超级品牌速成秘诀

    另外一个例子是我们在YouTube上推出的一部短剧，名为《相离时相知》（Away We Happened）。创作这部短剧，是因为我们发现亚裔美国人使用社交媒体的比例超出平均水平。因此我们创作了这部六集短剧。有趣的是，我们只创作了第一集。两个年轻人在去机场路上的咖啡店里，因为意外事件相遇，并错拿了彼此的行李。在结尾处，我们提出了问题：“你认为故事应该如何发展？”“他们应该见面吗？”观众通过Facebook提出了各种想法，还进行了投票。之后，我们据此编写下一周的剧本，然后进行拍摄、制作，并在YouTube上播放。目前，这部短剧已有数百万观众。公司的智能手机设备也是故事中不可或缺的一部分。这对我们来说确实是非常有趣的冒险尝试。

    这些都是营销尝试。你们会设法去衡量这种营销手段吗？

    当然。

    你们如何衡量？

    方法很多。《破晓》的观看次数有数百万次，而且我们还开发了一款名为Jackboxer App的手机应用。在《破晓》里，Jackboxer都是正义一方。用户将这款应用下载到手机中，就可以一路跟进短剧情节。用户可以更深入了解在网剧中所用的技术，于是我们专门制作了一个网站。我们很幸运，因为消费者对短剧中的科技元素充满了热情，因此总是希望了解更多。我们发现，许多用户登陆网站，平均会花费大约一个小时的时间浏览各种技术，查看网剧中使用的HTC ONE设备，还有翻译器和沃森语音技术（Watson）等等。

    无线运营商竞相推出新服务，竞争可谓非常激烈。你们如何保持竞争优势？

    我们认为，我们的优势就是规模最为庞大的群策群力构思创意项目。我们有250,000名员工。任何员工都可以提交自己的创意，真正做到了群策群力。所以大家经常会说：“这个怎么样”或者“那个怎么样？”我们把其中一些非常不错的创意用到了商业应用中。比如，为了兼顾工作和家庭，一位年轻的父亲上班时会带两部手机，其中一部用于工作，另外一部则用来和家人联络。于是，他希望赋予一部手机多重身份，并提交了这一理念。然后，我们在达拉斯城外的Foundry创意中心（AT&T全球三大创意中心之一）针对这一理念进行开发。最终，这个创意变成了一款商业产品，便是我们在去年秋天发布的AT&T Toggle技术。

    你负责公司的品牌建设，但归根结底，品牌还是依靠公司及员工行为来体现，对此你怎么看？

    我们经常说，只有当人们走进2,300多家零售店，当一名技术人员来到消费者家中，当消费者使用我们的产品与服务时，AT&T品牌才真正鲜活起来。广告就像是蛋糕上的拉花，用户体验才是蛋糕本身。

    现在，所有想要手机的美国人几乎已经人手一部，你们如何寻找更大的增长机会？

    过去五年，对我们来说其实只能算是冰山一角。过去五年，公司网络的使用率增加了20,000%。未来五年，只要宽带频谱可用，预计我们仍会以每年75%的速度增长。所以，目前的成绩根本不算什么。

    数字家庭是一个很好的例子。未来，大家可以从办公室或者度假的地方管理家庭，不仅可以查找家中哪处用水出现了问题，还可以用平板电脑把水关掉。如果你的儿子或者女儿回到家，却发现门锁了，你可以激活摄像头，打开门，看着他们进家门。甚至可以监督孩子们写作业。

    如果要出门，不需要去查看是否要下雨，因为你的伞柄会发光，这是在告诉你：“你最好带上我，因为今天有雨。”宗旨，当一切都连接到无线网络，生活会变得更加美好。

    Another example is a series on YouTube called Away We Happened. It was born out of the insight that the target audience, Asian Americans, are above-average users of social media. So we created six webisodes. The really interesting learning here is that we created only the first webisode. These two young professionals meet by happenstance in a coffee shop on the way to the airport, and somehow they take each other's luggage. At the end of the webisode the question is asked, "What do you think should happen next? Should they meet up?" Using Facebook, our viewers input ideas and voted on them. The script for the next week was written, shot, produced, and put up on YouTube that week. We've had millions of viewers. Our smartphone devices again played an integral part in the story. It's been a really fun adventure for us.

    These are experiments. Do you try to measure their success?

    Absolutely.

    How do you do it?

    A number of ways. We've had millions of views of the Daybreak series, but we also developed an app called the Jackboxer App -- the Jackboxers are the good guys in Daybreak. You download the app to your smartphone and follow clues along the way throughout the webisodes. You could learn more about the technology that was used in a webisode, so we take you to our website. We're lucky because our customers are so passionate about their technology that they always want to learn more. We find that many users go to the website and are spending about an hour on average looking at the technology, checking out the device that was used, the HTC One, checking out the Translator or the Watson technology or whatever.

    The competition among wireless carriers to introduce new services is relentless. How do you keep up?

    We have what we think is one of the largest crowd-sourcing ideation programs. We have 250,000 employees. All of them can submit an idea, and it's crowd-sourced, so people say, "But what about this?" or "What about that?" We bring some of those ideas into commercial use. For example, a young father was using two devices at work, one for work and one for home, trying to keep up with his job and his family. He came up with the idea of having a single device with multiple personas. He submitted that idea. We worked it through our Foundry outside Dallas, one of our three innovation centers around the world. And it became a commercial product we launched last fall called AT&T Toggle.

    You're responsible for building this brand, but ultimately isn't the brand embodied in the behavior of the company and its employees every day?

    We always say that the AT&T brand comes to life when someone walks into one of our 2,300 retail stores, when a technician goes into their home, when they use our products and services. The advertising, that's icing on the cake. The cake is the experience.

    Just about everybody in America who wants a cellphone has one. Where do you find significant growth?

    What we've experienced over the past five years is just the tip of the iceberg. We've seen a 20,000% increase in the usage of our network over the past five years. We expect that over the next five years we'll grow another 75% every year if the spectrum is available.

    So you ain't seen nothing yet.

    The digital home is a great example. You'll be able to run your household from your office, from your vacation spot, and to do things like not only know that there's a water issue in your home but also, using your tablet, to shut your water off. If your son or daughter comes home and the door is locked, you can activate your camera, unlock the door, and see them go in. You can watch them do their homework.

    One day you'll walk out of your home and you won't have to check to see if it's going to rain because the handle on your umbrella will glow, which tells you, "You'd better take me because it's going to rain today." Everything will be better when it's wirelessly connected.