• Ad Age, Monday, April 13, 2009 11 AM

Speaking at Ad Age's Digital Conference last week, Unilever CMO Simon Clift said that "brands are now becoming conversation factors where academics, celebrities, experts and key opinion formers discuss functional, emotional and, more interestingly, social concerns." He warned that marketers who do not adapt to the new reality are putting their brands in peril, Jack Neff reports.

In the spirit of this new dialogue, Ad Age offers five "New Rules for Marketing" that it invites readers to debate or supplement (but, interestingly, in an email to editor Jonah Bloom jbloom@adage.com rather than in the public comment section).

The rules, which are elaborated upon in the article, are: 1. Listening to consumers is more important than talking at them; 2. You can't hide the corporation behind the brand anymore -- or even fully separate the two; 3. PR is a primary concern for every CMO and brand manager; 4. Cause marketing isn't about philanthropy but rather "enlightened self-interest"; 5. Social media is not a strategy; it is a tactic.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »