Playing catch up

It's been good catching with all the great work and thinking that has been going on since I have been away so here are just a few of my initial favourites.

First of all is Poke's work for Orange. It's up there with their 'Spot the Bull' work they did for them over the last two years. It really is the World's First Internet Balloon Race.

Then there is Leland's new blog on Transformation Design.

In Leland's words: "When businesses look at marketing, they focus on things like integration, brand measures and ROI. While these are important, we must respond to the fact that we are now in a situation where the recipients of marketing are, at best, numb to it or, at worst, revolting against it. We must put emphasis on designing new marketing activities that engage with people's behaviors, emotions and lifestyles in ways that help them and our clients.

To that end, design thinking and techniques can help us rethink marketing systems and structures and - possibly - redesign them from beginning to end around the "user." This is genius and right on the button in my opinion.

And also Noah Brier's Brand Tags project is neat along with it's supporting blog and battle mode. It would appear that Lego is the current brand to beat.

Slick new site from Toyota

I found this cool little flash site via Jen´s blog. Created by Strawberry Frog for Scion it allows you to create you very own coat of arm. Here´s TCR´s effort. Very military urban chic I feel.

Things I like # 3 Drinking mate with friends

Mate is like a pungent green tea that is probably a bit of an acquired taste but it´s a massive part of the culture in parts of South America. It´s a social ritual that has been around for 100s of years and is still popular with young people.

Even in 35 degree heat people will be carrying around their flasks and Gourds, sharing the drink pretty much anywhere. People have been friendly enough to offer us a taste on several occasions which you obligingly take but it´s a great opportunity to strike up a conversation in Spanglish.

Many brands such as amanda even have free hot water dispensers at bus stops and petrol stations which I think is a nice touch. It beats paying for over priced crapy coffee at the services.

Brands I now love # 4 Negra Modelo

This isn´t as famous Mexico´s Corona (FYI they don´t serve lime with a Corona in Mexico) or Sol but Modelo Negra is by far my favourite lager so far, although Argentina´s Quilmes Bock is a close second.

Brands I now love # 3 Bum Bum

More of a case of my girlfriend loving Bum Bum bikinis but for obvious reason I´m all for this brand living long and prospering, although I´m not sure if it would go down well on Brighton beach this time of year. Apparently they do various shapes and sizes depending on how brave you are rather than your size. You can also mix and match tops and bottom which I´m told is a great thing.

I kid you not even the most buxom women (and that is being polite) strut their stuff. You can even see generations of grandmother, mother and daughter walking the beaches of Rio and men do not even bat an eyelid. Despite all the flesh on show to go topless would be almost blasphemous.

HSBC - The world´s local bank...really?

I´m not sure what HSBC´s position is supposed to mean, other than the fact that they are all over the world. However, I´ve just found out that this position doesn´t benefit me in the slightest. It costs me more to use my HSBC card in an HSBC bank abroad than it does to use my Nationwide card in exactly the same HSBC cash point. On every withdrawal it is about 5 quid more. Work that one out.

Brands I now love # 2 Freddo ice cream

You have not had a real ice cream until you have had a Freddo. Freddo is an Argentinian chain of ´helados´that sell the finest ice cream you have ever tasted. I recommend their ´Dulce de Leche con Brownies´.

ppppp - pick up a Penguin

Whatever happened to Penguin bars. I haven´t seen them since I had last opened a lunch box when I was 12.

No penguins were harmed in the making of this photograph. I merely used my thumb and forefinger and the use of a Canon Powershot. Clever stuff hey.

Does Ben have a Grandson?

Unless something has happened since I´ve been away I´m unaware of there being a new Sherman on the fashion block.

An unforTUNAte name for a brand of tinned fish

Things such as this really make me laugh. Yes, I also find farts funny too!

I found this brand of Tuna in Guatemala if you´re interested in tinned fish from around the world?

Brands I now love # 1 Flor de Cana

For any fans of out there who like a good rum you should definitely seek this brand out. Flor de Cana is a Nicaraguan ´ron´that has been in existence since 1890. Admittedly it probably tastes even better because it´s dirt cheap but in my opinion it surpasses my previous favourite Mount Gay. However, it does still give you a thumping headache. And as they say, time flys when you are having Rum! Thanks Jane and Sophie for looking after me.

More on football

I’ve been watching a few matches lately and some clubs are attempting to recreate that lost atmosphere by giving all the kids inflatable noisemakers (nicely branded of course). I admire their efforts, but it’s a bit like putting a small plaster on a gaping wound. I can hear the die hards now saying something along the lines of: "When I was a lad I had to sit on my Grandad’s shoulders just so I could see".


Clubs are going to need to do a hell of a lot more than this to get the atmosphere back. Although I do think some ingenuity from the fans would also help. After all, they will understand what is needed better than the club. I was reminded of this great example from Blyth Spartan. Spartan are a lower league Scottish team in the Highlands who have an avid following that dress up as Mexicans in order to add a bit of fun on match day.

Anyone for a kick about?

We pitched for relatively well-known football club account a couple of weeks ago, but unfortunately we didn’t win it. I’m gutted. Not just because I’m a big football fan, but because I’ve just seen the work that won it. It really could have been for any club in the country and that’s what ticks me off the most about football.

I had just finished reading Herd when the pitch came up (excuse the pun) and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Or so I thought. I got the hint we were going in the wrong direction halfway through the pitch process when the client allegedly said to one of my colleagues: “I don’t care about the 15,000 fans that already go, they’re addicts. It’s the ones that have never gone that I’m interested in.”

This diminishing, 15,000 strong group of people are the most vocal about how the club is run. British football fans are generally quite pessimistic but these fans were just abnormally pessimistic, bordering on depressing. Everything from the price of tickets, to the money available for transfers, the board and the lack of atmosphere in their shiny new ground was a problem. Despite looking like they are going up they were still think the club will cock it up. The club always do apparently.

Each interaction between fans, at work on Monday morning for example, was negative, even if they won. Something was always wrong. Feeding off each other, this group of people actually became negative influencers. I don’t blame kids for not supporting the same team as their Dads if all he does is whine about them – it’s much easier to support Chelsea.

The fans that had been going for over ten years weren’t looking like they were going to renew their season tickets again. This particular club is a way of life for many of them; it’s more than just 90 mins of football. Fair weather fans or what’s known as the ’prawn sandwich brigade’ (where the biggest opportunity is apparently) were ultimately replacing the heart and soul of the club. The more and more the club ignored the core Herd if you like, treating them like addicts, the more the club seemed to suffer.

Football crowds have changed massively over the last decade or two. Not just in terms of numbers, but the sort of people that go. You are as likely to find a mum that hates people shouting as a loud mouth yob. Both are found just as offensive to each other. The whole football environment is undoubtedly safer and more accessible to people of all ages but the result is homogeneity between clubs and fans. There is no longer anything left to identify with.

Fans across the country now go to grounds that all look similar because one construction company made them all. Too many grounds and stands are now named after sponsors rather than local landmarks. Many teams now have the same sponsors as each other. There are few homegrown players left to idolise. Young fans aspire to the lifestyle of a footballer from a big club rather than the scoring the winner in the FA cup final for your hometown club. Matches are now played at different times for TV. As a result, Britain has lost a National ritual where nearly a whole nation descended on grounds and public houses all over the country at the same time.

Many fans cite ticket prices as the reason they don’t go and watch their team anymore. However, it’s the loss of experience and identity that has reduced peoples threshold. It is this feeling you get on match day, the banter between fans, the anticipation and the pride experience that creates the value, not just the ball being kicked around. In an environment that oppresses mass behaviour and the interaction between super social apes, fans will continue to use different excuses for not going. Fans are currently given the opportunity not to support their clubs rather than a reason to support them.

Impressive, most impressive

This post is an amalgamation of a number of things I’ve been thinking about recently. Mainly based on books such as Herd, Convergence Culture, The Perfect Pitch, Brand Innovation Manifesto and The Economics of Attention, as well as other thoughts such as marketing enthusiasm and interestingness. My feeble attempt of simplifying all of this is to describe it as impressiveness. This is a scale if you like. All brands should honestly ask themselves how much do we actually impress people?

Brands impressing people might seem like a simple concept but few do it. Why? Impressing people isn’t as easy as it used to be. If Darth Vader was a planner he might of said brands today can’t just be impressive; they need to be most impressive.



Here is a list of the things brands should think about in order to impress people

1.Ask yourself objectively, how much does your brand impress you? Stop treating people like they’re dumb. If you aren’t impressed by your brand then your customers will feel the same. Don’t be so complacent. Competitors, new entrants and even new business models are waiting in the wings to take your place.

2. Just be yourself. You’re human, your customers are human and the people your customers talk to are human. Get back in touch with what it is to be human or super social apes. What makes people angry? What makes them happy? What do they find interesting? What do they care about? What do they talk about? How do they interact with other people?

3. Don’t always hide behind research. If you can’t find a big problem then make one. Challenge conventions and define new markets. Create a new meaning in your sector, be a leader and have the confidence to be intuitive.

4. Be more than just an image, have substance and style. What does your brand believe in? What is your brand enthusiastic about? Do things that prove it? You don’t need big budgets to be impressive. So watch you back

5. To be consistent, is to be the same, the same as everyone else. Consistency might make people feel safe, but it doesn’t impress. Mix it up from time to time. Be complex, be random and be unexpected. God forbid, be immeasurable. Don’t tie yourself down to one way of doing things. The only thing it does is hold you back and makes you vulnerable. Before you know it a challenger brand will be impressing your customers and all because you wanted to be ‘consistent and on message’.

6.Make things happen, be fluid and be light on your feet. Find your entrepreneurial spirit? Step out from behind the comfort of your processes and your media and research budgets. Find out what is it that you need to do to impress people and go out and do it.

7. There’s a world out there, of media that is. Don’t just sit there worrying about the ‘future of the media landscape’ - change it or make it work for your brand. Do what enhances your brand, not what everyone else is doing. People are impressed when brands do things differently.

8.Use the media available to you to construct and tell a story – make it work harder. Create a more fulfilling experience. Experiment with media and occasionally trust your brand in the hands of others, even your customers. You never know, they might do a better job than your agency. That will save you a few quid and impress your boss.

9.Let go. People will talk about your brand and there is nothing you can do about. Just embrace it and encourage participation. If you have done number four properly then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Should you? People will be impressed by brands with nothing to hide.

More laughter please

It was my boss’s stag do at the weekend, so 15 of us trotted off to Jongleurs for a night of stand up comedy. Apparently it must have been a gay stag do. According to the hilarious Aussie Jim Jefferies we should have been in Prague watching Donkeys shitting on Cats – after all that’s what real men like him do! For some strange reason I think he may have actually done this.

Jim is very crass and extremely un-pc, I’m not sure you will ever see him on ITV1 on a Saturday evening before You've been framed. This guy was seriously funny, but there were times when you had to ask whether you should really be laughing at some of his gags. There was lots of sucking through your teeth and looking at the person next to you to see if what was OK to laugh? And sure enough 9 times out of 10 it was.

I think people found it surprisingly liberating. It was certainly eye opening to see people laughing at the very things society tells us we shouldn’t laugh at. I’d recommend going to a comedy night just get you out of the politically correct mindset that we all fall into, even just for a few hours. It certainly brings you down to earth and back in touch with what people do actually find funny when they are in a different environment. I’m sure if you took the same people and cracked a few of his jokes in a meeting you wouldn’t get the same response.

Out all three acts Jim was the only one whose name I could remember and he certainly got the most laughs. Whilst I’m not suggesting that brands make fun of people in such a manner, it is apparent that in a world when brands need to be more transparent and more human like, society is trying to make us become less human. Or the ideal human, if one exists. I think things like blogging, Youtube and Myspace are a result of people being able to express themselves in a more accurate way. It is the real them that perhaps can’t get out because society says that’s not funny.