With that kind of growth, it’s no surprise that an increasing number of brands are tapping into Tumblr’s uniquely engaged community.

Described as a content network by its 25-year-old founder, David Karp, Tumblr has settled comfortably at the intersection of design, content and social media.

Tumblr founder David Karp. Image by Scott Beale, via Flickr.

Tumbleloggers (as they’re known) can display and share 140 character posts, lengthy blog entries, high-resolution pictures, personal charts and lists, quotes, songs and videos, in one customizable space.

While continuing to foster a unique and dedicated user base of over 13 million visitors, Tumblr has avoided being lumped in with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter by maintaining its focus on visually rich content.

Meanwhile, Tumblr’s strong social component and easy sharing have made it a more popular blogging platform than WordPress, which it now surpasses in numbers of blogs.

The community

Tumblr’s community is considerably younger than many of its competitors. Where recent statistics have pegged the average Facebook and Twitter users as being 38 and 39 years old, respectively, 50 percent of Tumblr’s users are under the age of 25.

To reach this young, international community, Tumblr has begun sponsoring local meetups around the world. On a monthly basis, tumbleloggers are receiving up to 9,000 nametags and 3,000 Tumblr stickers from the platform’s community organizers in order to facilitate these Tumblr-centric events.

In June, the Tumblr team even received a happy birthday YouTube serenade from a few hundred Brazilian fans meeting up for the platform’s biggest get-together yet. Tumblr’s community was also a driving force behind this winter’s mass online protest against a pair of proposed anti-piracy bills in the U.S.

What’s in it for brands (and what brands should be on it)

What all this means is that Tumblr provides brands with an opportunity to engage a young, media-savvy community with smart, relevant content.

But it’s not a perfect match for everyone. The demographics, for one thing, indicate that marketers should focus on brands that already resonate with the Tumblr community. So life insurance companies, stay away.

It’s also worth bearing in mind the site’s layout. Like upstart Pinterest, it’s all about the visuals and snappy content: Think Twitter plus pictures. This makes the platform perfect for companies that regularly roll out new products or content, namely: broadcast media outlets, magazines, record labels and fashion brands.

J.Crew's tumblog

Take J.Crew, for example. Marketers found a way to make the retail brand’s photogenic merch feel right at home on Tumblr. The brand’s tumblelog has secured a faithful following by inviting followers to tag along with their favourite designers on “inspiration trips” to Paris and Italy while listening to the Brit-pop playlists that fuel their creative genius.

Unlike Facebook, Tumblr is not a one-size-fits-all social network. But as J.Crew can attest, if you’re targeting the cool kids, it’s a shoe-in for success.

For some it’s fall, for others it’s spring, but for legions of people around the world, it’s something else entirely: It’s Movember.

For the uninitiated, Movember (a portmanteau bridging the words “moustache” and “November”) is a month-long campaign that raises awareness and money for men’s health issues, including prostate cancer and depression.

The campaign, stipulating that men must grow a patch of whiskers below the nose but that nary a hair shall migrate to the sideburns or below the chin, is so unequivocally masculine, novel and (relatively) painless, that it attracts men (and women) of all stripes and ages.

While Movember’s beginnings were humble – the idea was hatched by a group of Australian pub mates in 1999 – it has since gone global. Last year alone the movement raised $76.8 million, a blowout compared to $54,000 in 2004.

One reason for Movember’s growing success is that the once-decentralized movement has coalesced into a full-fledged foundation and bonafide brand. The campaign is officially organized by the Movember Foundation, which has its own website, Twitter feed, YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Another reason is the number of brands that are getting behind the movement, either as direct sponsors, or indirectly by giving donations.

This cause marketing approach allows both Movember and the brands that support it to gain exposure and attract good vibes. Brands sponsor events and create publicity, and Movember gets mo’ money.

Of course, where would moustaches be without the tools that help us groom them, which explains why Movember’s official sponsors happen to be hygiene products… and beer.

Schick is doing its part with a cross-Canada tour, distributing free products on campuses while simultaneously engaging the most involved demographic in the campaign.

Meanwhile, Speedstick is upping user engagement with a series of videos featuring the misadventures of a clumsy Mo’ man.

From local to global, the number of brands capitalizing on Movember through Facebook and Twitter is surprisingly large, but it makes perfect sense: The platforms let them produce tailored content faster than it takes some guys to grow peach fuzz – and at a much lower cost than billboards and TV spots.

Mercedes, an official sponsor, has taken this route, urging users to ‘like’ it for donations.

Then there’s Mr. Clean, Proctor & Gamble’s famously tonsured mascot. His Facebook profile pic features a decidedly hirsute photo, and with every ‘like’, his ‘stache grows a little thicker.

It’s a win-win-win tactic: raise awareness, establish a brand purpose and increase the popularity of your Facebook page.

And then there’s mobile apps. It turns out people love to digitally impose nose-neighbours on their faces. At least that’s what Ogilvy Group UK’s Picamo suggests.

The £0.69 app lets users (digitally) try on a selection of 30 moustaches and share the results on social networking sites, with profits going to Movember.

Google has also joined in, showcasing the movement in its latest instalment of “The web is what you make of it” video series.

TOMS Shoes, a cause marketing leader, is offering limited edition moustachioed footwear. All proceeds go directly to the cause.

Usually, we don’t associate prostate cancer with humour. But that’s one reason for the campaign’s popularity: No one likes prostate cancer, everyone thinks moustaches are funny.

This lighthearted take and the campaign’s hip(ster?) gloss make it a very attractive charity opportunity for brands.

And while some bigger brands (like PepsiCo) have been participating indirectly with contests for staff members, as the buzz on the fuzz keeps growing, their participation probably will, too.

Though critics are deeming it the invasion of society’s last private and sacred space, others feel it’s about time we start creating a branded experience out of our time spent on the can.

Granted, bathroom advertising isn’t exactly new. But seeing as studies place average retention rates for bathroom ads at 84 percent, a growing number of brands are vying for those undisclosed minutes of your undivided attention.

This ad for Coca-Cola’s Japanese beverage, Georgia Max Coffee, has the bathroom-goer feeling the adrenaline rush of an alpine half-pipe jump as he/she settles in for relief.

Sports broadcasting giant ESPN has taken the notion of “interactive advertising” to a whole new level by turning your trip to the loo into an opportunity to step up your game.

Marketers are also using gaming content to drive home important public service messages. In 2007 Frankfurt Taxi Services teamed up with Saatchi & Saatchi to post unique ads in German bars.

The idea was for bar patrons to question their ability to drive as they guided (and inevitably totalled) a virtual vehicle with their urine stream. A message then appeared on screen, warning against the risks of getting behind the wheel. 

This PSA, created by Ogilvy Brazil, encourages people who may be suffering from schizophrenia to seek help by featuring an unsettling figure glaring at them from the far corner of the bathroom mirror.

With this ad adorning the exit door of the bathroom and serving up some scary statistics, you’re likely to think twice about exiting the bathroom without washing your hands.

If you haven’t walked out of the dirty door hoping to change the world, you might just be willing to change the way you go to the bathroom. In this case, P-Mate, creator of an innovative female hygiene product, opted for guerrilla marketing tactics by having women dare to assert their “freedom to pee standing up.”

The team switched male and female bathroom signs and led the confused ladies straight into the men’s washroom – and to its patiently waiting urinals.

Whether your next trip to the loo has you changing perspectives, old habits or transportation plans, it’s a given that someone’s vying for your attention. But brands should tread carefully. When it comes to advertising in bathrooms, it’s a slippery slope between entertaining and invasive.

Dan Lewis and Jeff Pulver at BrandsConf 2010

A rabbi, a psychic, a poet, “Harvey Milk” and a seventh-grader from Tanzania all took the stage in New York City last week to discuss… branding.

Where else would you find such a diverse and eclectic group of speakers but at BrandsConf, Jeff Pulver’s conference devoted to “exploring the humanization of brands”?

The premise: the world of branding is changing.  And people are the heart and soul of it all.

Despite the amazing range of speakers, which also included representatives from 30-plus brands including Coca-Cola, IBM, Estée Lauder and JetBlue, there were some common threads woven throughout the day’s rapid-fire sessions that are worth considering for our own brands, businesses and lives.

Own your story

The need for brands of all shapes and sizes to convey “authenticity” was a common theme of the day. Author and founder of Intent.com Mallika Chopra (daughter of Deepak) prompted audience members to close their eyes and reflect on the questions “Who am I?” and “How can I serve?” Chopra then explained that intent is an important self-discipline that could be applied to brands serving their customers.

Musician and writer Mike Errico noted that not all brands benefit from full disclosure. In his talk on rock star mythology, Errico explained that the real-time Internet (i.e. social media) can compromise a musician’s carefully-cultivated brand if he or she isn’t careful.

“There’s only one Slash,” he said, referring to the former Guns N’ Roses guitarist, “and I’m not sure I need to know if he went to the dentist and needs a cleaning.”

Perfect is boring

What is authenticity, anyway? According to Andrea Syrtash, Oprah.com contributor and author, it’s the real you – “warts and all” – that people will really connect to and find believable. She added that a flawless façade is not only something people won’t relate to, but that “perfect is boring.”

For NBC News, this has meant encouraging its journalists to bring more of their own personalities into their reporting, said Ryan Osborn, Director of Social for the network.

Similarly, Savvy Auntie founder Melanie Notkin implored brands to “be normal and don’t put on a show.” The result can be deep connections and relationships with people in ways that matter in their lives.

Information flows through people

Whether you’re an entrepreneur with a mission like Tony Heffernan, whose “Bees for Battens” brand is raising funds for a disease that has transformed his family, or a large corporation like IBM, every brand is ultimately a human brand.

Gilad Lotan of Social Flow can back this up with data.  He illustrated how conversation connects people and brands by analyzing complex social media data, which he presented in a series of infographics.

Lotan’s data tells the story of how “information flows through people,” as he put it.  Maintaining a dialogue with these people is the key to a healthy, thriving and “living” brand.

You gotta give ‘em hope

Business-savvy psychic Monte Farber explained that his process relies on an understanding that the stories people receive and tell are the ones that make “their lives mean something.” The lesson here is that brands should tell people a story that’s empowering, hopeful and fulfilling.

In one of the event’s more touching moments, Leah Albert, a seventh grader from Shepherds Junior School in Tanzania, took the stage and proclaimed “I am more important than money.”

Leah is one of two students representing a school that was “built through love” by founder Mama Lucy Kampton with the support of Epic Change.

The lesson is particularly relevant for non-profits and cause marketers who need to consider the impact their story can have on the recipients of their work. Does the story communicate a message of limitation or great personal possibility?

Brands should aspire to create content that inspires people, or in the words of Chris Bartlett who personifies the legacy of @HarveyMilk on Twitter, “You gotta give ‘em hope.”

Brands still have a long way to go

The day’s very first presenter, Ogilvy’s Rohit Bhargava, characterized BrandsConf as a small “fraternity” of people who really care about brands being human.

And while Katie Richman of ESPN noted that brands have “come a long way” in accepting social media as part of the landscape, I got the sense that there’s still a long way to go for most brands to serve people in an authentic way.

In an age where people don’t trust easily, Bhargava noted, “unexpected honesty might be the solution.” So Jeff Pulver’s tribe may be exploring “the state of now,” but I think it’s really an indicator of what business will look like tomorrow.

©istockphoto.com/Stepan Popov

What do people want? It’s an age-old question, but the answer is simple: Just ask them.

Ask them about their preferences, and how they want to be communicated with. Then ask them to help create and design their own products. Then ultimately, provide them with the necessary tools and platforms, and they will tell you exactly what they want.

The idea that company knows best is being challenged by the realization that consumer knows best. As a result, business models are starting to change. Closed, proprietary systems are shifting to an open-source approach with more transparency. One-way communication is being replaced with two-way communication that is both social and collaborative.

Mass customization

A number of start-ups, along with some more established brands, have recognized the demand for bespoke products and services at mass-production prices. Known as mass customization, this trend has been enabled by technologies like the Internet, product modularization and lean production.

Mass customization represents the apex of market segmentation as every customer can have exactly what they want. In other words, the customer creates his or her own segment – a market of one.

At Chocri, a German-based start-up with a web presence in the U.S., you can create your own chocolate by picking your favourite base (white, milk or dark) and toppings (fruits, spices, nuts or grains). You can even give your bar a personalized name, which is printed on the packaging.

You can also unleash your inner designer at Shoes of Prey, an Australian start-up whose motto is “Your Design. Our Craftsmanship”. You choose the heel, toe, fabric, colour and embellishments; your shoes are then hand-made by their craftsmen.

Hallmark, the 100-year-old U.S.-based greeting card company, has introduced a number of products that users can personalize. At the Hallmark site, you can upload a photo to create and personalize your own printed party invitations, cards and disposable paper plates.

Hallmark proves that even large and established companies can get into the innovation game.

While mass-customized products can cost more than mass-produced ones, the extra premium is worth it for the savvy, design-conscious consumer who values originality above price.

Co-creation

Customers aren’t just looking for the ability to shape products. They also want to have a say in how products are being marketed to them – and how brands are communicating with them.

This goes well beyond opting in to receive a mass-marketing message. It’s about consumers having a say in how they experience and interact with a brand.

My Maybelline New York offers users the chance to opt in to receive a personalized beauty guide. As part of the subscription process, the user is asked to answer a few questions about her eye colour, skin type, and makeup style.

In return she receives a 20-page digest-sized catalogue that provides her with tips on how to create looks that suit her style and features. They even personalize the guide by using the customer’s name throughout the printed piece and provide personalized coupons with the customer’s name on them, which is how they track response rates.

U.K.-based mobile phone company giffgaff takes co-creation a step further with its collaborative business model. Decisions about what products and services the company offers are left up to the customers themselves, who even provide service support to each other. With this type of collaborative approach, the biggest benefit is that its standard rates are less than half of those of the large carriers.

What are the benefits to companies and brands offering a custom experience? For one thing, it generates increased customer engagement and interaction. Secondly, companies gain consumer insights because they get to know what their customers want. As for consumers, they get exactly what they want and how they want it. They are made to feel unique and part of the process, rather than lost among the masses.

Adam Crowley @140conf - Image by bjmccray via Flickr

Hot off reaching its 10 million users milestone, Foursquare announced this week that it has jumped on the daily-deal bandwagon, expanding its Specials platform and partnering with sites such as LivingSocial and Gilt, among others.

This newest venture is just the latest move by Foursquare in its ever-expanding quest to get people away from their computer screens and into the real world.

During his sit-down with Mashable’s Adam Ostrow at last month’s 140conf, Dennis Crowley, the site’s co-founder, discussed taking Foursquare “to the next level.” One of Crowley’s main goals is to make the site’s wealth of crowd-sourced content more accessible to users who don’t necessarily want to “check in” all of the time.

The biggest change in the location-based social network over the past year, Crowley said, has been the explosion of merchants and brands that are adapting to (and banking on) the concept of checking in.

Sparksheet editor Dan Levy caught up with Dennis Crowley backstage to discuss just how Foursquare is bridging the online and offline worlds and how brands are leveraging the site’s rich user-generated content.

Even though the custom industry, and marketing in general, has been about The Brand since time immemorial (quick, who has a better brand: Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great?), there are still pockets of uncertainty about how big the word really is. Does it only refer to the most superficial aspects of an organization? Or does it literally mean everything?

I’m in the “everything” camp. Laziness in one tiny corner of a brand can have direct repercussions on the larger picture. Let’s call that the Butterfly Theory of Brand Management. Just for fun.

But in an industry as relatively new as content marketing, the brand remains slippery, if only because everyone now concedes that the public, in the end, controls the brand and not corporations or marketers or ad agencies or content creators.

We may “curate” information, and we may throw content out into the public and hope it sticks, and we may repeat the words “content is king” until we’re blue in the face, but let’s face it: The consumer is king. And queen. And everything else.

Against this backdrop, members of the Custom Content Council spent a few days in Charleston, S.C. trying to figure out how to harness brands and create a sense of cohesion in a “content-driven marketing world” (the conference subhead). Did the conference make any sense? Kind of. Here are five things we learned:

Custom Content is getting the love from CMOs

For any content marketer, this was good news. A study commissioned by the Custom Content Council, and conducted by Roper GfK found that more and more CMOs see the value in content as opposed to traditional advertising.

No one is suggesting that advertising is dead. Far from it. But the value of content is now seen as inherent, with 35 percent of CMOs strongly agreeing that custom content is the future of marketing overall. Not a bad number. Another great number (and perhaps one that is moving the needle with CMOs): 73 percent of consumers prefer to get their information from content rather than from an ad.

Everyone needs to be a rock star

More than one speaker made this point, none more explicitly than Robin Fisher Roffer, the dynamo behind Big Fish Marketing, who said, “When we make our clients rock stars, we create our own loyalty.” Pass this down the chain and you can see where this ends up. The audience. Make them the rock star. Make them special.

David Gwozdz of mobile advertising agency Mojiva said, “The audience is bigger than anything we’ve ever seen and is unstoppable.” And in perhaps one of the most successful cases of making rock stars out of everyone, Dana Williams, Director of Marketing, Communications and Brand Integration at Southwest Airlines, said “Content is king. But people are king, too.”

And then, when we had enough rock stars, Kristi Adams, Marketing Innovation Manager at Dell, threw a new group into the mix with the line, “Content isn’t king until it makes your salesperson sing.” Finally, we heard (more than once) that “data is where the money is.” And data is about customers. Who are, of course, rock stars.

We’re hung up on Old Words

Hangovers from a world dedicated to print include words like, um, “readers.” As Steve Ennen of Social Strategy1 said, “Stop thinking of readers, think about users.” Drug connotations aside, the idea of x number of readers is irrelevant in a world where engagement is all that matters.

Another word Ennen said should go: “circulation.” Instead we need to think in terms of “reach” and “frequency.” A case in point: Jeremy Murphy, VP of Communications of CBS spoke about his network’s custom magazine, Watch!. Initially, published as a give-away with a circulation of 400,000, CBS (and its custom publisher, McMurry) found that a better tracked subscription/newsstand model, with half the circulation not only made more sense but was a better fit for advertisers.

Sales people have been saying this for years. But it’s still interesting to see this in practice. Mazda’s David Harris followed up on this by saying, “It’s not good enough to publish; we have to think about paid, earned and shared media – stories that can be found (on the Web) to keep the conversation going.”

Mazda's David Harris, Aetna's Melissa Jones, and Southwest Airline's Dana Williams

Successful brands are lived inside and out

This might seem obvious but it takes a successful brand like Southwest to bring it home. Dana Williams said that at Southwest brand and content are the same thing. Meaning that in the content they push, whether it be in their ads (which use employees exclusively), their livery (messages are often painted directly on to aircraft) or in corporate communications, messaging never strays from their core message.

And in what was perhaps an indirect swipe at Ford, David Harris, Group Manager: Digital and Alternative Media at Mazda said, “Our brand is our personality. It’s bigger than one person.” Meaning even in social media, Mazda’s brand was bigger than any one individual.

Maybe context is king

Hunter Sebresos, Founding Partner at Dyvergent, said “If there’s no context, there’s no point to creating content.” This was a theme that kept coming up, even if most people didn’t use the word context.

Researcher Diana Derval presented the idea of “Wait Marketing” – the notion that people are most receptive when they have time. Sounds obvious but advertising doesn’t really work on that premise (which is why content marketing offers up so much engagement). “If a brand calls you at the right moment with the right content” you will be receptive to it,” she added. What is that but a point about context?

Melissa Jones from Aetna proved as much when she played voice messages from customers happy with their service – even happily answering robo-calls on their birthdays.

It’s interesting to see the evolution of these events. What started out as a conference about basic marketing principles is now tackling the biggest questions in the (media) universe: the nature of The Brand. We live in an age of such flux that our very notions of language are evolving. It makes the role of content provider both challenging and extremely rewarding. If you do it right.

It’s easy to see why some companies avoid the blogosphere. Blogs are a pain to maintain. Readership grows slowly and not always steadily. And it’s hard to communicate your company’s values without sounding like a worn-out press release.

But a survey of the blogosphere reveals a slightly more optimistic picture. In spite of the challenges, smart companies are maintaining successful blogs by telling relevant stories to well-defined and engaged communities.

Finding the right voice

Corporate blogging works well for brands that create a distinctive voice people trust. Many technology-related businesses find success by providing expert opinions about developments in their industry. Tech companies also benefit from a sophisticated understanding of the Web; they just ‘get it’ when it comes to capitalizing on a blog’s strengths, giving them an advantage over, say, a scuba gear company.

Google’s continued success in the blogosphere is directly related to its expert content. The Official Google Blog consistently ranks as a top technology blog, according to Technorati. It’s no surprise that people trust Google when it comes to finding strategies for maximizing search results or managing digital content. With separate blogs for its various applications, such as Google Docs and Gmail, Google keeps users informed by highlighting the most effective ways to use its services.

Engaging loyal customers in your business

Some of the most successful corporate blogs are collaborations between brands and their customers. Of the larger companies in the blogosphere, none invites users to participate in its business practices like Starbucks. My Starbucks Idea is devoted to aggregating comments and suggestions.

Starbucks’ loyal customers have generated more than 24,000 product ideas for new coffee or espresso drinks, including fan-favourites like “skinny” holiday beverages. This process has also produced the Starbucks Card Mobile, which allows customers to pay on their phones. To top it off, Starbucks keeps people updated throughout the development process by indicating whether an idea is in the review or launch phase.

Identifying, understanding and catering to a community

Once a company finds its voice and establishes the best way to engage customers, a corporate blog can focus on building communities around its brand.

In a sense, Lululemon can be credited for fostering an entire lifestyle community built around yoga. The clothing and accessory company’s blog extends this community online, offering expert opinions from yogis and runners alike.

From demystifying its product lingo to sharing yoga techniques and retreat dates, the company proves that understanding and catering to the values of a particular community is what any great blog – and indeed, brand – is all about.

Whole Foods Market uses a similar strategy to cater to its own community of health food lovers. The Whole Story provides healthy recipes, shares shopping tips, and offers tangible rewards in the form of in-store promotions. It even follows produce on its journey from farm to market, taking readers behind the scenes of the local food business.

Telling the right story

Lululemon and Whole Foods Market build stories around their customers’ lifestyles, which reflect the brands’ values. General Electric, on the other hand, uses its blog to mine the company’s own impressive story.

Edison’s Desk lends a human voice to GE’s technologies while reinforcing the company’s history. The blog integrates Thomas Edison’s story into even its most recent posts on the correlation between science and music. This innovative approach to branded storytelling differentiates GE from its competitors.

Corporate blogs and social media

Corporate blogs may garner less attention than in previous years, but companies that use them successfully understand that blogs are an effective tool for telling stories and building communities around those stories.

Of course, the corporate blog is best used as part of a larger new media strategy. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube et al give brands the ability to reach a tremendous number of people simultaneously.

But harnessing the strengths of the corporate blog, companies can use them in combination with social networks to turn fragmented conversations into fully engaged communities.

But that’s starting to change. Smart brands and savvy advertisers are using screens to engage passersby in a creative, entertaining and memorable way. Technological advancements in touchscreens, gestural interface and facial recognition software are making rich, interactive out-of-home campaigns a reality.

Photo via USA Today

Change in store

The retail sector is one area experiencing a boom in digital signage. Companies like Best Buy and Walmart have networks of screens throughout their stores that help promote products, inform customers and allow advertisers to reach customers directly at the point of purchase. Content on the Best Buy On network includes everything from digital photography tutorials and interviews with movie directors to the ABCs of 3-D televisions.

At the recent National Retail Federation convention, Intel unveiled a seven-foot interactive holographic glass and LCD display that lets customers explore merchandise, find out about promotions, read customer reviews and share their discoveries via social media and mobile apps. Brands such as Adidas, Best Buy, Kraft Foods and Proctor & Gamble, in addition to researchers at the MIT Media Lab, worked with Intel to create these experiences.

Photo via www.thisadvertneedsyou.com

Customization: One size doesn’t fit all

Moving on to the streets, targeted digital billboards can help make out-of-home advertising feel less impersonal. In another first, Castrol, with execution by Ogilvy, Mindshare and ClearChannel, designed specially positioned cameras to recognize car models and registrations as they drove by. Further up the road, a digital billboard displayed a recommendation for which Castrol oil would best suit the car.

JCDecaux used weather gauges to create intelligent billboards that advertise thirst quenching beverages when the sun is shining and cold and flu medication on a wet day.

While it may seem like we’re getting into Minority Report territory here, the idea of transforming what many view as ad clutter into a one-to-one medium makes billboards both more relevant for consumers and more efficient for advertisers.

From advertainment to public service

InWindow’s urban tornado campaign is a great example of how digital signage can build buzz while entertaining people on their daily journey. To promote the Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers program, they recreated the experience of a tornado in New York City, complete with fans to simulate wind. Pedestrians were able to have their photos taken and share them with their social networks.

Photo via ericmorello.com

On a more serious note, this example of an ad for Amnesty International to raise awareness about domestic abuse, includes a camera sensor that can “see” when someone is looking at the ad. Face the ad and see a normal happy couple standing side by side. Turn away and the man attacks the woman. The tagline: “It happens when nobody is watching.”

3-D, anyone?

3-D is all the rage these days. 3-D advertising specialists 3D Exposure claim that 3-D public displays have “four times the stopping power of standard 2-D advertisements, up to 10 times the average dwell time [and an] increased brand recall rate.”

ClearChannel recently released what it claims to be the world’s first 3-D movie poster for Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief. But so far technological limitations have prevented 3-D from making much headway in out-of-home advertising. Once glasses-free technology becomes more developed, expect 3-D ads to show up in a public space near you.

The shape of things to come

As younger consumers turn away from traditional media, innovative and interactive digital campaigns are becoming an invaluable way to reach the increasingly important millennial crowd.

With mobile adoption, post-recession marketing budgets and screen technology on the ascent, the out-of-home industry is poised to come out of its shell.

Sparksheet is the official media partner of Love Content, an international showcase of digital-out-of home storytelling. This is part of a series of original think pieces and in-depth Q&As built around the initiative.

With more than 1400 companies in attendance, the conference highlighted everything from smart phones to tablets to new applications for these proliferating devices. Even good old Angry Birds found a place in this week’s festivities, taking home the awards for Best Mobile App and App of the Year on the Apple platform.

It’s no surprise that tablets dominated this year’s conference. Acer launched its new Iconia tablets, which critics hope will have a more reasonable price tag than some of its competitors. HTC also revealed its Flyer model, which CEO Peter Chou claims is more than just another “me-too” product.

More than a showcase for new devices, the event made headlines by uncovering some controversial opinions about the world’s most powerful tech companies. For example, AT&T’s CEO found himself with few positive things to say about Apple’s customer service. On a more positive note, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer discussed the benefits of the Windows Phone 7 and boasted about the positive reactions it has received.

Smart phone pioneers Research in Motion also presented some new developments with Blackberry, unveiling a new app that manages travel itineraries. And Mark Zuckerberg a made a cameo via video recording to put the rumours about a Facebook phone to rest.

Throughout the conference, members were kept well informed via MWC’s  Twitter feeds. We can only hope that this year’s countless innovations will give us plenty to talk about on the mobile front until Mobile World Congress 2012.

Top stories

New LG Smartphone uses 3D technology.

Yahoo reveals Livestand, the latest in personalized magazines for tablets.

The Brazilian High Court apologizes for a Twitter message.

Apple implements controversial subscription fees. And so does Google.

Views from around the web

Yet another take on social media’s role in the Egyptian Revolution.

Facebook turns a new page, changing the role of page administrators.

Smart displays move in-store at JC Penny.

TED continues to “spread ideas worth spreading” on their new Quora-inspired forum.

This week in social media

Lil Wayne vs. Oreo: The unusual Facebook battle over a Guinness World Record:

Blackberry coordinates with TAT for a new scrapbook app:

Links:

Gilad’s blog, where he writes about everything from the Middle East to data visualization.

The Future of the Book, a mixed media installation he created for the Boston Book Festival in 2009.

Global Voices, an international community of bloggers who translate citizen media from around the world.

Dan Ariely by poptech via flickr

You talk a lot in the book about the need to design better products and systems that take into account human limitations. Are you generally positive about the role of technology and branded products in making us behave more rationally?

Am I generally optimistic? Not really about brands. The commercial world is creating many incentives for companies to get us to behave badly. It’s very hard to think about the company who would want us to save for retirement or to consume in 30 years.

Companies inherently want us to spend money now. I think what technology is actually quite good at is creating the infrastructure for a large number of people to try and fight these incentives. So from that perspective, I’m optimistic.

What products have you seen lately that you’ve been impressed by and what are you still waiting for someone to design?

There are many products that I am waiting for people to design. I am a big fan of the phone because it can connect our good intentions to the way we actually work in the world. We can all sit at home and have lots of good intentions. The question is, do we execute them? And the answer we have to admit most often is no.

The phone is a very interesting thing in that it’s with you both when you make the plans and when you execute them. If we can get our phones to be more aware of what we are doing, of our initial plans, and of the mishmash between them, I think there could be some wonderful opportunities.

What about what you call the “IKEA effect,” the idea that people find deeper enjoyment and value in things that they had a hand in creating? By doing so much of the legwork for us, has technology made us less happy? (If not less smart, as Nicholas Carr contends).

I think that’s an interesting question concerning the optimal role of our involvement with technology. If you’ve created something or have been a part of it, you will be more likely to listen to it.

It’s a continuum between convenience on the one hand and motivation to participate on the other. I think the issue with technology is determining the golden point of connection.

For example, it’s four o’clock and I have a problem with eating cookies. Now I’m at Starbucks and the phone reminds me of my pledge. Perhaps it shows me a photo of how I might look in 30 years if I keep on eating like this.

My personal problem involves time management. I think, again, it’s one of those things where we all like to be productive and efficient and then we get to the office and look at our e-mail and Facebook accounts. There is a great opportunity for fixing things in that direction as well.

Do you think the Internet has made the “Not-Invented-Here Bias” (our tendency to be more attached to our own ideas and creations) less powerful? After all, aren’t we in the age of curation, open-source collaboration and Wikipedia?

I think it’s a question of, “What do we need to do to feel that something is ours?” We were able to show in the book that people could simply unscramble a sentence and feel like they had written it themselves. Just the fact that you had to unscramble the words and reconnect them suddenly made you much more proud.

So the barrier to feel that something is ours is actually quite low. If you talk about Wikipedia, I think that the people who curate it actually think it is theirs; they don’t think they are curating it, but that they’re creating it.

Another interesting concept for marketers in the book is the “Hedonic Treadmill” – the idea that people inevitably adapt to and fall out of love with things once they’re no longer new and shiny. Now, it’s easy to see how this is good for marketers and brands, but not so much for debt-ridden consumers. So here’s my question: Do you ever fear that your research and tips are going to be used for evil instead of good?

Very much. If you understand something about how people work, you can use it for good and for bad. I think there is a risk of people really doing the wrong thing and making lots of money from it. If you look at the world as a zero-sum game, it’s a very depressing thing because it means that everything you make, other people lose.

But I think there are many opportunities to provide real value where everybody benefits. Let’s say you started a company that helped people to lose weight or to waste five percent less of their time at work. Now we can create real value.

The sad thing about behavioural economics is that you understand how inferior and fallible people are compared to what you want them to be. The good news is that it means that there are places for real improvement.

You spend a lot of time touring the world speaking to business executives about how their bonuses might actually be making them less productive, or telling doctors that the methods they’ve been using for hundreds of years are wrong. What’s it like being the bearer of bad news?

What I usually try is not to be the bearer of bad news, but the bearer of data. It’s not me telling you how things are but saying, “Look, this is what people believe in general.  Here is the data.”

What do we want to do given this data? How do we want to update or change our understanding? I think that by trying to remain objective and not idealistic, and by saying that it’s basically all about data, it becomes a little simpler.

As someone who spends a lot of time touring the world, what frustrates you most about air travel? How can brands make the experience more rational?

For me the biggest thing is uncertainty. I never know if the flight will take off, and when – or if – I will get to my destination.

If I know what to expect I can plan for it. Airlines are taking bigger precautions by making flight times longer so they arrive on time. This is a good trick because it helps us schedule more effectively.

And then, of course, there is the rudeness. If you’re in a situation where things are not going well, it would be very nice to deal with someone who is empathetic. But the whole experience of flying is a continuing struggle.

How have you applied your research to your personal and professional life? In the same way that a fitness trainer might be expected to have six-pack abs, do people expect you to be Mr. Rationality?

Not so much. Partly because I admit my irrationalities in the book. And it’s clear that they give me lots of sources for ideas. But people do approach me for help with difficult decisions they have in their lives. They expect me to have a different perspective.

I can’t turn off the behavioural economist in me. I have never tried to turn it off; I try to share it with people. We could be standing in line for something and asking questions about what is really going on and why we do certain things. I am continually fascinated by people.

Actually that’s one of the main benefits of social science – we can ask questions about our own lives and realize how little we know about the subject.

The rise of Twitter has created a marketing opportunity and identity crisis for media brands looking to do what they always say they want to do: “engage.” What Twitter does better than any other platform is allow brands to put on a more human face.

Whether you’re a New York Times reporter or an airport, Twitter makes engagement easy. But it also makes it easy for others to hijack your brand.

The rise of social media has brought back a classic dilemma: How much of their own content should brands control? Allowing fans to create their own works from copyrighted material has always been a perceived problem – just look at the tussles in fandom’s most celebrated community, the Trekkies.

Two decades ago fan fiction was a popular but hidden practice, distributed in underground networks, through gatherings, and in the mail. The old kind of mail. Yet the digital revolution has brought fandom out into the open and so far the evidence is clear: Fan-generated content is good for business.

Mad Men Wars

What’s the problem with fake Don Draper, now with nearly 13,000 followers? Two years ago cable channel AMC thought something was, and shut down a host of Mad Men Twitter characters, claiming copyright infringement and false marketing.

The Mad Men-Twitter wars, now peacefully ended, are instructive. Creator Matthew Weiner is notoriously protective of his show and its messaging, hating on spoilers to the extent that even the teaser clips at the end of each episode are so cryptic that they’re effectively pointless. He’s so obsessed with preserving the series’ historical accuracy that creating official Twitter accounts for characters from the 1960s probably seemed sacrilegious.

But AMC underestimated the zeal of its fan base. Character-driven – as opposed to plot-driven – shows inspire identification and, therefore, fiction. While online social networking clearly does not fit within the universe of the show, the themes of Mad Men – secrets, obfuscation, ambiguity – compel fans to fill in the blanks. AMC should have realized that it did not need a centralized Twitter campaign: The fans would do it themselves.

The Social Networks

Meanwhile, many younger and less high-brow TV series have experienced the opposite dilemma: So well-suited to Twitter are shows like Fox’s Glee and NBC’s Community that networks have felt compelled to participate. Glee’s official character accounts are among the most popular on Twitter, garnering tens of thousands of followers (Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester tops them at 120,000).

Yet despite its openness to Twitter, the network isn’t too active on the site. The official Glee characters have just a couple hundred tweets apiece; likewise for some of Community’s ensemble.

To cater to its base, the modestly-rated Community staged a “Twittersode” to promote its second-season premiere (it wasn’t the first twittersode: MTV did something similar last year with its transmedia web series Valemont). But the effort came off as a somewhat desperate attempt to generate some Glee-like buzz.

Community and Glee’s Twitter accounts are both pretty funny, but neither show seems to be able to meet the demand from their audiences.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

What’s the takeaway from AMC’s and the networks’ diverging Twitter experiences? Serve your fans, or get out of the way. If your business or brand is developing a following, give consumers more content; if fans beat you to it, let them thrive. In the end, fan activity cannot be forced or faked.

CBS realized that the crowd has the answer when it optioned a Twitter account, now the decently-rated $#*! My Dad Says – a practice it is repeating. Old Spice followed demand when it had actor Isaiah Mustafa record dozens of personalized YouTube videos to Twitter fans.

If consumers want to hear more from your brand, they’ll say so. And if they don’t hear back, well, they’ll just do it themselves.

Yes, social media helps our patients feel safer and better informed. Social media allows us to break down the perceptions and barriers that may exist and aids us in delivering our services directly to the user.

We have had viewers from all around the world view our videos and even schedule procedures based on our in-depth information. With our YouTube page, we feature videos from our Emery King Medical Video Library, which chronicle a number of various medical procedures done at our hospitals and tell the stories behind them in a  “fun but informative” way.

Who is your primary audience for this content: the wider medical community or patients of the hospital?

Our primary audience is both patients and medical practitioners. People are empowered to go online and research for themselves in today’s society. We want to provide the most accurate and trustworthy information possible so our patients and future patients can make informed decisions about their healthcare.

Medical practitioners use it as a teaching tool for other medical practitioners. Emery King does a wonderful job of describing and translating the video so that any and everybody can understand and enjoy the video.

You also use these new channels to reach out to hospital staff with handwashing videos and the like. How has the DMC’s staff responded? And how have you made an effort to get a variety of stakeholders (from orderlies to doctors) involved?

Our internal staff’s response to our YouTube videos has been great so far. We haven’t had a great deal of resistance from any group of people. The Handwashing Dance video went over very well. Employees loved to do it and were happy to see themselves, their fellow co-workers and even their bosses in a fun video.

Some of our recent videos include a wide variety of hospital staff, including the “Monday Morning Hustle,” which features the accounting department and their weekly exercise routine, and “Behind Sinai-Grace Today,” which was a special behind-the-scenes look at a weekly internal video broadcast that one of our hospitals puts together.

We’ve just started an “introduction class” that’s open to all employees to learn about the basics of social media. Our hope is that our employees will take a liking to our social media efforts and as a result become positive ambassadors for the great medical work being done here at the DMC.

Privacy is obviously a huge concern with hospitals. Have you had any pushback from administrators, doctors or patients on privacy grounds? How do you find a balance between transparency and privacy?

We follow HIPPA guidelines in regards to patient information. If we decide to follow a patient, doctor, or administrator’s story, we always make sure to get their full permission (through use of a publicity release form).

The DMC’s ER wait time tab on Facebook allows patrons to check ER wait times for each of the DMC’s facilities. What sort of effects have you seen it have on the ER?

Our ER volumes have definitely gone up since the multimedia launch of our ER wait time campaign. We of course don’t want a huge number of people getting injured and rushing into our ER, but since this is sadly the case we wanted to offer patients a way to check the wait time in our emergency rooms to reassure them that they won’t be waiting an ultra-long time in our hospitals.

We have a “29 Minute Guarantee” that we always try to stick to in getting people seen by a doctor as soon as possible. People have slowly been telling us that they appreciate the fact that we’re informing them about their wait times instead of finding out about it at the last minute once they’ve already arrived.

What kinds of results do you anticipate from these projects? How do you measure return on engagement?

Since social media is still relatively new for us, we don’t have a set standard on how to measure its effectiveness just yet. We always have a “call to action” on our various accounts and pages that leads viewers to our main DMC phone number or website.

We monitor and track our social media sites and can determine if viewers click directly to our website and even use it as a referral to see one of the DMC specialists.

An example of this would be when we covered a live surgery via Twitter. Our social media team was inside the operating room during a minimally invasive Birmingham hip replacement surgery and with permission from the patient, we covered the step-by-step procedure in real time, in an effort to educate potential patients and the medical community.

Two weeks later, we found out that someone who needed the same surgery saw our live coverage on Twitter and called DMC to make an appointment to get the surgery done.

Branded storytelling expert Michael Margolis on the power of narrative:

Consultant David Knies with a few examples of great branded storytelling:

It’s not that brands are evil or sinister. Companies are companies. Some are good. Others are less good. Some do things with causes and humanity in mind. Others don’t. But the main purpose of most business is to make a profit.

The question that a C-level person weighs when someone brings them an opportunity is: Will this improve the top line, cut something from my expenses, or in any other way help my bottom line? If not, then it’s pretty darned hard to get the rest of the conversation out.

Pepsi Refresh: A revenue refresher

Selling products and services by being more human is a really difficult challenge for the C-suite to face. For one thing, how do you do it right? How do you know what’s pushy selling versus useful selling? How do you convey a human message while staying focused on revenue and growth?

If I’m Pepsi, then I’m pushing Pepsi Refresh, because it shows the power of cause marketing and helps Pepsico push its message of doing good.

I’m using all the social channels, because they are inexpensive, because they are passion-filled, and because the kinds of people who might make a purchasing decision based on questions like, “Does the company do good things for the world?” would be the kinds of people who also might receive this message via a social channel.

Now, let me back up. Do social media necessarily go hand in hand with human business? No. Does cause marketing? Sure. So, it’s not fair to say that social media and cause marketing together equal a human business. But when I see how Pepsi Refresh did what it did, I make that leap. Do you?

Tools of the trade

Most people who sell social media tools aren’t selling human business directly. They’re selling tools that they consider really powerful. They sell them as the converted, not the skeptic. They sell these tools as a cure-all, and they most certainly don’t cure all.

In 2011, the three tools I’ll use the most for my own business are blogging, e-mail marketing, and private forum software. Those last two technologies are more than 20 years old. They aren’t shiny, nor are they new. I learned about the power of having a good e-mail list from Jeff Pulver. It was one of the first pieces of advice he ever gave me. So, we’re not selling shiny or new when we’re selling human business.

Return on human engagement

If you’re a big brand (or even a medium one) in 2011, and I’m at your door selling the fact that one should be human, I’d best be talking about relationship-based metrics, about sales conversions, and about how the improved customer connectivity of social tools reduces call centre costs, marketing costs and advertising expense. Otherwise, I’m selling snake oil, and that’s someone else’s business.

Brands have a lot to learn in 2011, but then, so do those who intend to sell to them. I say bring it on.

@BrandsConf takes place on Thursday, December 2nd in New York City. As official media partner, Sparksheet will bring you original content around the event’s theme, the humanization of brands, and in-depth interviews with conference presenters. Our readers are entitled to a 30% discount on registration by using the promo code “sparksheet” – http://brands2010.140conf.com/register

Over the course of the last year, incidents such as Southwest Airlines’ Kevin Smith fiasco, and the ominous Icelandic ash cloud have elevated branded tweeting from a viable marketing helping hand to an indispensable B2C tool.

Searching Mashable for “airlines on Twitter” brings up a list of content long enough to warrant its own tag, with similar content appearing everywhere from marketing blogs to travel and tourism websites.

“Airlines on Twitter” was even poached as a domain name, hosting a tool for tracking airlines’ Twitter usage in real time. Like dog years to human, time on the Web seems to pass by sevenfold, and the business world is now well aware of the impact Twitter has had, and continues to have on their brands.

Content first

Smart airlines have learned that Twitter is more than a customer service platform or PR message board. With some brands offering funny and off-the-cuff content on a rapid cycle, following airlines can often be more entertaining and rewarding a pastime for Twitter users than following some celebrities. Air New Zealand (@FlyAirNz) out-tweets some of its much larger competitors, updating followers on the exploits of its puppet mascot, Rico. FlyAirNZ’s tweeted content regularly traverses the Web, often finding itself on Facebook, blogs and other websites outside of the company’s reach.

For an extreme example of content standing alone, check out the Aloha_Airlines Twitter feed. Even though the defunct airline folded its wings in March of 2008, its Twitter account managed to retain a fair-sized following for well over a year, solely on the power of its customer engagement.

Giving nods to other airlines and updating followers on the status of employees, Aloha lived on in spirit, and even managed to make it into more than one “best airline on Twitter” list despite being permanently grounded.

Branded contests

A popular form of branded content, contests and cross-promotions are springing up in hash tags all over Twitter. Drawing on the popularity of the Awkward Family Photo blog, Virgin Airlines offered a family vacation package in exchange for embarrassing family portraits.

EasyJet created the 15-Hour Blogger Challenge, showcasing four prominent travel bloggers in four destinations with frequent updates. Followers vote on their favourite journey for a chance to win a short trip to the winning city.

Cheeps & Twares

Some airlines do contests, others prefer deals. JetBlue pioneered the latter with their famous “Cheeps” concept. In the last six months, other companies have been quick to mimic these lightning-fast last-minute airfare specials on Twitter, with their own cutely named fare deals; United Airlines does “Twares,” for instance. Notably effective from day one, these offers continue to drive up hits to the companies’ main sites and effectively push sales in off-seasons.

Turbulence

Engaging in the real-time Web hasn’t been smooth sailing for all airlines. With the speed and scale of Twitter’s reach, it’s easy for brands to lose control of their message. As we reported earlier this year, Kevin Smith’s “not-so-silent” dust-up with Southwest Airlines was exacerbated by Southwest’s allegedly “snotty” online persona which, though familiar to the airline’s fans, was jarring to many outsiders, including the well-known director.

Like all recognizable brands on Twitter, airlines have had oodles of imitators, though the large majority of phonies have been weeded out at this point in the game. Still, Twitter users have caused their fair share of controversy in the world of airlines outside of airlines’ official accounts, including this hoax during the Haiti crisis, and this one following the Icelandic volcano eruptions.

Engage

Though many critics have praised Twitter’s real-time customer service capabilities, others suggest that a bandwagon mentality is the real driving force behind brands warming to social media trends, pointing out that embracing the technology is not the same as engaging with technology.

Some airlines still seem to prefer to use Twitter as a one-way PR tool, neglecting a large and integral part of the network’s value as a medium. In an interesting (if not exactly scientific) experiment, travel blog A Tramp Abroad attempted to panel airline Twitter usage by directing this query @15 major airlines:

We’re doing a survey – do you generally respond to customer inquiries received on Twitter? Average response time?

This experiment was completed in July 2010, with roughly 60 percent of airlines queried responding within 24 hours. Again, time flies in the digital world, and chances are that percentage has grown considerably, even just three months later. All things considered, it’s clear that Twitter’s status as a liaison between companies and customers has taken off, and will likely continue to soar.

Further reading: Airlines on Twitter

SimpliFlying’s list of interesting airline and aviation experts on Twitter

Cheap-o-Air’s top airlines on Twitter

About.com’s list of Top Ten Airlines on Twitter

Measure your favourite airline’s tweet-score with Tweetlevel.com

Track airlines’ activity on airlinesonTwitter.com.

Photo by adactio via flickr

Do you see new media concepts like “engaging with” and “listening to” customers as fundamentally changing the customer-vendor relationship or are these just buzzwords?

I think companies are making a much more sincere and earnest effort, on the whole, to engage customers as human beings and not just as what Jerry Michalski calls “gullets with wallets and eyeballs.” Companies also don’t have much choice, since the marketplace is now filled with increasingly capable and independent customers.

Jerry first delivered that line back in the early years of the Internet boom, when companies saw the Net as a way to increase economies of scale in dealing with many customers at once. It was only natural, at the height of the Industrial Age, to do what industry had done for 150 years, which was to look for efficiencies through treating customers as populations rather than as individuals.

On the Internet, however, customers have many more ways to assert themselves. They have far greater powers of speech, of publishing, of reaching out and engaging. This fact was overlooked back in the 1990s, at great cost: Most dot-com companies went down in flames.

Today it’s clear that companies need to engage customers as individuals. The problem is that individuals don’t yet have all the tools we need, even if companies are improving their methods and language.

Now we need to work on the demand side, by equipping customers with their own tools, and not just the exclusive ones that companies give them. (For example, with loyalty programs.)

Do you think branded content can ever be useful to customers? Even in a world where customers are in control, businesses still have to get found, don’t they?

Branded anything is fine, as long as it’s backed by substance, and “branding” as a purpose does not subordinate the hard and simple work of earning a good reputation.

The problem with branding today is that it has stretched from its original purpose – making the names, symbols and unique qualities of a company familiar – to a kind of self-aggrandizement, especially at the individual level. Bloggers, for example, are being told that they should work on their “personal brand.” This is worse than silly. Be yourself and earn a reputation for doing what you do. Let companies do the branding.

Earlier this year you published a blog post called “Brands are boring,” in which you argued that we need to think of a more human way to talk about businesses. But isn’t the term “brand” just a way of conceptualizing the values of an organization? I think of Google and “Don’t be evil,” Blackberry and “privacy” or Virgin and “fun” and these seem like very human aspirations.

Maybe it will be helpful to remember that the word “brand” comes to us from the cattle industry.

It was first popularized in the early ‘30s – when radio was becoming ubiquitous – and manufacturers would fight “shelf wars” in grocery stores by putting one kind of many different packages (each a “brand”) and pounding listeners with messages about each. (It was in this age that it was first said, “If you’ve got nothing to say, sing it.”)

Lately marketers have dusted off this old term and used it to mean something much different than it did in the first place. The associative qualities you mention are what Trout and Ries many years ago called “positions.” (Their first and best book was “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.”)

Google is the non-evil company. Virgin is the fun airline. Volvo is the safe car company. We can intellectualize “branding” all we want, but its position will always be anchored in its original purpose: to burn a name into the brains of consumers.

Companies are humanized only by their people. How Google or Virgin or Volvo behave with their customers is what makes them more or less human. And it is the human beings at those companies that carry the humanization burden.

Apple always comes up in discussions like this, which is itself a problem because the company is profoundly unique: an example only of itself. Yet it’s worth mentioning that Apple is humanized by its stores and its customer service.
My iPhone and my last three Mac laptops have all had problems. In every case our local Apple store took care of things, with maximum courtesy and minimum fuss. Their “geniuses” weren’t perfect but they were human and they handled my problems well.

I think Apple’s success today owes to many things, but nothing more than personal service at those stores, and on the phone. If you want to call that “branding,” fine. But I think humanization and positioning work better. They are more human and better positioned than any other company making computers or phones.

I want to ask you about privacy, which is an important part of the VRM discussion. We want businesses to recognize our past interactions and treat us in a personalized way, but we’re also a little creeped out when it happens. So how do you see people using VRM tools to navigate that line in a way that makes us feel safe and well served?

We need our own tools for controlling the way our data and other personal information is used. Some of these tools will be technical. Others will be legal. That means we will have tools for engagement that say right up front how we want our data used and respected. We can do this without changing any laws at all – just the way we engage.

As I said in The Data Bubble, the tide began to turn with the Wall Street Journal article series titled “What They Know,” which is about how companies gather and use data about us. More and more of us are going to be creeped out by assumptions made by marketers about what we might want.

This is also part of what I believe is an advertising bubble. Our tolerance of too much advertising is like the proverbial frog, boiling slowly. The difference is that the frog dies, while we’re going to jump out. Everything has its limits, and we will discover how much advertising we’re willing to suffer, especially as more of it gets too personal.

The holy grail of advertising for many decades has been personalization. If we know enough about a person, the theory goes, we can make perfect bull’s-eye messages for them. But this goal has several problems.

The first problem is that personal advertising is kind of an oxymoron. Advertising has always been something you do for populations, not individuals, even if ads show up in searches by individuals, and advertisers are looking for individual responses.

From the individual’s side, advertising shouldn’t be any more personal than a floor tile. You don’t want the floor tile in a public bathroom to speak into your pants.

In fact, we’ve never liked personalized advertising of the old conventional sort, such as direct mail. We see our name on the envelope and then toss it anyway, most of the time.

The second problem is the belief that it’s actually possible to have perfect information about somebody. It’s not. And where it gets close it gets creepy.

The third problem is that advertising is still guesswork.

We need it, to let lots of customers know what we’ve got. But there should also be more efficient ways for supply and demand to meet and get acquainted – ways in which, for example, individual customers eliminate guesswork by telling vendors exactly what they want. VRM is one answer to that need.

Project VRM was conceived as a way to fulfill the promise of the Cluetrain Manifesto that  “we are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings.” Ten years after you co-authored that book, do you think the Internet and new media have made commercial relationships more or less human?

More, for sure. But we still have a long way to go. The whole last sentence there says “We are human beings and our reach exceeds your grasp.” This was the real promise of Cluetrain (at least in the commercial domain), and it is not yet true. Our reach as customers still does not exceed the grasp of vendors. And that’s what we’re working to make happen with VRM.

Check out Part I of out interview in which Doc explains how social networking, mobile media and open-source technology can help make business more human.

One area of significant growth has been in original Web shows that incorporate brands directly into the programming. The benefit from the marketer’s perspective is that the viewer watches the brand message via an integration that hopefully feels organic and can’t be skipped or ignored.

The goal is for the consumer to have a positive brand experience without being able to draw a distinct line between the brand message and the content. Recent examples include the Wrigley’s Orbit campaign starring Jason Bateman, or the Bailey’s Iced Coffee Break Series.

And now a word from our sponsors…

What this trend actually reveals is the evolution of a very specific economic transaction that takes place millions of times a day between marketers and consumers. Advertisers “pay” for consumer attention by indirectly (or directly) funding content production costs.

In interstitial or pre-roll advertising the transaction is overt and the lines between the fee and the goods are clearly delineated. Consumers simply pay a fee (the time and attention required to watch a 30-second spot) to receive the goods (watching the show).

With branded entertainment, the advertiser is acknowledging the increasing value of consumer attention and is attempting to reduce the upfront “fee.” In fact, well-executed product placement adds value to the content and no longer becomes a “cost” to the consumer at all.

This is all a rational response to the increased leverage consumers have been gaining in these transactions. But simply reducing attention costs is not going to be sufficient over time.

Tools of engagement

The problem with most branded entertainment campaigns is that they still tend to fall into a broadcast mentality. It’s all about producing content in a studio and blasting it out over a network of publishers and driving views.

It’s not about forming relationships with that audience and constructing durable communities of fans that last beyond the confines of a single campaign.

Some brands are beginning to think outside of the broadcast model. They’re using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare to create communities and to engage them in an ongoing dialogue.

Toyota’s recent launch of the new Camry and Corolla highlights how this type of campaign can work. The company’s Facebook page has more than 200,000 fans and an active community of people posting pictures, video, and comments about their experiences with Toyota cars.

This is supported by a fairly large media buy in which selected families have had their experiences highlighted in 1-3 minute clips that have been distributed across YouTube and a network of targeted publishers.

This campaign wasn’t cheap, but they don’t have to point to a study on increased brand to demonstrate return on investment; they now have a growing community of engaged consumers that can be tapped to support future campaigns.

The no-so-lonely case of LonelyGirl15

You can trace the roots of these types of campaigns to the pioneering 2006 Web series LonelyGirl15. The series focused on a teenage girl named Bree who was being pursued by an evil organization called “The Order.” The effort came under justifiable criticism for initially not being transparent about the fact that it was fiction, but it still provides some valuable lessons.

Where Loneygirl broke new ground was in its use of MySpace to create profile pages for fictional characters in the show. These pages blurred the lines between the show and reality and gave the audience the ability to participate in the narrative.

LG15 ultimately used its large audience (110 million views across the 18 months the series ran) to introduce one of the first examples of integrated product placement in a Web video series with the episode Truckstop Reunion, sponsored by Hershey’s Icebreakers Sours Gum.

Time to get social

While this is four years and a billion dollars in US online video ad spend behind us, the things that made LG15 so successful are missing from too many of today’s branded video campaigns.

Agencies marvel over the viral success of Wieden + Kennedy’s Old Spice campaign, but the reality is that the videos didn’t really go viral (i.e. gain attention beyond paid media) until the Old Spice guy started responding to tweets and engaging influencers on the social web.

Getting people to share videos with friends is nice and the way most agencies and brands think about viral success today. But this is still a broadcast mentality: “How can we get free impressions through viewers sharing the videos with each other?” More durable brand equity is built when every dollar spent on production and distribution is also working to build a community of fans by involving your audience in the content creation process.

The faster that buyers in video and social media can work together to create these types of experiences, the faster they can help brands deliver value to consumers instead of simply minimizing the cost of the virtual tax on attention that most ads represent today.

In the future, brand equity will be measured by the strength of the brand’s community. How strong is yours?

I was juggling my effects at the baggage claim when I noticed a floor-to-ceiling banner featuring three men wearing unfamiliar yellow soccer jerseys. The players, who were among the brightest African stars of the tournament, had the words “Africa United” emblazoned on their chest. It was an ad for South Africa-based MTN, the continent’s leading telecommunications company and the only official African FIFA sponsor.

From Bob Marley and W. E. B. Du Bois to Haile Selassie and Muammar al-Gaddafi, political and cultural leaders have been working on the notion of a united continent since at least 1924. But where diplomacy has failed, the confluence of soccer and cell phones appears to be achieving some small success.
MTN’s network connects 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East, including all six of the African teams that qualified for the Cup. Since 2003, Africa has had the fastest growing mobile penetration of any continent, and three countries (Gabon, the Seychelles and South Africa) now boast almost 100% penetration.

“Africa United” is a campaign that no other sponsor could have pulled off, and it’s particularly convincing when coupled with the only cultural medium that pervades every African country south of the Sahara, the beautiful game. The notion of football as a uniting force in Africa is hardly a new one, as Steve Bloomfield’s recent book demonstrates, but a marketing campaign that extends it beyond images of barefoot children on their local pitch and hackneyed ‘hands-across-Africa slogans’ is. (I’d put FIFA’s own “Celebrate Africa’s Humanity” tagline in the hackneyed category.)

MTN’s campaign, which runs across print, broadcast, online and outdoor channels throughout Africa, uses a combination of athlete star power and “Official Sponsor” status to project a simple, powerful message: we want an African champ. The people crowded around TVs across the continent aren’t that interested in celebrating Africa’s humanity; they want the kinds of uniting moments that Roger Milla gave them in 1990 and Siphiwe Tshabalala gave them to kick off the 2010 tournament. And MTN can credibly link its brand to that message, partially because of efforts like its ongoing sponsorship of the Confederation of African Football Champion’s League, but also because of the sheer number of “GOOOOOOOOOAL” SMSs that travelled across African borders on its network on June 11th.

Much of the advertising international World Cup viewers see sentimentalizes the “Africa’s Cup” theme in ways that seem designed to foster some loose cognitive connection between a brand and all the humanity celebrating that’s going on in South Africa this summer.

There’s the good, like Puma’s charming and optimistic “Journey of Football” spot featuring, yes, barefoot children, but also great stock footage from the recent history of West African teams and a pitch-perfect aural hook from Gnarls Barkley. There’s the bad, like Pepsi’s “Oh Africa” spot, which despite its Drogba-Messi star power, doesn’t seem to say much more than “Africans are fun-loving football fans who live on the Serengeti and drink Pepsi.”

And then there’s the awkward and condescending, like the ESPN World Cup theme music, which was produced in Utah using the cast from the Broadway Lion King musical. Every marketer knows that authenticity is a hard thing to find and an even harder thing to sell—Puma’s ‘we heart Africa’ approach is successful because it doesn’t claim more authenticity than the brand can support.

MTN, for its part, has a lot more cred capital to work with than the other brands competing for the Cup’s lucrative collection of eyeballs, and they’re using it to say “we want the same thing you want.” Well, that thing isn’t going to happen, because on Friday, Ghana’s Black Stars lost a heartbreaker to Uruguay, ending the dream of an African team in the finals.

So much for Africa United, but thanks to cell phones and savvy marketing, united Africa looks alive and well.

Photo by re:publica10 via flickr

Jeff Jarvis is Associate Professor and Interactive Program director at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. He was the creator and founding managing editor of Entertainment Weekly.

Are we entering a world where journalists are becoming more like brands, and brands more like journalists?

Yes, I think so. We have to teach students how to market themselves and market what they do. We see journalists doing this everywhere by linking to their stories on Twitter and having Facebook pages and so on. So yes, journalists should become more like brands.

Back in the day, the big brand of the newspaper would rub off on the journalist. In this new world, journalists’ brands add up to form the bigger brand of the media outlet.

In your book you explore how brands, companies and entire industries can re-shape themselves in Google’s image. What would Google Airlines look like?

Airlines are kind of a problem now. They tend to treat their costumers likes prisoners. In the U.S. we have legislation that guarantees customers air and water, but not a great experience.

Now that we can get online before and during our flight, we can create networks. We can go on and say, “Who else wants a ride downtown?,” “Where should I eat in Ottawa?,” or whatever.

There is wisdom in that cabin. And a smart airline will try to figure out how to get that wisdom out of it. When I fly tomorrow, the airline should ask me where I stayed, where I ate, what was good and what was bad.

In other words, I have value as a passenger. Now, if they did that, they could become a publisher and they could end up reducing their costs. That’s just a small example of how they can build relationships and work with their costumers instead of fighting them.

Airlines have us by their scarcity because only certain companies fly to certain places, but the model of trying to charge you for a pillow or a pretzel is not a viable business model in the Internet age.

What would Google do if it were a magazine publisher?

I think it’s the same for magazines. Magazine readers are smart and brands have an advantage because they have a community already. Brands have to figure out how to mobilize and enable that community to do what they want to do.

Sparksheet recently spoke to New Yorker.com editor Blake Eskin about how the 85-year-old magazine has embraced the digital age without compromising its content or its brand. Do you think that’s possible for all media outlets?

I think that the New Yorker is unique. The New Yorker has a strong voice and they’re reluctant to change that – and perhaps they should be. But they are also at the center of a community, of a smart crowd, so they have a great opportunity to collaborate with their readers and to get new content and new information out of them.

Let’s talk about personal branding. How did Jeff Jarvis go from unknown magazine editor to notable media critic and professor in just a few short years?

Every point in my career was purely accidental. That sounds a little bit like false modesty because I do have an ego and I like the attention – I won’t deny that – but it was never a smart strategy. It just kind of happened.

Photo by oenvoyage via flickr

Airlines + Travel Marketing

Airlines, scientists split over impact of ash: A sober report on the story that defined the week.

Boarding pass design doesn’t have to suck, says one angry blogger.

Ford’s Sync Brings the App Revolution to Your Wheels. We’re keeping our eyes on Ford’s new in-car entertainment system, which is dripping with potential…and safety concerns.

Branded Content + Entertainment

Hulu is pushing forward with $9.95 subscription service

Content is making a comeback, according to Advertising Age

Transmedia is going mainstream, says producer Jeff Gomez

Media + Magazines

E-Reader Owners Love Magazines. So are e-readers creating magazine customers or converting them from print?

BusinessWeek’s new design emphasizes the Bloomberg brand

Is Conde Nast infringing on ad agency turf?

People don’t care whether they come across great content on a billboard, on television, or in an iPhone app. Big screen, small screen, computer screen – they’re all part of a bigger picture. We live in a transmedia world.

Brand storytelling

Jeff Gomez created the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which encompasses a Disney theme park ride, a series of films, and spinoff novels, as well as video and board games. He describes transmedia as “the art of conveying messages, themes, or storylines to mass audiences through the artful and well-planned use of multiple media platforms.”

Clever brands are using this new method of storytelling to tell their own brand’s story.

Back in 2001, BMW released “The Hire,” an eight-part Web series directed by eight major filmmakers including Guy Ritchie, Ang Lee and John Woo, and starring Clive Owen as a heroic BMW driver. The series earned more than 21 million views in its first year, and later found success on DVD and even in comic book form.

Coca-Cola joined the transmedia fray with the Happiness Factory – a virtual world of characters living inside a vending machine. The series lives across multiple channels, including commercials, interactive video games, and a musical soundtrack that features a variety of artists. The series provides Coca-Cola with additional revenue streams, and customers with a fun brand experience.

Return on Engagement

Why is branded entertainment more effective than the old 30-second spot? It’s all about emotional engagement. Viewers derive value from a laugh or identification with a well-drawn character.

This depth of engagement generates opportunities for additional branded content such as contests, product website learning experiences and strategic partnerships. For example, Molson Dry was hugely successful with its “Association of Party Pros” – a social reality game that took place at concerts, bars and on Facebook. Players could accumulate points and gain special privileges at events or win party gear at the Molson boutique.

“In order to tell a great story that will engage an audience with a brand, you really have to understand the brand narrative,” says Brendan Howley, partner/director at Fresh Baked Entertainment, a Toronto-based firm specializing in branded entertainment. “The audience is the chief stakeholder here, and now it’s about ROE – return on engagement – not ROI.”

Let me entertain you

In a transmedia world, advertising agencies are no longer competing with each other for attention. We’re seeing a tidal wave of consumer-generated video content through social media communities like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. The iPhone and iPad are making content increasingly mobile and personal. And with personal video recorders and on-demand entertainment, viewers can decide to shut out marketing messages altogether.

With so many media platforms at our fingertips, consumers are demanding higher quality experiences in exchange for their time. It’s up to brands – and a new breed of agencies – to entertain them.

Pam Ann is the airline geek’s comedian. She makes having a plane fetish cool. She’s a throwback to the days when flying was elegant, when Branniff’s flight attendants did “The Air Strip” out of Pucci-designed uniforms.

For the last 13 years, she’s been known to change her material from night to night, tailoring it to her audience. When in Toronto, she’ll customize her show for the Air Canada, Porter and WestJet crews in the house—and mercilessly make fun of them in the process. The next night, she’ll roast JetBlue employees in New York, or Delta staff in Atlanta.

You just have to watch her videos to know she’s got a very special relationship with flight attendants. Her “touch trolley, look important” routine and her Pam Ann Airways promotional video are searing takeoffs on this much-maligned profession.

Which raises the question: Why do flight attendants—who aren’t exactly known for having a sense of humour about their jobs— love her so much? She’s been particularly brutal to British Airways, yet even they hired her to produce a mock training video.

For one thing, her sketches and routines are made up of airline operational “inside jokes” that even customers love. And deep down, you know she has real affection for airline folks and what they go through. Ultimately, she’s sharing a laugh with them about the absurdity of serving coffee while flying through the sky in a sealed metal tube.

Read our interview with the hilariously sarcastic Pam Ann/Caroline Reid after the jump:

Let’s talk stereotypes. How do Western airlines differ from Asian or Middle Eastern carriers, for example, in terms of service?

I’m biased since I do their ads but I actually like the attitude of British Airways hostesses. I like the whole Britishness of it. They get the job done. You know those b****es will get you off a burning wreckage if they had to!

You don’t mess with the German cabin crew. They’re hardcore. I had this one serving me on my last Lufthansa flight: “We’ve counted our meals and we don’t have any more for you!!!” I was like, “OK, it’s fine, it’s fine.”

El Al got the whole security thing right from the beginning, didn’t they? And they’re hot too! I’d plant something on me just to get patted down by those sexy Israelis. And they have that look in their eyes, which makes it even more thrilling.

What’s your take on inflight magazines?

I love the maps at the back. I love taking out the magazine and saying, “I’ve been here, I’ve been here,” then turning to the person sitting next to me and saying, “So where have you been?” The magazines I don’t like are the ones that don’t have much content. They’re all ads! I like to read the articles. That’s what an inflight magazine is for. People are stuck, you have an audience. Tell them something!

What sorts of movies do you like to watch on an airplane?

I saw “My Mother’s Keeper” with Cameron Diaz on my flight over. After the third glass of red wine I was just buckets of tears and people were walking by and I was like, “I’m fine! I’m just watching a movie!”

Are you excited about inflight WiFi?

I never take out my computer on an airplane. I like to switch off so no one could get in touch with me. It’s really the last place left where I can have some peace and quiet and not worry about checking my email. Why would you want to take that away?

What’s the funniest airline brand?

Southwest is a little bit funny. Some of the flight attendants get on and tell bad airline jokes. Some of them even sing! That’s not my idea of a good time.

But isn’t that exactly what Pam Ann does?

But darling, there’s a difference. Pam Ann’s not really real. It’s all make believe! My idea of getting on a plane with Pam Ann would be my idea of hell. I’d be like, “Oh, shut up!”

So what’s the funniest airline uniform?

BMI flight attendants look like Salvation Army collectors. They look like they should be at Hogwarts Terminal 4. Austrian Airlines has everything red. They look like the child catchers from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Tim Gunn from Project Runway really needs to sort them out. I told that to Austria’s First Lady once. She said she liked the uniforms. Obviously, she was wearing red. They all wear red in Austria!

Lots of your comedy revolves around class. How has the recession changed this aspect of air travel?

You’re the most aware of where you stand in the world when you walk into an airport.  I don’t think that’s ever going to change. If you’re in economy, you’re always looking at the First Class people saying, “Oh, look at them.” If you’re in First Class you’re like, “Everyone else can f*** off!”

At some airlines they’ll look down at you if you’re in business, because you’re still not in first: “You’re not getting that extra canapé. You still haven’t made it, so don’t get all smart with us just yet!”

Is there anything glamorous about air travel anymore?

I think so. I don’t mind security, to be honest. I don’t mind a good pat down! If you’re at the back of the plane then forget it, but if you’re in the front I think there’s still a little bit of glamour there.

Have you flown Virgin Atlantic out of Heathrow? They’ve created this Virgin world where you don’t have to interact with the other people in the airport. All the girls are blonde and gorgeous: “Do you need help with your seat?” I got one girl to show me how to work the seat and she was all over me! Now that’s full service.

What’s been the biggest change in the airline industry since Pam Ann started flying?

The charter airlines. Growing up in Australia, we would watch planes take off and it was like, “Wow, where are they going?” We were in the middle of nowhere. Then the industry grew and flying became cheaper and now people can see the world.

I say, screw the carbon footprint! See the world. The truth is, if we didn’t have the charter industry I wouldn’t have a show. No one would know what I was talking about!

Photos used by permission

—

UPDATE: Our colleagues at Spafax Interactive have created a series of awesome Layover Guide iPhone apps for Pam Ann, now available in the Apple App Store. We’re proud to have played matchmaker on this one!

Also, check out our sister magazine enRoute’s cool interview with Pam Ann on travel etiquette. The Pam Ann love never stops!

© istockphoto/Rubén Hidalgo

With 87 percent of U.S. travellers hooked on the Web, it’s clear that the number of people researching and/or booking their trips online will continue to grow. But while the digital space is more important than ever, many travel marketers have a rigid vision of what online success looks like.

In trying to achieve their preferred end result (a booking on their brand site, a registration in their loyalty program) marketers often lose sight of the fact that the digital space has no singular prescribed path.

Customers relish the freedom and options the Internet gives them as they click their way to their desired outcome. Travel marketers need to respect and plug into this process, not try to dictate it.

Let’s take a step back and consider how the online travel consumer behaves. We know they shop around. Most Transumers visit a variety of sites before they actually book. At the early stages of their planning they likely compare different destinations, different hotels, and different airlines.

But as customers home in on where they want to go, where they want to stay, and how they want to get there, their search becomes focused on isolating the best price for the same product among different vendors.

So our consumer checks out the online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia and Travelocity, aggregators like Kayak and Sidestep, and the brand sites themselves. And, if they don’t find a better deal in one of those places, our Transumer will most likely return to the site they usually book on.

For some that may be an OTA, regardless of whether it’s for a flight, a hotel, or a car rental. For others it will be the brand site, perhaps for ease, peace of mind or loyalty club incentives.

But here’s the rub. Most travel companies devalue a booking if it occurs anywhere other than their brand site. Mainly because of the fees they pay for those bookings but also because they can’t control the brand experience as much.

Both fair points. But let’s have some perspective, travel brands.

First, the behind-the-scenes business and pricing issues that exist between brands and aggregators mean nothing to the consumer. They couldn’t care less about the complexity of our business except when it makes their experience poor. And none of us are looking to do that.

Second, a booking is a booking. The economy is still pretty rotten. A booking for you is a booking your competitor didn’t get. That’s a win.

Third, what incentive did you give to the customer to book directly with you? None? Then why would you expect them to do you any favours and change their preferred booking behaviour? I go back to my second point – a booking is a booking. Win/win.

If you really want to increase conversion to direct booking, remarket to those who booked you elsewhere. Offer them an incentive to book direct on their next trip. Get them into your loyalty program. Show them why the grass is greener on home field.

But if your campaign and your business goals are predicated on securing direct bookings, the reality is that you will fail unless you offer customers something on your site that they can’t get anywhere else.

Controlling access has worked for some but remember that your paid media budget can be lower with multiple distribution points online. You don’t have to work so hard to ensure that the consumer finds you. This allows you to invest your budgets more wisely – say in more targeted media, a better brand website experience and, critically, in strong, compelling offers.

And, frankly, that’s what you really should be focusing on – making the consumer want to pick you. Regardless of where they opt to do the picking.

In an age where almost every traveller has an iPod or smartphone, podcasts are a relatively cheap way for brands to communicate with customers and make their trip smoother. Travel guides, language lessons and other relevant content can be downloaded at home and consumed on the go.

But while a few airlines are experimenting with podcasts, most brands have turned a deaf ear to them. Here are a few examples of what airline podcasts are, and what they could be.

British Airways created the Dr. Sleep podcast series in late 2007, which offers passengers advice on issues such as jetlag, fatigue, and “the business side of sleep.” Combine this with their audio/video travel destinations podcasts and they get the Grammy for best audio offering.

American Airlines sponsors Travel with Rick Steves, a weekly hour-long podcast that features in-depth city guides and special episodes like “International New Year’s Eve,” in which Steves discusses how different cultures celebrate the New Year. American also produced a motivational series called Power Lunch targeted at the business traveller, but it hasn’t been updated since 2007.

Delta Air Lines puts out weekly updates on its flight operations, in podcast form. These are very technical reports aimed at hardcore airline geeks.

Lufthansa, working with custom podcast producer BCD Travel, produces the Travelling with Experts series. Aimed at business travellers, it offers advice on cultural norms and safety in destinations like China, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. Unfortunately, the series is available only in German.

While most airlines have yet to see the podcasting light, a quick search of the Apple store reveals dozens, if not hundreds, of successful airline-related podcasts.

Ice Pilots NWT, based on a History channel TV series, follows a fictitious Yellowknife-based airline, providing behind-the-scenes interviews with the (fake) cabin crew. Why can’t a real airline do something like this? Cathay Pacific, for example, already has a “meet the crew” feature on its iPhone app.

Then there’s Betty in the Sky With a Suitcase, which chronicles the misadventures of a real-life air hostess for an unnamed “major American airline.” Her first podcast, “Monkeys and Tigers and Ghosts… Oh My!!!,” released in August 2005, involved troublesome monkeys in Bali, bugs and bats in Belize and tigers and ghosts in India! Today “Betty” has almost half a million podcast fans around the world and her own eBook.

So why haven’t more airlines joined the podcasting fray? Put yourself in the customer’s shoes…

Imagine when you book your flight to Paris, Air France sends you an email with links to downloadable content – “French for Beginners,” “An Introduction to Paris,” or “Doing Business in France.”

Once on the plane, you can hook up your iPhone to inflight Wi-Fi or a USB port, download a video tour of the best Parisian restaurants or listen to a conversation with your flight captain.

After the flight, you can keep up with your basic French lessons, and listen to the city guide as you cruise down the Champs-Élysées.

Carriers can integrate podcasts into mobile apps or social media platforms and have customers engaging with their brand long after their plane touches down.

Airlines encourage passengers to take the inflight magazine home with them; maybe it’s time they gave them something to take onto the plane, and listen to throughout their journey.

But did you catch our fascinating chat with Web design icon Jeffrey Zeldman? Or our refreshingly candid interviews with brand execs like Emirates’ Patrick Brannelly and best-selling business author Chris Brogan? We’ve put together our favourite Sparksheet Q&As for your reading pleasure.

Of course, we’re also known for our original “think pieces”—micro-essays, roundups and sparks of inspiration. Ogilvy’s Kunal Sinha takes us inside China’s hippest new hotels; Al St. Germain offers clients and agencies pointers for the big pitch; and jet-setting travel writer Charlene Rooke documents her 24-hour journey through Lufthansa’s brand space, on land and in flight—plus so much more in The Best of Sparksheet.

Download The Best of Sparksheet for free now!

For the full feed, follow us on Twitter. Here is our iPhone “tweetphoto” shot from within the 900-plus audience:

Some hope to make an international impact by launching splashy high-tech or eco-friendly initiatives; others have invested in local projects that will generate goodwill with Vancouverites long after the athletes leave town.

Many other brands are just looking to expose their products and services to the millions of viewers, visitors and spectators who will be transported into the Transumer headspace by the global excitement around the Games. Here are a few innovative examples.

Open House

Most Vancouver hotels have been booked for months, if not years; some are taken over entirely by TV crews and heads of state. So during the recent real-estate blip, one developer got creative. The new downtown residential tower Level turned from proposed rental apartments into an extended-stay residential hotel, suddenly the only one in town with Olympic vacancies. It will also temporarily host USA House during the games. That high-visibility gig could be a big-time launching pad; Level Furnished Living hotel has already housed some visiting Hollywood film crews.

Style and Substance

Compare the plans of official sponsor Omega, which opened a classy pop-up watch boutique for the duration of the Games in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver; and of renegade eyewear brand Oakley, which will have its Rolling O product and technology lab-on-wheels in the more populist locale of nearby ski hill Grouse Mountain. Each approach smartly targets the brand’s core audience.

Official clothing sponsor Hudson’s Bay Company and its red mittens has a shining presence at the Games, but there are plenty of other sportswear brands ready to grab some limelight. Victorinox, makers of Swiss Army travel gear, have a pop-up temporary store in Whistler for the Games. Red Canoe Heritage Brands also recently opened a permanent Whistler store. How many tourists will happily purchase these Canadiana-hip clothes in place of “official” gear?

Meanwhile, hometown Yoga-pant guru Lululemon got wrist-slapped for its cheeky “Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009 & 2011 Edition” clothing line. The IOC called it ambush marketing; we call it clever positioning.

The Bay's Olympic superstore in downtown Vancouver (by susan gittins via flickr)

Easy Being Green

Eco-friendly products are becoming an easier sell with consumers, but a marketing boost during the Games could be a green launching pad. Official sponsor Coke is using the Olympics to unroll new clean, green cooling technology for 1,400 vending machines around Olympic sites—a first in Canada. Greenpeace (founded in Vancouver in 1978) has been working with Coke over the last several years to popularize the new technology; Vancouver 2010 could be the global “tipping point.”

Good Will Hunting

While some brands are going straight for their customers’ dollars, others are winning over their hearts and minds. Official sponsor GE partnered with the province of BC to revitalize a beloved local playground, the delightful Arthur Erickson-designed skating rink at downtown’s Robson Square.

The rink showcases GE lighting and cooling technology—and a great deal of corporate goodwill. The $2-million project will have a lasting legacy for locals after the Games.

Likewise, official sponsor Bell is hosting the Bell Ice Cube, a 3,000-square-foot downtown celebration zone that will showcase Bell technology, sure—but will also have talk shows with athletes and live music for the crowds.

Night skating at GE Plaza in Vancouver's Robson Square (by susan gittins via flickr)

Screening Room

This is being called the first Twitter Games, with dedicated social media newsrooms popping up around the city. No other Olympic Games has been such a platform for new technology of every kind.

Official sponsor Panasonic will debut its home 3D HD plasma TV, and is sponsoring athletes to blog using Panasonic video and online technology.

Samsung scored a coup by making its Omnia the official Olympics cellphone, though the local media has been reporting that disgruntled VANOC employees are using their personal iPhones and Blackberries on the sly.

There’s even an official Olympic video game, by Sega, to win over the eyeballs of the young male and extreme-sport demographic.

Medal Ceremony

But our favourite branded promotion of the Games is by Urban Barn, which has uniquely combined a bricks-and-mortar appeal to locals and visitors with an online gimmick bound to attract even broader attention.

The furniture retailer is moving one of its employees into its Howe Street location 24/7 during the games, making it a public living room—and a high-profile showcase for their products. Store manager Robbie will Tweet, update a Facebook page and generate a live Big Brother-style feed that will be broadcast in 10 Urban Barn locations across Canada.

Step up on the Sparksheet podium: we give you the Transumer engagement gold medal.

© Dan Lamont

Brent Friedman is Co-Founder and President of Electric Farm Entertainment.

How did you get major brands like Kodak and Verizon to sign on to something as new and untested as transmedia storytelling?

Our first transmedia project, Afterworld, was a great litmus test for the model. It became something that we could use to showcase what we were capable of from a production quality and creative standpoint, as well as a business standpoint. I mean, the reach that we got with Afterworld was globally over 20 million views and it made money!

So, although we didn’t have any sponsorship on that project, when we did Gemini Division as our next project, everybody could see we had credibility. We got Rosario Dawson interested and once we had her, and we had NBC, and we had Sony, we had the confidence to go after some big sponsors.

We got Cisco and Intel and Acura and UPS and Microsoft all as sponsorship integration deals on Gemini Division. It was an embarrassment of riches, but it was also too many balls to juggle. So by the time we got to Valemont and Woke Up Dead, we decided it’s better to have one sponsor take on a bigger role in our project. It just becomes too difficult to manage all of those relationships while you’re also trying to produce content.

Transmedia projects produced by Brent Friedman for Electric Farm Entertainment (chart by Sparksheet)

What have been the most effective ways to work these brands into your stories?

You really have to sit down and explore what it is that the brand wants to communicate; what aspect of their brand do they want to represent in this story, or in this experience? Taking the Verizon example, before we even knew that brand was on board, we had embraced this idea that the central narrative device of Valemont was going to be a cell phone.

When you’re working in two- to three-minute episodes you need shortcuts. Something I learned in video games was to cut out the first act of set up – jump right into the action – and the way we thought we could do that in Valemont was to give our main character all the clues she needed in the very first two-minute episode. Give her a cell phone with all the digital fragments of her brother’s life – his voicemails, his text messages, pictures, videos – so she could solve the mystery of his murder one clue, one episode at a time… using a Verizon branded phone, of course.

How do you integrate your sponsors into the narrative without insulting your audience’s intelligence?

That’s another thing I learned as a story consultant at EA [Electronic Arts], the video game company. When I was there they were really embracing the verisimilitude of advertising. It used to be that you had a major league baseball game, for example, and all of the signage inside the parks were jokes, they were parodies of real ads.

But then they started getting feedback that the game would seem more real if there were real ads that simulated the experience of being in a ballpark. And I think a light went on in everybody’s head – “Oh, wait a minute, they’re not going to feel that’s advertising, they’re going to feel that that’s reality” – because we live in a branded world. So from our standpoint, we could make a fake phone, and we could make a fake wireless carrier, but that would take you out of reality.

What are some of the ways in which you enabled your audience to interact with the story, as well as the brand?

As a kind of nexus of the entire ARG [alternate reality game] and interactive experience, we built a faux Valemont University website that we modeled after real 21st century college websites. Students could apply to Valemont University and when they were accepted, they got their own virtual phone through the website.

That became their communication device, where they got text messages and pictures and videos sent to them from characters in the show. And that was also a Verizon-branded phone, so it became a replicate experience to the show’s main character.

Both Woke Up Dead and Valemont have more or less completed the run of their episodes. How have your sponsors been able to realize some ROI on these projects?

We were able to offer click-throughs to the Kodak website. They featured Woke Up Dead on their main site and got a lot of attention for that. I think they really got a lot of return on their investment in terms of what it did for their brand., because it connected a new demographic to their digital cameras and made using them fun and cool. Plus, it allowed Kodak to loosen up their brand identity. In terms of actual numbers – selling cameras – I don’t know. But I do know that they couldn’t be happier with the whole experience.

Verizon was excited about a lot of things that happened on the show; the number of people who enrolled in Valemont U completely exceeded everyone’s expectations. The amount of engagement, the time that people were spending on Valemont U, the number of fans we garnered on Facebook, as well as the amount of streams they were getting to their V CAST users of Valemont was through the roof.

The retention rate of the Valemont episodes when they aired on TV was also off the charts. But most importantly, it wasn’t that people were watching the show, it was that they were engaging with the content.

And because Verizon was integrated into that whole experience, from the episodes to the websites, they felt like they were getting a lot of great exposure.

As a transmedia storyteller, how important is it to create a community around your content?

I think at this stage of the game it’s one of the most vital things. I think what’s happened is that there used to be this kind of wall between creators and audience. It used to be a one-way experience where creators created and they distributed to an audience at whatever time they chose to give it to them, for however long and for whatever price. Those days are gone and that wall has come down, and now you don’t have creators and audience, you have co-collaborators.

You have people who initiate the content and you have fans who invest in the content and even help market it virally. And I think that that relationship is going to be key going forward because the audience has become so empowered and so enabled because of the technology.

Something else I picked up at EA is the notion of “a universe worthy of devotion.” When you look at a project or a franchise like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, it’s not just that the movies themselves were successful. It’s that those worlds have been so fleshed out, so well conceived in their 3-D qualities, that fans want to go live there, they want to explore that world. The key is to create content experiences that satisfy that compulsion.

Taking Valemont as an example, what was the most surprising way in which your audience became part of the story?

We initially decided we didn’t want to have a fan forum on the Valemont University site. We were trying to create what feels like a real university site, so we couldn’t have fans talking about the TV show on it.

We thought we’d have a Facebook page where fans can gather and talk. But that’s not really a forum, that’s more of a bulletin board.

And so, without any prompting, a group of hardcore fans rose up and created the Valemont Commons, which is a very good replica of our Valemont U site. They emulated the design of the VU site, and created an adjunct, essentially, where fans could gather, and they did a really smart thing: they created an “on campus” portion of the forum where people could be in character and talk about Valemont as if it were a real institution, and then they had “off campus”, where you could kind of step back and talk about the show.

That happened instantaneously. It happened within the first week of the show being released.

Is transmedia a niche, or is it the future of entertainment?

It’s definitely the future. I think that what’s happening is that storytelling is taking on a different life because people are looking for a different level of experience. I think that transmedia producers are actually rising up to meet a need. I think that it’s an emotional, psychological need to not just watch passively anymore.

I think there is both an opportunity and a challenge for content creators. To trust the audience, to invite them in and let them make it their own. That’s exciting for creators and fans. And you don’t really have enough of that right now.

Honestly, I always look to video games when I want to peek into the future. Everything you’re seeing from Project Natal, which is creating interactivity in terms of not just movement recognition, but voice recognition, eye recognition, emotion recognition – it’s putting the viewer, the audience, into the game, into the movie, into the web series, and once they’re in there, they don’t want to just watch. They want to be part of that world.

I don’t know how far off that is as a mainstream technology, but that’s what kind of keeps me going – the idea that I’ll be around to not just see something like this, but to actually create a next-gen experience like that.

©istockphoto.com/Stepan Popov

In this ho-hum holiday season, turns out that the only retailers who experienced a surge in sales, according to the New York Times, were those who let customers do the handiwork themselves.

Design-it-yourself websites such as Zazzle, CafePress and Scrapblog reported a whopping 80% increase in sales compared to last year’s gift season. At Spreadshirt, where customers create t-shirts, bags, umbrellas and even underwear, orders have doubled. Sales are also up 43 percent at Blurb, which lets customer craft their own photo or art books.

Mass customization, a niche that’s growing 10 times as fast as online retail, isn’t limited to Web 2.0. start-ups. Major international brands are enabling customers to personalize products through slick online portals and promotional offers. Adidas encourages amateur athletes to design their own one-of-a-kind running shoes. Prescriptives lets ladies create their signature lip gloss by choosing a shade, finish and flavour. Meanwhile, sweet tooths can visit the My M&Ms website, upload a photo or company logo, select a colour and even write a message to create their own custom candy.

But when you think about it, no industry is as ripe for customization as travel. After all, everyone’s travel experience is completely unique and deeply personal. Here are some examples of how travel brands are giving their customers the tools to customize their own adventures.

Disney and Personalized Video

Mass customization works for services as well as products. At Disney’s Epcot Theme park, customers can design their own personalized roller coaster ride— The Sum of All Thrills—on a touch table using rulers and speed tools to create twists and turns. The design is saved on a special card, which is then swiped at a launch station—a giant carriage controlled by a robotic arm. Kids watch a video version of the ride they just designed while the arm jerks them around and a giant fan blows air in their face, simulating the feel of a rollercoaster.

Last year I went to Disney’s website and created my own personal faux news video, which announced that for the first time ever the entire Magic Kingdom park would be dedicated to one person for the whole year – Me! I counted 13 instances in which my name appeared in the video, superimposed on signs, rides, menus, and other places in the park. The video was even hosted on a personalized microsite.

Considering how much this delighted me as an adult, I can only imagine how special a child would feel seeing her name plastered all over the Magic Kingdom. Talk about emotional branding.

Maine Event: Personalized Travel Guides

Seeking a competitive edge in the battle for tourist dollars, the Maine Office of Tourism decided to mail a free personalized travel planner to anyone who visited its website and volunteered information about his or her travel plans. The variable elements included photos of attractions the traveller said they intended to visit, a calendar listing events taking place during the time of their stay, a custom letter, and a document featuring the regions and activities in which they expressed interest. The package was printed on demand and included a feedback card that offered respondents the chance to win a shopping spree at L.L.Bean, one of the state’s most famous retailers.

Mailing the personalized package cost approximately 15 percent more than mailing the standard info package, but the results clearly outweighed the costs. According to Xerox 1:1 Lab, which piloted the project, 24.1 percent more people responded to the personalized package, with over 50 percent of those responding providing feedback, and 73 percent indicating that the guide was helpful.

That’s what marketing is all about—figuring out what customers want, and how they want it. So why not go ahead and ask them to spell it out for you?

By Chris Brogan via flickr

Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency, and co-founder of the Inbound Marketing Summit.

You’re an extremely prolific blogger but you recently launched a newsletter with separate content. Why did you feel it necessary to have a presence in people’s inboxes?

Blogs reach one kind of person. The newsletter reaches another. I’ve also launched an iPhone app, a better mobile UI, and I’m available in the Kindle Store, as well. To be a new media outlet is to be every bit as interested in finding the people you need to build relationships with, regardless of technology. If I thought it was sustainable, I’d buy a printing press, too.

When’s the last time you came across some really, truly useful branded content?

I find useful branded content lots lately, because many companies are learning how to be smarter with using content marketing in their efforts. Often times, it’ll be content created by a company who plays in that space. One example I like is when Sysomos uses their listening tools to generate interesting reports about the social media space. It’s a report I can use, and it’s done by a tool that sells to people like me in the space where they’re using it.

As someone who seems to spend a lot of time on the road, what do you look for in a travel brand?

I need brands on the move to be topical, bite sized, localized, and relevant to my travel experience.

What magazines, blogs, mobile apps, etc. do you consult when looking for travel-related resources or content?

I ask Twitter more than any other resource when it comes to travelling. I usually get up-to-the-minute information, including interesting deals, just by throwing the question out there to Twitter. Mind you, I have a decent-sized following. It might not work that way for everyone.

How can airlines use social media to engage customers beyond the trip planning and selling stage?

Airlines are already doing this. Morgan Johnston at JetBlue and (until recently) Paula Berg at Southwest are great examples of airlines reaching out and bridging customer service and PR/marketing efforts. There are a lot of people in the airline world looking at the social space for engagement points, and every time they participate, I take notice.

Why do you think the airline industry – on the whole – gets such a bad rap in terms of customer service? Is it that they insist on seeing it as a burden instead of an opportunity?

The airline industry isn’t alone in considering customer service a necessary cost centre instead of a great point of communications and relationship building. Southwest probably gets the best marks in the US, and I’d say Virgin America does well, too. But none of them get an “A” from me in how they handle service. I’d say that if I had marketing dollars for an airline, I’d throw 1-3 percent of them into call centre improvements, and by that, I mean human training.

You speak at lots of conferences and events around the world that are frequented by online marketers and social media types. Do you think the Internet has increased the power and importance of face-to-face connections or diminished them?

I think the Internet serves as “hamburger helper” for those moments in between face-to-face experiences. You can’t fully replace face-to-face, and even if you could, I think we humans like seeing each other in the flesh from time to time. The Internet, however, has improved the opportunities to do interesting things in between those moments.

In your book you talk about Robert Scoble’s experience with Microsoft and the importance of being “a person first” when it comes to corporate blogging. But is there a danger in a large brand becoming associated too closely with one individual or personality?

I think brands have to build a deep bench when it comes to mixing humans and brands. I think Scott Monty at Ford is doing a great job. If he leaves, who is their next person up at bat? We don’t know. Frank Eliason at Comcast is working to fix this with his brand and so is Richard Binhammer at Dell.

How do digital natives get the technophobes and social media skeptics within their company on board?

Show them the benefits. Don’t make it a prescription. Show people what they can do when they use the tools. Show success stories. Show case studies that prove the value. That’s how Tony Hsieh at Zappos did it, and they sold the company for over a billion dollars. You think they all knew that Twitter was a powerhouse tool? No. But Tony showed them, and the organization benefited greatly.

What will become of the agency model in a world where brands can reach millions with one measly tweet?

I think that marketers were given tools from another generation and that those tools are no longer as powerful. In my mind, what comes next is a rediscovery of the importance of relationships in business. Banging an email list for 1.5 percent conversion won’t cut it any more. We’ve got much better success rates in social media, only it takes more time and hand holding. The new formulas aren’t fully baked, so people shy away from the new tools. Well, the decline of the old tools is well documented. Sit around on that sinking ship much longer and…

I kept a diary of my outbound flight and kept my brand sensors receptive to all likely Transumer touchpoints. Ultimately, what surprised me is how innovative the brand engagement was online, and how little of that experience was reflected in flight.

Ground Trip

My journey starts long before I board the plane in Vancouver for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (via Frankfurt). About a week before takeoff I scan Lufthansa.com and am intrigued by the array of programs. I offset my carbon footprint via the Climate Care program (to the tune of U.S. $79 for the 15,582-mile return flight), satisfied by the thorough explanation of projects funded via partner myclimate.org.

I select my Special Meal from among 21 options (including something unappetizingly called Bland Soft). I download and view the A340 seat map, which is not as detailed or user-friendly as Seat Guru’s, but helps me avoid a seat near the busy washroom. I find out there will be laptop power at my seat, but no FlyNet WiFi until at least 2010. Not only can I review the inflight audio and video entertainment, I can request a song—and could even make a dedication, if it were far enough in advance of my flight.

Virtual Flight

As someone who practically lives on my laptop and iPhone, I am impressed to see that Lufthansa goes a few steps beyond the industry standard electronic boarding pass and online check-in. I sign up for SMS notification of changes to my flight, departure time and gate. I install an iGoogle widget that offers the same function at a glance on my laptop’s home search page. But the killer app is MySkyStatus, which promises to liaise with social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to send travel updates to my contacts.

Lufthansa’s mobile site proves disappointing, though—single-click access to online check-in, timetables and other airline basics are augmented with lame extras like branded wallpaper and the corporate song. The enticing invitation to “set a special mood with moving images” turns out only to be a corporate screensaver.

My favourite feature: I have a blast navigating Lufthansa’s online map, which has great interactive features for locating direct and connecting flight paths at a glance and instantly calculating mileage—a mileage-hoarder’s dream tool.

Inflight, Not So Entertained

Lufthansa doesn’t operate lounges in Canada and has a low-key presence at Vancouver airport, where I take off, so my pre-boarding experience consists of a stop at the Travel + Leisure store to pick up an adapter and a quick peek at the Olympic Store—smart Transumer targeting.

I fire up the seatback entertainment system and though a handful of recent Hollywood movie releases had looked promising from landside, 20 minutes each of the leaden Coco Avant Chanel, Cheri and The Time Traveler’s Wife convince me I should have packed a fat book.

Fortunately, nearly hidden among a selection of three-year-old episodes of Entourage and How I Met Your Mother is some great TV: the documentary Signé Chanel: La Collection and Stevie Wonder’s Live at Last concert at London’s 02 arena. The same is true of the audio, where a jazz program by Branford Marsalis and Dave Matthews Band albums mask much more interesting music by Malian lute player Bassekou Kouyate and a smart club mix by Cologne DJ Piet Blanc.

Pre-film commercials on the seatback screens are limited to one (mercifully, since German glass and solar-energy company Schueco is of minimal interest to international travelers). I find the absence of other paid advertisers odd—BMW and Mercedes, I’m thinking of you—but also wonder why some of the more fertile inflight offerings—Berlitz language courses, great aviation and fleet information and even Soduko—aren’t promoted onscreen instead. Lufthansa does a good job of hiding its rich content.

The pages of Magazin inflight magazine yield an unintentionally ironic piece on Buddy Holly’s widow—he died in a plane crash, after all—and a fun words-and-pictures feature on some unlikely denizens of Tokyo. But the needlessly detailed and complex route maps in the magazine pale to those online and the German-English bilingual layout is occasionally confusing.

Magazin lacks the essential ingredient that still keeps print inflight magazines relevant: a juicy, engaging, literate read.

Miss(ed) Connections

Paradise for the long-haul flyer is a clean, well-stocked lounge with showers. Such is the Senator lounge in the B concourse of FRA’s Terminal 1. It‘s extremely busy, but I find a seat and wait about 45 minutes for a hot shower, amusing myself with wonderfully strong coffee, continental breakfast and the International Herald Tribune (the only English-language reading material on site).

I log in via TMobile’s paid-WiFi hotspot and discover that MySkyStatus alerts (“…is now flying over Iceland on Lufthansa. Powered by myskystatus.com”) did indeed post to my Twitter stream. Several friends direct-message me to comment on the coolness of this feature.

I’m surprised how few brands are available to the frequent-flyers and premium-class travellers in this lounge. There are even generic amenities in the showers, where I’d expect to find a Dr. Haushka or Nivea onslaught. There’s a fee-for-service T-Mobile charging station, Hugo Boss and Bogner leather promos and a handful of rather dated Dell-equipped workstations. Non-stop onscreen promos for Miles & More play on lounge screens and I count five different WorldShop catalogues. Isn’t that preaching to the choir?

The last nine-hour leg of my flight is uneventful and mostly spent sleeping. (Note to self: really, pack that fat book next time.) Though I have to give Lufthansa props for all 34 large boxes of our group’s equipment, supplies and luggage arriving without difficulty at ADD.

In total I was able to amuse myself for fewer than half of my 24 hours in transit: proof that brands are seriously under-utilizing this space and time to connect with their very best customers.

Disclosure: Sparksheet is published by Spafax, a WPP company.

At Sparksheet we’re very interested in how brands are serving the Transumer, or the consumer in transit. As someone who spends a lot of time on the road, what do you look for in a travel brand?

If you’re talking about airlines, research shows that the most critical thing is how you’re received at the check-in desk and upon boarding the plane. There’s nothing more irritating than when you see the flight crew chatting amongst themselves instead of talking to you. In my opinion, the devil’s in the detail. It’s not the big stuff. What turns me on is when people are attentive and welcoming.

The key thing for travel brands is that they can get you where you’re going on time. Beyond that I think technology is important – entertainment, music. Maybe I shouldn’t say this but a lot of the Eastern airlines – Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates – these airlines are thriving because they’ve invested a lot in equipment and service.

I always travel by scheduled aircraft and very rarely charter a private plane, which is extremely luxurious but not very green. I flew Jet Airways and Kingfisher when I was travelling in India. A lot of people say they’re not profitable and won’t be profitable, but their service is absolutely outstanding. The Western airlines face a lot of challenges in competing with them. As a Transumer, as you call it, those are the things that I look for.

I get the impression that the major airlines see investment in the soft touches – video, food, etc. – as relatively unimportant, but I think it makes a hell of a difference.

These days brands like JetBlue can sell off millions of dollars of inventory with one measly tweet. What does this mean for the future of advertising?

The answer to the JetBlue tweet example is that the price point – or the offer – is probably a big determinant to the success of the campaign. So the outcome isn’t a surprise, but it tells you something about the power of the social media. Population-wise, Facebook is the third- or fourth-largest country on the planet. But these things are going to be fluctuating. I’m not saying they’re going to be here today, gone tomorrow, but they’ll fluctuate – it’s early days.

Things have become much more fragmented and very, very different. I heard a figure from a client today that, in America, 34 percent of their consumers’ time is spent online. The figure we usually fasten in on is 20 percent, I’ve seen 28 percent from Morgan Stanley. But clients are only spending about 12 or 13 percent of their budgets online.

Media habits are changing, becoming much more one to one. That’s good news, but it’s also bad news because it’s highly fragmented, and therefore you don’t have large globs of ad revenue sticking to properties anymore. So it makes life for newspapers, magazines, and free-to-air TV much more difficult.

It also means that smaller fragmented audiences are much more important. For example, the Transumer audience becomes much more important because it becomes more defined and more easily addressable and targetable.

The JetBlue example shows you how violently media consumption – particularly amongst younger people – is changing, how it is likely to keep changing, and how specific it can all be. And actually it can be very effective and cheap for everyone.

What’s the missing link in getting brands to seriously spend on the Web? Is it that advertisers flock to quality content, and that just doesn’t exist to scale online?

Time. A lot of it’s to do with time. I’ve described it in the past as “age” but that’s gotten me in trouble. Agencies are run by old people like me, and older people like me are media owners and clients as well.

People take time to change. They might not get it yet. You become the CEO of a company and it’s taken you 25 years and the last thing you want in your last four or five years is violent change. You want things to go on just as they have before. So it’s a natural human emotion if you like – a human feeling – to resist this change. But it’s only a question of time. Because if consumers are spending 20, or 25 percent of their time online and clients are spending 12 or 13 percent of their budgets online, there’s a natural gravitational pull to that 25 percent.

By the time the spend gets to 25 percent, say over the next five years, we’ll probably be spending a third of our time online. And so, as one of our clients said, maybe by then there’ll be less of a gap as we’ll all be used to it. It’s purely a function of time and people’s unwillingness and resistance to change.

You’ve said that you agree with Rupert Murdoch’s decision to charge for content. Why – and what do you think his real motivation is?

Because the current models – the new media models and certainly the old media models – are under a lot of pressure. Craigslist has destroyed classified advertising for “old media” and there are very few new media companies that make any money. Google is an exception. Their new CFO is doing a lot of good and Google is a much more intimidating company than it was even six months ago, if that’s possible, with a market cap well in excess of Berkshire Hathaway’s.

So I think that life has changed. I think that if someone like Rupert Murdoch, who follows his business intensely, sees circulation coming down, and ad revenues coming down, there are only a few ways to deal with it: one, by getting people to pay for content; two, by more consolidation amongst media owners, which is why he’s asking for relaxation in media concentration rules; and three, as media concentrates, and a lot of newspapers and magazines close, governments are going to have to see whether they will protect the private industry – protect you or me from the diminution of editorial content.

Do you think that part of his motivation is that if consumers pay, advertisers will follow? After all, a paid site implies quality content.

No, his central point is that giving it away for free doesn’t make sense. Kindle doesn’t give it away for free, so why should Rupert Murdoch? In my view, if the consumer can pay for content, they’ll pay for it.

And Google does seem to have modified its initial position. This is all about trying to generate revenue from all sources – traditional and new – in a world where platforms have been disintermediated, in a world where fragmentation makes it very difficult.

It’s got to change – after all, how many new media companies are actually making money? They say they are, but Mark Zuckerberg says I need to earn one cent more than my cost!

Can branded content connect with consumers the same way traditional media can?

Yes, branded content is a way forward and even the UK authorities have reversed their position against it. But fundamentally, consumers are not stupid. I’ve seen some very crude product placement in various markets, like in a soap opera where a woman opens a fridge and there’s only a can of Coke in there! It can be much more subtle than that and it will be more subtle than that. But people have to understand that it’s happening and brands have to recognize that the consumer can’t be hoodwinked.

What role will the emerging Chinese consumer class play in shaping the global travel industry?

The world has to change the way they look at the Chinese. There’s a lot of them. They’re the biggest group of visitors to France now. They’re already out there – there’s 1.3 billion of them. You’re talking about a lot of people with the disposable income to travel. People say Chinese aren’t rich but 150 million to 200 million are consumers already – with middle class habits – and there’s a lot more coming.

And don’t forget about the Indians. There’s more than a billion of them, too. Between them it’s one third of the world’s population and shortly 40 percent of the world’s GNP. So, ignore at your peril.

©istockphoto.com/Yulia Akatyeva

I’m a big proponent of outsourcing content.  So much so that I’ve built my entire career around it.

There are a number of reasons why brands should seriously consider outsourcing their content. Most brands are set up to sell products and services, not to consistently deliver compelling content. It’s tough to take off your sales hat as a brand.  Having someone who understands your message, but also knows how to tell a great story, is critical. Many brands have trouble weeding out the sales pitch to tell an honest, engaging story.

Content is everywhere. Good storytelling is hard to find.  The difference is the Grand Canyon. Look at your resources.  Could your staff’s time be better spent?  Are you really saving money?  Probably not.

I could go on.  There are dozens of reasons for outsourcing your content. But my favourite is this: Multitasking makes you stupid.

I’ll explain.  When a brand begins a content marketing initiative, they rarely hire for a new position.  The job is usually given to one or many people in the marketing, communications, or public relations departments. “Hey, you’re good at this content thing, you can do it!”

So now there’s a group of people who have to do their current jobs, and also have this content thing to do as well.

In almost all cases this is a bad idea. Why? According to a recent Stanford study, high multitaskers perform much worse than low multitaskers.  In the study, students who juggled several things at once (TV, Internet, cell phone, etc.) fared significantly worse than students who focused on core activities. The point: multitasking makes you stupid.

When brand managers throw content marketing in the mix as just another individual or group task, the result is bad content. Corners are cut.  Research is forgotten. Sloppy copy is the norm. Bad storytelling looks like Mark Twain to internal folks.

Is your brand story important enough to foster in its own right, or is it just another item in the marketing pile?

Is your content stupid?

Sound like the tagline of a choose-your-own-adventure story? Well, that’s exactly what travel is. Adventure. Experience. Personal history. If you want people to invite you into their stories, you have to let them in on yours. That’s why content is more than a buzzword. The most compelling content builds familiarity and trust—and establishes your brand as a leader in your industry. Or a hero in your story.

Diving in to content marketing

Sometimes it takes a smaller tourism company to show travel brands how ripe this industry is for storytelling. Take Dive Rite, for example. Established in 1984 by two underwater cave explores and diving instructors, the Florida-based company calls itself “the first technical dive gear company in existence.” Today it’s also the world’s leading  online community for serious divers.

In early 2006, the Dive Rite website was essentially an online catalogue. The company had long standing relationships with print media partners, and relied on them for most of its advertising. Dive Rite’s organizational structure and budgeting—like most retail brands—was set up to sell products, not to produce content. But the company knew it had a lot more to offer divers.

So Dive Rite contacted content marketer Russell Sparkman who suggested the company establish itself as the “definitive resource” in the technical SCUBA gear market. The company launched a blog, an instructional video channel and a dynamic FAQ tool called the “Solution Finder.”

Dive Rite also reinforced its role as a SCUBA gear pioneer by writing itself into the story. The website features a historical timeline, which takes readers through the early days of underwater cave exploration up to today’s technical advances.  The timeline places the launch of Dive Rite into this history, highlighting the fact that the brand was around before virtually all of its competitors. They’re the heroes.

Return on engagement

Dive Rite’s leadership-based content strategy paid off. With relatively little ad spending, their website’s traffic has increased by 33%. The site ranks organically in the top 10 for their most important key words and phrases, and numbers 1, 2 or 3 for primary key words. The average time spent at Diverite.com is an impressive 30 minutes, with an 80% sale conversion rate when referred to one of their online dealers. Now, that’s return on engagement.

Up in the Air

Don’t want to tell your own story? You can be the hero of somebody else’s…through clever brand integration. Co-starring with George Clooney, American Airlines shines in the new movie, “Up in the Air,” which showcases the airline’s friendly employees, posh Admiral Club lounges, and Clooney’s character—the ultimate Transumer?— pining for 10 million frequent flyer miles. Think about product placement, cross-promotion, and sponsorships as a way of attaching your brand to like-minded content.

Travel sells itself

Dive Rite’s online brand took off because the content they created is compelling and useful. The company also has an important advantage; wreck diving is exciting. But so is air travel. Or visiting a new, faraway place. Travel is an adventure that sells itself. Convincing customers to engage with your brand is a whole other story.

Brian Simpson and Adam Wallace at the 140 Conference in LA by CC Chapman via Flickr

I met Adam Wallace and Brian Simpson at the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, and the story of our introduction also tells the story of Roger Smith’s success.

It all started with Krista Parry. We were sitting at the back of a panel on travel blogging, crouched over our laptops next to the room’s only power outlet. Krista started telling me about Snow Mamas, the content marketing blog she curates for Park City Resorts in Utah. I showed her Sparksheet, and she told me there was someone at the conference who I really had to meet: Brian Simpson from Roger Smith Hotel.

Brian has served in the food and hospitality industry for over 20 years. A year ago he was diagnosed with a severe case of cancer and spent six months in chemo wards. While recovering, he found comfort and community on Twitter. After he left the hospital he quit his job at the Plaza Hotel and hooked up with Adam Wallace who was starting to do some innovative stuff with video and blogging for Roger Smith Hotel.

I had the chance to hang out with both Adam and Brian in Vegas. They came off as genuinely nice guys who understand that business, marketing and hospitality are all fundamentally about relationships. I don’t think we ever even exchanged business cards. It wasn’t until I got home and on Google that I realized just how engaged and influential Roger Smith really is.

The hotel has over 4,000 followers on Twitter, 1,200 fans on Facebook, 13,000 channel views on YouTube and 3,000 items in its Flickr stream. It’s been patronized and praised by celebrities and influencers like Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel and Gary Vaynerchuck and has established itself as the go-to hotel for wired Transumers. They even have a special rate for bloggers.

Why target this demographic? Adam explains it this way: “If we have 50 teachers from Maine stay at our hotel, they go back up north and that’s it. Social media people spread the word.”

Roger Smith has leveraged its midtown Manhattan locale to build a virtual community of brand evangelists. They hold a monthly social media breakfast and regularly host events and meet-ups with companies like Sprouter and 1938 Media.  “We’re a hotel, we’ve got something a lot of brands and marketers would love to have,” Adam says. “A real life connection center.”

The hotel uses social media to lure people into its space, and then broadcasts the hotel’s “stories” back out into the world. Their blog, Roger Smith Life, is filled with videos, photos, event recaps and art from the hotel gallery. “Content has been the backbone of what we do for a long time,” Adam says. “It’s about telling people’s stories.”

And that’s the lesson of Roger Smith Hotel. As we friend, follow, and connect with more people online than ever knew before, our thirst for real world relationships and encounters is only fueled. Once travel brands become trusted facilitators and matchmakers, the marketing takes care of itself.

“Krista was so excited to introduce us, ‘Oh you two just have to meet,’” Brian tells me, as we reminisce about Vegas. “Social media itself is not a business plan. It’s about connecting people.”

Ultimately. this is a story about a brand that grasped the power of new media very early on. They’ve filled a key niche, fostered real relationships with influential people, and reaped tons of free publicity—and customers—as a result. Notice how no one ever talks about Roger Smith’s rooms or amenities? It’s all about people, and the incredible power of good will in brand perception and success.

@RSHotel Twitter Feed

Photo © Carrie Bickner

Zeldman runs the web design studio Happy Cog and publishes A List Apart, an online magazine for web designers.

How would you describe the connection between content and design?

Content informs design; design without content is decoration. Content has the same relationship to design that product has to advertising. Good ads are based on the product; good designs come from and facilitate the content. This is one reason we bring content strategy to every design assignment, and one reason we insist on working with real content, not lorem ipsum (placeholder) content. Nothing is sadder than a beautiful design that works great with lorem ipsum but doesn’t actually support the real content.

How do you take into account a brand’s image or identity when designing (or redesigning) a corporate website?

Brand is how people feel about your product; the design of the site and its usability are essential components of that feeling and thus essential components of brand. The Web is more and more the way in which people interact most with your brand; thus the design of the site cannot be an afterthought. A wonderfully designed, highly usable and accessible site with compelling and appropriate content is a key touchpoint for your brand; if you go to one set of designers for “brand” and another set of designers for “Web,” you’re doing it wrong.

How would you describe the client-designer relationship on a given project? Who leads whom when it comes to ideas and decision-making?

Our client relationships are deeply collaborative. We “hire” smart clients and work closely with them to create optimal experiences for the people to whom their product or service appeals. This doesn’t mean our clients design the experience. Quite the contrary: design, architecture, and content strategy are entirely our responsibility. But we interact with clients on a deep level to probe their learning and knowledge and to co-evolve solutions, so that the client not only feels but actually has true co-ownership of the final idea.

What are some common design mistakes or misconceptions?

Some clients think design is decoration. We don’t work with those clients. Design is strategic.

Some clients think design and content are separate. Design and content are inseparable.

Some designers think, if one client doesn’t buy a design, you can sell that design to another client. Design is an expression of brand; as such, a design for Company A cannot be used for Company B.

How often should companies redesign their websites? How do you design a site that can evolve over time?

Every six months. Kidding!

Redesign is an opportunity to rethink and improve. There is no requirement to redesign, ever. Some successful sites, such as Amazon and Google, don’t so much redesign as slowly evolve their existing design. This can work just fine.

Redesigns are a risk but they are also an opportunity, particularly when your site is quite old and has evolved haphazardly over the years.

Redesigns require strategy, otherwise they are merely reskinning. We don’t do reskinning. We do strategic redesigns that help the people who use your website achieve their goals. Strategic redesign starts with research. The notion that a design is “dull” and needs to be “freshened up” by a “burst of creative inspiration” reveals a lack of understanding of, and disrespect for, design.

You worked as an art director, journalist and musician before the Internet days. What did your past lives teach you about design?

Failure in my prior careers taught me to patience and gratitude for what I have now, as well as patience with colleagues and clients.

Advertising taught me to work with clients and respect them. They are not the enemy, they are partners.

Writing is an expression of my love of content; design is another. I cannot design without understanding and loving the client’s content and the people to whom it appeals.

Any final words of wisdom, jokes, stock advice?

The best way to engage honestly with the marketplace via Twitter is to never use the words “engage,” “honestly,” or “marketplace.”

You didn’t ask, but boxers.

Those who don’t believe in eternity have never eaten with old people.

I’m thinking about going to Dubai or Capetown…for my next pedicure. I’m only half kidding. Earlier this year at the One&Only Palmilla in Los Cabos, I got hooked on the Reverence de Bastien pedicure, available only at One&Only resorts and a handful of Paris spas. As a travel writer, I can conceivably plan my next several trips around natural, baby-soft feet.

It sounds a bit ridiculous, but many frequent travellers I know tell similar stories about the powerful loyalties they’ve developed to goods and services while travelling. Take the emotional rush I get drinking a French 75 cocktail; it’s not just the champagne bubbles or the memory of the silver fox who once ordered one for me at a Lower East Side speakeasy, but an alchemic memory of both. These strong loyalties and emotions help set the Transumer apart from the jet-setting shopper.

Their wants and tastes fueled by global lifestyle magazines like Monocle and Wallpaper, Transumers aren’t satisfied with garden variety items from the shop around the corner. Though Montreal-based magazine editor Claude Laframboise must nose dozens of new fragrances a month, he relies on trips to New York to buy the Krizia cologne he’s worn since the 1980s from its flagship store on Madison Avenue. Exclusivity has always meant cachet, but a product that a discerning consumer not only deems valuable but self-defining? That’s priceless.

Toronto power-publicist Ann Layton flies frequently to London for clients and cashmere, which she buys only at Ocabini. The hand-knit, hand-died garments are imported directly through the owner’s sister in Kathmandu. In an era of cheap Chinese cashmere, Layton could buy a poncho anywhere, but she seeks out the most authentic, ethically-produced goods. Sure, she could order online, but I’d say her carbon footprint is lighter walking over to the boutique while in the city on business. And eBay wouldn’t provide her with Nepalese anecdotes to share over drinks at the Dorchester.

Spafax editorial director Arjun Basu often gets asked on Twitter and Flyertalk about his distinctive eyewear, which he gets from Ottico in Vancouver. Basu lives in Montreal—roughly 3700 kilometers (2300 miles) away. Here’s a personal, recurring Transumer relationship created by one chance visit to fix broken eyeglasses on a business trip. “Our optician Anita has a photographic memory for faces,” says Dr. Brad McDougall, the store’s co-owner. “Now, when he needs glasses, we just send him a selection.” The clinic also draws repeat visits from actors and their families filming in Hollywood North, which McDougall attributes to hotel-concierge referrals (a strategy the practice has focused on) and highly personal service.

Sometimes there is not only a qualitative preference but a quantitative difference in these relationships. The Transumer seeks out the best and most efficient services and “trip chains” them on to existing travels, the way a soccer mom lines up dry-cleaning and kiddie drop-offs. Vancouver writer Neal McLennan packs brogues that need a good working over when he returns to his former lawyering base in Calgary, a corporate town with a “disproportionate amount of good shoe shine stands,” he says. Spafax’s Raymond Girard swears by the world-class toothsmithing he gets from a Harvard-trained dentist while he’s on business trips in Santiago, Chile—at a fraction of the going rate in Toronto, his home base.

So how do brands get in touch with this border-blurring demographic? Client databases and e-mail lists are a first step in establishing where your far-flung customers might be located, how to keep in touch with them, and what will bring them back. Tools like Backtype can help track in real-time who’s buzzing about your brand across a vast swath of the online world, what social media monitoring company Radian6 calls “finding your brand evangelists.” The next step might be partnering with travel applications like Dopplr or TripIt, customizing promotions, or even syncing CalTweet-ed events with peak travel periods.

Online travel and lifestyle information is a powerful tool in cultivating a nomadic following, but think, too, of these high-flying consumers as you drop your URL or IATA code onto your packaging or ads. A shopping bag on a plane might just be better than a business card in hand to reach this transitory tribe.

But successful marketing in this sphere requires more than just interaction and conversation; it requires value. Over the past few years we have seen the construction of a variety of “buzz”- or online conversation-tracking software. While it is vital for a brand to monitor relevant conversations, the value of this practice (and related social media practices) will only be realized when in service of some sort of strategic application. It’s time to add another ring to the circus.

The Three-Ring Framework

This visual representation is to be read with the centre circle (application) as the target, where marketers can achieve the most effective consumer engagements. The target is generally reached through the employment of the two outer rings; interaction and conversation. As the diagram reflects, application is the hardest part for brands but it’s also the most rewarding in terms of attention and return on engagement.

Driving Community: Zipcar and Zimride

In order to shed light on the above framework, let’s take a look at a cutting-edge Transumer brand. Zipcar is the world’s largest car-sharing and car club service, which serves as an alternative to traditional car rental or ownership. The brand stands for utility and simplicity while remaining incredibly innovative. In many ways the product itself is its best marketing vehicle. Its inherent elements of surprise and delight – Zipcars are associated with road trips and new experiences – are such that people talk about Zipcar without encouragement. But no brand’s story can spread to larger audiences without some assistance.

While some brands have managed to create their own successful online communities, many more have failed. So last spring Zipcar partnered with Zimride, a popular online ride-share and carpool service.

The result of the partnership is both social and utilitarian – the ultimate goal of the three-ring framework. Zipcar drivers get to meet new people and save on gas money while Zimride’s existing community gains access to a new pool of like-minded travellers. In the end, both brands benefit, along with their customers.

Apply as Needed

The partnership between Zipcar and Zimride is a form of branded utility – the notion that, through relevant and valuable services, brands can create favourable experiences for consumers.

New devices such as the iPhone have opened up an entirely new set of possibilities to create branded utility. Zipcar recently decided to throw its hat into the ring and create an application of its own. Through understanding the needs of its loyal community, Zipcar has managed to build a platform with the potential to serve as both branded utility and mobile CRM, adding both competitive advantage against current competitors and barriers to entry for any potential new ones. Zipcar demonstrates that conversation compounded with utility can create a virtuous cycle for Transumers, adding points of value throughout their journey.

Tell us: What do you think about the three-ring framework? Which brands bring their customers utility instead of just noise?

So, if you’re an airline, you can develop a unique app that allows passengers to purchase tickets, access their boarding passes, track flights, and receive inflight messages without touching a printed slip or clicking a mouse.

Sounds like a no brainer, but so far only a few airlines have done it.

British Airways led the way in July 2008 with a free app aimed at frequent flyers. Australian-based Qantas soon followed suit. Then, this summer, Air Canada became the first North American carrier to launch an app that lets passengers store their flight info, check the weather and even rent a car through their iPhones. (Though unfortunately these apps are only available for download in their native countries, so that a Canadian flying to Sydney won’t be able to grab the Qantas app until he’s down under).

Since then, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, EasyJet and others have released web applications—and several carriers, including SAS Scandinavian Airlines, offer mobile boarding passes— but the list of airline-branded native apps remains startlingly sparse.

It’s surprising because awesome travel-related apps abound. Check out this list of iPhone apps for airline geeks, which highlights applications devoted to everything from airport codes and airplane seating charts, to flight tracking and aircraft specifications. Meanwhile, augmented reality applications like Layar and apps from travel brands like Kayak and Lonely Planet are cornering the Transumer market.

Airlines might consider forging virtual partnerships with other iPhone-friendly brands and independent developers. Virgin America has already sponsored the popular itinerary-planning app TripIt. Now imagine if Guinness’ Pub Finder tool lived within an Aer Lingus app—both of which were integrated with Layar.

If airlines won’t be developers, they can still be facilitators, connecting brands and Transumers throughout the journey cycle. Travellers crave useful content in their medium of choice and if airlines don’t provide them with it, someone else will.

As long as there are human beings we are going to have print media. There’s no substitute for something audiences can feel and touch – something that they can call their own.

What is the “magazine experience” and does it translate online?

I don’t think there’s anything yet online that replicates that immersion experience you get with print. We’re talking more than just ink on paper here. We’re talking about an entire package in your hand – the photography, the colours, the design, the copy. We collect magazines, hoard them, put them on our coffee tables. They can be a conversation starter, a relationship starter. When you’re online you have to bend forward, look at a screen, touch, click, search. But with print you lean backward, hold it in your hand – the magazine experience comes from inside the pages toward you.

Let’s put it this way: you can never lose yourself on the Web. You do not like what you see or read you are only a click away from something else.  Magazines are the slow food that you can own, savor and digest. You may own your computer, but you do not own anything that comes through it. You own your copy of the magazine.  Marrying a virtual spouse will never result in children.

Addressing magazine publishers on your blog recently, you wrote that “There is a big difference between a ‘brand experience’ and a ‘magazine experience.’ Please do keep the ‘magazine experience’ well and alive and the ‘brand experience’ will follow.” What did you mean by that?

People don’t have experiences with brands. They don’t experience Nike, they experience the shoe that Nike makes. They experience the product. If it’s good for your feet, if it’s comfy, if you like the design, then you might feel warmly toward Nike. But no one says, “Oh, I just love that Nike brand.” It’s the same thing with magazines. You’re not going to get me to fall in love with the “Car and Driver” brand. I need to engage with a product and have a product experience before I have a brand experience. If the product is relevant to you, enjoyable to you, then you’ll start believing in the brand.

What role do you think branded content will play in the future of print media?

That will play a big role. Branding is still very, very important. But you want to make sure readers know that your content – whether online or in print – is both necessary and sufficient in each medium. People won’t hop around from medium to medium because they love your brand. So if I’m reading a magazine, don’t send me to the Web to get the rest of the story. You need to meet readers in their media of choice.

Why is it that inflight magazines, despite being the original custom publications, tend to get a bad rap?

Well, where do they get their bad rap from? From the passengers who read them or from our colleagues the magazine snobs who thumb their noses at Sky magazine because it’s not The New Yorker? I love Felix Dennis, the guy who started Maxim magazine in this country, who always used to tell his staff, “If you ever win a national magazine award, you’re fired.” Because that’s when you know you’re not designing a magazine for your audience, but for your colleagues in New York.

The important thing to remember about inflight magazines is that, yes, we have a captive audience, but passengers can bring with them as many magazines as they want. And so you have to include information about the plane and the airport in every single issue. In that sense, you’re always designing for the first-time user.

But your content has to reflect the majority of customers on that airplane – their lifestyle, their attitude, and also their fantasies. Sure, I may not be able to fly to Bangkok right now but I know the airline flies to Bangkok and here’s a great piece of writing from Bangkok. So one of these days I might go for it. It’s this combination of service and fantasy in inflight magazines that have given them that “must have” factor.

You like to say that publishers need to start “concentrating on customers who count, rather than just counting customers.” Doesn’t every customer count?

The magazine business model that we created in this country after World War II was based on delivering numbers to advertisers. In the beginning it was a great model, because the numbers were important. People had to buy a magazine from a newsstand or pay for a subscription. And then toward the ‘80s we got into the business of tricking people into looking at our magazine, of creating numbers to show advertisers. That’s what I call the business of counting customers.

For example, I just read that I can get 24 issues of Tennis magazine for free. Now, if someone pays $24 to receive Tennis magazine, I can guarantee that she is going to spend more time with the magazine’s content, and its advertisers, than someone who found it in the mail.

That’s what’s great about custom magazines – they’re not aimed at the lowest common denominator. You have a set lifestyle in mind. You have an audience that counts. If you don’t fly at least three or four times a year, an inflight magazine probably isn’t aimed at you. Customers who count are those whose lifestyles match the marketplace.

Do you think the Internet has the potential to enrich the magazine experience by bringing like-minded readers together?

I don’t think readers want to get together. I think they get satisfaction from being part of a community, yet acting on their own. The way we use magazines and interact with them is completely different from the way we use and interact with the Internet. And that’s why each medium has to be both necessary and sufficient. In this case, readers connect through the pages of the magazine.

So what’s your favourite magazine?

I never choose favourites amongst my children.

Blank Check-Out

Challenge While the rest of the world moves 24/7, most hotels still cling to a dated 19- or 20-hour day concept with rigid check-in and -out times and nightly rates that penalize the fast-moving transumer.

Spark Top hotels, like GHM’s The Setai in Miami, The Peninsula in Beverly Hills and Raffles hotels have offered the courtesy of flexible in and out times; many more offer late check-out – for a fee. Airport hotels can learn from the “by the minute” practices of long-distance and cellular companies and charge guests for the number of hours they stay. By-the-hour business models like the Yotel capsule accommodations at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports and MetroNaps sleep pods at YVR in Vancouver show that the demand exists for something between a full-night hotel stay and snoozing on an airport lounge bench. The Fairmont hotel within YVR in Vancouver also offers short-term nap rates for stays in “Quiet Zone” rooms that offer comfy respite for connecting travellers.

Outlet Shopping

Challenge The frequent business traveller can develop rug burn from crawling under hotel desks in search of enough outlets for charging multiple devices.

Spark Hotels need to start by installing more, and more accessible, power outlets. Rooms geared to business travellers should showcase the latest in docking and charging stations. The devices could be placed in rooms through partnerships (with tech brands like Monster or Belkin, or design-conscious brands like Lessiv or Bedford). They could even become a potential for-sale item (think: the pre-WiFi internet cable) as part of in-room boutique offerings. Better yet, make the device solar (like iSun or Solio models) and make it an integral part of the desk design – but off the hotel’s power grid.

Savings and Loan

Challenge Attempts to travel light can be easily foiled by just one or two tasks that require more than your smartphone or PDA – not to mention what happens when that device doesn’t work well, or economically, overseas.

Spark In-room and loaner iPods are already common at boutique hotels; loaner cell phones should be de rigueur at business hotels (Fifteen Beacon in Boston has them), along with hotel switchboard call-forwarding to your temporary local number. Extend the service to having hotels provide loaner laptops, the way that Air Canada and IBM did on some flights a few years ago. It’s an opportunity to partner with brands that want to expose travellers to their latest and greatest technology.

Brand Muscle

Challenge An indoor fitness centre, no matter how well appointed, is never as good for you as getting out of the hotel and exploring a new locale.

Spark Hotel programs providing route maps and stylish loaner bicycles (like Jorg & Olif city bikes at Opus Hotel in Vancouver, Bianchi Nyala cycles at Four Seasons Marunouchi in Tokyo and BMW models at Fairmont) prove that this trend has legs. The Wynn Las Vegas has top Callaway loaner clubs for its golfers; Four Seasons Whistler will outfit you in Prada or Spyder ski gear. How long will it be before a savvy retailer opens something like Nike’s innovative Runner’s Lounges in a hotel near Central Park or Hyde Park, along with a retail store specializing in sporting goods for people on the go?

Scentology

Challenge A hotel room just can’t quite feel like home when canary-coloured shampoo and watery body lotion are the standard amenities.

Spark In a world where travel restrictions on liquids and gels mean bringing your own full grooming kit isn’t possible, more hotels are adopting top-end creature comforts: just witness what in-room placement with Four Seasons has done for L’Occitane en Provence’s Aromachologie Volumizing Shampoo and Repairing Conditioner, now a cult favourite product that L’Occitane sells as part of a popular travel set. Recognizing that scent creates powerful memories, hotel groups from Shangri-La (with its exclusive Essence of Shangri-La scent) to Starwood (which has unique “scent logos” for each of its brands, from Sheraton to St. Regis) are creating custom fragrances. The Intercontinental Montelucia in Scottsdale went local and unique, using the essence of a rare night-blooming cactus for the signature Joyambrosia scent for its spa. But One&Only Palmilla won my heart with the most personal touches of all: local agave-rich suds and a bespoke sewing kit with hand-wound thread to match the colours in my wardrobe.

In the hotel industry “the box” is insider jargon for a typical room. Which makes it especially apropos and exciting for transumers to imagine more hoteliers thinking outside of it.

As director of partnerships for Fairmont hotels and resorts, you’ve joined forces with a variety of brands – from Adidas and Aveda, to Lexus and Napa Valley Vintners. Can you talk about some of the mutual benefits of these partnerships?

Our partnerships fall into three categories: the environment, food and beverage, and health and wellness. Adidas and BMW fit nicely under health and wellness. So what Adidas gets is brand exposure at every one of our properties globally through a variety of ways.

If you are a Fairmont President’s Club member, in the top two tiers, you can have your apparel size and shoe size on your profile and every time you stay with us you can have Adidas apparel and footwear delivered to your room. Adidas provides us with great pricing. We purchase the Adidas apparel. They get some great market research and our customers are very happy.

BMW is our exclusive car partner in Canada. Later this year we’re rolling out the new X5 Diesels as our official courtesy cars at our Canadian properties. But in order to highlight BMW’s green positioning as well as ours, we thought providing all of our Fairmont hotels in Canada with BMW bicycles was a great way for our guests to stay healthy and also see the local surroundings. That’s just an extra surprise and delight for our guests.

Transumers love buying things that enhance their experience, but I imagine they also see hotels as a kind of sanctuary from the 24/7 hustle and bustle of consumer life. How do you make sure guests don’t feel barraged or overwhelmed by brand partnerships and promotions?

We have opt-in-permission marketing rules that we adhere to fanatically and that ensure we are not bothering our guests with these partnerships and promotions. A lot of them are tied to our Fairmont President’s Club and the co-branded materials that we produce are subtle. But if you look to classic CRM (customer relationship management) strategies, every program we launch is deeply rooted in what our guests tell us they want.

So our belief is, if you have a very subtle piece of paper that’s in the check-in slip when someone picks up their key, and it’s something you know that is consistent with the psychographics of your guest, they’re not going to feel offended. I think guests feel offended when they’re getting barraged by marketing messages that mean nothing to them.

So it’s about providing content that is useful and not just advertorial?

Yes. It’s providing content in context.

Fairmont has been a leader in environmental policies and partnerships since 1990. Now that hotel greening campaigns have gone mainstream, how do you demonstrate to guests that you’re not just “greenwashing” to cut costs? How do you go beyond those “please re-use your towel” cards to show that sustainability is not just a marketing buzzword but an integral part of your brand?

We’ve been focused on this for 20 years, so we have some pretty innovative things like our rooftop herb gardens and our bees that produce fresh honey for our guests to enjoy at breakfast. And we also mandate that we source locally and, wherever possible, organic. We feel very passionate about this. We do not have a huge laundry list of global food suppliers so that when you sit down at the hotel restaurant 99 percent of ingredients on the menu are coming from one of the top five food conglomerates.

Do you think you’ve led your guests onto the local food bandwagon, or are you simply responding to customer demand?

We had such a head start but consumers have really caught up. That movie Food Inc. is striking a chord with a lot more people than you would think. A lot more people are starting to become very, very concerned about what’s in their food. So in some ways we are meeting expectations of our guests, and in some ways I think we may be ahead of the curve and we might be introducing a new way of eating to some customers.

Fairmont is known for its iconic, historic properties. How do you incorporate cutting-edge technology into a centuries-old shell without ruining the effect?

It’s really hard and really expensive. It is something that our global tech team is very focused on. Absolutely our guests need to be connected. A huge number of our guests are Blackberry users – it’s a disproportionate amount of Blackberries at our hotels. And so we have to accommodate that. It’s constant upgrades. It’s finding creative ways to use wireless technology. The guest does not care that they’re in a beautiful iconic property if they can’t check their e-mail.

As the traditional magazine industry struggles to retain its footing in the Internet age, custom publications like Fairmont Magazine [published by Spafax, Sparksheet’s publisher] are weathering the storm quite well. I know your father was the publisher of Flare magazine for many years. As someone who grew up around magazines, do you think branded content can save print media?

Our research shows that the people spending the most time with our magazine are the highest tier Fairmont President’s Club members and the most affluent. The content in the magazine is an opportunity for them to explore a brand that they feel very strongly about, that they already connect with. So again it’s about content in context. The magazines that really provide value to readers will thrive even when others are struggling.

We feel that in the intimacy of our hotel rooms there is a good opportunity for our guests and a good opportunity for us. People have a lot of time, more time perhaps than they do at home to pick up a magazine. And so it’s an opportunity for guests to explore relevant content, and for us to strengthen our bond with customers.

Anyone who has bonded with a favourite TV show or obsessively re-watched a viral clip on YouTube knows the power and potential of video. But few airlines have fully engaged with the medium. That’s because video production is expensive, time consuming, and potentially risky. Here are a handful of airlines that have boldly launched their own YouTube channels with varying degrees of success:

Delta Air Lines:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DeltaAirLines
Joined: May 11, 2006
Subscribers: 2,005
Channel Views: 87,705
Videos: 47

Delta plays it safe, but with style. Along with the obligatory flight safety videos (in English, Hindi, Japanese and Spanish) viewers are treated to an unguided tour of the Miami Sky Lounge, a crash course on how to use Delta’s check-in kiosk, and 25 intimate and in-depth city guides hosted by Delta employees. Hats off to Delta’s sound team for spicing up the clips with surprisingly good ambient music.

United Airlines

www.youtube.com/user/uniteditstimetofly
Joined: July 29, 2008
Subscribers: 385
Channel Views: 86,033
Videos: 7

No airline today needs a first-class YouTube presence more than United Airlines. Last month, musician Dave Carroll posted a video to the site in which he tunefully accused the company’s baggage handlers of breaking his $3,500 guitar. “United Breaks Guitars” quickly went viral, garnering more than 5 million views and heaps of media coverage.

So far United Airlines has failed to respond in kind and its YouTube channel is littered with comments from angry musicians vowing to boycott the airline. We know we’re not the only ones waiting to hear an equally tuneful apology performed by musically-inclined United employees. Until then, we’ll have to settle for a time-lapse video of a United 747’s construction.

Qantas Airways

http://www.youtube.com/user/Qantas
Joined: February 14, 2006
Subscribers: 886
Channel Views: 42,856
Videos: 54

Aside from a few television ads and some historical footage, the Aussie airline’s YouTube channel is all soccer all the time. Fans can feast on interviews and post-game roundups with members of the Qantas Socceroos, the company’s world-class squad.

Virgin Atlantic Airlines

www.youtube.com/user/ThisIsVirginAtlantic
Joined: October 16, 2008
Subscribers: 354
Channel Views: 18,118
Videos: 38

Welcome to the family channel. Virgin groupies can watch Holly Branson, daughter of Virgin founder Richard Branson, talk about the airline’s charity work or follow Sir Richard himself on an eight-day trip around the world. By spotlighting the Bransons, Virgin succeeds at being both personal and promotional at the same time.

Southwest Airlines

www.youtube.com/user/NutsAboutSouthwest
Joined: June 06, 2007
Subscribers: 662
Channel Views: 31,332
Videos: 129

And the Aviation Oscar for outstanding performance on YouTube goes to… 38-year-old Southwest Airlines. The Dallas-based company takes social media engagement seriously, and its YouTube channel is no exception. We’re big fans of the “My Old Man in Maintenance” series, which stars the airline’s emerging media maven, Christi Day. In each episode, the affable Day interviews her father, a longtime Southwest maintenance man, about hydraulic systems, aircraft flaps and other esoteric airplane parts.

We also recommend joining the roughly 53,000 people who have witnessed Southwest’s rapping flight attendant. And if that’s not enough, check out the audacious “Twitcom,” in which Southwest staff members act out a script written by the airline’s loyal Twitter followers:

• Liking We want to do business with people we feel we can relate to. But watch out for those phony compliments.
• Authority ‘Who’s the boss?’ Demonstrating impressive credentials, experience and knowledge makes others more likely to listen to what we have to say.
• Scarcity We all want what we can’t have, which explains the effectiveness of limited-time offers and collector’s editions.
• Consistency/Commitment Charities use the “foot in the door” technique when they have us sign a petition, then follow up with a donation request. Shady car dealers use it to jack up the price at the last minute.
• Reciprocity We all like to return favours. Think free samples, cause marketing, and customer service that goes beyond the call of duty.
• Social proof ‘Everyone else is doing it.’ Testimonials and “best seller” labels can add value to products, while providing customers with useful information. But padding the tip jar or collection plate with $20 bills just isn’t cool.

And now for our Q&A with Dr. Cialdini:

At Sparksheet we’re fascinated by the concept of the transumer—the consumer in transit. The idea is that we behave differently and have different expectations and leisure and spending habits when travelling. How does the travel mind frame and environment affect our ability to be influenced?

Travellers often find themselves in unfamiliar circumstances—on a plane, in a hotel, in a city they don’t know very well. When people are uncertain they are influenced by two principles, or sources of information. The first is what we call authority. ‘Who are the experts in this situation? Who are the people who are most informed about this particular product or service or circumstance?’ If marketers can present content that describes what experts have to say about a place or situation, people will be especially inclined to listen.

The other source of information people look to in a travel environment is their peers. We call this principle “social proof.” ‘What are people just like me doing in this situation?’ I read that if a restaurant owner lists its most popular item on the menu, that item immediately becomes 20 percent more popular. If you want to engage the transumer, let them know what everyone else in the plane or hotel is up to. That reduces the uncertainty they may feel and moves them in a particular direction.

How would you apply the six principles to the online social media landscape? Do the same social rules apply when people aren’t interacting face to face, or when identity is in question?

People interacting in the social media are still responding to the same principles that have been instilled in them from childhood. We like those individuals who are most like us, who have common experiences and background and traits. There was an interesting study done in which people were asked to negotiate a fictional budget via e-mail.

In 30 percent of instances people walked away from the project without reaching any agreement. But when the negotiators were asked to send each other a short bio detailing their background, college majors, where they grew up, whether they had any kids and that sort of thing, the number of stymied negotiations dropped from 30 percent to 6 percent.

Sharing that kind of information causes people to personalize and like each other as if they were face to face. In this context, the social media environment can be just as influential as the ‘real world’.

What are some examples of brands bungling their attempts at influence, thereby turning off potential customers or partners?

We’ve done some research recently in hotels. In most hotels I stay at, I’m asked to reuse my towels and linens via some card that’s placed in the bathroom. Well, here’s the question that I asked myself: ‘What should they say on the card? What should they say that will convince me to help that hotel save money on water and detergent and personnel?’ And so we experimented with what that little sign said. Most hotels say, ‘Do this for the environment, do this to save the planet.’ We looked to see what percentage of people on any one night would hang up their towels for reuse. It was 38 percent, on average.

Now, some hotels tried something different. In keeping with what’s called social cause marketing, they said, ‘If you reuse your towels and linens, at the end of the year we will donate a percentage of our savings to an environmental organization.’ The idea was to give something and expect something in return for it—we call this the principle of reciprocation. What we found was only 36 percent of guests hung up their towels. There was actually a reduction!

Why? Because they got the sequence of reciprocation backwards. They said, ‘If you will do this for us, then we will do something for you.’ That’s wrong. They have to go first. So we made a third sign that said, ‘We’ve already donated in the name of our guests to some environmental cause. Will you join us and help us cover the costs of that donation by reusing your towels?’ Now we got 48 percent of the hotel guests to do it.

How do you distinguish influence from manipulation?

Influence involves change, the ability to move people in a desired direction. The difference between influence and manipulation is that we move them in our direction by giving them honest and accurate information. Putting your most popular item on a menu isn’t in any way manipulative so long as it’s the truth. If we educate people, and don’t coerce or deceive them, we earn their trust. Ethical influence allows us to be successful in the short term, and to protect our long-term interests as people continue to come back and do business with us.

Does this explain the power of content in building relationships between brands and consumers?

There are two principles at work there. First, you’re establishing a rapport, which leads to liking. We want to do business with people or brands that we like and have forged a bond with over the years. But content also builds on the principle of authority. You’ve demonstrated your expertise in this field, and so customers will rely on you in the future. They don’t have to constantly worry about your competence because you’ve already demonstrated your knowledge, your creativity and your credibility. They can trust you.

Check out http://influenceatwork.com for more on the Cialdini Method.

©istockphoto.com/Gary Cookson

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan coined the famous phrase, “the medium is the message.” McLuhan’s book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man hypothesizes that any specific medium — a book or a film, for example — conveys information in very different ways than any other medium, and that the choice of medium for specific content is just as important as the content itself.

McLuhan’s original concept essentially covered every technology, from light bulbs to the spoken word and even to roads and airplanes.

Redefining Media

I know what you’re thinking — “The light bulb is a medium?” Yes. In fact, anything with a social effect can be considered a medium. The light bulb allowed people to engage with content in the dark of the night. It had profound social effects.

Social media fit right into this picture. Brian Solis constantly revises his “Conversation Prism” graphic to reflect the ever-evolving Internet landscape of digital content creation and distribution platforms.

New channels (media) are created, launched, and tested every day. There are platforms to share video, deliver e-documents, share slide presentations, and distribute just about anything else.

There are live video platforms, audio platforms, and a wide variety of chat tools. Websites create social networks, groups within groups, and networks of groups within networks. It’s dizzying.

Now digital media can be dissected infinitely. For example, there’s blogging, then live blogging, then life streams, video blogging, status updates, micro-blogging, and on and on.

Understanding Any Social Medium – McLuhan’s Way

McLuhan was ahead of his time when he redefined media. In our social media age, we must pay just as much attention, if not more, to the medium as to the content.

And each medium is different to different people.To a 55-year-old CEO, Facebook is where his daughter chats with friends. To a 25-year-old marketing associate, it’s five thousand brand advocates. That’s proof of McLuhan’s theory that different societies – even different age groups – are affected in different ways by the same medium. That’s true of any new medium, regardless of content.

Shoes and Politics: Two Quick Examples

The folks at Zappos pride themselves on customer service, and their adoption of GetSatisfaction.com is another example of the medium as the message: We care about your customer experience so much that we’ll interact with you where you interact already.

But the medium itself has run into problems as more and more people participate on Get Satisfaction and interact with Zappos. It’s hard to find a specific issue and difficult to thread similar issues. And it’s impossible to navigate all the issues. The medium itself is now creating customer experience concerns for Zappos and is reflecting badly on the Zappos brand.

On the other hand, the Obama administration’s use of media like Twitter, YouTube and Flickr underscores their desire to be perceived as more open and transparent than previous administrations.

McLuhan’s Advice

In the context of today’s online experience, McLuhan would advise you to understand what development stage any new medium has reached in its social and cultural evolution. He’d want you to study the medium and its social effects even before you consider content.

As McLuhan argued, technologies are to the surrounding culture as words are to a poem: the former derive their meaning from the context formed by the latter.

Vit and his partner/wife Bryony Gomez-Palacio have crafted logos for the William J. Clinton Foundation, NYU Law School, and Toronto’s Office for Urbanism.

You’ve said that the goal of Speak Up, your original design blog, was to bring the design community online. Seven years on, how has the Internet changed design?

What’s funny is that when I launched Speak Up, and it had this big colour layout and all that stuff, people commented on how much it looked like a print design. And then when I showed someone the latest book we did, they said, “It’s funny how much it looks like a website.” The two formats bleed into each other pretty seamlessly nowadays. I think layouts in print today tend to be more information-heavy because people are used to scanning for bits and pieces here and there like they do online.

On your For Print Only blog, you highlight the best new print projects “to celebrate the reality that print is not dead,” as you put it. Putting aside whether print is dying or not, do you think that would be such a bad thing? How would it change the nature of design and content?

I think you’d lose a lot of canvases for expression, whether it’s posters, brochures, books – all those things have a certain presence in the living world that a website doesn’t have. It’s really hard to replicate the experience of just touching something – the pacing of a book – there’s a lot to be lost there. It’s crazy how fast things are moving. Ten years ago, if you didn’t publish a really slick, colourful annual report as a Fortune 500 company, you’d be behind the curb. Now you’d seem like you were wasting resources.

How would you describe the client–designer relationship on a given project?

You’d like to think that you come up with all the great ideas, but it’s about having conversations with a client and making sure you’re listening to them. From there, it’s hard not to arrive at a solution that makes sense. Then we retreat to our notebooks and computers, and that’s where the magic happens. How that magic happens, I have no idea. But it seems to work out, and then it’s a series of back and forth until we arrive at something that everyone is comfortable with.

You’ve become quite an established writer, authoring magazine articles, several books and, of course, multiple blogs. How has your writing career affected your design work?

It plays a huge role in the way we design and the way we present our work. Everything we do is backed up by 12 pages of rationale. This is where we try to deconstruct the magic I was talking about, to put those impulses into words. The funny thing is that in Spanish I’m not a very good writer. I can barely come up with a few sentences that would work in a magazine. But in English, somehow I’ve become a better writer, and it’s all through writing pretty much every day online and trying to put my process into words.

There seems to be a fine line between accompanying a new logo release with an intelligent explanation for the change, and loading it with marketing spin. Pepsi, for instance, was skewered for its 27-page PDF linking its new logo to the history of Western civilization. You spend a lot of time on your Brand New blog analyzing and critiquing but also explaining logos. Why do companies seem to have such a hard time with this part?

It’s usually PR people that are writing the press releases and you need to have some real intimacy with the brand to communicate its core values. For the most part, companies are just looking for a couple of sound bites for newspapers to quote. Then you have companies like Pepsi who seem to be trying a little too hard. They could have said, “We wanted to make our logo look like a laugh,” and called it a day. If they asked a designer, “Could you provide five talking points about the logo?” that would probably be more helpful.

If you were a generation or two older, and didn’t have the Internet and blogging and Web design to propel your career, what do you think you’d be doing?

To be honest, I have no idea. Everything we do evolves from the Internet. Even if we do print work, for people in other places, we have meetings on WebX and use Premiere, and so the Web enables not only what we do but how we do it. We’d probably just be doing business cards and letterheads and that’s it.

The New York Times recently noted that big companies such as Kraft and Wal-Mart are coming out with new, colourful logos to soften their image. How would you describe the current design aesthetic?

In terms of corporate identity, the Times really nailed it. We’ve seen more and more companies switching to lower case, going with rounder letters, happy, lively colours – no more of that hardcore blue. I think it’s just a matter of corporations not wanting to appear so overbearing. But online everyone’s doing their own thing. For a while, everything started to look like the Obama website, with lots of lines and pretty gradients and things like that. But in the last ten years there’s been so much exploration online. You see some trends, but it’s hard to see a clear aesthetic. It’s constantly evolving.

What are some of the best and worst corporate designs of the past few months?

Some of the best? That’s hard. One of the worst is the logo for Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine. It’s really poorly done. You can like it or not, but it’s just poor practice. I mean, if you’re building a chair, you want to make sure that it holds up…

How does that happen? You’re Microsoft, you have tons of money, you go to the best firm. You assume that these designers know what they’re doing. How do they end up with something like that?

I have no idea. It’s a matter of whether it’s done in house or whether they hired someone. There are probably so many layers of approval and so many people to keep happy. A long time ago, I did some work for Coca-Cola, and you’d show up for a meeting and there would be three different managers and VPs. They’d all they, “That needs to be bigger, that needs to be browner, that needs to be less brown,” or whatever it is, and you have to listen to all of them. And the next thing you know, you have something that looks like Bing.

Any favourites?

Hmm…I’m trying to think positive here. I think the London 2012 Olympics logo is really, really great. Some people hate it, but it’s really good.  They just don’t get it.

Since it’s one of our fortes, can you comment on the airline industry in terms of brand design? Have you noticed any trends?

Actually, one of the best redesigns lately was the one for Delta [by Lippincott Mercer]. It just simplifies everything, looks really sharp and really contemporary. The Mexicana redesign [by Design:Success] was interesting too. For the most part, airlines seem to understand that simple is better, and that’s nice to see.

Any final words of wisdom for companies that might be looking for a design shake-up?

Listen to the advice of your graphic designer in the same way that you’d listen to the advice of your car mechanic or plumber or doctor. There are simple things that sometimes need to be fixed, in the same way that your car may need an oil change or your tuning might be off. Those are things you don’t debate. You just fix them. Graphic designers often work on the metaphorical or subjective level, but a lot of times it’s a matter of “You know what? This is not working, and here’s why.”

Anything to watch out for from less scrupulous graphic designers than yourself?

If someone sends you a PDF that tries to tie your logo to the history of humanity: RUN!

Searching Facebook for “airlines” yields more than 500 results, including official “pages” (which are administered by airline staff) and unofficial “groups” (which can be started by fans or off-duty employees). This can get confusing, since groups and pages look the same, and since some groups seem to serve as official pages, while some pages claim to be “unofficial.” To make things messier, some companies have multiple accounts (EL AL Airlines has three pages) while some have plenty of friends, but no content to show for it (Delta Air Lines has 7,570 fans but no updates).

Online social networking requires companies to relinquish a certain amount of control, and some airlines are letting go more than others. American Airlines’ wall is populated by messages from customers, some disgruntled (“We need to start a movement against AA and their GROSSED out 757s (domestic)… How do we do this…”). Other companies, such as Royal Brunei Airlines, simply recycle content from their website.

There’s also the messy issue of employee pages. Pilots, flight attendants and airport staff – both former and current – have created their own spaces on Facebook to keep in touch. These pages are usually open to the public and branded with airline logos, making them indistinguishable at first glance from official pages. This can be a recipe for a PR fiasco: in November, Virgin Atlantic Airlines fired 13 flight attendants who criticized the airline’s safety standards and dissed its passengers on Facebook. On the other hand, is there any better or cheaper publicity than a spontaneous employee love-in?

Below is our list of airlines that have an official Facebook presence (with their current number of friends in parentheses). Let us know if we’ve missed any and we’ll add them to the list:

Aegean Airlines (572)
Aer Lingus (885)
Air Asia (3,415)
Air Canada (8,959)
Air France (2,275)
Air New Zealand (1,403)
Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air (2,652)
Allegiant Air (296)
American Airlines (10,954)
Arabian Airlines (194)
Asiana Airlines (254)
ATA (defunct) (547)
Atlantic Southeast Airlines (558)
Austrian Airlines (1,129)
Austrian Airlines Srbija (183)
Avensa (467)
Axis French Airlines (106)
Azerbaijan Airlines (976)
B&H Airlines (655)
Blue Panorama Airlines (106)
British Airways (219)
Brussels Airlines (1,495)
Cargolux Airlines International (480)

Cathay Pacific Airways (11,049)
Chanchangi Airlines (357)
China Airlines (510)
China Eastern Airlines (100)
China Southern Airlines (232)
Click Air (545)
Continental Airlines (5,996)
Copa Airlines (990)
Croatia Airlines (1,419)
Czech Airlines (751)
Delta Air Lines (7,506)
EasyJet (4,971)
EgyptAir (621)
EL AL Airlines (293)
Emirates (27, 423)
Ethiopian Airlines (1,148)
Eurofly (260)
Firefly (1,213)
FlyBe (72)
Frontier Airlines (569)
Ghana International Airlines (210)
Gulf Air (1,987)
Hawaiian Airlines (4,003)
Iceland Air (8,046)
Japan Airlines (2,475)
JetBlue Airways (7,536)
Jetstar Airways (1,497)

Kenya Airways (448)
Kingfisher Airlines (915)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (1,546)
Korean Air (1,300)
LAN Airlines (4,378)
Lufthansa (5,105)
Malaysia Airlines (2,272)
Mandala Airlines (857)
Meridiana (1,808)
Merpati Nusantara Airlines (458)
Mexicana Airlines (431)
Middle East Airlines (3,734)
Midwest Airlines(410)
MK Airlines Ltd. (184)
Northwest Airlines (583)
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines 610)
Olympic Airlines (1,326)
Pacific Blue Airlines (486)
Pacific Coastal Airlines (318)
Pakistan International Airlines (89)
Pegasus Airlines (634)
Philippine Airlines (3,856)
Porter Airlines (469)
Qantas Airways (8,701)
Royal Brunei Airlines (1,068)
RyanAir (1,302)
Saga Airlines (192)
SAS Scandinavian Airlines (4,609)
Saudi Arabian Airlines (2,704)
SEEAIR (517)
Singapore Airlines (30,589)
Skyservice Airlines (147)

South East Asian Airlines (518)
Southwest Airlines (67,965)
Spirit Airlines (283)
Sri Lankan Airlines (740)
Tap Portugal (870)
Thai Airways (2,865)
Thomas Cook (8,223)
Tiger Airways (180)
Turkish Airlines (7,074)
Turkmenistan Airlines (254)
Ukraine International Airlines (59)
United Airlines (8,817)
USA300 (220)
V Australia (944)
Vietnam Airlines (312)
Virgin America (25,259)
Virgin Blue (973)
Virgin Atlantic (17,376)
VLm Airlines (289)
Vuelin Airlines (495)
WestJet Airlines (4,961)
Wizz Air (636)