A recent report by McKinsey indicated that 54 per cent of consumers avoid buying products that overwhelm them with too much advertising. The case against advertising overkill is further compounded by the revelation that 44 per cent of buying decisions at one telco were influenced by customer interaction rather than advertising. The question is, can you afford to lose 44 per cent of your customers due to poor brand experiences?

Erik Hauser, director of the International Experiential Marketing Association (IXMA), claims we have entered a new era. Traditional marketing theories and practices are rapidly changing and becoming less relevant. “It's those companies that can deliver the right experience to customers that will succeed,” Hauser said. “Businesses will live or die not by the attributes they promise, but by the experience they offer customers at every touch point – in the store, at the website, with the product, and through events and advertising.”

“Today, customers take product quality and a positive brand image as a given,” Bernd H Schmitt of thee Columbia Business School wrote in the seminal book, Experiential Marketing. “What they want are products, communications and marketing campaigns that dazzle their senses, touch their hearts, and stimulate their minds – that deliver an experience.”

Nike and Apple are renowned for pushing creative boundaries, but with the Nike+ ipod Sport Kit they have created an entirely new experience. It allows you to 'get connected to your running experience'. Runners can place a small sensor under their shoe insole and connect a receiver to their iPod nano to track statistics during and after a workout.

Workout progress and statistics are updated on-screen and with audio cues through your headphones. The runner returns to the desktop, syncs the iPod nano and uploads to Nike to track progress over time. The Nike monitoring system allows interaction with friends and other runners worldwide. In just one month, over 300,000 miles were logged on the Nike+ website.

The experience begins during a workout, but does not end there. Users can connect to the Nike+ website and track running statistics and improvement over time. They can share training information and set up virtual races with friends to compare times over the same course. Nike also launched a podcast to follow the progress of a marathon trainer in San Francisco. Perhaps in the future anyone could add their own audio to their workout blog and statistics.

Not sure what to listen to during your workout? Nike athletes have contributed their favorite PowerSongs to get them pumped up. Ronaldo and Landon Donovan listen to 'Elevation' by U2 and 'Where is the Love' by Black Eyed Peas respectively. The system even runners to challenge others athletes around the world. Nike and Apple are building an online running community worldwide. This is XM at its most powerful and cultural best.

Nike and Apple have tapped into consumer passion. The roles have been reversed. Consumers now own the brand. It is they who will control the Nike+ community. Nike has created 'brand explorers'. A tourist will bring back gifts but an explorer will bring back stories. It is these stories that drive word of mouth and lead to the success of an XM campaign. We can only create the 'next big thing' by embracing popular culture and offering consumers a positive experience.

It is on the streets, in the clubs and in youth basements where we will find the 'next big thing'. Adidas tapped into this street culture with their Adicolor shoes. Adicolor's platform is personalisation and a vibrant palette of colours. So you have graffiti – personalisation, creativity and colour all in one gorgeous package of guerrilla street art and culture.

First, Adidas put up a series of mostly white 48 sheets branded with their logo that subtly encouraged people to tag the billboard and basically do whatever they wanted. Days later, they came back to those same ads and placed another poster over it. The new poster features the Adidas Adicolor shoe, now with the original tags from the previous poster incorporated into the shoe design. Adidas showed it understood its target market's culture and trends.

XM can give a much needed link between traditional mass marketing and the future of marketing based on personalised messages delivered to consumers who can choose to involve themselves with the brand on her own terms. Nobody is suggesting that traditional PR and advertising is dead but marketing will have to become relevant enough to be welcomed by the consumer at times and places where they are most receptive to it. Looking ahead, we must encourage consumers to explore our brand and build their own community around it.

STREET CRED Adidas tapped into street culture with Adicolor shoes. The line's entire platform is personalisation and the use of a vibrant palette of colours. There is graffiti – personalisation, creativity and colour in a package of guerrilla street art and culture.

Jonathan Davis is managing director of Imagine Marketing Promotions