Your brand is the ball (redux)

A metaphor that I developed in 2007 to explain the difficulties in achieving true 360˚ planning - and to point the way towards a comprehensive and inclusive framework for mapping all forms of consumer-brand encounter, from TV to tribal, if you like - is drawn from the golden age of TV.

We call it "your brand is the ball" ...

First, think about tenpin bowling. You put all your focus into heaving - with great skill and effort - a weighty, unwieldy lump of a ball down a very narrow channel, to knock over as many pins as possible. Note that the success of the entire game is predicated on a) precise targeting and placement of the ball - including a certain amount of spin and b) a very focused, "one-off" burst of energy to propel the ball with sufficient force to the pins at the end of the lane.

A strike - all ten pins bashed into oblivion (before, rather eerily, the machine assembles them and lowers them calmly back down for the next Herculean blast of ball) is celebrated briefly and explosively - high fives all round - before the next round - in all respects an identical process to the previous one - begins.

20th century media was largely about targeting and hitting consumers with the same message repeatedly - and repeatably. All the targeting and spin was provided by planning, and huge, often quite simple media buys (investments in large bursts of media energy) were invested by brands. The bowling metaphor explains the dynamic neatly.

While the easily-pleased and - I imagine - right-livin' Richie Cunninghams were ploughing the lanes, in another, shadier part of town the Arthur Fonzarellis were playing ... Pinball! And what a complete difference.

In the post-internet, tribal 21st century, we score highest - as per the pinball analogy - when we get the ball (the brand, as you’ll remember) into the high-scoring bumper zone at the top of the table.
This is almost completely out of control, serendipitous, and the only control we do have is the feeble flippers at the bottom of the board. And we use those only to try to get the ball back up those riotous bumpers.

Just like tribes of networked consumers, when they take on a piece of media or an idea and start kicking it about ... brand awareness and often equity explode upwards. Or of course, downwards ...

A subtle, critical element of this new model needs clear understanding. Think for a second about the raucous effect of those bumpers - they have their own proprietary energy don't they? They push out and push back, and when the ball - the brand - connects with them, that consumer-side tribal energy comes into explosive, out-of-control play. This is where the pinball metaphor hits home, and where formal planning struggles to achieve any sort of traction - geared as it is to managing only one sort of energy: outbound bought media - in 21st century tribal environments.

Oh ... And if we push the pin table too hard? Well, neatly, it just tilts the whole machine ... Game Over.

Given that it is precisely here that much of the most significant brand equity is now built, I see this anarchic pinball machine as the core challenge currently facing brand communications.

Happy Days, eh?

Comments

[thedrumlessdrum]

Thanks Michael. Love your approach here.