9 Things I Would Do Online If I Were In Total Control of A Big Brand

It’s time for our industry to get past some of the chronic “shruggers” that haunt us – the problems and issues that we know are important but somehow never get solved or addressed properly. The things that make us shrug as if we don’t have the answers, when in fact we do have them. So with that in mind, here are my nine ideas.

1. Declare a six month moratorium on shiny things. Take all that misdirected shiny energy, and task the agency with figuring out how to have ENGAGEMENT and SCALE simultaneously. Three standard banner sizes, some existing technology, stir it in a pot and make standard banners that are entertaining, engaging, and interactive.

2. Overhaul the online store functionality. Face it, no matter the brand, the store sucks and does its darnedest to scare people away with schizophrenic dysfunctionality.

3. RFP the top 20 sites for my demo and tell them to figure out something on a large scale that can justify the higher cost of the direct buy CPM. I’m willing to pay it, but I want something of value in return.

4. Put my ads in online video preroll and banner placements that deliver good value for my buck. Then I’d ask the video media provider to provide some real research that demonstrates real impact on purchase intent. The lean forward nature of the medium warrants a higher CPM than Daytime, but let’s see how much higher.

5. Get Consumer Affairs tracking online discussions about the brand. And get someone hired to monitor places where the discussion was regular, and get them to participate in the name of the brand.

6. Get the CRM effort overhauled. Find out if the consumer would actually value communications from us, and if so, what they would value. If so, great, then we need to deliver THAT. If not, stop the insanity of emailing drivel.

7. Figure out a way to digitally thank users. Is it on the web site? In ads? In emails? In SMS? Not sure, it would depend upon the brand. But whatever it was, I would want to make sure that in these challenging value oriented times, people understand how much we value their business.

8. Get over the brand paranoia of content adjacency. Have standards, but recognize that the world no longer offers brand total control over the appropriateness of surrounding content.

9. After the six month moratorium, find one shiny thing with at least a little scale to test every quarter, and implement it on a large scale if test results warrant. Digital will always be changing, and having a real commitment to trying new things is essential. But AFTER we figure out what to do with standard display that can actually make such units valuable to the user.

What are your nine?

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.