Online success - Big brands get it

It's not just teccy brands that know how to leverage the online environment. The brands reaping the benefits of online marketing are the very same world-famous names we're all familiar with, such as Toyota and Lynx/Axe.

To some extent, the reason for this is that success is autocatalytic, in other words, 'success begets success'. Big, prominent brands that have become part of the social fabric are more likely to succeed in whatever they do, including forays into online marketing. But it's not an automatic rite of passage.

Another thing these brands have in common is that they are committed to integrated, multi-media campaigns. This is true, but somewhat misleading if we're looking to the reasons behind online success. In practice, 'integration' often means that online is the last medium on a marketer's list of campaign mandatories, which somehow complements the TV ad and ticks off the 'let's do some digital' requirement that someone within the organisation is pushing, for their own inscrutable, geeky reasons.

The fundamental principle that guides successful brands online is that the digital space is an integral part of people's lives, complementing real-world relationships and interactions. Social networks have become as ubiquitous as e-mail.

The online environment sets the context for many of the most important conversations in life and for the daily exchanges, which may seem trivial, but help keep us grounded. Brands need to be part of these conversations, or be interesting enough to be the topic of conversation.

Toyota has made its Scion car the hottest virtual wheels in tween online world Whyville. An advergame, Book of Deviants, also promotes the youth-targeted car. Players mobilise midget Deviants (who go round in Scions) to bludgeon Sheeple. The neon green Sheeple blood accumulated goes to fuel a Scion xD factory. Naturally.

Book of Deviants

Toyota has engaged in branded storytelling, in partnership with DC Comics, with Smallville Legends: Justice and Doom. To promote the Yaris, the company created additional Smallville content that ran in place of adbreaks during the TV show, which chronicles the adventures of the teenage Superman. Viewers were also invited to immerse themselves in the Smallville world through an online game, promoted in the idents, which invited them to solve puzzles for the chance to win a 2007 Yaris.

Lynx's Gamekillers is a totally on-brand advergame that's entertaining in its own right. Not only is there the option to play the standard version, but players can customise the characters, choosing to cast hapless friends, or rivals, from real life, as 'Gamekillers' (the people who stop them realising their virtual love interests in the online game).

These brands get it. They offer consumers personalisation, fun and new ways to socialise and improve their social standing. They do it seamlessly, offline and online.