Challenge the establishment. That’s what you should do if you’re young and don’t really have to care about being fired. (Actually that’s what you always should do!) That’s exactly what the students over at Berghs School of Communication have done this year once again.
Their contribution to an often shallow advertising world is driving sustainability. They’ve decided to make their entire final exhibition about sustainability, they’ve established a prize that award sustainable communication and they’ve also just launched their campaign site that promotes their final exhibition – A Sustainable Plan.
About a month ago I got the question if I could share my point of view [click to continue…]
There’s a couple of things I demand from brands that make it all the way into my life. It’s really not that hard. It’s just about being prepared to sacrifice your life for what you believe in!
A Tweaked Moses with the Ten Commandments by Philippe de Champaigne 1648 from Freechristimages
Here are the 10 commandments of future brands
1. State a higher cause.
People follow brands just like we follow other people. State your mission and you will have people following you. The higher the cause the higher the prize. We will buy your products and services but now we’re in it for something else. Something that will last. This way you’ll ensure we’ll get through the good times and the bad.
2. Impress us with your miracles.
Me and most people grow tired quickly. Constantly surprise us without loosing your soul. In every relationship it’s about surprising people while staying true to your cause, your soul. The same goes for brands. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll gain from innovation. As long as you remain the same old brand you can expect loyalty from us.
3. Bring a smile to our faces every time we meet.
Someone once said “Smiling is good for you” and I can’t do anything but agree. A smile is the gift of gods, never forget that!
4. Tell us stories.
We’re still the same old half monkeys that used to sit by the camp fire and tell stories. It’s in our blood. Start telling them to us and we’ll move into a state of hypnosis. Once we wake up it’s to late – we’re hooked.
And remember! We’re living in the viral times. Whatever kinda shit you put together. Make sure it got wings. If I wanna show you of to my friends. Equip me with a rocket, some gas and a box of matches. I’ll put the whole universe on fire for you if you let me.
5. Wearing your mark of excellence is our badge of identification.
You might think you’re taking risks while developing your product and services. But hey! Think about us. We might be wearing those pants of yours in front of our friends. I might be taking my girl out for a date in the car you’re making. You better make people go wow when they see us!
6. Be true to your heritage – and if you haven’t got any, start building.
10% of what I’m paying for is your product or service. 90% of it is authenticity. Where do you come from. What gives you the right to do what you do.
7. Treat every possible interaction with us as your last chance to impress us.
There’s simply no reason not to treat every single interaction point as extremely important. What does it all do and how does it support your brand. Every pen. Every business card. Every phone. Every print ad. Every website. Every invoice. Every press release. Every board member. Every TVC. Every event. Every point of sale interaction. Every form. Every coffee machine. Every sales person. EVERYTHING matters!
8. Don’t copy others – build your own religion.
I sort of like cats even though I spit three times when I see a black one crossing the roads. But I fuck’n hate copycats. People love people taking risks. Sometimes you will fall down hard. But falling down teaches you how to avoid falling down again. Never falling down won’t teach you anything! Earning followers is about making sacrifices.
9. Be passionate about what you do.
I wouldn’t expect anything else from someone I love. Would you?
10. Save the world as we know it!
Sustainability. It’s just something we all will expect from strong brands and leaders. Sooner than later.
Eyes open. My hands reach for my iPhone. Damn! The Night Stand app tells me it’s only 5:15 AM and I’m already awake.
Ever since I was a little kid I’ve been waking up early. As the brain slowly comes to life I’m performing my morning routine on my iPhone. First a quick check on my mails to see if something happened. I don’t like walking of to the shower wondering if there’s something I should have attended to. Echofon quickly brings me up to date on Twitter and potential mentions or messages. Sweet, @MIACOTH and @pellewiman has pushed some traffic my way. It brings a smile to my face. I head into the Facebook app to see what’s up the. As usual most friends are asleep at this time. Even Joakim who usually is my partner in crime when it comes to waking up early. Jerry on the other hand just got to bed while listening to Spotify. I pay a visit to my Mint statistics account to get an idea whats been go. A couple of hundred visitors have passed by my blog during the night. About 60 of them unique, that’s an honor. As the day passes another eight hundred people will come by if things are normal.
Hmm, my tapping on the iPad keyboard wakes my two and a half year old daughter up. Dressed in that sweet Pippi Longstockings night gown she goes “Dad, I wanna paint on the pad” She says. Not now darling, go back to sleep! It’s 5:45AM. Doesn’t work. I hand her the iPhone and she [click to continue…]
There are no secret formulas, no secret recipes or magic potions when it comes to social media marketing. All you’ve gotta do is take in one single fact: People have moved lots of their behaviors online and you’ve gotta follow.
To succeed in moving your business, communication and advertising into the digital world, ask yourselves the following questions:
If people search for things related to my business via Google - how can I make sure they find me?
We’ve used to organize events in the real world -where can we organize events in the digital world?
When people started to use phones you gave your sales people phones - why are you not giving them Skype, MSN, Twitter, Facebook and live streaming accounts?
You would never automate a personal relation that could lead to sales - why are you automatic every single sales process online?
People don’t listen to brands, they listen to other people -how can we make sure other people say good things about us?
Since people tend to spend their time alone behind the screen -how can we continue to build human digital relations using video, photos and copy?
In the real world you do PR towards paid media – how can you shift your PR activities to be picked up by earned media online?
Traditionally you’ve spent lots of money on media -how can you shift focus to spending lots of money on value that leads to eyeballs online?
In the offline world you would value how people navigate in your store -how much do you value how people navigate in your online world?
Building a great house requires an well paid architect – why then are you hiring the cheapest architect when building a great online presence?
In the old world comparing products was hard - does your products stand the future transparency were everything can be compared?
Back then you could create a 3 year marketing plan – what can you do to turn it into a 3 month marketing plan?
Focus groups used to lead you right -is your organization prepared to listen to real time data instead?
Building brands took years and years -how can you build your brand in months?
Competitors introduced themselves at the next fair - are you prepared for the ones who wont introduce themselves at all and don’t care about the old way of doing business, only your old customers?
You used to write business plans - how can you get moving and learn on the way.
If you’ve got 15 right answers then you’re fine. If not – start running!
Today when you market a product and actually manage to make an impact the first thing that happens is that people go online, not to your brand site but to Google.
Have you Googlified your brand and business?
A search on your product or service reveals everything there is to be found related to that brand of yours. You might think they’ll head over to one of your campaign sites but think again. People who search [click to continue…]
Apple, Nike, adidas, Google and so on. It’s always easy to point the wow pointer to these huge brands that have massive amounts of brand fans world wide. But sometimes you’ve just gotta remind people about why these brands often are leading the pack.
I have just gotten of stage in Tallin, Estonia after speaking on the future communication landscape. Right now I’m in a sofa listening to James Matthewson who seconds ago quoted Simon Pestridge from Nike and I just have to share that quote cause it’s what it’s all about:
Nike’s point of view on advertising: “We don’t do advertising any more. We just do cool stuff…It sounds a bit wanky, but that’s just the way it is. Advertising is all about achieving awareness, and we no longer need awareness. We need to become part of people’s lives and digital allows us to do that”
Simon Pestridge – Nike UK
And boy do they deliver on that promise. Here’s just one of thousands of projects they do every year to make people join their brand.
Do great stuff and people will follow you. That goes for products, services, support, communication and advertising. It’s a simple as that!
People over here in Europe are getting ready to change their light bulbs at home due to a decision taken in the European Union a couple of years ago. This has triggered an earthquake of ideas on how to repackaging this old product that haven’t really seen inside of a designers room the last 50 years (or at least it feels that way).
This is more or less what the industry has offered us the last 50 years
Sometime last year I noticed that this business is on the move. As I was shopping bulbs it struck me that good shit is happening inside the hardware store on the light bulb shelf. What the light bulb industry is going through is a great inspiration for any business lost in history and it shows that once you get that ball rolling things will happen fast.
Here are 10 light bulb packaging concepts that leads this industry forward
Sweet and Informative from Greenlite found on Aaron Skippers blog.
Last summer I got on a train leaving Stockholm for Gothenburg. Together with freelancing project manager, planner and colleague Caroline Karlström I had a meeting set up with diving brand Poseidon. This was the start of a project where I truly had the opportunity to work with all aspects of branding and creative communication.
A dream project.
Ingvar Elfström, the founder of Poseidon back in 1958.
The Background
Back in 1958 this brand was founded by a young Swedish diver, Ingvar Elfström. Since then the brand has become famous for unique, different and great products. However over the last couple of years they’ve lost speed when it comes to innovation and marketing initiatives.
But then something happened. The company was bought by a small group of investors three years back. Headed by visionaire Kurt Sjöblom they set out on a journey – to develop the first ever automated rebreather for recreational divers.
This was why we were there. About a year from launch Kurt and his team felt they needed to do something about the brand. And after a successful meeting that actually started with me diving [click to continue…]
Think social media and conversational marketing might be the next train to heaven for your brand but don’t know where to board? Well, here’s three social media marketing models that will make sure you’ll find your station. If you wanna get moving into the social country of love where conversation rules you’ve gotta get one [...]
While spending some time reading up on what the ‘fine art’ video photographer Vincent Lafore was up to I ran into a campaign by Canon placed on the video site Vimeo. The concept called ‘The Story Beyond The Still’ is a perfect example on how brands could look into creating digital events rather than necessarily [...]
Students over at the Berghs School of Communication asked for some advice on research about social networking behaviours in Europe. As I gathered my links and sources from my Delicious account I ran into this wonderful presentation below by Tom Smith from Trendstream. The presentation was given by Tom to the IAB Europe Social Media [...]
So there you are. Heading a beer brand. You’ve turned into a ‘baldy’ since most of your hair has fallen off due to crazy competition, expensive media investments leading nowhere, a product that is older than your ancestors (I’m talking the ones that lived before we had bikes and shit). Now you want people to [...]
ronnestam.com was voted Sweden’s first blog on Innovation, future trends and digital communication. It’s written by Johan Ronnestam. He's widely regarded as one of Sweden’s leading speakers and authorities in the field of modern creative and conceptual thinking and skill of innovating brands and their communication.
