AD/PR AGENCIES
A.C. Nielsen Co.
Arnold Worldwide
BBDO NY
Bravo Group
Brodeur Porter MNovelli
Brandimensions
Bumble Ward & MAssociates
Burston Marsteller
Campbell Ewald
Carat USA
Chicago Creative
Cimarron Group
The Conference MBoard
Cramer Krasselt
Creative Media
Crispin Porter & Bogusky
Dai Worldwide
D'arcy Masius MBenton Bowles
David & Goliath
DDB Needham
Deutsch, Inc.
Designory
Draft Worldwide
Euro/Halvas North America
Fallon
Fleishman Hilliard
Foote, Cone & MBelding
Fusion P.R.
Goodby,Silverstein
Grey Advertising
GSD&M
Hal Riney & MPartners
Hill & Knowlton
Hill, Holiday
Interpublic Group
J. Walter MThompson USA.
Infinity Marketing Solutions
Jager Di Paola
Kemp
Jordan Case McGrath
Landor Associates
Leo Burnett USA
Leverage
Lowe Lintas
The Martin Agency
The MacManus Group
Masterminds Adv.
McCann-Erickson
McKinney & Silver
MetroDetroit Signs
The McManus MGroup
McKinsey & Co
Mediacom
Media Log
Mindshare
Modem Media
Modernista
Mullen Advertising
Noble &
MAssociates
Ogilvy & Mather
Organic Online
Omnicom Group
P&F MCommunications
Partnership
Patriot Media and MCommunications
Publicis
Rives Carlberg,
The Romann Group
Saatchi and MSaatchi
Schlesinger Assoc
SevenTwentyFour
The Sponsorship MCo.
Sullivan, Higdon & MSink
TBWA Chiat/Day
True North
US Web
US Web Pittsburgh
Valentine McCormick Ligibel
Wong Doody
WPP Group
Western Media
Young & Rubicam
Zentropy
Zyman Group

PUBLICATIONS
Adrants
Adweek
American Busines Media
American City MBusiness Journal
Bloomberg Financial
Brandweek
C|Net
Chicago Tribune
CMP Publications,
Corbis Corp.
Cox Newspapers
Crain Communications
Dow Jones
DowJones-
MTelerate
Forbes, Inc.
Getty Images
Hachette Filipacchi
Harper Collins
Houghton Miffin Co.
Las Vegas Review MJournal
Lexis-Nexis
Los Angeles Times
Medialink MWorldwide
Meridith MCorporation
Monster Worldwide
MNetwork
New York MMagazine
New York MObserver
New York Times
News Corp.
Playboy
Public Interest MNetwork
Random House,
Reuters MInformation
Screenvision MCinema
The Mcgraw-Hill MCos.
The Providence MJournal
The Economist
TV Guide
United

FINANCIAL FIRMS
Assurant, Inc.
American Express
American Family MInsurance
Automatic Data
Bank Of America
Bank One
Banque Paribus
Bear Sterns MSecurity
Booze Allen MHamilton
Central Life MInsurance
Charles Schwab & Co.
Citicorp Global Information Network
Chase Manhatten MBank
Commonwealth
Dean Witter
Debartolo MProperties
Deutsche Bank
Dorland Sweeny MJones
Ernst & Young
Fannie Mae
Farmers Insurance
First American Title
Guardian Life MInsurance
Greenwich Capital Markets
Harris Trust & MSavings
Icon International
Indymac Bancorp
Investors Bank & MTrust
John Hancock Insurance
Johnson & Higgins
Kiwi Partners, Inc
KMPG LP
Kmpg/Peat MMarwick
Lehman Brothers
Lazard Freres
Massachussetts MMutual
Mckinsey & MCompany
Merril Lynch
Met Life
Mutual Life Of MCanada
Mutual Of Omaha
Morgan Stanley MGroup
Nations Bank
New York Life
Oliver Wyman, Inc
PanAsian Venture
Capital .
Paine Webber
Price Waterhouse
Principal Financial MGroup
Progressive Insurance
Regent Business Centers
Reliastar Financial
Royal Bank of MCanada
Salomon Inc
State Farm Mutual
Sun America
Swift Ventures
VeriSign
United Title
Wells Fargo
World Bank Group

GOVERNMENT/NGO
42nd Communications Squadron, Maxwell AFB
Admin Office of U.S. MCourts
Air Force Logistics MCommand.
Autism Partnership
The Art Institute MInternational
American Red Cross
Cal Dept. of Social MServices
Canadian Wheat Board
City Of Philadelphia
City of Los Angeles
City of New York
Commonwealth of MKentucky
Communicom Services, Alabama
Development Prog.
DOD Network
Eastern Band of MCherokee Indians
Federal Reserve Board
Hadassah MCorporation
Harvard University
Institute For MAdvanced Study
Internal Revenue MService
John D & Cathrine T. McArthur Foundation
Leukemia & MLymphomia Fund
LosAngeles Unified
School District
NASA
Navy Network MInformation Center
NJ Dept. of Treasury
N.J. Transit
New York Police MDept.
Office of Mgmt. and Budget
Port Authority Of NY MNJ
State of Idaho
State Of Ohio MNetwork
State of Tennessee
MDept. of Education
St. Francis House
St. Luke's Shawnee MMission
The Freedom Forum
The Hay Group
U.S. Army Research
U.S. Dept. of Commerce
U.S. Dept. of State
U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
Utah Educational Network
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
United Nations
United Space Alliance
U.S. Geological Survey
United Federation of
Teachers Welfare Fund
Virginia Economic Development
Western Cancer MCenter

(New This Month)

TECHNOLOGY
Accelovation
AG Technologies
Allied Signal, Inc.
Altavista Company
Apple Computer
AT&T Corp.
Bell Laboratories
Boeing
Cisco Systems
Computer Sciences MCorp.
Compass MCommunications
Computerwise, Inc.
Cornerstone Research
Cybernostic Group
Cyveillance, Inc.
Danger.com
Dell Computer Corp.
Diebold
Digitas
Energy Group MNetworks
E. D. S.
Edaptivity.com
Equinix, Inc.
Evocative, Inc
GHI Technologies
GTech, Corp.
Genentech, Inc
General Electric Plastics
Hewlett-Packard MCo.
Hollywood Interactive
Honeywell, Inc.
Hughes Network
IBM Corporation
Knology Holdings
Intel Corporation
Layered MTechnologies
Macromedia, Inc.
MediaLog, Inc.
Metrored SA
Microsoft Corp
Microsoft Hotmail
Mobilnetics, Corp.
MindShare
NKH&W Fon
National Center for MSupercomputing
NTT America
Netscape
NetVision, Ltd.
New Dream MNetwork
Northrop Grumman
Oracle MDatenbanksystem MGmbH
Pulitzer MTechnologies
PlayStar Music MCorp.
PiloSoft, Inc.
Ricoh
Reuters Information
Rackspace.com, Ltd.
MTech
Salk Institute
Savvis
SAP America
Sciworth, Inc.
Scripps Research Institute
Sonic Walls
Sun Microsystems
Supercomputing
Secure Computing
Symantec
MSystems
UAL Loyalty MServices
Union DataCom
VeriSign
Virtual Compute
Corp.
Wynne D City Power
Web M.D.
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
Yahoo!
Yipes Communications

ENTERTAINMENT
19 Entertainment
20th Century Fox
Agency for MPerforming Arts
Ask Jeeves, Inc.
Barnes & Noble
CAA
CBS Studio Center
CBS, Inc.
CineWorks
Clear Channel
Courtroom TV MNetwork
DIC Entertainment
DirecTV
Disney Worldwide Services
Electric Lightwave
Emeril’s Homebase Exxon Mobile Corp.
ESPN
Fandango
Franklin Weinrib Rudell
Golf TV
GE/NBC
Harpo Productions
Hollywood Gower
International MCreative Mgmt
Metropolitan MMuseum of Art
MCA Inc.
NHL Enterprises
Paramount Pictures
Public BroadcastingMCo.
Screenvision
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Steinway & Sons
The Broder Kurland MAgency
The Gersh Agency
The New York Jets
Ticketmaster
Universal Studios
Universal Music Group
United Talent Agency
Vasallo, PC
Viacom MInternational
Videotron Telecom
Visable World, Inc.
Webb Uffnar MAgency

CONSUMER PRODUCTS
Abbott Laboratories
Affiliated Foods
Air Canada
Allegiance
American Airlines, Inc.
Healthcare
Amazon.com
Allied Signal, Inc.
Amaco Corporation
Anheuser Busch
Apple Computer
Berretta, USA
Bausch & Lomb
Bayer Corp.
Borders, Inc.
Calvin Klein Cosmetics
Canadian Mental
Christian & Timbers
MCompany
Colgate Palmolive
Conrail
Cooper Oil Tool Div.
Delta Air Lines
Dr Pepper/Seven Up
Eli Lilly & Company
Estee Lauder
Ethan Allen
Federal Express MCorp.
First Health Growth
Health Assn
H.J. Heinz Co.
Heinz Service Company
Hotjobs.com
The Home Depot
HQ Global Workplaces
Humana
Ikea NA Services
International Paper
Johanna Foods Inc.
Johns Hopkins
Johns Manville
Johnson & Johnson
Joseph E. Seagram
Kaiser Permianente
Kinkos, Inc
Masonic Homes
Mead Corp.
Merck & Co.
National Gypsum
Nike
Office Max
Pepsi-Cola
Pfizer
Phillip Morris
Procter & Gamble
RCN Corporation
The Ritz Carlton
S.C. Johnson Wax
Scripps Health
Schering-Plough .
Sharper Image
Sony North America
Starbucks Coffee Co
Starwood Hotels
The Limited, Inc.
Tiffany & Co.
Tishman Speyer
Tyco Electronics
Under Armour
Wellpoint Health
MNetworks
Wm. Wrigley Gunderson
Yum! Brands, Inc.

People don’t give a shit about branding. They couldn't care less
about advertising. New product introduction? So What. Competitive
advantage? Whatever. This is what is meaningful to the audience: The
well being of their family. The security and growth of their financial holdings. Their personal development as a human being. And
last but not least, their ability to have fun and escape the pressures of worrying about issues one through three. Anybody who tells you anything else is totally out of touch with reality.

That’s why we have been preaching in these pages for the past three
years that the only thing the audience wants is to determine the best
way to do the jobs they need to do. Time is the most valuable
commodity in our day-to-day lives. And more and more of you have been taking that reality to heart.

Nobody has the bandwidth to be “messaged” to. Nobody is looking to
strike-up a “relationship” with an inanimate object (product). Life
is just one job to be done after another. Most of those jobs have to
do with the four areas of interest presented in the first paragraph.

Who can people trust to help them get the job done? Not who can they
buy from, but who can they trust? That is the challenge facing every
product on America’s shelves, and every single brand that is charged
with moving those products out the door. How do these brands meet
that challenge?

Consider the recent developments in the marketplace. 30 to 90 million
new potential global customers born in the last 30 years that have
grown up completely under the influence of interactive media. A
generation that is only marginally influenced by network television,
the primary delivery mechanism for building product awareness and
demand. And increasingly a generation that is becoming more and more advertising immune, even as network audiences have sharply declined.

The reaction from corporate America has been that the marketing
business model is broken. In fact, the global business infrastructure
has suffered a mild heart attack and is currently seeking to
determine the degree of damage to the pulmonary system. So far the
prognosis has not been good.

Those companies who are more agile are coming to understand the need for a radical reconfiguration of their basic concept of branding and its relationship to a less-than-responsive marketplace. Other more
traditional branding organizations are still somewhat in denial,
passing off the chest pains as a mild form of heartburn. They are
counting on the economic power of the boomer generation as the loyal
support base for their long-standing success. These old school brands
listen to the foolishness being touted by their ad agencies, media
consultants and the networks as if it were Gospel.

The former, more agile players are busy taking their own pulse and
examining these latest developments affecting the lifeblood of their
business. They are taking the first steps towards reconfiguring
themselves as adaptive brands. By adaptive, I mean that they are
ready to concede change and actively willing to change radically to
address the unmet wants, needs and desires of their prospective
customers. These companies are listening intently to current
customers and recognizing them as powerful evangelists to their
potential customers. These adaptive brands also understand the value
of meeting expectations and providing a seamless customer experience across all channels of the enterprise.

But the area that gives the Adaptive Brand the most leverage is the
ways and means by which they are making their brands meaningful to
this newer generation of potential customers, people who do not see
themselves as “consumers” by any stretch of the imagination.

Traditional methods of top down messaging are in no way effective in
reaching this audience. So now the big push is on to determine how
best to engage this audience in some level of dialogue that can
provide insight as well as commerce. It is the promise of this
intellectual interchange that is providing the motivation for these
brands to adapt to new ways and means of making contact.

To those brave souls in the driver’s seat of these emerging adaptive brands, I offer this advice. The next branding expert that comes
through the door selling visual consistency across all consistencies,
slam the door in their face. One size does not fit all and that goes
even more so for today’s isolationist cliques, tribes and niches. Our
society is becoming more and more tribal and many of these sub-segments of society equate “slick” with “bogus” or some other category worthy of ignoring.

To those who advise that the internet and interactive media is the only
way to go, they only have their best interests at heart. Interactive
media is only one aspect of a holistic media platform that must be
successfully incorporated into an ever-changing architecture of
engagement that seeks to serve at the pleasure of the audience by
encouraging on-going input, feedback and ideas that lead to more
responsive products and services.

And finally, to those whose agencies preach the mantra of cut-through
creative “content” and claim it is they, rather than your customer
who know what’s best for the brand, just laugh in their out-of-touch
faces and walk slowly towards the door. Your cab driver back to the
airport can probably give you a more meaningful point-of-view on your
brand than those guys could on their best day.

Once again. Family Well-Being, Economic Growth, Personal Development and Fun and Escape. These are areas that lead to meaningful engagement with the audience at large. And to those brands who would rather die than change, well good luck with that.

Stay tuned.