THE FUTURE OF BRAND

1
THE FUTURE
OF BRANDS
Five awarded and inspiring essays
by MEC’s class of 2013-14

3
THE FUTURE OF BRANDS
Five awarded essays on branding by MEC’s rising stars
What is a brand? How can it bring value to a business? How to build a great brand?
Working with our clients’ brands, these are the kind of questions we constantly ask.
How else can we meet the task of efficiently growing our clients’ businesses?
The following five essays on branding are all award-winning work by upcoming
MEC’ers. Two have passed the 2014 Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA)
Excellence Diploma with credit and two with distinction. Of the latter, one was also
awarded the honorary title ‘Outstanding Body of Work’. The Excellence Diploma is the
pinnacle of the IPA qualifications and of the total of 54 essays that passed, only five
passed with distinction.
The last essay in this collection took bronze in the 2014 Admap Prize, an international
industry award that encourages and rewards excellence in strategic thinking and
brand communications.

4
CONTENTS
PAGE 6
I Believe in the Future Brands Must be Superhuman
to Compete against Everything and Everyone in this
Marketing age, Truly Delivering the Extraordinary
We live in man’s fourth cultural phase, the Age of Marketing where everyone is
a marketer and everything communicates in marketing terms. In this world the
paradigm that brands should act human and be flawed, real and transparent
is outdated and untrustworthy. Instead, in order to succeed, brands must
impress consumers withtheir superpowers; their extraordinary storytelling,
performance and brand control.
by Emily Fairhead-Keen, Business Director Communications Planning,
MEC United Kingdom
IPA Excellence Diploma Dissertation, passed with Distinction and IPA Award
for Outstanding body of Work.
PAGE 28
I Believe that in the Future Brands will have to Earn
the Right to Communicate
What kind of communication can make people stop and pay attention? The
author argues that the answer is ‘epistemic advertising’ where a range of
very specific techniques will earn you the attention of an audience. Here is the
recipe to make your advertising stand out in today’s world of constant over-communication.
by Richard Bradford, Group Strategy Director, MEC United Kingdom
IPA Excellence Diploma Dissertation, passed with Distinction

5
PAGE 50
I Believe the Future Belongs to Brand-Driven
Businesses, not Business-Driven Brands
The author shows how the most successful brands are the brands that embrace
change and makes sacrifices in order to follow the consumer’s needs, not the
shareholder’s. With lots of examples and empirical data he argues that it is the
agile, brand-driven businesses that hold the keys to the future.
by Emil Bielski, Business Director MEC, United Kingdom
IPA Excellence Diploma Dissertation, passed with Credit
PAGE 66
I Believe that the Future of Brands Lies in making
Loving Fun
The brand loyalty debate is outdated. A consumer never ‘marries’ a brand, but
goes on multiple first dates with multiple brands, so brands must continue to
woo consumers, existing as well as potential. James Boardman offers a new
perspective on the costumer purchase journey and describes the what and the
why behind the MEC Momentum tool.
by James Boardman, Client Communications Director, MEC Australia
IPA Excellence Diploma Dissertation, passed with Distinction
PAGE 80
Statics & Flows: The Creation of Brand Fame in the
Digital Age
Sudden fame is easy to come by in the digital age and so it is tempting for
brands to pursue this. But, the author argues, to build a brand effectively, the
consumer’s every encounter with the brand, with its products as well as the
content it creates, must be aligned to the achieve on-going, sustained fame.
by Pete Buckley, Head of Strategy, MEC United Kingdom
Admap Prize Bronze winner

6
I BELIEVE THE FUTURE OF BRANDS MUST BE
SUPERHUMAN, TO COMPETE AGAINST EVERYTHING
AND EVERYONE IN THIS MARKETING AGE, TRULY
DELIVERING THE EXTRAORDINARY.
Figure 1
by Emily Fairhead-Keen

The Age of Marketing
‘Men want say rain. They begin by performing a rain dance, which often does not work. This is the Age of Magic. Then,
baulked of success, they do the next best thing and fall to their knees and pray. This is the Age of Religion. When prayers do
not work, they set about investigating the precise causes of the natural world, and on the basis of their new understanding
attempt to alter things for the better. This is the Age of Science’.
I believe that civilisation has entered a fourth cultural phase, the ‘Age of Marketing’. By this I mean whereas once marketing
was a skill reserved for professionals, and stages and certain signals and semiotics, reserved for brands, now everyone is a
marketer and everything communicates verbally and visually in marketing terms on the same stages as brands.
This has occurred because people are more aware of how they are seen by others as a consequence of technology beaming
identities around the globe to millions. This has effectively given rise to the foundation of a new understanding and hyper
conscious state of self-awareness. Becoming a marketer in an effort to win in this world is the fourth cultural phase
equivalent of the rain dance.
I shall explore in more detail:
1.Why this has come about
2.What people have become
3.What culture has become
Then ultimately what this all means for brands.
1. Why this has come about
New cultural phases appear to coincide with humanity’s increase in self-awareness and a new type of consciousness of
both their nature and limitations. We saw this with the early civilisations of the Historic Age and of the Axial Age where
people became more ‘conscious of their nature, their situation and their limitations with unprecedented clarity’ and just as
civilisation ‘began to discover quite a different basis on which to look at the world,’ following the Middle Ages, people are now
looking at the world and themselves quite a lot more and in quite a different way.
Technology is hosting, and arguably, creating a hyperconscious state of self. Once confined to the living room, on the
bookshelf was where people were judged by how interesting they were, where they’d travelled, what they’d read. Now the
living room is on ‘screen’ to millions of people who can see and judge what they stand for, what they think about the world.
The UK takes 35m selfies a month, ‘creating an image of you for the world.’
2. What people have become
In the same way people looked to magic, prayed for rain, looked to God for answers or used science to try and understand
the world they lived in, people have become marketers to understand how the modern world works and indeed win in it. They
now tailor their identities in a way they never could, changing themselves with a filter, baking fiction into their timelines. On
Twitter they sell ‘current’, ‘witty’ and ‘smart’. On Facebook they hang their lives in photographs and in taglines. On LinkedIn
they become the person everyone wants to employ. They create brand names, logos, photos, language, all giving off their
own social semiotic code. They hire third parties to reputation manage and mini teams of public relations entrepreneurs to
brand their identities online.
As marketers, people are interested in how to market better and have become marketing experts. Marketing books make
it on to the best seller lists and they watch programmes about it: The Gruen Transfer, a television programme which airs in
Australia is about marketing, with segments entitled ‘How do you sell?’ and ‘The Pitch’. It sees high viewing figures week in
week out and its debut drew in 1.3 million, the highest for an entertainment programme in the ABC’s history.
Marketing is now a professional skill amongst non-marketing professionals. As we’ve seen with what Chris Anderson terms
the ‘Maker generation’,12 there is a whole generation of entrepreneurial talent who market to make a living with their readily
accessible stories and products for all to see online. He argues that ‘the most successful makers are also the most the
successful marketers’.13
As marketing expert, these Marketing Age consumers get the game brand play and are willing participants in the fiction. As
Ogilvy quite rightly says ‘the consumer is not a moron. She is your wife. Don’t insult her intelligence’.14
Whilst Guy Debord in ‘Society of the Spectacle ’argues‘ all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles.
Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation’.15 Baudrillard too suggests that the world we live in
has been replaced by a copy world. I believe people are more switched on than ever and able to distinguish clearly between
what is real and not, in a world where the true rubs shoulders with the false:
7

‘The websites, the blogs, the search engines and encyclopedias, the analysts of urban legends and the debunkers of the
analysts’.16 Evidence of this sophistication is in the appreciation of complex concepts of reality in mainstream box office hits:
The Truman Show, Lynch’s Inland Empire, the Matrix, and Synecdoche New York.17 18
I believe that whilst people are sophisticated and get the game, they are also willing participants in it, accepting the copy
world; comfortable with this permeable fourth wall, willing to adopt Kayfabe, to suspend reality. In the same way people get
reality TV isn’t real but still enjoy the entertainment, the same is true in marketing.
Living in a marketing society,19 in this Marketing Age, we see the duality of marketing man:20 the Marketing Age consumer
willingly suspends reality, plays the game brands play, while at the same time being sophisticated in his critique of them.
Marketing Age Man analyses the Superbowl ads at length across the world.21 Of the 20.9 million Super Bowl related tweets
sent during the game in February 2013, 30% were about the ads.22
He joins the critique of the annual UK Christmas campaigns in real press not just industry. From the Daily Telegraph to the
Daily Mail, he interrogates the art direction, judges the aesthetics, dissects the stories and analyses the strategies of brands.
He has strong appetite to do so: interest in ‘Christmas advertising’ as a search term rising since 2010:
8
Figure 2
Figure 3

3. What culture has become
Whereas once the marketing world borrowed from culture, now culture is borrowing from brand. Everything now copies how
brands communicate with a marketing filter and usurps the physical and virtual spaces where they do so. We are effectively
seeing the commercial colonisation of culture in reverse.
Culture speaks to people now in marketing terms. Journalists bounce around marketing patter, describe naming your child
as ’branding’ it, in the weekend papers. Marketing terms have become a generation’s diction, not just reserved for marketing
specialists. Culture plays with ‘long tail’, ‘content is king’, in articles. ‘Specialised jargons and developed and added to,
altered and refined to the point of mutual’ comprehensibility.
Culture presents to people visually, with marketing signals. Editing tools once the sacred possession of the production houses,
now come as standard on phones. People now rarely seeing images which haven’t been cut, edited and a treatment applied.
Politicians are chief marketers. No one more so than Obama, his marketing victories were well documented in real press,
not just trade. Time Magazine tells the world that 2008 was all about social media’s role, and that 2012 was down to use of
data in media targeting. Politicians aren’t simply asking people to vote anymore, but asking people to share and indulge in
their social currency in the same way Oreos does.
Even the physical spaces brands have traditionally occupied are under threat from non-traditional brand marketing, from
Jesus to John William Waterhouse, all jumping up on the physical and virtual stages brands have traditionally performed on.
From Mormonism:
9
Figure 4
To Jesus:
Figure 5

To John William Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott. 30
Figure 6
All now occupying the same spaces we sell dog food in this Marketing Age.
This new Marketing Age has presented brands with two critical challenges
Firstly, brands no longer compete for the precious real estate of the consumers’31 mind against other brands in category or
indeed cross category, but with everything (and one). Everything and everyone is communicating as marketers, in the ‘swim
lanes’32 and on the same stages. Unless brands find a way to cut through, they risk becoming invisible.
Secondly, everyone has become a marketing expert, interested in it, and analyst of it. We are now living in the midst of an ‘I
Can Do That Too’ generation of marketers. Everyone got better at the brand game, the bar was raised and expectations grew.
Critiquing now comes from the streets not just from the boardroom.
Whilst everything and everyone is trying to be more like brands, one solution the industry has offered is for brands to be
more like people.
Because people and brands are on the same stages, in the same swim lanes,33 one industry mode prevails around a central
thought: Brands must be more human34, in order to connect with consumers and build trust’. Thinking centres on getting closer
to people in this ‘Human Era’,35 brands relinquishing control, brands being more ‘flawsome’36, real37 and transparent.38
Brands beg for love and attention: ‘like me’, ‘engage with me’, ‘please play with me’, effectively trying to form synchronised
swimming feats with the consumer as buddies and best friends and getting ‘close enough for contact to happen, like
Michelangelo’s God assuming the form of a man to better touch Adam’s extended finger’.39
This ‘human’ Clark Kent trend has permeated brand communication and we see a kinder, gentler, more sensitive ad product
with an inbuilt sense of vulnerability. ’Boy next door’ rather than ‘Super’ in tone. For example, NatWest’s ‘Helpful Banking’
executions40 and the Milk Tray Man who was effectively emasculated when he became a more ‘human’ ‘lighter in love’
version, or what Julie Burchill terms ‘castration with cuddles’.41 Looking a little closer at this human doctrine of thinking:
10

11
The Fourth Cultural Phase:
Everything and everyone
communicating as marketers
Communicates to
Brand
Figure 7
People Brand People
Mimic Brand
Same worlds, same stages
One Solution from the industry:
The Clark Kent Human belief system
For brands to become more like and
closer to people
Mimic people
Mimic brand
Real
We see ‘real people’ in ads, we see ‘real people’ talking from behind the ads, we get a sense these brands aren’t trying
necessarily to evoke emotion in the consumer, but to show that they have feelings. We even see it with packaging, ‘bananas
are labelled ‘eat me’… salad packs invite the buyer to ‘wash me thoroughly’.42
Flawed
We see a trend for admitting imperfection and being ‘flawsome’.43 For example TD Bank admits ‘Of course, we want
everything to be perfect. But we’re only human.44 So if there’s ever an issue, we’ll keep working until we get it right. That’s
what it means to bank human.’
Transparent45
We see brands desperately trying to show people their honest nature. From asking for people’s opinions to showing the
product journey and just how committed to sustainable growth they are. For example, Starbucks gives its customers their
say on products found instore46 and McDonalds’ has its ongoing battle to try and prove it isn’t evil, and that it does put more
back in the world than it takes.
Relinquishing control
In being transparent we often see brands explicitly relinquishing their power, coming down to meet people on people’s terms:
For example the Coop’s latest ‘Have Your Say’ campaign:
To Barclays’ ‘Your Bank. We’re listening’ campaign:
Figure 8
Figure 9

I believe the solution lies in a fundamental shift away from current thinking
‘Go pricke thy face, and over-red thy feare, Thou Lilly-liver’d Boy’.47
Whilst this doctrine can work for some brands and some categories, for example new brands like Jack Wills and Patagonia
who build new brand myths by using transparency as a way to enhance their story, and where brands actually have sexy
underwear worth seeing underneath, it isn’t the ultimate solution.
Instead, I believe the solution to the challenges brands face; competing with everything (and everyone) and in the face of
sophisticated Marketing Age critique, is a shift away from this rather lily livered behaviour.
The solution lies in a superhuman belief system
I believe brands have got to be truly extraordinary and superhuman to beat Jesus and mormonism, the Lady of Shallot an
Joe Bloggs in his bedroom and be truly Super to cut through and impress these Marketing Age consumers. By ‘Superhuman’
I mean one who can deliver the extraordinary through:
• Extraordinary Fiction: Has a compelling fantastical mythical story and is opaque and mysterious
• Extraordinary Performance: Is from another world and brings the spectacular fromthis world to earth
• Extraordinary Control: Is in fierce control, living on his terms, excercising military jurisdiction
12
Superhuman worlds,
superhuman stages
Superhuman
Fiction
Spectacular Perfomance
Military Jurisdiction
The Fourth Cultural Phase:
Everything and everyone
communicating as marketers
Communicates to
Human
Real
This World
Relinquishing Control
Brand
1
2
3
Mimic Brand
Mimic people
Mimic brand
Extraordinary
Fiction
Extraordinary
Performance
Extraordinary
Control
My Solution:
The Superhuman belief system
For brands to be superhuman,
delivering extraordinary
One Solution from the industry:
The Clark Kent Human belief system
For brands to become more like and
closer to people
Impressing Marketing Age consumers
from a transcendental spot
People Brand
Brand
People
People
Figure 10
Figure 11
I recommend three shifts away from current human thinking. I will explain why Superhuman is right, exploring the audience,
brand, cultural and business reasons, whilst highlighting some dangers in the current human doctrine.

1. The first shift: From real to fiction
A deep cultural need for fiction
‘Despite my childhood wishes to the contrary, I live in the real world. It’s no Metropolis. The skyline is free from flying men or
flashes of inexplicable light… they were missing from the real world but there must have been a parallel world, a possible future.’
A desire for fiction, stories, fictional heroes a ‘social need for extraordinary action’ and indeed myth is deep within
humanity. People have always put superhuman fictional superhumans on pedestals, be it Gods, Goddesses or subsequently
Superheroes as immortals. Humanity looks for ‘taboos’, ways of ‘insulating certain people from harmful social contact’,
for fictional ’beings’ with ‘mystical charges … operating like an electrical current’. They have a history as old as the
establishment of human socialisation.
Theories around why are rich and well documented; they range from religious studies to anthropology to literary criticism.
For example, Freud and Jung argued we look to stories to help us understand the world and give it meaning, Joseph
Campbell argued that ‘the images of myth are reflections of the spiritual potentialities in every one of us. Through
contemplating these, we evoked their powers in our own lives’. I believe that myths ‘give order and narrative structure to the
way humans contemplate the world around them’, they are both escapist and explanatory solutions to the world around us.
Whilst this is not a paper about the theory of fiction, myth and fictional powers, it is one which rests on the importance of
them. As Karen Armstrong in A Short History of Myth argues, whilst we might ‘be more sophisticated in material ways, we
have not advanced spiritually beyond the Axial Age’.58 People have always wanted superpowers which can do things mortals
can’t, we buy into their stories and still do.
A cultural need for escapist fiction in complex times
‘The modern man emerged from giant ignorance like a butterfly from its cocoon….Where there was darkness, now there is
light, but also where light was there now is darkness’.59
Escapist fantasy thrives in times of social complexity: Superman was born60 in the midst of the Great Depression, on
the cusp of WW2.61 In the 19th Century people looked to fairies and Gothic revival as an escapist solution to the rapid
industrialisation which had left them confused.62 We are now seeing the revival of the superhero in popular culture.63
A ‘Golden Age of the Superhero’,64 has dawned, from comic books to blockbuster movie extravaganzas. Interest in
‘superheroes’ has risen exponentially:
People want fictional escapism in this overly transparent, information heavy world, ‘traumatised by war footage and disaster
clips’,65 where the internet has revealed everything, and where the daily grind of Facebook presents us with darkness: From
open mourning, to calories consumed at dinner on someone’s latest diet; all pouring out into the newsfeed. People don’t
want more emotional baggage from a brand.
We are living in a ‘world of information glut and gluttony’.66 500 billion images were captured in 2010; people now encounter
‘zettabytes’ and ‘yottabytes’.67 Brands’ information heavy transparency can add to this information overload and be a burden,
resorting in what Corey Mull terms ‘consumer cognitive overload (a condition where consumers have absorbed so much
information that they’re incapable of mentally sorting it all and making an optimal decision)’.68
Whereas John Grant argues that in the absence of the formal and traditional societal structures, brands are simple ideas
we look to help us navigate a complex world,69, 70 I believe that the Marketing Age consumer wants brands to provide simple
escapist fiction in these complex times.
13
Figure 12

Real can feel ‘faux real’ to a Marketing Age sophisticate
I believe that brands are not real and the Marketing Age consumer gets this. What we see with current human doctrine
is ‘reification’,71 that is the application of concreteness to an abstract idea. Instead I believe a brand is authentic in its
abstraction, not in being a concrete thing. Brands are slippery,72 weird, and abstract73 and it is in the abstract and indeed
the ambiguous that people find them attractive, in the ‘mystery box, a container of infinite possibilities [which] continues to
fascinate because it remains unopened’.74
In trying to be real, admitting their flaws, it can feel false because it is in perfection that they are authentic. Quite literally
a brand’s history lies in the stamp of approval, a promise of better.75 On a deeper level, they’ve always offered utopian
possibilities:76 More sex (Lynx), the acceptance of any body shape (Dove), happiness (Coke). They’ve always promised
superhuman powers in the product itself: Nike trainers for superhuman speed, Pantene for the locks of Wonder Woman. A
brand isn’t real but feeds upon it: ‘Publicity is effective precisely because it feeds upon the real… Publicity begins by working
on a natural appetite for pleasure’.77
Marketing Age consumers want fictional brand heroes and worlds. Ones who come from the sky and occupy transcendental
spots: The Marlboro Man,78 the Milk Tray Man and even Hello Kitty, their ‘complex simplicity’79 fascinates people. They buy
into ‘Mytho-Symbollic worlds’80 that brands create, like McDonalds, ‘a wondrous, magical place, where everyone is welcome,
safe, happy… It does not matter that sometimes when we go there it feels more like a cafeteria food fight’.81
A business case for fiction
People don’t pay for the real, they pay for the fiction and this is one of the ways a brand can implement a price premium.82
Take Polaine bread, an almost criminally overpriced semi stale loaf which is exhibited in selected and exclusive retailers like
Selfridges, has people paying up to ten times the amount versus a standard loaf because it bakes a fictional mystery in with
its closely guarded ‘recipe from 1932’.83
Take Field Notes stationery, able to charge up to ten times that of a standard Ryman’s notebook, because it bakes fiction into
its brand, or Moleskin, ‘the pad which the novelists chose’, but really a replica of the 19th Century Parisian writers’ choice,
again charging astronomical price premiums.
We see this repeatedly with blind taste testing where own label brands repeatedly beat named brands and where84
consumers buy into and pay for the myth but often prefer the base product when myth isn’t in the mix. For example Aldi’s
own label gin, recently won out against Hendricks and Bombay Sapphire.85
As Trout argues, the consumer ‘tastes what [they] expect to taste’86 and indeed they taste the fiction and are willing to pay
for it.82
2. The second shift: From this world to spectacular performance
An appetite for extraordinary performance in culture
Given the ‘pervasive impact of entertainment in our economy today,’87 and the ‘number of entertainment options [which have]
exploded to encompass many new experiences,’88 culture is delivering unforgettable performances in an effort to woo more
demanding audiences:
In theatre, sensually intense experiences such as Fuerza Bruta or the Punchdrunk theatre company wow audiences. In
the fashion world, designers compete to stage the best show, not just the best collection: Chanel takes its shows to the
extreme,89 Prada too, its shows claim to be a ‘celebration of the transformative theatre of fashion and the performative power
of clothing’.90 In music, visual spectacular is now as important as the audio, with phenomenal superhumanly performances
coming from the Gorillaz to Lady Gaga. In film, movie makers find innovative ways of using surround sound and hyper framed
realities. In cinema, Secret Cinema provides immersive intoxicating experiences. The Sydney Fireworks, the Olympics, each
time more spectacular.
14
Figure 13

15
An appetite for spectacular performance in advertising
We see this with the Superbowl where more than two thirds of viewers pay attention to the eventised commercials and
50% tunes in just for them.91 We see this with the UK Christmas annual advertising fest. On TGI people professing to love
the cinema ads 92 and we see spectacular creative performance in Cadbury’s ‘Gorilla’ and the Red Bull famous ‘Jump’
accumulating views years after the event. See figure 14:
Figure 14
People love lavish advertising display so much they buy into the commercial merchandise from the adverts themselves.
From baby (Comparethemeerkat) Meerkats, to Natwest pigs and John Lewis alarm clocks to songs from ads making to the
number one chart position.93
The all Lego adbreak on 9th February on ITV to promote the Lego Movie is a great example of successful advertising
performance. 94 Tweets went through the roof:95
Figure 15
So did Google Search volumes on the Sunday it went live:
Figure 16

And there was a peak in the Lego break performance as people tuned in to watch the ad: 97
People apply the same expectations they have in theatre and the arts, to advertising and enjoy spectacular advertising
performance.
A business case for spectacular advertising product
Whilst we must be careful, in the absence of regression modelling, to apply a direct correlation to the movie’s phenomenal
Box Office success 98 from the Lego adbreak, we can assume the exponential increase in awareness as a result of the ad, did
in part contribute in some way to converting awareness to sales.
As we have seen with the Cadbury Gorilla, spectacular advertising product can ‘generate £5.22 million incremental sales,
deliver a 5% margin improvement, bring to life a more profitable model, re-energise the company, delight the investment
community and maybe even contribute to shareholder value’.99 Arguably it can also reap the benefits long after the ad has
aired, driving long tail awareness and cost efficiency.
We also know from past research papers that highly creative advertising can drive market share and profitability:
‘The link between creativity and effectiveness’, published in 2011 concluded that creatively-awarded campaigns are more
efficient than non-awarded ones in terms of the level of market share growth they drive.100 Whilst ‘Advertising’s greatest
hits: profitability and brand value’ by Karl Weaver and Paul Dyson concluded that after market size, creative execution is the
second most important factor in determining advertising profitability. They calculated a profit multiplier of ten.101
3.The third shift: Away from relinquishing control to exerting military jurisdiction
Successful brands are ruled with an iron fist
In order to deliver extraordinary fiction and performance, brands need to be ruled with military jurisdiction.
The world’s most valuable brands adhere to strict processes, guidelines, rules and procedures in order to ensure perfection
goes out the door every time. For example Coca Cola is notorious for its books on process, what can be done with its brands
and what can’t, from a strict recruitment process, to how global creative is unpacked locally.
Sometimes they are ruled by one iron fist. For example, Apple, with its dictator style puppeteers from Jobs to Cook.102 This is
often true for luxury brands, where frequently the person is the brand. For example Karl Lagerfeld is Chanel, ruling the brand
like a cartoon superhero, ‘collar is high… hair powdered… glasses dark... fingerless gloves’,103 and as we saw with Angela
Ahrendts at Burberry,104 with the right superhero director in the director’s chair, the control of the individual can have enormous
benefits to the brand.
16
Figure 18
Figure 17

Strict control enables Red Bull to deliver extraordinary fiction and performance by being tightly controlled in the right places,
at the centre its brand plot. It allows consumers closer to the events but controls the big performances, e.g. the space jump.
Strong brands like Red Bull are expert at wearing a mask of easy going but are really ruled with an iron fist, also true of Lynx,
which appears to have a ‘fly by the seat of its pants’ kind of attitude but is rigidly organised.
Relinquishing control can humiliate brands
With the advent of social media the errors businesses make receive far more attention now than they might have in the
past. There are almost too many examples to list. From Qantas in Australia in 2011, who after months of negative publicity
stemming from industrial disputes, promoted the #QantasLuxury hashtag as a chance to win a first-class experience but
was made a mockery of with tweets condoning pay rises and offshore job placement.106 To Waitrose in the UK107 asking
consumers why they shopped at Waitrose, met with only a handful genuine responses, the majority taking the opportunity to
mock: ’I shop at Waitrose because Clarrisa’s pony just WILL NOT eat ASDA Value straw.’
Just as people don’t want to have to advise a needy Superman on how to save Lois or direct Batman on how to put out
Gotham City’s fires, Marketing Age consumers prefer the robotic efficiency of a superhero to simply deliver the goods and
entertain them on the way. If brands relinquish control, the consumer finds entertainment their own way.
Relinquishing control can be very rational
Asking what a person wants their bank to look like, or what the next Starbucks product should be are very rational lines of
communication and I believe this is dangerous when there is a business case for the emotional rather than the rational in
communication. We know this from Les Binet and Peter Field’s robust analysis which states that emotional campaigns’ profit
effects build more strongly over time vs. rational ones,108 Robert Heath adds ‘rational messages require attention and can
be easily filtered out and ignored whereas emotional communication requires no attention or conscious effort and therefore
cannot be filtered out’.109
In summary, there are many audience, brand, cultural and indeed business reasons why Superhuman is right for brands in
this Marketing Age, and why there are dangers in the human doctrine.
The practical application of a Superhuman: A Superhuman Creed
I believe the practical solution lies in a Superhuman Creed with a three paneled framework. I shall explore how brands must
implement this in the Marketing Age.
17
Superhuman
Fiction
Spectacular Perfomance
Military Jurisdiction
The Superhuman
creed
Human
Real
This World
Relinquishing
Control
Extraordinary Fiction
Extraordinary Performance
Extraordinary Control
1
2
3
Delivering the
Superhuman solution
The shift away from
the
human solution
1
2
3
Figure 19

1. Extraordinary fiction
‘No idea too bizarre, no twist too fanciful, no storytelling technique too experimental’. 110 Brands have to tell fantastical
stories which are as addictive as cocaine, 111 as unforgettable as the classics and as entertaining as the childhood stories we
all remember. A brand’s story has to be unforgettable, not just memorable. Just like when comics went colour, ‘they must
have seemed hallucinatory, as potent as dreams,’ 112 brands must make their story telling superior to that of the Marketing
Age consumer and be more elaborate in their telling of it.
Explicit and expected fiction
They must do this by treating each communication as if it is a new episode in the story, with a clear narrative for the audience
to follow, explicitly in execution. For example, the Nescafe couple of the nineties or the current Compare themeerkat
narrative. Each execution, the audience looks forward to, discussing it like the latest episode of a soap opera.
Brands must look to own spaces and media where they can narrate the fiction, each campaign a new chapter in the drama,
on the same stage each time. In the same way that Jack Daniels repeatedly buys the same London Underground hoardings,
telling its story in the same expected places, week in week out, with consumers following each episode daily.
Brands must repeat their origin story again and again. Innocent is a super example of this, where it reminds consumers of
its narrative in interesting and entertaining ways from its website to its Youtube vignettes, all repeating the same tale now as
familiar as Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.
For example, Parker Pen could reinvigorate a depleted pen industry in the same way Moleskin has the notepad by explicitly
telling the tales of the famous writers and artists who have used them over the years and the famous work which has been
possible because of the Parker Pen. Now that the pen, like the wrist watch, is primarily decorative, fiction and myth is even
more critical in the sell. They could sponsor the British Library’s manuscripts and host spectacular manuscript limited
exhibitions from across the globe. The pen should have novelist limited editions people want to be seen with for example, the
Dickens’ Pen, or the Vonnegut Pen.
18
Figure 20 113

Playful fiction
‘It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like ‘What about lunch?’114
Brands must be fun and funny and have fun. They must learn from the childhood tales, the simplicity and stickiness of the
Hungry Caterpillar and Winnie the Pooh. Stories must be told with a sense of childish playfulness, executed with a simple
playful energy. Brands must tell tales and look like they are enjoying telling them, appealing to the consumer’s inner child.
Brands must use their magic powers and play to the irrational in people. Just as round tea bags and smoothies with bobble
hats excite people for no logical reason 115, they must dial up the nonsensical and the ridiculous 116 and make guinea pigs talk
117, bounce balls down hills in San Francisco 118 , get babies to roller skate 119, teach ponies to sing 120 and make gorillas play
the drums.121 Championing the stuff humans can’t do and offering entertaining escapism in this overly transparent society.
For example Toys R Us could use fantastical playful fiction around how it gets its Christmas deliveries to children. It could
turn its delivery vans into liveried Rudolph sleighs, and then excited children and parents could track where their delivery
was leading up to Christmas online with a Santa Tracker 122 and spot them on streets of England.
19
Figure 22 Figure 21

Bigger fiction
Brands must subvert other people’s big myths and make bold claims. In doing so they emotionally put themselves on pedestals,
as the protagonist in the story, elevated from people. This signals their powers of temporal duplication and timelessness, which
Marketing Age consumers can’t exercise. For example with Coca Cola owning Santa, or indeed sponsoring Jesus in Rio de Janeiro.
They must also own the biggest concepts, telling fictional stories around them, for example, Lynx and sex; P&G and mums;
and Dulux and colour.
By doing this they are demonstrating they can do things the Marketing Age consumer can’t, impressing them with their
Superhuman confidence, with the ability to pull Santa’s strings, turn Jesus red, paint countries and stimulate mating
behaviours, albeit all with the knowledge that consumers get the game but play along anyway.
For example Johnson and Johnson Baby could go bigger by owning ‘The Beginning’. They could make Child of Our Time
style documentaries about children’s beginnings. They could write children’s’ first books and create physical books where
mums can document their child’s beginning. They could build Intel Museum of Me style virtual experiences collating all
the Facebook memories and photographs around their child’s beginning: The scan, the first photo, and the comments from
friends. Literally owning the beginning with scale.
20
Figure 23
Figure 24
Figure 25

2. Extraordinary performance
‘Your advertisements should establish in the reader’s mind an image she will never forget’.123 In the same way the cycle of
superhero movies moved away from the real world approach in 2010 to ‘expansive, fantastical’ movies like Cameron’s Avatar
124, brands have got to stop sucking on ‘the lollipop of mediocrity’125 and deliver mentally unforgettable performances, not just
be mentally available.126 They have got to create fireworks, and construct spectacle ‘with its power to demand obedience’.127
Blockbuster advertising performance
Brands must do this by constructing awe inspiring event performances like the Red Bull space jump and advertising event
performances like the annual John Lewis Christmas treat. People are everywhere; a brand’s arrival should be special
and built up, like Superman appearing in the sky. The performance must be appointment to view with a campaign built
around the ad itself, for example as with the trailers for the Superbowl ads.128, 129 The ad must be supported with ad product
merchandise consumers want to buy just as they buy Spiderman pyjamas for their children.
In the same way ‘audiences respond to big name actors, special effects and in your face advertising’130 for movies, brands
have got to not spread money out in a series of smaller, safer bets, but invest in event creative like the studios are investing
in event blockbusters, making the big bets. This means pooling monies into high production, headline star ads, not a series
of low cost mediocre creative. The ad industry has to follow the movie studios which now succeed by sinking extra resources
into a handful of super hits, and the public responds by flocking to them. Harvard Business School Professor Anita Elberse’s
book ‘Blockbusters’ shows that this strategy has also worked for book publishers, music labels, TV networks, and video
game companies.131
Awe inspiring physical theatres
A ‘new type of aerialized spectatorship… conquering the laws of gravity, physics and biology’.132 I believe brands have to
impress people and be unforgettable by doing things, and existing in, impressive physical superhero spaces like Burberry’s
‘theatre’ on Regent Street or the Guardian’s King’s Cross lair. In a world where everyone is trying to own virtual, we mustn’t
forget the power in the physical. With physical materials, the brain is processing both visual and spatial information and from
research we know that additional engagement of spatial memory results in a stronger memory.133
We know from research that bigger is more memorable134 and brands must scale up the spectacle and not be simply
physically available135, but physically intimidating in their performances. They must put themselves on real physical
pedestals, like the trapeze artist, occupying that transcendental spot136, bigger than the Marketing Age consumer could ever
be. This means investing in new stages and worlds to perform on whether it be stores, existing property (the O2 Dome) or
sponsoring other peoples’ giant stages, for example Honda’s sponsorship of The Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern.
For example Odeon should make more of its estate. As a brand built on bringing film to people but also theatre ‘With
their cloud-piercing towers and sweeping lines… [people] disappeared into a shining world of futuristic dreams, a whole
dimension away from the grim economic and political reality’.137 It should take lessons from Secret Cinema and put ‘theatre’
back into movie theatre. For example, by capitalising on when people want to dissect the film post screening and that
after film high, warm to wanting to see more films, and make its foyers places people want to dwell. It should give people
opportunities to engage with the previous film in review booths where opinions get uploaded to their social profiles, and give
them the option to book again for their next visit.
21
Figure 26

Masked actors and extras in the show
To stimulate fascination, brands must remain as actors in the show, keeping their masks on, and encouraging speculation
around the characters and narrative in the same way a superhero comic allows the reader’s imagination to run wild joining
the frames.138
Brands must empower Marketing Age consumers to be mysterious extras in the show through consumption of the brand. In
this Marketing Age people like brands which allow themselves to appear mysterious. Brands have to bake mysterious ritual
into the product and act of consumption, allowing Marketing Age consumers a part in the show.
For example Guiness drinkers love the mystery of the product. Their colloquial term for a ‘pint of the black stuff’, illustrates
a muted sense of pride that they are requesting some dark art only Guiness drinkers are in on, a magical concept which
mysteriously takes longer than their friend’s pint to pour, whilst they wait theatrically, their friends wondering where they are
and whether they have scored with the barmaid.
3. Extraordinary control
I believe that in order to deliver extraordinary fiction and performance, brands have to exercise extraordinary levels of
control over the brand and its communication. I believe there is also mystery in this fortress behaviour which is attractive to
Marketing Age consumers. Brands must maintain control of the critical bit of the brand: The plot. They must do this either
with an individual or a team and deliver it with military organisation and process.
Explicit brand rules
Brands must show a person who is the boss, and take back control showing the Marketing Age who is boss in how people
interact with them. They must set the consumer explicit rules, making them play the game on their terms.
For example the Bourke Street
Bakery, a tiny corner bakery in Sydney,
an institution, famous for its divine
pastries, has been a phenomenal
success139. It’s also a place which has
rules: It commands people pay in cash
only and if a product runs out, ‘there
are no buns more mere mortals’.
Another super example is the current
London restaurant scene with
eateries like Polpo which commands
not being able to book as just one
of its rules. Here we see brands
toughening back up, standing out and
putting their code of observance first.
Pseudo democratisation
We see this with rigidly controlled brands, for example Coke asking people to name their can and Walkers to choose their
favourite crisp flavour. These are brands which don’t really truly relinquish control but successfully implement strictly
controlled, tightly managed processes where people are kept at arm’s length, merely acting out a pre directed script, with
readymade choices and template visuals. This can be entertaining for this Marketing Age consumer and adds to the escapist
entertainment, as long as the strings are held tight.
Brand as teacher on stage
Brands should be standing up and explicitly expressing their authority as superior Superhuman, teaching the Marketing
Age consumer a thing or two. Just as the Guardian puts on its Masterclasses, performances which signal its superiority to
its readers, a teacher, one who exerts control; the tired book industry and what is left of the music retail industry should be
doing this and advertising they are doing so.
For example, Waterstones should be opening its doors week in week out charging for lessons from novelists and writing
classes. HMV should be hosting master classes with musicians, making podcasts to purchase on how to write music, form a
band or play the drums…
22
Figure 27

In order to deliver superhuman, the industry must practice superhuman
‘Don’t bunt, aim out of the park. Aim for the company of immortals’.140
Like brands, the ad industry is also under threat in this Marketing Age. Once admen were distinctive, unique and different in the
work we produced, in our eccentricity, now we are under threat from the belief that everything and everyone can and will do our job:
From Obama, to clients, to Joe Bloggs in his bedroom, all equipped with the latest technologies and seeming expertise to do so.
Whereas once we were confident in our value: ‘Ring the bell’ I said, and walked out…Too many masters, too many objectives,
too little money,’141 the proliferation of agencies has now made us Yes Men, where we accept mediocrity, bland middle
ground, and turn out turgid pieces of work. We too have championed a lily livered set of behaviours for too long.142
Instead we must remember, ‘like Hollywood and Disney, Maddison Avenue is in the myth making business,’143 and superheroes
need courageous superhero artists and powerful controlling directors to construct these extraordinary fictional performers.
We must practice what I have preached to brands and adhere to the Superhero Creed. I illustrate two examples of how we
must implement this.
1. Exert extraordinary control
In the same way brands indulge in pseudo democratisation; this should be true of the creative process where agencies use
‘pseudo beta’ in that only the best prototypes see the light of day before they are ready. The best agencies in the world rarely,
if ever, send work down the ‘catwalk’ which isn’t perfect, isn’t outstanding, isn’t the best.144
The most successful agencies out there now, the BBH’s, the Drogas, the AKQAs and the R/GAs, they exercise control at the
right points with the military jurisdiction of a Mark Rylance or Lloyd Webber. Agencies have to follow these superhuman
agencies and truly deliver on being clients’ most trusted business partner by bravely saying no to JFDI prescriptive145 briefs,
staying true to our own rules, in a battle for extraordinary work.
2. Hire superhuman performers
If we are to compete, effectively against everything and everyone in this Marketing Age and be unforgettable we have to not
just be like the Hollywood masters and West End legends but steal talent from them. As artists, we must hire superhero
artists to up our game, ‘the job of the artist is to deepen the mystery’.146 We must hire supreme myth makers, story tellers,
screenwriters, movie men, literally taking talent from other entertainment professions from Lady Gaga’s wardrobe team to
the Sydney Fireworks’ choreographers and designers, to write our myths and direct the extraordinary performances.
CONCLUSION
If brands are to compete against everyone and everything in this Marketing Age, communicating to Marketing Age man in
need of impressing, they cannot afford to lower themselves to earth as mortals and fellow humans, but instead must rise
high above as supermen, with superhuman powers, delivering extraordinary fiction and performance, exercised with an
extraordinary level of control.
Jesus and Mormonism must be left intimidated, the Lady of Shalott belittled, and mortal Marketing Age man left awestruck,
necks crooked, goose pimples pricked, at the sight of Superhuman brands swooshing across the night sky. Just as Lois Lane
looks up to Superman:
‘Wondering why you are... all the wonderful things you are. You can fly. You belong in the sky’.147
23
Figure 28

References
1 Frazer R, Introduction The Golden Bough, 1890
2 Armstrong, K., A Short History of Myth, 2005
3 Ibid. Referencing the Historic Age: ‘Where people could give permanent expression to their aspirations in the civilised arts, and the invention of
writing meant they could give enduring literary expression to their mythology.’
4 Ibid
5 Brooker, C., The Seven Basic Plots: Why we tell stories, 2004
6 Adley, E., Picture this: How the selfies has captured a mood and become a social phenomenon, in The Guardian on Saturday 8th March 2014
7 Martin, R., a photographer and artist working particularly with self-portraiture in ibid
8 Hall, S., This means this and this means that, A Users Guide to Semiotics Second Edition, 2012
9 For example: Flavours.me (owned by business card company, Moo and allows anyone to make a branded web presence using personal content
from around the Internet).
10 The Tipping Point had sold 1.7 million copies by 2006
11 OZTAM data, Australia (Barb equivalent)
12 Anderson, C., Makers, The New Industrial Revolution, 2013
13 Ibid
14 Ogilvy, D., Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1963
15 Debord, G., Society of the Spectacle, 1977
16 Gleick, J., The Information, A History a Theory, a Flood, James Gleick, 2011
17 The Truman Show £2.4m, 1998, Inland Empire £540,000 2007, The Matrix Trilogy cumulative box office 1999- 2003, £12,836,000 source: Caviar
18 Baudrillard, J., Simulacra and Simulation, 1994
19 James, O., Affluenza, 2007
20 Duality of Man: The intuitive and psychological confusing nature of mankind to be twofold. The state of being in two qualities and relates to
Dualism, denoting a state of two parts
21 From CBS, to the Daily Mail, to the Guardian to the Sun
22 Indvik, L., Ads made up 30% of the tweets, in Mashable, February 2013
26 Jhally, S Prof., Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse
27 Epstein, R., Middle Class Problems, Baby Names, in the Independent on Sunday 23 February 2014
28 Banks, I., The Bridge, 1986
29 Scherer, M., Inside the Secret World of the Obama Data Crunchers who Helped Obama Win in Time Magazine, November 2012
30 Gosling, E., Art Everywhere Project to turn the UK into the World’s Biggest Art Gallery in Design Week, June 2013
31 Trout J., and Rise, A., Positioning, The Battle for your Mind, 2001
32 GME CMO Beth Comstock in The Market Maker in Google Think Insights, January 2013
33 Ibid
34 Parekh, R., The Newest Marketing Buzzword? Human in Adage, September 2013
35 Chahal, M., How to be a ‘Human Era’ Brand in Marketing Week, February 2014
36 Flawsome: Why brands that behave more humanly including showing their flaws, will be awesome, in Trendwatching, April 2012 briefing
37 Hutchinson, A., The Importance of Creating Human Connections with your Brand in the Social Media Space, in Social Media Today, February 2014
38 Kolster, C., A Transparent Marketing Means Changing the Way Brands Advertise, in the Guardian, December 2013
39 Morrison, G., Supergods, Our World in the Age of the Superhero, 2012
40 Whitehead, J., RBS and Natwest push ‘Most Helpful Bank’ promise in ads in Marketing Week, June 2010
41 Burchill, J., The Lady Still Loves Them in the Guardian
42 Grimshaw, S., The Guardian 26th March 2014, Wackaging Do we want our food to talk back?
43 Flawsome: Why brands that behave more humanly including showing their flaws, will be awesome, in Trendwatching, April 2012 briefing
Parekh, R., The Newest Marketing Buzzword? Human in Adage, September 2013
45 Post, R., When Big Brands Stumble: Starbucks and Toyota on Hypertransparency in the Guardian, October 2013
46 Through their open online forum, My Starbucks Idea, where customers suggest new products
47 Shakespeare, W., Macbeth
48 Pedler, M., Morrison’s Muscle Mystery Versus Everyday Reality... and Other Parallel Worlds! In The Contemporary Comic 49 Book Hero, edited
by Angela Ndalianis, 2009
49 Ndalianis, A., Comic Book Superheroes An Introduction, in The Contemporary Comic Book Hero, edited by Angela Ndalianis, 2009
50 Graves, R., The White Goddess, 1948
51 Frazer R, The Golden Bough, 1890
52 Frazer R, Introduction The Golden Bough, 1890
53 Ibid
54 Shultz, J., McDonagh, P., Brown, S., Titanic: Consuming Myths and Meanings of an Ambiguous Brand, in Chicago Journals, December 2013
55 Randazzo, S., Subaru: The Emotional Myths Behind a Brand’s Growth in Emotion in Advertising ii, Journal of Advertising Research, March 2006
Volume 46, No.1
56 Campbell, J., The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949 Ndalianis, A., Comic Book Superheroes An Introduction, in The Contemporary Comic
Book Hero, edited by Angela Ndalianis, 2009
24

59 Armstrong, K., A Short History of Myth, 2005
59 Campbell, J., The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949
61 Ibid: ‘His image reflecting the great gods and hyperhumans of a mythic past’. Superheroes ‘offered hope to a despairing humanity that had lost
faith in the civilization embodied by urban life’
62 Booker, C., The Age of Loki Chapter 34, in The Seven Basic Plots: Why we tell stories.2004 He argues that although it was a ‘materially
triumphant age, it cut them off from nature and the past to an unprecedented degree, so they hankered for the lost certainties of a vanished
time when their ancestors had been able to enjoy the sense of a spiritual centre and transcendent dimension to life.’
63 Ndalianis, A., Comic Book Superheroes An Introduction, in The Contemporary Comic Book Hero, edited by Angela Ndalianis, 2009. She argues:
‘The hero in his and her superheroic dimensions has reached a new level of popularity never witnessed before’
64 Williams, H., A World of Wonder, in Spotlight, Wonder Woman, in the Independent on Sunday, February 2014
66 Dupuy, JP., in The Information Age, James Gleick 2011
67 Ibid
68 Mull, C., No Brands Aren’t People and Consumers Don’t Want Them to Be, in Adage, September 2012
69 Grant, G., The New Marketing Manifesto, 2000
70 Erasmus, Religion and the Economy blog, March 2014 in The Economist argues: ‘much of the rich, northern hemisphere, commercial products
and images are now the defining “archetypes”—displacing the old reference points of religion’.
71 Bain, D., Deep Dive One IPA Autumn 2013
72 Bullmore, J., Posh Spice and Persil, in Campaign argued that the image of a brand is a subjective thing and no two people have the same view of it
73 Parsons, J., The Myth of the Brand in Asia, ESOMAR April 2013 found in Warc
74 Rose 2011 in Titanic: Consuming Myths and Meanings of an Ambiguous Brand, Stephen Brown, Pierre McDonagh and Clifford J. Shultz,
Chicago Journals, December 2013
75 Feldwick, P., What is Brand Equity Anyway, 2002
77 Berger, J., Ways of Seeing, 1972
Volume 46, No.1
79 Shultz, J., McDonagh, P., Brown, S., Titanic: Consuming Myths and Meanings of an Ambiguous Brand, in Chicago Journals, December 2013
Volume 46, No.1. He argues Mytho-Symbollic worlds are a way of giving brands uniqueness and create an emotional bond with the consumer
81 Ibid
82 Bain, D., Deep Dive One IPA Autumn 2013. He argues that marketing is a business tactic to get people to pay too much for stuff
83 Waitrose.com
84 Store brands beat name brands in flavour test, in Personal Finance CNBC, August 2013
85 Smithers, R., The Guardian Life and Style, April 2013
86 Trout, J., Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, 2001
87 Wolf, MJ., The Entertainment Economy: The Mega Media Forces that are Re-shaping our lives, 2003
88 Pine, JB., and Gilmore JH., The Experience Economy: Work is a Theatre and Every Business a Stage,1999
89 Guardian Fashion Blog, March 2014, it talks about Chanel’s latest ‘Warholian fashion extravaganza’ in a staged supermarket
90 Fury, A., Prada Delivers Spectacle of Fashion Theatrics during Autumn Winter Show, in The Independent on Sunday January 2014
91 Siltanen, R., Yes a Superbowl Ad Really is $4m, in Forbes, January 2014 and Monster.com CEO Jeff Taylor says with regards to Super Bowl
Sunday ‘the ‘advertising is the programme.’
92 TGI data 2013, profess that they think the advertising is as entertaining as the film
93 Lily Allen’s song which featured in the John Lewis Christmas commercial made it to number one in the charts in 2013
94 ITV aired an adbreak made entirely of Lego, February 2014
95 Topsy, Twitter data Jan – Feb 2014
96 Google Trends data Jan – Feb 2014
97 Barb performance data versus HW+CH)
98 The movie took £42m in the UK in its opening weekend with 34% of tickets sold being adult only according to Rentrak
99 Barreyat- Baron, M., and Barrie, R., Cadbury – How a drumming gorilla beat a path back to profitable growth: a real-time effectiveness case
study, IPA 2008
100 The link between creativity and effectiveness fused together the Gunn Report database of creatively-awarded campaigns with the IPA
Effectiveness database, 2011 located warc
101 Weaver, K., and Dyson, P., Advertising’s greatest hits: profitability and brand value, 2006 located warc
102 Brand Z top 100 brands Millward Brown 2014
103 Fox, I., Karl Lagerfeld: I always think I could do better, in the Guardian 26th March 2014
104 Friedman, V., Angela Ahrendts, in the Financial Times, December 2013
105 Jones, T., Kanse, P., Shaw, B., Jones, J., Booty, E., Pessin, I, Axe/Lynx, Inspiration From Above, a Fresh Approach to a Global Product
Launch, IPA Effectiveness Awards 2012, located warc
25

106 Courtney, A., Australia’s Biggest PR Disasters, Sydney Morning Herald, September 2013
107 The Daily Telegraph Technology, September 2012
108 Field, P., and Binet, L., The Long and Short of it, located in Campaign 2013
109 Heath, R., Emotional vs. Rational, Advertising Research located in warc, 2012
111 William Casebeer of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) a neurobiologist argued that certain narratives can be
as addictive as cocaine, cited in Russell Davies Typad, December 2012
111 William Casebeer of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) a neurobiologist argued that certain narratives can be
as addictive as cocaine, cited in Russell Davies Typad, December 2012
113 For example Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his later Sherlock novels with a Parker Duofold Fountain Pen. The new BBC Sherlock series paid
homage to this when Holmes comments by looking at a letter that it was written by a Parker pen but this is the kind of story which should
be in its advertising not just a reference in a show. Cited in http://blog.penshop.co.uk/news/celebrities-and-their-pens/
114 Winnie the Pooh
115 Binet, L., and Carter, S., Mythbuster: Marketing always needs to make sense, Admap 2014. They rightly argue that it is actually ‘sensible not
to make sense’ in
marketing as people are drawn to things which make no sense at all: Round tea bags, alphabet letters stamped on bread
116 Ibid
117 In reference to the 2007 commercial for Egg
118 In reference to the Sony Bravia ‘Balls’ commercial
119 In reference to the Evian ‘Babies’ commercial
120 In reference to the Three ‘Pony Dance’ commercial
121 In reference to the Cadbury ‘Gorilla’ commercial
122 Santa Tracker on Google exists so the brand could take the build and label it
125 IPA Deep Dive 3, January 2014 AKQA’s ECD Nick Turner
126 Sharp, B., How Brands Grow, 2010
127 Debord, G., Society of the Spectacle, 1977
128 Walker, T., Superstars, Super Budgets, Super Bowl Independent on Sunday, January 2014 referencing Anita Elberse
129 Cadbury Gorilla and Honda Live ad both ran campaigns around the advertising itself
130 The secret to Hollywood’s future? Think Big, Chris Stevenson citing the Harvard Academic Anita Elberse, 19th January Independent on Sunday
131 Elberse, A., Blockbusters, 2014 - a recently published a book on how the entertainment industry is obsessed with producing big blockbusters.
Elberse decided to quantify the best entertainment business strategies, building complex models that controlled for all kinds of factors
133 A study done by Millward Brown suggests that physical materials generated more brain activity than virtual material in two key parts of the
brain. Cited in the Newton Blog, The Power of Physical Advertising, April 2013
134 JC Decaux research with the Sunday Times used London as a test region to measure impact of larger panels vs. smaller ones. They found
larger ones boosted awareness; campaign understanding and most importantly those subjected to the larger panels were also more likely
to recommend the Sunday Times. Commuters in the test wore eye tracking devices
135 Sharp, B., How Brands Grow, 2010
136 Ritter, N., Art as Spectacle, Images of the Entertainer since romanticism, Cambridge Journals 1990
137 Glancey, J., The Mogul’s Monuments, How Oscar Deutsch’s Odeon cinemas taught Britain to love modern architecture, in The Guardian,
May 2002
138 Beyond the Veil blog Ritual Portrayal in Comics, 2009
139 Bourkestreetbakery.com.au, now publishing a cookbook and they have opened several other stores in Sydney
141 Ibid
142 We too have even resorted to jumping on the human bandwagon ourselves – sometimes quite literally, with agencies like ‘Hummanaut’
launching last year. http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/brands-behave-humans/244261/
143 Randazzo, S., Subaru: The Emotional Myths Behind a Brand’s Growth in Emotion in Advertising ii, Journal of Advertising Research, March
2006 Volume 46, No.1.
144 IPA Deep Dive 3, January 2014 AKQA’s ECD Nick Turner claims never to send anything out which isn’t perfect
145 JFDI – Industry slang for clients asking agencies to implement ‘Just Fucking Do It’ briefs
146 Bacon, F.
147 Lois Lane to Superman, cited IMDB quotes
26

27
Image references
Figure 1 http://davidcranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2011_04_01_archive.html
Figure 2 http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/usa-today-expands-super-bowl-ad-meter-155123
Figure 3 Google trends data January 2010 – January 2014
Figure 4 http://limelightprsonar.wordpress.com/
Figure 5 http://www.flickr.com/photos/brokendrumphotography/2565961868/
Figure 6 http://societeperrier.com/blog/art-everywhere-invades-uk-streets/#.Uxx5cD9_svc
Figure 7 Author
Figure 8 http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/02/17/co-op-launches-have-your-say-campaign
Figure 9 http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/barclays-seeks-voice-of-customer-for-rebuilding-efforts/4007990.article
Figure 10 Author
Figure 11 Author
Figure 12 Google Trends data July 2007 – January 2014– search volumes for all superheroes combined
Figure 13 http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/mar/04/supermarket-karl-lagerfeld-chanel-collection-paris
Figure 14 Google Trends data 2005 – 2013
Figure 15 Topsy Twitter data January – February 2014
Figure 16 Google Trends data 2014
Figure 17 Barb data
Figure 18 Brand Z top 100 brands Millward Brown 2014
Figure 19 Author
Figure 20 http://blog.penshop.co.uk/news/celebrities-and-their-pens
Figure 21 Google
Figure 22 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/8188997/The-science-of-Christmas-Santa-Claus-his-sleigh-and-presents.html
Figure 23 Author’s own photograph showing Coca Cola sponsoring the Christo area, train and narrative in Rio de Janeiro
Figure 24 http://www.unurth.com/filter/Dulux
Figure 25 http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/pregnancy-announcements-added-as-a-new-option-on-facebook/
Figure 26 Google images with Powerpoint Odeon logo
Figure 27 Author
Figure 28 http://www.kaiandsunny.com/blog/blog.php

I BELIEVE THAT IN THE FUTURE, BRANDS WILL HAVE
TO EARN THE RIGHT TO COMMUNICATE
Introduction
In 1955 the poet Jaques Prevert walked past a homeless man holding a sign on a busy street. The sign read ‘I’m blind,
please help’.
The homeless man didn’t have many donations. So after walking past the sign and the empty hat too many times, Prevert
took the sign and changed it.1
When Prevert wrote that sign he created something very different. Instead of presenting the passer-by with a statement it
created a question. Why does it matter that it’s springtime? What can I see that he can’t?
That question leads the passer-by to an understanding of what’s important about the sign. The passer-by sees what the blind
man doesn’t see: Springtime. From then on the blind man’s hat was full.
There’s a lot we can learn from Prevert and the blind man’s sign. Anything that communicates can challenge people.
Challenge creates questions, and those questions lead people to a new understanding of what’s important about the
communication. In our man’s case – a hard question about what we see that others don’t, and a full hat.
If all our communications were like that homeless man’s sign, in a busy street with people engrossed in other things, would
we have to think differently about how brands communicate too?
1. How come I can’t pay people to listen anymore?
“...in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that
information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a
wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance
of information sources that might consume it.”2
Herbert Simon
28
There’s high competition for attention
I bought a clicker to count the number of communications I consume in a day.
After an hour and a half it broke: I had received 1,822 pieces of communication.3
I saw 87 individual pieces of communication pulling into a tube station.
Absorbing so many communications forces the mind to filter and it does it well.4
Is this communication a risk? Is it pertinent? Is it interesting? I see a small
clock half a kilometre away over a six sheet next to me when I’m late.
People receive an increasing volume of communications on a daily basis.5 That
includes advertising messages but isn’t limited to them. There is high level of
information, and that demand creates a paucity of attention.
Figure 1. The clicker
by Richard Bradford

There are more brand messages competing
There is more competition for messaging in out of home environments. There are 1.5m out of home sites in the UK,
growing at 2% per year.6 There is more competition for messaging in internet environments. People see 16,000 digital
brand adverts per year: 35 for every hour spent on the internet.7
In 1986 there were 44 beer brands. By 2012 there were 2,751 on the market.8 More brands are competing for a smaller
share of attention. Fame drives business success for brands.9 But competition for attention means it’s harder to appear
famous – brands are increasingly one of many competing voices.
There are more ways to opt out
There’s another problem. People can opt out of brand communications. The problem of an alternative focus of attention
prevails everywhere because there is one screen that half of people always have with them and that’s a smartphone.10
It’s something that’s potentially more interesting than brand communications. People have it with them when they’re walking
down the street, when they’re sat in front of a laptop watching pre-rolls, when they’re reading the Metro on a commute.11 With
more than one source of information present, interest is the key factor driving attention.12 Having a mobile phone has created a
new dynamic in communications. If people aren’t interested in communications they don’t have to pay attention to them.
Opting out isn’t just about skippable ads and PVRs. It’s about whether someone feels compelled to pay attention to you or
not. People can opt out of brand communications with their attention by turning away to a mobile phone and sending a text,
or browsing the internet for something else.13
If that seems like a niche behaviour, 2/3rds of everyone has done it at some point.14 Half of people regularly opt out of
communications to use a smartphone, laptop or tablet. Weekly, daily, sitting in front of the television and just ducking out into
a secondary device. 15 Smartphone penetration is increasing consistently by ten percentage points a year.16 But it’s not just
smartphone users. The two most prominent second screen activities are messaging and calling.17
It’s becoming more difficult to buy people’s attention. This isn’t a phenomenon unique to television advertising.
The same rules of the second screen exist in all brand communications. In a café, on a bus, walking down the street trying to
figure out where where I’m going: attention has shifted from being in the viewer’s world to being in their hand.18
From low attention to no attention
“Attention is monopolistic, we cannot ‘attend’ to more than one thing at a time. We can only attend to a number of things by
switching our attention from one thing to another.”19
Robert Heath
The second screen is such a compelling activity that you’re either involved in it completely or not. If you’re sitting in front of
the TV and you’re looking down to your mobile phone or your tablet or your laptop, your attention isn’t half on the television
any more, it’s gone.
From watching a human being’s brain when they switch to a secondary device we see that attention moves from the TV to
the secondary device like a switch. It intensifies around the secondary device for 50 or 60 seconds then it’s focused on the TV
again.20
29
Figure 2. Attention switch between primary and secondary screen

Viewers dropped out of programming to use a second screen for more than three minutes over the thirty-five minute test
period, with a bias towards advertising. Between ten and twenty percent of ad breaks were dropped out of.21
In the past, low attention has been defended by the models of Low Attention Processing.22 Second screens have
created a new problem: not low attention but no attention. If an audience is not compelled to pay attention, most
consumers in most situations now have an opportunity to opt out.23
Opinions differ on the level of residual attention that remains with the TV when a person drops out into a secondary device.
Some research points to ‘meerkatting’, where the viewer intermittently flicks their attention back to the TV momentarily to
check for high interest communications.24
All evidence shares a common point of view: we seldom remain focused on the TV when distractions are available, digital or
physical. In those situations, a third of brand communications are misattributed. 25 The ubiquity of second screens means
distractions are always available. Only communications that are compelling on an instinctive level are able to retrieve and
retain attention when there are other options.
2. What do people pay attention to?
“Even at a very early age, children do not treat all communicated information as equally reliable. At 16 months, they notice
when a familiar word is inappropriately used. By the age of two, they often attempt to contradict and correct assertions that
they believe to be false.”26
Dan Sperber
Communication is so important people don’t sleep if they don’t have it: human beings will wake up intermittently in the night
if they’re deprived of social contact. 27
To have social contact humans need to be able to establish reliable communications. Most importantly, we need safeguards
in place to ensure that we’re getting an accurate picture. It’s a risk not to: we could be missing something important, or the
messenger could be wrong.28
We do this by sense checking everything that’s communicated to us against our beliefs. If the communication doesn’t match
with our beliefs we’re triggered into working out why not.29
That mechanism is called epistemic vigilance. Simply put it means checking what we’re told against what we know.
Epistemic vigilance is a sub-section of a body of work called Argumentative Theory which was developed to explain how and
why humans reason. Its chief finding is that reason isn’t reasonable: humans have developed not to reason abstractly but to
contend with problems. Humans are hard wired to defend their beliefs against contradictory ones they’re presented with.30
Epistemic vigilance is always on, subconsciously monitoring communications in the background to check that we’re not being
led astray.31 If a communication doesn’t fit our expectations, it becomes our number one priority to establish why not.
These anomalous communications are called epistemic triggers. They are problems in a communication that the receiver is
forced to solve. And they are an evolutionary imperative. Humans cannot help but deal with a communication that contradicts
their beliefs.
30
Communication re-ceived
Anomaly found,
epistemic vigilance
triggered
High attention focused
on problem until
anomaly is resolved
Low attention as new
belief is saved down
to memory
Communication
scanned for beliefs
Beliefs in communication
sense checked against his
own beliefs
UNCONSCIOUS
CONSCIOUS
Figure 3. The process of being triggered

Whether the communication is missing something, contradicts itself, contains unexpected information or simply states
a belief that we cannot accept at face value; epistemic triggers are a priority for human attention. Not dealing with a
communication which conflicts with our beliefs could be an evolutionary risk.32
As a result, there are types of communication that trigger an irresistible urge to engage. When our beliefs are challenged we
cannot help but focus our attention squarely on whatever communication has challenged our belief until it is resolved.
3. What triggers attention?
“The system is a pattern detection device. The rule that the pattern better be coherent is at the heart. If we do not achieve
coherence we are made to feel uncomfortable.”33
Kahnemann
Epistemic vigilance depends on us challenging the beliefs of the person communicated with. To challenge the beliefs of the
person and trigger epistemic vigilance we need to present a view of the world which cannot be accepted at face value.To
understand how to trigger attention we first need to understand what kinds of beliefs we hold that can be challenged.
Human beings have simple beliefs – like lemons are yellow – and more complex beliefs about our identities and values – like
it’s important to be an individual. Both of these challenge our explicit understanding of the world. Others challenge our implicit
expectations of the world – you never go to church on Sunday; or the subconscious feeling that there’s something you’re not
telling me.
DISSONANCE
“They don’t go
together”
CHALLENGE
“I’m not sure I’d
buy that”
UNEXPECT
EDNESS
“That doesn’t
usually happen”
ABSCENCE
“There’s some-thing
missing
here”
Although very different, all of them can be used to create epistemic triggers which compel the user to engage. Anything that
we hold as a belief can be challenged to compel attention.
Trigger one. Dissonance – Incongruent information
The simplest situation that triggers epistemic vigilance is incongruent communication: the communication is telling me two
contradictory things. The communication is saying one thing but doing another or it is presenting one thing and describing it
as another.
There is an evolutionary instinct in us to solve contradictory communications.34 It could be dangerous to us to be told that
something is a lemon when it looks like something else. These logical gaps in communication between different parts of the
communication create a question: which is correct?
This desire for congruence is felt unconsciously. To experience this visceral reaction first hand, listen to the Tristan Chord
from Tristan and Isolde.35 It contains communicative dissonance – sounds that should not go together. It is experienced
instinctively by any listener, and creates a desire for resolution. Psychological research has shown that the incongruent facial
expression of the Mona Lisa has the same effect.36 Communications that are incongruent compel the receiver to engage.
31
AUTOMATIC –
Simple assumptions
about the world
EXPLICIT -
Understanding challenged
LEARNED –
Complex beliefs
about the world
IMPLICIT -
Expectations challenged
Figure 4. Four beliefs, four triggers

Marketing communications can create incongruence too. In Volkswagen Lemon, we see a picture of a car and a descriptor
that says ‘lemon’. This is a wonderful epistemic trigger because it replicates an epistemic trigger that could exist in everyday
life: the viewer is being presented with something that is not a lemon and being told it is a lemon.
There are many reasons why VW Lemon is brilliant which have been pored over in great detail.37 My reason is because it
creates a compulsion in the viewer to deal with an epistemic problem. One thing is being shown and another thing is being
described. It’s quick to solve and gets the viewer to a strongly branded belief: that Volkswagen’s not a lemon.
Volkswagen- Lemon
32

Trigger two. Absence – Something is missing
Is there a piece of information that’s obviously missing from this communication? If you give a person a communication that
is incomplete, they are compelled to fill in what it is that you haven’t told them.
Absence of information triggers epistemic vigilance because it’s a clear sign that there’s either something I don’t know, or
I’m being deceived.
‘Heinz - Bottle’38 has a series of people interacting with a mass of air. It is visual ellipsis. People who are watching this scene
are forced to ask themselves what it is that’s missing from this picture. And the answer is it’s Heinz Ketchup that’s missing.
It’s not an answer that Heinz tell us in their advert. It’s an answer that the viewer figures out because all of those behaviours
are unique to Heinz. The viewer is forced to ask what’s missing and in answering their own question they form a branded
belief about what’s going on.
Heinz - Bottle
Trigger three. Challenge – Statements of belief
Statements of belief challenge not just the facts of the world but the values we hold dear. Statements of belief trigger
epistemic vigilance because they call into question whether we should trust our own beliefs and values or trust the
communicator. Both are important decisions.
‘Guinness - Sapeurs’ does this with its opening statement:‘You can’t always decide what you do but you always decide who
you are’.39
It’s a challenging belief which the reader is forced to process. It can’t be evidenced or decided instantly from memory. It
challenges our beliefs not just about the product but ourselves. It requires attention and thought. The viewer is forced to ask:
why can’t I decide what I do? How can I decide who I am?
From the challenge to the actions of the people throughout the answer to that challenge is this: in situations where you’re
forced to make the same choices as everyone else you can be different. That is the fundamental truth of Guinness. What
Guinness is above all else is the different choice. When everyone else is drinking lager, you can have a Guinness: you can
decide who you are.
33
Guinness - Sapeurs

Trigger four. Unexpectedness – Unusual patterns
Unexpected information creates an epistemic trigger when we see something in communication that we do not expect to see.
It is a deep evolutionary principle that helps people spot when danger is coming. It is an epistemic trigger that alerts people
to the possibility that something important may have changed, triggered by a communication not experienced before.
Innocent have done something to their product that doesn’t make sense. They have put a knitted woolly hat on all of their
bottles. Anyone who sees the bottle is compelled to ask what a drinks bottle is doing with a woolly hat on. Woolly hats are
for things that create their own heat through metabolism. The answer is left up to the viewer. When they interact with the
product or ask someone they will find out that the reason an Innocent smoothie has a woolly hat on is because ‘Innocent care
about the world we live in’.
4. How to create epistemic advertising - A three step dance
In the examples of the four epistemic triggers we begin to see a common pattern. A belief is challenged, that challenge
creates a question for the user to solve, and the answer creates a branded belief. It gives us a simple understanding of how
we can create our own epistemic triggers:
1. Challenge Beliefs
2. Create a Question in the receiver
3. Use the answer to create a Branded Belief
All these examples create questions quickly. Those questions lead us to branded beliefs. Those branded beliefs feel like they
come from us.
How can brand communications ensure that a question gets created? And that the answer feels compelling? And that the
new belief is branded?
34
Communciation Volkswagen – lemon Guinness - sapeurs Heinz - bottle Innocent - woolly hat
Belief
challenged Lemons are fruits You can’t choose who
you are
Something should be
there Bottles don’t wear hats
Question
Instigated
Why is that car being
called a lemon?
How can i choose who i
am? What’s missing? Why is that bottle wearing
a hat?
Branded
belief created
Volkswagens aren’t
lemons.
I can be an individual by
drinking Guinness It’s Heinz that’s missing. Innocent care about the
world we live in
Innocent- Big Knit
Figure 5. The three step dance in action

5. Implications for planning
Create a question in the first 5 seconds
Epistemic triggers can happen in the first 0.493 milliseconds of a person noticing a communication. That’s how long
it takes to assess a communication.40 Simple epistemic triggers can create questions very quickly: dissonance and
absence require low cognitive demand to realise something is wrong. That means communications have to start creating
epistemic triggers from the first contact. There’s a finite amount of time to create the question. Research into digital out
of home recorded an average dwell time of eleven seconds.41 Static posters are looked at for three to five seconds. 42 With
pre-roll, there’s a grace period of five seconds. Epistemic triggers need to create questions quickly.
Let Them Answer the Question (Messenger is Me)
“The artist rules his subjects by turning them into accomplices.”43
Arthur Koestler
Good advertising does not put out messages, it creates them in the listener, or the viewer, or the watcher.44 This may seem
counterintuitive.
Because humans have a critical faculty, it is more effective to create branded beliefs that come from the user. In epistemic
communications, this means letting the user answer the question themselves. None of the four examples ever state their
branded belief explicitly. Volkswagen does not tell us that its cars are not lemons. Heinz does not tell us that Heinz is
missing. We tell ourselves.
Letting the person answer the question themselves bypasses their critical cognitive processes that occur when people
receive a communication.45 Low Attention Processing is effective for the same reason, but epistemic communication lets
brands do that with conscious communications – as long as the user answers the question themselves.46
Getting the viewer to answer the question changes the messenger from the advert to the user. Acceptance of communications
depends heavily on the levels of trust for the communicator.47 A person’s most trusted beliefs come from themselves.
Communications which feel to have come from the person rather than the advert are much more likely to be accepted.
Finally, messages which come from the user are more likely to be deeply encoded as memories and recalled later. Questions
create an action for the user – they require cognitive processing to be resolved. It’s in processing that memory is created: the
higher the level of processing, the more likely it is that the branded belief will be recalled by the viewer.48
Make it simple to answer
Humans find solving problems rewarding.49 Resolving problems releases dopamine which makes the experience rewarding
and makes memories more likely to be encoded and recalled later.50
Epistemic communications need to stack the odds in favour of the audience solving the problem. The communication needs
to lead the audience to a solution. Heinz showed seven different sequences of someone getting ketchup out of a bottle. If one
of them doesn’t land, another will. It needs to be clear and simple for the audience to figure out what’s going on.
Despite answering the question, epistemic triggers are still effective on subsequent exposure. This is because the
mechanism for epistemic vigilance is instinctive. Innocent’s Big Knit campaign triggered the same uplift in interest in
its second year. 51 Consciously knowing the answer does not stop the person being triggered because beliefs are still
challenged: people still don’t pour ketchup out of thin air.
Brand Throughout
‘When I want a good recall score,’ says my partner David Scott, ‘all I have to do is show a gorilla in a jock strap’.52
David Ogilvy
Epistemic Triggers instigate intense reading of a situation while the brain seeks to understand the problem presented by the
communication. Once the problem is solved the brain starts writing as the person remembers the new belief about this situation.
There’s an inherent risk here. If the viewer solves the problem before the brand is introduced, they will remember the
answer without the brand.
We know this from looking at response to an epistemic advert in a neural scanning machine.53 An advert creates an
inexplicable situation. This triggers a high burst of attention (red line on the neural scanner) until the situation is explained.
Once the situation is explained attention falls away as the brain begins recording.
35

Two seconds later the advert shows the brand. The ad suffers poor recall because the brand is shown too late – while the
brain is recording. Read/write capability in the brain is a switch too. When it’s remembering it’s not listening. To experience
this first hand, try to remember what you’ve just driven past when you’ve been daydreaming whilst driving.
Epistemic advertising creates the same burst of high attention, but once the situation is resolved there is low attention while
the answer is recorded. If branding is left until after the resolution it won’t be remembered.
Using Visible Cues to Brand Throughout
The simplest way to brand throughout is to use visual cues. Colours and visible consumption are effective ways to do this.
Cadburys are lucky enough to own a distinctive colour. Roadsigns coloured purple and the small moments of product
consumption in James Corden’s Lip Sync mean that the statement about joy becomes a branded belief. (A purple street sign
is itself an epistemic trigger). Epistemic advertising changes the rules of branding: we need to brand throughout the answer
because once the epistemic problem is solved the viewer will stop paying attention.
You don’t need to own a colour to brand throughout. Heinz have a distinctive bottle shape and a set of behaviours – any
recognisable physical attribute can be used to brand throughout.
36
Figure 6. Memory encoding before and after a situation is revealed
Cadbury – Lip Sync – Colours and Consumption

Using your emotional benefit to brand throughout
In Sapeurs Guinness use product imagery to create visible branding throughout. They do something else as well. The answer
to the Guinness Question: How can I be different when I’m doing the same things creates an inherently branded answer. The
answer is branded not around the product but around the emotional benefit of Guinness.
Guinness is not just burnt ale. It’s a drink that allows people to be individuals in situations that seem to afford them no
individuality.54 If you want to find ways to brand throughout that aren’t just showing your packet every three seconds find your
emotional truth and make that the answer to your epistemic trigger, to the question you ask in the first five seconds.
6. Epistemic triggers throughout the journey
“The real giants have been poets, men who jumped from facts into the realm of imagination and ideas.”55
Bill Bernbach
If epistemic vigilance is an instinct that applies to all communications then we can apply it to anything that communicates.
That means we should be able to apply it anywhere where brand communications occur. There are five points to any
consumer journey where brands communicate.56 All five phases are attention competitive. All five phases favour brands that
are salient and talked about.57
37
Out of market / everyday life
When consumers are out of market they form impressions about brands. Half enter a purchase with a strong
idea who they want to purchase. This is driven by beliefs about brands and their ability to stand out.
Trigger
When consumers are triggered into market they form quick impressions of brands: who’s associated with the
reason I’m in market? Who’s salient around the things I value? Brands can even become triggers into market
themselves.
Research & shopping
When consumers research in market they compare brands to form shortlists in competitive environments like
search terms, looking for brands that stand out from competitive options, and brands that are talked about.
Purchase
At purchase consumers have to choose from a mental or physical shopping list of brands. Brands that have
compelling products and are believable prosper.
Post-purchase & in-life
Post-purchase, the first thing consumers do is research the product again and share their experience with
a friend. What makes them feel good about the experience and prompts them to share their impression to
create word of mouth?
Figure 7. Five communication points
These are the five points where any brand needs to communicate. If we can show that we can use Epistemic Triggers to earn
attention at all five points, we can use Epistemic Triggers anywhere.

Out of market / everyday life
When consumers are out of market they form impressions about brands. Half enter a purchase with a strong idea who they
want to purchase. This is driven by beliefs about brands and their ability to stand out.
O2 – Be More Dog Wateraid – Spaghetti
Blinkbox – Twerking Nine to Five Audi- Flaunt it
British Airways – Don’t Fly. Cadbury – Gorilla
38
For all video copy see http://goo.gl/LHfFke
Brand
communication
Blinkbox –
Twerking 9 to 5
Cadburys -
Gorilla Audi – Flaunt It BA – Thank you
for not flying
Wateraid -
Spaghetti
O2 –
Be more Dog
Belief challenged
Twerking doesn’t
belong with the
song in my head
Gorillas don’t
appreciate Phil
Collins
You have to be a
prick to drive a
German sportscar
Airlines just want
bums on seats
Cooked spaghetti
is floppy cats are cats
Question
Instigated Why are those
lyrics together?
Why is a gorilla
enjoying himself
so much?
Why doesn’t that
prick want that
car?
Why don’t BA
want me to fly?
Why isn’t the
spaghetti floppy?
Why is that
cat behaving like
a dog?
Branded
Belief Created
Blinkbox has got
all kinds of
different music
Cadburys can
make anyone
feel joy
Audis aren’t
for pricks
BA really
supports Britain
There’s a lot of
things I couldn’t
do without water
O2 is the brand
that lets you do
more

Trigger
When consumers are triggered into market they form quick impressions of brands: who’s associated with the reason I’m in
market? Who’s salient around the things I value? Brands can even become triggers into market themselves.
39
Brand
Communication
Economist –
Where do you
stand?
Snickers –
You’re not you
when you’re
hungry
Save the Children
– Second a Day
HMRC –
Footsteps (Radio)
Parkinson’s UK –
Jigsaw
Monster –
When I Grow Up
Belief
Challenged
Those two views
are incompatible,
one is wrong.
Chocolate bars
have nothing to do
with performance
Bad things happen
far away
Unexplained
footsteps mean
something bad.
The words should
be in a specific
order
Children should
have ambitions
Question
Instigated Which one is right? Why did I spell
that wrong?
Why is an English
girl getting
bombed?
Who’s the
bad guy?
Why don’t
the words
make sense?
Why do those
children have low
expectations?
Branded
Belief Created
The Economist
challenges me to
think about things
from both sides
I need a Snickers!
Just because it
isn’t happening
here doesn’t mean
it isn’t happening
Me, and the
government are
coming if I
don’t declare
my income
The simplest
things are
difficult with
Parkinson’s
I need to find a
different job
Snickers – You’re Not You When You’re Hungry
Save the Children – Second a Day
Monster – When I Grow Up
Economist – Where do You Stand?
Parkingsons UK – Jigsaw

Research & shopping
When consumers research in market they compare brands to form shortlists in competitive environments like search terms,
looking for brands that stand out from competitive options, and brands that are talked about.
Brand communication Audi – Showroom with
40
no cars
GCHQ – Can you crack the
code
Frank – Pablo the drugs
mule Apple Store – No Tills
Belief challenged Car showrooms should
have cars in them
Communications
should make sense Dead dogs don’t talk Shops are about selling
Question Instigated Why doesn’t that
showroom have cars in it?
Why won’t this one tell me
what it’s about?
Why’s that dead dog
talking about drugs? Why aren’t there any Tils?
Branded belief created Buying an Audi is all about
the experience
GHCQ is only for the best
and I’m one of them
Coke has some not
great effects
Apple isn’t a product it’s an
experience
GCHQ – Crack the Code Pablo - The Drug Mule Dog
Audi – Digital Car Showroom Apple- Apple Store

41
Purchase
At purchase consumers have to choose from a mental or physical shopping list of brands. Brands that have compelling
products and are believable prosper.
Brand communication Grey Goose
Pricing Strategy
Time
Typewriters cover
Puccino’s
Freshly Baked Pies
Good Taste
Real Life
Belief challenged Vodka is a cheap drink Typewrites produce
information, they
can’t read it
Pies and Croissants aren’t
the same
Food shopping is part of
everyday life
Question Instigated Why is that vodka so
expensive?
Why is one man’s
typewriter feeding
the other?
Why does it say Pie next to
a croissant?
How are cheese and wine
different to real life?
Branded belief created Grey Goose must be the
best vodka in the world
There’s an Interesting
article on creative
collaboration in here
It’s a light hearted place to
stop for breakfast
Their cheese and wine is
better than real life
Time – The Ideas Issue Grey Goose - Pricing
Puccino’s – Freshly Baked Pies Good Taste – Real Life

Post-purchase & in-life
Post-purchase, the first thing consumers do is research the product again and share their experience with a friend. What
makes them feel good about the experience and prompts them to share their impression to create word of mouth?
Brand communication Orange – New York
42
Blackout
Salve Jorge Bar –
The Offline Glass Got Milk – Milk Mustache Soho Gyms - Insanity
Belief challenged Phone networks are about
selling phones
A glass is supposed to
stand up on its own
Attractive people won’t
turn up in a poster with a
milk mustache
‘Insanity’ and ‘Fruitcake’
belong to different
semantic fields
Question Instigated Why does a phone network
want me to turn off my
phone?
Why do I need to prop this
on my phone?
Why is getting milk more
important than looking
good?
Why are fruitcake and
insanity opposites?
Branded belief created
Orange are about
connecting people, not
minutes and texts
Salve Jorge is a place
where people switch off
Getting milk is looking
good
I’m making a good
trade-off by going to
the gym
Orange – New York Blackout
Got Milk – Milk Mustache
Soho Gyms - Insanity Salve Jorge Bar – The Offline Glass

THE FUTURE OF BRAND

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Ähnlich wie THE FUTURE OF BRAND

Ähnlich wie THE FUTURE OF BRAND (20)

Mehr von MEC Russia

Mehr von MEC Russia (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

THE FUTURE OF BRAND