MisEntropy

You must download the change you want to see in the world

The Elongtaing Tail of Brand Communication: An approach to brand building incorporating long tail economics - my Atticus-winning whitepaper - is now available as a ChangeThis Manifesto. 

[Original pic by r1chardm]

Where's the long tail of brand communication? [UPDATED]

I have been hard at work the past few months hammering away at extending Chris Anderson's Long Tail theory to the field of brand communication and brand-building. After repeated reading and re-reading of Chris' book and writing and re-writing of my own thoughts, I have finally got myself to hit the 'make pdf' button and have digitally shrink-wrapped copies of the resulting paper for distribution.

In it's 22 pages you'll find the answers all of these questions : What do you get when you apply the first principles of long tail economics to the craft of brand building? Can you create a complex, layered brand image by resorting to simple advertising? What role is user generated content going to play in the future of mainstream advertising? What lessons can space exploration and robotics teach the practitioners of brand-building? What's the evolving science of negative databases and why do we brand custodians need to learn about it? Why is the single-minded brand proposition an anachronism in the contemporary world of marketing?

You can download the paper here : The Elongating Tail of Brand Communication: An approach to brand-building incorporating long tail economics

I would love to hear comments and views. 

UPDATE: Chris Anderson has just posted and commented on the paper on his Long Tail blog :)

UPDATE 2: Atticus Award for the 'The Elongating Tail...' paper

UPDATE 3 (20th Aug 2007): A proposal to convert the above paper into a ChangeThis Manifesto is currently up for vote. Please do vote for it by following this link. Voting ends 16th Sept. 2007.

The power of 30 seconds

So, India have finally won a test match on South African soil!

I am not a great fan of either form of cricket and rarely, if ever, watch it. I used to be even less interested in the Indian cricket team and the developments, or otherwise, that have been happening there ever since Greg Chappell came along.

But something changed inside of me in the past couple of months and I have followed this Test match very keenly from day one. And wonder of wonders, I have been rooting for Sourav Ganguly to do well, cement his place in the team and even probably lead us in the world cup next year.

So what happened to effect this dramatic transformation? Just 30 seconds of this :

I think this commercial was one of the better endorsement ads that Pepsi has done - and they have done a few. What more would you want from a commercial than sheen to rub off on both the endorser and the endorsed?

It also came at a difficult time for Sourav and I admire the bravery of both Sourav and Pepsi in doing it. (In an otherwise wonderfully scripted commercial, I just think the last line - "Apne dada ki baat sunoge na?" - was very inelegant.)

So, Sourav's wonderful comeback has begun - the papers are full of praise for his grit, determination, dignity and performance. I can't help but follow each of his innings and the fate of the Indian cricket team from now onwards.

And when I am at work, I'll never forget where it all began. With a 30 second commercial for a soft drink I don't drink.