Following the release earlier this month of a new Forrester report  looking at how social media is impacting the buying process, there's been some discussion between top marketers bloggers about the death of the traditional marketing funnel as we knew it.  In his specific ripple-way-of-mind, David Armano suggested to replace the marketing funnel by a spiral to symbolise the multiple brands' touchpoints centered around and emanated from the customer. I like this very much.

In a 2006 white paper Seth Godin already initiated the symbol evolution to demonstrate the communication power shift between brands and customers. He suggested to flip the funnel to symbolise the turning of customers into advocates spreading the word about brands' products.

In a world of advocates, engagement is the new key metric to take into account. In the mentionned report, Forrester sliced it up in four components being involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence. Metrics indicators to try and measure engagement for each component are proposed.   The bottom line for a brand to get people engaged is to share their ideal. If customers can get how the brand is making their world a better place, they will immediately embrace the brand's ideal. Sure, they might not be the best buyers, but they'll soon be their best friends.  And friendly brands will be the most successfull brands in the new marketing game. Just have a look at Starbucks on Facebook:  the 'Addicted to Starbucks' group has just welcomed its 54,000th member. In the world of mouth communication playground social media is creating, the Pachinko game is not trendy anymore. In this year syllabus, subtraction won't be a lesson. A much more ambitious program has been planned.  Exponential rules are at stake. Summer break is over. We're back to school.

After a long fantastic holiday in Bali I spent my first two weeks in the business - catching up with an avalanche of email, and just spent a couple of days in London. From my hotel I have a great view on the lovely little Duke of York's Theatre and every night a 100 or so (female) fans wait for Orlando Bloom who plays in In Celebration -  to take a picture or have him sign their booklet. It's nice to be back in the vibes of London.

I had a peaceful holiday - but I had a restless mind. I read The Historian from Elizabeth Kostova and it hunted me. Evil is everywhere and the fight between good and bad shall never be won by good. (Also read Lovely Bones, not exactly the sort of literature that cheers you up either). On the plane to Kuala Lumpur I saw Amazing Grace. Ioan Gruffudd plays Wilberforce, who, as a Member of Parliament, navigated the world of 18th Century backroom politics to end the slave trade in the British Empire and over the course of two decades, took on the English establishment and persuaded those in power to end the inhumane trade of slavery. Youssou N'Dour is Olaudah Equiano. Born in Africa and sent as a slave to the Colonies, Equiano bought his freedom and made his home in London, where he wrote a best-selling account of his life and became a leading figure in the fight to end the slavery of his fellow countrymen.

It's difficult to explain the feeling when visiting a country that has been 'colonized' by Europeans. In Denpasar over a 1000 Balinese committed ritual suicide in 1908 because they preferred to die in peace rather than wait for the Dutch ships that had left the Australian harbors to re-invade them and kick the Japanese out of the island of the Gods. While a little later the whole of Europe had its own issues with Nazi Germany. War after war. And nations whose wealth is build on slavery, goods, spices and products from oversea and a shipping industry that was able to support all of that. I am not naive or anything - the world continues to turn around, and in the meantime there are still imperialist nations who invade countries, destroy cultures for the better and higher good of the world. On to Iran now ? The news is shockingly violent if you spent 3 weeks away amongst the rice fields. Next year I am taking some other books on holidays. Time to start thinking digital marketing again.