Brand Management

Greetings, and Happy New Year. Hopefully the social tides have pushed our annual holiday tribute, Most Contagious, your way. If not, here it sits, in all its glory.

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After years of die-hard fans piecing together the plot from bits and pieces carefully architected by cunning gamesmasters, maybe the Alternate Reality Game's seminal epoch has passed.

This isn't easy to say. At Contagious HQ we've been a fan of experiences that properly create tension around a story by involving fans in a side story for a long time--back to I Love Bees, in 2004, right around when we launched.

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As the fourth installment of The Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn - Part 1, hit movie screens last Thursday, Report on Business columnist and marketing expert, Ryan Caligiuri, was having an online discussion with Globe readers about the marketing lessons to be drawn from the wildly popular vampire series.

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Ah, yes, welcome--lie down please. Welcome to Herr Doktor Nick von Contagious' center for psychoanalytic studies.

In our last Globelink installment Real-time Rewind we talked a bit about the ideas behind real-time marketing, the call and response many marketers are trying to set up with people in order to not only deal with issues and problems more readily...

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The Canadian Marketing Association’s latest leadership paper tackles a timely issue many marketers are grappling with -- building brand equity with new Canadians.

Just released, the paper taps into new CMA research and the perception new Canadians have of brands and how brand relationships are shaped.



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Many brands give in to the siren call of sponsorships. Online, the sites that don't offer such partnerships in some form or another are few and far between. As prolific as digital media sponsorships are, however, they require a specialized strategy for success. At the top of the to-do list is ensuring that your sponsorship serves a purpose and showcases the defining characteristics of your products.

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Continuing from last week's post - Social networks - too much of a good thing - I want to talk more about social networking in relation to marketing.

Surrounded by hundreds of social networks, a digital strategist can be kind of like a kid in a candy store. There are so many brand profiles to be had, so many colourful, interactive sites on which to create them. Before you overindulge and make your brand ill - stop. Think. And consider the situation from the consumer's point of view.


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Written by Lucy Handley, of MarketingWeek this article looks at the Brand Happiness Boosters report, completed by The Communications Agency, and how today's young adults are less happy than their 80s counterparts. To get positive results from this discontented group, Marketing needs to look at incorporating deeper levels of sociability and engagement into their campaigns.



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In today's Globe and Mail, Amber MacArthur, media consultant, speaker and journalist, comments and provides some interesting insight on Evenflo's video ad - ‘How to Endure the In-law Feeding Frenzy.’


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This week I'm going to discuss further the importance of using colour when designing your website. There's much to think about when building or redesigning a site, both in terms of standing out from the crowd and creating a relevant and consistent online image for your brand.

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There's so much to consider when building or redesigning a Web site. Your site is your brand's best suit or new dress – a visual representation of who you are and what you're all about. But it's also your elevator pitch, and your first opportunity to make an impact with your target consumer.

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In this week's 30-Second Spots column, Levi’s suspends ‘youthful rebellion’ ad in U.K., Simon Houpt discusses topics ranging from what affects the London riots are having on marketing campaigns to Kenneth Cole's latest hot button ad campaigns...


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