Web 2.0 is just around the corner- an internet where chunks of content (audio, video, text) are strung together by metadata (i.e., producing the now-famous "Long Tail" phenomenon). At the same time, the generation of people who grew up on the internet is now fusing brands, music, video and their own words to tell their story. Forecast: a powerful collision of brands and customers with enough momentum to push you over the edge to success.
Example: Recognizing that its consumers live out on the Long Tail, Nike Soccer built its own site on MySpace in May 2005. The site has 44,000 "friends" and is only one degree of separation from many of the U.S. Soccer team players. What's amazing is that if you look at the sites of these "friends," they've adopted the Nike Soccer logo and feature the soccer video from Nike's JogaTV (part of the Soccer brand).
The result: Nike has become an integral part of its customers' lives, connecting a widely distributed audience with a shared (but personalized) identity.
Nike Soccer's MySpace page