And this is a great time to think about making planning better.

Because of a simple reason: planning has never been so defied as it has been defied now.

This 40 years old discipline is experiencing an unprecedented moment where everything surrounding has changed. By everything I mean the advertising model, the consumer, the media channels and the clients’ demands.

Motivated by these transformations, Stephen King, one of the idealists of the planning discipline long ago, once said: “I’m just surprised that no one has thought of a better idea yet”.

It’s not that planning doesn’t work or it’s not valid anymore.

It’s just that it was a great innovation for a different scenario. To be “the voice of the consumer in the process of developing advertising” is not enough for the actual reality in which communication and planning are playing.

For me it’s true that planning needs to evolve.

We have to think differently about creating brand relevance in an era when people have got the power to chose what, how and when brands will be relevant for them.

So let’s think different about planning.

Let’s think more on how influencing the culture in which a brand plays rather than trying to make the brand bigger, faster, cleaner, greater, cooler.

Let’s accept fragmented, segmented and molecular approaches rather than the big and fixed message/idea of what to say about the brand.

Let’s celebrate the opportunity people give us to work for the development of conversations rather than the advertising monologue.

Let’s face that the creative brief is just the beginning of our jobs and not the final product of out activities.

Let’s fight to put planning officially starting with innovation and product development people rather than just keep solving marketing staff’s problems.

And let’s keep our strengths and use them to fight new fights.

Planning will continue to be about the people.

About bringing well-grounded insights to generate brand relevance.

About helping to create truthful connections with products and services.

About helping to understand who consumes what and how who influences whom.

About guiding people in the middle of the chaos.

About envisioning great storytelling themes and universes.

So, be confident.

Behavior will still be our holy grail. Even more.

And think different.

Because even less will be advertising.

While some product and service brands are learning how to think with the interactive perspective, other “brands” are offering great lessons, like the ones from the entertainment industry (by the way, remember where transmedia storytelling started?).

Just experiment Radiohead’s 12 Cams, for example. This is an interactive piece that Radiohead did to communicate their In Rainbows World Tour in Japan. A simple and great idea that puts you in the position of a TV Director, or something like this, where you can edit the images of a stage performance using all the different 12 cams to create your own rainbow (see the concept?).

It’s crazy – simple, very attractive and something you would like to share with your friends.

What I like most about this idea is that it gives me the rich content of the band in its pure form and let me play with it. Fantastic, and a real good example of an idea that aims for a two-way (or more, if we consider it’s spreadable) communication.

Better than having one idea that aims this dynamic, is to have an strategy based on that. Which is what I get from all this Radiohead project. The premise of interactivity seems to be the seed for the whole strategy of In Rainbow launching, not just the 12 Cams idea. And this is what makes the whole thing even more beautiful.

As people responsible for the creative manifestation of brands, I believe we should look for this same seed in our strategies. To aim and pursue for a experiential path in which creativity could produce a two-way communication process resulting in better relationships and conversations.

After all, what do you think those guys were thinking when they decided for letting their fans chose what price to pay for the musics of the album?

When experiences take a major role, our mindset has to shift as a radar mapping great interaction opportunities.

In my mind, interactions presume both sides giving something valuable to each other. No part playing a passive role. Instead, an active exchange between two parts.

That’s how interactions turn into dialogues.

Creating rich dialogues, we will create richer conversations – that major topics and events existing in our culture, where brands happen.

Ok. I know that this thinking is not so clear, maybe just thrown away as things appear in my mind, but not so far from what Colin has wrote with great simplicity here:

Why the separation between planning and user experience design? As “planners”, we need to evolve our thinking to be interactions-based. Insights and strategy that drive brand interactions, retail interactions, product interactions, digital interactions. Brands create paths for people to follow.

As you can see, and I like to think, we have a very interesting path ahead of us. So, let’s contribute with it.

Maybe the hardest thing for brands who face social media and social networking is to avoid the bandwagon and really come up with a strategic thinking behind their presence.

Lots of brands are making use of the social tools. But lots of brands are just replicating, with different layers, the messaging model when there is no conversation at all.

So, it’s great when some companies come up with richer perspectives and this is what makes me highlight what Best Buy is doing.

In this post from We Are Social you can see a video of Best Buy’s CMO explaining how they understand what is happening and what digital can do for them. In a sentence: “make dreams come true”.

As part of that, they launched Twelpforce, a dedicated help force to be there for customers via Twitter. What means that if I have a doubt I use @Twelpforce and someone will try to solution my anxiety.

Isn’t it simple and brilliant?

What I like most about it is that it’s a real service for people. A real utility for consumers.

Great because it builds value upon the space where people are already present and adds a new function inside it.

It’s also a big example of how companies and agencies can be skillful to bring up new uses of Twitter as a social tool applied to business.

If CP+B is not behind it (which I think they do), they are the ones who are spreading the service.

Have a look on the ads (here) that directs the audience to @Twelpforce and not to a microsite. Oh, and the stadium metaphor really makes one understand what the service is all about. Even for those who are not used to Twitter.

One that, besides delivering the product, delivered a new buying experience.

Before that, I watched a video of a Samsung’s person explaining its functionality, but it’s a huge jump when you observe people interacting with it.

It’s interesting to see how, through this technology, Coca Cola amplifies the experience at the moment of buying. A precious moment when the consumer has his attention totally focused on it and the brand can give something more than just the product.

It’s not just a moment for a “refreshing pause”, but a huge opportunity for the brand to be more relevant, to surprise and present a piece of its storytelling in a delightful way.

Also, this is a nice example of how great interactions can generate more interests for brands.

A natural thing if we think that the more pleasant an experience is, the more we want to repeat it.

Maybe, this is the little truth and desired effect behind the touch-screen.

This video was popping up the internet some days ago.

And I think it’s just so cool.

Because it’s a perfect piece to explain what viral is and how/why it commonly happens.

As Faris usually says: “viral is a thing that happens, not a thing that is” and here we can see this effect.

Something just happening.

What I love about the video is that in the beginning you have one guy original and authentic enough to come up with a different behavior from the context (no judgments here, please).

So, another guy comes and makes the different action kind of fun and acceptable.

A third one comes into it, making it playful and enjoyable.

And then, it just happens.

The ones who were not part of that action, but part of the context, just get into it too, endorsing and wanting to make part of that movement.

People now act like herd.

Suddenly, nonsense dancing becomes one cool thing done by many.

And, oh, the spirit of collective hysteria takes the main role.

And that’s my opinion about the theme (under 25 lines).

Optimize the experience

I dare to say that the changes we lived in the media landscape in the last ten years were unique and exposed us, agencies, to communicate in new and unexpected ways. Mass media rapidly lost its reign to new channels and tools because people are in charge now.

Their demands are active and happen through lots of platforms because of a simple reason: they go after what is appealing and interesting to their eyes. And it doesn’t matter if this is on TV, on the internet or at a live event.

In this way, the concept of using multi-platforms to optimize creativity bothers me a little bit. Because it sounds to me as if we were still thinking on the message perspective and not thinking on how best use a mix of platforms to come up with a strategy/creativity able to make people engage and relate with an idea (be it an experience, a storytelling or a product, for instance). To make my point clearer, I’ll use the launching of Halo 3 to explain the difference.

Thinking about Halo 3, you could see that lots of platforms were used to articulate not only the advertising of a new game, but the experience of a mythical and heroic storytelling. The campaign wasn’t proposing a message, but an idea big and powerful that people could engage and participate. They did films, internet, live actions, promotions, PR and more, using the power of each platform, combining them to offer different experiences and opportunities for people to join the story.

This is opposed to the use of multi-platforms leveraging one single message. When it happens you are just reaching people by different touch-points, but it doesn’t mean you are engaging and connecting to them. What is, definitely, not an optimization.

When it comes to the modern ways of brand building, I believe there is nothing so strong as establishing conversation. The ones that are real, interesting and enduring.

This presentation from John Willshire is absolutely fantastic to understand, in a few minutes, how brands need to evolve their marketing approach to really connect to people in this world ruled by interesting things to talk about.

Great way of showing and proving how actually doing things for people (remember this from Adrian) makes lots of difference on how brands can get closer and relevant.

Unfortunately, I bet there are lots of us still trying to convince some clients not to pointing their finger – the way slide 31 reproduces – while people are having some nice conversation.

It’s so pleasant when you face a brand that walks the walk. And that’s why I’m writing about Zappos.com.

This week, my dear friend and colleague at McCann Brazil, Debora Nitta, sow Zappos’ young CEO on Oprah TV show and was amazed by how he runs his company. Their mission is to provide the best customer service experience through the WOW philosophy.

Debora, then, wanted to know more about it and sent an email to Tony Hsieh, the CEO. I don’t know what was her expectation, but mine wouldn’t be receiving a reply on the same day or the next. But Tony put words into action by answering her inquires just-in-time and offering the 2008 company’s culture book so she could know them better.

We were just amazed with that. But the more we read about them, the more we understood this act. These guys are just crazy about making this WOW thing happens. See:

• Zappos.com is an online retailer (primarily focused on shoes)
• they don’t charge shopping and returns (for 365 days!)
• there are always someone to help you in case of doubt (yes, real people)
• people do have autonomy to solve your problem
• if they don’t have the product you want in stock, they will look for it with competitor’s and then drive you to that site so you can have what you want.
• but, most importantly, they will satisfy you throughout the entire shopping process.

To guarantee this idea Zappos.com creates and feeds an internal culture that involves all employees around it. And it’s based upon 10 core values.

So, when the CEO of the company replies an email from an unknown person from another country and sends a book about their culture and beliefs for free he builds his brand and is truthful to his own ideal.

Tony knows how to generate word-of-mouth around his business. His business vision is all about improve his service and let people do the advertising job. In a natural and spontaneous way, telling their folks how good it was their purchasing experience. I just love a sentence of the book which says: “rather than spend a lot of money on marketing, we can instead put that money towards improving the customer experience”.

In an age of conversation what it seems to me is that Zappos.com has all to do with common sense and simplicity. They are not reinventing the business, but being more sensible on making a good selling, dealing with people and allowing them to interact with you. It’s an human approach, after all.

Also, it’s a great example on how brands should behave to really connect and dialogue with people.

That’s why, in a near future, they can be operating in whatever business their way of doing means to provide a better experience than the competition.

Check it out more about them here and here.