The social experiment... monster

Here comes David Armano's next step after his "What is the story" post. The answers to his original post were various, serious, curious, challenging, interesting and also quite unexpected for some. Like this “three-eyed-monster” that could have been proposed by Stefan G. Bucher... but was in fact submitted by Adrian Lai.

But what I’d like to point out here is David’s analysis of the process he initiated. Here is an extract of his first status :

 

“What can brands learn from social experiments?

1. A passionate community is the lifeblood of your brand.  Without it—a brand is hollow.
2. People want to interact with your brand—to be a part of it somehow, to make it their own.
3. Your community can make your brand better, stronger and smarter.
4. Inviting your community to become an active part of your brand stimulates ideas, creativity and potentially innovation.”

 

Then David explains the path of his thoughts using the metaphor of his original post :

 

“If brands let their communities define them—are they strong brands in the first place?  The answer is yes.  My voice is my voice.  It will not change—I am who I am.  But my thoughts and actions can be influenced by what you say and do.  Are brands willing to do the same?  Does this make them weak or strong?”
...

“The point is that a healthy brand does not live in isolation—just like healthy people.”

 

Once again, thank you for this, David. Yes!!! This is just brilliant! Brands shouldn’t live in isolation – not to mention isolation is almost impossible, taking into account the fact that “WE are the story” and so talk, write, compare, review, comment brands whether they want it or not! So yes, they should “Open the tank”, take (relative) risk and engage conversation. Consumers are the heartbeat of the brands... so their “pulse” is definitely needed inside the Box, right! How could brands live without them?

 

We used to say "Think out of the Box"... and go outside to seek inspiration. Should we now consider "Come think in our Box"? Invite consumers to come inside and help define our brands, boost our own creativity or innovation and eventually help us “produce” interesting content? Wow... talking about “revolution” much?

 

In the meantime, please consider you’re definitely welcome to come think... in this blog-Box... well anytime. One-eyed-Aliens like three-eyed-monsters, naturally.   ; )

UPDATE : Adrian Lai just pointed to my attention that the eyes were from a project going on in NYC. You can check what it "looks" like here (thanks Adrian!).

 

Comments

[Adrian Lai]

Hi there,

Glad u liked it & thanks for the link. The eyes are also from a very interesting project around NYC
http://flickr.com/search/?q=googly+eye+cru&m=text

[Maryam in Marrakesh]

1. A passionate community is the lifeblood of your brand.
2. People want to interact with your brand—to be a part of it somehow, to make it their own.
3. Your community can make your brand better, stronger and smarter.
4. Inviting your community to become an active part of your brand stimulates ideas, creativity and potentially innovation.”

This is brilliant. I actually want to put this into action for the branding of our guesthouse in Marrakech. I am thinking about this now!