KPI: Keep People Informed, Involved, Interested, and Inspired

 In today’s world where brands strive to stand out and connect with their customers, the key to success lies in empowering engagement. Brands that prioritize keeping people informed, involved, interested, and inspired create meaningful connections that drive loyalty and advocacy. 

EMPOWER engagement

Keeping People Informed, Keeping People Interested, Keeping People Involved, and Keeping People Inspired focuses on the human aspect of brand-building and engagement, which can profoundly impact the brand's overall success. 

Why these are often considered more important:

• Customer-Centric Approach: "Keeping people informed, interested, involved, and inspired" KPIs prioritize the needs and experiences of customers and stakeholders. By understanding and fulfilling their expectations, brands can build stronger relationships, foster loyalty, and drive advocacy. Customer satisfaction and engagement are critical drivers of business success.

• Emotional Connection: These KPIs tap into the emotional aspect of brand-customer relationships. Brands that successfully keep people informed, interested, involved, and inspired create a connection beyond mere transactional interactions. Emotions play a significant role in shaping customer perceptions, loyalty, and advocacy.

• Differentiation and Competitive Advantage: While traditional performance indicators focus on metrics such as revenue, sales, and market share, "Keeping people informed, interested, involved, and inspired" KPIs contribute to brand differentiation and competitive advantage. Brands that prioritize these KPIs create unique experiences, build communities, and develop a loyal customer base that differentiates them from competitors.

“They ARe the compass guiding brands towards meaningful connections, customer loyalty, and a shared journey of growth and success."

• Long-term Relationship Building: By prioritizing these KPIs, brands invest in long-term relationship building rather than solely focusing on short-term financial gains. Cultivating informed, interested, involved, and inspired customers creates a foundation for sustained success, customer loyalty, and advocacy.

• Brand Advocacy and Word-of-Mouth Marketing: When people feel informed, interested, involved, and inspired, they are likelier to become brand advocates and share positive experiences with others. Word-of-mouth marketing driven by engaged and inspired customers can have a powerful impact on brand awareness, reputation, and growth.

• Employee Engagement and Brand Ambassadors: "Keeping people informed, interested, involved, and inspired" extends beyond customers to include employees and brand ambassadors. Engaged employees are more likely to deliver exceptional customer experiences, while brand ambassadors who are informed and inspired become influential advocates for the brand.

• Innovation and Continuous Improvement: By keeping people informed and involved, brands can gather valuable feedback and insights that drive innovation and continuous improvement. Engaging customers in the brand's evolution fosters a collaborative relationship and ensures the brand remains relevant and responsive to changing needs and preferences.

While traditional performance indicators are essential for tracking financial and operational metrics, "Keeping people informed, interested, involved, and inspired," KPIs prioritize the human connection, emotional engagement, and long-term relationship building essential for sustainable brand success in today's customer-centric marketplace.

Artificial Intelligence and Authentic Branding

Artificial intelligence goes back to the 1950s when Alan Turing, crowned as the father of AI, proposed that a computer can possess artificial intelligence if it can mimic human responses under specific conditions. 

"A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human." —Alan Turing

War games

My first dose of AI was in the 1983 movie War Games when high school student David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) unwittingly hacks into a military supercomputer while searching for new video games. After starting what seemed like a game of Global Thermonuclear War, Lightman led the supercomputer to activate the nation's nuclear arsenal in response to his simulated threat as the Soviet Union. Once the clueless hacker comes to his senses, Lightman, with help from his girlfriend (Ally Sheedy), must find a way to alert the authorities to stop the onset of World War III. AI is scary, right?

FDD 2023

Fast forward to 2023, artificial intelligence has been featured in many Hollywood movies and, in some of them, has scared the bejeebus out of movie goers. Still, in real life, AI has evolved into one of the fastest-growing industries and continues to move at breakneck speeds. It has infiltrated many big brands and is starting to play significant roles in people's experience with brands.

Traditionally, creating a solid brand involved teams of designers and marketing experts working together to develop a cohesive aesthetic that accurately reflects a company's mission and values.

The mere mention of AI entering marketing departments triggers fears of being boxed in by rigid analytics or automated out of a job entirely. Yet, despite reluctance, AI might be marketers' best bet for building closer connections with their customers.

how can AI make brands connect more with consumers?

First, let's nail down the definition of "brand." While many marketers see a brand as the sum of the designs and content they create, those are just one aspect. At its heart, a brand is a customer's collective impression and experience. Therefore, every experience customers have with a company contributes to that company's brand. With that definition in mind, the role of AI in creating an authentic brand experience comes in a few forms. 

Accessibility

On the most basic level, brand authenticity begins with accessibility. Accessibility brings brands to larger audiences and allows those audiences to experience it more fully. 

AI helps brands create more video content by generating video captions that manually can take up time. AI-generated video captions allow brands to improve video accessibility effortlessly. Usable even on live video, AI-powered captions add a depth of experience to video content. 

For those with visual impairments, the image-rich world of social media marketing can be challenging. However, Facebook and Instagram's built-in AI-generated image captions feature breaks down those barriers. As a result, more people can enjoy social media content, regardless of whether a brand has added an image description. 

By removing the effort required to create an accessible brand experience, AI allows for broader brand connections. 

Customer Experience

AI can also remove barriers to understanding. For many marketers, collecting customer feedback is equally enlightening and time-consuming. While brand reviews and online mentions provide a window into customer brand perceptions, they're often hidden in the depths of raw data. 

 AI-powered sentiment analysis lets AI do the dirty work of sorting through data to produce insights into how customers see brands. Beyond simple "positive," "negative," and "neutral" perceptions, newer methods of AI-driven sentiment analysis are even beginning to weed out sarcasm in customer feedback. 

Unlike customer surveys or interviews, sentiment analysis leverages unfiltered customer feedback. Combined with AI's data, it can offer a complete picture of how consumers perceive brands. Then, by comparing these brand perceptions against their intended brand, marketers can better understand where they might need to improve. In working to close this gap, brands can become the most authentic version of themselves. 

Personalized Experiences

A brand's value is connected to the relationship it builds with its customers – namely, how well they relate to and trust it. 

AI has allowed brands to personalize consumer experiences and build deeper relationships. One of the biggest obstacles to brand authenticity is how impersonal marketing becomes as it scales. While marketers try to mitigate this issue through segmentation, more than segments are needed to create the level of personalization consumers seek. 

To create the ever-elusive "segment of one," AI offers a simple solution. Solutions like Google's Recommendations AI learn the content and products each customer prefers to serve them more of what they want. 

By strategically presenting the parts of your brand each customer connects with, brands can offer personalized experiences. This kind of one-to-one connection makes customers feel understood by brands. 

Brand Assets

Marketers might more readily accept AI's role in accessibility, analysis, and personalization, but genuinely creative AI can still be alienating. But even AI capable of generating design and content has an important role in making brand experiences more authentic. 

Authentic brands need a unique angle that sets them apart from competitors. Still, marketers spend much of their effort on generic first drafts. Generated designs and content allow marketers to put effort into fine-tuning rather than focusing on foundations. Providing more time to work on the details that distinguish brands, AI-generated assets shift the focus toward customer experience, so marketers can invest their time in the aspects of their assets that customers will remember. 

Brand Authenticity

From the basics of brand accessibility to generated brand assets, AI can be a powerful tool for marketers. Rather than adding a barrier between brands and customers, AI excels at removing barriers. 

AI puts marketers back in the driver's seat, and the data it creates allows marketers to develop better strategies, execute better, and personalize a brand's experience. Marketers brave enough may find the magic of AI is that it will help you see things as they are, not as you wish them to be.

2022 Relevant Brands With A Human Connection

Successful brands in our new normal

Relevant brands find their way into people's hearts by continually doing what seems impossible. They adapt quickly to customers' changing needs and expectations. But they do so by remaining ever more true to themselves.

01 Apple

Apple continually proves that it is far more than just a phone, a watch or earbuds. With Ted Lasso-like charm, it smoothly delivers millions of songs, games and workouts to draw us into its always-inspiring ecosystem.

02 Peloton

It pedaled into America's living rooms as a pandemic placeholder for gyms and fitness studios. Although it has muddled through business challenges, its most loyal subscribers crave this motivating community. It ranks first for pushing the status quo.

03 Spotify

It keeps its simple formula: More of what we want to hear and more ways to hear it. Even as it navigates controversy, its podcasts and playlists of any sub-sub-genre help it break its own records.

04 Bose

This brand’s promise welcomes noise cancellation. Their high-quality products offer listeners ever-more-satisfying ways to make that raucous reality fade away, easing our escape into music.

05 Android

Helmed by a bright green guy, this is the thinking person's operating system. Consumers love Android's value and getting maximum control with their beloved Google, Samsung, Motorola, Lenovo and LG devices.

RELENTLESS RELEVANCE

Hitting the consumer simultaneously in the head and heart, these brands combine functional performance with emotional resonance, providing a solution people count on to run their daily lives.

Why Relevance Matters

Some brands excel by speaking to people's hearts with the dazzling ability to inspire and connect. Others are practical allies, building relevance through their ability to solve problems, eliminate frustrations and make life easier. And some brands have achieved both. Intelligent and inspired, they're the names people want and need in their life.

Human-Centered Technology

Relevant brands are part of our identity, delivering practical solutions that feel like they're made just for us and get us. This year, each of the Top Five brands—Apple, Peloton, Spotify, Bose, and Android—run on tech that is always personalized. It connects us and makes us feel connected, human-to-human, without ever leaving our homes.

Problem-Solving Brands

Brands that appeal to the head are ruthlessly pragmatic, pervasively innovative, and take care of fundamental needs. They fuel our hunger for self-reliance and DIY confidence.

These customer-obsessed, distinctively inspired brands turn consumers into fans, loyalists, and collectors. Unexpectedly delightful and universally adored, these brands make us feel alive and special.

Brand’s That Ad Value Change Lives

Relevance encompasses all the elements required for a strong brand and healthy bottom line, including high demand, strong appeal, and products and services that add value to a customer's life. Through customer obsession, pervasive innovation, distinctive inspiration, and ruthless pragmatism, these brands make exceptional human connections with the head and hearts of modern consumers.

What are the critical roles of a Chief Brand Officer?

Multi-faceted

A Chief Brand Officer (CBO) is responsible for the entire brand and how it is experienced. They essentially set the brand strategy and vision, ensuring it delivers its promise through effective marketing, customer engagement, and entertainment.

“A Chief Brand Officer is expected to play a multi-faceted role in today’s highly complex and dynamic world of brands with ever-changing consumers and their beliefs. They need to be alert and sensitive to consumer feedback and trends in the market to translate them into insights, bring compelling brand stories to life, manage the brand's image, increase the value of the brand, and build a unified culture around the brand.”

—Pavan Padaki, Author of Brand Vincci

The CBO has four critical roles:

1. Philosopher – Constantly shaping the purpose and always asking ‘why,’ getting to the brand's true essence.

2. Coach – Ensuring all employees are brand custodians and advocate for the organization.

3. Scientist – Executing the brand strategy through digital channels and where the target audience lives, works, and plays. They are constantly experimenting to ensure the best outcomes are achieved.

4. Creative – Working with the marketing team and agencies to ensure the brand vision comes to life through engaging and creative messaging across all forms of media.

Combines Customer Emotion with Rational Thinking

CBOs act as the much-needed bridge between Customer Experience (CX) and Marketing, getting them to collaborate more and work on their strategies together – which ultimately leads to the creation of the brand strategy.

However, their role isn't merely to set the brand strategy and vision; it's to engage and entertain customers through creativity. Today, the brand-consumer doesn't want to be dictated to; they want to be entertained. The CBO forms a human bridge between logic and magic, strategy and design.

Makes A brand relatable and human

The CBO must understand consumer behavior and expectations and need to understand their emotions across the customer journey, especially at key moments, and anticipate their needs. They must walk in the customer's shoes. They must feel what the customer feels, see what they see, hear what they hear, literally everywhere.

This new ‘human-centric’ approach to engagement is driving a new breed of brands but in an age where digital reigns supreme, it’s important to act rationally and utilize analytics to make informed business decisions.

Ultimately, the CBO becomes the brand's conscience – they protect and amplify the brand's voice within the business enterprise. Hence, everyone knows what actions will contribute to building the brand and which actions will not.

Empowers brand ambassadors and advocates

However, they can't achieve everything on their own; there's too much to do. Instead, the CBO needs to create an army of internal and external fans to help them on their journey. When needed, fans who will defend the brand amplify positive word of mouth and co-create amazing content. The CBO reminds other organization leaders how critical it is to build purpose, confidence, conviction, and unity among employees.

The truth is that branding will always depend on creativity and innovation: constantly offering the next flavor and the latest technology that resonates with the target audience. Brands that don't change die – in other words, companies have to keep trying to update the ideas about them and their brand in people's minds.

Steve Jobs used to quote his favorite Bob Dylan line: 'he not busy being born is busy dying.' So many CBOs focus on stimulating the organization to constantly renew itself and push for rapid experimentation and renewal – to be the organization's creative director.

Today CBOs are a fascinating combination of philosopher, coach, scientist, and creative director.

TV Commercials are Dead

I guess the headline grabbed your attention, or you wouldn’t be reading this sentence. Regardless, we hear the same thing every new year: TV advertising and commercials are dead mediums. They cite everything from declining network ratings to cord-cutting Millennials, and these so-called authorities have turned to lament the state of TV into an annual obsession. However, contrary to the belief of some marketing pundits, it is highly likely that TV will continue to be a significant piece of an effective brand and marketing strategy. This is because TV is one of the most efficient ways to create widespread audience awareness. Depending on the audience’s vertical and exposure time, TV can still drive a significant number of conversions.

Cue The QR Code

The challenge with TV ads is that marketers have difficulty getting actionable metrics and insights, such as attribution data. However, there is a solution that we all will begin to see more of, the QR Code. Innovative marketers can convert offline engagements to online conversions using QR codes on TV ads. QR codes are 2D barcodes that contain information (URL, video, social media, digital business card, etc.) The data embedded in a QR code is generated using a QR code generator online. It can lead viewers to online information of any kind once they scan the QR code using a smartphone device.

Brands can use QR codes from plain and static viewer TV engagement to leverage consumers' interaction with their brand. We just witnessed it when Coinbase had a bouncing QR code 60-second commercial in Super Bowl LVI. The spot for the campaign was so successful that it temporarily knocked out its app following the ad airing during the broadcast.

The full 60-second ad almost entirely consisted of a colorful bouncing QR code reminiscent of the iconic bouncing DVD logo meme. When scanned, the code brought viewers to Coinbase's promotional website, offering a limited-time promotion of $15 worth of free Bitcoin to new sign-ups, along with a $3 million giveaway that customers could enter.

Effective TV Ads

The most effective TV commercials are created so that the audience remembers not only the ad but also the brand and the message behind the ad. A TV commercial must spark a connection with your brand and your audience. Without that connection, your brand likely won't be remembered, even if people recognize the commercial itself. A memorable commercial doesn't equal an effective commercial.

How do you create a TV commercial that is both memorable and effective? First, think of a TV commercial you remember. A few examples of effective commercials include:

• The Progressive "On-call with Dr. Rick"

• Amazon Alexa "Mind Reader"

• Uber Eats "Uber Don't Eats"

• Crypto "Don't Miss Out On Crypto: Larry David FTX"

So what is it about these ads that grab our attention?

As you read the tips below, keep these memorable commercials in mind.

Tips For Creating An Effective TV Campaign

1. Represent the brand clearly

   Using verbal and visual cues, your brand's name, logo, and perhaps even what the product does or the product itself should be conveyed throughout the commercial's storyline.

2. Create a storyline and a great script

   The best commercials don't just sell a product or service; they tell a story. Whether it is a heartfelt story or a dose of humor or satire, create a storyline your audience can relate to and connect. It can tickle the funny bone make you laugh out loud, so much so that you call a person in the other room to see this commercial. On the flip side, it could pull at the heartstrings or even at times rips the heart right out of your chest with power, energy, or fear, causing you to pause and think. It makes you say, "wow!" Unfortunately, they only come along so often. A product is not always the most memorable part of a commercial. Think of how many times you've said, "I saw this great commercial and I don't remember what it was for."

3. Develop a Signature Character or Theme

   Although only the "Dr. Rick" example listed above is part of a campaign and not a one-off Super Bowl ad, creating a series of ads that carry the same theme or characters throughout will fortify the audience's connection with your brand. The use of an iconic-type character or characters can be an integral part of making a commercial stand out from the pack

4. Keep it Simple

   You only have 15, 30, and 60 seconds to get your message across and form a connection with your audience. Keep the overall concept and storyline of your commercial simple.

5. Don’t Cut Corners

   Quality is an essential element of an effective TV ad. Quality doesn't necessarily mean you have to empty your pockets on the production of one ad. But do utilize a professional film production team to ensure the quality of your commercial.

As with any marketing campaign, you must begin with a solid strategy. If you don't have a clear picture of your brand's messaging strategy, you are not ready to create a TV commercial. Instead, spend time developing a clear strategy that can be the foundation of your entire marketing campaign, including TV ads. Advertising, especially TV commercials can get customers attention. After that, it's up to the brand to build trust and loyalty.

We Need To Talk.

They are, perhaps, the most dreaded four words in the English language. Few four-word sentences have the power to strike fear into a person's heart as quickly and efficiently and fill them with a boatload of anxiety. But, unfortunately, the most difficult conversations start that way and usually sting a bit. In this case, I need to talk to you about your personal brand.

The topic of a personal brand may have lessened the blow of those four words, but as we approach the new year, you must understand that the art of personal branding is rooted in storytelling. It's time for you to own yours and introduce your story in a meaningful, personal way.

Personal branding has evolved over the years from what Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos referred to as "what people say when you are not in the room" to what people see when they search for you on Google.

As the CEO of your personal brand, there are more and more opportunities to attract a larger audience and generate the right messaging that positions, packages, and positively promotes you. You must utilize the right channels to share your content or the unique problem you can solve.

With so many brands online, it can be more difficult for individuals to stand out amongst the digital media marketplace of experts. But here's the thing: Opportunities are there waiting for you, but if there is no social proof to support your knowledge and expertise, you may lose your ideal audience to the next best thing they see online.

This is why we need to talk.

Let's take a look at what you must have to make your personal brand stand out in a sea of sameness.

You must take time to be clear about who you are as an individual and your core values. By understanding the unique value that only you have to offer through your experience, expertise, and education, you need to clarify the problem you solve better than someone else in a similar field. Get very granular and specific with your target audience, speak to them and not at them, and, more importantly, give them what they want in a way that makes a connection.

Who, what, how, and whom?

Make sure to create an impactful headline and statement that includes who you are, what you do, how you do it, and for whom. It shouldn't be more than a sentence and should be used in your online profiles and as an introduction when meeting new people to communicate your brand.

Are you ready for your close-up? Get a professional headshot, as it's the first thing someone sees when they find your online profile. Represent yourself the way you want. Ensure that your profile has up-to-date and accurate information about you and utilize all the available tools on your page — each touchpoint is a potential opportunity.

Do a Google search of your name and the keywords associated with your name. Make a note of where you rank on Google and what links show up for you. You want to be aware of what others see when they find you and if you need to make necessary changes or updates.

Think about what you want to be known for in your industry. Then, figure out your niche — the more specific you are with your offering, the easier it will be for the right people to find you.

I’ve got questions.

Use the top 10 questions you get asked by your customers or clients as the starting point to create content for your audience. Break down each question and decide on the best format, images, video, and audio to deliver your content.

Be a contributor and not just a poster on your social media platforms. Comment, like, share, and connect with other people across your platforms. Real connection can lead to real opportunities for collaboration that can quickly expand your reach and audience and grow your online community.

In addition to promoting thought leadership and expertise in a particular field, a strong personal brand brings back the human element to life and business. It allows for community, which ultimately leads to people who trust your brand.

It's increasingly more important to have a solid personal brand, so don't wait until 2022 to get started. Instead, build a better personal brand today and tell your unique story the way you want your audience to know you.