Flat Stanley is the name of the title character of a 1964 children's book by Jeff Brown and illustrated by Tomi Ungerer.  For those of you with nieces, nephews or children of your own, you may know of Flat Stanley from The Flat Stanley Project, started in 1995 by Dale Hubert, a grade three schoolteacher in London, Ontario, Canada.  The project is meant to facilitate letter-writing by schoolchildren to each other as they document what activities they've done with Flat Stanley.

Ali's Flat Stanley went coast to coast to coast to coast, and then all the way to Beijing, China, to visit my wife's parents, with stops in Chicago, Marina del Rey and Santa Monica, St. Augustine, FL, Portland, OR, somewhere in Idaho, Salt Lake City, Washington, DC, and the Outer Banks in North Carolina, where Stanley, my wife and I all saw wild horses on a beach for the first time.

Stanley and wild horses in Corolla, Outer Banks, NC.  You can almost hear Mick and Keith.

In each place, Stanley's hosts embraced the opportunity to show Stanley (and Ali in absentia) a good time, treating him like an out-of-town friend-of-a-friend.  Along the way, Stanley tried sushi, went skateboarding, threw a black-belt Aikido instructor, stood in the jaws of an alligator and even paid a visit to the White House.  When the book returned to us just prior to our vacation in North Carolina, the pages were filled with amusing photos and witty remarks.

Stanley's journey began in early March at Millennium Park in Chicago, where he was received like an Olympic gold medalist.

Hey, can Sasha and Malia come out and play?

Xuexian, Sui Lijun and Stanley in Beijing.

In North Carolina, wherever we went, everyone gave us a knowing smile, and many people even greeted our little travel buddy: "Hey, Stanley!"  Like the customers at the roadside diner in Plymouth appropriately named "Little Man."  The jogger on the beach in Nags Head.  The National Park Service worker at the Wright Brothers Museum in Kitty Hawk.  Even Donna, the waitress at the seafood restaurant in Cape Hatteras who wears 66 rings.  It was like they had seen an old friend.

So how could this little cut-out figure made from manila paper, who is essentially a benign school equivalent of the lawn gnome that is so much fun to kidnap and take on a road trip, draw the attention and affection of so many people around the world?  Sure, the thought of helping a young kid see that world vicariously through Stanley would soften the demeanor of even a curmudgeon.  But how does that explain why a grown person would actually call out his name in greeting or wave back?   

Stanley in a way represents that connection we seek through our social networks.  Stanley allows us to do what great advertisers and brands allow us to do: Participate.  And to not only share in the experience, but to become collaborators and co-creators of that experience.  Stanley in a small, little man way adds significance to our lives by allowing us to become an important link in the chain.

Stanley is a brand.

The good CMOs recognize the need to have a Stanley in their marketing mix.  Stanley is a brand.  But he is also a connection and a bond that transcends language and culture and allows people to participate.  Stanley allows participants to be co-owners of the brand.  And it doesn't hurt that he is also simple, organic and — despite that thin paper disguise — human.

In fact, the Flat Stanley experience can uncover the key questions every CMO should ask his or her marketing team members regarding any idea they consider:

Where is the invitation to participate?

What makes it communal?

What makes it migrate?

What makes it proprietary?

When your have solid answers to these questions, even a "flat" brand will have most of what it takes to create the kind of popularity and loyalty media weight alone just cannot buy.