Designed to be Different
The very best examples of brands that touch the soul are often those with the differentiating design ‘baked-in’. Too often design is seen as the bit that wraps around the (often identical) finished product. I spotted these beautiful Moonflower soaps. Moonflower is a high-end bath and body line from the US and looks like it has beautiful design sown-in to its very DNA.
Small Brands, Big Personality.
We regularly bang-on about the advantage that small brands have over big brands when it comes to personality. Small businesses often come with a natural sense of personality driven by the founder and their personal style. As businesses get larger and layers of management and staff are required, often brand personality is the first casualty. The problem is that for many brands, personality is what makes them so attractive to customers, it provides an immediate emotional connection, which can be enough to over-ride event the strongest of functional messages. Recently I came across this solid-gold example of a small business leveraging it’s authentic personality to stand-out from the pack.
Global Best Practice
How can shareholder reporting be more informative and accessible? How can organisations best provide the information investors and the market value, in a format that is more engaging, more functional, and easier to understand?
The big wait is over. In September 2009 Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean announced the call for tenders from creative agencies to assist with the task of enhancing Australia’s brand overseas. In the last week we have seen the launch of a new visual identity for Brand Australia, created by Re, a small group of designers working out of M&C Saatchi’s Sydney office.
Mr Crean said, “We want a clear vision of how Australia should be seen by the rest of the world in the 21st century. We will be looking for agencies to build a contemporary national brand – one which captures the essence of Australia – not just a great place to visit but a great place to live, work, and invest – a trusted trading partner and a great place to pursue an education. This is not just about a slogan and it goes beyond the on-going promotion of Australia as a global tourist destination — a reputation that is well established. Building Brand Australiais about promoting Australia as a nation producing quality products and services across a diverse field of activities. We need to get the message out that we are an innovative nation and a quality supplier to the world of key products such as clean energy and clean food.”
So with Mr Crean’s aspiration in mind what do you think of Australia’s new brand mark?
Shoot to Thrill — An Amazing Brand Experience
Sony Music show just how powerful a brand experience can be when you combine creativity, rock-n-roll and a good sized budget. To promote AC/DC’s soundtrack for the upcoming release of Iron Man 2 (leaving-aside the question of why they even made a sequel to Iron Man 1) Sony Music engaged brand experience agencies: Seeper and Jack to create a knock-out light show that took place at Rochester Castle in the UK.
A Truly Deeply Brand Identity Case Study
A few years back Deakin University came to us for help to re-launch their student union association. New legislation was changing the landscape of student unions and DUSA understood they needed to create a new relevance to the student body on their multiple campuses. DUSA is a student organisation which is run by students of Deakin University, for students of Deakin University. DUSA members study off campus and on, and include undergraduates, postgraduates and international students. What DUSA needed was a brand identity that would help position the organisation in a way that connected with the students. As student union membership became optional for the first time, DUSA found themselves competing against brands and other interests for the students loyalty.
A Neat Piece of Brand Story Telling
When considering how to promote their insect spray, Baygon in Brazil took a fresh approach. What started as a great TVC campaign idea turned into a genuine guerrilla campaign, which when shot became a viral campaign. Sounds like great return on creative investment for this brand.
Illustration by the talented Martina Flor
Just Because your Brand’s On-line -
Doesn’t Mean it’s On-target
With 130 billion spam mails hitting in-boxes every day, it’s no wonder consumer outcry about mis-targeted marketing has grown from a murmur to a roar. Across the globe those screams attract the regulator and put businesses at risk as well as damaging the reputation of the brands who are getting it so wrong. This used to be a problem of the snail mail industry but it is exponentially worse since the advent of eDirect and email marketing. Each day my savior the spam filter weeds out a pile of these brand communications that are sent to me blindly in the name of eDirect. Here are just three from my in-box yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
Brands these days need to be ultra aware of the values they project and the messages they communicate. In the early days of advertising it seems, anything went as the brand messaging in this whacked-out collection of old ads demonstrates. Were these ads connecting to social values that were so different from those we have today, or was this just the stuff of ‘Mad Men’?
Up There — a beautiful documentary film by Malcolm Murray on the disappearing craft of painted advertising signs on high-rise buildings in the big cities of the US. (watch this in full screen if you can).
