Today I pulled a gig together with homie Stefan Hyttfors, the founder of Wenderfalck. We were invited by Pfizer to shake things up and draw out some ideas on how to prepare for the future. Stefan painted the background and I mixed the colors. I think we did a good job?

Among other things I spoke about the importance of passion and providing people with some kind of value based on your knowledge. To paint that picture I told a story about – Gary Vaynerchuk the founder of WinelibraryTV. Then after the session Stefan tipped me about this video where Gary talks about personal branding at Web 2.0. What a speech!

My favorite qoute:

“Which tool should I use? All of them! Your user base, people that care about you – you need to connect to them – anyway you can, everywhere you can, as often as you can. That is essential!”

Now – enough with the text. Spend the next 15 minutes of your life learning why you should quit your job!

So, what are you waiting for?

Last week I was contacted by Superbrands. The company that releases a book with the same name. I was asked to write a post on their blog about Branding. I know I’ve got some followers interested in that subject so I’ve decided to post the same article here too.

Back in 2000 a flash based message containing the phrase ‘All your base are belong to us’ spread like wildfire through emails and internet forums. Back then most of you had probably not heard about viral marketing, web 2.0 and social networks. Facebook and Twitter were still 6 years away from being established and most brands didn’t bother to much about digital marketing.

About the same time Nike took their first stumbling steps towards a digital brand strategy. Back then Nike would probably not know that their global strategy would be a virally driven online content strategy but the first step taken with Nikefootball.com, that I personally took part in initiating, was a clear step in that direction.

Now, 9 years later when the internet, web 2.0 and social media are well established, Facebook has got +300 million members and Twitter is reckoned to be one of the most important conversation platforms when it comes people driven brand impact. I think we can all agree that the world has changed and so has brand strategies although most companies don’t really get it yet.

So, the title ‘All your brands are belong to us’ has a double meaning cause back then in 2000 when that wildfire started it also marked the day you lost control of your brand. Today that fire is burning faster than ever and there’s really nothing you can do to stop it except but getting used to being burned while fighting for your lives.

It’s time to move. In order for you to continue to build your brand value in the future you’ve gotta revamp your strategies and adapt them to the future of communication.

Here are 10 strategies you’ve got to adapt to the next couple of years if you’re planning for your brand to stay on top!

1. From Brand Promise to Brand Fulfillment

You might have set out to deliver services and products that create some sort of value for a large consumer base. All of your branding activities focus on telling your story. What makes your brand unique, what’s your unique, emotional and even archetype selling points. Shortly. What’s your brand promise?

Now in a world where all information is accessible on the fly. Consumers share experiences on comparison sites like Pricerunner, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, Personal blogs and Getsatisfaction. People even post sites about brands they like and dislike.

In this world there’s no more room for brand promises only brand fulfillment. Honesty comes first. Do what you say and you shall be the one.

2. From Offer to Interactivity

If you’re one of those brands that still spend tons of time drawing up strategies on how to approach the market with new offers, new products and services then you’ll see your brand fall within the next couple of years.

Instead, learn from brands like Starbucks, Dell and not the least Zappos. These brands have moved into the future of product development.

What Dell has done with Ideastorm.com and Starbucks with Mystarbucksidea.com has not only turned their brand around but also enabled them to deliver products and services they know their customers want. After all they’re the one that have suggested them. Zappos strategy in moving from a shoe store online to simply deliver better services, or ‘Power by Services’ as they say, has earned them an unmatched loyalty. Zappos CEO Tony Hseih has got more than 1.4 million followers on Twitter!

These brands understand they’re not owning a one way channel straight into the heart of consumers. Love goes both ways!

3. From Control to Transparency

About the same time that viral flash video was circling the web I also started a website called Kaminsky.com. It was sort of an early version of YouTube but it focused on movie trailers and advertising. However after only 8 month we had to close the site down cause we were being threatened to be sued by Brindfors, at the time one of Sweden’s leading advertising agencies. Why? Well, the reason was cause someone had uploaded a TV commercial Brindfors had created for Scandinavian Airlines. Can you imagine something like this happen today?

In another example Pepsi gets a beating on Twitter by @christinelu for posting an ad in German magazines.

When Pepsi pulls back their advertising immediately as a response to what @christinelu Tweets it’s a clear sight these large brands have understood the power of asynchron networks like Twitter where information spreads faster than ever before.

You simply cannot ignore conversations that regard your brand anymore. Dominos Pizza obviously has taken this into account when they’re speeding up the process of replying to a consumer called @interactiveamy on Twitter. Amy Korin who had some problems with her Pizza Delivery earlier this year got answered within 24 hours. A video apology from @Ramon_DeLeon quickly solved the situation.

So where does your brand stand in all this? You ready for transparency or still believe hiding information is the way to go? Do you know what people are saying about your brand?

4. From Stability to Adaption

Open Source and democratization of technology is turning the world upside down. The music and travel industry has already been hit bad. Traditional mobile companies like Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola are all getting beaten by Apple, Google and soon Microsoft. 3D printers is available today from $14.000. Within 5 years time you’ll be able to print LEGO in your home for the cost of a printed paper. If LEGO owns the 3D model or not remains to be seen.

When it comes to systems development we’re seing tons of new applications and webservices that are based on Open Source platforms. WordPress for bloggers, Joomla for communities, Magento for e-commerce and Drupal for overall site building are only a few examples. PHP and MySQL is driving change in a speed we’ve never seen before.

The brands of tomorrow will be all about adaption. So companies that turns change into status Q are the brands that will live. Brands that spend their time protecting existing products will be passed by smaller, more agile and more innovative brands. Brands that change will stand the test of times.

5. From Monopoly to Creative Execution

Nothing can be owned. The only competitive edge you’ll have in the future is creative execution. Consumers of tomorrow might try out relations because of monopoly. However, it’s a very risky position to take as we’ll be open to switch the second a new player comes along. And as I stated above – the democratization of technology will drive change, so staying ahead will be harder and harder. Instead focus on building fans through your creative execution. How do you package your products and services. How do you communicate. How do you entertain us. How do you stay fun to be with. How can you make our day better. Focus on the values that makes us talk about your brand – in a positive way.

6. From Brand Positioning to Perceived Brand Positioning

Following transparency is our perceived view of your brand. This means when we search for a brand, and that’s what +80% does before entering a relation with a brand, our point of view is primarily based on what other people say about your brand – not what you say.

Brian Solis social flower. Is your Brand out there yet?

You can spend as many millions you want on positioning your brand through traditional media. But if you don’t engage in conversations, provide us with distributed marketing, content and applications your brand will be positioned through the voices of millions of people online – and they’re not paid to position your brand the way you want. They position you any way they like.

So. Start question if you really ought to spend all that money on traditional media and instead think about moving it over to digital presence. Then we might do you right!

7. From Product Development to Fan Based Innovations

Threadless.com. They’re selling T-shirts online. All T-shirts are made by their visitors. Their selling like hell. Yamaha have already tried out fan based industrial design. As we learned above Dell and Starbucks asks their fans – What shall we do? And all of these brands do it in the open.

Reach out and deliver tools that let the fans you have create your future products and services. Believe me – you’ll be amazed how many people are prepared to help you.

8. From Structural Bindings to Trust

Bankers and Telco’s all talk about how to structurally bind clients to their products and services. What they’re saying is basically “Our product is so shitty so once we’ve sold it we’ve gotta glue people to it, otherwise they’ll leave”.

Future brands are built on relations, trust and loyalty. If you do bad you deserve bad. If you do good you’ll deserve good.

9. From Marketing to Entertainment

Tick tock tick tock tick tock. Can you sense it.

The pure thought of a time makes people stressed. Time is the most precious thing we have and yet brands are wasting it.

In a recent global study I was involved in we identified four factors that matters to guys and girls in the age-span 18-25. The study was performed in so called style cities – New York, Rio De Janeiro, Stockholm, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong etc.

Innovation, entertainment, interactivity and creativity. The two that stood out the most was entertainment and innovation. One kid said – “I’m bored so if I’m supposed to choose a brand I choose the one that entertains me and ad something to my life” A guy in Tokyo said – “If I’m supposed to show up with a pair of new sneakers to school I’d like them to be different than anyone else’s”

Your brand has to stay on it’s toes. If your into making cars you’re not only competing with other car manufactures, you’re competing with time to. If I am to interact with any kind of communication coming out from your company it better live up my day. If not I’ll go somewhere else!

10. From Customers to Followers

I’m not your customer. I’m temporarily following you. The second you show me disrespect I’ll follow someone else. Cause change is only a click away. In the pursuit for new customers Banks, Electricity Companies, Telcos, Car Dealers and many more have all made switching brand easy. A phone call and the Bank take care of the entire process.

However today we’re seeing this being moved over to digital. Head into Compricer and compare your bank, insurance company or Telco provider and you can change faster than your bank man says ‘Ho ho’.

In this world you have to start respecting your clients for what they are – temporary followers that will stay on as long as their relation to you is good. The second it turns bad they’ll leave without saying good byes – case we all hate good bye’s don’t we?

Your Future Brand Value then?

To sum this post up. What you’re looking at is a brand new world where information flows free. Whatever you do will become transparent. You’re loosing the competitive edge based on physical innovations and ideas, intelligence and innovation will prosper. Loyalty is no longer based on structural bindings and price. The consumer of tomorrow values sustainability, freedom of choice and humbleness.

What ever you do, you can expect a global competitor that can deliver their products and services from anywhere in the world. Personally I use a computer I bought from the states. My mobile was bought in Hong Kong. My software’s are all bought online from abroad. My backup service is located in the States. Hell, even my notebook was ordered from abroad.

Brands that can translate these changes in how people consume information are the winners. Brands that try to protect what they have, not opening up and milking every last penny out of that old cow of yours will be the losers.

If you don’t adapt – All your brands are belong to us!

Yesterday ReadWriteWeb reported on a new article skimmer interface over at New York Times. It’s a stunning new way to let you quick read the headlines of all the latest news from the Sunday Times. The simplicity of this thing is striking yet genius.

And as often before it turns out that content, usability and simplicity beats smart, strange and unique solutions online. Just have a look at Craiglists, the mother of simplicity.

Navigating on a website is merely a road to our goal ›› the content. By creating an interface that consist of a number of boxes that contain a small image, headline and an intro text, this new prototype makes it very easy for me to come back and browse the latest news in all categories. It doesn’t take me more than a couple of minutes until I’ve browsed the first page and another 16 sections.

The navigational experience is very close to my personal favorite RSS tool Netvibes. I bring all the feeds I want to read into my Netvibes account and then it doesn’t take me long to browse through the latest news online.

One of Johan Ronnestams Netvibes tabs.

The great benefits with these kind of solution is the way everything is equally weighed in terms of size, colors and content. The eye races over the screen and we’re not far from the offline morning paper behavior when we skimmer the newspaper before actually reading it. This was of course something that the Times wanted to replicate. Once they launch this simple interface as an iPhone widget then I’ll be the first to start using it. Until then I’ll continue to read my favorite Times sections through Netvibes, basically the same except for that Netvibes is actually better since you can read the entire article without leaving the interface.

What should you do? Judge for yourselves.

One of the worlds most awarded websites has been redesigned. And the way Absolut.com is heading doesn’t come as a surprise. The new site has been give an slick, well designed user and SEO friendly interface. Many parts of the site has been moved from a flash based interface to a classical CSS based interface. Everything is done with the touch of Absolut.

This is definitely a first switch from Flash based sites of many to come. I’ve personally been part of building lots of flash sites through the years. But the possibilities to create rich user and SEO friendly interfaces with CSS gives us no reason anymore to use Flash for entire sites.

Also the fact that marketing departments around the world have undoubtedly noticed that their visitors leave after seeing that first loader will lead to change.

All in all I like the new Absolut.com better than the old. But there’s a few things I would have done differently:

The flash intro
Get rid of it. It takes time to load. We’ve seen it before and it doesn’t ad anything. There must be something different you could do with it?

Products
Why do you still separate the product experience from the brand campaigns. Integrate this better. The shouldn’t be any need for me to visit both products and a campaign site anymore. Mash it up! Also, why can’t you let people rate, comment, trackback, tag etc. Afraid of getting bad publicity?

YouTube integration?
The site has taken a step from interactivity to passivity. Why aren’t there any videos? Absolut could easily create the worlds most visited YouTube channel that could be reflected on Absolut.com. I think the time is over for sites that look to draw all traffic to their own site. You’ve gotta distribute your content in all different channels in different ways. And Absolute should be ahead of their game here.

Where’s the conversation?
Ok, we’re aloud to comment on blog posts etc. But where’s the stuff that generate conversation. Google Friend Connect, Facebook Connect, social sharing, commenting, reviews, ratings, user generated drink recipes, ideas etc. 

The blog?
Jacob Nielsen once said “People spend most time on other sites”.

Why is the new blog some sort of innovated blog that actually works bad compared to established blog standards. I think we could have expected more from Absolut. And why not base it on WordPress? This way it would load faster, it would give you access to hundreds of thousands features created by the open source community. It would give you credibility too.

Innovation?
Last but not least. I definitely think that this new site is nice. But it doesn’t ad anything in my book. Absolute has taken a step 5 years back from an innovation stand point of view. This is an ordinary site with some flash content and beautifully designed pages. I sure hope we don’t end up seeing this site staying on as a launch platform for new flash based campaigns but instead see more true but user friendly innovations that reach the broader audience with the Absolute brand message still intact.

So, conclusion

Original conclusion
This new site cannot be a strategy coming from online savvy people cause the tactical execution is great. Someone has identified that Absolut.com as it worked before didn’t deliver on usability and SEO and therefor needed to be changed. The project must then have been controlled by people within Absolut’s organisation who doesn’t understand how to create the next generation web presence.

Alternative conclusion
I’m totally wrong and this is the first to come of many releases that will put Absolut.com on the map again. But then I also expect a switch to open source, mash ups, conversation, openness etc.

Saturday. Its early in the morning and its snowing outside. I remembered a business case that I thought I should share with you. But my brain seems filled with Slush Puppie and nothing seems to come out of my fingers the way I want it. So, here it comes straight up.

A. Read Getting Real

If you’re working on a web app. If you’re an entrepreneur, designer, programmer, executive, or marketer then you should read the book Getting Real. Its free.

Getting Real is the business, design, programming, and marketing philosophies of 37signals. These guys used the Getting Real process to launch their web-based applications (Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-da List), and Ruby on Rails, an open-source web application framework, in just two years with no funding, no debt, and only 7 people.

My favorite tip from the book is:

Ask people what they don’t want

Most software surveys and research questions are centered around what people want in a product. “What feature do you think is missing?” “If you could add just one thing, what would it be?” “What would make this product more useful for you?”

What about the other side of the coin? Why not ask people what they don’t want? “If you could remove one feature, what would it be?” “What don’t you use?” “What gets in your way the most?”

More isn’t the answer. Sometimes the biggest favor you can do for customers is to leave something out.

This book lines out how companies should work in 2010. It’s about staying agile, small, skipping all the stuff that represents real (charts, graphs, boxes, arrows, schematics, wireframes, etc.) and actually building the real thing. 

B. Learn how to make money of a book based on the Getting Real case.

This book also makes a wonderful case that FREE works. 37 Signals are giving away the book for free reading online. Then you can buy a PDF for 19$ or the Paperback for 25$.

The PDF has sold more than 30000 ‘copies’. Money that goes straight into the pocket of these guys. No distribution, no middle men, no costs. More than 570 000$ earned on a PDF. I definitely know some writers that would go bananas for that money.

C. Manage your projects online with Basecamp.

Last but not least. The project management application created by the same company “Basecamp” is a killer app. Anyone working with projects should look into this one. Its absolutely the best one you can find online. And compared to a lot of the older ones. The basic version that allows you to run 15 Active Projects with unlimited clients/users costs $24 a month.

Saturday. Got my sister’s kids over. After 20 books, 10 songs and probably 10 extra visits to the toilette (without result) before the little devils finally fell asleep there’s really no room for blogging. But while waiting for one of them to fall asleep I found this great visualization of innovation opportunities on Dion Hinchcliffe’s web 2.0 blog.

ReadWriteWeb reports on a new startup from Portugal called Tarpipe. Basically Tarpipe does for PR companies and social networking nerds what Yahoo Pipes does for Web 2.0 developers and feed junkies. 

Hmm what the heck does that mean?
Well, with Tarpipe you can ad all kinds of social networking accounts like Flickr, Jaiku, Twitter, Tumblr, Friendfeed, Photobucket etc. Once added you can then create workflows and this is the nice part. For example if you ad a Flickr image (like the image above) you can then create a workflow that takes the image you created and starts to process it around the social networks of yours.

Use case: automatically tag a screenshot using Evernote from Bruno Pedro on Vimeo.

Hmm, is this really something to write about?
Of course it is. Let’s say your company wanna create a social pressroom. Then put the developers of yours on the case. Let them get jiggy with the Tarpipe Open API. Hours later you’ll have your site based pressroom connected to the whole damn internet.

Hmm, is this really good?
For now yes. But once tools like this get easier to use, then we’ll have product shoots and press release swarming the web asap as they are updated on websites. For now people have to get their buts over to sites like this one and Yahoo pipes in order to get that spread on the road. Within the next 6 or 12 month we’ll definitely see integration of tools like this in the big content management systems. Not to mention the PR companies equiped with these laser sabres.

This morning I read this survey on ‘Trends and Best Practices in Adopting Web 2.0 in 2008’ made by Awareness, a US based research company. The report explores the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and the future of social media initiatives for Enterprises in 2008.

Of course it contains a bunch of interesting stuff (read more about that on RWW where I found it) but I’ll focus on one thing that I think is typical for companies today.

In the report I read that blogs are on top of the list when companies tell us what external-facing Web 2.0 technologies they plan to implement in 2008. Photo sharing, wikis and podcasts get the bottom score.

When it comes to Web 2.0 and social media, to me this is typical. Most companies today doesn’t have a digital strategy that is truly based on their business idea and plan. Instead they go with the flow. Your ordinary trade magazine lands in your mailbox. It reads BLOGS on the cover. You run! BLOGS, we gotta have blogs.

Now, you might say. Hell, you’re using a blog to promote yourself! -Yes I am. I’m not saying Blogs shouldn’t be in the survey, of course they should. But, most companies would do better to implement social sharing, user drive support sections, pressrooms with RSS feeds, photo sharing, twitter news feeds, video streams, podcasts etc. Blogs should be somewhere in the bottom. In order to keep a Blog interesting you have to do as I and a lot of other bloggers do, post something each day. Preferable something unique that ads value. Once you stop for a few days, your followers loose interest. Most organizations that I’ve met professionally aren’t ready for this kind of commitment. On top of that few has something valuable to write about every day. With the budgets they have a well produced monthly podcast would be far more valuable.

Get me right. I’m not criticizing the fact that companies bet money on Blogs. I merely think most companies hasn’t gotten a digital strategy in place but instead follow other companies. When it comes to marketing and communication you should be very clear on what different commitments lead to.

Last but not least. If a company would really understand the value of social media, put an effort behind the right things AND treat their communication budgets one instead of allocating 90% to offline media without blinking. Then we would really se some changes!

If you missed the linked to the survey. Here it is.

In a week or two I’ll post a series of tips for entrepenurs on how you can keep your costs low with the help of Web 2.0 services.

However, until then you should make sure to read a post over at ReadWriteWeb on the same subject. Great read.

Business Week posted a great article on the 10 commandments of webdesign.

The list is short but well thought thru.

1. Thou shalt not abuse Flash.
2. Thou shalt not hide content.
3. Thou shalt not clutter.
4. Thou shalt not overuse glassy reflections.
5. Thou shalt not name your Web 2.0 company with an unnecessary surplus or dearth of vowels.
6. Thou shalt worship at the altar of typography.
7. Thou shalt create immersive experiences.
8. Thou shalt be social.
9. Thou shalt embrace proven technologies.
10. Thou shalt make content king.

Got it trough CSS Mania. Go here to read the full article on Business Weeks website.

Some companies get it, some don’t but now at least it’s easier for you to do something about it.

Dell hosts this fantastic site called Ideastorm where they invite everyone to be involved in their products and services development. The site allows anyone of us to post ideas, then the community (including you) can have a say if an idea should be promoted or not. The management (yes, the real management) then evaluate the ideas from Ideastorm every month and on top of that even give feedback which ideas the might develop.

This qoute from last weeks evaluation meeting illustrates the power of the community:

“This has been a busy couple of weeks!  We had almost 250 ideas submitted and more than 225 new IdeaStorm users in the past two weeks.  It’s great to see Dave (davnmc) and Petzy again in StormRoom and badblood back on the site!  A special welcome to a few new IdeaStormers natakuc4, idangold and inkslug!”

So how can you get going with your company?

That’s where Kindling comes in.

Kindling is this new Web 2.0 service where every company (even yours) out there can do exactly what Dell is doing.

Straight from their own site: Kindling is a place where companies, organizations, and small groups can share and collaborate. Kindling cultivates ideas from the ground up and believes that everyone in a group has something valuable to say, from the interns to the CEO. 

So if you’re one of those people sitting on a management level thinking: Wow, this collaboration, social media, community, consumer involvement, interaction…thing seems fantastic, but it’s to much of a hassle to get going – get your but over to Kindling, request an Invitation and start now!

I pointed my browser towards Twingly when I landed on an Error 500: Internal server error page. Once there I was greeted by this beautiful error message.

It’s funny how a little bit of humor makes you wanna come back…even though the service actually didn’t work. This is something many of the old companies definitely can learn from.

ps. What the heck does “G” stand for? Google?