nuconomy blog

This week I turned my back to Apple and went to buy a Microsoft Zune. The all process got me thinking about the importance of brands. iPods and iTunes importance for Apple is much more than the direct revenue stream.
People that the iPod has an important role in their life got to use iTunes. If you want to really enjoy iTunes you need to run it on Mac OS. In order to run Mac OS you need to buy a Mac. If you already have a Mac, good chances you will also buy some other Apple hardware like external hard drives, Apple TV, etc…
Same was true for Microsoft for years. If you use Windows, good chances you will use MS Office. If you use MS Office, you will probably use Office Live or Share Point Server in your office, and the loop continues.

It’s not just about the fact that it is easier to use other services or hardware from the same company, it’s also that we start to trust this company to give us a full experience around our digital life. We trust them to have the best service for us.

This is exactly why we see such a big war today in the social networks battlefield. Google, Facebook and MySpace are fighting for their brand and all of us trust.

So how does this will affect the future of advertising?
Maybe the way to monetize social networks is not to try and target ads that will take the user out to the advertiser site. Maybe the answer is to incorporate the advertiser content, interactions and brand into the already trusted and familiar environment of the social network (Anyone said widgets?).
If an advertiser can extend it’s messages and even build a “mini site” or experience into a trusted environment like iTunes, Facebook or your device, it can encourage users to interact with it much more. This could also be extended to other environments. WIll you be more likely to buy things from within iTunes, using the same one click mechanism you trust? Will you be more likely to register to a coke awards program from within your MySpace home page?

And yes, I think that this is another good example why brands should look for sites that has high engagement metric from its users. The reason is that those high engaging users are more likely to also interact with his brand and services.