MostContagious2012.pdf - Contagious Magazine

Contagious / Introduction
By Paul Kemp-Robertson
Welcome to the Most Contagious 2012 report,
our annual review of the trends, technologies and
creative innovations that have influenced brands
this year. By putting the past 12 months into
context we hope to equip you, in some small way,
for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
The golden thread stitching the year’s report
together is citizenship. Think of the spirit of the
London Olympics encapsulated by Tim Berners-
Lee at the height of the opening ceremony,
tweeting ‘This is for Everyone’ to the watching
world. Think also of the disintermediating potential
of Kickstarter and the grassroots fan fiction
communities that spawned Fifty Shades of Grey.
How about the data-driven intimacy of Obama’s
election campaign? The transparency and ubiquity
of social media is fuelling the rise of people
power. What’s more, Nielsen’s Global, Socially
Conscious Consumer report found that 66% of
consumers prefer to buy from companies that
have implemented programmes to give back to
society. Citizens the world over are demanding
that advertising speeds up its radical shift from
perfection to honesty, from control to collaboration.
In Contagious Magazine’s recent case study
on IBM (Issue 33) we looked at how one of the
world’s biggest brands has re-engineered its
smarter commerce principles around the ‘Chief
Executive Consumer’. This is a business philosophy
also endorsed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos:
‘Above all else, align with customers. Win when
they win. Win only when they win.’
Brands behaving as super-citizens is something
that our consultancy team at Contagious Insider
explored in a Cannes seminar in June, where we
presented the concept of brand as interface, not
interrupter. We used the title ‘Better With The
Brand’ to suggest that the best brands are a
conduit through which the lives of real people can
be made better. The original definition of the word
interface is to meet, to synchronise, to coordinate,
to harmonise. We think that a brand should behave
as an indispensable tool or a common boundary
that connects people to information, augmented
content, services and experiences that they
wouldn’t get via any other means.
That’s why this report is filled with examples of
brands being driven by a higher sense of purpose.
Brands have long behaved like corporate Medicis
– bestowers of creative munificence in the form of
epic TV commercials or sponsored art – but now
many are starting to take on the more purposeful
role of NGOs. Most Contagious 2012 features
examples of brands acting as lifesavers, health
and wellbeing networks, educators, ecologists,
technology incubators and – in the case of the
Red Bull Stratos mission from the edge of space –
daredevil rocket scientists.
Maybe we should all be aiming higher.
Paul Kemp-Robertson /
Co-founder & Editorial Director
MOVEMENTs purpose sErVicE data technology design social biz sharing amplified screens augmented retail personalise new loyalty payment sbpf
4