The strongest ripples of a brand’s Currents start from its Anchor and thus make the Anchor stronger.

Waves: Piercing the cultural conversation 

Waves are occasional or opportunistic and often come in the form of “planned” earned impressions. 

Any brand, with the right amount of money, can work with a celebrity, partner with an influencer or pay to be part of an event like the Met Gala; these types of partnerships and stunts are quickly becoming one of the most used tropes of our industry. More often than not, it’s pure borrowed interest—it makes a Wave, yes, but the momentum of the Wave doesn’t necessarily propel the brand forward. 

Again, the best Waves originate from the Anchor. Dunkin’ partnering with Ben Affleck is the perfect pairing, as they share the same Boston DNA. Of course, Chipotle would support the Young Farmers Coalition, the future makers of real food, by partnering with Kacey Musgraves to reimagine Coldplay’s “Fix You” for a short film. Arby’s launched a smoked bourbon with the same hickory they use to smoke their brisket and rib their Meats. Burger King used real images of its restaurants on fire and stamped the photos with “Flame Grilled Since 1954.” 

All these Wave-making stunts emanate from the respective brand’s Anchor, and they propel the brand forward. They aren’t about borrowed interest; they’re about brand equity. 

Anchors, Currents and Waves is a simple tool—it starts as a worksheet-driven exercise, and once committed to (particularly the Anchor), it manifests into a blueprint to guide a brand in all it does. It can be distilled to a single page to guide campaign development, content calendaring, even media allocations and budgeting. It can be used as a filter for judging ideas: Does this Current emanate from the Anchor? Is this Wave tethered to the Anchor? 

The model ensures that the brand can create varied yet consistent content that reinforces the simple shorthand for why a QSR brand is special and, more importantly, why consumers should choose it—now and in the future.