To Remain Or Become Relevant, Create Better Brand Experiences

Rob Schwartz of TBWA has seen the future of advertising and it is deeply interactive and personal.

From his report in Forbes:

The Tomorrow Awards were chock-a-block full of good Social ideas. One that impressed me was the Nike Social Response Lab. The Response Lab was a grand community conversation on social media featuring a team of illustrators, designers, and animators in one place who were able to respond and chat with fans, wherever they were, in real-time, during game time. Sure other brands are doing live conversations, but the Response Lab not only conversed, it turned those conversations into art pieces including wallpapers, avatars and memes. Plus it ultimately took these online conversations and celebrated them in offline media.

R/GA and Nike got closer to college basketball fans, by doing things for them, by creating value, versus just relying on more advertising. That’s what I find particularly interesting here. Nike has some of the best advertising that money can buy, and has since 1982 when Wieden + Kennedy began working on the business. But that’s not good enough, not today.

Today it’s about a brand’s ability to engage a community. And you don’t achieve real engagement with advertising, or with any form of one-way transmissions. People want to participate and be heard. When a brand can help fans amplify their own desires, it’s a big win for everyone. And that’s what happened last March during the NCAA tournament. Via effective use of the #RiseAsOne hashtag on Twitter, Nike and R/GA were able to connect with fans and do things to surprise and delight them.