Collaborative Branding: Announcing BrandingWire

Written by Steve Woodruff
on June 14th, 2007 / 1 Comment / Print this

How do you harness a dozen creative marketing minds - most of whom have never met each other - into a collective branding project?

Answer: BrandingWire. A blog-based, live experiment in collaborative branding.

Marketing bloggers have begun to develop quite a spirit of mutual respect, encouragement, and cooperation. Growing out of some recent collaborative projects (such as the soon-to-be-released Age of Conversation eBook, involving over 100 volunteer authors), a dozen branding gurus decided to launch an ongoing project - taking on one marketing challenge per month, and focusing our creative talents to showcase some great branding ideas.

Most branding blogs - including this one - involve one or more authors writing on a variety of topics and issues. The concept behind BrandingWire is to pull together a variety of skill sets, talents, and perspectives, while collectively addressing a single challenge.

The first case study is fictitious - a coffee company looking for ways to grow. And the wealth of ideas generated from the BrandingWire “posse of pundits” is a very impressive resource for any company looking for direction - everything from brand definition questions, PR campaign possibilities, on-line/mail-order approaches, identity concepts, and customer experience approaches.

Future case studies will include real brand makeovers, for companies or non-profits selected by the BrandingWire team.

Many who blog effectively on branding and marketing issues are solo practictioners, consultants, or principals in small companies. And we often feel immense frustration when we see disappointing branding launched at great expense by companies and their agencies. The BrandingWire “living experiment” is meant to showcase the high-voltage talent available via a global network, and to encourage the idea that virtual marketing teams can bring best-of-breed skill sets to branding initiatives. Join the conversation at BrandingWire.com!

(Image credit: Flickr)