livingbrands

10 things we didn't know before the 34th week of 2010

1. The Tube carries more passengers than the whole of the national rail network.
2. The optimum time to book a flight is eight weeks before departure.
3. The Stig was originally going to be called The Gimp.
4. Milk used to be watered down, then coloured yellow with toxic lead chromate to make it look creamy.
5. It's possible to watch 28,000 films in a lifetime.
6. Sumo wrestlers can't use iPhones because their fingers are too fat.
7. The socks-with-sandals look came from the Romans.
8. Tornados can burn.
9. Putting a cat in a bin is not illegal.
10. Traffic jams can last nine days.

(Borrowed from the BBC)

The 'being' values of peak performance

Some more Maslow-related stuff, building on yesterday's post on human drivers (and evidence that there's always new stuff to learn).

Just out of interest, I looked up Abraham on Wikipedia to see what it had to say, and discovered that in limiting myself to 'Maslow = hierarchy of needs' had missed out on his 'peak experience' work. And, more interestingly, the Being Values' he associated with these.

For Maslow, these B-Values were qualities possessed only by the truly self-actualised individuals able to experience moments of peak experiences.

Which provides some useful direction when thinking about the values/qualities a brand might wish to embody/dramatise (not all of them, I would suggest!) in order to engage those that hanker after such self-actualisation and peak experience (as most of us do).

Maslow's list is as follows (I can't find any more real detail in terms of meaning, but they are pretty self explanatory...and pretty archetypal...which is maybe the missing link I was looking for before)...

• Wholeness
• Perfection
• Completion
• Justice
• Aliveness
• Richness
• Simplicity
• Beauty
• Goodness
• Uniqueness
• Effortlessness
• Playfulness
• Truth
• Self-sufficiency

Useful in their own right, but what about thinking in terms of combinations: so what does 'justice' + 'playfulness' mean, or 'beauty' + 'effortlessness'. Could open up some interesting areas of exploration. 

Rediscovering our core human drives

Always interesting to see what's lurking in the bowels of your hard drive!

This is something I did ages ago on core human drives, trying (I think) to marry Maslow and Jung (not sure if that's apples and oranges for purists). The big step forward seems to have been dispensing with the pyramid ;o)

And can't quite remember why! May have been part of trying to come up with a 'universal theory of everything' involving archetypes.

Nonetheless, I think I shall revisit and see if I can find some use...

So we start with quite individualistic, self centred drives - the need to eat, be safe and feel loved.

Once secure in this, our social drives kick in - the need to belong to something bigger, to contribute to that 'group' and (ultimately) to have power within or over it.

Then, when we realise status doesn't satisfy, we turn instead to experience - the need for growth, to play and to create for ourselves.

And in that creation of something new, we start to question whether there is more to life after all, and seek that enlightenment - to ask who am I (really), to seek the freedom to be that real you and, ultimately, through that freedom to reach the point of transcendence where you understand that your needs are not actually all that important.

So bringing you back full circle to a point of realisation that all you really need to be happy is food to eat and a roof over your head.

Everything else is just stuff and baggage - psychological or material.

A very simple model for success

An exercise in stating the obvious I know. But then sometimes the obvious does need stating.

A very simple model for success

View more presentations from Jon Howard.

Can be a simple, useful workshop exercise as well...

• How do you make the fact that you own 'purple' relevant and motivating?
• How can comms make an important but not unique benefit more differentiated?

A simple framwork for getting people to think beyond the obvious.

10 things we didn't know before the 33rd week of 2010

1. Roadside trees slow down cars.
2. School uniforms cost less than £5.
3. Only 10% of words in a text message are not written in full, on average.
4. You can get six A grades at A-level and still not be offered a university place.
5. One in three adults takes a soft toy to bed, according to new research.
6. Dogs can walk upright.
7. Man was not responsible for the extinction of the woolly mammoth.
8. The average person spends around 15 hours 45 minutes every day awake.
9. Children with squints are less likely to be invited to birthday parties.
10. Urine could be a source of renewable energy.

(Borrowed from the BBC)

Save water...buy organic

We work with THTC, a small, ethically minded urban fashion brand, with a strong grassroots/opinion former advocate base.

THTC's core business is in organic hemp and cotton t-shirts, with the eco-benefit that these raw materials are much less water intensive to grow and process (hemp in particular, which is also more durable and longer lasting).

In fact, buying an organic hemp/cotton mix tee instead of a 'standard' cotton one saves the equivalent of 1000 days drinking water for one person - scary stuff.

Which means that since 2006, THTC have helped save 105 million litres of fresh water.

As water becomes a hot environmental/social/political issue, with the rise of 'water poverty' and 'peak water', we really do need to think more carefully about the products we buy.

Our new Richmond Sausages commercial (UPDATED)

(STOP PRESS: THE SONG FROM THIS AD IS NOW AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD FROM iTUNES, AMAZON ETC.)

Richmond is Britain's biggest sausage brand by some way (well north of £100m at retail), and a real family teatime fave.

And our last ad played no small part in this success, delivering nearly £6 at retail for every £1 spent.

So when it comes to the 'where next', the only way is up obviously!

You'll be singing along soon...

Music is 'Meet You There' by The Molloys. If enough people like it, we may release it as a single. So let us know. Or you could even start a Facebook campaign!

The Peperami crowdsourced commercial

So the film is out (tho nothing to embed yet: you'll have to look here), and the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse have yet to appear over the horizon.

A few random thoughts then now that we can see the fruits of Unilever's brave new world of advertising(with the obvious statement of vested interest that I work for an ad agency which produces a lot of film content)...

First up, I agree with Unilever's Matt Burgess that the advertising industry should be open to new ways of doing things. But to quote The Strokes, is this it? Arguably, it's a model that only works (if it does at all) on straight-forward, well established campaigns with very simple, clear rules. With more complex campaign ideas, or when developing a new campaign, let alone repositioning a brand, a free for all will be far less effective (and possibly detrimentel). I still believe you need the skill sets, multi-disciplinary teams and client-agency processes of the 'old ways' to crack these kinds of challenges (and Unilever say as much).

Secondly, tho theoretically crowd-sourced, the two guys who won are still freelance creatives (I worked with Kevin Baldwin at my last agency). So before we get too over-excited about a completely new way of doing things, this is less user generated content in the way we currently understand it and more a form of outsourced in-house creative development, facilitated by a digital platform (or 'cost saving' in other words). And let's not kid ourselves that the archetypal boy-in-his-bedroom or 'my mum' is going to come up with a half decent 30" tv commercial - not saying big, 'old-school' London agencies are the only answer, but it really is a lot harder than people think to deliver decent ideas, and don't believe those who say otherwise.

Thirdly, there were 1200 entries…and this is the best?! Because it's not actually that great, compared with the cream of the Peperami campaign. Are we really saying that you would have got nothing better from a more conventional approach...which can only be the true test of success (why not just try a different/smaller/more cost effective agency and get a full-service alternative perspective?). Though the basic idea is probably OK, it just feels a bit 'everything but the kitchen sink' in terms of content, and a bit wooden in execution - it's almost like an advertorial.

And I wonder if this highlights one of the problems you get with the pen/camera for hire model - there's no one to hone, prune and craft an idea, or to push back and challenge when someone starts down the 'and another thing…' path. Because 'being difficult' is actually one of the benefits you get when working with an agency (and even if you export process management, you won't get this as there is no pride and passion involved). It's the give and take between agency and client that gets you to a better place, and that's actually worth paying, not the 'whatever you say, it's your money' attitude that can (sometimes not always) come with the one-off freelance model.

But then, and finally, maybe that isn't seen as a problem when the cost of the finished product is apparently 60% less then ‘traditional ad agencies’. And when you've got a shed load of PR (at least in the media/marketing community) as a consequence. Maybe 'good enough' is good enough given the (short term) savings. But what about the longer term implications? As most companies know, you can cut product quality in the short term and see no real issues (and lots of extra cash). Until one day your business falls down like a house of cards. And your brand/comms are no different - unwise disinvestment is the path to self destruction.

Although having said all that, if Unilever deems the Peperami experiment a success, and does the same again, expect others to follow suit.

10 things we didn't know before the 32nd week of 2010

1. Pea plants can grow inside a human lung.
2. In Switzerland you can be fined $1m for speeding.
3. Seaside towns and the Isle of Man used to have postcard censorship committees.
4. The penguin on Penguin books was named Frostie after one of the editors at the publishing house.
5. Nationwide supermarket bans exist.
6. Naturalist Charles Darwin left the Victorian equivalent of about £13m today, and Charles Dickens £7m when they died.
7. Fishermen in Britain have a one in 20 chance of being killed on the job during the course of their working lives.
8. The Qwerty keyboard layout isn't random - it's to keep commonly used letters apart.
9. Some hardened sauna users can stand temperatures of up to 160C.
10. Honeybees are cleverer at certain times of the day.

(Borrowed from the BBC)

Barclays offers bike-powered banking

Since getting back from hols, I’ve been seeing a few Barclays-sponsored bikes around town. Wondered what it was, until I came across this in Soho Square…

 
 

Not sure what it says about Barclays as a bank - to be honest, I couldn’t actually tell you what Barclays positioning or comms strategy is, so can’t comment on ‘brand fit’.

But it’s noticeable, well branded and feels like a ‘good thing’ to be doing. And people were definitely making use of it, at least while I was there. Which is maybe enough to make it worth the investment.