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When your brand attracts a steady stream of other brands who want to hang out with you, you know you've got something.

This is the case with the Ace Hotel which has carved out a distinctive brand in the world of cookie-cutter hotel chains, by having a strong sense of itself and a clear understanding of its audience.

When a brand attracts an interesting audience, other brands want to connect because they desire access.

Ace clearly gets this and instead of doing the usual with its in-room TV service, it curates its own content and it's therefore not surprising that Levi's wants to be in and on that media.

I am sure the Ace Hotel wouldn't appear on any media schedule from Madison Avenue media planners and if you ask for reach and frequency numbers, the Ace might ask you what you mean, but those who know Ace, know the union makes perfect sense.

So, some questions for you and your brands

1. Does your brand attract an interesting and potentially valuable audience that could be attractive to other brands? Who do you think they are? What could you being doing together? Do you have a "media" opportunity for them?

2. Instead of thinking of the media universe think of your brand's brand universe- Which other brands are closest to yours? What connection points exist between your brand and theirs? How could you work together? Do they have "media" you could use?


Posted by Ed Cotton Brands can play the category game and do a reasonable job or they can go above and beyond the limits of the category and become thought leaders.

Powells, a bookstore in Portland, has an ounce of the financial muscle of Borders, Amazon or Barnes and Noble, but ten times the creative firepower.

The store understands that for the book store to remain relevant they have to take on a thought leadership position.

This manifests itself with the store's film series, "Out of the Book Films", where staff members make short, finely-crafted documentaries about the books they love.




Posted by Ed Cotton A well-known British actor gets his dream assignment, the chance to make a program about the perfect pint of beer.

Nice work if you can get it, but there's even more upside because the show is all about creating beer that actually makes it into production.

Apparently, leading grocery chain Sainsbury's is interested in carrying the new brand.

The integration here is fantastic, no bolt-on or add on association, but a deep education in the form of programing that becomes a three hour ad for a new brand.

Although, it will be tough for this fledgling brand to compete against the established players, the rich level of content and the emotional journey that the programming will take viewers on, will be so much deeper than any ad campaign from one of the leading brewers.

The challenge will be building and maintaining the momentum after the initial wave of coverage and PR.

However, it does show an opportunity for a new way to think about branded content.

What if Bud was to develop a new brew with a programming idea like this, rather than simply attach its name as a show sponsor or have featured product placement?

Obviously Anthony Bourdain, is the one guy who could do this in the US- let's see what he does next after the success of No Reservations.



Posted by Ed Cotton As another manifestation of brands moving into the content game, Innocent drinks, Britain's favorite smoothie maker, has just made a series of short films about fruit.

1. Polish Strawberries



2. Damsons



3. Blackberries



While these might not be the biggest YouTube hits of the Autumn season, they are a fun, affordable way of communicating the company's passion for fruit.

I expect more companies will embrace the idea of creating their own video content in documentary form to tell real stories.

Obviously, these films must be creative and compelling, but at the same time they need to come across as genuine and authentic.


Posted by Ed Cotton YouTube is a billion channel universe, but explore it by brand and you quickly notice that this ecosystem has different component parts.

Influx went through a hypothetical exercise; we tried imagining a “channel” for Sony’s PS3.

Exploring some of the 44k videos on the site and trying to organize them into themes, it breaks down into something like this:

1.    Instructional Information

Set-up videos have become alternative instructional manuals. Here’s how to set up and use your PSP with your PS3.



View count: 20k

Here’s a video on how to use the console’s web browser.



View count: 122k

2.    Hacking the System

How to run more on your PS3.



View count: 118k


3.    Brand destruction as entertainment and edutainment

Some people destroy the unit just for the hell of it.



View count: 3.5 million, this film with the most views of any PS3 film

Others, open it up, so you can learn what’s inside



4.    Community Conversation

Here’s a group of YouTubers debating why and why not PS3 is better than other consoles.

5.    Brand meets culture-news

Dozens of video showing launch chaos from around the world.



6.    Game and feature trailers

Here’s one for Sony’s new Second Life type environment for PS3 users.



7.    Advertising

Somewhere in all this, lies the advertising.



Obviously, all this might not be ideal content for an officially sanctioned PS3 channel from Sony, but there are clearly more areas they can play in.

-    Creating video-based instruction manuals

-    Highlighting new features

-    Game trailers and previews

-    Videos that explain the technology behind the system

In essence, brands could be doing more with YouTube by producing and distributing content, other than just advertising; material that could have broader reach and usage in this new ecosystem.