There’s a terrific article in the WSJ on high-end garages in Miami, designed by world-famous “starchitects,” that are being used as spaces for over-the-top events and experiences. Check out their slideshow and video.

This rendering shows what the interior of Zaha Hadid’s 23rd Street garage might look like:

Here are interior and exterior shots of Enrique Norten’s perforated Park@420: 

With almost two months to go in 2011 it’s a bit premature to be calling the year, but at the risk of being premature, here are 3 brand lessons that stick out for me:

#1: The best brands are experience brands. 

Jack Morton is about to release our first “Best Experience Brands” study (email me to learn more). We learned that consumers really do prefer brands that offer unique experiences. When we asked what brands they think are experience brands, Apple was by far the top choice—as I said, the best brands are experience brands.

#2: Brands that deliver an inconsistent experience will suffer. 

Netflix: the problem wasn’t that the experience was bad so much as that the experience Netflix customers were promised wasn’t the one they got. 

#3: Standing for something is part of experience.

Starbucks will never win over my foodie friends, but it remains a brand that outperforms competitors based on providing a superior experience—and increasingly, that experience has included taking a stand, sometimes on touchy matters like political contributions and gridlock. My favorite: Create Jobs for USA, developed by GOOD Projects. 

Another cool experience from Warby Parker: thanks to my colleague Patty for telling me about this guerilla fashion event, pulled off in the main reading room of the New York Public Library during New York’s Fashion Week. Models quietly entered, sat down, and simultaneously revealed the branding behind their books; normally voluble fashion editors silently mingled amidst befuddled readers and unsuspecting literary types.

Read about it on the Warby Parker blog: http://blog.warbyparker.com/post/9956515144/we-kicked-off-nyfw-yesterday-with-a-guerilla

(I looked over the cubicle today and saw my colleague Bruna sporting her new Warby Parker specs.)

Here’s a brand experience that’s authentic, relevant and well-executed: Warby Parker’s web site enables shoppers a “virtual try on” of their reasonably priced hipster eyeglasses that can then be downloaded as a picture file or uploaded to Facebook. It’s not exactly revolutionary, but it’s the right brand experience done well. And although I don’t wear glasses, I’m now a fan of Warby Parker given its front-and-center commitment to donating free glasses to needy people in developing economies—a TOM’s-style, buy a pair, give a pair initiative. 

Though the vast majority of purchases are still made at physical stores, we can all see the writing on the brick-and-mortar walls: buyer behavior is moving online.

But one industry whose storefronts are here to stay: Quick Serve Restaurants. Because the spontaneous, on-the-go meal may be the one thing Apple can’t squeeze into the iPad 2.

So while e-tailers can carefully control each customer experience throughout the online journey, QSR marketers have thousands of locations, disparate store managers, part-time employees, often mishandled POP, and limitless miles between them—and their customers. 

The implication: this industry will continue to struggle, not with positioning or demand, but with a consistent brand experience.

QSR, meet J.A.C.K.