Tagline:
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SunTrust Bank - Live Solid. Bank Solid.
Where do I begin? Do I begin?
Where do I begin? Do I begin?
Absolut bottle tops and Illy tin lids. Wait, what?
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Go find an Absolut bottle and twist the lid on and off a few times. Now go and do the same with a tin of Illy coffee. Sick!
Is this a kinetic aesthetic? Whatever it is, more of this vibe is needed everywah.
New vibe: Toning
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Reduce to the core, see detail - efficient, healthy, pure.
Oh it's new...
To be a rockstar
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You've got to have pain. And more importantly, you can't kid yourself about how in touch with your emotions you are. I'm not going to mention exactly which recent documentary I saw on a "multicultural contemporary South African band" that made me think of this.
You can't sell your political ideologies (as they are probably less than informed) and you can't keep thinking about what your audience wants to hear (they are hardly a yardstick). You have to sell your feelings and your honesty - sell your pain. Even if all you have is happy pain.
You can't sell your political ideologies (as they are probably less than informed) and you can't keep thinking about what your audience wants to hear (they are hardly a yardstick). You have to sell your feelings and your honesty - sell your pain. Even if all you have is happy pain.
Right, anti-virus software... where to begin
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I've been without anti-virus software for around five years. The day I removed it from my work computer, my productivity went up at least 20 percent, due mostly to the poor thing not choking itself to death with constant and untimely scans and update procedures (updates at least a weekly occurrence requiring something like a 50meg download each time).
Most of these scans also happen (unavoidably) on startup - which is kind of an inappropriate time, considering I shut it down the night before. I promise nothing has happened in this time, dear programmers, and when I get to work I expect to be able to work and use programs, not be faced with a little twirly icon in the corner as the only evidence of life for the next half hour.
In fact, on occasion, mister anti-virus was scanning and updating so hard he couldn't even twirl his own icon. After the fourth or fifth time that happened, and a few therapy sessions later, I realised I was in fact on candid camera. Off with his head.
I also have not had this software on my personal laptop since I bought it new two years ago and have never been happier. I just don't do anything too stupid. Now I'm not saying that anti-virus companies are the ones inventing viruses, or at the very least inducing some sort of low-level panic - I'm not saying that. I mean I'm just saying...
Most of these scans also happen (unavoidably) on startup - which is kind of an inappropriate time, considering I shut it down the night before. I promise nothing has happened in this time, dear programmers, and when I get to work I expect to be able to work and use programs, not be faced with a little twirly icon in the corner as the only evidence of life for the next half hour.
In fact, on occasion, mister anti-virus was scanning and updating so hard he couldn't even twirl his own icon. After the fourth or fifth time that happened, and a few therapy sessions later, I realised I was in fact on candid camera. Off with his head.
I also have not had this software on my personal laptop since I bought it new two years ago and have never been happier. I just don't do anything too stupid. Now I'm not saying that anti-virus companies are the ones inventing viruses, or at the very least inducing some sort of low-level panic - I'm not saying that. I mean I'm just saying...
That Slimy Bastard
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I love the Barbie and Ken campaign on billboards around NYC. And I think it's because they only show Ken.
I mean... I like girls, but there's just so much left to the imagination. It takes the whole Barbie concept from being just an object and a doll, to reminding people of the captivating soap operas that once took place inside so many little girl's rooms around the world.
Not so sure about the inevitably-cheesy-as-shit reality show Genuine Ken that is associated with the campaign (the real cash cow) but it's otherwise a great way to get people thinking and remembering.
Anyway, I always knew Ken would make a comeback.
Update Your Music
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Pravda23 is my one of my dearest friends, whom I have know since we were both five years old. That makes 24 years. He has also been creating music since that long ago.
He is a self taught guitarist, pianist, drummer and violinist who has over the past years also recorded, mixed and mastered his own music at home, often making videos of the results to create new concepts in music production, performance and consumption. Right now he's in South Korea getting his groove on, where he performed a live DJ set in a public toilet. No bushit.
John Bartmann, as he is otherwise known, is an advocate of open-source music making, and produced The Kuleshov Effect, an album that explores the idea of re-releasing music again and again in updated, remixed or reworked versions.
If you're into innovative and generally crazy music making, or even are interested in being a part of a collaborative effort, go to Pravda23.
The Earth Speaks
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So the earth has apparently decided to communicate with humans by means of the sides of Chipotle packets.
It's sort of like the subway ads that you read because there's nothing else to look at. You look up, instantly regret it and are left feeling a bit depressed. I'm sure customers would be fine with a blank bag, and it would give whichever intern wrote it more time to make better coffee, which would in turn (sic) hopefully make everyone have better ideas. Or are they making media commission on litter too?
Picture it, you're sitting in a Chipotle late at night, crying into your take-out because you didn't pull at the club, you look around, and the only thing in view that grabs your attention is a brown bag with writing on it. You read it, and cry a little harder.
What some may regard as flair, is really just clutter. Leave the bag blank, you'll be fine. I promise.
Tagline:
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Range Rover - Powered by Intelligence
Well that's a fookin burn.
Well that's a fookin burn.
The Obsession with Digital
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The blindness in advertising and its surrounding rhetoric, is beginning to make me feel a bit sick. I read this article this morning on the ten best digital ad campaigns of, wait for it... the decade. One campaign that annoyed me a little was one where people tweeted messages during the Tour de France and the tweets would be painted on the road.
There's nothing inherently wrong with this idea, in fact it's kind warm and fuzzy. But there is nothing digital about it, certainly not enough to be a digital campaign of the decade. People like it is because it's tangible. And it certainly could have been done without twitter, seeing as they just picked out the cool ones to print anyway.
This is another example of a campaign that, rather than working by itself, relies almost entirely on being explained in Fast Company, not only to be understood at all but to generate the mass of publicity that is now expected from something where twitter is involved - beyond just the fans who came to watch at that exact point in the road. There is no mention of how much people liked it, or of its effectiveness in general. The story was posted because tweeting is (still) cool. Without an explanation that the messages were tweeted and that it is in fact for Livestrong, the campaign isn't much of a campaign at all. Put it this way, the only thing being retweeted (there is little original content on twitter) is the explanation of the campaign. Am I making sense? Only when people rewteet it because the content of the message moves them or such should it constitute good advertising, but the only thing being awarded here is the medium. The first half of it, in fact.
The idea that we need to separate digital advertising from any other advertising is the first mistake. Never forget that digital is a tool, not an end in itself. The paint in the road is what people want, not knowing that the paint was tweeted.
This also brings me to the idea of Digital Strategy. The way the term is currently being bandied about, people actually seem to mean channel tactics, or something similar. The actual practice of digital strategy is entirely un-strategic, it is tactical and reactive. Real brand strategy is pro-active - that is why it constitutes a strategy at all. Positioning, something which is not much affected by the latest fads and digital trends, is proactive, and what your equity is built upon.
Brand positioning IS the strategy, and "digital strategy" has nothing to do with positioning. So let's spend a little less time thinking about digital and more time thinking about the brands and what they stand for, which when done properly can be a lot more tangible and meaningful than a fleeting tweet.
There's nothing inherently wrong with this idea, in fact it's kind warm and fuzzy. But there is nothing digital about it, certainly not enough to be a digital campaign of the decade. People like it is because it's tangible. And it certainly could have been done without twitter, seeing as they just picked out the cool ones to print anyway.
This is another example of a campaign that, rather than working by itself, relies almost entirely on being explained in Fast Company, not only to be understood at all but to generate the mass of publicity that is now expected from something where twitter is involved - beyond just the fans who came to watch at that exact point in the road. There is no mention of how much people liked it, or of its effectiveness in general. The story was posted because tweeting is (still) cool. Without an explanation that the messages were tweeted and that it is in fact for Livestrong, the campaign isn't much of a campaign at all. Put it this way, the only thing being retweeted (there is little original content on twitter) is the explanation of the campaign. Am I making sense? Only when people rewteet it because the content of the message moves them or such should it constitute good advertising, but the only thing being awarded here is the medium. The first half of it, in fact.
The idea that we need to separate digital advertising from any other advertising is the first mistake. Never forget that digital is a tool, not an end in itself. The paint in the road is what people want, not knowing that the paint was tweeted.
This also brings me to the idea of Digital Strategy. The way the term is currently being bandied about, people actually seem to mean channel tactics, or something similar. The actual practice of digital strategy is entirely un-strategic, it is tactical and reactive. Real brand strategy is pro-active - that is why it constitutes a strategy at all. Positioning, something which is not much affected by the latest fads and digital trends, is proactive, and what your equity is built upon.
Brand positioning IS the strategy, and "digital strategy" has nothing to do with positioning. So let's spend a little less time thinking about digital and more time thinking about the brands and what they stand for, which when done properly can be a lot more tangible and meaningful than a fleeting tweet.
The Future of Advertising
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This morning I read an article in Fast Company, which really got at why advertising is so tough now, why everyone is so lost, and why the people who were once known for building great brands are now bowing to computer geeks and search freaks. Read at least the first page to get an idea before you read on.
While I was reading, some words and phrases literally jumped right off the page at me:
"Fragmented consumer attention"
"Digital is incremental"
"Respond in real time to an unpredictable audience" [my god...]
And my personal favorite from the old guard, now so distracted by the geeks that they forgot what they came here to do:
"I'm a person petrified to fail."
These things sound to me like pretty much everything that good branding is not about. All this chasing. All these analytics. In fact, all this "essential" two-way micro-conversation with customers. Chase, test, measure, tweak, test. Who sent us barking up this tree? What a horrific concept of personality. These sound like the actions of a perfectly awful and avoidable brand.
Alan Watts said that we can peer down a microscope and say "Look! I've found something smaller than the atom, the electron!" And then someone else says that they've found something even smaller, the quark. We can keep going and going with all our new technology, but when will these particles stop getting smaller? What is it exactly that we expect to find? That we've really got them now! Found you!
What happened to building equity?
Now, on the opposite end of the spectrum we have the guys who seem to have it too easy in almost every regard (haters gonna hate):
Which brand is everybody's favorite? Apple. Right.
Which brand still buys TV and billboards? Apple.
Which brand builds brick and mortar stores you actually want to visit?
Which brand DOES NOT HAVE A TWITTER ACCOUNT?
Just sayin.
While I was reading, some words and phrases literally jumped right off the page at me:
"Fragmented consumer attention"
"Digital is incremental"
"Respond in real time to an unpredictable audience" [my god...]
And my personal favorite from the old guard, now so distracted by the geeks that they forgot what they came here to do:
"I'm a person petrified to fail."
These things sound to me like pretty much everything that good branding is not about. All this chasing. All these analytics. In fact, all this "essential" two-way micro-conversation with customers. Chase, test, measure, tweak, test. Who sent us barking up this tree? What a horrific concept of personality. These sound like the actions of a perfectly awful and avoidable brand.
Alan Watts said that we can peer down a microscope and say "Look! I've found something smaller than the atom, the electron!" And then someone else says that they've found something even smaller, the quark. We can keep going and going with all our new technology, but when will these particles stop getting smaller? What is it exactly that we expect to find? That we've really got them now! Found you!
What happened to building equity?
Now, on the opposite end of the spectrum we have the guys who seem to have it too easy in almost every regard (haters gonna hate):
Which brand is everybody's favorite? Apple. Right.
Which brand still buys TV and billboards? Apple.
Which brand builds brick and mortar stores you actually want to visit?
Which brand DOES NOT HAVE A TWITTER ACCOUNT?
Just sayin.
Overheard
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Girl to girlfriends:
"...and that's when I discovered Garnier Nutrisse."
"...and that's when I discovered Garnier Nutrisse."
Postcard from America
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Friends,
I hope this card finds you in good health. Things are well across the pond. Manhattan and its perculiarly evolved inhabitants have been more than hospitable to me and my work here. I have managed to immerse myself and mingle nicely over the months. In fact, I look forward to my first
blackout Wednesday
this evening in Pennsylvania - a tradition as old as pain itself I'm told.
While the physical threats and dangers of the African continent we know only too well, it seems instead that dangers here on the island are of the more emotional kind [I know!] and can creep up on a person faster than one can say
I feel like...
Thus, the local people are very generous with their prescription pharmaceuticals and many a time friends of mine have sent me on my way with a pocketful of Aderall or Xanax "just in case".
One thing, however, that will certainly not be tempered by such freely available chemical compounds, and of primary concern to me and my staff, is the positively cursed problem of "football". This rugby-substitute sport seems to have gained far too much traction here, especially on days such as Thanksgiving.
It seems that they simply choose to ignore the superior flow and complexity of rugby for lack of athletes capable of playing two forty minute halves without stopping. This cannot go on forever and we can only pray that the certain arrival of the metric system, and beer fit for consumption, will bring with them the great sport of rugby union.
During my time here I also noted a few things that might be of interest:
People stand in
lines
and only the office printer has a queue. If you ask someone if they are in the queue you will be met with only blank expressions.
The term
excuse me
is not meant to excuse any behaviour or to ask permission, it means
Get out of my way. Please.
Between the months of June and September the underground trains are as godforsaken as a Brazzaville marketplace, and are best avoided at these times.
German automobiles are entirely unknown and someone ought to bring them here immediately!
Fondest regards,
Look at this house
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Just look at it.
Richard Meier's Douglas House on Lake Michigan.
Richard Meier's Douglas House on Lake Michigan.
Alain de Botton - lovely stuff
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I try not to post too many TED talks, or random Youtube videos for that matter, but every now and then I have to post the really good ones. Some more of my old favourites will no doubt follow.