Screen Grab

Screens, you bet. They play a crucial role in connecting brands with people. I just don't believe that the best brand ideas start there, anymore. A brand story can "begin" in any channel for a consumer - and often does. But great brand relationships, whether Dove, Starbucks or Adidas, reach people most deeply when there's a tangible, remarkable experience to kick it off. Design first. Advertise second. C'est vrai!

Roberts: I don't see the world as clearly defined as you do. It's much more fluid and much less structured. The consumer is boss. And she's feeling, not rationally evaluating. Experiential marketing is important--and vital. But as you say, the Dove debate heated up only when the screen (via Oprah) kicked in--and was then carried out on yet another screen, the PC. The screen remains the fundamental global (and local) connector. It brings scale, speed, and accessibility to the brand's promise and experience. It's not a linear continuum--more circular--and it starts anywhere, contextually. But every success shares four things: the consumer at the centre, a meaningful insight and a big transformational idea scaled: ultimately on screen.

Collins: Ultimately, is it more effective to sell apples by looking at a moving picture of one, or picking one up and taking a bite? Is it more effective to sell Tide by watching someone wash clothes or by trying a sample? Is it better to sell running shoes by playing a film or by running around the block with a pair of trial kicks when the Nike van shows up in the neighborhood? Screens. Yes, they have their own magic. But people stare at them all day long at work. Kids now do the same at school. And everybody stares at them at home. Hell, even most movies feel disposable lately. (The Fast and the Furious 3, anyone?) As this becomes the norm, screens may become the last thing anyone will treasure. Ubiquity destroys intensity.

Look, brands are being knocked around by startling new marketing techniques--beyond screens--that companies don't always understand and whose effects they can't easily measure. (What's the ROI on installing super-clean bathrooms at state fairs, as P&G's Charmin so brilliantly does?) People are forming new, unshakable loyalties to brands on the basis of these experiential factors that even they can't always articulate.

What I do know about this confusing, unstructured mess is that the power of design can help people achieve the right, desired experience across myriad new encounters -- on screen and off. Emphatic design thinking -- and not screen-obsession --is how an organization should drive their brands, making every customer encounter count.

Let's try this: I'll send your assistant Trudy a bouquet of roses. You send her a bouquet of emoticons. Let me know which one the likes the best.