3 Carmakers Embracing Brand Stories

Posted by Jon Thomas, 19 Sep 2012

My first car was a gray 1987 Honda Accord LXi hatchback. Well, it was actually a two-toned gray, since I never bothered to get the replacement panels painted after a fender bender (primer gray was close enough).

I bought the car using the money I earned scooping ice cream and washing dishes at Brigham’s restaurant the two years before. It was a stick shift, and since I didn’t know how to drive a stick yet, my mom had to test-drive it as I sat in the passenger seat. I remember that test-drive vividly. Supposedly it had great gas mileage and shifted like butter. I didn’t pay much attention. I was on cloud nine because I knew this would be my car, and I was dreaming of the possibilities.

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4 Great Ways to Leverage User-Generated Content

Posted by Paige Beaumont, 05 Sep 2012

Great user-generated content (UGC) should not exist in a vacuum—it should be reused, when and where appropriate, to bring color and authenticity to a brand’s marketing.

As brands expand their social-media footprints, many have also (smartly) placed more emphasis on engaging with their fans. As a result, they’ve begun proudly featuring selected consumer contributions in print, TV and online advertising. Dedicated fans often create a gold mine of content that’s just waiting to be explored, and in due course, brands have begun to dip into this resource. It’s the easiest and most direct way to build relationships with customers, because their passion for their favorite brands makes them happy to respond and share their stories—messages that are infinitely more compelling than what the brand might say.

Here are some great ways to use freely made consumer-generated content from social channels to great effect.

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How to Tell a New Consumer Brand Story for an Already-Established Brand

Posted by Luke Dringoli, 08 Dec 2009

So, your client is a known consumer brand that has a NEW story to tell. That’s right, after years of working tirelessly to get out the perfect, authentic brand message, that message has now changed. It’s not because the old message wasn’t great; rather, it’s because the product has changed. In fact, it has improved, and thus the brand’s story also needs to evolve to reach a similar level of brand enlightenment. The trick is figuring out exactly how to tell this new story to the world…

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