In his article on AdvertisingAge.com, Garrick Schmitt posits that “digital brand experiences” are eclipsing more traditional advertising media– print ads, TV ads, billboards — and thus becoming the “new advertising”.

He makes some good points and really spells out this shift in advertising. Certainly the interactivity and connections enabled by “digital” media (notably blogs and social media) are new and fundamentally changing the way companies interact with their customers (and, more importantly, how their customers interact with each other!). However, I think it could be a bit misleading to suggest that “brand experiences” are new.

In this context, the brand experience is how a company reaches out and interacts with their customer; how they deepen the relationship.

Brand experiences likely pre-date what we think of as advertising. Before the wide reach of print and broadcast media, an enterprise’s interaction with customers was more personal and intimate. Mass media and large-scale manufacturing changed that. Mass produce a cheap product for the lowest common denominator, advertise to millions via TV, sell as much as you can. Lather, rinse, repeat.

We’ve come around again. Creating a free web-based forum for your customers to connect with each other; presenting a sports event; creating retail spaces conducive to just hanging around– all these things are not wastes of money. They may not be triggering an immediate sale, but they strengthen ties with customers that over time create fierce loyalty. This is the creation of a “tribe”– a group of people that identify with you and will proselytize for your brand. You are one of them.

In a recent article by BusinessWeek, “The Great Trust Offensive” we are told the story of several companies that are attempting to make a comeback after having their reputation tarnished by scandal or corruption or even accepting a bankruptcy-stalling Federal handout.

The key concept here is one of trust between customers and enterprises. Trust is the result of promises made by a brand and the delivery.

Take, for instance, my recent post about SIGG bottles. After the fallout surrounding BPA found in reusable plastic drinking bottles, SIGG seemed a perfect alternative– stylish, Swiss, and NOT plastic. Unfortunately, SIGG decided to let folks believe that misapprehension all the while churning out their signature aluminum bottles that were coated with a BPA-containing plastic material. When this news broke, they lost customers, business partners (Patagonia will no longer sell SIGG bottles)… and a tremendous amount of trust. There were many ways they could have handled that situation, but they opted to take advantage of (and ultimately abuse) customer trust.

Their brand has taken a tremendous blow (rightly so) and it will likely take years and years to rebuild their customer trust, if ever. They won’t be able to use marketing or advertising to repair the damage. They failed to deliver on the promise of their brand– eco-friendly alternative to plastic, safe– and instead delivered deception wrapped around the very substance people had abandoned plastic bottles over.

Brand trust is nothing new and it’s not the domain of mega-corporations. Brand trust is created, and sustained, by EVERY interaction between an enterprise and its customers. For example, if a “mom and pop” plumbing company fails to live up to its marketing and advertising– their personnel are scary-looking work-release rejects, phone help is rude, and the work is shoddy– then they have earned zero trust and word will spread. Customers’ voices can be amplified many times over thanks to resources available to everyone on the internet.

So yes, trust IS important. It’s not new or trendy– it has always been a component of your brand (Yes, you DO have a brand). And now some of the gigantic corporations are realizing this and discovering that trust can’t simply be gained by slick marketing campaigns.