Time is precious. Don’t you agree? For example if I spend to much time here going on about this and that you’re gonna start to think ‘what the heck, get to the point you #%*#’er. So, I’m not gonna spend to much of your time.
Instead. Have a look at these 5 demo videos and think about your own products and services. Are you doing your best to make sure people learn about your product in seconds, not minutes? (Also – one of the guys below is sort of a superstar of demo videos. When will we have some of that in Sweden?)
First up – The tour of music service SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a platform that takes the hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals.
I love how the speaker voice starts up by clearly letting you know that you’ll spend 3 minutes learning about their service. And while she does so you also get visual guidance what it’s all about. On top of that it’s graphically beautiful with a creative twist.
Second example – Square
The idea behind Square is simple. Accept payments by credit cards everywhere by only using a mobile device and a card reader.
This is my personal favorite right now when it comes to demo videos. Clean, smooth, creative yet extremely rational. Watch closely as Adam Lisagor aka @lonelysandwich, the superstar of demo videos show you [click to continue…]
Have a look at the video below and tell me if you’re not amazed. Turning things up side down. Black becomes white. Faster when you’re used to going slow. Smile when people expect you to be sad. Something big when people expected something small. Diving when people expected skydiving. Whatever you do, don’t do what others have done before you.
Guillaume Nery filmed on breath hold by Julie Gautier sure knows how to change perspective.
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.
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!
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…]
This last year, 2009 has been a blast in many ways. Almost every day I’ve received interesting news from friends, other bloggers and my RSS feeds. Even thought we’ve seen one of the most severe economical downturns this year it seems advertising, communication and technology has been the business to be in.
Brands seem to have learned from the history and brand spend has rather gone up than down for a lot of brands. We’ve also seen Twitter and Facebook continue to grown faster than anything else on the planet and social media and open technologies has prospered due to that fact. The iPhone has continued to grow and Android is picking up it’s pace. Google has released lots of new cool products even though the Wave didn’t really become the clean double over head a lot of us expected.
Most brands have been looking for one-offs and as I look back at the 2009 Cannes Lions winners it strikes me that I can’t really remember one single campaign that stood out and changed the world of advertising. We’re slowly moving away from bought space to earned space, this is most certainly the reason why my brain plays these tricks with me.
I’m not gonna spend more of this post summing up 2009. Other people, papers, bloggers and personalities has done a great job doing this already. Instead let’s move on to 2010.
Click for a larger image
Here are the Brand and communication predictions for 2010 by Johan Ronnestam
REAL
This is more of a change in how we live, consume, work, advertise and communicate. We will of course use all technology available to become more real but we will strive to make things more realistic, true [click to continue…]
The Mobile Revolution. Have you heard that one before. Well, just when it’s about to happen thanks to the iPhone and the Android OS I’d like to launch a thought about the next revolution – ‘The Revolution of the Screens’.
A couple of month back I got my Amazon Kindle. I blogged about the Microsoft Courier interface earlier this year. Others and me keep buzzing about what the Apple Tablet will be like, if there will ever be one (of course it will). Google launched their Chrome OS just over a week ago. Last week I read that the new Barnes & Noble Nook has sold out for the Holidays this year. And a couple of days ago I blogged about the New York Times Skimmer interface.
The Nook – Barnes & Nobles answer to Amazon Kindle
People and companies keep talking about how we all will move our behavior and communication onto the mobile when in fact my firm belief is that in 2010 we’ll see [click to continue…]
You might be one of the lucky ones finding yourself logged into your brand new Google Wave account? Then you, just like me, might also think something must be wrong with you since you’re not getting what all the hype is about.
Google themselves has launched a couple of videos showcasing the possibilities with the Wave but now when it’s for real the tool just doesn’t live up to the promises. The video from Epipheo Studio might be a better alternative but it’s still just a short video raising expectations without really teaching you how to do stuff for real.
Don’t worry! Here comes The Complete Guide to Google Wave!
The website features 10 sections and I especially like that they’ve also outlines what the Wave cannot do. This is according to my experience one of the main problems with many guides – you’re not getting the negatives. And usually when you don’t find the instructions to how something is done it’s due to the fact that it cannot be done, only no one tells you that so you keep searching for ever.
Lot’s of techie posts lately by the way. Soon I’ll switch to love and emotions!
En optimal webbnärvaro går generellt ut på att placera sig ett steg före konkurrenterna på en mognadstrappa som står i förhållande till den egna branschens, substituts eller andra framåt- eller bakåtintegrerande aktörers digitalisering. En mognadstrappa där översta steget är total digitalisering av såväl affär som, marknadsföring, organisation och operations.
Creatives all over the world do their best to visualize their ideas when pitching clients, preparing for photo shoots or simply putting their ideas on paper. Apart from sketching with Sketchbook Pro I’ve personally been using Flickr and Google Image Search combined with Photoshop for ages. Lately I’ve added Bing and iStockphoto to the list. [...]
Thomas Traxler has got his shit together. Powered by nothing but sunlight and some threads, Thomas Traxler‘s “The idea of a tree project” shows us how objects can grow during the course of a day. His project more or less mimics the way a tree grows and changes shape due to weather conditions. Amazing. Thomas [...]
And now to a very sensitive issue – monitoring. As some of you know my profession is leading brands into the future of communication. One of the more important parts of this is teaching them how to keep track of their own brands in the jungle of conversation. What are people saying about my brand, [...]
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.
