While relationships with consumers were always important, real friendships are now critical in today's fragmented media environment.

As the interactive space continues to travel at warp speed, brands that embrace the value of friendship will be able to leverage the power of the digital medium more effectively. But brands that fail to think of themselves as partners with their consumers will be doomed because consumers will see through a disingenuous message.

Those deeper relationships will require brands to do a better job of identifying and training employees in what Sean Finnegan, CEO of OMG Digital, referred to as "The Art of a Relationship."

Talking about Midwestern values and common sense, Finnegan told attendees at the iMedia Brand Summit that engaging consumers in today's evolving media landscape isn't as difficult as many marketers think it is.

"Building relationships online is actually very easy," Finnegan said. "Brands can build lasting relationships with their customers using the central tenants of friendship, which is something that we all know how to do on a personal level."

While relationships with consumers were always important, real friendships are now critical, according to Finnegan, who told the crowd that a fragmented media environment means consumers can easily skip marketing messages if the brands don't develop a true friendship with their customers.

To illustrate his point, Finnegan highlighted a recent McDonald's campaign in Seattle.

In the 24/7 campaign, McDonald's sought to educate young adults about the chain's late-night dinning options. Rather than simply running ads saying the restaurant was open late, marketers went out into the field to connect with consumers where young people often congregate at night: bars.

According to Finnegan, the campaign is noteworthy for digital marketers despite the fact that it lacked a digital component because it connected with consumers on a personal level.

At a local bar, McDonald's sponsored coasters that featured some of the restaurant's foods as well as a public safety message aimed at curbing drunk driving. Outside the bar, McDonald's sponsored a field sobriety test using an enlarged rendering of a French fry in lieu of the straight line. To finish off the campaign, McDonald's provided a sponsored taxi service for those too inebriated to drive. Naturally, many of the taxis stopped at a local McDonald's, where riders both bought a late-night snack and heard the company's message that they were indeed open at all hours. Several of the consumers who took advantage of the sponsored ride also shouted the company's tagline, "I'm lovin' it," as the taxi drove them home, meal in hand.

The campaign accomplished a two-fold goal of lowering local incidents of drunk driving fatalities and increasing sales.

For Finnegan, the campaign is a classic lesson of applying common sense principles that govern human relationships to the marketing arena.

"McDonald's had a successful campaign because they made their message genuine by confronting a social responsibility issue, but they also delivered their message in a very personal way by actually going out to bars to connect with their customers," Finnegan said.

For those unwilling to look at campaigns beyond the digital bubble, Finnegan highlighted a MySpace campaign for State Farm's renters' insurance.

"We chose MySpace not because of its reach, but because it gave us an ability to actually listen to the customers in a community environment," Finnegan said. "What we found was that renters either didn't believe their stuff was valuable enough to insure, or they thought their landlord's policy would cover them or they didn't even know that such a product existed."

Using MySpace, State Farm encouraged people to post pictures of their apartments, showcasing the items some would ultimately choose to insure. From there, State Farm found that it had an engaged audience ready to learn about a product that would help them secure their possessions.

"State Farm is an example of a traditional brand that's doing it right in the digital space," Finnegan said. "Listening is a very important part of friendship and it's critical for marketing. The power of technology allows us to forge deeper relationships with the people who interact with our brands."

Leaving the crowd with some advice, Finnegan encouraged brands to monitor blogs and bulletin boards to find out what their consumers have to say. He also touted the value of consistency, saying that brands, like friends, need to be dependable. As a closing point, Finnegan urged brands to do what friends do naturally, follow up with each other on a personal level using the preferred channel of communication.

Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMediaConnection. Read full bio.