brand level

"But the way to break through is at the brand level instead of at the extrinsic packaging level."

Companies monitor activities and performance on various social channels at product and brand levels and across events, campaigns and communities.

"It sounds nice on an ego level," said Scott Finlay, MaxMd's chief executive, "but also on a branding level."

XPG now has 532 branded components - languages, tools, libraries and the like - and there are Base and Plus branding levels for conforment systems.

"The business climate has changed again, and we wanted to move back to a one-agency model at the brand level," he added, "and when you do that, one agency has to be on the outside."

Some of the Tazos contain codes to unlock special branded levels of the Angry Birds Vuela Tazos game (although the competition has now ended and all levels are unlocked).

"We've been out there meeting with a lot of agencies and clients so they understand at a brand level, at a creative level, at a media-planning level, how they can use the palette we have," said Tim Armstrong, vice president for advertising sales at Google in Mountain View, Calif.