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"Earlier this month, the advertising industry\u2019s leading brands, agencies and technology platforms descended on New York City for Advertising Week to discuss how brands can effectively connect with consumers across today\u2019s fractured media landscape. Participants analyzed the increasing role of brand content, the changing nature of content distribution and the complexity of measurement. One particular observation emerged on multiple occasions: When it comes to how we consume media, we no longer live in a \u201Clinear\u201D world.  \nPeople now move quickly and unpredictably between devices and media environments throughout the day. Therefore, content creators and brands are challenged to tell a story that unfolds in an intended sequence. Brands and agencies are rearranging many of the core components of their programs to be able to thrive in this non-linear, distracted media universe we now inhabit.  Here are five key ways advertisers and brands are changing it up.\n1. Switch to Non-Linear Storytelling\n\n\n\n\nNon-linear storytelling is becoming much more popular with brand content creators.  Take the granddaddy of all non-linear brand content campaigns, Old Spice\u2019s \u201CResponse\u201D videos. No matter which video you start with, you\u2019ll be entertained and hooked into watching more of the videos. Given that consumers can discover content in so many different ways, brands need to create content that can stand on its own, even if it\u2019s part of an episodic series. Another interesting example of this type of approach is Audi\u2019s new campaign, \"Untitled Jersey City Project.\u201D The series was shot in the style of a TV thriller, with eight unique episodes of interconnected cliffhangers that, nonetheless, are not designed to be viewed in a linear manner.\n2. Restructure Operations Around Content and Sharing\n\n\n\n\nBrands are working harder to create genuinely entertaining content that consumers will choose to watch (and hopefully share).  Agencies are creating new positions and departments to ensure this content is succeeding; for example, \u201Cearned media directors\u201D devote themselves to achieving real results for brand clients with earned media.  Coca-Cola has even created company roles dedicated to ensuring \u201Ccontent excellence.\u201D The University of Phoenix, one of the nation's largest direct response advertisers, has broadened its web content programs and is now producing content to supplement its advertising programs and engage audiences. \n3. Rethink the Purchase Funnel\n\n\n\n\nAdvertisers are realizing that the purchase funnel is no longer a linear process. The Internet makes so much information available \u2013 both through our social connections and the 24-hour news cycle \u2013 that the traditional sequence from awareness to purchase intent is often truncated, with consumers bouncing back and forth across the purchase funnel.\nTo better understand these changing dynamics, advertisers are implementing new methods of digital research to measure their campaigns\u2019 social engagement, and its effects on brand metrics. Emerging digital measurement companies such as Vizu, as well as established players such as Nielsen and comScore (who both introduced new social measurement products within the last quarter), are helping brands access this deeper social activity data.   Neville Manohar, head of digital marketing, credit card and analytics at Chrysler Group, spoke to this trend during Advertising Week. He noted that immediately following last year\u2019s Super Bowl ad featuring Eminem, the company witnessed a flurry of social engagement that far surpassed its expectations. The activity helped change how Chrysler views the purchase funnel when it comes to digital advertising. \n4. Facilitate Content Discovery\n\n\n\n\nSearch is a linear process: You want to find out about something, you search for it online. If, along the way, you come across an advertisement for what you are looking for, you click on it.  However, as social media becomes a more dominant vehicle to experience web content, we come across advertising in a less linear fashion.  In fact, the starting point for many people when they jump online is their news feed, where they can discover content friends have posted and find new stuff that interests them.\nRather than forcing products and services on a consumer, advertisers are turning to distribution models that facilitate content \u201Cdiscovery.\u201D StumbleUpon's new \"Paid Discovery\u201D advertising model illustrates these new types of offerings by allowing a brand's site to be the content that users discover and interact with, whereas before, ads appeared ahead of content. \n5. Focus on Evergreen Entertainment\n\n\n\n\nAdvertisers are now considering whether the traditional campaign-based advertising approach is the right way to build a brand in today\u2019s media landscape. Consumers fluidly switch between their computers, TVs, mobile phones and social platforms, making it very difficult to guarantee reach with a single campaign. \nOn the other hand, this new non-linear climate allows for a deeper and longer level of consumer engagement than the typical television commercials of past. Heineken, in conjunction with AKQA, recently launched the revolutionary \u201CHeineken Star Player\u201D iPhone app, which allows fans to interact in real-time with the UEFA Champion's League action. Not only does the app provide a novel, interactive addition to the sports viewing experience, Heineken has also succeeded in creating an entirely new environment in which fans spend a significant amount of time.\n\n\n  \n\n\nEvent management for Mashable Media Summit 2011 powered by Eventbrite\n\nPresenting Sponsor: AT&amp;T\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/10/26/advertising-non-linear-media/>