branding

The end of the design and advertising industry in the UK – or the beginning?

I’ve just finished a very short book by Peter Mayle (of Year in Provence fame) called ‘Up the Agency’ and it has really made me think about how much the industry has changed in those intervening years. Mayle was a copywriter in some of the London agencies in the transformational years through the 1980’s as the power was shifting over here from new York in the 1970’s

Up the Agency - by Peter Mayle - Fun and excess in advertising in the 1980's
Up the Agency - by Peter Mayle - Fun and excess in advertising in the 1980's

In this book he tells stories of fun, excess and wealth on an amazing scale, which if I’m honest, was one of the things that attracted me into the industry in the first place. But looking back at it now, it’s barely an industry I even recognise.

Pack designs were done by the ‘Art Department’ – this is now an amazingly specialised discipline in it’s own right.

Research was just starting to creep into play and even then he was worried that it was beginning to stifle creativity. He cites US advertising as being totally derivative and so safe that it had to be research to blame.

But the most telling thing he said is about how ‘big business’ is starting to creep into the industry. It’s taking itself too seriously and this will be its downfall.

Well it has and it is. If you want clear evidence of this, you only have to look at the disgraceful behaviour of Thomas Cook in the placement of their £30m media buying account.

First they make loads of agencies go through an RFI process (Request for Information). An abortive one of these took me three days a few weeks ago. And then they get four agencies to pitch on the basis that they will have to save 10% on buying through media consolidation.

And then, if they do win it, they will have to pay Thomas Cook – No not the other way around – a signing on fee of £1m to take up the account.

Design and advertising work at their best if they create a huge appeal to their target audiences and offer them a relevant product they will enjoy. Research is creating safe ads that appeal to big boring audiences. ITV are creating more and more stupid TV to drive stupid mass audiences to their channel. If media buyers need to reach big markets cheaply and they have little time to think, or create, what choice do they have but create big safe rubbish ads that limp along like the American or worse still, global shite we see over here sometimes?

Sometimes advertising can be fun and sometimes it’s more serious, but if every agency is forced into a striped suit business mentality as Mayle predicts, the power in advertising will shift again, the creativity will disappear and who knows where it will end up next?

The only hope is the fightback from the smaller boutique agencies who try and concentrate on great ideas that work and allow their clients to really carve their own niche.

branding

Innocent Smoothies – bees for all

This is why I love Innocent drinks. I thought they were gtting a little safe and predictable with the way they were managing their brand and then out of nowhere they produce a belter like this.

It’s a special guest smoothie and contains Lemons, Honey and Ginger. You can see more about it here. It also helps that it is lovely (even though I wasn’t sure and only actually bought it for the bees and seeds!

But what makes it stand out is the little yellow pack attached to the top of the bottle. It’s seeds to allow you to grow flowers that bees like. The copy on the reverse is just brilliant too. Dead simple, friendly and enticing. Sorry, i’m looking like a bee stalker here.

Bees like flowers, so why not grow your own? I like it so much, I stuck it on my favourite Bic pen.
Bees like flowers, so why not grow your own? I like it so much, I stuck it on my favourite Bic pen.

And this is where Innocent start to do things really well. They’ve set up a little micro site to get us interested in bees again.

Click through here and enjoy, all you bee spotting dudes. I’m off to plant mine right away.

brand values

Anywhere, better, best – in an age of austerity, it just makes sense

New Orleans floods from the air - the perfect place to show the concept of anywhere, better, best in action
New Orleans floods from the air – the perfect place to show the concept of anywhere, better, best in action

I’ve just written a bit of our latest thinking on the Purple Circle blog. You can read that here in full.

It came from Kelly Herrick, but in summary, our thinking goes like this.

If you were in New Orleans when the floods hit, you needed to get anywhere to save yourself. Up a tree was okay for a short time. It was about survival.
When the water subsided and you could get to safety, a better situation was in a football stadium with hot water and a bed for the night.
When you eventually were rehoused in a new and safe area, you reached the best position.

In some ways, many companies and brands are in the same position. Parts of what they are doing are in the anywhere section and parts are in the better, or maybe even the best, so why change all of it at once?

But have a read and comment away if you disagree.

brand values, branding

ITV’s new TV series Identity

Anyone see that programme on ITV last night called ‘Identity’ about a crack unit working to solve identity theft related crime? I did.

Anyone going to be watching it again next week?

No me either.

Here’s the promo clip.

What a load of old derivative nonsense. It just proves to me that ITV haven’t got an original thought in their head as they have copied BBC’s Spooks so completely that they even took Keeley Hawes to star in it. But she’s a bit more stupid in this, oh and more obviously sexually suggestive with the interesting male lead (Aiden Gillen).

Scenes with all four people with their back to each other so they could face the camera as a unit. Casual conversations over the office partitions, a really bright and nosey computer geek, troubled Irish hero with a past – is he a loose cannon that could go off anytime? All stupid, stupid, stupid.

ITV has struggled for advertising revenue over recent years so they have tried more and more lowbrow programming to drive mass markets to their screens. But who with a brain will come back and watch this. I’m sure it may appeal to some, but not to me.

I don’t think I am that unusual in wanting to be entertained, interested and not massively patronised by the stupidity of the programme I am enduring.

This is ITV’s brand values gone all wrong. As I read in an old Peter Mayle book earlier, it’s the bland leading the bland!  If they turn out rubbish like this week in week out, they’ll lose the rest of their audience.

Oh, and Keeley. Can you name ONE person who’s career has blossomed by moving to ITV? Again, no me either.

branding

Clamcase for iPad – what’s the point?

Don’t get me wrong, I like it. It looks cool. Just like a laptop. But if you were going to shell out for one of these clamcase protectors, wouldn’t you just be better getting a laptop in the first place that has the extra features like multitasking and an inbuilt camera, more memory etc etc?

brand values, branding

iPhone 4 works with new iHolder

iHolder for iPhone 4
iHolder for iPhone 4

And Nokia haven’t missed the chance to take the michael either. have a look at their helpful site here.

It’s the first real test for Apple since the early accusations of screens that were too easy to scratch on the original iPhone in 2007. How they handle it will be a good barometer for the future of the brand. You can only really tell the power of a brand when things go wrong. If their products are genuinely NOT as good as people believe, slowly but surely the brand values will be undermined and the brand begins to wane.

Somehow though I don’t think this will happen.

And I still want one.

branding

Home Delivery Network becomes Yodel

This is one of the most clear cut well executed pieces of design I have seen in a few years and I love it.

On it’s own, the change from the old logo here:

The old Home Delivery Network (HDN) logo
The old Home Delivery Network (HDN) logo

To the new one here:

The new Yodel logo
The new Yodel logo

Is not that significant, but then again, logo’s never look too much on their own anyway, do they?

But when you start to add some meat to the bones, it starts to come to life.

Yodel - Dawn to dusk - bringing the brand to life
Yodel - Dawn to dusk - bringing the brand to life

It was done by an agency called The Clearing who have a project page here. My only slight reservation, which could still change its success is this little comment that appears under the YouTube video that they have used to launch the project.

It was posted by someone called mrtikle 1 week ago and he/she says “the company still have no money and continue to treat its staff like dogs”

As I have said many times before, if this rebrand marks a positive change in behaviour, then it may succeed, if it is just a new logo for a still crappy company, then it will still fail. Time will tell, but you can judge for yourself.

branding

Jenson and Lewis attempt to build car in new Vodafone ad viral

Maybe it’s just me as i’m not that big a fan of F1, but this ad seems entirely charmless and seems to have used all of the ridiculously obvious advertising cues to cover this up.

The ‘Plot’ in summary

Two apparent experts deserted in beautiful workshop with bits of an F1 car.

They look slightly helpless.

All of the office staff wander by in awe and wonder as our two heros attempt the build, nudging and winking at the windows.

The real experts (the mechanics) drink tea in the canteen.

Our two drivers pull it off and then whilst claiming its a team effort, pretend they actually did it.

Sorry, this is all a bit dull for my liking. Virals are meant to be fun!

And considering it’s obvious expense and production values, what is this actually doing or saying about the Vodafone brand?

branding

Hello Kitty Engine Oil

There are brand extensions and there are brand extensions too far. This one is perhaps the furthest and least relevant stretches for any brand I have ever seen. Let me introduce you to Hello Kitty motor oil.

Hello Kitty Engine Oil - The stupidest brand extension ever?
Hello Kitty Engine Oil - The stupidest brand extension ever?

Hello Kitty is a hugely successful brand owned by the Japanese company Sanrio and Agip (Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli) who make the oil for them are the huge Italian oil and fuel company based in Milan.

Surely this should be  recipe for cutting edge japanese design mixed with sharp Milanese style?

Err no.

It’s just stupid. Who would possibly think that adding an oil to their car that is given credence by a cartoon cat would do it any good at all? How can the Hello Kitty brand values of cuteness and pink bear any relation to the inside workings of an engine?

It can’t. I’m afraid this just looks a bit silly.

I don’t think Castrol should be too worried about it denting their market share just yet.

branding

Waterstones v. Waterstones.com – I know the difference

I just went out to buy two copies of a book for my wife and her Mum and have learnt a lot about online/offline pricing in my little jaunt around the city.

Firstly there are only two real places you can buy a new book (other than the discount end of line retailers) and that is at Waterstones or WH Smith – who are a retailer of sorts.

Before I went out, I looked on Amazon for  target price. £7.49. Now that sounds like good value to me. £5.50 off list price but none in stock and my customers want this book NOW!

The Clean and Lean Diet 14 Days to Your Best-ever Body from Amazon.co.uk
The Clean and Lean Diet 14 Days to Your Best-ever Body from Amazon.co.uk

So it was off to WH Smith, the confused retailer that seems to have ‘buy one get one half price’ on almost everything. Isn’t that what Thresher did before they went bust too? Well, they had the book in stock, but only one of them, so the deal wasn’t that effective. They had a price of £8.44 online. If I had managed to buy the two of them in the store each book would have cost £9.75, so not far off a decent price.

The Clean and Lean Diet 14 Days to Your Best-ever Body - from WHSmith.co.uk
The Clean and Lean Diet 14 Days to Your Best-ever Body - from WHSmith.co.uk

And then onto Waterstones. The only decent sized book store in Nottingham. I was greeted by a friendly young man as I entered and asked him where on the four floors I would find this book. He confirmed they had five in stock at the full price of £12.99 on the third floor.

So I asked the kller questions.

Why could I buy the same book from them online for much less?

The Clean and Lean Diet 14 Days to Your Best ever Body from Waterstones.com
The Clean and Lean Diet 14 Days to Your Best ever Body from Waterstones.com

The answer?

Apparently, and I quote “Because they’re on the Internet, they don’t have the overheads we do.”

Oh, that’s it then, they’re not part of the same group or anything simple, or even based on exactly the same central distribution depot.

I wrote a piece a few weeks ago saying that their new logo was a bit silly and pointless, but did give them the get out clause that a new logo can be worthwhile if it marks a change in behaviour.

You judge for yourself whether this traditional retailer is behaving any different now it has an online presence, or if it is still making the same mistakes as Borders and all the other smaller book stores that have folded before them.

If you offer the same price online and offline (like Tesco and Asda and Sainsbury’s and everyone else with any retailing skill does) you may find that people still buy from your stores rather than looking at you as a showroom or a place of last resort.