Firebrand: advertising as content
Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 7:48AM Posted by Hal Thomas in branding, marketing & promotion, web & interactive 
I've been saying for years that for brands, it's no longer enough to have the biggest ads in the most places running more frequently than anyone else. This point is illustrated by recent backlash on the web to Apple's new iPod Nano commercials.
Old School mentality was make it impossible for the consumer to ignore your message. New school mentality is make the consumer actually want to pay attention to your brand. See the previous post on this blog about Jack Links Beef Jerky.
Firebrand has huge implications for brands that develop "brandfans." Imagine the marketing implications (especially interactive) of targeting consumers who have chosen to give you an audience!
I'm going on record to say that this medium for branding messages is going to be huge. It may take a little time to catch on, but Firebrand will become a legitimate consideration for any serious advertising campaign. It will spawn many imitators just as we have seen with social networking applications like MySpace, Facebook, etc.
It's going to be interesting to watch Firebrand evolve and see which brands will be the first to best utilize this new medium. Pay attention brands. This is your opportunity to get on board before the bandwagon arrives.
Reader Comments (1)
Um, yeah. I was totally wrong about Firebrand. It now seems silly that I ever thought this would gain traction.