The Idea of Brand in the New World

I've just read an interesting article. At first glance, you would think that this article is about the new Skittles site. In fact, there has been some noise lately that Skittles' agency, Agency.com ripped the idea off from Modernista. But as the author states there is more going on here. Skittles like Modernista has gotten the message. A brand is no longer created by using the metaphorical megaphone by pushing the brand out into the market place and maintaining it with mini blasts of the megaphone. When a company puts a brand out into the world today, it's now a back and forth exchange. You have to listen to your customers who have even more vehicles to make their voices heard. Any company/brand that isn't willing to understand this new paradigm will lose out to a company that understands this.