Posts Tagged ‘BMW’

07.29.10

The Truly Deeply 2010 Trend Report – The Visual Language of Brands

The Most Comprehensive Trend Report on the Visual Language of Brand Identity
Trends in the visual language of brand identity are driven by many factors from the ‘me-too-ism’ of designers and their clients mimicking the visual language of market leaders, to new and emerging trends such as ‘sustainability’ that draw a similar and en-mass visual response from designers all over the world. Over the past 12 months we have collected more than five thousand different brand expressions spanning almost every major industry and category of the western world.

Our 2010 Trend Report has been picked-up and re-published in blogs and marketing publications around the world – so by request we’re providing the report as one, complete pdf download (even if it is a whopping 6.8mb in size).

Read the rest of this entry »

06.15.10

BMW’s Stunning Brand Gesture for the 5 Series

Beautiful, Impactful Brand Story-telling from BMW
BMW stunned Singaporeans with an interactive 3D outdoor brand experience (a first in Asia) to promote its BMW 5 series. They transformed two busy office buildings at Suntec City from a symbol of work, into a symbol of Joy. The expressions and reactions of those who witnessed the brand show are testement to the power of big, bold brand gestures, and their ability to make the right brand impression for BMW.

YouTube Preview Image

Love it.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For daily updates of our brand thinking, follow me on Twitter
Brand Designer

06.07.10

Brandticipation – Pics of the New Mini Coupé Concept Car.

The very best brands are those that have their differentiation – the thing that grabs the hearts of their customers and wont let go – built right into the product. Apple is a brand renowned for its ability to do just that, with the result being fiercely loyal brand advocates – not just customers. Another brand who take the same approach is Mini. Owned by BMW, Mini understand that the emotional pull in their products is as much in the styling and what’s under the bonnet as it is in the brand messages it builds around its products. Sounds simple – but few brands really live by this credo.

When brands ‘bake’ their differentiation into their products, the release of each new model or innovation can build to what we call ‘brandticipation’. Brandticipation is the heightened sense of anticipation some brands command (create) around the launch of their products. Car makers have released photos of prototype concept vehicles for years in an attempt to build this very sense of excitement about new model releases. Mini is no different in their ‘concept car’ strategy – except that they have the edge in brandticipation, and their new Coupé Concept is a case in point:

Read the rest of this entry »

05.04.10

Stand-Out Brand Advertising from BMW

All Ads are not Born Equal
We spend much of our lives as a brand strategy & design agency watching the flood of creative brand communications from all over the world. Every now and then one gem of creativity stands-out from the rest, catches our eye and tickles our fancy. For me it was this ad from BMW for their factory approved second hand cars. Who says those Germans don’t have a sense of humor?

David Ansett, Brandamentalist

03.03.10

The Power of Colour in Brand Design

Today it’s more critical than ever for businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors and make memorable connections with their audience by creating unique, recognisable brands.

Colour in Brand Design
Every touch point of a brand plays a vital role in brand recall, but the brand mark is the heart and soul of a brand’s image. Whilst it’s the interplay between colour, typeface, and symbol that creates a brand mark, colour is registered by the brain before either images or typography. A University of Loyola, Maryland study recently found the correct use of colour could increase brand recognition by up to 80%.

Read the rest of this entry »

02.01.10

Audi Vs BMW – a Battle of Brand Association

All Brands Have Meaning
Whether carefully and strategically considered or by default, all brands hold associated meanings in the market place. Well considered brands establish a competitive brand proposition (their brand strategy) with layers of meaning to both differentiate themselves from their competitors and to connect with their audience. These brand reinforce their meaning through all of their actions or brand touch points. As a brand agency we help brands to define their meaning and create the brand design for all their communications in order to create a consistent association with these layers of meaning in the minds of their customers.

A Snapshot of Brand Association
The clever people at Brand Tags have been busy collecting a comprehensive  list of more than 1.7 million associations that people have with brands. The result is a unique opportunity for those brands to compare the meaning and messages of their brand communication strategy with the brand associations of a cross section of the market.

Audi Vs BMW
Today we compare the brand associations of German Luxury, Automotive brands Audi & BMW.

Read the rest of this entry »

08.01.09

Bentley trumps ‘em all

I love simple and clever ads! When I first saw the BMW ad I thought, “yep that’s clever and simple” but this was just the start of a chain of ads that would follow all based around a similar theme – congratulating yet taking the piss out of their competitors through promoting themselves as a better brand of car. Audi’s response was, I think, a little weak yet surprisingly Subaru’s was rather witty and to the point making BMW and Audi look, putting it simply, like a boring beauty contest. Each of these three ads all have the common attributes – clever and witty copy along with your standard glitzy product shots. After digesting these ads I thought to myself, where to from here? Is this going to be one of those scenarios where we just go round and round in circles? Clearly not! Whilst all the hype and talk was about how clever these ads were Bentley just waited for the time to strike and came out of nowhere with what I’d have to say is one of the cleverest ads in a long time. In one foul swoop they nailed not only BMW, Audi and Subaru’s brand but I feel the rest of the car market. No copy or glitzy product shots were required, just their brandmark and a smug looking man sitting on a chesterfield couch (so on brand for Bentley) giving you the ‘bird’! Say no more – BENTLEY TRUMPED ‘EM ALL!!

Dominic Guthrie
Senior Account Director