We’ve been running a lot of interactive workshops recently for clients investigating the brand engagement, experience and communications opportunities presented by social media and smartphones, so maybe it was this that was on my mind when I made the digital world shaking discovery that one of my favourite brands does not (yet?) have an app…

I work in branding. I follow brands. I like to hear from Marmite about what’s going on in their world. I enjoy the daily eye candy offered by Australian underwear and swimwear brand AussieBum on Facebook. On Twitter I keep track of when the next Les Mills exercise classes will be released. I use the Amazon app to check prices and save my window shopping don’t-need-but-really-wants for later. I’ve welcomed these brands into my day-to-day life and love the content they provide… so imagine my horror when I found out that my favourite branded coffee shop, Caffe Nero, did not have an app that would help me find their nearest cafe. Why, marketing Gods, why?

Starbucks has a nice little app that uses your location to find the nearest store. You can customise the search to only see stores on the map if they have wireless or serve oven warmed food etc. This is simple, practical and intuitive. When driving to a far off meeting an app like this is almost life-saving to a caffeine addict.

For me, and for customers like me, apps are rapidly becoming part of our lives. I was initially delighted when I found the Starbucks app, but realise, now that the surprise has passed, that apps like this are now almost a hygiene feature in my brand experience. I’ve seen it from one brand, then I expect it from another and become peeved when it isn’t available. Makes me sound horribly spoiled… but I guess that’s the point about delighting factors becoming expectations.

Whilst it won’t stop me visiting and loving Nero, I do feel differently about them, as well as differently about Starbucks. Must remember to use myself as a case study in the next workshop…! Now, where’s my app dammit?!

“We’re not saying this body wash will make your man smell like a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it….”

That’s the message of this US advert that aired during the Superbowl and got massive airtime during the Olympics. It’s been watched almost 8 million times on YouTube, so it can’t just be me that thinks that it is purely awesome and doing something very very right.

For me that ’something’ is a combination of its tone; cheeky, ironic, tongue in cheek (dare I say postmodern?) and its style; featuring a chap so innately cool that, hell, forget wanting to smell like him, I think I might want to be him.

Just before Christmas I was stumbling along Regent Street in a haze of bright lights, expensive prices and carrier bags when I espied a little piece of what might be my own personal paradise: a Marmite pop-up shop!

The store was selling a range of Marmite related objets d’arts like t-shirts, Andy Warholesque pictures, aprons, bags, boxes and jigsaws. Of course Marmite itself was available in a range of sizes and formats. 

As a lover of the sticky black stuff I was bowled over by this store and intrigued about the idea of pop-up stores in general. Clearly the pop-up is not a new idea but this was my first such store, was in a very prestigious location and was attracting a lot of interest from passers by. What a fantastic way to promote a brand: massive exposure, huge footfall, strong word of mouth. To add to it all the store had its own Twitter feed so that true devotees could keep track of the high jinks going on at the store on the move.

With all the closed units on high streets due to the current downturn what a great way for brands to get out there and promote themselves, without taking the hit of a full store lease. Love it or hate it, that Marmite sure is clever.