Robert's PlayGround

Branding by disappointment

With the European Championship Soccer 2008 going on, we are being confronted day in, day out with  brands trying to benefit from the excitement around the event. The theme is either the heroism of the players, the excitement of the fans or flat out sales promotion. And where the first theme can lead to great advertising and goose bums, the promotional route often leads to tear jerking bad communications. One of my personal favorite topical ads made exceptional use of the event. A couple of years ago Amstel Beer ran the  well appreciated  "three friends" campaign. And for the occassion of a big international soccer tournament Willem van Hanegem joined the three friends in the Amstel ads. The most brilliant commercial - at least, that's my opinion - was the one broadcast directly after the lost match that sent the Dutch team home. It opened on the outside of a common family home and the only thing the viewer saw was a TV set being kicked through and out of the window on the first floor. Twenty seconds later the three friends and Willem van Hanegem leave the front door. When we see them from the back Willem is showing a very clear limp when he walks away. Even the negative emotion of a lost tournament can be used to bond brands and people. I think it was as strong as it was unexpected. Most brands pull out when the positive excitement is gone. Amstel proved that with sponsoring and advertising you can even build on negative emotion. Unfortunately I couldn't find a copy of the commercial. If you have one or know where it can be found, let me know.

The difference between a brand and a politician

Is it a coincidence? Or is it Will-I-Am's music video tribute that boosted Barack Obama's race for the Oval Office so that he overtook Hilary in the past few days with one victory after another? I think this case is another compelling illustration of the difference between a product and a brand. Where Hilary is trying to convince her fellow Americans by repeating rational arguments for the fact that she will make a better president, Barack Obama addresses the heart. John F Kennedy meets Martin Luther King - I guess there's no better proposition for a wounded nation. See the music video. It's scored over 7 million views so far... Hilary eat your heart out.

Brand magic - the power of rituals

This is the Haka. A ritual Maori dance. Performed by the New Zealand rugby team the All Blacks. You don't need to speak maori to get the point of it. As a player puts it in an explanatory piece of film footage: it really gets your blood boiling. You just try to remain stoic when a bunch of warriors practice this sophisticated piece of psychologic warfare right in front of you. This comes quite close to magic? I know a couple of sports teams who could use this. Haah!!!

Navigating by brands

People use brands to navigate in various ways. Brands help them to find their way in shops, Dutch women magazine Libelle just added another application: a branded car navigation system. Together with CosmicNavigation they developed a special navigation system for women. Offering a quite female design and a 'woman friendly' touch screen interface. Above that, the Libelle car navigation system leads its users to addresses of shops, restaurants, museums and other cultural places selected by Libelle readers. After introducing the Netherlands first branded event - Libelle Zomerweken <Libelle Summer Weeks>   - this magazine has proven to be a true innovator again. And again an excellent example of how customer/brand relationships can be fueled and enriched by adding an experiential touch point . This litterally brings brands to life and feels so much smarter than creating another printed spin-off magazine, which seems to be the obvious thing to do for a magazine publisher.

Shake up your brand!

Strong and established brands often inspire creative people to play with them a bit. And every time that happens, there are influential people who jump the barricades. "Don't play with my brand. NEVER mess with the logo!" That thinking probably stems from times when advertising was largely built on the principles of repetition and painstaking consistency. I agree that brands can be religious, close to 'holy' stuff. I don't share the opinion that brand and its features should remain untouched at all times. If a brand represents something that's strong enough for us to play with, then it's probably about time that we did. A bit of change might just be the thing to revive, rejuvenate or refresh something that is about to be ignored for the fact that people are getting to familiar with it. When a brand is being taken for granted, it's time to shake things up. I applaud Mars for their guts to be playful with their logo. I can imagine the debates that the mere suggestion of changing the pack has raised in meeting rooms. Well done! You've just proven that Mars can do something many brands can only dream of. And I'll probably hand out the bars that I've bought as a present to people in need of some positive energy.

The touchpoint is the message

Mobile telecom provider Telfort demonstrates a perfect example of smart context planning. Telfort is a cost leader and price fighter in the Dutch market for mobile communications. What better opportunity to both meet bargain & discount hunting people and tell a significant story about your brand than presenting yourself at... markets! I haven't found any pictures yet of how they attend markets, but I guess it is with some sort of mobile shop/info stand among all other traders with their commerce.

The Break Up

A one way film to bring a message about dialogue. Mmmmm... Funny format. Though I wonder what happens if this story is brought in a more dynamic, interactive way.

The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager

Top 5 most nicked

Department store HEMA demonstrates it has a good sense of humor. They have promoted their top 5 most stolen articles in a special display. Food supplements, rechargeable batteries, lip gloss, CD-R's and Bicycle LED lights are temporarily on offer with a 25% discount. To top it off, they treated the 10,000th shop lifter in the Amstelveen shop on a little celebration. No wonder Holland loves HEMA.

Branding by books

Reading Tom Himpe's book on alternative advertising got me thinking a lot about exciting and engaging ways of making brands connect with people. Much of the stuff he has collected, acts in some sort of public space. But there is even more to be found in more intimate settings. I rediscovered an interesting example on our cook book shelf tonight. It is a book about soup made by Only - a Dutch ad agency that can be easily insulted by calling them just that. I admire them for their very original approach to brand communications. The soup book is made for the Salvation Army and its title reads "Soup for sharing". Its not so difficult to imagine why. Some time ago Only developed a brand for the Salvation Army,  based on the thought of sharing. This brand is called '50/50'. In Holland the Salvation Army is well known for collecting old clothes and other household textile. Only got the brilliant idea to reuse these second hand clothes and let fashion stylists take them apart and put them back together into fascinating combinations. Much alike Dance4Life, who succeed in bringing a remote issue to the attention of youth by addressing them in their own language, Only helps the Salvation Army get noticed again by a young and upper class audience. They make the Salvation Army contemporary - cool if you like. The soup book was originally a Danish concept I believe. But Only executed the idea quite nice. The book comes in a cover made from recycled woolen blankets. And they got a set of successful young angry chefs to deliver recipes for soup. Equally talented photographers made the pictures. It's subtly infused with a message too. The Soup is great. The book looks great. And the Salvation Army gets my sympathy and support. Just before updating my Blog I found a pocket book among our toilet reading stuff (sorry): it was issued by a social organisation that protects nature in the Netherlands.  In stead of printing some dull magazine or just sending me a request for money, we got an educative book about landscapes, plants and animals just around the corner and various routes for talking a walk or a hike in nature. Very inspiring. Dutch people can get Soup book here and obtain the nature book by Stichting Natuurmonumenten here. I can recommend both books as a gift. To yourself if you like. 

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