Start with a strategy, not a tactic
How does the value you're creating map back to your overall brand message? Being sticky yet irrelevant is not a win -- it's an embarrassing conversation with your boss when you review the results. Great ad campaigns start with insight. Distributed content and services should be no different.
Occasionally, the strategic relevance of detached services is obvious. Your bank providing a mobile app that helps customers find a nearby ATM is valuable, relevant, and pretty obvious.
More often, relevance is elusive. Take Elf Yourself. Brilliantly valuable! People need to send Christmas cards. This little service allows me to create a very funny e-card and send it to people. Awesome! But who created it: Staples? Office Max? Office Depot? I honestly didn't remember (had to look it up to find out it was Office Max). So how does this incredibly viral app support what Office Max stands for? Well, it doesn't. Now, I'm not saying Elf Yourself was a failure by any means. A gazillion people used it. But wouldn't it be better if the brand that funded it got the credit?
Now take another famous digital example: Subservient chicken. Everyone knows it was for Burger King, even thought the BK logo was nowhere to be found. Why? Because Burger King sells chicken sandwiches and they let you "have it your way." Telling a guy in a chicken suit what to do lets you have it your way. It's strategic and, in this case, the implicit message makes a stronger brand impression than saying the brand name explicitly.
Follow the path of the experts
Right now, Amazon is probably the company that has done the best job incorporating distributed consumption into its brand DNA. You probably think of Amazon.com as a destination, but with Amazon Web Services, the company has made it possible for anyone to create an entire e-business on Amazon's infrastructure.
Anyone can click "Build an ecommerce Site," pay $100, pick some colors and upload a logo, and be in business. Amazon's infrastructure handles the rest. If you have a bit of programming knowledge or even if you're an enterprise (like Target.com), you can do more. Much more. So now thousands of online brands are distribution points for the core value Amazon provides: the ability to buy stuff online.
Of course, not all of us can be Amazon. Nor should we try. But we can all think about how we can add relevant value through distributed consumption of our brand. For instance, my agency has a client that sells reusable plastic water bottles. Its customers know they should drink more water, but find it hard to do so. Our agency recommended creating an iPhone app that reminds people to drink water. Simple. Relevant. Valuable.
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