Robert's PlayGround

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. 

Communication that shakes the foundation...

I'm very impressed by this message. Both it's contents and the way it is designed. At Saatchi we say "great SiSoMo". Be the judge yourself, watch and listen to this message here.

Street wisdom (2)

Typography rules (another demo ad)

I found this classic in The Art Direction Book. The typography is the idea. Reading it comes quite close to a bit of an experience. The demonstration of a point. I love this simplicity. Art: Paul Arden.

Charitainment to charivolvement

If you wanted to recruit supporters for your charity, you would try and make the good cause urgent and personally relevant to your audience. The latter still holds true. However, if your audience are young people, there is a fair chance that beating the drum of urgency and drama will scare them away. It’s a bit like Richard Huntingdon’s better advice to young planners: be interesting first and right second. It works in two steps. Offer a strong piece of magnetic content first (charitainment), then try and engage them in whatever it is that you do (charivolvement). You will only succeed if the bait is well intertwined with food for thought and calls for activism. As a charity you need to be cool as a license to connect. Dance4Life understood that quite well and I’ve spotted a prominent follower: Amnesty International. Yoko Ono gave them the rights to John Lennon Music (activism beyond the grave…) And 180 smartly simple turned that into a contemporary concept by inviting cool bands to cover Lennon songs and offer them for download on a microsite.

Pimp my fashion brand

They sell instant fashion copied straight from the catwalk. If you wear the stuff a couple of times is gets out of shape. Color washes out straight away. Yet, everybody loves H&M. And with reason. After flings with superstar Madonna and couturier Karl Lagerfelt, H&M entered a new love affair with the successful Dutch designer duo Viktor & Rolf. This is how you make a brand cool. Bravo!
See Dutch women loot the Amsterdam H&M store, this afternoon. Or shop on-line.

Safe Happens

Saw a presentation yesterday. Chuck Porter (Crispin Porter + Bogusky) put on a show. We were all impressed. Big time. He showed lots of good work. And talked about it in an engaging way. Look at this commercial (I think it was spread viral as well as broadcast). And take a look at the website afterwards. Configure a Jetta and see what happens...

Find the website here. FIRST: Select a Jetta model, THEN: click on "watch safe to happen".
Go... experience (!) for yourself.

Hate something, change something

Excellence cannot be shown too much. This commercial demonstrates pretty much everything that I think makes great advertising. A story rather than a claim. True insight. Fresh insight. Unconventional, engaging execution. Beautiful picture. Great music. Whit. And worth watching over and over and over again. Although one exposure does the trick already. I think even sceptic consumers would want to see this stuff more often.

Maps of inspiration

Some time ago I ran into this extraordinary book: atlas of experience. A designer and a cartographer joined their talents to make a book with maps of our mental world. The result is amazing. These maps can offer a whole new approach on many type of processes that you might go through alone or with others. Playfull. Imaginative. Inspiring. Only recently I ended up on their website. Go here for the Dutch version. On the site you can design your own maps and order them. The book is a bargain and well worth buying. There are books and sites with maps of Love and Business as well. The maps inspired the Dutch creative hotshop Selmore to present their agency and filosophy as an imaginary destination. They used a map of experiences: "the road to Selmore. View this photo ." Suddenly Tom Tom's and other navigation systems seem so 2005; paper maps rule!

Soccer = religion = art = advertising

Soccer equals religion to many.In particular when it's world cup soccer. How much closer can you get to heaven without leaving this planet? Probably that's why TBWA\ Germany got its inspiration straight from the Vatican - the Sisteen chapel to be precise. Divine pictures fresco style. I consider this a true example of how close advertising can come to art when it is at its best. View the rest over here.