Category: branding

Brand for Nottingham, branding

The retail sector, HMV and the public sector strike

This is not a political piece, but more of an observation of how much of an effect the public sector strike may have had on the high street spending.

For me, it looked very much like the kick start that many retailers were hoping for. I can genuinely say, that I have not seen HMV as busy as it was on Wednesday this week for some years. It was like Christmas eve in there with people grabbing almost anything with locust like avarice. They did have lots of multi buy offers, (two for £10 etc) but it was buzzing.

Disappointingly for them, the brand new technology section, seemed to be the only area you could bring your cat for a fast look around. It was their CD’s, DVD and overpriced computer games that were doing well. I was a bit peeved to find they had gone back to their policy of a higher price in the store to online, for the one thing I had gone in for.

Traffic in Nottingham was almost at gridlock from around 10.00 until well after 18.00, again a Christmas norm, but unusual, even on a Saturday.

So whilst many were complaining and many were clearly striking, there will have been a very marked positive retail effect, that few probably expected and many, many will welcome.

Maybe its the glimmer of hope the economy needs.

branding

A simple guide to how the bailout package works

It is a slow day in a little Greek Village.
The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted.
Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.
On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.
The guy at the Farmers’ Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the taverna.
The tavern owner slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him “services” on credit.
The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.
The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works

Thanks to my mate Patrick Chapman for sharing that wisdom with me.

branding

Boots Opticians – The value of an app

I was playing around with this rather clever app today as it was developed  by a a team that had a very talented, good friend of mine involved. You can see it here:

Boots Opticians - Simple eye test app
Boots Opticians - Simple eye test app

My eyesight isn’t bad, but it certainly isn’t perfect and it was a Boots Optician that told me that quite recently.

But he also told me something else that was rather important.

He told me that I had critically high blood pressure and referred me to the doctor immediately. Six months later, it’s now back under control and it looks like i’ll be on meds for the rest of my days. Probably a pretty good job they found it then.

But would this app have been able to do the same?

No, but it is set to be on the safe side and does advise you that you need to get their advice if in any doubt at all.

It’s beautifully easy to use and probably one of the most intuitive apps i’ve seen yet (apart from our own obviously – which you can see here)

Does it undermine the expertise of an optician? Probably not.

Does it do the job of an optician? Definitely not.

Is it a fun game to test the oldies amongst you?

Well yes and it does it really rather well.

brand values, branding

Berocca TV ad – Log rolling

I love this ad. Not because it is expensively produced, glossy or particularly clever, but because it is so simple and made me smile. The end line backs it up perfectly and for a brand to deliver values that are achievable (the feeling, not the log rolling) is a god place to be. What they are claiming is that this product won’t change your world completely, but it will make you feel a little bit better.

I’m off to buy some now and then look for some logs to dance around on.

brand values, branding

The New Zealand brand – summed up in one minute and 18 seconds

The Haka has always been something I have watched with fear and admiration, but today in the final of the Rugby World cup, I saw it for the first time as a brand marker for New Zealand. It shows their power, their determination and their ability to stand, miles from anywhere else in the world as a distinct nation, that is proud of its roots.

If you were going to write a few rules about a brand, they would be simple.

Do things well

Mean them, ie live your values

Build on your roots

Be differentiated.

They seem to have done all of these rather well here. And to be honest, it’s the first time I have ever seen anyone respond to it like the French. What a brilliant advertisement for the country and the sport of rugby.

branding

Tesco sandwiches and health

I had a bit of a wake up call yesterday with the discovery that I have (very) high blood pressure.

Now I’m not (that) fat, I think I eat pretty well and almost all of my food is cooked fresh as I love cooking.

But initial feedback is that my salt intake is probably much to high, so I’ve started looking at everything I eat.

Not sure that LoSalt and others like it are much of a solution as a friend of mine pointed out yesterday that it just swaps sodium for potassium, which is different but still bad.

This was highlighted years ago in this BBC report from 2007.

But nothing seems to have been done about it. The lowest salt sandwich in the whole of the Tesco lunchtime offer (including all their ‘healthy options’) delivers you 19% of your total daily recommended intake. The highest is over 43%, which is horrendous. Weirdly, the sandwich fillers they sell are all quite low fat in themselves, which has to point the finger at their bread.

I guess I am going to have to start making my own lunches, as Tesco aren’t changing fast, if at all.

Brands that kill their customers, die in the end themselves too.

augmented reality, branding

Kids, iPads, conventional media and Blippar

This is a sweet little video that is in fact quite scary. A small child that is so used to the moving media that an iPad presents, that they are completely stumped when they are presented with a magazine and it’s contents.

It’s probably quite worrying to the owners of the print based media businesses how irrelevant their media is to younger audiences, who consume more through video than through print or conventional reading (sadly).

But Blippar may have an answer, as they are linking the two. It’s early days yet, but i’m quite hopeful about the way this augmented reality technology is going and the opportunities it offer for brands.

brand values, branding

British Gas and their trite new identity

call me a cynic if you wish, but I am not a big fan of this rather smug new identity for British Gas. Here’s the old one.

Brirish Gas and their old and uncaring identity
British Gas and their old and uncaring identity

There’s not a lot wrong with this. It says what they do, or rather what they did. Their business has obviously diversified and they need to move away from their obvious reliance on fossil fuels and the harm they bring to our planet. So they’ve changed it to this.

british-gas-who-are-now-looking-after-our-world-for-us
British Gas who are now looking after our world for us

I don’t have a particular problem with the identity. It’s fine in fact. decent typo and a subtle shade of green has been snuck into the logo. Good work team.

But the strapline. ‘Looking after your world’. Behave.

What a bunch of trite shite.

How are they looking after our world, by dragging tons of gas out and burning it?

Straplines are always a difficult issue, but this one is on the verge of vomit inducing. If it was my job, i’d drop it and quit the pretence before everyone does an emperors new clothes as soon as they have an issue or heaven forbid an accident and they make the word a little bit worse for us.

Updated

I’ve just had it pointed out to me by my mate and long time Creative colleague Darren Fisk, quite how similar the new British Gas identity is to the Age UK identity.

Age UK brand - Is this where the designers of the British Gas logo found their inspiration??
Age UK brand – Is this where the designers of the British Gas logo found their inspiration?

If you look at the background to the brand that was designed by the fabulously named Kitcatt Nohr Digitas (it’s that sort of name that made me want to join the industry) and watch their intro video about how they developed the brand, you can see it’s built on real values, that matter. I think it’s worth watching Paul Kitcatt talking about it here (even though looking at the viewer numbers, no one else has actually bothered):

branding

Yeo Valley – X Factor Ad

I have just been sent this by PRDaily and it’s another good one by the genius admen at BBH.

I’m proud to say I didn’t see it on X Factor (as I have never seen it and hopefully never will) but it is a strong ad on the back of their major repositioning.

But I can’t help but notice quite how similar it is as a parody to the Blink 182 video ‘All the Small things, where they played up the over the top boy band video.

So for me, the Yeo Valley ad isn’t the most terribly original idea, but it is another beautifully produced ad that hits its younger target audience very hard.

brand values, branding

Teacher of the year

Llew-Davies-teacher of the year
Llew-Davies-teacher of the year

I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I caught a few minutes of the Pride of Britain Awards and saw an amazingly inspirational teacher – Llew Davies – who won the Teacher of the Year Award. They showed him in his classroom with his pupils who clearly love what he does and how he does it.

What caught my imagination was his enthusiasm and individuality. I love the fact that he cared enough to think about things, look at teaching from the child’s persepective and then went on to name the teacher who inspired him when he was growing up.

It reminded me of the William Arthur Ward quote.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

It will be many years before we see quite how big an inspiration this brilliant teacher has been to the kids, but I suspect that there will be some brilliant teachers, some amazing scientists and some inspiring people coming straight from his classrooms.

 

Thanks to Steve Peake at The Guardian for the image. You can read their article here.