Stop Guessing
	Over the years, promotional tools have become oft-used weapons in the brand marketer\'s arsenal, employed by thousands of brands to attract and retain customers. Last year alone, more than 20 percent of total marketing expenditure went to promotional activities. Analysts predict that, by 2003, 50 to 70 percent of Internet marketing budgets will be spent on promotions. One of the major benefits of running promotions has been the window such efforts can open on consumer behaviour. Brand builders can monitor the effect of promotions by soliciting action from consumers -- getting them to complete coupons, enter competitions, return product labels, you name it. The response to these gimmicks then stands as a clear indicator of the success or otherwise of a campaign. Compare the measurability of this strategy with that of, say, pure TV advertising, which affords brand builders scant consumer analysis in the short term.
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	Playing the Brand Game
	If I scroll through your media plan I’m sure it will contain all the usual and well-known media options, TV and Radio ads, the print ads and the outdoor. We’ve all picked these options for years well in fact decades because we knew you would never be fired on choosing them. Just like an IT guy wouldn’t be fired for installing an IBM solution for your company. But soon these days are long gone – soon you will be fired to choose these options. Today the size of the computer gaming market is double of the revenue generated by the movie industry. ACNielsen predicts the movie industry will be one third of the computer gaming industry within only four years leaving me wondering where the enormous power once placed in the hands of Hollywood is about to go. Is it about to go online? And if it is – where are you?
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	Opinionated Branding
	Have you ever hears about a brand rejecting customers? Probably not – every brand we know are desperate to attract more customers - and the customers know it – so when finally a brand follows the opposite trend, there might be something in it. Some years ago I developed the concept for a relaunch of the Pepsi website. The big question was – how do you create a website which goal is to promote a sticky soft drink – which at the same time had to be cool, relevant and make you drink even more? As easy as it might sound for some – just as difficult it is – without abusing the usual advertising solutions like games, screensavers and music news. It’s kind of overdone – and hardly builds the brand…well unless you happen to be in the gaming or music industry.
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	Future of Marketing
	Marketing isn’t what it used to be. In 2003, advertising spending across the world increased on average by 3.6% - however the returns from that spend decreased by 3.4%. Not a surprising fact considering that the average consumer who’s reached the ripe old age of 65 in Britain would have been exposed to at least one million television commercials. And the number in the U.S. and Australia is even higher. When you stop and do the sums, this equates to watching television commercials for eight hours every day, seven days a week for a mind-boggling three years! Given the low return on advertising investment, we are forced to conclude that advertising, as we know it, no longer works. Something new is required. I’m suggesting three new pathways.
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	Contextual Branding
	When I first surfed the Net, some six years ago, I clicked on every banner ad that came before me. I reckon this was, not so much because I was in desperate need for home loan advice, fly fishing equipment or wedding dresses, but because I was curious to see what a banner ad was all about. I can promise you, I\'m not curious any longer! But I am still curious about ads that appear in logical contexts. In these cases, the advertising message makes sense and, piquing my curiosity because of this fact, encourages me to revert to my earlier discovery-oriented behaviour.
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	Brand Republic
	Some might ask them selves what went wrong when Heinz released a new ketchup – not in the traditional red colour – but in blue! The official statement from the company stated that the release of this new blue Heinz ketchup was a move to secure attention among a younger audience – but is this really what kids want?
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	Brand Building not Bland Building
	Ever heard of a brand that rejects customers? Probably not. Brands are uniformly desperate to attract them. So why would a brand take the opposite approach? Some years ago, I developed the concept for the Pepsi Web site\'s relaunch. I was challenged by the big question, how do you create a Web site for promoting sticky soda? The site had to be cool and relevant; it had to make visitors drink more soda than they already did. Given Pepsi\'s prominence, the task might appear easy. Yet without abusing the usual solutions, such as games, screensavers, and music news, it wasn\'t. Those hackneyed techniques were, even back then, so overdone they weren\'t suited to brand building unless the brand was in the gaming or music industries.
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