New rules for a new era?

February 18th, 2006 - by Baba - just a blip

Earlier today I had a chance to participate in a CMO Conference with Harvard Business Review at our New York office. Around the table were the marketing chiefs at Harley Davidson, Levi Strauss, Mini, Coca-Cola, and Discovery Channel. Nice company. Nice companies.
This was the topic set-up:

Have we learned anything yet?
It’s been five years since BMW Films launched. Two years since American Express teamed up with Seinfeld and Superman to create their “webisodes.” And eighteen months since Burger King taught us a chicken could be subservient.

So what have we learned? Do we know enough about innovative media and marketing programs to separate the one-off stunts from the ideas that actually engage audiences and trigger sales? Or is it still all marketing R&D — where we shoot first and review our ROI later?

Some may argue that we need more time to figure it all out and let the new media dust settle. Others will say that’s a cop-out — as a marketer, you need to make decisions today — which means you need principles to navigate by now. Who’s right?

Julia Kirby of HBR did a great job moderating and keeping all of us on our toes. We’ll blog about this discussion over the next few days here and here.