ERROL'S BLOG

Daniel Libeskind does Brand Planning

I saw this and thought a bit of simple word substitution might be interesting.

For architecture read brand point of view, for space read brand expression, and for building read campaign or creative execution - this talk is from TED by Daniel Libeskind on Architecture in 2007. 

Good for anyone who likes taking principles and thinking from one area and mapping them onto another.

Stand for something against the intolerable status quo - give fans assets - start and feed a movement

In this talk at TED, Seth Godin adds weight to the argument that push marketing has had its day – he’s promoting the idea of tribes (the title of his new book) as being the way to go for brands in the connected world we are in.

He suggests that social networking technology has helped tribes form easily around niche interests and galvanize themselves into creating change - sometimes on a world scale.

He gives examples of how change can happen from Al Gore to Tom Shoes (in the interesting places column on this blog).

Status quo challenging ideas from leadership thinking, that become stories or big ideas that a person or a brand stands for are necessary. Then its harness tribes to create a movement and create change individuals couldn’t achieve by themselves.

But thanks to these times of internet connectivity, it seems like power to the fans of ideas that create a better way, is gaining on the power of the mass mindset.

Another good case in point of the influence of the internet and the power of social networks, is in this two minute extract of a talk given by Scott Thomas, which I found on at Coolhunting.com. Scott designed the Obama's digital campaign. Instead of just having people ordering campaign merchandise online, people were able to download Obama branded assets so they could create merchandise of their own.

Net result; Obama's vision of getting people more involved in the political process is achieved - and from involvement comes committment.

 

Here's an image from Seth Godin's TED talk.

The point of advertising

Not sure how the psfk ideas salon went, but I'm sure it was a fascinating event. Thinking about PSFK I was reminded about a great talk Mike Byrne gave a couple of years ago at a New York PSFK conference. 

I had the great pleasure and privelege of working with Mike Byrne, now Creative Director at Anomaly NYC, when I was at Wieden + Kennedy in Portland. In this talk at a PSFK conference in New York, Mike talks about advertising as landfill and how we should do something more useful instead. 

Its an inspiring talk. I completely agree with him. Definitely one to share.

Hope

A hope for a better future is what great brands sell. They sell it to the children in all of us, and not the adult. The brands that become great brands are those who set us free and not just help us do better in the social mirror. This is pretty much what Mike Byrne implies in his talk at the PSFK conference last year, and I completely agree with him.

Great brands are things that bunches of people create and manage to bring hope for a better life to other bunches of people.

Mike Byrne Creative Director of Anomaly made a great case for brands being the purveyors of physical manifestations of 'Hope'.

He showed three ads as examples of brands selling hope. A Nike 'Just Do It' ad, an Apple iPod ad, and the Coke 'Happiness Factory' ad.

Here's the Nike Ad,

and the iPod ad,

and here's the full 1 minute 31 second version of the Coke ad,

All great examples of inspiration and hope, and great benchmarks of engagement, talkability and cultural phenomenon creation, or whatever new description fits this kind of universally resonant great work. What I find interesting about the ads too,is when you read the comments people make about them on YouTube and the like. They are mostly, if not completely, very positive and many people are clearly inspired, and re-inspired in a timeless way.

The connection doesn't age, and the warmth created between brand and consumer is like the friendship of a trusted old friend that you haven't seen in a while. Even though masses of time has past, one re-putting in the head, or in effect the smallest re-minding, brings the emotional attachment to the brand right back to near original levels of, 'thanks, that's made me feel a really good feeling' in the viewer. What a fabulous thing for a brand to achieve.

do good things happily

This is a picture of what's printed on the pocket on the inside of a pair of maharishi shorts. Different garments have different sayings and graphic treatments but this one has a simple thought, "however many holy words you read or speak, they don't do any good unless you act on them."

Things like this pair of shorts, this brand, other brands like Howies, Comme des Garcons, Apple and Nike, seem to resonate with this little phrase, which seems to me to be a good guiding principle for brands and businesses in these times of bigger appetite for things that do the world good in some way.

'Do good things happily' is granted a bit yoda-ish, a bit mantra like, but for all of its new age clunkiness, I think it is a good philosophy for brand success.