Create Brand Love

Things we like: Fresh Impressions on Brandmarks (from a 5-year-old)

2012-02-21T04:00:00.000-08:00

Things we like: Why Software Projects are Terrible and How Not To Fix Them

2011-12-07T01:21:00.001-08:00

http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-software-projects-are-terrible-and-how-not-to-fix-them/

Things we like: Why We’re Not Hiring Creative Technologists

2011-12-06T01:17:00.000-08:00

"The talent drifts off. The ninjas plan and conceive the work, and analyse its success, using metrics no-one else understands. Bad work proliferates, becomes accepted and normalized within the industry; the really good people get further alienated, more dust is thrown to disguise others taking their places, and round and round it goes, until no-one knows who’s a ninja and who’s not. Except for the best people, who’ve left the agency scene in the dust – and the audience, of course, who are left unmoved. Or, worse, switched off."

http://blog.wk.com/2011/10/21/why-we-are-not-hiring-creative-technologists/

Things we like: The Psychology of Nakedness

2011-12-01T08:15:00.000-08:00

Interesting reading about how we think and why it matters to us.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/the-psychology-of-nakedness/

Things we like: the Gesture-Based Future

2011-11-28T03:04:00.000-08:00

The biggest reason futurists fail is that too many predictions are based on the possible, rather than the desirable.

http://www.cultofmac.com/131855/why-apple-will-dominate-the-gesture-based-future/

Things we like: 1-year-old thinks a magazine is a broken iPad

2011-10-14T02:25:00.000-07:00

The evolving consumer in action (literally evolving).

Things we like: Cookie Cutters Are For Baking, Not Branding

2011-05-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

While David acknowledges that rules are great to follow, it's the rule breakers who have forged innovation in business, in branding and in life.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1752576/cookie-cutters-are-for-baking-not-branding

Things we like: Digital - Royce Gracie

2011-05-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

Royce Gracie changed fighting the same way digital has changed advertising and media...
http://aramique.blogspot.com/2011/05/digital-royce-gracie.html

Brand: Aim to be iconic, regardless of size

2011-05-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

here are many articles about brand and branding, but it is always helpful to clarify this often misunderstood, and regularly misused term. Brand is an all-encompassing concept central to how you communicate your business ideals and how consumers understand what your business stands for. Here are some watch-outs to keep in mind when dealing with the subject of brand.

Know your brand.
I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but your brand is not a logo or a tagline. Your brand is you. Its very existence comes from how you present your business to the world. Like you it has a character. Like you it has a story. A brand is a living entity, which your consumers interact with whenever they talk to you. With this in mind it is vitally important to understand what you want to tell people about your business and how you want your business to be perceived. If you understand your brand and if it truly represents your ideals, then your enthusiasm will shine through. A strong brand bleeds-out not only to you, but also to your colleagues, your customers and to the public in general.

Aim to be iconic, regardless of size.
No matter how flushed-out your brand is, it needs to be realised in a visual and descriptive way. Knowing your brand character & brand story will allow you to make much more informed decisions on the effectiveness of any brand assets which are created. And don’t forget that as with any character or story, your brand can and will evolve over time. Aim to make your brand assets represent what you want your brand to be in the future. Aim to be iconic, regardless of your current size and status.

Digital is not a technology
Do you want to reach more people through a digital website, campaign or social media? Try not to confuse the term digital with technology. We live in a technology enabled world where our everyday behaviour has evolved to adapt to ever-changing ways of doing things. It is important to remember that the digital aspect of reaching people is actually about this evolved behaviour, and not the technology which is available. Your brand must make sense to people during the course of their digital day, and knowing your brand will help it remain relevant and strong in this context. You must also be aware of the reciprocal nature of communications in this new social context. With consumers now able to converse directly with brands and also with each other, it is important to nurture what is known as “Brand Love”. This is measured by what people say and feel about your brand, so careful and honest handling will not only help your brand live on, it can also allow consumers to give it a life of its own.

Don't be tempted by unnecessary features
Do you need a website? It’s tempting to rush in and place all your collected knowledge on its pages, or to fill it with every link and service you think your consumers may want. However a website is more than just your images and copy online, it is your shop-front to the world. Why should the experience of visiting your website be any less inviting than visiting your place of work, or any less informative than speaking to you or your colleagues personally. Make sure your website is led by the ideals of your brand and don’t rely on flash designs, technical widgets and clever programming to impress your consumers.

Believe the results, not the corporate size
How do you choose a brand agency? I suggest that with brand character & brand story in mind, check out their client work. Do you see the depth of the client’s business in the brand assets created? Is there more than a superficial understanding of the client’s business ideals visible in the results? Try not to be tempted by the size and status of an agency, as this is not necessarily an indication of current or future quality.

A brand checklist
Finally, a few points to ask yourself about your brand:
-    Does your brand inspire you?
-    Do you find more meaning in your brand as time goes on?
-    Does your brand encourage you to further clarify and continue your business story?
-    Do you brand assets live up to the promise of your brand?
-    (and most importantly) Do you love your brand?

Is the creative industry putting digital in a box?

2011-05-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

ello, how do you digital?

It’s clear that we live in a world filled with technology. Indeed, the relatively recent effect of technology on communications has had a particularly profound effect, so much so that the way in which we perceive our world has changed us forever.

The creative industry must, of course, adapt to this effect. However, our experience of working in the creative industry has revealed what we can best describe as the ‘another link in the chain’ approach. This reveals itself in the identification of certain staff with an interest or aptitude for technology as ‘digital’, and the rest as ‘not digital’.

However, we see this labelling as both misleading and illogical. From a societal standpoint, we observe in this context, that it is not technology which is digital, it is ourselves. Our perception of the world through technology; its effect on how we navigate our environment, how we interact with our friends, colleagues and strangers, and how we consume and expect information in an instant, is common to all of us and has a name. It’s called digital.

Digital is a verb. It’s an evolutionary activity. Everyday acts require us to digital. Our message to our clients is “We digital, you digital too”.

We see ‘digital specialists’ as ‘behavioural specialists’. We describe this as a constant fascination with observing how people navigate their way through a technology enabled world. These people are not some people, they are all people.

We believe the industry needs to understand how, why and where we digital, not just what we digital.

Digital is how we do things, it cannot be put in a box.

Things we like: Commerce gets social: How social networks are driving what you buy (Wired UK)

2011-05-05T07:25:00.002-07:00

Commerce gets social: How social networks are driving what you buy (Wired UK)
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/02/features/social-networks-drive-commerce?page=1

Things we like: Taio Cruz - Dynamite (Int'l Version)

2011-05-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

Taio Cruz loves his brands so much he's even singing about them in his new single "Dynamite" (timecode 0.55sec)

"I'm wearing all my favourite brands brands brands..."

Now that's 'Brand Love' in popular culture...

Things we like: The source of Dexter's brand love - Their Writer's Room

2011-05-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

With brands extending across multiple forms of media and a longer lifespan, the story and narrative becomes more and more important. The way TV series do it is 'The Writers Room'.

The Writer's Room explained by scifi Insiders:
http://io9.com/5555114/inside-the-tv-writers-room-a-place-of-magic-and-mystery-and-making-shit-up-for-money

Things we like: Denver's Favorite Animal - Campaign Film

2011-05-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

Brand Love - definitely - they even had a vote for their favorite animal.
Frontier to take its animal marketing campaign national

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2010/04/19/story8.html?b=1271649600%5E3208161

Things we like: Singer gets his revenge on United Airlines and soars to fame

2011-05-05T07:18:00.001-07:00

Brand Love - not so much. It's an old one but a good one.
Singer gets his revenge on United Airlines and soars to fame.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/jul/23/youtube-united-breaks-guitars-video

Things we like: Inside the primitive mind of the consumer

2011-05-05T07:17:00.001-07:00

Market researchers are using emotion recognition technology to find out how people really feel about products and brands...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12581446

Things we like: Sir Harold Evans - The Spirit of Innovation

2011-05-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

Legendary journalist, author, editor and publisher Sir Harold Evans visits the RSA to ask: what is really required for successful innovation?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF2Rq-h-sHo

Things we like: Word of mouth proves powerful in UK

2011-05-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

LONDON: The average consumer in the UK talks about 70 brands each week, a greater number than their US counterparts, new figures show...

http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/ArchiveNews.news?ID=27337&Origin=WARCNewsEmail

Things we like: Advertising 1980vs2009

2011-05-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

How things have changed.
http://blog.pedrocustodio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/advertising1980vs2009.jpg

Things we like: Transmedia tales and the future of storytelling

2011-05-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

Are readers really ready for a novel that leaps from the page to the screen via GPS games and audio clues? A growing number of publishers think they are...

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-11/25/transmedia-tales-and-the-future-of-storytelling.aspx