Seems like the luxury Brand debate is coming to an end. Luxury Brands often do have a problem with the transparency and accessibility of the web. Because they do have a reputation to protect. And they need to stay exclusive.

However this does not mean luxury Brands can ignore the the fast evolving changes in digital branding. Research shows that the luxury consumer is ready for 2.0 and they do have very high expectations.

Not meeting this expectations will definitely harm your brand. For a luxury brand, just ‘keeping up’ is not enough. You have to be outstanding.

Beth Uyenco, Research Director for Microsoft Advertising comes with the following Luxury Brand Engagement Model:

• ‘Awareness’ To stay in line with the offline communications, and to deepen the brand experience with interaction, your web presence needs to be of top quality.
• ‘Admiration’ Luxury Brands need to exceed expectations and do also have to communicate on an emotional level.
• ‘Exploration’ Similar to the in-store communications. Luxury customers will want a personalizes way of exploring the Brand and its products.
• ‘Consideration’ After the exploration phase, it is important to create engagement. In this stage it is very important to know who your future customer is, to deliver an exceptional service and to invite the customer to join the Brand.
• ‘Purchase’ Integration of offline and online will give the possibility to enrich the purchase experience. It is about helping to buy more efficient and/or making the purchase a remarkable moment.
• ‘Ownership’ There are many digital ways to keep and strengthen the relations with your exclusive customers.

(Thanks to Microsoft Advertising and frankwatching.com )

People are spending more and more time on the Internet, right? But the front runners, the heavy users are more and more facing the problem of information overload. They are disconnecting in stead of connecting.

The next trend is going Off line.

We will see more and more (lab)topless meetings, topless holidays etc. And people are trying to find ways to use their free time more effectively (lifehacking). Gmail labs comes with a new feature the TakeABreak option which effectively removes you from all Gmail functions for 15 mins.

For Brands this trend is one to consider. Besides the fact that being relevant will be the only prevention against customers disconnection with your Brand. Brands have to start thinking about how to offer disconnecting experiences, lifehacking widgets and more TakeAbreak tools, products and the like. Customers will love you for it.

It is about a delivering sounds, sights, smells… for a well deserved holiday . It is not about selling it there. It is about people taking it home in their systems. That’s what I call a good Brand association.

Following my post on Saatchi2.0 I would like to talk more about the subject of agency2.0.

What does a future advertising agency look like? What is its role, its structure? What can we learn from pure digital agencies and other online businesses in general? What can a traditional agency do to stay alive and revive?

In the Businessweek interview I mentioned earlier, I read that Saatchi & Saatchi has tried to buy a digital agency Blast Radius. It didn’t work out since Blast Radius merged with Wunderman, a large direct marketer. What is the real reason behind this? Was it a cultural difference or a pure strategical decision?

After some short research (I will come back to this subject). I found some well known insights digital agencies come up with:

• stop annoying customers, start engaging
• stop delivering ads for clients, start delivering strategies on advertising
• get insights through data, customerinfo and testing

I my opinion the field of advertising is only getting more interesting since agencies must and can focus on their core business “ideas”. And they get more means to generate and spread these ideas.

Looking at how this could look like in practice. I did check the Nitro website. What do they do for a living? As they say, they deliver:

• Innovation
• Communications
• Digital

some links on the subject:

The agency of the future
The agency of the future 2
The agency of the future 3
The agency of the future 4

Technorati Profile

Brands are increasingly recognizing that customer experience is everything. With the transparency of the web, news travels fast. Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000. Micropersuasion.com is even talking about a digital job function: Chief Customer Experience Officer
They also did set up an easy example with a google ’search within results’. Just enter any company and check the results.