Brands timeline online. Is internet another media? That seems to be driving advertising agencies crazy all over the world. But the answer is NO. The online world is a new reality in everybody’s life. It’s another world, but not in the sense that it’s different, which it is. It’s another place where people live another part of their life. Online we go to the bank, to the doctor, we go shopping. We watch concerts, movies, art. We visit friends and have relations with them... and on, and on. The online world offers sex, drugs, rock & roll... and all things in between.

1. Brands and www (what, when, where)
Image by http://gabrielaherman.com/bloggers Lorenzo Bennassar

2. Brands and people online.
Is internet another media? That’s what’s driving advertising agencies crazy
all over the world.
But the answer is NO.
The online world is a new reality in everybody’s life. It’s another world, but
not in the sense that it’s different, which it is. It’s another place where people
do another life. In the net we go to the bank, to the doctor, shopping. We
watch concerts, movies, art. We visit friends and have relations with them...
and on, and on. The online world offers sex, drugs, rock & roll... and all
things in between.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

3. Brands and people online.
And on top of this, it offers the possibility to behave differently.
The ones that we trust online are not necessarily the ones we trust or trusted
in the fisical world. The ones that we had to put with, we don´t necessarily
have to accept them anymore. If you want to watch a movie in the theater or
TV, either you pay or you accept endless commercial breaks. Online you can
do so where, when and how you want for free (sure, it might not be legal but
who cares)... And on and on, we all know the possibilities so far by now.
The net has clearly established its rules (don´t lie, don´t interrupt, don´t
shout...) and it’s been demonstrated that either you follow them or you are not
part of it.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

4. Lorenzo Bennassar

5. 76% of consumers trust more
other consumers than brands.
Somewhere, somehow, people
have started trusting other people
before brands.
Lorenzo Bennassar

6. Brands and people online.
If brands and advertising agencies keep doing things the exact same way they’ve
been done so far, it’s most likely it won’t work in a world that has changed so
much.
Of course convencional advertising still works. And it works wonders in the
physical world. How wouln’t it if it’s been improved for the last 40/50 years. But
that new world where so many behaviours are so different respond to new ways
to do things. And we should know it by now.
Until now we only had a newspaper page, a billboard or if lucky a 45 seconds tv
commercial to establish that relation. It was hard enough and we’ve done quite
well considering the media. Many brands even enriched that relation through
other channels like packaging, store design, sponsoring... and they got their
money back with high interest.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

7. Internet and the brands timeline.
So what about the brand’s timeline? What about the need to reach certain people
on a certain time to get a certain message trough?
The bad news is people don’t care about it. They can still do what they want,
when they want and where they want it without the brands getting in between.
The good news is brands have the best ways available in history to
establish relations with people.
Now (and it’s been a few years already) we suddenly have a new place where to
enrich our relation with people. Not a new media, but a new world with
possibilities we can´t even imagine yet, where people spend so much time doing
almost everything they use to do in the physical world.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

8. The key is to attrack people
and offer them something to do...
There’s no need to control the
conversation to benefit from
their interest.
Henry Jenkins. Co-Diretor of the “MIT Comparative Media Studies program”

9. Brands and the new possibilities.
Thanks to technology brands can reach people’s hands in a device we carry
with us all day and that wakes us up every morning (mobile and
smartphones).
Thanks to technology brands can talk to us, right in the buying decision
moment, when its only the product and us together. And now the brand in
between (barcode networks).
Thanks to technology brands can be part of the conversation when and where
we share our most precious moments with the loved ones (social media
networks. And of course we’re not talking about Facebook banners).
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

10. The real voyage of discovery
consists not in seeking
new landscapes but
in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

11. Brands and the new possibilities.
Thanks to technology brands have so many new ways to reach people’s
hearts. Because thanks to technology a brand can demonstrate in so many
new ways it cares about what we think, about what we want, about how and
where we want it. And when a brand does so we open a little spot for them in
our hearts. That’s where real brands live. That’s where a logo becomes a
brand.
Sure it requires a certain amount of commitment, but after all, didn’t good
relations depend on commitment already?
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

12. Have you ever seen a
Microsoft Windows sticker
in the back of a car?
Lorenzo Bennassar

13. Brands and people.
Relations. That’s what it’s all about. In fact, that’s what it’s always been
about.
And the other good news is that, although many behaviours might have
changed in that new world, the hearts of the people are still the same.
Because the people are still the same.
There’s a new environment with new rules but where the actors remain the
same.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

14. “Communities have always
existed. It’s all about thinking
how to help people do
the things they want to do.”
Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook founder / CEO.

15. Brands and people.
People who want to relate with others. People who want to laugh, love, smile,
and even cry. People who want to feel proud and confortable. People who
want to feel loved. And that’s where relations live.
That’s where brand can become part of the conversation.
Because people love brands who love people.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

16. New realtions. New rules.
But what about the brand’s timeline again?
Well, the bad news is people have set the rules in this new world. Rules that
many times make more sense than the ones in the physical world if you ask
me. But if brands follow those rules the will get their money back. With greater
interests.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

17. New realtions. New rules.
Rule number 1: Let’s become friends first, and then I’ll let you in my heart. Once
your in you’ll even be allowed to make mistakes. Just be honest and don’t try to
fool me (makes sense, doesn’t it?).
That’s where, how and when the brand’s timeline will be accepted.
If you’re a champagne brand, I’ll expect you wish me happy christmas at the end
of the year, and I’ll be glad to see your message in the palm of my hand, no
matter what it is. If you’re a beer brand, I’ll have no problem watching your new
commercial right before entering the liquor store. And if it’s great I’ll even send it
to my friends with some nice words of recommendation.
The good news is, then, brands will know more about their friends they could ever
dream of.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

18. New realtions. New rules.
Rule number 2: Don’t try to buy me (if you had a date that gave you a tip after
the dinner you had prepared, it’s most likely you would never repeat that date
again).
And entertain me. Be relevant. Don ́t be repetitive. Be nice. Don’t shout.
Behave the way you would want people to behave with you. Don’t be
intrusive, unless I said you could send me messages. Not because the law
says so, but because that’s the way nice friends behave... And if you behave
that way and I don ́t know you, don’t worry, I’ll find you (probably before you
find me) and thousands of friends will help me to.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

19. New realtions. New rules.
That’s a nice relationship.
That’s the way people like to relate with other people.
And that’s the way people like their relationships with brands.
In the new world.
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

20. (i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar

21. Thank you
(i+d)
Lorenzo Bennassar