When you do things that feel organic and natural, it’s not like you’re selling something to people. The problem with a lot of advertisement is that it feels forced. And for kids, they can see it. They can smell it a mile away.

—Pharrell Williams

a way of ‘getting into character’ that consciously and subconsciously informs the design process (…) writing, curating, and doing strategic work. All these activities require the ability to process vast amounts of data (often media) fairly rapidly and synthesise into some new form

As I took a closer look at this list this morning it dawned on me that a few of these companies are masters of brand utility. There are a number of examples — and I’ll share a few – but let me get my optinions out of the way first:

1. In these (digital) days brands have to accept the fact that they need to constantly explore new offerings, secondary products and complementary services — even if it doesn’t offer an immediate profit — to compete.
2. All brands should have a way to share their “lifestyle” to their audience; this could be a blog, twitter, or print.

Two of the companies I really admire are Ace Hotel and Monocle. Both do an excellent job of brand utility by co-branding products, rethinking “traditional” business models and creating new distribution paths.

The Ace has worked with a number of clothing brands (i.e. Baron Wells, another company on the list) to create staff uniforms — also offered for general public purchase — as well as rooftop honey.

Monocle has also done similar things, by co-branding product offerings and branching off to TV and radio/podcasts. And, in my opinion, the most important “movement”: brand-fueled content.

And finally, my last example, which ties in brand-fueled content. The latest comes in the form of a magazine from The French Laundry. This is a great example (along with Reed Pages) of how a business can leverage its partners, clients and other to create brand utility.

The theme of the 64-page first issue is history, so Keller and co. have collected stories — and the expected gorgeous photography — all about the Laundry and every aspect of the restaurant: longtime staffers, former cooks, journalists.

Ruth Reichl and Michael Ruhlman pen articles. Chefs of all kinds make cameos. But it’s more than that — the magazine also highlights lesser known, yet essential parts of the French Laundry machine, like the wine producer who partners with the restaurant to create the Cuvee French Laundry.

keep the org as lean as you can, because true innovation will always come from outside, where people are exposed to more stuff and aren’t worried about our internal stuff.   Keep it lean and staff it with folks smart enough to spot the things that can work for the company, and empower them to make those things happen. And if they fail?  At least we learn.

For new initiatives a product manager typically starts by writing an internal press release announcing the finished product. The target audience for the press release is the new/updated product’s customers, which can be retail customers or internal users of a tool or technology. Internal press releases are centered around the customer problem, how current solutions (internal or external) fail, and how the new product will blow away existing solutions.

If the benefits listed don’t sound very interesting or exciting to customers, then perhaps they’re not (and shouldn’t be built).

This a very smart idea. It continues to mention that there is (potential) cost savings as it’s easier to change a press release than it is to change a product. And, it focuses on what the customer wants versus projecting a product on a customer.

“Ads are just getting bigger and louder as attention online is getting so scarce,” said Solve Media CEO and founder, Ari Jacoby. “So we’re fishing where the fish are,” he said, referring to this untapped space where users are forced to spend time. (via Kottke)

For influential bloggers, sponsorships can be more lucrative than display ads alone, with payments reaching into the thousands for a multipronged campaign stretching over weeks or months. For the brands, it’s a way to market more conversationally to potential customers as well as exert more control over search engine results.

I’m not sure this is an entirely new thought, but it’s one that I’ve liked for a while now. If it’s done right it’s a great tool for both parties. And, I can’t figure out the difference between sponsoring a blogger and sponsoring a celebrity’s clothing on the red carpet.

Monocle magazine is the pioneer of the brand-fueled content. They have reconsidered the advertiser-publisher relationship and created engaging branded content throughout their magazine and into online media like podcasts. It works very well.

Brand-fueled content is content such as articles, videos and events where a brand’s values and briefs on a product where editorial control is given to the site owner (goal being a conversation started, natch). It seems to be the future. Let’s look toward the Old Spice campaign and “the Response Campaign”. Major success.

Beau Colburn captured my feelings on brand-fueled content (and the Old Spice campaign, more specifically) perfectly.

these video responses feel like a dramatic shift in “advertising.” Putting the word in quotes was intentional because I’m not really sure what this is. These responses aren’t ads. I suppose there’s a proper term like “brand extension” or the like for something like this, but this feels new.

Mind you, Watts does agree that some people are more instrumental than others. He simply doesn’t think it’s possible to will a trend into existence by recruiting highly social people. The network effects in society, he argues, are too complex–too weird and unpredictable–to work that way. If it were just a matter of tipping the crucial first adopters, why can’t most companies do it reliably?

Both sides of the argument make sense to me. I’d side more with Watts than Gladwell at this point, but I’m giving him only a slight edge.