Center of the Universe, YO!

Pretty clever, get in and out, very simple and it’s not boring.

The social network site is getting a facelift. I thought it was getting cluttered.
Click here to read article.

What is a good co-branding partnership… what is the difference? Recently my colleague Ben worked on a project where he identified the different levels of co-branding and pointed out a good partnership. The document turned out be thirty something pages BUT for the sake of this blog entry I will explain it in two paragraphs.

There are four levels of co-branding, I am going to focus on the top level (the other levels I’ll focus on another day) which is Complementary Competence. Complementary competence is when each co-branding collaborator (i.e., the brands) commits skills and resources to create greater value than could be achieved individually, think 1+1=3.

Now, obviously by the image below you know what I think is a good co-branding partnership. Nike and Apple came together to create the Nike+iPod Sport kit. This partnership created something new, 1 + 1 = 3. The core competencies of both are utilized to raise value perceptions for each brand. The result of this… I’ll leave that for you to decide, I’m just a brand knave.

As I am out and about town I hear a lot of people confusing the meaning of branded entertainment and product integration. I am going to easily break it down and give you an example.

Product integration is taking an established property (i.e., tv show, movie, etc) and inserting the brand on the set or in the story line. Think GM and the Transformers movie.

Branded entertainment pushes it a bit further, this is when an advertiser (brand) and a media company (network, studio, production company, etc.) form a partnership to co-produce content. Think BMW films, watch this clip it’s my favorite from this series.

The Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping

Ever wonder what the difference is between marketing, PR, advertising, and branding is?

Hmm good PR and branding seem to work. I found this on Quick Sprout