MEDIA ARTS MONDAYS:
Brand Surface Area

For audiences, brands are simply personal collections of events that make up a total overall experience. It’s a real-time running tally of the things people feel, whether good, bad or indifferent, at every point of contact with a brand, every exposed surface. But most of the time and money spent on marketing is focused on just a handful of media and at specific moments in time. What people hear gets quickly forgotten unless they can see it for themselves in all the ways a brand actually behaves in its daily life—the obvious but often forgotten little places that make a brand who they are. You can’t just say it in an ad if you don’t make it part of everything you do. It’s all the bumps on a brand’s surface that are where people grip it. And it’s these seemingly mundane spaces that can turn out to be the most surprisingly meaningful.

Rather than constantly thinking of new ways to infiltrate every corner of the audience’s daily lives, brands should first consider all the corners of its own to identify existing surface area as prime media real estate. The following examples illustrate how brands have successfully turned touchpoints for first time and loyal consumers into differentiating brand experiences, bringing their brand beliefs to life in a way that their audience can grasp.

Virgin America’s Safety Video

Richard Branson enters categories as an honest maverick, challenging the establishment and fighting unfairness. Virgin America launched with the goal of creating an airline people love – synonymous with value, style, a little bit of fun, and caring deeply for customers. In an exceptionally refreshing move, Virgin America reinvented the predictably dull pre-flight safety video. What used to be something passengers suffered through or simply ignored is now an enjoyable piece of content that is a reflection of the brand itself.

Timberland’s Eco-Label

Timberland believes in doing their best to “make it better” for our planet and puts the ecological challenges  of society at the core of its business. Believing that transparency leads to improvement from product to process, Timberland made use of its most most obvious medium: their shoe box. By introducing an on-pack eco-label that shows how the product racks up in terms of its eco-footprint, the brand empowered its consumers to make a more informed choice in their purchases.

Starbucks’ Handwritten Order

The Starbucks brand has become synonymous with personal attention with its ‘you-call-it’ culture.  It’s the kind of attention that makes its patrons in it’s 15000 stores worldwide feel like an individual. For the sake of more accurate orders, Starbucks temporarily replaced its signature handwritten orders on the sides of their paper cups with labeled stickers. While order accuracy and speed may have improved, people missed the feel of a handwritten order and personal touch, so important to their relationship with Starbucks.

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