livingbrands

Guillemots are go

I buy a lot of CDs: afraid I'm a bit old fashioned, and can't go with the download thing - I like to have something tangible in my hand.

Anyway, just bought the Guillemots album Through The Windowpane, and can't stop playing it (much to my wife's annoyance).

So if you're thinking of buying, I can't recommend it enough.

The greening of Tesco?

There was an interesting article in the Guardian on Saturday, looking at how Tesco is trying to change perceptions of it being this soulless money making machine which couldn't care less about the environment or local communities.

They've issued a '10 point community plan' which reads as follows...

1. Halve energy use in stores by 2010
2. Help customers recycle more
3. Cut carrier bag use by 25% over two years
4. Use clearer nutritional labels
5. Encourage customers to eat more healthily, particularly children in deprived areas
6. Get 2 million people active by the 2012 Olympics
7. Make Tesco Express stores better neighbours
8. Consult more with communities on new stores
9. Stock more local lines than any other retailer
10. Promote regional products more

Whether it's PR spin or the real deal we will have to wait and. There's a lot of 'we will do this more', which if you don't do it at all currently, doesn't add up to a whole heap of (Value Baked) Beans.

But if Tesco are genuinely committed, they have proven time and again to be an organisation that can make things happen, and change the way we do things at a societal level (at least in the UK).

Not sure about pt.6. Feels like a slightly different agenda coming into play. I predict that a big promotion like computers for schools is on the horizon.

Rotten Apple

The following was sent to me over at my other blog, Brands I Like. It's a true story that shows how even the best brands can get it very, very wrong. I will let what happened speak for itself.

"I have just set up a blog and was interested to see who else was on Typepad. I came across you. I can understand why you put Apple in your recommended brands - it looks nice, the i-pod is iconic, it is expensive, it perhaps says I am with the in-crowd.

A friend of mine was critically injured in the London bombings last year. She was on the bus. She survived. She had broken her neck and while she was in hospital only able to look up at the ceiling and move an arm. I asked Apple if they would kindly donate an i-pod for her, so she could play music to lift her spirits. I, nor she could afford an i-pod at the time and I even asked Apple if they would donate one for a few weeks, while she was going through a critical phase. They refused to return my calls, refusing to acknowledge the urgency even as Londoners were about to come to a standstill for a two minute silence. Apple eventually got back to me and declined to help my friend.

A few hours after Apple said no to my friend saying it was bad PR, not their policy....a colleague heard of a friend who claimed to be in the marketing industry who that day was given about 20 i-pods to give out to whoever she wished.

Yes - I love the design. Yes they are iconic. I cannot support a company whose management has lost sight of basic human values. So perhaps you can understand why I would not put Apple alongside CafeDirect, Frank Water - decent, ethical companies."

If anyone from Apple ends up reading this, I would be interested to know what they think. Seems like this was a case of someone too far from the centre seeing only their small, local picture, rather than the bigger picture of the brand. And also someone unempowered to 'think differently' (ironically!).

Maybe there's simply a point beyond which businesses get so big that they just lose sight of what made them engaging to people in the first place. And once you lose sight of what makes you special, why should anyone else bother, no matter how good the products you make.

burning brands

Neil Boorman finally did his brand burning thing at the weekend.

Still stand by my original comments on the ultimate pointlessness of the exercise though.

Go with the flow

John Moore at Brand Autopsy has unearthed some interesting data that makes a nice post script to the (Diet) Coke vs. Mentos shenanigans of earlier this year.

You remember how it goes: two guys make a video of what happens when you introduce a Mentos mint to a bottle of Diet Coke, which they then post on Youtube.

Gets loads of coverage, and lots of people join in. But despite all the word of mouth, PR and general fame, Coke didn’t like it (not ‘on brand’ apparently). Mentos on the other hand loved it, and firmly embraced what was happening. What is interesting, as John points out is the ‘what happened next’.

After some prevaricating, Coke decides they quite like this new fangled WOM, user generated content thing after all. But only on their terms, thank you very much. So they develop the Coke Show, and invite fans to send in videos (of Coke related stuff…but ideally nothing that involves those mints in bottles) with the best winning prizes.

Mentos on the other hand sticks with the original premise (the Mentos Geyser Video Challenge), and also lets Youtube play host as well.

The results? When this data was collected, 35 videos had been submitted to the Coke Show competition (and having toyed with doing things like this ourselves, you can guarantee 30 of those were filmed by Coke), generating 2000 viewings. Mentos on the other hand received 300 films viewed 400,000 times.

Three big lessons I think...

1. No matter how many brainstorms with clever people you hold, it’s the stuff that comes out of nowhere, and had nothing to do with you, that is often the most interesting. So keep your eyes and ears open;
2. If you do get some broadly positive (on-line) buzz happening just go with the flow, even if way off brand positioning and strategy. If people are having a good time and your brand is part of that, who cares. It’s happening anyway, so what are you going to do about it?
3. If you want to get actively involved with what’s happening, whatever you do don’t try and take control. Endorse what’s happening. Join in. Laugh along (at yourself possibly). Help out. Be a facilitator. But recognise it’s not your idea, and that’s what makes it special.

This last lesson is undoubtedly the hardest. ‘Brand management’ has always been seen as just that, after all. But the reality is that all we’ve ever really managed are the raw materials that go on to make up a brand. It has always been people out there in the real world who do the brand building out of these materials (as is often said, brands only live in the mind of the consumer). And all that’s happening now in the digital space, and beyond, is that this reality is becoming more evident.

So, counterintuitive as it might seem, greater success may actually come from loosening the vice like grip on your brand. Know (broadly) where you’re heading but don’t try to rigorously control the path you take to get there. Empower people, point them in the right direction, offer a light touch of steering when necessary, and they’ll take the brand where you want it to go (well, there or there abouts) themselves. And feel much more engaged and loyal as a consequence, because they will feel shared ownership.

Hey there Lonely Girl

Well we all now know that Lonelygirl15 isn't real (although what is 'real' in the digital space?), but rather an arts project and/or trailer for a movie.

A few interesting posts if you want to catch up. These range from the broadly positive, seeing the whole thing as a new, exciting form of entertainment (I like the term wikiTV) to the rather more hacked off - why have you wasted out time basically. Via the slightly more considered.

From my perspective, I actually only got interested when I realised it wasn't real. Thought that made it more interesting frankly (the whos and whys). I was academically interested that people were watching in the early days, but whining neurotic teenagers in their bedrooms just don't make the grade as entertainment for me I'm afraid.

Good experiences

Came across this yesterday, and it looks rather good. Although at 90 pages long, I must admit I have only skim read it. Basically, it is a report on experience marketing produced by the MICE Group. As they specialise in the experience thing, it's obviously rather positive. But still probably quite useful.

But what made it personally interesting for me was that my Godfather, and Dad's cousin, Geoff Howard-Spink was on page 4. Spooky! Seems the man who gave me my first job in advertising is now non-exec group chairman of MICE. And there was I thinking he was well and truly retired, and keeping busy with his race horses. Shows what happens when you only ever see people at funerals!

It's not just any sausage

Do you feel that the M&S food campaign is turning into a bit of an excruciating self parody? Well, you might find our new commercial for Mattessons Smoked Pork Sausage a bit of an antidote: Scotland only I'm afraid, but you can see it here.

Now this product is something of a legend north of the border, both for the relish with which people tuck into it, but also for amusement its shape causes (focus groups are a laugh a minute).

Obviously though, we wanted to avoid any accusations of smuttiness that might come from this product truth, and decided to focus instead, in good M&S fashion, on the mouth watering qualities of this king of sausages.

Well what did you think the ad was about? It's just a sausage!

Designing in a brand story

Came across this good article at Core 77 on changing approaches to design: the shift from design as the finishing touch (which can be outsourced to the cheapest supplier) to design as the start point of the brand, the foundations on which all else is built.

As the article says at one point: "Today's model is story-first-product-second, where the authentic values of the company are proven with great products. This historic change is a huge opportunity for industrial design, but one that requires new smarts: we're called on to strategically shape stories and ideas first, then give them physical form."

Which is, of course, completely right. But also what comms agencies say (and have always said) they do. And I think it is something those of us in comms need to be thinking about more.

Design is just as much about communication as a 30" TV spot, a website or an experience event. But whilst each of us is probably sat there worrying about the threat from and opportunities in those disciplines beyond our core competency, we probably aren't thinking that much about design.

The product and its design is a given, one of raw materials from which us comms experts then weave the brand story. But as this article suggests, in the world we now live in it's story first design second. And this puts 'brand' in the hands of designers (not that there's anything wrong with that, before my design friends get up in arms!).

At my previous agency I suggested that we needed to get more involved in design on this very basis. But there was never really that much interest. And I guess that's pretty common: a case of "it's not what we do...and anyway, we've got enough trouble understanding this new fangled digital stuff".

But I think that we will need to shift our perspective. Because if things do change in this way, if designers do start to strutt their strategic story telling stuff, then controlling design will mean controling the brand and the comms that follow on.

Why planners blog

Michelle of Diablogue has had an article published down under on planners and blogging, for which I provided some suitably waffly contributions. You can find the article here. And there's some of the interviewee responses in full here.