Deeper understanding of consumers' community affiliations will lead to effective brand positioning for your clients. It is not enough to have your consumers participate at some level in discrete campaigns or focus groups -- the connected agency reaches out and participates at the onset of the work engagement.
 
But let's face it, helping brands become more connected can be expensive. In fact, over a 12 month period, a sincere investment in customer-centricity can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. We know the finance department doesn't like to make investments of that magnitude without reaping a return on the investment. So, it's important to have that roadmap concretized before any engagement. The template that we work with predicts hard results every time, with improvement in key metrics such as ad revenue or e-commerce conversions within 12 months or we don't take the engagement. If you can't predict results like these with some certainty, I recommend trying another medium that isn't as accountable as interactive. Remember -- what you'll learn from listening to users is what will inform the performance of everything you do. You can either listen, learn and perform, or maybe go back to print.

Joseph Dumont is a partner at Questus.