The Rising Tide of Brand Strategy Speak
It seems the brand and marketing industries are no more immune to the rising tide of ‘business speak’ than any other industry. Over the last year I’ve collected examples from around our brand agency and the web and researched the trends to bring you a list of my favorites. The good news is I think you’ll find them as imaginative and entertaining as they are informative.
The Festive Season Never Looked So Good
Design Blog; Design Work Life has put together a wonderful selection of affordable Christmas gifts sure to make the morning of every design tragic. Whether you’re looking for staff gifts for your brand agency (ahem!) something for that hard to choose-for husband (ahem, ahem!) or the strategic gift that sets the design bar for all future gifting, this list of 80 unique and beautiful gifts has it all. Check the site for prices (all affordable) and stockists (pretty much all on line). Santa never looked so slick.
The RACV has provided us with a perfect example of a brand extension with a product that leverages all the good work they’ve done building a reputation based on simple products you can trust and a great service ethic. The product is RACV home cover. It must be good because so far I’ve only heard it promoted on radio and yet it stuck in my mind.
For $142 per annum you get eight call outs for emergencies in the home and they’ve picked a few goodies – the sort of things that sneak up on you, and strike when you are least prepared, like the heating not working, smelling gas or a gutter flooding the lounge room. Of course they’ve also included being locked out – so now the same organisation that you trust not to snigger at you when you lock your keys in the car can help you when the front door slams behind you as you rush out in your jim jams to get the post.
From the mind of Illustrator Scott Campbell.
As creative director of a brand strategy and brand design agency, one of my most critical functions is to protect the fragile spark of creative ideas, nurture them through initial client introductions and assist clients to recognise the long term value to their brands.
This challenge faced by all brand agencies, graphic design studios, illustrators and photographers has been beautifully, poetically and elegantly illustrated by US designer illustrator Scott Campbell in his ’8 Ways to Kill a Creative Idea’:
I like a beer, there’s no point hiding it, it comes hand in hand with the Irish Brogue. So naturally, I pay a little bit more attention when new beer brands are born. So I was somewhat intrigued when I noticed the huge billboards on the end of Punt Road with colourful DNA graphics and a fancy boutique bottled beer. It was a new brand, 62 with the tag line ‘You know who you are’ and a descriptor ‘the perfectly individual pilsner’
I wasn’t intrigued enough to seek it out or try it, it didn’t seem like my kinda beer, a bit flash, for a fella like me. It wasn’t till stuck at the lights one day, I noticed the Coopers logo in the corner of the Ad and felt a thrill. Maybe this beer is worth my attention. Coopers are brewers I trust. They make great grog.
A Packaging Icon
Few brands boast packaging that has gained iconic status – the ability for cultures all around the world to identify the product purely from the form of its bottle. Coke has long understood the brand equity within the proprietary bottle shape, maintaining the authenticity of their packaging as it has evolved over the years.
Here’s a photo that shows the evolution from Coke’s first bottle, through to their current packaging – a snapshot of the fascinating visual history of this most valuable brand property.
If you’d like some help with identifying and developing unique properties for your brand, why not give us a call.
David Ansett, Brandamentalist.
If you’d like daily updates of our brand thinking, you can follow me on Twitter here.
Using the streetscape as a form of media to engage with your target audience can be very effective and at the same time lift the spirits of our fellow urban dwellers. Here are 5 tips on how to make your efforts at seizing this blank canvas and making it work in your favour.
1/ Keep it S-I-M-P-L-E
A simple idea can often be the best and most affordable way to create a brand awareness.
A great example of a simple idea is seen with the ‘Craig’ A4 posters that were mysteriously posted up allover the Windsor area in Melbourne. Although this not an original idea by Craig,
( Todd Lamb of NYC seems to be Craig’s source of inspiration) the idea is simple, low cost, and creates a real sense of entertaining and intriguing mystery for the viewer, who is Craig?
At the end of a long hard day have you ever sat back and dreamt of escaping the constraints of modern life? I know I have. It’s what makes all the sea change programs and stories so appealing. So when recently I found myself watching a TV ad that set out to appeal to exactly that sentiment, I was intrigued. It was long at 60 seconds, but was well produced with stunning imagery.
The ad began by showing a baby swimming, this is the freedom we are all born with.
Then the images became grey and hum drum. This is the reality of our lives. The baby is soon behind the bars of a cot, a man is just one of dozens sitting in identical work stations in an open office, miserable commuters are standing on a packed train etc. You get the picture.
He’s still the talk of the town, state, country and the world.
Eldrick Tont Woods known simply as Tiger Woods is arguably the greatest sports person of all time and is widely noted as the worlds first billionaire athlete.
After his arrival in Melbourne on Tuesday to compete in the Australian Masters at Kingston Heath Golf Club the media pursuit has been nothing short of relentless and as you can imagine has generated much fan fair on and off the golf course – put it this way, a door list was required for the media turnout during his first media conference at Kingston Heath with the room having to be resized to accommodate the throng of journalists and photographers.
I find it incredible that one person (one brand ETW) can generate so much interest and do so much not only for a sport but an economy.
