It’s that time again! In honor of the big game, we’re reposting our top 10 Super Bowl ads of all time. Enjoy!

The Super Bowl is back—meaning it’s time to stock up on Buffalo Chicken dip, kick back in front of the TV and watch some of the best commercials you’ll see all year. Or, catch some football. Whether you’re a sports fanatic or not, the creative ads airing between tackles are always highly anticipated. As well they should be—advertisers shell out close to $3million for a 30-second spot.

While some ads miss the mark, many make such an impact that we still talk about them years later. We’ve compiled a list of our top Super Bowl ads ever for your very own trip down memory lane:

Apple — 1984

There’s been a lot of hype lately about the launch of newer Apple products such as iPhones and iPads—but the original Macintosh, too, had its own unveiling. The “1984” commercial gives a nod to Orwell’s novel of the same name, and indicates that the Macintosh will save society from Big Brother’s conformity. The ad is visually unique, striking, and has been named to the No. 1 spot on Best-of lists by TV Guide and Advertising Age.

Budweiser — Respect

After 9/11, Budweiser ran this commercial in the 2002 Super Bowl—and it was the only time the ad has ever aired. It’s a stark contrast to the beer company’s often funny ads, but this is why the commercial is especially memorable. Budweiser didn’t use this spot to sell their product. Instead, they used it to acknowledge the tragic event and pay their respects, as their famous Clydesdales lowered their heads and dropped to one knee before the New York City skyline.

Coca-Cola — Mean Joe Greene

Sorry, Packers fans, but your opponents were a part of one of the most well-liked Super Bowl spots. In this ad, “Mean Joe” Greene limps off the field in a surly state, not to be bothered by anyone, especially not a little boy. But after drinking the offered bottle of Coke, Mean Joe tosses the kid his jersey and breaks into a huge smile—because as the commercial wants us to think, Coca-Cola can make anyone, even Mean Joe, happy.

Budweiser — Frogs

This is the first commercial I remember from watching Super Bowl. You know why? Because for months afterward, I still quoted “Bud. Weiiiis. Er.” any chance I got (along with every other corny person who thought it was funny to do so). The point is that this campaign stuck. It was catchy. And with a few frogs croaking in a swamp, Budweiser embedded their product into our minds—and appealed to consumers across generations.

Snickers — Game

Have you ever turned into a crabby version of yourself when you’re hungry? Snickers makes a play on this idea in their ad campaign that shows Betty White getting sacked on the football field. After eating a Snickers bar, the guy morphs back into his normal state. It’s impossible not to laugh (who doesn’t love Betty White?)—and, in this case, humor works, because USA Today’s Ad Meter showed the football sketch to be ranked No. 1 by consumers the day after the Super Bowl.

Google — Parisian Love

From looking for study abroad programs in Paris, to learning how to impress a French girl, to finding the location of churches for a wedding—Google’s ad tells us one life story, all through what’s typed in the company’s search bar. Google’s commercial doesn’t outright sell their product. It showcases how one of the company’s tools can be used to solve any major life questions imaginable.

Reebok — Terry Tate: Office Linebacker

Are you breaking office rules? Watch out, because you might get tackled by fictional linebacker Terry Tate. Reebok’s short series of commercials is one of the funniest and successful ad campaigns to have aired during the Super Bowl. Even though the commercials ran only once on television, just one month after the Super Bowl more than 7 million consumers had gone to the Reebok site to download the Web films. These ads are hilarious because, well, who hasn’t dealt with an irritating coworker before?

McDonalds — The Showdown

In one of the most epic games of H-O-R-S-E documented, nemeses Larry Bird and Michael Jordan duke it out—for a Big Mac. They start off with simple shots and the commercial ends with the players discussing their next ridiculous move of bouncing basketballs off billboards, over expressways and off of rooftops. The ad appeals to sports fans and fast-food junkies alike. But, it’s also impossible to not get a laugh out of Michael Jordan’s MCHammer-esque get-up.

Xerox — Monks

Think about how many copies of office documents you make on a weekly basis. Now, imagine how much time it’d take to write out each of those by hand. In this ad, Brother Dominic is instructed to produce 500 copies of an old manuscript. Instead of panicking, he goes through a hidden passage that brings him to a modern-day office where a Xerox machine can make the copies for him, at the rate of two pages for second. The head monk describes the quick job as “a miracle.” Aired back in 1977, the “Monks” commercial led the way for the humorous, tongue-in-cheek commercials of today. And, when a company name becomes a verb for the product it sells, they must be doing something right.

Pepsi — Apartment 10G

Some guys will do anything for a pretty girl—in Michael J. Fox’s case, that means climbing out the window, running down streets through the rain—all to get a Diet Pepsi for his new neighbor. Not to mention that the commercial is set to great 80s music. The commercial as a whole makes an appeal to a younger audience, and advertises Diet Pepsi as “The choice of the new generation.”

But many brands struggle with the risk involved when using consumers to market the brand.  After all, giving consumers the license to share their thoughts on your brand allows them to share the bad along with the good.  In addition, it can be hard to select the right people to represent the brand.

Ford tackled these challenges to launch the U.S. model of the Ford Fiesta by using consumer advisors, or “agents.”  To ensure that both consumers and the brand could trust the agents, Ford implemented a rigorous selection process to ensure good brand fit and social media reach.  Ford selected a very diverse group of agents, so most consumers in the Fiesta’s target demographic can find agents like them.

A larger struggle for most brands, though, is giving up control over what the consumer advisors say.  Ford knew it needed to balance the need for some brand control with the need to generate authenticity by giving agents uncensored speech, so they assigned monthly missions to give some structure to the agents’ experiences. Ford then allowed the agents to use their own blogs, tweets, and YouTube channels to tell their stories in their own words, pictures, and videos.

In addition to providing structure for the agents, Ford further leveraged these missions by selecting some that highlighted the car’s features.  For example, one mission had one agent drive until his car ran out of gas, showcasing the car’s high gas mileage; other missions included turning the car into an ice-cream truck (showing off a large amount of trunk and storage space) and taking a road trip (to demonstrate its comfort over long distances).

Using the agents to tell the brand’s story had really positive results: Ford generated the same name awareness for the Fiesta as the Ford Edge and Flex had after two years of traditional advertising at just 10% the cost of a traditional media campaign.

After seeing such great success in the United States, Ford adopted the campaign for India.  MLC members, click here to read about how Ford used the agents to generate brand interest in an emerging market.

Three of this year’s best hit those buttons, we think. As for the other two: a little levity never hurt anyone. Here are our thoughts – let us know what you think in comments!

1) Volkswagen – “The Force”

Here’s what we said about this one in this year’s Super Bowl Roundup:

As someone who dreamed of Force-like powers as a child (and who didn’t?) this commercial was my favorite of the night. The kid in the comically oversized Darth Vader helmet will be, I think, this year’s E-Trade baby – the iconic, lasting image of what was, overall, a pretty good crop of ads. The commercial works, I think, because of the juxtaposition of the car and magical, supernatural abilities; the Passat shown in the commercial is a luxury model. The dramatic camerawork doesn’t hurt, either. Great job, VW!

Yep, all that still holds true. Best ad of the year, by far.

2) Google Chrome – “Dear Sophie”

I’m about as skeptical as they come when it comes to companies pulling at peoples’ heartstrings in ads, but this one is stunningly well done. The pace of the ad – which picks up as Sophie gets older – reminds of parents’ lament that childhood slips away quickly, and the memories the father shares – a combination of the mundane, absurd, and poignant – mimic real life. The best thing this ad does, that I’ve never seen any other technology company do as well, is cut through the hype and show customers exactly how technology can help them lead better lives. I’d kill to have a GMail account full of stories from my early life, and I bet a lot of others would, too.

3) Chipotle – “Back to the Start”

Shared values? Check. Visual homages to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”? Check. One of the best Coldplay songs? Check. Covered by Willie Nelson? Check. This ad is a great, poignant reminder to customers that Chipotle isn’t just a purveyor of delicious burritos and rice bowls; they’re a bringer of wholesomeness into the community.

4) Nissan Leaf – “Gas Powered Everything”

Chalk another one up to the “shared values” category. This ad for Nissan’s all-electric Leaf, which creatively imagines a world in which all our electronic gadgets were powered by gasoline, tugs at our inner environmentalist while taking a not-so-subtle jab at a competitor, the Chevy Volt.

I’m a longtime fan of the steampunk genre, which, in a similar way, asks readers to imagine an alternate future in which steam – not electricity – became the dominant power source for most things in our lives. It’s pretty clear that the directors of this spot took some inspiration from that world – which speaks to the geeks in all of us, as well.

5) DirecTV – “I Am Epic Win”

This one’s a personal favorite. It checks so many boxes for me, it’s almost as if the directors read my mind. Nerd humor (“epic win”) in the title character’s name? Miniature giraffes? Lampooning Russian oligarchs? Love it all.

The best part about this campaign, though, is the web component, most notably the Petite Lap Giraffe website, which fooled a number of friends and family this year. Thanks, DirecTV, for that.

But we actually happen to think these ads aren’t too bad. I doubt any will ever win an award, but many get their point across – and shore up brand differentiators – extremely well, despite the little things that pushed the Consumerist’s readerships’ buttons.

Read on for the “worst”, and our thoughts on each. And please check out our Marketing Communications and Creative and Content resources, to learn how the best brands generate messages and creative to reach their consumers better.

AT&T – Wife Berates Husband for Unlimited Plan

Consumerist readers and YouTube commenters alike (seriously, check out this video on its actual YouTube page) have panned this ad for a sort of male-directed sexism; the man in the ad is a little dweeby, and he’s quite forcefully and hurtfully berated by his wife simply for getting a good deal on the family’s phone plan. To the critics, this indicates that the American advertising industry is unfairly stereotyping and singling out white men for abuse at the hands of others.

I don’t know about all that. I think the ad captures (in an extreme way, of course) the quite justified frustration a lot of women feel when their partners make unilateral financial decisions. And, with women making more and more of those decisions at the household level, it’s never a bad demographic to flatter.

Geico – Smartphones for Dumb Things

This ad also came in for a lot of abuse, along the same lines as the ad above, for its depiction of the three men idiotically celebrating the weekend, and the exasperation of their female colleague at their behavior.

Again, I think the critics are a bit too sensitive here. I think there is such a thing as “bro culture” – broadly construed, the culture of young, post-college male professionals – and this sounds like exactly the kind of absurd thing my friends and I might have done a few years ago. I didn’t download the app – and I’d be shocked if it were particularly successful – but I certainly identified with the guys in the ad. I’m pretty happy on Fridays, too!

AT&T – Infuse 4G Spider

I think most of the hatred of this particular ad has to do with the extremely convincing, bloodcurdling screams emitted by the woman at the table, and the yelling and banging of the older man. I think we, as television-watchers (and increasingly, as couch multitaskers) hate to have the commercial-break trance broken by a harsh interruption like this ad. I think the typical consumer thinks commercial time is their time, to choose whether or not to focus on the ads, or the take-home work on the laptop, and they resent having the choice made for them by loud ads.

Obviously, the metaphor here is that the Infuse 4G’s screen is so photorealistic that a tarantula appears lifelike enough to inspire that reaction. I think there are probably other ways AT&T could have gone after that differentiator, but this is a particularly vivid (and attention-getting) one, and I think the levity of the situation (grown adults freaking out over the picture of a tarantula) cuts down on a lot of the causticity of the screaming itself.

Luvs – Poop There It Is

Defending this one is a tough task. Sorry. It’s just gross.

I will admit not having a lot of experience with diapers, but it appears as though this campaign introduced/popularized the term “blowout” in relation to diapers, which suggests a pretty disgusting reality that parents will surely pay to avoid.

The other open question for me – not being a parent – is, do parents just think their babies are so cute and perfect, that stylized bowel movements (like the ones presented in this ad) are, too? I mean, are people thinking “Aww, that’s so cute, that cartoon baby made a poopie!” If so, I could imagine this ad being successful among the demographic its targeting; if not, what were they thinking?

Summer’s Eve – Hail to the V

Judging from YouTube and Consumerist comments, this ad was picked as one of the worst for two reasons. First, I think people don’t like ads for feminine hygiene products in general. Second, a lot of women that have commented have pointed out that linking feminine empowerment with a strictly-cosmetic hygiene product is pretty hypocritical.

I don’t really know what to think about this ad. On one hand, I’m a sucker for epic visuals and elements of classical history making their way into commercials; on the other, I can see how the ad might be problematic from a feminist standpoint. As someone who studied the subject, I definitely don’t agree with this particular lens applied to the broad swoop of history (men aren’t the only ones who have done great things, and the men who did do great things did them for complicated reasons that can’t be boiled down to sex). But, at the end of the day, here we are talking about Summers’ Eve, so it’s a victory on that level, I suppose.

What do you think of this year’s crop of “worst” ads? Let us know in comments.

So, how should marketers expect their jobs to change? We came up with a few ways; let us know more in comments!

A (gradual) shift from patient acquisition to patient education. Marketers in the health and pharmaceutical space already do a lot of education, both to comply with regulations as well as to improve patient understanding and compliance. But in many parts of the business, particularly in mass-market consumer drugs and health plans, companies are still doing a lot of patient acquisition. My educated guess is that the mix of acquisition and education will shift decidedly towards the latter in the next 10 years or so.

Why? First, there is enormous pressure – political, legal, and economic – on healthcare organizations and pharma manufacturers to begin aggressive moves to control costs. Patient education can help lower those costs, and a decrease in patient acquisition – for instance, a dip in advertising spend – can lower costs as well. Second, there’s some anecdotal evidence that pharma pipelines are slowing, and as medicines come off-patent, margins will dip – making acquisition a lower-ROI activity. Finally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some kind of tightening of DTC rules in the next few years. Everything seems to add up to future with less traditional consumer marketing, and more activities that support other business goals – like cutting costs.

Less intervention, more prevention. Going along with the political mandate and economic necessity to cut costs, we’re already seeing insurance marketers, in particular, going the extra mile to emphasize the importance of healthy lifestyles. Providing content for employer health-related newsletters and internal communications portals, direct mailing preventative health pamphlets to consumers, and other marketing activities will definitely play a role in companies’ efforts to lower costs while improving or keeping health outcomes steady. More promising are efforts to incentivize better health – both for employers and consumers – but I’m not sure what, if any, role Marketing is playing in developing those programs.

Will these programs work? I’m skeptical that they will, to any broad, systemic degree. Financial incentives tend to work when the incented activity is very beneficial and easily accomplished; plastic bag taxes, for instance, work because it’s quite easy to bring reusable bags to the store. Incentivizing weight loss is something else entirely, since the American obesity epidemic has roots in systemic factors, not personal choices. If insurers can drill down to the level of individual choices – for instance, a micro-incentive for eating an apple, rather than a candy bar – I could imagine a higher degree of success, but I doubt we’re anywhere near that point.

Greater leeway with technology. As one of the most regulated industries in the world, the healthcare space faces significant limitations on consumer communications. The most visible of these regulations are those surrounding side effect disclosure and “adverse event” reporting that I discussed last year – the result being that pharma companies can’t meaningfully participate in social media activities other consumer brands take for granted.

The US Food and Drug Administration, which regulates brand-to-patient communication, is apparently considering revisions to rules requiring companies to report adverse events and to adequately disclose side effects, giving brands a better opportunity to reach customers via social media. Hearings were held almost two years ago on the subject, but the agency has repeatedly delayed issuing new guidance.

Although the agency can be slow to respond to marketplace developments, they can’t ignore social media forever, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a significant loosening of adverse event and side effect reporting – offering marketers a greater opportunity to connect with customers. When that happens, the industry will have a lot of catching up to do.

MLC members, what do you think the future of marketing will be? Let us know in this survey we’ve developed.

The latest tactics for breaking through increasingly high barriers to attention all have some serious limitations:

• Tactic: Create such attention-grabbing ads that consumers stop and watch or even actively seek them out (the Old Spice strategy). Limitation: There was only one Old Spice campaign last year. There’s just no process for reliably producing viral hits.

• Tactic: Encourage consumers to sign up to regular targeted communications e.g., email newsletters, mobile alerts, Twitter feeds, Facebook news feeds. Limitation: Marketing message saturation is hitting consumers’ inboxes and news feeds.  Soon it’ll be just as hard to stand out there as it is elsewhere.

• Tactic: Hyper-targeting, i.e., send such super-relevant messages that consumers take notice. Limitation: Marketers often underestimate the bar for relevance that has to be met before a consumer actually clicks on an ad. Even with new data and automation tools, hyper-targeting is still pretty hard.

Leading marketers realize this and are adding an extra strategy to the mix. Instead of doing more to get consumers’ attention, they’re doing more to get through to consumers WITHOUT their full attention.  MLC members, we recently added a set of tips on low-attention branding to our website. Here are the basic steps to take:

Redesign ads/packaging to maximize unconscious information absorption. Consumers do absorb some information even when they’re not really paying attention. Marketers are now turning to new technologies, e.g., eye tracking, pulse/sweat sensors and even brain scans, to help present information in the most compelling and natural manner.

Establish routines around product use. Product routines secure repeat purchase without the need for in-your-face reminders.  The problem is, disrupting existing habits and cementing new ones is incredibly hard.  See how one CPG managed it here.

Publish useful or entertaining content on consumers’ interests with subtle branding in the background. Instead of forcing consumers to pay attention to explicit ads, brands are creating interesting/fun content and hoping the subtle background branding will create positive associations. Learn more here.

Identify and activate consumer cravings. Better understanding of cravings also helps boost product use without the need for explicit messages around product benefits etc. Some marketers of consumable products are turning to fMRI brain scans to identify the precise moment of consumption that provides the biggest dopamine hit. Creating ads focused on these moments improves effectiveness when consumers are only half-listening.  See  how a CPG used brain scanning to identify and activate consumer cravings here.

MLC members, learn more about low-attention branding, and consider taking this anonymous 7-minute survey on future trends in marketing. We will share aggregate results with all survey takers to give you a sense of how your peers think marketing is evolving. Thank you!

Editor’s note: We put this up (and in our member newsletter) prior to last night’s news that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had passed away. We’ll have thoughts on his legacy later this week.

The following is a guest post from Robert van Alstyne, a media and technology analyst with our sister program, Iconoculture.

It’s a testament to technology’s ascendant role in pop culture that today’s Apple press conference had more consumer buzz than any new TV show this fall season. With media-saturated consumers’ tastes increasingly splintered, gadget lust is now one of the last common denominators uniting the masses.

Heading into today’s press conference, professional pundits and John Q. Public speculated wildly, debating what new treats Apple would unveil. Would we get an iPhone 5 or just a new iPhone 4? Prior to the event, rumors of a slimmer, 3X-faster iPhone 5 reached a crescendo. By the time new Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage this morning, online chatter had reached such a pitch that one colleague speculated on Twitter, “I wonder, did America stop what it was doing in, say, 1953, when the next model *car* was announced?”

In a move that disappointed some true believers, there was no iPhone 5 announcement, “just” the iPhone 4S, which will hit stores October 14. The new phone still boasts impressive hardware advancements. Among the iPhone 4S’ selling points are the ability to switch intelligently between two antennas to transmit and receive (thereby doubling data download speed), along with a serious camera upgrade. Initial online reaction was “meh,” but we’d be shocked if the 4S doesn’t sell extraordinarily well, just like its predecessor.

Right now, Apple’s main selling point is its image as a cutting-edge company, so the product details matter relatively little to the average consumer. By tirelessly turning their brand into an essential emblem of digital savvy, Apple has carved out both a cult-like following and an ever-broadening base of users. Apple’s old-guard faithful might be disappointed, and they might not “need” the latest iteration of the iPhone. But whatever the specs, in a growing number of consumers’ eyes, Apple’s latest remains a cherished status symbol, broadcasting to all that they’re in step with our fast-moving information-driven world.

MLC members, for more great Iconoculture insights, check out the selected pieces we publish each week on the latest consumer trends.

However, such stories should not mislead marketers to believe that crowdsourcing is a quick way to achieve amazing results.  In contrast, reaching out to a large average crowd can actually overwhelm marketers with the sheer number of ideas they receive, and the time and effort in sifting through those ideas can be much larger than engaging an agency to do the job. Moreover, the ideas can also turn out to be completely off-track and unusable.

That said, the good news is—some new agency models have evolved over the last 3-4 years that help to conduct, what can be called, “targeted crowdsourcing” or “expertsourcing.” Here, instead of broadcasting a project brief to masses, only select few specialists are chosen to do the assignment.

Here are some examples of such models:

• Giant Hydra: Giant Hydra provides marketers and ad agencies access to a global pool of creative professionals.  However, unlike a typical crowdsourcing platform where professionals compete against each other, Giant Hydra is built on the principles of “collaboration.” Clients are able to create a team by choosing professionals having skills and experience best suited for the assignment. The team then works together in a private online environment to build on each others’ ideas, while the client is able to oversee the process and ensure the team doesn’t go off-track. Though the platform is primarily designed for agencies to tap outside talent, the interesting thing is—they can also use it to connect their geographically dispersed offices on a single project.
• GeniusRocket: It initially started as a contest-based crowdsourcing platform for video content, but later moved to a model where every member—copywriters, creative directors, animators, production companies—is vetted by GeniusRocket, thus maintaining a smaller but high-quality pool. There is a staged process where professionals first pitch concepts, instead of coming up with the final products directly, and the clients choose which concepts progress to the next stage.
• Victors & Spoils: Victors & Spoils was launched by two former Crispin Porter + Bogusky executives in Oct 2009, as an alternative to traditional ad agencies. The company also maintains a virtual pool—a digital database—of thousands of creative professionals, and taps into this pool as needed. However, what differentiates the company from other crowdsourcing or expertsourcing platforms is that it acts as a curator of ideas. So, when it receives an assignment from a client, it not only creates the brief and selects suitable professionals for that assignment, but also makes sure the ideas received from them are of good quality. The model therefore eliminates the time and effort required for clients to give direction to professionals or sift through large number of ideas submitted by them. Just two years into business, the company already boasts of Harley-Davidson (it’s interesting how the company got this account), Nike Foundation, Mercedes-Benz and Unilever as its clients.
• Co:Collective: Co:Collective, launched last year by former JWT executives, is another addition to the curated crowdsourcing space. It employs a small core group of thinkers, and “outsources” the implementation to a network of affiliated specialty companies based on the requirements of each assignment.

While it’s difficult to say how much traction these new models are going to gain and whether they have the potential to outdo the traditional agencies, one thing is sure—they have given one more reason for agencies to shed their complacency.

Have you tried any of the above models? Did it work as you expected? Do share your experiences in the comments below.

Our advice to them has been to read our work on influencing the empowered customer that predicts a larger role for B2B marketing in the sales process. B2B marketing must tag-team with sales to diagnose and respond to customer needs drive urgency toward the purchase. At the same time as they need to play a larger role in sales, B2B marketers are used to segmenting based on who customers are and what they are buying. They must now move a step further and address why customers are buying and how they can differentiate and adapt to the evolving buying process.

Presented here are our learnings from our B2B MarComm Awards Showcase, on what B2B manufacturing companies can do to make their marketing campaigns differentiated, and successful:

• Own a higher-order need: Conventional B2B manufacturers maybe tempted to talk more about the unparalleled efficacy of their product, but the product differences can be less obvious to the buyers. Companies can benefit from a positioning differentiation, by positioning themselves as fulfillers of the overarching needs their product caters to. For example, AEL Mining introduced electronic explosives with a focus on safety and well-being of miners, rather than product attributes. The campaign got an average of 10,000 visitors a month.
• If you’re a leader, flaunt it: This might sound clichéd, but companies must emphatically claim leadership in categories in which they enjoy a sustained competitive advantage. When Siemens ran its impact campaign, it positioned itself as the only true partner for American lawmakers to answer the Nation’s toughest questions. This reduced the risk perception of the company and led to impressive gains in brand loyalty, consideration and purchase.
• Break communication conventions: Let’s admit it, manufacturing companies are often guilty of creating marketing collateral with uninspiring copy and dull imagery. Cummins realized that in their industry, the ads are usually conventional with trucking equipment and parts photos shown. The company stepped over the acceptable bounds and norms with their big and bold, Cummins red identity in their “Hard to Miss” campaign. They made message the king – 1-800-DIESELS got a lot of recollection and recognition.
• Market internally first: Since the B2B sales and marketing processes rely heavily on each other, any marketing campaign must be sold internally first. Sales reps must be made aware of the strategic objectives of the campaign, and given tactical guidance on achieving the objective. Like Emerson, prepare internally facing marketing collateral before you market externally.

MLC members can register for our upcoming Webinar on the Best of B2B MarComm Awards 2011, which will feature the winning entries of this year’s B2B MarComm Awards to be held at The Sales and Marketing Summit in Las Vegas.

Even though the weather and leaves are just beginning to turn, and we still have to get through Columbus Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving before turning our thoughts to visions of sugarplums and eight crazy nights, marketers are hard at work figuring out ways to close the year off strong with a good holiday season.

But how should they do it, while stengthening their brand positions for the year to come? We’ve got a few tips below:

Find ways to lighten the load. For kids, the holiday season is a magical, wonderful time of presents, candy, and sometimes magical elves. For adults, though, it’s probably among the most stressful times of the year – even if the stress is likely to pay off in the form of fun with family and friends.

Great brands recognize that not only is the season particularly hectic, the very act of brand interaction might be, too. Finding ways to save consumers time and money, as well as raising the chances they’ll make the right choice when it comes to gifts, can pay dividends throughout the rest of the year.

So how does this play out practically? Offer your consumers some measures of assurance that they’re making the right choices. Some brands we’ve studied have done this through transparent buying guides – presenting consumers with a range of criteria and offering relevant gift ideas for each – while others have gone the technology route, using social networks to make gift recommendations.

Clarify the brand promise – and deliver it, 100%. There’s no better time to make sure brand promises are airtight – and delivery consistent – than the holidays. The uptick in shopping offers brands an opportunity to make a positive imprint on the consumer, but if crowd-weary shoppers aren’t satisfied with what they get, you may suffer the consequences the rest of the year.

MLC has a wealth of material designed to help companies consistently deliver their brand promises: for instance, here’s how Exxon Mobile motivated employees to consistent brand delivery, how Starbucks ensured consistent brand delivery across all touchpoints – human and not human, and how we recommend brands ensure consistent brand delivery across geographies and segments.

Find avenues of emotional differentiation. Here’s the place where brands – particularly consumer and retail brands – have a golden opportunity to set themselves apart from the competition: finding areas of shared values and ways to emotionally differentiate themselves from competitors. We’ve found, for instance, that brands that align with consumers around emotional values perform at a much higher level than brands that emphasize functional differentiators.

Luckily, emotions are running high during the holiday season, and there are a number of brands that have particularly strong associations with the holidays. Macy’s, for instance, is associated in my mind with the holidays: their sponsorship of the Thanksgiving Day parade and the movie “Miracle on 34th St.” form that association in my mind, and I’m much more likely to shop there during the holidays than at any other time.

Understand and fit into seasonal routines. Routines shift a bit during the holidays for a lot of people and families. I’d say that, on average, one is more likely to bake cookies on a random Tuesday night during December than in other months; one is more likely to visit a mall in December than in other times, one is more likely to drive around looking at tacky Christmas lights – all sorts of things.

Brands that unearth subtle shifts in consumer routines during the holidays can capitalize big on them. For instance: there’s the classic case of General Mills’ Betty Crocker brand figuring out that parents often spent the first week of the holidays doing nothing special, then felt guilty about doing so. So the brand targeted cookie-baking in the second week of the holidays, figuring this was an easy way to assuage parental guilt about not being festive enough.

MLC members, how are you shifting your brand communications mix for the holidays? Let us know in comments below.

But the most fireworks happened around a discussion on mobile marketing.  Sean Bartlett, the director of mobile strategy & platforms at Lowe’s, presented on recent mobile activity by that company.  What they’ve accomplished is great mobile work for marketers to emulate. The new Lowe’s app, which has been on the top download boards in the App Store, scores very well against MLC’s 11 criteria of a world-class mobile execution.

Why the fireworks? One marketing leader in attendance asked a simple question: how does Lowe’s measure the ROI on its mobile efforts?  The assumption behind the question was that Lowe’s is spending well into six digits, or even seven digits, and so how to justify the resources internally?

(light fireworks here)  The discussion quickly bounced back and forth between various other retailers in the room, several of which stated that the ROI discussion is over—that was for 5 years ago.  Consumers are moving so quickly that it’s not a question of if, but how.  One retailer shared that it had just launched m-commerce the week before, and watched as its mobile sales ticked up to 3% of total–in just 3 days!!  The CMO indicated customers must have been wondering what took the retailer so long to offer mobile purchasing.

The discussion took on a life of its own, and ultimately landed in a place that struck me as a turning point for retail marketers—if you’re obsessed with ROI to the point that it’s hampering getting some big mobile bets up and running, you’re moving too slow for your consumer.  I’m sure there are exceptions in categories that serve older generations, but by and large, the mobile train has left the station.

MLC members, score your mobile concepts against world-class criteria using our Mobile Execution scorecard.

One could argue that technology has become omnipresent and all pervasive in our lives, and it’s natural that technology brands are likely to enjoy higher brand equity. On the flip side, technology brands also operate in an environment of fast paced competition, shortened product life cycles, and a lingering threat of obsolesce. The intense rivalry among technology companies today makes it ever harder for these companies to compete on product attributes – the conventional approach used earlier.

The question then arises, how can technology companies differentiate their marketing and stand out? I examined 4 successful global campaigns from the world of technology, and here is what we can learn from them:

Make it about the customer, not you: Technology companies may be tempted to over-emphasize the technical aspects, and superiority of their products. While this serves good fodder for the tech-geeks, the average buyer is often unimpressed. Through their More You campaign, Dell computers have helped buyers understand what their product can help them do. The practical approach has pushed up Dell’s brand perception to the top spot in the 18-34 year age group.

Ensure your tagline is what you really do: When recession hit, IBM suffered reduced business growth. Conventional technology marketing didn’t get the company new clients. Introspection of what the company really did, helped IBM come up with Let’s Create a Smarter Planet campaign, which reflected the business IBM was really in. The upfront value proposition had high resonance, and won the campaign a Gold Effie Award in 2010.

Empower the customer: Technology buyers may feel threatened and overwhelmed by the uses they can put the technology to. With its Power to You campaign, Vodafone lets customers take charge of their phone, and allows them the flexibility of designing their own experience on its network. Vodafone presents an empathetic human face to an essentially technical offering. In many markets, such as Ghana, the campaign won Vodafone new customers.

Transcreate (not translate): Apple’s simplistic messaging in all its campaigns has a universal appeal, ever wonder why? Definitely not for minimalistic jargon, and powerful use of simplistic imagery, but for using these in a way that connects the audience to it. Apple transcreates it’s messages, and not just translates them. Transcreation is a process of capturing the essence and spirit of a message, transforming it into one that is locally relevant and meaningful (see an Apple example here).

These campaigns would have never been possible without a strong global marketing organization. MLC members, our work on Structuring for Global Success provides guidance on organization design for global marketing success.

But evidence is emerging – not the least of which, from our 2011 B2C research – that paid media is becoming less and less effective in terms of driving sales and positive brand sentiment. It’s up to marketers to find the channels that consumers trust most, and re-optimize spend for those platforms.

Just as a review, here are the three broad buckets of media spend we’re thinking about:

Paid Media: Channels that you pay for (TV, radio, print, billboards, retail displays, online ads)

Owned Media: Channels that you own (website, blog, building, uniform, vehicles, product itself), or partially own (facebook page, twitter page, YouTube channel)

Earned Media: Consumers become the channel (PR, WOM, mentions in blogs, tweets,  or product reviews), which you can neither buy nor own

Typically, marketers use a PEO framework, where they start with Paid media first, then look to Earned, and put least focus on Owned. Some of the beliefs that drive them to do this are:

Myth #1: We don’t have budgetary limitations, so we don’t require earned media.

Some marketers and agencies put most of their resources on paid media and the leftovers are spent on earned media. Only when they’re tight on budget, they plan their entire or most of their marketing strategy around the earned media. In effect, they push down earned media’s status to a “media of last resort.”

Reality: While it’s easy to “buy” media, it’s not really easy to create the “buy-in.” With so much information overload, consumers have become highly insensitive to traditional media (Kogi BBQ learnt this the hard way). What they actually value is information that comes from credible sources. I’m sure when Mercedes-Benz wanted to capitalize on Google executive’s testimonial, cost-saving wasn’t the motivation. Rather, it was the credibility of the source that Mercedes wanted to leverage.

While earned media is relatively cheaper than paid, it is certainly not free. Nor it is easy or quick. The cost of buying media gets shifted to cost of creating and managing content. Even if the companies now will need to become creative thinkers to develop and plan content, the ROI is still better compared to paid media.

Myth #2: Earned media can’t be controlled, so there is no point planning for it.

Some marketers fear that since they don’t have any control over the reach and impact of earned media, they’ll end up wasting dollars, or probably even worse—earning negative WOM.

Reality: Though the control may not be “completely” in your hands, but with some thoughtful planning, you can initiate and drive the conversation in your favor. Generate curiosity (Kaizers Orchestra did it by launching a record on paper), create value (Best Buy’s Twelpforce), empathize (J&J’s Baby Center), or just challenge the conventions (Men With Cramps! Really?), and Voilà! You’ve influenced the influencers.

Further, owned media is a low-hanging fruit that can play a significant role in driving your influence. Brands use their website, twitter page, facebook page, or YouTube channel to seed content. Even the product (customized M&Ms), the packaging (Bronx shoes), and the distribution (Coke’s uVend) can be creatively utilized.

Are the flaws in PEO apparent now?

Imagine turning the PEO framework upside down and making it OEP. That is, try to capitalize on Owned first and use it as a driver to initiate Earned, then focus your strategy on increasing and sustaining Earned, and if necessary seek Paid support.

Earned media should play a “central role” in the marketing strategy, while owned and paid play “supporting partners.”

By the way, while you were reading this post, the brands mentioned above just earned some more media for themselves. So next time you meet your agencies, ask them (a few weeks ago, we wrote about how agencies should transform in the new advertising landscape) to utilize your budget in a way that gives you more dividends, and that too, sustainable.

Marketers and advertisers have spent over 100 years trying to communicate with customers in modern, recognizable ways, and during that time the language we use to do that has evolved. Customers now don’t need everything spelled out – they react instantly to small symbolic cues, rich images, and a memorable tagline – but consumers of previous eras didn’t have the rich symbolic vocabulary necessary to do that. The result was advertisements that are much more literal – and maybe more informative, in a strict sense – than the ones we have today.

We’ve collected ten of the coolest vintage magazine and TV ads we could find. Have others? Post them in the comments! And make sure to check out our resource center on getting the most out of agency partnerships, so maybe your company will be on a list like this in 2061.

1) Lincoln Cosmopolitan

Have you ever seen anything so evocative of the 1950’s? Newfound wealth, garish colors, a gigantic convertible – this ad has it all.

2) Western Electric – Colorful Phones

I’m too young to know much about this, but apparently phones used to come in one color – black – and the introduction of different colors was a Big Deal. This piece from Western Electric is way ahead of its time – it uses infographic-like techniques and social proof to sell a rainbow of telephones.

3) Old Spice – 1957

My favorite things about this one? First, how radically different it is from…more current Old Spice commercials. Second, the hilarious tone of the announcer, reminiscent of old public service announcements. Finally, the veneer of scientific precision – “from the laboratories of Shulton”.

4) Air Canada – Rainbow

This is a great ad, mostly because it eschews the practice of including paragraphs worth of copy along with the visuals. The rainbow is a great touch – it says that when you’re on Air Canada, you’re going somewhere good – and the overall design is delightfully retro.

5) This Calls for Budweiser

Have beer marketers always been the best in the discipline? This piece from Budweiser gets a key thing right: it takes a universal experience – hanging out with your friends – and deftly associates the brand with it. They aren’t selling the beer, per se – they’re selling the experience of being with friends. And who doesn’t like that?

6) Tide – Laundry on the Beach

A few thoughts: first, this is another nice bit of positive-experience association, with the added benefit of the juxtaposition of the naturally clean beach. Second, in fifty years, are people going to cringe at the music I love as much as I did at this ad’s?

7) Ouija – Questions

Now we’re getting into the “we couldn’t run this ad today” territory, with this ad for Ouija featuring a young woman asking silly things about flying saucers and the prom, while the guy contemplates weighty issues like college and “going steady”. And Vintage Santa carrying the game? Subtle, Parker Brothers – subtle.

RCA – Table-Top TV

Our ancestors were so inventive.

9) Alka-Seltzer Takes on The USA

A few thoughts: first, how creepy is that talking doll? I feel like it’s going to come to my house if I don’t take Alka-Seltzer. Second, it’s remarkable how long these commercials go. 30-second ads feel long today, and we’re slowly transitioning to ads a quarter of the length of these spots.

10) Dr. Pepper – Charge

This one did its job – I now officially want to go to the beach.

None of the big boys of Madison Avenue made to the top of “Advertising Age’s Top 100 US Agency Brands for 2010” list. Acxiom Corp., an Arkansas-based database marketing company has been topping this list for the last two years. Only eight leading advertising agencies could make it to top 20, with digital and PR agencies filling the rest of the positions.

Tim Williams wowed the audience with this fact as he opened the seminar organized by International  Advertising Association in New Delhi that I attended a couple of weeks ago. Tim is a thought leader in the advertising and marketing business, and also the author of the bestselling “Take a Stand for Your Brand.” Here, he was speaking about “How Agencies are Transforming for the Future.”

He explained how the advertising landscape has changed over the years. Many CMOs are shunning “agency of record” relationships. A number of them are bypassing agencies to work directly with media companies, production companies, and even directly with creative talent via crowdsourcing. Tim called this trend of bypassing as “disintermediation” of agencies.

So, what has caused this disintermediation, and the blurring of roles between agencies and media companies? What are marketers’ expectations from their agencies?

The answer lies in declining sense of value agencies offer to marketers. In the digital age when consumers “control” their interaction with media channels, agencies have not built their skills adequately in response. During a recent Cannes event, Diageo’s CMO Andy Fennell also pressed the need for agencies to integrate and build skill-sets organically over time, and pointed that bolt-on acquisitions don’t work.

During the seminar, Tim talked about some effective ways in which agencies can protect their turf. He advised them to:

• Be effective, rather than efficient. The traditional success metrics—reach, frequency, and cost per thousand—highlight an ad’s efficiency only, but do not ascertain its effectiveness. The new parameters of success are attentiveness, receptivity, and buzz potential. Agencies should therefore move beyond interruption to engagement. (MLC Members – check out these effective examples of customer engagement).
• Be more agile. Faced with cost and time pressures from clients, agencies should take cue from software companies for agile development. Rather than delivering something “perfect” later, they can deliver something “good enough” earlier, followed by iterative increments based on client feedbacks.
• Embrace “digital” as a competency, not a department. As Tim puts it, agencies need to adopt a policy of “ISL” – Interactive as a Second Language, where digital is developed as a competency throughout the entire agency, and not housed as a silo-ed department. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners presents an inspiring example of this approach.
• Move to adaptive marketing. In the digital world, results are created in real-time. So, agencies need to measure the effectiveness of their work and optimize it in real-time, that is, play the role of creators as well as curators. This requires a more fluid approach to marketing budgets.
• Get involved higher up in the client’s value chain. Howsoever “unremarkable” the product is, agencies’ only concern is to create a “remarkable” story to sell it. In how many cases do they ask their clients to revamp the product? Marketing is about all the 4 Ps and not just Promotion. Agencies should start with the product and not the advertising, and also explore opportunities to help clients during actual sale and post-sale phases.

So, are your agencies responding to the new environment in all the above ways? If not, you may want to re-think the way you have been engaging with them.

Marketing’s a complicated business, and, as such, it’s easy to tell ourselves lies – whether we know it or not. We talk to marketers every day, and here are some of the biggest, most persuasive whoppers in the bunch. Got more? Let us know in comments!

1) Our customers want to be engaged, and we want to engage them. Customers (and consumers!) claim to want to be engaged, but the proof is in the pudding: in the consumer space, brand loyalty and purchase stickiness is negatively correlated with high-information “engagement” strategies, and business customers are eschewing Sales contact until nearly 60% of the purchase process is complete.

What’s the message that purchasers across the economy are sending? They don’t want to talk to you – at least, not until they’re ready. Across the board, customers and consumers are simply more trusting of third-party information than they are of “engaged” brands, and who can blame them? The key isn’t “engagement” per se – it’s useful engagement that helps people live their lives and do their jobs. Consumer brands can use their knowledge of the market to guide customers to better decisions, and business brands can leverage industry expertise to help business purchasers get the job done.

2) We need a social media team, but let’s just hire some young people – they know how to do that Twitter stuff! It’s a rational first response to a disruptive new communications technology: surely the demographic that uses the technology the most (in this case, young people) are the best possible people to help brands and companies adapt.

But doing this confuses the medium with the message, Marshall McLuhan notwithstanding. I think it’s broadly true that, as you go up the age continuum, you’re less likely to find folks familiar with the mechanics and culture of social platforms like Twitter. But this stuff is really window-dressing on a broader reality of changed consumer expectations around service and responsiveness – and customer understanding acumen isn’t a function of age. The fact is that new communications platforms are going to continually emerge, and the actual operation of those platforms are not particularly important for businesses – what is important is the big picture of a changed consumer environment.

That doesn’t mean that managing social doesn’t require a unique skillset – of course, it does – but that skillset can’t be had by hiring a bunch of interns or entry-level folks.

3) In these tough times, we need to focus our efforts on high-ROI investments and innovations. In every economic environment, we’re looking for high returns – that’s the ultimate reason we do what we do. But there’s a difference between the concept of “returns on investment” and the metric known as “ROI”. “Returns” are conceptual – they’re a reasonable, qualitative assessment of whether the cost of an investment or innovation is worth it. “ROI”, on the other hand, is a number spit out of a spreadsheet model that implicitly relies on existing market information – and, as such, is poor at assessing disruptive innovations or channel investments. When bad information goes into a model, you can expect bad information to come out – and the result is distorted decision-making, passed-up opportunities, and slow growth.

For innovation decisions, we recommend following a framework similar to Philips’ Segment-Focused Innovation Roadmap – one that privileges equally-tangible considerations like team enthusiasm, strength of segment need, and brand equity instead of focusing on the ROI question. In terms of channel investments, we’ve also observed that ROI is a poor guide to decision-making, particularly when it comes to social media. Here, we recommend an approach based on bridge metrics, not strict ROI.

4) Having more data to make decisions will remove the subjectivity from marketing. Throughout our current research on marketing automation and marketing analytics, we’ve heard one thing consistently from members: a pervasive belief that data and automation is capable of transforming marketing into a Taylorist function – one that merely processes inputs and spits out outputs in the form of automated campaigns, insights, and innovations. The abundance of data – as well as the increasing capability of automating campaigns – will allow leaders to make decisions beyond reproach, ones that don’t even involve the application of creativity – at least so the story goes.

But the reality is different. As Ana explained in this post, the proper role of data is a complimentary tool that supplements – not replaces – the exercise of judgement, creativity, and experience.

Got more lies? Fess up in comments below – we won’t judge too harshly!

Marketing to the millennials hasn’t exactly turned out to be the way marketers envisioned it. Despite their best intentions to cut into the millennial pie, marketers struggle to achieve predictable outcomes with millennials. There are two very important factors responsible for this:

• Reduced savings potential: The millennials’ entry into the work force came at a time when the recession was at its peak. Having invested in their education, only 41% of them were in full-time jobs in 2010. Their financial doldrums have forced millennials to be penny-wise and cautious while spending, making it ever harder for marketers to sell to them.

• Ability to cut off marketing: Born digital natives, and brought up in an era of democratic content, millennials choose the communication they want to listen to, and cut off noise like never before. Development of technology to block unwanted messages, coupled with their intense appetite for it, makes millennials more likely than other generations to block unwanted marketing messages altogether.

No matter how disappointing it sounds, building a lasting relationship with millennials isn’t exactly rocket science – follow these 4 simple tactics to build that lasting relationship with your millennial friends.

Be a part of their world. Well aware of their surroundings, millennials and are more likely to respond to marketing that relates to their real-world context. It’s a plus if your brand is associated with a cause that is likely to benefit the millennials’ society and environment. India’s Tata Tea through their Jaago Re (Wake Up!) campaign associated the product attribute of tea as an energizer, with awakening the youth against prevalent social evils. The campaign was a run-away success with 600,000+ individuals enrolling on the website.

Be conversational, and engaging. Millennials’ primary source of information is their personal network, and not advertising. The key for marketers is to break into their conversations, and win over brand influencers. P&G’s tremor program seeded viral messages in a network of 400,000+ mothers, that got them talking about P&G’s homecare brands.

Keep it short, simple. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandburg claims that only 11% millennials use email as a mode of communication, opting instead for texting or social networking. With reduced attention spans, and their multi-tasking nature, millennials will likely miss complex marketing messages. Make sure your key brand essence is clear, and can be summed up in shorter than a text message. You definitely want to simplify their decision journey, by being lucid and transparent in your marketing communication. MLC research has shown consumers who report simplicity during the purchase process are far more likely to repurchase and recommend.

Be functional, very functional. Turbulent economic times and lower savings prompt the millennials to max out any purchase. Products offerings that are functional, and offer maximum value for money are likely to be successful among millennials. No surprises then, that Apple sold 18.6 million iPhones – a product that can replace 19 others!  On  the discounts front, Meaghan Schaefer and Alex Gershman from Edo Interactive suggested in a recent MLC webinar that coupon usage and attitudes are increasing with the economic downturn, led by the “Millennial” and “Mom” consumer segments.

Members: In case you’re interested in knowing more about millennials, do listen to our event replay  -Millennials Ahead: Leading the Way Out of the Recession

Think about that: consumers, when budget-constrained and given the choice between buying less food and buying food that clashes with their values, chose the former. It’s evidence for our assertion that shared values are among the most important differentiation and loyalty drivers available to brands – aligning your brand with higher-order needs is a great strategy to insulate your products from budget cutbacks.

But what are those values and higher-order needs, and how do they play into household decision-making process? To answer that question, we’re hosting a webinar next week that will dive into the evolving American family and present highlights from brands that have done the best job of engaging the modern family in recent months.

MLC members, for more, please register for the webinar or check out our research into accelerating loyalty with the use of shared values.

To pick up the thread from my last post, there’s a strong parallel to the news industry and the role that a rare set of blogs are playing there.  I happen to think that Andrew Sullivan and his blog, The Dish, offer many lessons for brands that want to play curator for consumers.  Let’s unpack what makes the Dish a great curatorial blog, and then dive into how the Tory Burch brand reflects those lessons.

First off, the Dish has a defined point-of-view on the world, driven by a set of core principles.  This enables the Dish to weave a narrative through the news, which is ultimately more compelling than simply reporting the facts.

Second, the Dish creates its narrative across a limited set of key domains, but broadly within those domains.  For the Dish, that means geopolitics, social policy, global cultural phenomena and religion.  Ninety percent of curation happens within those categories.  But Sullivan and his support crew range broadly within those categories.

By defining a limited set of categories, the Dish team can credibly claim to stay abreast of the most important events and writings and content happening in those domains.  As a Dish reader, I have come to trust that the Dish will scan far and wide within those domains to find the best nuggets, bring them to the fore, and synthesize them with their principles-led worldview.  That saves me time in needing to try to read widely myself and figure out what the most interesting, accurate news is.

Third, the Dish helps me discover new nuggets that I would never have come across in my regular news consumption.  Beyond drawing from a wide range of news sources I don’t have time to read myself, the Dish runs series of Mental Health Breaks, which include a captivating video or viral hit or meme that, 75% of the time, I find to be really cool—it expands my point of view or provokes my thinking or just entertains me in a refreshing way.  The Dish’s “View from Your Window” series plays a similar function.

Fourth, the Dish gives me a sense of belonging to an exclusive community with a shared point-of-view.  It does some really brilliant things here to promote that sense of club-iness.  For example, last holiday season, the Dish made available for purchase t-shirts with four different designs.  The designs included obscure references to the Dish that only other readers of the Dish would recognize and appreciate.  It creates a great sense of insider community when I wear my t-shirt, and some random person strikes up a conversation with me because they are an avid Dish reader too.

How does the Tory Burch brand reflect these lessons?  We’ll take the four lessons in order.

First, if you spend 10 minutes browsing the Tory Burch web site, Facebook page, Twitter feed and blog, you’ll quickly appreciate that the brand has a defined point-of-view on the world. It’s a sort of fun, laid-back angle, but with a sense of flare and class.  If you’re trying to define a point-of-view for your brand, we believe shared values work well here (much more on shared values here and in greater depth for MLC members here).

Second, like the Dish, Tory Burch curates within a limited set of domains.  The domains include fashion, of course, but also travel, food and entertainment.  Moreover, within those domains, you’ll quickly see that Tory Burch isn’t simply producing content; rather, it curates experiences.  As a Burch follower, you’d more often read about tips for traveling in Milan or niche books to read than you would tips for putting together the right accessories with your Tory Burch apparel.  That’s a critical point.  To be a trusted curator, brands have to extend beyond the commercial interests in their category to curate something broader.  I believe leading curatorial brands will focus on curating experiences for consumers across their own and adjacent categories, just as Tory Burch has done.  Take a scroll through the Inspirations , Entertains or City Guides section of the blog to see what I mean.

The other thing Tory Burch does here is partner with other curators, who bring expertise and credibility, especially in categories where Burch might not be as deep.  For example, the Tory Burch blog includes guest posts from carefully chosen chefs, travel writers, and creative directors.  Again, that helps reinforce the sense of trust that consumers have that the brand will be curating the most important experiences, not just plugging products.

Third, Tory Burch curates strongly for discovery.  So, within those few domains, it ranges broadly to introduce its followers to ideas or experiences that they would not otherwise have come across.  These include interior design motifs, books, niche movies, underappreciated places to visit, and so on.  Much of this discovery curation is reinforced or augmented via the Tory Burch Twitter feed .

Finally, Tory Burch uses its blog, Facebook and Twitter presence to give a strong sense of the community of other Burch followers out there.  There’s a bit of a clubby feel to it, just like you see with the Dish.

Of course, brands aren’t the only entities that can play curator for consumers.  Celebrities and other tastemakers are filling the curatorial void pretty effectively in some categories, as well.  It’s for bold brand managers to seize the opportunity to make theirs a curatorial brand.  Our hat is off to the marketing team at Tory Burch for helping to light the way.

But the major impediment to getting there is choosing which messages to push out. “Green” has come to encompass a wide array of eco-friendly beliefs and values, from cost-concerned consumers worried about energy efficiency, to values-oriented consumers worried about the sustainability of supply chains, to health-oriented consumers concerned about the risks of chemicals in products. Picking the right green dimension can go a long way in striking a profitable chord with your customers.

Timberland, an apparel company famous for its rugged footwear, developed a process to help weed out irrelevant green messages and hone in on exactly the ones consumers will respond to. Faced with a growing demand for green products and messages, Timberland’s various business units developed a dizzying array of green communications initiatives, from a partnership with solar installations to carbon-neutral retail stores to employee incentives for sustainable activities. All great efforts, but they confused an already-overloaded consumer, who wondered: what, exactly, did Timberland stand for?

To simplify the sustainability communications mix, Timberland applied six filters to its existing efforts:

Tangibility. Can the message be linked directly to the purchase decision?

Mainstream relevance. Can the selected areas be easily explained to the target consumer?

Product range applicability. Are the areas applicable across our range of products?

Measurability. Are the processes for measurement and data collection of our green efforts easy to explain?

Transparency. Can our communications efforts provide a fair picture of the green initiative?

Distinctness. Are the selected messages and efforts substantially different from each other?

Applying these filters across the range of their existing efforts, Timberland chose a few that fit well, leading to significant lifts in the effectiveness of green marketing initiatives.

MLC members, for more, see the full case, or check out our study on Scaling Green.