livingbrands

Benefits of the recession

The following list was offered up to suggest ways we, as individuals, might actually benefit from the recession (if we wanted).

But each point also makes for quite an interesting starter for business strategy as well, whether how you behave yourself...or the benefit you promise to others...

1. Become more resourceful in how you do stuff - trade, barter, collaborate, share;
2. Redefine what success means - come on, what really matters to you?;
3. Take the opportunity to minimise - get rid of the things you don't actually need;
4. See how the balance of power has changed - because it is unlikely to rest in the same place;
5. Invite humility - put your ego back in its box, and look to others;
6. Become more creative in how you live life - just because you have less cash, doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself;
7. Adopt better habits - they might not be 'sexy' but they could just make the difference;
8. Reconnect with your (good) intentions - remember what it was that you really wanted to do with your life;
9. Learn the lessons you're being taught - and don't make the same mistakes again;
10. Redefine happiness - you've probably been looking for this in the wrong places...so take the opportunity to look elsewhere;

FutureScoping 81

Just to let you know, the latest edition of my trends newsletter is now out: "emerging trends, new ideas and general thought stimulation"...or so it says on the cover.

FutureScoping is now also available as an effective workshop technique, designed to maximise the number of great ideas generated with the minimum use of your valuable time.

What Shepard Fairey did next

Having produced one of THE iconic images of the 21st Century so far...

 

...Shepard Fairey has now been commissioned to create a poster promoting the WWF's 2009 Earth Hour (more info on March 28th's big event here)

 

It's good. But being paid-for advertising, lacks something of the simplicity, immediacy and purity of the 'art' which is what the Barack image in essence is.

10 things we didn't know before the 8th week of 2009

1. Elephants kiss.
2. Members of the public can be New York police officers for one day.
3. The Catholic Church studies confessions.
4. British "superguns" defeated the Spanish Armada.
5. Hitler had bad table manners.
6. Injured turtles can wear artificial flippers.
7. Pills can banish bad memories.
8. Grizzly bears hate getting their ears wet.
9. Prawo Jadzy" means "driving licence" in Polish and is not a real name.
10. Chimps can log on.

(Borrowed from the BBC)

Understanding the credit crisis

Nice little animation that helps you get your head round how we got here...

(Via PSFK)

Kids say no to knives

As part of Create Not Hate, we have just worked with the Met Police on a project where Year 6 kids (10 and 11 year olds) were asked to write anti-knife and gun crime ads.

The winners are below. Although as with all CnH projects, the important thing is not the ads (or whether they would 'work') but the process: getting kids involved in and thinking about the issue, encouraging them to use their creativity, and hopefully opening their eyes to different opportunities in life as a consequence.

   

   

 

Trash...but I'm a sucker for it

The first full trailer for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is on Youtube (best watched in thr hi def version)...

Branding works

At least according to an article in this week's Marketing Magazine.

It reports that in a spat with Unilever, leading Belgium retailer Delhaize has removed 250 UL brands off the shelves in its 750 stores...only to see a third of shoppers switch to other chains where the brands are available.

So that's marketing money well spent then.

Or maybe not, as 70% stayed put.

One of those that lets you read into it what you will I guess.

What a load of bankers

Instructive article in yesterday's Guardian on the mindset of the banking community, and how they had come not just to rely on their bonuses, but to see them as their God given right...part of their basic salary.

And now that the bonuses are drying up "we are all pissed off", as one trader put it, as their previous life style falls apart - all those Ferraris and third houses in Spain.

And the World says "whatever", and gets on with their own lives that have been riped apart by the bankers' greed.

10 things we didn't know before the 7th week of 2009

1. King Henry VIII was a soppy romantic.
2. Toddlers from well-off families use more hand gestures.
3. Neanderthals had the speech gene, FOXP2.
4. You can safely eat more than three eggs a week.
5. Nobody really knows when Titian was born.
6. Some of the smells that emanate from chip shops are comparable to butterscotch, onion and ironing boards.
7. Delhi's sewers are cleaned by workers wearing only shorts and rubber gloves.
8. Vladimir Putin prefers the Beatles to Abba.
9. About 6,000 satellites have been put into orbit so far.
10. Paraskavedekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th.

(Borrowed from the BBC)