Hacking up a brand

It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt... or loses billions of dollars.

People used to talk about the web in utopian terms as a source of pure information, unfiltered by the biases of editorial boards in the news media. Then something like this happens.

Now it's a source of pure disinformation, spreading rumors, innuendos and lies faster than pictures of Anthony Weiner's weiner.

If you're not ready for this new world, too bad. It's here. Deal with it.

1. If you have accounts monitor them constantly. As the AP hacking proved, waiting just a few minutes to react can be devastating.
2. If you aren't on social media, monitor your brands to make sure no one is using your name in vain.
3. Have a plan in place for when your accounts are compromised or a fake account is created in your name.
4. Don't leave your social media efforts to interns. It must be in the hands of people you trust.
5. While one person should be directing your social media efforts several should have access in case your primary contact is unavailable or – and yes, it happens – the source of the malfeasance.

Digital communications are powerful tools. They can be used to create great value for a company. But they can destroy your reputation even faster if they're not managed professionally. And even then, bad things happen.

Good luck. 

It's not the medium. It's the message.

There's a lot of fighting going on these days between social media activists, traditional media apologists and data geeks who can dig so deep into numbers they guarantee you'll strike it rich if you listen to them.

Here's the secret dirty little secret that none of them will tell you. The best media plan in the world is worthless if the creative is invisible.

Conversely, any medium that's seen or heard by the right person can be effective if it's carrying a great idea.

TV still works when you run spots like this.

Social media works when you create posts like this.

PR works when you create campaigns like this.

If you want to make sure your media dollars aren't being wasted, don't worry so much about where you're running and spend more time thinking about what you're running.

Really beautiful advertising

Dove doesn't just sell soap.

What Dove sells is a range of products that give women confidence to know they will look their best and that their best is plenty good enough.

For years Dove has been selling soap by demonstrating the features that make it better for your skin. With introduction of the "Campaign for Real Beauty" years ago, they laddered those features to a higher order benefit that has incredible power and meaning. The genius in the campaign is not that they are telling you that Dove will make you more beautiful as most products in this category do. 

They are saying you are beautiful and Dove will help you find the beauty others see in you.

That's why this video has over eight million YouTube views in five days. That's why it's being posted over and over again on Facebook.

That's why advertising works best when it pairs an honest emotional insight with functional reason to believe.