1) Consumers now have more power and influence than ever before due to technology, and they expect flexible, easy-to-use experiences that are personalized and relevant to their interests. 2) Many brands are experimenting with new marketing approaches that engage consumers by allowing them to tell stories, generate content, and collaborate with the brand in new ways. 3) Successful brands are shifting from a channel-focused approach to identifying specific consumer segments and creating authentic experiences across multiple channels to build partnerships with consumers.

1. The Era of ASTRONOMICAL Expectations David Levy / Tim Stock / Chris Greco

2. The Era of ASTRONOMICAL Expectations Consumers are empowered by technology giving them influence they’ve never had before. Their power allows them to flexible in how they consume media and expect everything to be as easy-to-use as iTunes. They make no distinction between “online” and “offline” as these consumers are networked and connected with each other. The don’t mind being marketed to but they demand long-term engaging experiences that are relevant and interesting to their specific niches . They expect to collaborate with other peers, but with you in creating your products and your brand.

3. There Are Many Implications For Marketers There is a new lens through which to focus marketing Learning and Intelligence Measuring Success Experiences and Collaboration Content Flexibility and Agility Channels Relevance and Participation Brand

4. THE NEW FRONTIER

5. KEY INSIGHTS “ My Starbucks” -- My Drink Is Me To reflect the individuality of each customer, Starbucks has launched a customizable t-shirt line that features different designs for every drink combination. Illustrations come courtesy of fashion designer Mychael Knight, best known for his role on Project Runway. Your brand is a platform to make your consumer the hero Be relevant and authentic Re-think channels Identify segments and brand advocates

6. Kleenex “Lets it Out” Faced with increased attrition to generic paper product brands, Kleenex’s new Let It Out campaign inviting random people on busy city streets to sit down on a blue couch and reveal what moves you KEY INSIGHTS Let your consumer tell your story, by telling theirs Create compelling experiences across channels Content will come from experiences Be relevant and authentic

7. NY Times Consumer Generated Sunday Style Some stories are best told directly from the source. The New York Times, began posting user-generated video in March in their Weddings & Celebrations section online. KEY INSIGHTS Release what you control/control what you release Be agile and flexible Let your consumer tell your story, by telling theirs Partner with customer niches and existing networks

8. Jeep Patriot Adventure, Marvel Style Consumers can go to Patriot Adventure.com and propose their own storyline as the plot on the online cartoon drama develops. Those who are selected as being particularly proficient in developing the story will get co-author credit on a 28-page book of the completed story, which will be published in early April. KEY INSIGHTS Identify segments and brand advocates Release what you control/ control what you release Let your consumer tell your story, by telling theirs Partner with customer niches and existing networks

9. Audi Art of the Heist Culls Data & Breaks Through Audi’s campaign not only generated considerable traffic and industry buzz, but served as a consistent source of leads to Audi dealers nationwide. The campaign used a technique known as alternative reality gaming, in which a community of users becomes a part of the story, interacts with the characters, and helps each other solve the mystery. More than 200,000 people became involved with the search for the stolen A3 in a single day, engaging the newly coined tech savvy “media avoiders.” When participants visited audiusa.com, 33% of their interaction was with “b uying indicator pages” (car configurator, lease calculator, dealer locator, quote request), dramatically higher than any prior experience. KEY INSIGHTS Quality vs. Quantity - Prioritize learning Create compelling experiences across channels Identify segments and brand advocates

10. Pepsi Consumer Generated Billboard To support its year-long campaign revolving around a constantly changing can and bottle designs, Pepsi will be launching a series of microsites. The first site, thisisthebeginning.com, appeared in January and encouraged people to design their own outdoor billboard for Pepsi. The best designs will actually be created and displayed in New York's Times Square in April. This coincides with 35 niche can designs--including snowboards, emoticons and disc jockeys--every few weeks on store shelves. KEY INSIGHTS Your brand is a platform to make your consumer the hero Re-think channels Release what you control/ control what you release Be relevant and authentic Partner with customer niches and existing networks

11. Red Cross Calls on Threadless to Generate Buzz and T-Shirts Three Red Cross t-shirts were the culmination of an interactive, online competition celebrating the Red Cross organization’s 125th birthday on Threadless.com where community members designed over 230 possible t-shirts based on the themes of “hope, humanity and compassion.” The Threadless community is thriving with over 300,000 users signed up to score designs and an average of 3,000 more signing up every week. KEY INSIGHTS Your brand is a platform to make your consumer the hero Be agile and flexible Partner with customer niches and existing networks Re-think channels Release what you control/ control what you release

12. The New Marketing Frontier Identify segments and brand advocates Quality vs. Quantity - Prioritize learning Measuring Success Let your consumer tell your story, by telling theirs Partner with customer niches and existing networks Content will come from experiences Content Create compelling experiences across channels Re-think channels Be agile Channels Your brand is a platform to make the consumer the hero Be relevant and authentic Release what you control/ control what you release Brand

13. Moving From A Channel Focus To Consumer Focus Rather than look to the channel first and find “content” to fill it with… … identify your consumers first and build experiences that are relevant and authentic PR TV Print Shelf Outdoor Radio Online advertising Web site

14. Brands Are Setting The Bar “ CEO Rosenfeld plans to increase marketing [spend ] as a share of sales from its current 6.9% to between 8% and 9% by 2009. That amounts to a total increase of between $370 million to $750 million in marketing spending over the next two years. But that won't all be in traditional media , or in what will be counted as advertising spending as opposed to promotion and other kinds of marketing, she said, promising an unspecified nontraditional effort behind this year's rollout of DiGiorno Ultimate .” " If we aren't conducting radical experiments , trying new ways to engage our targets and adding value to them, then we're not doing our jobs " “ We are actually pretty confident that by 2010, the majority of our media mix will shift to Digital.” "We can no longer measure success in keeping up, because keeping up is not possible. What we need is a mindset shift …We have to understand what's important to [consumers], and how we can genuinely connect with them . We must shift our mindset to truly creating partnerships . If we want to engage people, our message has to be on their terms"