Five years on from our launch, Brand Jam remains the only B2B site dedicated to brand innovation and lifestyle marketing.
If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve found useful ideas or inspiration here at some time or other. As marketers, watching other brands push the boundaries of expectation helps us consider our own brand’s position on the landscape.
But what you may not have noticed is just how dramatically brand innovation has been taking over the game these last couple of years.
Not long ago, co-branded products were something we only expected to find at global retailers or edgy, tribal brands like Stüssy, Vans, Supreme, etc. But today “collabs” are on the fringe of becoming commonplace in the language of mainstream marketing – even in markets where fashionability plays a lesser role.
Behind the scenes at Brand Jam, we track brand innovation far more than we could ever hope to report. We follow more than 1,500 brands and have logged thousands of examples of capsules, products and promotions that use borrowed content to lean into the consumer’s field of view.
Such a vast data set shows up many trends and insights. But what emerges most strongly are the brand innovation power-users: dynamic brands that innovate freely and frequently, making out-of-the-ordinary products that engage consumers’ minds…and wallets.
Brands as diverse as The Standard Hotel, Ladurée and Moleskine understand that collaborations and other brand innovation platforms help them reach consumers more frequently and organically. Their approach is both tactical (increasing visits and sales) and strategic (enhancing awareness and perceptions).
Moleskine: power-users of brand innovation and masters of proximity
Not only do these brands constantly have something new to offer, they use brand innovation to remind us of how special they are and why we, as consumers and aficionados, are special for liking them.
How do they consistently manage to appear a world apart from their competitors? By making smart use of proximity.
These companies have realised something important: that rather than being sold to, consumers want to discover products. By incorporating well-known, brand-relevant content, consumers are more prone to notice new products, and recognise them as remarkable.
Creating proximity: the successful habits of power-users
What’s more, they innovate in chunks: generating neatly packaged, bite-sized stories for consumers who use lifestyle blogs, forums and social media to discover what’s new, different and cool.
There is plenty of evidence that in-market innovation – the kind we report here every week – can be just as effective as conventional promotional platforms, not to mention far more cost-efficient. Yet apart from maybe a hundred power-users worldwide, very few brands (or agencies) are set up to initiate or capture brand innovation opportunities.
Are you?
If you believe your brand can achieve more, and want consumers and media to see it as remarkable, maybe we could do something together. To help companies capture opportunities and become more dynamic, we have come up with a collaboration of our own.
Together with Crescendo Brands, Brand Jam is launching Collaboration Generation: a new service dedicated to helping brands identify and leverage the cultures around them.
Whether you want to cause a revolution or just test the waters, out there somewhere are brands, properties and creators perfectly positioned to underscore your brand’s specialness.
If you’d like to find out more about how Collaboration Generation leads to remarkable products and compelling brands, we’d love to share our experiences and know-how with you.
Contact:
Paolo Lucci, Brand Jam
brandjam@brandjam.it
Gavin Brown, Crescendo Brands
info@crescendobrands.com