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McDonalds, Red Bull & Like Me Scores
McDonalds is pushing their Monopoly Game with big brands like Lebron, Patrick Murphy (hockey star) and others. This got me thinking about Red Bull and "like me" scores.

Advertisers evaluate ads on awareness. In a time where everyone is connected to everyone else Red Bull shows the power of "like me" brands. Red Bull brands cultural icons and athletes across a broad spectrum.

Red Bull favors the slightly known star. The missing dimension in ad evaluation is a "Like Me" score. If we ask viewers and consumers of McDonalds vs. Red Bull content is "Like Me" with a 10 point scale (10 = just like me, 1 = not like me at all) I would bet on lower "like me" scores as we move up the brand ladder. More powerful the brand the lower the "like me" scores with many personas (like our Internet marketing tribe).

Lebron occupies rare air, so his "like me" score is likely to be lower than a relevant but only slightly known stars favored by Red Bull. Red Bull gets another benefit by featuring slightly known stars - they get to help shape and amplify the story. They get to play a major role in how the "slightly known" brand becomes known.

My prediction would be the lower the "like me" scores the less likely a consuming audience, especially an online audience, would be to take an action. Higher the "like me" scores the more likely an action. SO...

McDonalds = my tribe = marginal awareness & lower Like Me scores
McDonalds + Monopoly + LeBron = my tribe = much lower scores (thus hurting the tiny margin that may have been interested).

Mcdonalds + Monopoly + Mark Traphagen (or Phil Buckley) = my tribe = VERY interested due to high Like Me scores and support and play is 100x more likley.

Smart move, in a digital age, is to align your brand with an army of "like me" brands.

By shaping the stories of "slightly known" stars, and McDonalds includes a few of these with Lebron, Red Bull's TELLING also shortens distance to "like me" identification" (is my theory). By telling s story Red Bull becomes the prophet / storyteller.

Red Bull's focus is outward (seemingly), but they are painting with the collaboration brush AND they are sharing their valuable amplification power to help lesser known brands. This creates a sense of Red Bull's altruism thus increasing "like me" identification chances (again my theory).

Red Bull creates a strong 3 Legged Stool:

* Brand benevolence helps "slightly famous".
* Distance between Red Bull and content consumers SHORTENED by branding within the tribe (albeit the top % of the tribe in a particular skill) so LIKE ME identification more likely.
* Collaboration feeds aspiration and positions brand as helper / filter / guide / prophet shortening distance and making LIKE ME identification more likely.

More on Red Bull's branding lessons on @ janlgordon's Curatti: http://curatti.com/red-bulls-branding-lesson-media-companies-now/