to this post. I still stand by the importance of mapping out your brand by day one as you start a new business.
5. Lessons of the Square Watermelon: Probably my most successful post from Year 1, especially based on search traffic. Thanks to a plug from Guy Kawasaki and Marketing Profs, it’s had well over 25K views.
6. There is no better time to be a marketer: In the heart of the recession, MarketingProfs claimed that “its just not a fun time to be a marketer.” Of course, I had to give my take on why that thinking was just plain wrong.
7. What I believe in: My Personal Leadership Philosophy: The other post that search engines seem to love, this talks to how I approach my personal leadership philosophy in the business world. In 2009, it even had more views than the Square Watermelon post.
8. Even a Brand Manager needs their 10,000 hours of practice: Inspired by Bob Lefsetz and Malcolm Gladwell, this is all about what it takes to be your best.
9. Networking isn’t a dirty word: There are tons of interesting people doing interesting things out there. Are you the type of Brand Manager that sits in conference rooms all day or are you making it a point to get out there and find out what’s next in the world of marketing?
10. Don’t make the mistake of giving up the voice of the brand: With a little inspiration from Tom at Brand Camp, my take on how Brand Managers should navigate the world of Social Media.

…treat your company like the brand it really is.

Now the entrepreneurs among you might scoff at this statement.  You might even be thinking that the guy writing this hasn’t lived the life of a start-up so what does he know.  After all, a career spent at the world’s largest Consumer Packaged Goods company means a world where there are plenty of resources available to “build the brand.”  Start-ups do not have time for this when they are trying to keep the lights on, just trying to survive and thrive.

I’m sorry to say, but if you are thinking that, you are missing the point all together.

Over the past two years, my work has thrown me head first into the world of Consumer Internet.  On any given day, my meetings are as likely to be with an entrepreneur or Venture Capitalist as they are to be with another Brand Manager or Advertising Agency.  Ironically my degree from college was in Marketing AND Entrepreneurship so these contrasting interactions are actually comforting.

And it is in these interactions that I have started to form my opinion about the need for start-ups to invest in building brands, not just products.

First a definition: what exactly do I mean by “building brands?”  Keep in mind that brands really came to prominence in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, where brands were a way for people to tell the consistency of a product.  So by one definition, a brand is…

a set of perceptions and images that represent a company, product or service. While many people refer to a brand as a logo, tag line or audio jingle, a brand is actually much larger. A brand is the essence or promise of what will be delivered or experienced.

Think about that for a second. You and a colleague have an amazing idea for a company.  You figured out the name and your co-founder created what you think is a pretty cool logo. And you even came up with a tagline that you just love the sound of.

But have you really thought about your start-up, your idea as if it was a brand?

Have you thought about how your “brand” will be a promise to consumers?  Have you crafted the Brand Visual Identity?  Have you outlined the Brand Equity that you want?  These things aren’t just buzzwords that keep Brand Managers and Agency Executives employed.  They are the tools that a great Brand Builder uses to create and sustain iconic brands like Nike, Coca-Cola and Tide.

With this in mind, I think there is a need in our industry for translators, people that can apply the principles and discipline of Brand Building to the world of entrepreneurship.  Examples are out there for sure.  Pete Blackshaw was one when he left P&G to start Planet Feedback.  And Bessemer Ventures just hired a translator (whether they realize it or not) as they bring Jason Putorti on-board to be a Designer in Residence and help portfolio companies build “simple, intuitive, and engaging web sites.”  And Dave McClure was calling for the need for translators in his self-proclaimed rant that “More than half of all startups, and easily 9 out of 10 investors have no clue regarding .) user experience or 2) internet marketing.”

Brand Marketers realize that a brand is more than a name, fancy logo or marketing plan. A brand is about the product AND the user experience AND the marketing AND many, many other things.

Simply put, when Brand Building really works the way it is suppose to, the sum is greater than the parts.

So if you are a start-up, I would encourage you to start thinking about your brand today, not tomorrow.  If you are VC, I would push you to sit down with your portfolio and ask how they are thinking about their brand.  The opportunity is ripe for the leaders out there to embrace brand building in the start-up world.

And in full admission, traditional Brand Builders can learn plenty from start-ups as well.  We need our own set of Translators to help us in the journey.  But that is a subject for another post all together.

• Video is larger than Search (33 billion video views vs 15 billion searches)
• Online Video Advertising will be a $4 billion dollar market in less than 4 years
• Almost 178MM unique users watch online video each month in the US

Definitely a worthwhile presentation for anyone thinking about online advertising.  Plus Tod deserves credit for actually sending the email himself instead of relying on a PR agency to do his dirty work.  That wins big points in my book.

The full presentation is embedded below for RSS readers.

Yet during the 2010 Super Bowl, Google did what many would have called unthinkable just a few years ago… they ran a piece of brand advertising on the largest advertising stage in the world.

Supporting their Search Stories campaign, Google ran their “Parisian Love” television ad during the 3rd Quarter of the Saints / Colts Super Bowl.  Of course Internet companies have a long history of running ads during the Super Bowl.  And usually those attempts fail miserable (think Pets.com or E*Trade’s Monkey ad).

But Google’s latest effort is different than many of those failed Internet to Super Bowl Ads.  As my P&G colleague Stan Joosten wrote:

Google ad stands out – story based on emotions from a company centered around analytics. Sign of maturity.

Or take the point of Rishad Tobaccowala (from Denuo Group):

GOOG ad smart because it’s usage not awareness that matters. Most folks dont realize all one can do. Not even us “experts”

So why exactly is the Google effort a sign of maturity and not just another example of “unaccountable spending?”  From my viewpoint, the answer is in Google’s transformation from Tech Company to Consumer Marketer.

Ten years ago, Google was started as a pure tech company.  Their mission was “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” while their name was a play on the word googol (the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros).

But today, Google is much more than a search company based on a great technology.  They are starting to truly become a Consumer Marketer, competing for the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers against fierce competitors like Apple, Nokia and Microsoft.

You see, the smartphone battle of the Nexus One vs the iPhone isn’t about technology.  Neither is the search war between Google and Microsoft Bing.

In these competitions, Google is entering the world of traditional Brand / Consumer Marketing.  Think Coke vs Pepsi… Bud Light vs Miller Light… or Old Spice vs Axe.  These classic brand battles generally aren’t fought (or won) on technology or performance alone.  They are fought with emotion, words, and stories.  This fact isn’t lost on Google and they proved it with “Parisian Love.”

So let me be the first to welcome Google to the world of Consumer Marketing.  I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.

See the full ad embedded below: