Trends in advertising (post 4)

Brand Utility. Sum it up by saying something useful to you brought to you by a certain brand. This can be an extremely effective and powerful marketing tool. Imagine your daughter goes to teach English in Japan and the only way you can keep in contact with her is through Skype. Wouldn't you have a positive brand image of Skype? Of course you would. The iphone, or any smartphone for that matter, is a perfect opportunity for companies to use brand utility. Google maps seems to be owning the GPS and maping aspect of cellphones. Mapquest had a great opportunity to capitalize here, but seems to have missed the boat.