Servant brand leadership.

Entertainment that brings your brand values to life.

As always today the best brands don’t interrupt their audiences they become entertainment to them. Easy? No!

“If they’re just creating a great piece of entertainment funded by a brand — that’s no bueno.”

Jae makes clear: it’s about embedding brand values into stories that move culture and business. Like Nike’s scripted deal with Apple, or Snoop Dogg’s wine, which sold 1.6M cases in year one. It’s about entertainment that gives meaning to your brand values and therefore to your brand. Only if there is an intricate connection between content that moves culture it will be able to move your brand.

All good? All good!

When you think of entertainment, the first category that comes to your mind is certainly not healthcare. However, Saidat Amirkhanova from Johnson & Johnson sees a similar shift in marketing this industry:

So similar to Jae’s shift in entertainment, Saidat describes that healthcare brand need to earn a place in people’s life beyond their core product. Like Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre: a medical device that measures glucose levels real-time for up to 10 days. And because it keeps people constantly fed with the information they need, it developed - minute by minute, day by day - into a connected health platform:

“Customer experience is now strategy, not execution. And the small secret? Operational excellence behind the scenes - things like smart supply chains, data-driven onboarding, and seamless omnichannel support - is what truly elevates a brand.”

What’s your role? And how much is it worth?

So from industries as different as healthcare and entertainment, both aim to find a role for their brands in people’s life. Being there, being there often, being there everyday is creating salience for the brands and what they have to offer. According to some of the most significant research, this is what drives brands’ growth. And while this holds true in general, this also asks for a new way of KPIs. KPIs that don’t just measure the impact of brands being present in ads, but being present in different life situations. Measure how often they appear there and how in increase in presences, creates an impact on business KPIs. Want to find out more? Ask Jae, as he is obsessed with effectiveness:

“We create KPIs to prove branded entertainment can outperform traditional ads.”

My takeaway – Great marketing today doesn’t just sell — it connects.
And when it connects, it works.

And if you have any questions to our contributors or me, just let me know.
Gordon