It is Saturday morning. The summer is slowly coming to an end even though I’m still waking up way to early due to the light. I’ve had the privilege to have quite some time off with my family. Only one project has been running over the summer.

My youngest daughter Linn trying out her new fishing rod in the evening light

What’s up, that’s the question I’m asking myself right now. What’s the next big thing. What comes after Facebook and Twitter, when will YouTube be challenged, what’s the next hype after the iPhone, we’ve lived for quite some time now with Playstation, XBOX and WII. And what ever comes next, how will that change the way we communicate and sell brands and their products.

I’m searching deep inside myself to find something that shows me the way. Some spark of energy that I can nurture to bring it out in the open. Something that will light the fire that will guides me.

Whatever it is I’m sure it will be as easy to adapt to as the iPhone, it will be as social as Facebook, it will be as entertaining as the first Halo was, it will be as real as a piece of wood and it will be as eco-friendly as something we’ve never seen before.

I hope it hits the car industry cause to be honest, nothing has really transformed that business the last 50 years. I do hope it hits the home appliances industry cause things seems to be standing still there too. I’d love for the tourism industry to change. Not to mention the toy industry, please give me something that makes me and my kids have super fun. Oh please give me a new favorite restaurant. Hmm, beverages. Isn’t it time we found something that truly challenged Coca Cola. Just give me something new!

I think I can see the light…somewhere deep inside.

On monday morning I’m slowly getting back to work. I’m really looking forward to that. See you soon!

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 with this new product we had ourselves a new client. The mission. To re-brand Poseidon and bring their marketing strategies into the 22 century. The full guacamole!

The Problem:
Poseidon has since long been loved by advanced divers. People who know how to dive love Poseidon. As a result of this the brand has slowly been turned into a brand by extreme divers for extreme divers. How copy was written, photos were styled and packaging looked was all steered towards a small part of the diving world that in the long run wouldn’t build a broad user base for Poseidon.

A typical photo before we started evaluating how Poseidon should be communicated

As Poseidon now develop new and groundbreaking products and target the recreational divers, the tourist that may bring his own gear on his vacation but might just as well rent the stuff, a new position is essential.

The old start page of Poseidon.com before we started the re-branding journey

Finally Poseidon is a global brand. With a presence on 28 different markets we also, from a visual and tone of voice point of view had to turn the brand into a global one that not only matched it’s competitors but beat the hell out of them.

So there we were. Now it was time to rebuild this brand.

The Solution – What was our mission and what was the result?

Our task was to create a cross-functional and multi-dimensional definition of the Poseidon brand. Once that was done we set out to design and dramatize a differentiated brand experiences across the entire value chain and customer journey.

My parts in the project included working with the overall strategy together with Caroline and then develop a fully integrated creative direction that I later art directed. Once I had designed most parts of the project we brought in designers Kristian Packalen and Esa Tanttu whom I had been working with before to finalize my visions. Early in the process we also brought in copywriter Judy Olsen to clean parts of my conceptual copy but above all write all the copy for the new Poseidon website.

The re-branding of Poseidon Diving has included:

• Create an over all brand strategy that would steer all communication initiatives.
• Develop an integrated visual platform for a marketing components
• Typography
• Point of sale
• Packaging concepts
• Photography
• Website design and strategy
• Offline advertising
• Online advertising
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Event concepts
• Copy platform

After about 6 month of strategy, creative and art direction, design, photography, copy writing, 3D modeling, website design and production we’re now closer than ever to accomplish our mission -  ‘create a cross-functional and multi-dimensional definition of the brand’. This is parts of the visual result:

A selection of the units I’ve created for Poseidon, The visual system is clearly visible.

The Poseidon Brand Manifesto

Once we settled on a strategy (not to be communicated here) one of the first thing I did was writing the Poseidon manifesto. When I’m hired to create a new positioning for a brand I think it’s essential to put words to my thinking. This way both me and everyone else involved, both on the consulting side as well as the client side, will stand on a common ground. Once this manifesto was approved we brought in copywriter Judy Olsen to clean it up. This resulted in the following:

The Perfect Photographer For The Poseidon Brand Campaign – Wayne Levin

What we needed from day one was something that made people understand Poseidon is a new brand. Traditionally Poseidon has been all about hard core diving. Basically the military look above has been spot on. But now Poseidon is to be positioned towards a broader audience. We needed photography that clearly communicates the Poseidon brand.

We searched all over for something that could differentiate Poseidon from it’s competitors. Something that inspired people and engaged them emotionally. Something that made people dream about diving. On top of that I also thought it was of great importance to find a photographer who also cared for the ocean and represented sustainability. Basically something that expressed the heart of Poseidon’s philosophy.

I found Wayne Levin. Some of you might recognize the black and white style from the photos I took myself last year on Hawaii. Now you understand that those were of course inspired from the master himself. Wayne Levin is interested not only in seascapes and animals, but in the ocean itself: the texture, movement and volume of the water. It is this visceral sense of power– of how it feels to be right there within the vastness of the ocean – that accords perfectly with Poseidon’s dedication to a pure, unrestricted diving experience.

So far Wayne has shot a limited series of photos for Poseidon. The purpose is to continue the collaboration with Wayne and shoot a series of videos too. Nothing can be more inspiring than to follow Wayne diving with the Poseidon Discovery taking pictures of some of the most inspiring animals on earth.

This photograph was taken at Ho’okena Beach in South Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. The Spinner Dolphins often come into Ho’okena, and many other Kona Beaches and Bays in order to rest in shallow waters during the day after a night of hunting in the deep waters several miles off the coast. Ho’okena is a beautiful bay with very interesting sand formations caused by the waves and currents in the bay.

This photograph was taken off Mahukona in North Kohala on the Island of Hawaii. Wayne scuba dove at this location with a friend, and was very surprised to find this young female Monk Seal. The Hawaiian Monk Seal is extremely endangered so he felt very fortunate to have this encounter. Actually she was anything but shy constantly approaching Wayne very close.

The photo of the Spinner Dolphins used in a full spread print ad.

Creating posters from a photo taken about three miles off the Kohala Coast near the North tip of the Island of Hawaii. The Mellon Head Whales are quite rare to find in Hawaii, and this was Waynes only encounter with them. He was on a boat, looking to photograph Humpback Whales when he spotted what he thought were dolphins near the Humpbacks. When Wayne approached them he realized that these were either Melon Heads or False Killer Whales. There were at least 200 individuals but when he entered the water he could see that the large pod was broken up into groups of about 20 individuals.

Turning packaging into something emotionally engaging

Already from the start my point of view was to develop a visual system that engaged people in every part of the customer journey. The of course included the packaging of the products. As a result of this we planned to use Wayne Levin’s wonderful photography on the packaging too. Along with the Brand Manifesto and the new product photography we’ve created a strong link from the advertising, the website, the point of sale material all the way to the actual product that you bring home.

On top of serving as packaging this concept also works as point of sale displays when used empty.

Wayne Levin’s photos along with the Poseidon brand manifesto creates a great platform for the packaging too.

Making sure the Poseidon brand stays strong in point of sale environments.

Having worked with advertising for quite many years now my belief is that no matter how strong your advertising is, how smart your website communicates your brand and how great your products are it’s all about the physical environments. Once you enter the store actual sale is about in-store presence. Even though Poseidon is a small brand compared to some of it’s competitors we’ve strived to dress it up like a market leader. Strong visual appearance. On brand. Emotionally engaging. This is what shop owners want from a brand and we’ve tried to deliver just that.

Making good use of Wayne Levin’s underwater photography

Product display concepts that builds the Poseidon brand story while serving as a demo platform for the new Poseidon discovery.

The New Poseidon Website Design

One of the core components in the new brand platform is of course the digital presence. As we set out to revamp the brand online we first developed a series of different designs. All in all we designed twelve different layouts before deciding on the final design. It was key for us to find a designed that appealed both to the client as well as the target group. Once the site designs was approved and copywriter Judy was well on her way to revamp the tone of voice we brought in open source developers Devcore to help Poseidon bring the site to life.

Designing our way to a ‘on brand’ website

The finalized start page

Explore diving is a content driven section that will be filled with relevant brand content over time.

It was important for us to develop a design that felt dynamic.

Increase the overall look and feel

Overall one of our objectives was to increase the level of quality on all kinds of communication material. Among other things I developed photo briefs for both products as well as corporate information such as press photography and portraits. Once we’ve shot the photos together with Poseidons ‘house photographer’ Anders Kämpe I worked together with my homie retoucher and photographer Andreas Lübeck to bring out the best in the photos.

Making the product photography more engaging

An extremely short depth of field to ad a more personal look and feel to portrait shots.

Making product catalogs more engaging.

Finally I think this 4 page product catalog serve as a good example what happens when all this great brand material comes together into one simple yet important point of sale piece.

Poseidon Diving -A dream assignment

To work with Poseidon has been fantastic. To be part of a journey like this is great. To be able to control every component from strategy to tactical execution is even greater. The result is there to see but it’s just the beginning. As we speak we’re getting ready to initiate social media strategies including presence on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr and much more. We’re only just starting.

Later this day the river was flooding food from the main land. The sharks ended up chasing me to the beach

That is me up there. About to cut back into the white water and sitting on the right, after surf. Below shows me right after dropping in on Uluwatu, one of the worlds finest left handers.

The other day I was backing up some old paper prints and these two shots got me thinking.

This was taken one of the first days surfing Uluwatu. I forgot my rash guard in our bungalow and got sunburned bad

The photos are taken some time back in 1990 when I first visited Bali. I had the greatest time and hooked up with guys like Kelly Slater and Rob Machado that I’ve learned to know via snowboarding buddies.

At this time Internet wasn’t anything I was thinking about. It didn’t exist, at least not in my mind. I had a mobile but bringing it to Bali was out of the question. You called back home every 14 days to say you were ok. People didn’t expect you to communicate more often than that if you were on the other side of the globe. A postcard did just fine!

These were days that defined my life. Internet just came along and swept me of my feets.

The music industry have for many years kept musicians at an arms length mainly because the hard- and software has been to expensive for the everyday musician to buy. On top of that the record companies has owned distribution and marketing. This way they’ve made sure that they make the big bucks while the actual artists get screwed over and over again. Now thanks to affordable laptops with software that doesn’t cost anything compared to a traditional studio production has been democratized and the internet makes marketing easy. Today a 18 year old kid walks into a record company with a final version of his song. The power has shifted over to his side and as a result the music labels are left with their pants down.

Now it’s time for the movie industry to follow.

Good friend Caroline mailed me a link to a new surf movie that is in production on Hawaii at the moment. Being a surfer myself I was of course first stunned by Jamie O’Brien handling Pipeline as if it was nothing. However, the quality of the footage amazed me even more. My first thought was that this was a big ass Hollywood production but as I was browsing through the shots I learned that this was the brain works of the next generation studio Laforet Visuals.

Laforet Visuals is run by tech geek Vincent Laforet, recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Photography” by American Photo Magazine in 2005 and among other things awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2002.

By using a combination of the RED One, the Canon 5DMKII and radio controlled helicopters the studio shows Hollywood quality doesn’t have anything to do with big ass budgets anymore. Of course Laforet Visuals have spent more than most every day photographers, but still, the price tag in the end shows that if you have an idea you can actually pull it through. Only 2-3 years ago a production like this would cost 1000 times the money.

The Canon Mark 5 with a Redrock cinema lens – Hollywood democratized

The final results are yet to see as Vincent hasn’t published a final version of the movie. But one thing is for sure. When I see this I know that the next business that will have young creatives challenging the establishment will be the movie business.

(by the way, I can’t wait to get my hands on one of those RED One cameras)

Linus Omark, the 6th most viewed video on YouTube this week.

The 6th most viewed video worldwide on YouTube this week is a video showing Swedish hockey player Linus Omark, drafted 4th by the Edmonton Oilers, scoring in a friendly exhibition game against Switzerland.

Linus does what every innovator would do – he dares to do different.
And differentiation is what earns him fame.

If you’re into advertising, marketing or any kind of business for that sake you have so much to learn from this. Hell, if you’re looking to achieve anything there’s everything to learn.

In the end of the 80s I was privileged to be taken on as a member of the Swedish national snowboarding team. That’s when I first realized what differentiated the people who made the it in life and people who didn’t – the people in the team didn’t care what people thought of us, we did our own thing no matter what. I especially remember a snowboarding camp in Valfjället, a small ski resort (hill) in Värmland, Sweden. About 70-80 teens had gathered for a half pipe camp arranged by Greger Hagelin who later founded WE.

Me, years later piloting Greger Hagelin and WE co-founder David Hedman for a trip in a Piper PA-28 to Gotland.

It rained every day, yet early every morning before the lifts opened up a small group of us started to hike the pipe. Then once the lifts closed down that same group still hiked the pipe, the rain still poring down. Not much of a winter experience but for us it was all about passion. In that group we were all part of the national team or soon to be. The others practiced for an hour or two before getting pissed about the weather and leaving for the warm cabins. Once we got in later in the night we were told how stupid we were for staying out there all day soaking wet. We didn’t care.

If you wanna achieve something big. If you want your advertising or marketing activities to reach further. You’ve gotta do things differently and also be prepared to make a fool out of yourself. Don’t care what people will say if you fail. Get up and try again. Do your own thing.

So, when Linus, currently playing for Lulea HF, gets out on that ice and decides to try something he’s been practicing for hours, hours and more hours he feels sure of himself. He will win. However if he would have missed I’m sure he would have tried again.

Are you prepared to stick your nose out? Or do you play it safe?

Me interacting with Mr Dolphin, his friends and family.

I have spent the last 6 days on Lanai, Hawaii together with a good friend. We’ve been down here attending Tibco’s yearly conference. He as an employee and me as a guest. The optimum setup for me as I’ve focused more on exploring the island than business.

Apart from getting to know Vivek Ranadivé, Tibco founder and technology innovator, and learning about his thoughts on the future I also got the chance to chat quite a lot with Roger Craig, who (who by the way also blogs) considered one of the worlds best American football players. Roger is working with marketing at Tibco (smart move) and we found common grounds. There is so much to learn from people like this. If you ever meet one of them, don’t stay on the bench. Get up and interact.

My best appointment however was meeting Mr Dolphin with friends and family. Every day we headed down to the ocean to snorkel with these guys. I’ve been diving and surfing with dolphins before. Back in the 80s and early 90s when I was snowboarding professionally I traveled every year to Ireland to surf and sometimes we ended up surfing with these wonderful animals. But the last couple of days on Lanai has been crazy. I got my camera out and snapped some shots.

Every day about 50-70 dolphins has visited the bay where we stayed. A little bit further out 10 Humpback whales watched us. They were too far out to swim to (I tried) but their presence in the background was out of this world.

I’m using a small Olympus 725SW that is not optimum when it comes to shooting underwater. But, much inspired by Wayne Levin, a photographer actually living on Hawaii I got the images into Photoshop and turned them into black and white ones. What a difference.

What before was a regular, quite bad shot of the dolphins instead turn into something out of this world. I’ll at least frame 2 or 3 of them once I get back home.

In color, quite ordinary and bad in quality

In black & white, transformed into timeless and dream-like art

It is amazing to see that sometimes a simplistic change in the character of a photo totally turns it into something timeless and dreamlike. Changing focus and looking the other way usually do, remember that when you’re creating communication. Don’t just look in front of you…the solution might be hiding somewhere else. And suddenly you’ve created art!

For quite some time now I’ve been thinking about serving you all my favorite style tip. Don’t know why I haven’t taken the time but here we go.

There’s a blog out there called the Sartorialist. What began as a way for Scott Schuman to share photos of people that he saw on the streets of New York that he thought looked great ended up being one of the worlds most influential style spotters.

The concept of the Sartorialist is simple yet genius. Basically it’s about spotting everyday people that look stunning, take their picture and publish it on the blog. And the concept has turned out to be a success. The Sartorialist has been featured in Vogue, Velvet, Style, and Esquire. Since some time back the blog has even earned Scott a monthly page in GQ. Last year his blog was also selected by Time Magazine as one of the worlds Top 100 design influencers.

Wow – that’s what a blog can do for you!

So, if you’re looking to shape up, follow the latest trends of simply eye some nice looking people. Put that rss from the Sartorialist into your reader. You won’t regret it (although your wallet might)

My first Polaroid with Poladroid

If you’re looking to have more than 300000 download a little application of yours. What do you do? Easy. You create a desktop application that allows people to drop their Jpegs onto a little Polaroid camera hovering on your desktop. Then you let people, just like in the old days, wait for the actual photo to be developed. Once ready its a 400dpi “polaroid” photo that can be printed or uploaded automatically to your Flickr account.

Paul Ladroid (can it really be this good) is the man behind this simple yet genius idea.

And the stats are impressive. In just 4 weeks the site have had 390000 unique visitors, more than 340000 downloads of the software (and it’s only available so far for Mac) and 250000 incoming links.

This is exactly what creativity is all about. Something old + Something new = Innovation + Success.

Läser idag på Slashdot om ett fantastiskt initiativ från tyska staten. Man har bestämt sig för att donera 100 000 bilder till tyska Wikipedia under det tyska Creative Commons “Attribution-Share Alike 3.0” avtalet. Bilderna sträcker sig från 1860 till nutid. Tydligen är det här bara början. Målet är att dela ut över 11 miljoner bilder!

Det här är otroligt bra gjort och det är bara för Svenska staten att öppna upp arkiven. Ut med ljud, bilder och filmer. Finns ingen anledning att sitta och hålla på det. När ni ändå håller på, dela ut bilderna på Flickr och filmerna på YouTube.

Förresten. Vilken information sitter ditt företag på som passar bättre på nätet än i en gammal bildbank stängd för omvärlden?

A couple of days ago I spotted this TVC above. It made me happy. Simple & informative yet a fun movie that left a positive feeling right behind my nipples. I instantly started to browse the net to get hold of the movie and blog about it. I was kinda sad when I couldn’t find it.

Today my Squash partner, Tomas Lestrup, founder of Swedish photography agency BSmart, same agency I worked with when I created the Kosta Boda campaign, stood me up on tomorrows game. He’s a sissy of course (haha) but then again he made me quite happy when letting me know that they, together with Jesper Kouthoofd och Henrik Timonen had produced the IKEA movie I was looking for.

BSmart – I can definetely recommend them. If you visit their website, have a look at the ‘this is the cast’ link.

Nature. What a thing huh. Found this wonderful image of The Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) curiosly swimming around Brian Skerry armed with his camera. And yes. The name of the Whale is actually The Right Whale. National Geographic got the full story.

When it comes to whales, the usual photo is a tail whipping through the sea. This immediately stands out from the crowd and I couldn’t avoid showing it to you guys. Exactly the same as when you spot good communication.

What a wonderful way to end this great week.

Let me make this clear from the beginning. It’s not the product that made me write about the shopping experience. But, I’ll admit that I found the shopping experience because of the product.

I’m a fan of usability. What doesn’t work…doesn’t work. However, I’m also a fan of dramatization and communication. This site by Agent Provocateur that I found through Adverblog has done a fine job of combining both. What strikes me already when you land on the first page of these fine Agents is the fact that you get a choice.

You’re not automatically thrown into a 10MB loader without knowing where you’re heading. I obviously clicked ‘Be Inspired’. If found myself being thrown into a fast loading interactive movie experience. Apart from the movie experience, there’s only two other objects on the screen – a logo and a skull. As I mouse over the skull a link to Buy Me appears. Easy to find and since it’s the only choice away from the full screen experience I think most people will find their way into the store. Once there, they haven’t built a ordinary shopping experience for their latest collections. Instead you get to explore a wide screen photo montage. Once you click the ‘product’ of your choice you end up with a poster-like photo that also features the product information.

Agent Provocateur has always been innovators, like with the Kylie ad for example. The way they combine a campaign site with their online store is a great example of how you can create a rich online dramatized experience without loosing track of usability.