For Digital Branding, your visual presentation is extremely important and with the growing influence of interactivity and video the use of Flash is almost inevitable. However the problem with Flash is that it has a problem with search engines.

But there is some improvement now. Adobe is working with Google and Yahoo! to enable one of the largest fundamental improvements in web search results by making the Flash file format (SWF) a first-class citizen in searchable web content.

This will increase the accuracy of web search results by enabling top search engines to understand what’s inside of RIAs and other rich web content created with Adobe Flash technology and add that relevance back to the HTML page.

Read the full article

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 )

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

How does a traditional agency adapt to 2.0

On ideasonideas.com Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts answers some questions following an interview in BusinessWeek last December. On youtube I find an interview with him from a few weeks ago.

It is interesting to see how a agency like Saatchi is struggling to keep up in the digital age. With Kevin Roberts it is all about Lovemarks. So now with all the new possibilities it is just about digital Lovemarks, isn’t it?

What I miss in the interviews is some good examples of digital Lovemarks. On ideasonideas.com Roberts comes with a few examples as the bestinjest campaign. But what I miss is the real emotional connection where the lovemarks stand for.

In my opinion it is even easier now a days to really move people because of the smooth distribution. I always put it like this: One thing never changes.. Human

• with all the social networks > we can still feel lonely
• grandma still loves us > only now digital

(Digital Photo Frame)

ps. There is a Saatchi office in Geneve

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.