Firms need to learn to manage the downturn, listen to customers, incorporate them to the innovation process and become their partners. Branding is changing fundamentally and the impact of this change is being demolising over the last five years: some companies keep up, while other are clarly lagging. Traditional PR and marketing policies change in light of web2.0 conversations. This presentation was specially prepared for a postgraduate course at University of Cantabria in 2008. The opinions are those of the author and not those of Banesto.