Rocket Science and Story Systems
Cliff Kurtzman, CEO of Adastro, and Tim Smith, an independent investor and entrepreneur, spent their shared hour running through a wide-ranging list of trends and themes that they think will affect advertising and business online. While a lot of what they covered wasn’t overly new or noteworthy, two major topics piqued my interest.
Kurtzman touched on the idea that brands are no longer established by advertising, marketing or public relations. They’re established by every single step along the supply chain - every interaction with consumers. “It’s got to be delivered by service over time,” he said. In other words: Brands happen.
And Smith’s expansion on his story systems concept begs further consideration. Parallel to the HP keynote this morning, the best brands will be those whose consumers tell the best stories. The more organizations do to allow people to express themselves—in a way that further connects consumers with those companies—the more successful they will be.
What do you think? What stories could your company help people tell?
(A more complete partial transcript of this session is also available.)

