If you haven’t started investigating Second Life yet, you might want to look into it. The sheer neatness of the environment notwithstanding, it’s starting to emerge as a viable business platform and it looks like the tipping point may be just around the corner (full Voice Over Internet Protocol integration is set to roll out in the coming weeks, and the guess here is that VOIP is going to blow the lid off the joint). Lots of companies and entrepreneurs are already using the 3D virtual environment for commerce (using it to buy and sell in-world goods and services and developing storefronts that allow you to buy “First Life” goods and services, as well).

In addition, 2L is gaining traction as an internal comm app and shows tremendous potential as a corporate training platform. One firm that’s early-in on the training front is e-learning and consulting shop Gronstedt Group. (More.)

I’m reading Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba’s Citizen Marketers on a friend’s recommendation. A lot of folks in his agency are starting to tweak on social media and this highly regarded (and extremely readable) examination of viral and customer-generated marketing activity is guiding a good bit of their thinking and questioning. Good on ‘em - a lot more companies need to be exploring these issues, as well.

My only complaint so far really isn’t about the book, which is a very worthwhile read, so much as it is a general idea that all this online activity, and corresponding company attention to it, is a very new thing. To some extent this is true, of course - as I note above, it’s not like engaging the blogosphere and the “citizen marketer” is something that a lot of companies are doing, and even fewer are doing it effectively. I guess I’m frustrated because I’ve been carping on this for years and haven’t seen the kinds of uptake and results that I know are possible.

Here’s an example. (More…)

Back in the eighties, a person I knew suggested that everyone’s business card should not look the same. “Why should everyone in the organization look so homogeneous?” he would debate, baiting me since I worked at an ad agency. This was a time when ’synergy’ had the buzzword status we now give words like ‘engagement.’ My friend didn’t get taken seriously by many agency people (including me) but his question always came back to haunt me.

We still create campaigns making sure they reflect the brand vis-a-vis typography, pantones, photostyling, white space etc. We still live by these ideas, because, as brand people would say, we have to be consistent ..er, ’synergistic.’

But do we?

A lot has changed since Rosser Reeves’ USP, and David Ogilvy laid down the rules. With such radical ideas as Brand Jamming, and Synergy has been sent to the back of the class, with the multitude of media, executions and fragmented audiences. I’m not trying to make an argument for complete branding anarchy, but consider some of the realities:

1. The Agency of Record model is on its last legs, as organizations turn to a multitude of agencies and specialists who take care of separate parcels of work. These include direct mail, event marketing, SEO and microsites, packaging, PR etc. There is no one agency that handles the whole enchilada.

2. Logos come in a variety of formats and –horrors– even colors! Take a look at Yahoo’s purple logo. Or isn’t it a red logo?

3. Companies are enlisting customers to come up with communication and creativity, departing from the old rigor of staying ‘one brand.’ Consumer generated content is not a ‘plague on the house of advertising‘ as many have come to realize. Rather, its a way to let consumers define what their brand means to them, and not let brand managers decide that. From custom-built sneakers to packaged goods, personalization means losing control of some key elements of a brand. Likewise, company blogs have more collective brand power than a lot of advertising. As one observer puts it, “if unbundled media is where we’re headed, then unbundled advertising must necessarily follow.”

Should brands loosen up? Are we hanging on to a concept that does not relate to those we are communicating with?