Brand Karate

Charlie Hoult

Despite the deluge on Web 2.0, not enough has been written...

During the dot.com boom, there was a catchphrase: 'The Internet Changes Everything'. The hype surrounding this did not do anyone any favours. But, after the hangover, it might just be true.

People say to me that packaging is internet-proof because you still need to buy stuff off shelves and the internet won't change the fact you need groceries in the cupboards.

But, actually, with the rise of online retail, even pack design is changing. If your ready-meal doesn't look good as a 3cm Ocado thumbnail, then sales may suffer.

Where's it all going to end?

Well, where's it all going to start? A study, that I received today, has researched the traction that Web 2.0 has with creative agencies. These guys could be pinpointed as the factory for ideas that will influence the way brands get pushed.

Coming from 'agency-land', I try to avoid looking like I'm pumping self-serving agency opinion - to ensure that my blogatorial integrity and thought leadership remains intact.

On this occasion, I think it's fair comment - particularly as Rebecca Caroe's survey puts creative agencies behind the general McKinsey trend on Web 2.0

The report is a great run-down of opinion, only lacking mine because I was too busy to write in the text boxes of her survey.

The only issue I would dispute is the methodology of the survey which has implied that people who weren't sure of the future are perceived to be dithering behind commiting - at the same time as most being sure the financial model isn't there.

As a businessman, I think, therefore, that it's better to follow fast when the model is worked, rather than commit business investment to something more speculative. 

And, yes, I think something huge is happening with marketing 2.0. The whole challenge for brands, in a Web 2.0 world, is how to participate in peer-to-peer dialogues, rather than disrupt and interrupt on behalf of your product.

As per my previous blog, it doesn't surprise me that some agency folk haven't got here yet. It's a shifting mirage of future. And, every day brings a new dawn of interesting ideas that crack bits of the jigsaw... 

Most ad agencies, if you read the abstracts from the Cannes Festival coming up, are a bit 'rabbit in the headlights' about Web 2.0... there's plenty of melodramatic chatter about 'oh, gosh, it's all going to change'.

I think the answer is about keeping to one's core values, but being able to apply flexibility to how they are played out in the future.

The only certainty is to keep experimenting. Here endeth the blog...