It's the question that's on everyone's lips. We map out the role for brands and brand experience in building a brave new world.

In this episode:

We wrap up Season 1 of the Total Experience Podcast a.k.a. 'Brand Experience in the Age of Corona' by looking at what brands can do to shape our uncertain future in a positive way. With Richard Cable.

A frame of reference

• The hero's journey
• The region of supernatural wonder
• The Spanish Flu of 1918, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the global protests of 1968 all rolled into one
• A world facing economic catastrophe, global pandemic, racial injustice and inequality

Planning for total victory

• Why it's not ridiculous to talk about brand experience at a time like this.
• Constructive thinking
• Seismic change
• History's horrible precedents
• Shaping the world for good

The bandwagon is the place to be

• Brands and social progress
• Courageous individuals and grassroots movements - George Floyd and the humiliation of Donald Trump
• The purpose of a brand
• Embracing, normalising and amplify positive change.
• Brand purpose is still bollocks
• Creating bandwagons of our own
• Branded cynicism
• Aligning what you do and what you say

Revenge spending and the slump to come

• Lockdown easing and rising optimism
• "Revenge spending"
• Government debt and small to medium business meltdown

Where brands add value

• Enterprise value and powerful brands
• Recklessness of neglecting your brand

Why brand experience is so important: brand, people, touchpoints and creative

Brand

• Digital transformation and innovation
• The inherent dangers of short-termism and neglecting your brand
• Adidas as one to watch

People

• Radically altered customer demographics - new skills, asymmetrical effects, the positive effects of lockdown

Touchpoints

• Reweighting your brand ecosystem
• The rise of social commerce
• The re-rise of AR and VR
• Only as strong as your weakest touchpoint

Creative

• Crises and creativity
• Creative red herrings
• Glitz and glamour vs grit and grime
• The birth of the anti-hero
• Smashing shibboleths

Summary

• The positive role for brands in unfucking the world
• Being on the right side of history
• The engine of recovery