As a young man in the interactive marketing industry, it was impossible to be part of a strategy dialogue without hearing the word "sticky." Today, the expression is generally used to poke fun at the mentality of the interactive industry of years past. As industry veterans revel about the early days of interactive advertising, calling to mind the salad days (when we were all so naïve), the foot soldiers of today's marketing organizations are fighting battles similar to those that took place a decade ago. The main difference is that the battlegrounds are composed of slightly different terrain.
Although the battlegrounds themselves may be unusual and incredibly diverse for certain veterans and interactive marketing heroes (at least those that have moved on to become high ranking officers, rarely stepping foot on the battlefield), the underlying premise of advertising and marketing's Holy Grail (to switch up the metaphor a bit) remains consistent. The ability to excite consumers so profoundly that they choose to spend time with a brand is still the sine qua non for interactive and traditional marketers alike.
Aligned with the general nature of industry, marketing strategy and tactics must evolve. New trends emerge over time, each attempting to achieve the type of brand-consumer relationship outlined in the preceding paragraph. As trends and stages come and go, the new ways of doing things seem to adopt the winning characteristics of what came before, adding to an increasingly robust palette for marketers. (This may not be true for all marketers, but it should be -- my personal motto is, "In with the old and the new.")
At Circ.us, we see the evolution of digital marketing communications looking something like this:
The three rings of stickiness
This article will employ a current initiative from Gap Inc. as the basis for exploration of the new world of "sticky brand experiences." I will dissect the various elements in the chart above, drawing upon the Gap initiative for examples of best and worst practices. (Luckily for Gap, the company did a pretty good job with this one; some of you know I can be brutal.)
My goal is to illuminate how a brand can go beyond the website to create a "sticky experience" aimed at attracting consumers to share an experience -- of their own volition.
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