sparking curious mind

Client: TRIUMPH INTERNATIONAL
Agency: SPRINGER & JACOBY AUSTRIA
Bronze at Eurobest

Very clever use of the medium.
Simplicity in an complicated world.

At the start of the World Cup, Cool Hunting asked who was the coolest footballer ever. They got loads of entries from all over the world, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. There were plenty of votes for Pele, and while he is one of the greatest players ever, some of his fellow countrymen beat him in the cool stakes.

The coolest footballer ever is Brazil's Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, more simply known as Sócrates: "For the name, the beard, the shorts and the chain smoking for the few occasions he was actually on the bench--a jinga de verdade, (loosely translated as a truly elegant player)."
He was also his country's incredibly elegant captain, wore a headband like no other, and was a qualified medical doctor. Too cool.

It is relatively easy to come up with a number of different reasons why people are loyal to something, whether another person, a product or a brand. Here are a number of common reasons:

• the object satisfies a physical or virtual need no other object can satisfy
• the object satisfies a physical need in a different way to other objects
• it is to the customer's advantage
• the object satisfies a psychological need

But true loyalty goes beyond rationality and businesslike matter-of-factness. One thing in particular separates successful loyalty schemes and programs from those less successful. And this is by no means always to do with money or type of product.

It is in fact sincerity. Just as true love cannot be bought, neither can customer's loyalty. Sometimes consumers let themselves be taken in for a while, or choose momentarily to suppress their feelings and instead make purchases based upon what are perceived to be the most rational reasons.

However, sooner or later they can no longer hold out against their feelings. Eventually they will decide no to select a brand they no longer want to be associated with, no matter how good the product or how attractive the brochures the company may produce. Most advertisements and brochures have been carefully designed and they have gone through several approval stages before they reach the customer. Anything controversial is removed, all errors are corrected. Only correctness remains. Devoid of any personality.

Without a heart and true commitment there is a great danger that it will all be perceived as a marketing gimmick which will be weighed and found wanting, regardless of how elegantly it may or may not be designed. Commitment and openness are not sufficient by themselves. The aim must be to create a personal dialogue which will be comparable to the dialogue that was known from the "old-fashioned village store"- a dialogue characterized by intimacy and knowledge.

Brand: British Council Budapest
Agency: Ogilvy Budapest
Art Directors: Gyorgy Varszegi/Dalbir Singh
Copywriter: Satbir Singh

Beautiful. Just plain old beautiful.

Smart marketers evolve their brands over time to keep them relevant. Some do it well, while others become the target of cynical bloggers. To gear your next rebrand for success, sidestep these all-too-common mistakes:

1. Clinging to history
2. Thinking the brand is the logo, stationery or corporate colors
3. Navigating without a plan
4. Refusing to hire a branding consultant without industry experience
5. Not leveraging existing brand equity and goodwill
6. Not trying on your customer’s shoes
7. The rebrand lacks credibility or is a superficial facelift
8. Limiting the influence of branding partners
9. Believing rebranding costs too much
10. Not planning ahead for adaptation
11. Bypassing the basics
12. Not calling the call center
13. Forgetting that people don’t do what they say. (They do what they do)
14. Getting strong-armed or intimidated by consultants
15. Putting the wrong person in charge
16. Strategy by committee
17. Rebranding without research
18. Basing a rebrand on advertising
19. Tunnel focus
20. Believing you’re too small to rebrand

Details and how to avoid them on ReBrand resources site.

via dexigner

TBWA Berlin painted the ceilling of the Cologne Hauptbahnhof.
The 800 sqm art work, features the Adidas football players and is reminiscent of the sistine chapel.

Pretty cool.

The designer of the type used in the logo, Gotham, is Tobias Frere-Jones.
They have also joined The Deck, a leading advertising network of blogs.

Brazil's affinity for nicknames might stem from the country's historically high illiteracy rate. As such, shortened spoken names are typically used more often than longer birth names. In Brazilian society, the use of a first name or nickname is a mark of intimacy. It's also often a class signifier. Lula (the country president's nickname), for one, is known for his working-class roots.

More here

A sleek and thoughtful campaign, targeted at Switzerland, which deals with the serious issue of the dangers of unprotected sex, uses two fast paced and poignant TVCs relating their tagline “No Action without protection” to the very physical sports of Fencing, Ice Hockey and Motorcycle racing. With all participants completely naked.
The Love Life website features some more fun and quirky sections. Check out the Love Lips section and send someone sexy message through a sultry speaking condom.

Taking consumer comments literally
We all know by now that consumers are apt to say one thing and do another

Investigating just our brand, rather than the larger worlds of activity
One of the most common refrains we hear in this business is "Just tell us about our brand!"

Driving methodologies rather than findings
Often when our telephone rings, the client on the other end will simply say he or she needs a quantitative survey. Why is this a blunder? Seems innocent enough. The reason is because all too often we consider the methodology before we consider the question we want answered

Pre-determining the target audience of a survey tool that is to determine target audience
It's such an easy trap to fall into

Inflating the sample to increase objectivity
We all do it

Letting those in positions of authority ask the questions
Never let those in positions of power have any control over the nature, direction or type of questions being asked

Believing consumers' emotions are easily measurable
Many companies interested in understanding the emotional component of their brand make the mistake of assuming consumers can express or communicate their emotions with language--be it written or verbal

Leaving consumer insights for the end
The most insightful consumer research requires a great deal more patience than many marketers and brand managers are willing or have time to give

It’s a mistake to think that advertising builds the brand. Most of my clients do.
Advertising only calls attention to the brand; it might even create brand interest and brand talk.
Brands are built holistically, through the orchestration of a variety of tools,
including advertising, public relations (PR), sponsorships, events, social causes, clubs, spokespersons, and so on.

The real challenge is not in placing an ad but to get the media
talking about the brand.

As David Ogilvy put it best:

“Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius,
faith and perseverance to create a brand.”

Client: Channel Two, Belgium
Agency: Duval Guillaume

via adrants

Brand: Jeep Grand Cherokee GPS
Agency: Contrapunto Madrid
Bronze at Epica Awards

The use of the iconic arrow is beautiful and inventive.

30 second ad for Becel Margarine.

It received the highest ranking of any commercial featured in the Hard Sell section of Canada's Globe and Mail.

Written and directed by Tim Piper and co-art directed with Mike Kirkland.

Information doesn't seem to be in short supply, nowadays. Precisely the opposite.
We're drowning in it.
The only factor becoming scarce in this world of abundance is human attention.
I believe that in the years to come, our attention will have a very high value.

In order to get the attention we need to practice an attention economy.
Build attention traps. Create value by manipulating the ruling attention structures.
Judo, not brute force, gets the best results.
Draw your inspiration from your audience not your muse.
And keep in touch with that audience. The customer is always right.

The World Cup is about to start!
So here are some interesting numbers about de competition

1930: First World Cup 0: number of African teams involved then
51: African sides at the start of qualifiers for 2006
5: places reserved in finals for African teams
51: European teams at the start of qualifiers
13: places reserved for European teams . . .
23: players in each squad
0: Italian World Cup players based outside Italy . . .
1: Ivory Coast players not based in Europe . . .
6: Trinidad and Tobago World Cup players based in Scotland
16: World Cup players (all nationalities) based at Chelsea
40: percentage of US footballers who are women . . .
50: percentage of Women's World Cup competitions won by US
£20m: annual earnings of Ronaldinho
£19m: annual earnings of whole Australian team
9: games played by Australia to qualify . . .
26: games played by Trinidad and Tobago to qualify
4: Dutch managers at the World Cup . . .
4: Brazilian managers at the World Cup . . .
0: English managers at the World Cup . . . ?!?!
6: teams from the southern hemisphere
£676,000: average income of players in English Premiership
£900: average income in Togo
100,000: England fans expected to travel to Germany . . .
4,000: tickets allocated to England fans for England v Trinidad and Tobago
314m: average number of TV viewers per match in 2002

From Creativis print collection, a project of the students from the Communication schools at the University "Al. I. Cuza" form Iasi, Romania.

The collection will be showcased in a print exhibition, between 12-19th of June, in the Hall of Lost Steps, at the University.

Made by JWT, Madrid and Framestore CFC

Benjamin Franklin to brand managers:

"Tell me and I will forget,
Show me and I might remember,
Involve me and I will understand."

Copy: "Is your brand part of people's life?"
Agency: Propaganda, Bucharest
Self-promo