The art of letting go of brand control

Stuart Elliott in today's New York Times has an excellent article on the shifting of brand control from corporate brand managers to consumers. Some notable bits:

“Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brands and participate in their creation,” he said. “We need to learn to begin to let go” and embrace trends like commercials created by consumers and online communities built around favorite products.

The examples Mr. Lafley offered included an animated spot for Pringles snacks created by a teenager and put up on YouTube and a campaign for Pantene that encouraged women to cut their hair and donate the clippings to make wigs for cancer patients. “Most of the experiments don’t work,” Mr. Lafley said, “but we have to be out there, trying.”

One particularly good example cited was from Mastercard:

“We can’t manage what happens out there,” said Lawrence Flanagan, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at MasterCard Worldwide. “It has taken on a life of its own.”

When “you’re tapping into that consumer desire to have a piece of it,” he added, referring to a brand or product, “you have to take the good with the bad.” MasterCard, for instance, has tolerated and, arguably, benefited from the spate of profane or off-color parodies of the “Priceless” campaign.
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For example, Yahoo Music asked fans of the singer Shakira to contribute video clips of them performing her song “Hips Don’t Lie,” and the submissions were culled to produce a fans’ version of her music video.

“I call it participation marketing,” Ms. Dunaway said. “Allow them to help you shape the brand experience.

“Content is no longer something you push out. Content is an invitation to engage with your brand.”

I have to say, the Association of National Advertisers get together sounds like an interesting conference this week.

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