If you missed the flap about Amp’s new iPhone app last week it’s probably because you were following the Balloon Boy debacle, or were on vacation on a remote, tropical isle (hopefully the latter). Essentially, the app was deemed offensive to women by some and a harmless joke by others. We’re not going to weigh in on the specifics of this campaign – that’s been done ad nauseam, but how diffusion brands work with their parent companies got us thinking about how social media is impacting marketing strategies across all consumer categories.

Once upon a time (pre-social media and certainly pre-Internet) consumers weren’t generally aware of the relationship between parent brands, such as Pepsi or Unilever, and their many “children.” Estée Lauder was thought of as one beauty brand, not the “mother” of Clinique, Origins, La Mer and a host of others. This lack of visibility into the inner workings of the industry allowed parent brands to launch diffusion lines to create relevancy with and gain revenue from new audiences while retaining their loyal following.

Now consumers are not only increasingly aware of the power of their voices, as evidenced by the FTC caring enough about the blogosphere to create guidelines, they also have much more transparency into brand relationships. As such, the actions of the children will most certainly come to rest at the parents’ feet. Elevated inter-brand awareness creates a different set of challenges, and opportunities, and requires a new approach to communications that takes that transparency into account with “if/then” scenario building around edgier campaigns.

Note: Pepsi is a client of Grow Marketing, but not the Amp brand.