Inside or outside the ring Mohammed Ali is a great example to all of us of how to build a personal brand. Sure he may have been the heavy weight champion of the world, but there’s been lots of those (Can you name the current one?) none of them created an identity like Ali. In fact there’s probably few sports personalities that have created as successful a personal brand as Ali.
Applying branding frameworks to politicians and political parties is a very much established practice. In fact, some may even argue that politics is increasingly about symbolism as opposed to policy implementation, image rather than content. A little harsh perhaps, but certainly in Australia we are seeing our major political parties trying to position themselves on populist mandates over political ideology. They are trying something we strongly advise our clients against, and that is to try and be all things to all people. It never works in commercial settings and it is of highly dubious value in politics – it simply gives strength to the brand positioning of minor parties (eg. the Greens) and independents.
Being an avid sports enthusiast (in particular the round ball game) I went to the Socceroos farewell game against New Zealand on Monday night at the MCG. Now I’m going into detail about the match (fair to say it wasn’t pretty) but upon entering the ‘Best Sports City‘ in the world’s precinct there was the usual cheering, flag waving and buzz that Melbourne is accustomed to for any major (or for that matter often minor) sporting event, but something caught my eye and not only my eye but thousands of supporters – male and female.
As a brand strategy and design agency, we spend every day living and breathing brands. Whether we’re working with products or companies on their identity, packaging, brand definition, brand decoding and mapping the competitive brand landscape they work in – we are conscious that each of us also projects our own personal brand.
Word on the Web
Given the flood of blogs, tweets and mentions on the latest chapter in the Tiger Woods saga, it’d be remiss of us to not take a snapshot of current social sentiment. As Tiger announces he’s taking a break from golf, we’ve created an illustrated cross section of current sentiment on Tiger Woods’ personal brand. As always, it’s worth reading between the lines (literally) – the smaller words tell the true story of the current sentiment – the deeper you look, the more intriguing the narrative.
David Ansett, Brandamentalist
If you’d like daily updates of our brand thinking, you can follow me on Twitter here.
Word on the Web
Social Brand Snapshot provides a visualised cross section of current blogs, tweets and social mentions of Tiger Woods, providing an instant view of current brand sentiment.
David Ansett, Brandamentalist.
Brand Agency & Graphic Design Melbourne.
BRW’s Annual Top 50 Entertainers
The most recent issue of BRW in Australia features the top 50 local entertainers listed by earnings for the year. Quoted throughout the feature was our Talent Inc! personal brand report, with our very own Mark Richards (sic) providing the rich commentary.
“The concept of marketing stars as brands has taken some entertainers’ popularity to new levels. Entertainers are increasing their earning power by creating their own personal brands. While the notion of people as brands has existed for years, it now focuses on celebrities’ entire lives – from who they sleep with, to who they vote for – rather than just their professional achievements. For instance, the earning potential of a sports star is now impacted by their sporting ability and performance as well as their public persona. For film stars, you’re no longer dealing with just a person’s screen presence, as was the case with old movie stars.” Read the rest of this entry »
Talent Inc!‘s Personal Brand Survey Released.
Storm and Brand DNA in a Joint venture with entertainment management company Forum5 have developed a new personal branding consultancy; Talent Inc! Recently we combined our forces to put together a report on the strongest Australian personal brands. The report compiles the responses to the question; Which Australian has best developed their brand and their brand awareness?
The result is a list of people who have all been successful in defining who they are and what they stand for. What we discovered reinforced what we already knew to be true; having talent alone provides no guarantee of building a strong personal brand. Those with the strongest personal brands have clearly defined them, consciously built them over time, and consummately leveraged them to achieve the highest return possible for everything they do.
Kylie named at number one
Kylie Minogue came in first on the list with more than double the votes of second place getter Elle Macpherson. The top ten on the list were:
Read the rest of this entry »
More media coverage on the Talent Inc! Australia’s strongest personal brand survey. Seems when brand intersects with fame it’s sexier than ever.
More coverage in the media of our Talent Inc! Australian personal brand report.
