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It’s no longer enough just to have a product or service – this is just a game – you’ll need to have a YouTube presence (or other video), a pop-in store, a TV show, a video game, Music downloads, memes and print content (book, zine, oversize, look book, catalog), a festival, virtual reality, a plane – in addition to the website or APP, outdoors, influencers (if available), conferences, T-shirts, posters, Water bottles, CRM, social content and other wastewater.

Check out brands like Dr. Dre, Gwyneth, IKEA, Amazon, Salesforce et al.

Patagonia not only makes outdoor gear, it also fights polluters and has its own business book on how to become a socially conscious company. A range of foods. Patagonia Action Works, YouTube videos, lobbyists and more.

Google is no longer just a search engine. They have maps, a film ("The Internship"), lobbyists in DC, Think With Google, books, brand architecture, personalities and a whole range of thought experiments, consultants, analysts, share prices and free food.

Shinola watch brand has just opened a hotel in Detroit.

Dessa, a New York-based rapper artist, has music as art, an incredible new book called "My Own Devices", a hit on the Broadway soundtrack "Alexander Hamilton", tours with Doomtree and her group of employees – in addition to her blogs, Facebook and Instagram posts, various personal appearances and much more. And you've probably never heard of her.

But now you have.

In this environment, traditional marketing categories such as B2B, B2C, DTC and others (B2C2C) become blurred associations that no longer fit. Forget about halfway descriptors about purchased, shared, and earned media. We live in a whirlwind of messages, tailor-made and not. Everything (and everyone) is different.

Why position myself here when I want to hop there?

It all adds up. The blind body that blows on your attention span can be time-distorting, ethereal, and even material.

When my wife was torn up last night when she pushed Instagram, "I feel like I'm living in an ad."

Storytelling for brands was (and thanks for reading so far) once reserved only for the biggest brands who could afford the time, effort, and millions of dollars to tell stories about advertising. (By the way, Facebook and Google are trying to equate this expenditure.)

Brand platforms make marketing sense because we have to build all the pipelines. We live in a post-advertising world, but the reason is that people still need to hear from you. In fact, the rash is that they must have seen or heard you in 5 different places before they even know you exist (17 places if you live in Singapore).

In addition, the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships recently published a report that it takes 100 hours to find a friend.

Combine these two statistics and you understand the need for abundance.

While you don't need millions of dollars to advertise, you need funds to produce all the experiences that fill the pipeline. An employee claims: "It is only about the execution."

And there is still a lot of room for confusion. Your product is not your brand, but neither is your platform.

Contents and experiences are just the attractants that make people gather around you, like honey in the beehive. They are the social engine for WOM.

Ultimately, your brand is not a product or a platform, your brand is a person. A heart and a brain that stand alone and look out over the wide, sparkling atmosphere that expresses all the omnichanneled way you understand how you want to feel – a warm, sensitive being who perceives without thinking that They are perfect for them, created for them, there for them when they want to dive into the warm, raw millions who act, feel, excite and are just waiting for them.

Contribution to the Branding Strategy Insider by: Patrick Hanlon, author of Primal Branding

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