The American discount retail company Target has been positioning themselves as a champion of design for a while now. They have successfully brought high fashion to the masses, in the same manner as H&M and Topshop, by collaborating with the likes of Liberty of London, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen and Zac Posen. Recently they teamed up with LEGS and Mother NY for their 2010 Fall Apparel Collection. Together they created a memorable LED-light and fashion show (top image) at the Standard Hotel in New York. The result shows how big brands can push the industry forward by stepping up and financing non-traditional curation. It is an encouragement to all other brands out there to look outside your own industry to create experiences which engage and inspire your customers.
If you are into light installations, check out this interactive artwork made in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics. 20 powerful searchlights move in patterns designed by people on their personal computers via the internet. Another amazing interactive light performance is Echo, made by United Visual Artists (bottom image). Dance movements are translated into a monumental backdrop creating a simultaneous performance. Finally, don’t miss Fever Ray’s gig in London next week. I am not sure if it will include laser lights like previous performances, but either way I am sure it will be fantastic.
Moving Brands worked with Flipboard – the brilliant new social magazine app for iPad – to develop an identity that would encapsulate the apps offer as a personal vessel for content.
In a bit of a behind the scenes special, we thought we would share the final logo mnemonic – which was taken from initial sketches, animated as quick motion sketches, and developed to the mnemonic you see here.
Regular visitors to the MB blog may recall Camilla’s post last week ‘Checking in with Sherlock,’ about the rise in entertainment check-in services.
The team at LS:N Global – the online news and consumer insight network – have also picked up on this new consumer behaviour, with Max Reyner’s post today about how networks like HBO are using Philo, Miso and GetGlue to encourage people to check-in to their shows.
Camilla, our resident trend and digital strategist, was asked to share her views with LSN Global about how brands can begin to use this information. “A Twitter conversation just happens, you can’t really build a community around it,” she says. “But by checking in, you become part of a group and start to create data. Brands can then start to see clusters forming and specific check-in times. They could use this to make personalised recommendations for people”
If you subscribe to lsn.global, you lucky thing, log-in and check out the full article here.
Last night tech site Mashable posted this article – making me say “Oh my Lady Gaga” into my iPad. The article, entitled “Why Entertainment Will Drive the Next Checkin Craze” looks at three start-up services which allow users to ‘check in’ to TV shows, music, books and games. The Mashable article says that entertainment checkin services such as GetGlue, Miso and Philo are “silly and far too extreme in ideology to attract anything more than a testbed tech audience”. For a Mashable writer to call a tech start-up “silly” is uncharacteristic. Anyone following the Sherlock hashtag between 9 and 10pm last night on Twitter will know that conversations about the BBC hit show were in the hundreds before the end of the opening credits. Clearly, sharing your entertainment choices with others is becoming an integral and vital part of the viewing experience – a behaviour media brands are practically salivating over.
I thoroughly recommend you take the time to read the article, if only to imagine the potential for check in services which combine with semantic technology. Connecting in real time to others who share your interests, while also receiving hyper-personalised recommendations is the future for media and entertainment brands. Add in super-targeted advertising opportunities and suddenly these “silly” services look like major game changers for brands from every industry.
Thomas Wrigley, a student at St. Catherine’s college, Oxford, came by the Moving Brands studio in London last week to have a chat about our pitch to create A Brand for London. He’s about to get cracking on his dissertation, “The regionalisation of Brand England: How branding agencies construct regional identities in England”. We asked him to write a post about his dissertation and why he wanted to interview us. Over to Tom…
When it comes to writing a geography dissertation, the practice of branding may be the last thing you would expect to research. And yet branding crops up in geographical literature in a number of ways, and so my idea was to take this existing work and extend it into examining the practice of place branding at a regional-level within England.
That’s why my interview with Moving Brands was so important, as it opened up new pathways to explore which I hadn’t previously considered. Their method of holding an open public forum for the rebranding of London was pioneering and controversial to say the least, and really exceeds previous efforts to include the public in the creation of a brand meant for the public domain. Clearly it is a great way to ensure public approval of a brand, and would most certainly ensure that the public were more likely to ‘live the brand’- a key factor for a place brand to work effectively. If this is the future technique of place branding, it makes for some very interesting research!
One of our new San Francisco studio clients has launched a genius new app — Flipboard. The app, which shapes up all your ragged social media feeds into one beautiful magazine experience, is being hyped big time. Ashton Kutcher tweeted “If you have an iPad the flipboard app is a must” to his 5 million followers, and Wired gave the new app a shout out and early hands-on review. It is currently the tenth most talked about topic on Twitter, and has had over 100,000 hits on youtube since yesterday.
This movie will give you an idea of how it works – you can see the moving identity we produced at the end of the clip.
As Season 4 of Mad Men gets ready to premiere on US tv later this month, the anarchic buzz that shot through the advertising industry of the 1960s doesn’t feel so far from removed from what is going on today, in 2010.
Last week Old Spice broke new ground with a tweet-led-real-time-viral-film-production campaign. Brands and agencies worldwide watched open-mouthed as the runt of the male scent litter became the most talked about brand across platforms, while Wieden+Kennedy became the hottest guys on the block overnight. Wieden+Kennedy saw a golden moment – a universal adoration for the man your man could smell like – and elevated it using the real-time efficiency of Twitter and the power of ad hoc film making.
Not for a while had a serendipitous opportunity been so confidently capitalized upon simply for the pure enjoyment of an audience. What this campaign proved once and for all, was that the CEO’s who sit in their corner offices proclaiming “social media’s all well and good (for the kids) but where are the figures?” have their days numbered. Like the VW ‘Lemon’ campaign of the 1960s, today’s market are looking for something that cuts through the noise – the Buy one get one free/click to sign up to our newsletter/”Inspired by the science of genes” onslaught that dominates our world. The audience of 2010 want to be engaged, talked to and, above all, listened to.
The Old Spice campaign also launched in the same week Double Rainbow went global. A crazy guy enjoying the beauties of mother nature caught the collective imagination and sparked a multitude of parodies, songs and spin offs. It seems that the consuming public are hungry for examples of organic, heart-felt responses to the world. Reactions that are timely and real. Billboards, TVCs and print advertising are just too slow and steady for today’s fast moving world. And so we must ask, what would today’s Don Draper do? If he’s living like there’s no tomorrow, because there isn’t one. It’s because it’s what’s happening right now, in this instant, that we must focus on and respond to.
I found this from Hirofumi Kiyonaga’s blog post on honeyee.com. It’s quite an interesting way to see the World Cup from a brand point of view. I also noticed that the orange color on the Nike’s shoes really stands out against the green grass field and they are everywhere! Who will win for 2010? Netherlands or Spain? Nike or Adidas?
We were really pleased and flattered to hear from Jonathan of SouthSouthWest who have just launched an open forum to create a public brand for the state Government of their original island home of Tasmania. Jonathan said, “Just a quick little note to thank you for a splash of inspiration. Last year when you guys launched your open public forum to create a new brand for London, it got our studio thinking (along with the rest of the world). Thanks for inspiring us with your bold ideas. We hope you can take some pleasure in the ripple effect your thinking had on the other side of the planet!”.
Naturally, we are thrilled to see our approach being adopted elsewhere – it marks the beginning of a massive shift in the creative industry when it comes to public brands. You can check out SouthSouthWest’s presentation here, their brief and findings document here, and the whole story here.
Britain is today waking up to a hung parliament following the 2010 General Election. No one party has been able to secure an outright majority in the House of Commons, meaning there will now be a frantic period of negotiation to decide the shape of the next government. The journey to the election has been a bit of a roller coaster, with political favour seeming to change day to day amongst the electorate. At the start of the year, when rumours of a May election began to surface, everyone assumed the party leaders would be taking a leaf out of Obama’s book and fighting a modern fight via digital media platforms and social networks. I attended – and blogged here about – a talk at the Frontline club about the role social media might play in the run up to the election. The consensus was that in engaging the public on digital platforms, the opportunity for conversation, discussion and opinion gathering would be all the greater and more valuable.
As it happened, it was the X-factor style televised debates that had the most effect. The British public are, it transpired, more hardwired these days to make decisions based good old fashioned dance offs. They are hungry for personality, style and flair. They want drama, intrigue, controversy and an underdog. And what with the wives, the ties, Bigot-gate, and Cleggmania, the party leaders delivered on all fronts. The huge voter turn out last night, accompanied by the typically English brawling as the 10 o’clock deadline loomed, proved that the public wanted their vote to count. And, with a tough few days ahead for those in Parliament commence, the voting public wait eagerly to see whose mandate really has the X-factor!
*Film contains scenes of a graphic nature and possibly NSFW*
Yesterday M.I.A released the video to her new track “Born Free”. The video, directed by Romain Gavras, adds M.I.A to the list of musicians turning their backs on the traditional 3 minute MTV-style music video. Lady Gaga’s Telephone weighs in at 9min32sec and is a typically Gaga-esque riot of colour, kitch, sex and product placement. To date it has had almost 3 billion hits on YouTube. Stylo from Gorillaz features Bruce Willis, runs to 5min11 and combines animation with live-action. “Born Free”, at 9min06sec carries a strong political message and scenes of a very graphic nature. B(r)ands today are dealing with an over-stimulated audience and creating engaging, surprising and even shocking ways to grab and hold their attention is a key challenge. What links all of the above artists all is a marked understanding of a more demanding audience – an audience used to free music streaming, fatigued by hot things crawling around on an over-lit soundstage, and looking to be entertained above and beyond the current “norm”.
There’s a bit of a debate going on about dead logos in the Metro and a few design blogs. Of course it’s something we feel strongly about…
Businesses need living identities, not dead logos
A brand is an evolving story not an unchanging visual stamp. A logo can help to identify a brand, but in a fast-moving world it is just one of many elements a brand needs if it’s to connect and interact with people. We’re much more interested in the many different ways a brand inspires people to think about – and contribute to – it’s story. This could be anything from a colour to a sound, gesture, image, material or phrase. Think about Apple’s pinch or swipe. Think about Intel’s sonic mnemonic. Think about the brown delivery vehicles of UPS. The way a brand’s different elements combine over time is what really brings it to life. Logos only die when they are part of a fixed system that can’t respond to a changing world. The huge opportunity for designers is to create and express a great brand story using the array of media now available to us, from film to social media, music, environments, graphics and so on. Businesses need living identities, not dead logos.
This is a subject close to our hearts, we’ve just written a paper about it — Living Identity.
As part of some research on “yoof” trends this week, I re-encountered Kesh. Kesh is a fashion designer/magazine editor/stylist/DJ/presenter/art director/photographer. Not bad for a 23 year old. The only job title missing from the extensive list, however, is accomplished an self-promoter. Kesh is the mistress of cultivating fans and supporters – employing a range of social media platforms to reach people. Harnessing free applications online has allowed Kesh to enter and compete in markets that were previously impenetrable. She has a MySpace page, which links to her retail store. She’s recently moved from a Blogspot blog to the more popular Tumblr. She tweets and maintains a Facebook page. Whereever her target audience is, she is too. And it has worked. Starting out as a backing dancer for M.I.A, in 2007 she launched a line in collaboration with Topman, has been featured in a fairly unwatchable documentary by BBC Switch and now she’s in L.A conquering Stateside. No matter what you feel the sum of the parts add up to, it is impossible to deny that Kesh represents the dangerously savvy generation who are unashamedly adapt at promoting themselves. These are the brand managers of the future – cultivating a range of platforms to convey a unified message and develop a following. Watch and learn.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave these past few weeks, or do not have access to a tv, a radio, a computer, a mobile phone or a newspaper, you will be fully aware of the new American import phenomenon that is Glee. A cross between High School Musical 1, 2 and 3, Mean Girls, American Idol and 30 Rock, the show mixes high school life with sardonic wit and killer tunes. Last night’s installment on E4 drew in 1.2m viewers – a high share for a Monday night. What’s most intriguing is the show’s business model. Instead of relying on merchandise to earn extra bucks, Glee is capitalising on its young audience’s preference for watching tv online. Increasingly, people are “shopping the screen”, responding to product placement instantly online. By airing close to the “clicks”, Glee can turn the songs featured on the show into immediate iTunes hits, as the line between being a viewer and consumer blurs.
“Mercury Brands” a new insight piece from Viewpoint magazine, highlights the core of MB’s philosophy – that brands must learn to lose control and love change. The piece, in issue 25, the latest edition of the magazine, cites our open pitch for A Brand for London, as an example of agencies “taking an increasingly collaborative approach with the public”. As an agency we feel excited for the brand possibilities emerging from a more open, collaborative culture. The strongest, and most successful brands, are the ones that adapt and respond to the environment around them – be that anything from time of day and user activity to consumer input and re-interpretation.
It is America week in the Studio, both to celebrate Thanksgiving and to get our heads around how our cousins across the pond approach design, branding and advertising. As well as indulging in some Krispy Kremes and a few awesome high fives, we will having one or two America-themed events here in the studio. To start the ball rolling, here is a ‘never seen before’ Moving Brands interview with Scott Thomas, the Design Director of the Obama campaign, filmed earlier this year in our Tokyo studio. A new hero of iconic American design, Scott has become a close friend of MB and was integral to our Brand for London pitch. The film can also be found on our YouTube channel here.
Earlier this week Starbucks’ experiment in de-branding crossed the pond and arrived in London’s Conduit Street. The new “concept” store moves away from the familiar green we are used to seeing on every street corner, and towards a more ‘local’ ambiance. According to the spokesperson on this slightly odd Facebook video, Starbucks were aiming to “elevate the value of what Starbucks represents” through a “coffee theatre” and a “classic, library setting” in order to bring the Third Space up-to-date. Crowd-sourcing opinion on the de-brand from our Twitter followers, the overall takeout (if you’ll excuse the pun) was that it was a caffeine-fuelled response to the backlash against big brands. While others, clearly more concerned with procuring a coffee they could rely on, felt that the “premiumisation” was an interesting approach to franchising. At the end of the day, people look to brands as a stamp of quality and assurance yet, in these times of austerity, are recoiling from aggressive marketing. Starbucks’ new “local” approach to their stores may be branding in disguise but they are dealing with strung-out caffeine junkies on a daily basis and there is only so far they can rock the boat.
We had our first Moving Brands Meets… event in Tokyo last week at the Claska Hotel. Our guest speaker was Scott Thomas, the design director from the Obama Presidential campaign.
He talked about his team’s new media design work for the Obama for America campaign. It was so exciting to hear about their communication strategy in detail, and get a few behind-the-scenes stories of their design decisions. He is currently writing a book to explain how an obscure senator rose to the highest office in the land with the aid of branding and design.
Scott also talked about why he turned down the offer from the White House and came to spend 2 months in Japan. Good timing too, as Japan recently had a national election and it is quite shocking to compare the two. Here, no “new media” is allowed. Japan’s election law’s, that limit campaigning methods, are very strict and they haven’t changed in 50 years.
We were lucky to have Scott speak and for the event there were about 50 guests – thanks again all who joined us. No worries if you missed it, we’ll post video of Scott’s interview and presentation on our website.
Economic and environmental change means brands really have to think, and act, outside the box if they are to enchant nervous consumers. Two new launches this past week exemplify this so-called ‘wild-sky’ thinking which draws people in emotionally. The first enterprise can be found at London shopping mall, Westfield. There, alongside Louis Vuitton and Gucci in The Village – the luxury section of the mall – a charity shop has been set up by retail guru Mary Portas and Grazia magazine. Stocked with donations from Grazia readers, celebrities and high street and designer stores, the ‘Living and Giving’ shop re-positions charity shopping as an exciting, chic and sustainable alternative to buying new – making second-hand clothes as aspirational as the latest ‘It’ bag.
Across London, in Battersea, another ‘pop up’ takes the form of the Doodle Bar. Tapping in to consumers’ desire to personalise and interact with their environments, the Doodle Bar invites patrons to draw on everything from the walls to the furniture sourced via the recycling website, Freecycle. Billing itself as a “recession-proof credit crunch café”, the Doodle Bar aims to develop the local community through a series of events over the summer.
Mary’s charity shop made nearly £4,000 in its opening hour, while photos of Doodle Bar’s opening night show it packed out. From luxury chazzing to caffeine-fueled doodling, innovative retail brands are discovering how ‘being’ the change, rather than simply dealing with it, will engage customers and ensure success in the long-term.
Lovely animation about the pleasures and pains of long distance running by James Jarvis.
“I had become interested in the idea of characters that were less referential and more iconic and abstract. I particularly wanted to do something with a potato-headed stick-man that I had been drawing at that time.
The film was inspired by certain personal experiences in running – a favourite run over Blanchland moor in Northumberland, being attacked by a crow in Singapore – and also by the transcendent, almost psychedelic experience of the simple act of running.
Rather than a marketing project inititated by Nike, the film was something proposed and produced by myself, and as such I hope represents a much more equal collaboration with a brand.” James Jarvis
Animation by James Jarvis. Directed by Richard Kenworthy, and music courtesy of Caribou (Crayon was a great choice).
People will find their own use for it, either personal or professional, but it strikes me this is not going to be a flash in the pan, hence brands giving it careful thought in terms of TOV and content sharing.
For those of you who aren’t convinced what Twitter can offer you, have a read of this ‘get started guide’ courtesy of Tom Coombs (twitter.com/tcoombs): http://tinyurl.com/dcev7n or try this movie:
The American discount retail company Target has been positioning themselves as a champion of design for a while now. They have successfully brought high fashion to the masses, in the same manner as H&M and Topshop, by collaborating with the likes of Liberty of London, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen and Zac Posen. Recently they teamed up with LEGS and Mother NY for their 2010 Fall Apparel Collection. Together they created a memorable LED-light and fashion show (top image) at the Standard Hotel in New York. The result shows how big brands can push the industry forward by stepping up and financing non-traditional curation. It is an encouragement to all other brands out there to look outside your own industry to create experiences which engage and inspire your customers.
