Finding Friends

A brand is merely an inanimate object that lies helplessly on a shelf waiting for a consumer to pick it up and try it. It may be the best product in the world, but like a newborn baby, all it can do is cry out for attention.

How can we breathe life into this inarticulate object so it can grow up and create a civilization around itself where it can live, learn and play; an environment where it can share authentic brand experiences with its friends and fans?

As marketers, we must use branded engagement to empower brands to come to life and create an unprecedented life form capable of self-sustenance and propagation. As fantastical and implausible as this may sound, any branded content, idea, or concept should set its bar no lower.

Brand Engagements Empowering Branded Content

Let's take, for example, the branded content idea for Coke Studio. This was an idea that bought Coke to life first in Brazil in 2007, then expanded its family into Pakistan in 2008, and further expanded into India in 2011. Today Coke Studio has burgeoned in many countries around the world and has a loyal fan base the size of a small…