If you have been following the recent media coverage of the pending release of the new book by Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer at Facebook, titled Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead – you will have been witnessing the core ingredients to a very good social cause marketing case study.
It’s a Tough Gig this Branding Game.
A pic that’s been doing the rounds of brand and design agencies – a hilarious snap of a Starbucks delivery van, revealing an unplanned brand message when the door is opened. Now we’re taking the pic on face value, but it’s an amusing reminder of how in the brand game you can never rest on the laurels of a job well done.
One Huge Step for Social Media Brands
After reaching its billionth user, facebook has released its first commercial ‘the things that connect us’. More of a brand clip than a traditional ad, what I find so interesting is the insight it provides us into how facebook sees themselves, or at least how they wish to be perceived.
Growing up in the States meant I have long been a fan of the Oreo biscuit and at 100 years old, Kraft Foods’ Oreo seems younger than ever. The brand’s current “Daily Twist” campaign which has a new playful and relevant ad launched each day for nearly 100 days, has made the cream-stuffed sandwich a social-media hit. It kicked off on June 25th, with a polarizing image of the cookie, septuple-stuffed with rainbow filling to celebrate Gay Pride Month. A bold move for a brand that topped $2 billion in revenue last year. Since then, they have released a Shark Week Oreo, a Mars Rover Oreo and a tribute to panda Shin-Shin’s newborn cub.
As you can imagine working at a brand strategy and design agency means that we are constantly discovering new and innovative ways to help our clients stand out in their cluttered marketplaces. As passionate advocates for challenger brands, we look for ways to challenge the status quo and disrupt categories in the bid to help our clients bring their brand’s personality to life with a powerful brand statement. One brand who has brand personality in spades, is Cerveza Andes beer. Andes has long been the leader beer in Argentina but has managed to take the world by storm with their engaging advertising campaigns.
Ever since the launch of Facebook in 2004, brands have been relentless in their search to find a solution to the issue of how to connect their online community with the offline world. Global fashion retailer C&A have, as part of a large-scale brand reinvigoration of their Brazilian retail outlets, launched a stunning new social media focused campaign, ‘Fashion Like’, that tallied the votes of its near 300,000 strong Facebook community’s opinion of particular items and then displayed the results directly on the coat hangers of that item in store.
If you think texting while walking is dangerous, just wait until everyone starts wearing Google’s futuristic, internet-connected glasses. Directions to your destination appear literally before your eyes. You can talk to friends over video chat, take a photo or even buy a few things online as you walk around. The glasses will be able to do anything a smartphone or tablet computer does now – and then some. Google gave a glimpse of “Project Glass” in a video and blog post last week. Still in an early prototype stage, the glasses open up endless possibilities — as well as challenges to safety, privacy and fashion sensibility. The prototypes have a sleek wrap-around look and appear nothing like clunky 3-D glasses. But if Google isn’t careful, they could be dismissed as a kind of Bluetooth earpiece of the future, a fashion faux-pas where bulky looks outweigh marginal utility.
As a brand design agency, we are constantly looking at new and innovative ways for brands to interact with their customers and stakeholders. A brand which is constantly looking at new ways to push the boundaries is Heineken and their latest idea is certainly no exception. With the winners announced at the end of this week, the Heineken Limited Edition Design Contest has been a monumental gesture for the brand, and one that has seen over 30,000 designs entered, over 6 million ‘likes’ on Facebook and 20,000 connections made via social media. Read the rest of this entry »
As airlines continue to struggle for differentiation, KLM hopes its new ‘Meet and Seat’ programme might be another incentive for you to choose them.
It’s a bold initiative that rides the social media wave and may well provide a valuable brand gesture that enhances the flying experience. However, for those who enjoy the solitude of air travel, will this actually be a turn-off?
Sportsgirl in Australia has had considerable media coverage this week with its so called Window Shop in Chapel Street Melbourne, the first of many interactive shopping billboards the clothing retailer plans to erect in various locations. The billboards feature images of key fashion items that consumers can purchase by scanning the items barcode with their iPhone.
