Archive for Brands

Ray Ban’s Bright Light. For Once a Branded App That Makes Sense.

Oooooh brands and mobile apps. Yes, all of them want ‘something mobile’. No, just few of them should actually develop an app. The formula is simple: Nobody is interested in commercials and even fewer people are interested in branded apps. Except if they have a purpose.

Bright Light by Ray Ban may be such a rare case of a purposeful mobile application that even has a brand value. Check out the video below and tell me what you think. By the way: Ray Ban is my brand of the day anyway because of this fantastic print ad.

Global Brands. The Illusion of Choice.

Click the image to see it full size.

Trolling Brands. What’s a Chalice for God’s Sake?

Brands just don’t do enough trolling these days. Well…sometimes they do.

via Creative Criminals

Being Unpolitical. Why brands have to choose sides.

The following article was just published on Amsterdam Ad Blog. Please follow the magazine also on twitter and on Facebook:

SOPA, PIPA, ACTA – if you haven’t lived under a stone lately then you should have heard these terms as symbols of a growing conflict between the established political elites and the ‘web-citizens’ of the world. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy ACT) and its conceptual ‘sibling’ PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) is (or actually was) a bill that was about to be adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives as well as the Senate until something happened: The web stood up against it and defeated both.

Both proposed legislative approaches were meant to protect the right of copyright owners. So why does the web-citizen of this world think that brands like Oakley or Apple shouldn’t have the means to fight copyright infringements? Why should they simply accept that dodgy guys with even dodgier ideas sell counterfeits online? SOPA and PIPA allegedly were there to prevent that from happening…well, if actually they didn’t at all.

That’s exactly what GoDaddy.com went through: Around Christmas 2012 social network Reddit.com organized a boycott against the world’s largest Domain Registrar because of its support of the SOPA bill. For an intense two weeks the platform lost thousands of domains on a daily basis and with that quickly lost its reputation as a credible brand in the digital society.

GoDaddy.com was just one of many brands that tried hard to get the Political Genie back into the bottle. While public support for SOPA and PIPA finally led to the end for both bills most engaged major brands were primarily focused on evasive PR maneuvers to explain their support to their rightfully outraged customers. The easily accessible list of B2C brands became a major problem.

Some brands like L’Oréal or Oakley were listed as individual sponsors. Others like Microsoft or Apple were part of larger industry associations supporting either one or the other bill. In other words – the same companies that allegedly celebrated the fruits of a more open, digital society on their Facebook pages supported bills that many observers described as censorship.

Most of the brands that supported the SOPA and PIPA did probably not foresee what they supported. Fighting against copyright seems a righteous cause, but the bills simply kill the freedom of the web by threatening free interaction of users all over the world. Many brands simply accept that. Even brands with slogans like ‘Think Different’ or ‘Live to Ride’.

Counter-culture? That was in the 70s, baby.

Read more »

Poets and Quants. How Brand People Can Learn to Love Big Data.

Okay, I have seen a lot of bla bla on Slideshare. “Poets and Quants” is a great exception. Euro RSCG Chief Strategy Officer Tom Morton has created this extremely smart deck that tries to answer the question how Brand People Can Learn to Love Big Data. Thanks to Ben Malbon for the link.

“Big data is shifting the balance of power between the creative ’poets’ of the communications industry and the more analytical ’quants’. Yet there is still a big role for creative minded people in a Big Data world. A lateral, humanistic view on Big Data yields better, more insightful truths, and data can be fuel for creative development. Here’s how.”

Before you start: Slide 17 is officially the truest slide on the Planet.

New L2 Report. The Mobile Side of Luxury & Prestige Brands.

I think I can admit I am quite jealous of L2′s business idea. Providing digital business insights for the luxury and prestige industries is a good idea. But adding a sophisticated benchmarking that highlights the different facets of digital marketing, that adds specific (and needed) industry knowledge, and that’s probably even very very very well paid? High five.

I spotted L2 for the first time about a year ago when they first published their Digital IQ report on the most successful luxury and prestige brands in the digital space – the first compendium that I am aware of. And now they took the next step by publishing another extremely well founded report: The L2 Mobile IQ 100. A report on the mobile expenses, aspirations, and capabilities of the top 100 luxury brands worldwide. Well done L2 – you guys really understand your business.

Key insights

  • Luxury & Prestige retail brands by far outperform luxury & retail brands mobile
  • M-Commerce is nascent in the industry
  • The majority of brands & retailers has no specific mobile strategy
  • But: Per-capita revenues and searches in the industry by far outweigh more traditional means

Download the full report here

L2 Prestige 100®: Mobile IQ — The Video from L2 Think Tank on Vimeo.

Enterpreneurship. How Le Pain Quotidien Makes it in Moscow.

Le Pain Quotidien, the bakery-café brand founded in Brussels in 1990, is well-known in London, France and New York, but few realize it’s a hit in Russia, where the premium bakery is a go-to for expats and upscale residents in Moscow. This footage from brandchannel explains the challenges such a brand faces when entering one of the most exciting markets in the world: Russia. Or to be more precise: Moscow.

LEGO Occupy Wallstreet? Shut up and take my money!

After months of demonstrations by the Occupy Wall Street movement, Slate V imagines a special edition Lego set just in time for the holidays. And with the Arab Spring upgrade soon…or North Korea.

via Laughing Squid

The Good Life. Or: Why I should have become Lifestyle Blogger.

It is actually a strange thing: while we all watch mainstream communication become democratic we can also witness new types of very marketing-focused relationships as they form. Especially at the intersection of mainstream lifestyle brands and the so-called multipliers: meet the lifestyle bloggers.

No major brand can nowadays live without an elaborated digital PR strategy. The path to successful blogger outreach is not simple. Today’s lifestyle bloggers do not just react on one of your emails. You really have to ask for their participation and offer them something really nice. Something they really, really want to blog about. Otherwise it wouldn’t be earned media, right?

Whudat.de for example is one of my favorite lifestyle blogs in Germany. I like MC Winkel‘s blend of music, art, web finds…and product recommendations. But I also know that lifestyle blogging has become a very convenient method to enjoy a bit more industry attention than Average Joe. Below MC Winkel’s post about his (apparently) great days at the Santorini Grace Hotel we can find a statement: ‘If you also want to get featured in one of Germany’s leading lifestyle blogs feel free to contact me…’

No disrespect. This is just how it works. MC Winkel enjoys Mercedes test-drives in Teneriffa, trips to Australia (sponsored by South Australia’s Tourism Board and Quantas) and does not get tired to comment that

  • he is absolutely convinced of this product/car/hotel
  • and if you also have a fantastic product/car/hotel you would like to get featured, contact him
Am I jealous? No doubt, I am. Am I surprised or is it new? No, it isn’t. It is just a global trend in which the mutually beneficial relationship between lifestyle bloggers and the industry becomes more than evident. Of course: The Josh Spears’, the Cool Hunters and many many others are way beyond being just independent grassroot journalists. We are in fact talking about (not so niche) media outlets that may not (yet) belong to Rupert Murdoch. But that is only the case because a successful lifestyle blogger nowadays has a more than pleasant life – pampered and petted by the world’s most enjoyable brands, products and their PR agencies.

I don’t think any successful blogger nowadays is bribable. But why should you be bribable if the deal is so obvious? The more successful lifestyle bloggers have so nice experiences and products to chose from – they wouldn’t even think about logging in to their CMS for something just average.  And we all know Mercedes wouldn’t offer key lifestyle bloggers an average car. Right?

Read more »

How to position Ice Cream like a Boss: “You want nutrition, eat carrots”.

I just stumbled upon this perfect example of a great copy text. After years of working as a copywriter (in my previous life) I still have a lot of respect for the few who are able to write such an intelligent, bold, entertaining text. A no-bullshit text that positions this ice cream as the fat, unhealthy, very delicious product that it is. Well done! Congratulations Wisconsin for this ice cream and congratulations for the copywriter (who was probably the van owner).

Please zoom in if you are too old to read the text below.

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Davaidavai? What’s that?

Hi, I am Gerald Hensel and I am your host tonight.

Davaidavai is a blog about the stuff which drives my professional life. Digital ideas, social media, advertising in and beyond the 1s and 0s that seem to have taken control of pretty much everything… I work as Strategy Consultant for Blast Radius, Amsterdam. To check out what I do beyond davaidavai, simply follow this link. And don't forget to send me a message in case there is anything left to say.

The thoughts and opinions on this aite are my own, and not that of my employer.

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