A surprise at 43...

BusinessWeek adopted a rather surprised tone in its commentary on number 43 Amazon in the '100 best global brands' issue. It notes Amazon is both the fastest mover in this year's ranking, yet spends virtually no attention on advertising, preferring to invest in technology and distribution capability.

I think this just reflects the new reality that with the fragmentation of media, and the ease with which views and opinions can be shared across the web, the key battleground is the customer experience. Gone are the days that you can fool people into believing you have a great product by investing heavily in TV advertising. Sadly perhaps for the ad agencies.