Blog of Ronnestam » Video

24 Hours Live. Sammanfattning, höjdpunkter och ett stort tack!

ronnestam — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:05:38 +0000

(This is a Swedish post covering the 24 Hours Live event in May earlier this year)

Tidigare i år, närmare bestämt i början av Maj, genomförde jag tillsammans med Göran Adlén årets kanske mest korkade eller geniala idé. Ett enkelt koncept. Vi skulle spendera 24 timmar non-stop i hotelbaren, något slags världsrekord?, på ett av sveriges coolaste hotel, Clarion Sign Hotel, och föreläsa om framtidens kommunikations och affärslandskap samt hur det kommer påverka vårt samhälle och oss människor. Vi kallade konceptet för 24 Hours Live.

Therese Reuterswärd fångar oss med sin’telefon’ någonstans från baren.

Som om det inte var nog övertalade vi vår gode vän och ‘thincasting’ expert Robin Danehav att sända hela eventet live över nätet vilket skulle ge oss möjlighet att interagera inte bara med publiken på plats utan också de som följde oss via nätet. Sagt och gjort. Robin riggade tillsammans med Petter Karlsson och satte sig bakom kamerorna.

Klockan 12:00 den 6:e maj slog vi på (live) strömmen för att sedan hålla låda 24 timmar i sträck. Utan att Sova. Utan att ta pauser. Bara tala oavbrutet.

När klockan ett helt dygn senare åter slog 12:00 kunde vi blicka tillbaka på 24 fantastiska timmar där mer än 3000 personer på olika sätt följt livesändningen som inte marknadsförts mer än via några blogginlägg samt någon enstaka Tweet dagarna innan. Vi var helt enkelt osäkra på om vi skulle orka prata oavbrutet i 24 timmar och vågade därför inte göra för stor sak av det hela.24 timmar efter att sändningen gick igång så kunde vi dock konstatera – vi höll oss vakna, enligt tittarna lyckades vi i stort sätt leverera intressant innehåll 24 timmar i sträck (nåja, det var kanske lite djupt där runt 5-tiden på morgonen) och Robin behöll skärpan och levererade sveriges, om inte världens längsta non-stop livesändning via Internet utan att byta personal.

Alla 24 timmarna finns nu upplagda som enskilda entimmes program på Blip. Hoppa gärna in där och titta. Jag själv vill här i blogposten särskilt lyfta fram några favoriter.

24 Hours 12:00-13:00 – Vad är 24 Hours och framtida möten.

Den första timmen – i vilken Göran Adlén och Johan Ronnestam efter visst teknikstrul som löstes på sekunder av Robin Danehav och Petter finner trygghet i formatet, talar om ångestdockor och Thailändska humöransikten, presenterar hur 24 Hours kom till, det framtida mötet och slutligen om att våga misslyckas.

24 Hours – 16:00 -17:00 – Framtidens skola.

När klockan slår 16 börjar diskussionen om de viktigaste människorna i världen – våra barn. Efter att Johan Ronnestam leder tittarna igenom sin bloggpost ‘Tänk om’ så förgyller Rickard Gatarski timmen med sin närvaro och sina tankar och Mattias Östmar förklarar vad som behöver ske för att skolan ska förändras. Det handlar om avskolning, skattebortfall, teknologi, kreativitet och barnarbete.

24 Hours 04:00 – 04:30 – Intervju med Jerry Silfwer

Timmen mitt i natten i vilken vi har äran att bjuda in och få samtala med Jerry Silfwer om framtidens PR och kommunikation. Jerry är Executive Digital Strategist på Whispr Group, Inc. New York samt superbloggare på Doktor Spinn.

Stort tack till dig Jerry för att du ställde up helt spontant efter vår inbjudan via Skype.

24 Hours 10:00 – 11:00 – Robin Danehav om Thincasting samt vi dissar etablerade branchmedia.

24 Hours börjar närma sig sitt slut. Vad vore bättre än att då gå igenom hur vi faktiskt lyckats öppna en temporär TV kanal och sända live 24 timmar i sträck med bara internetuppkoppling och digitalkameror. Robin Danehav intervjuas av Göran och Johan. Du som är sugen på att testa det här själv – missa inte det här avsnittet. Bruttolistan över vad som behövs hittar du här.

24 Hours 11:00 – 12:00 – Sammanfattning av 24 timmars livesändning också spontana presenter.

Sista timmen är kommen. Vi inleder med en mastodontsammanfattning av hela dygnet. Otroligt många lärdomar, fantastiskt engagemang, spännande diskussioner och några misslyckanden. Vi tar också 5 minuter var och reflekterar över vad vi individuellt tyckt om dygnet. När det så blir dags att gå av scen får vi celebert besök av Brit Stakston och Rickard Gatarski som har med sig spontana presenter och blommor. Otroligt rörande. Alla listorna som skrevs under dygnet hittar du här.

Resten av timmarna hittar du här på vår Blip kanal eller så slår du dig ner och tittar igenom alla 24 timmarna på en gång.

En snabb sammanfattning av saker som hände lite här och var.

Vi lade ut punkter på vår Posterous blogg efter varje timme eller ‘åsiktsblock’. Riktigt kul att se hur vi lärde oss saker under resans gång samt att vi blev bättre och bättre på att interagera med publiken.

Johan Lange bloggade både här och där. Malin Ströman tyckte vi såg fräscha ut efter en lång natt. Mera Business skrev en härlig blänkare. Och precis när nästan allt var slut, då dök även IDG upp. De traditionella aktörerna är inte helt insomnade

Slutligen så vill jag rikta ett stort tack till Ludvig Lindblom (aka @internuts ) som tog det fantastiska initiativet att samla alla 3190! mentions på #24live som Twittrades under de 24 timmarna som vi höll på. Som om inte det vore nog så sammanställde han också statistik över Twittrandet. 3190 Tweets. 1467 stycken via Tweetdeck. Flest mentions mellan 20:00 och 21:00 på torsdagskvällen. @KarinTyden var flitigast med 111 stycken hashtags. Härlig konversation att titta tillbaka på.

Som RichardGatarski Twittrade ut. “#24live hade aldrig funkat utan en socialt medietränad (vad vi förr kallade) publik.”

(ps. Vi fick faktiskt klagomål. En gäst påpekade att om man satt och talade för människor skulle man inte hålla på och pilla med datorn samtidigt

Tack för allt stöd! Tack Göran. Tack Robin. Tack Petter. Tack Clarion Sign Hotel som lät oss sitta där och babbla.

Continuing building the Marginalen Bank brand with a new commercial

ronnestam — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:59:23 +0000

As of monday this week you can spot the latest TVC created for Marginalen Bank.

This sweet little flick is the latest short film (I see it more as a short film than a TVC) in a series of three (1 & 2) created by me for Marginalen Bank, the brand I took part in developing and launching last fall. This time I’ve written and Art Directed it. As usual I’ve partnered with Caroline Karlström to make sure the project was delivered on time and quality. This time we contracted Mr Potemkin, aka Magnus Östergren to make sure the dream came alive.

Malin Erkonnen made us all smile with her fantastic illustrations and finally as always we had Erik Heusler produce the music.

This is of course just one of many activities going on right now but I wanted to share this little beauty with you.

I hope you like it!

Art, Experiment, Inspiration or Plain Stupidity – Introducing Adlen & Ronnestam 24 Hours Live by Danehav

ronnestam — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 07:50:59 +0000

Me and partner in crime Göran Adlén, one of Swedens most hired and admired speakers on future trends, had a nice lunch a couple of weeks ago. Half way into a wonderful Pizza at Vapiano we suddenly cracked, what probably is our most stupid or…genius idea so far:

“Why don’t we lock our selves up somewhere and chat away about trends, communication, design, technology, the environment, the world and much more for 24 hours without any sleep or pause. NO SLEEP – NO PAUSE! and broadcast it – Live!?”

Seconds later I was off the phone with Robin Danehav, thincasting mastermind, who answered in seconds “I’m in!”.

Göran Adlén & Johan Ronnestam 24 Hours Live at Clarion Sign Hotel! Thincasted by Robin Danehav.

The event will be broadcasted live, both here on my blog and on the campaign website 24 Hours.se, as well as performed on stage at Clarion Sign Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. So, mark the 6th and 7th of May 2011 in your calendars. Ah, almost forgot. If you’re on Twitter. Use the #24live if you wanna tag along.

Oh, and of course it’s all free. If you wanna pay something – pay me a Tweet or a Facebook link.

See you at lunchtime on the 6th of may!

ps. For you english speaking readers – the event will be held in Swedish but followed with 24 videos summarising the event – these will be text translated.

Future Integrated Communication From A Digital Perspective

ronnestam — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:51:13 +0000

Leading a brand? Thinking about how to create a long term integrated communication platform? Think no more cause I’ll share the model I’ve been using for the last three years when leading brands into the future of advertising, communication and advertising.

Normally I’d work a company or brand through a series of workshops. We would then slowly start to follow this model over time. Changing how you, your brand and marketing organisation work with advertising and communication is not something you do over night. I would recommend brands to keep on doing what they do best – shoot fireworks -while slowly start to change their way of communicating their products and services from ground up.

Moving your communication into the future is also tough on your organisation as your moving from campaign based communication activities to instead building long term equity that will generate results over time. Send your entire marketing organization as well as your IT department and management team on several digital communication crash courses cause your CEO better understand what you talk about when you’re talking conversion, SEM, SEO, AdWords, H1, Keywords, Stats and shit.

Have a read. If you like what you read – get going. Change!

Here we go – The Key To Future Integrated Communication by Johan Ronnestam

The basis of your online communication platform

The first thing we’ve gotta agree upon before moving further into the model is the following: Your brand consist out of two things. The product/services you offer and the content you’ve created to explain what your product/service does. In the worst cases companies have more or less done nothing beyond publishing images of their products with accompanied product name. In the best cases they’ve done tons more. We’ll go in to this bellow. This is the essence of your communication presence online. Hopefully you’ve got this wired, however, you might actually have this presence online without owning it your selves.

Value and conversion leads to traffic and sales. Your objective and key performance indicators.

People don’t have time to read your shit. You’ve gotta provide them with a true value. After all, your products and services are nothing without the problem they solve. This is what you’ve gotta base all your hosted communication activities on.

Value first

The more value you provide your target group with, the more traffic you’ll gain. This is based on the simple principle of the link. If you keep bragging about your products without truly do something good for people you won’t earn any links. If you on the other hand share ideas, knowledge and solutions that helps your target group to be better you’ll see that people will come. Once you’ve opened up that stream of people you’ll have the opportunity to point the towards the products and services you market, the same product and services that of course can be used to do whatever you tought people to do.

Let me share one example – Michelle Phan. I started to follow this girl online already two years ago. Back then she was an independent girl who just liked to share her thoughts on how to wear make up. In November 2010, Phan became “the No. 1 most subscribed female on YouTube and the first female to reach 1 million subscribers. Michelle Phan joined Youtube on July 18, 2006, and as of November 2010, she has created 100 videos that have been viewed over 260,000,000 times. The one where she does a Lady Gaga makeup has a stunning 23,457,472 views.

Michelle Phan sharing the value people want

Michelle does what the traditional make up brand don’t. She shares value. While Michelle teaches young women all over the world how to do their make up, brands like Chanel, Biotherm, Clinique, Loreal and Lancome does one thing – sell sell sell. Michelle shares knowledge while these brands just throws a pretty girl in your face saying “you can look like me”. No wonder Lancome suddenly this year in February turned Michelle into their spokesperson. Today Michelle even got her own make up brand.

So, value first. Before selling. Make sure you think about your reason for being. Do you sell football shoes, teach people how to score, do you sell wine, teach people how to buy the right wine (like Gary Vaynerchuck does), do you sell cars, teach them about how to drive better and more cost effective, do you sell clothes, teach them how to style themselves.

The content you create should of course go social

Once you’ve decided how to provide your potential visitor with a true value. Make sure you spread that value across the net whereever possible and relevant.

Your Potential Customer Is Out There – So Your Content Should Be Too

If you produce videos send them to YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Blip and tons more. Use TubeMogul to handle the process. Your images on Flickr and others. Documents on Slideshare and Scribd. If you go live, use Livestream or Bambuser. Heck, head over to Brians and Jess3 Conversation prism and do the homework.

Once you got that value right – focus on conversion

So, this is the next step where tons of brands go wrong (as I’ve written about before). They simply haven’t got their conversion wired. In order for you to really know what you’re doing you’ve gotta set your targets right. Do you want people to buy online, should they download your product sheets, contact you or maybe just spend five minutes with your products online? Anything is right as long as it suits your needs. Once you’ve got that wired, set up your funnels right in your stat tools and start working those A/B tests. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING should serve a purpose if you’re looking to convert those visitors of yours to clients.

The funny thing is that once you start eyeing those performance metrics of yours you’ll end up getting insights about your traffic that you can never learn from anyone else. Business online is all about knowing your own audience and constantly improving your site. After all, a banner or button in the wrong place might kill your conversion or increase it by 400%.

5 things you can never forget when converting your site visitors into buyers

1. Usability is key

Usability is by far the most important thing to think about when you’re looking to convert your visitors into buyers. This means no funky animations, links should be easy to click on, preferably underlined, less is more, guide your visitors etc etc.

There’s tons that has been written about this area. Whatever you do, don’t buy any bullshit that people click thru a site if it’s cool. Ask anyone who’s been working with e-commerce and they’ll tell you. Why do you think Amazon looks the way it does? Go ahead and follow some blogs and you’ll be up and running in no time. Start with The UX Booth.

2. Product presentation

I don’t know if you read my post about the car brand SAAB the other day. Well, this recording below (excuse my bad english in this one) was actually done for this post. It got me worked up though and that’s why I posted that other thing the before this one.

We’re alone when surfing the web – compare that to the real world where a sales man is following us around in the store, always ready to answer any questions we might have, we’re all alone on the web. This means information, information, information, information and more information. If I’m looking to be convinced to buy a car online I’ll tell you right away – I wont be pleased with a freakin flash site that sings a song and let me rotate the car once. I want at least forty-five 60-second movies showcasing everything there is to know about your car. I want photos, not 5 wonderful photos taken by Europes most expensive photographer. I want 100+ photos that are showing that car from every angle. Of course you should package it all beautiful, but don’t have me loading any animations and shit.

Then, only then might I go to that buy button. Remember, your competitors are one click away!

3. Copy
Copy actually do matter. Write it good, write it well, but remember what I talked about in nr 2. I’m alone, so don’t go wasting to much of my time! I was planning to write a longer piece about this, but Smashing Magazine has done a great job already. Go there ›› (thanks Per for the tip)

4. Feeling secure
Logos from payment providers and other things like awards and shit. That’ll do the trick. After all. We’ve been monkeys in an earlier lifetime.

5. Faces
This might sound funny. But a face looking straight at you actually has proven to do good. Make sure you online presence contain humas, preferably not from actors, but instead from humans that you might actually meet in your office. Hire a great photographer and do them good!

So where does the traffic come from?

I have focused here on writing about prospects and not existing customers. Given that I’ve listed 4 traffic sources that more or less are the same for any company with an online presence. Above and below the line advertising, search engine marketing, search engine optimization and finally social media.

Above and below the line advertising

Here’s the good news. If you know branding, advertising and all that good stuff we’ve been doing for years. You’re in for a ride. Brands will realize that TV, Print, Outdoor, Banners – all those yummy above the line things – will rule the next 10 years. There’s simply now way to grab peoples attention but to shake them around in a medium where you cannot miss them. Of course, people say young kids does not watch TV, but the still do if it’s relevant. After all we’re pretty alone behind that screen when it’s time to click something. Being friend with a brand will help!

Search and The Social Internet – They go together like birds, bees, the flowers and the trees.

There’s two ways to pull traffic through search.

1. Adwords, at first glance it’s easy. However, if you’re running a business with mature competitors, say for example online travel it will be everything from easy. You’ve gotta get down with how to get your brand visible in the paid search areas. Either you know how or you start to study hard. Read books, books and more books. Then start to follow some of the high profile SEO bloggers in the world. Why not start with Seomoz, Searchengineland and Greywolfs SEO blog. Some Swedes I’d ad to the list are Jesper Åström, Nikke Lindqvist and Simon.

2. Search. The second way to get yourselves visible in the search engines is of course the SEO side of it. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people go on about their blog and the fact that it doesn’t drive traffic. But hey, it’s not that simple. If you’ve got a blog present, the chance is that other bloggers or maybe even a newspaper links to that blog. In the long run this will do good for your presence in search engines.

(I know I know I know…affiliates, banners, bought links etc etc. I just don’t have time to go into all of that now. This post is a top level post)

Conclusion.

Future communication is all about relevance. Relevant product, relevant services, relevant content and advertising that support those things. If you’re creating brand communication offline – fine, your only objective should be awareness and making sure people understand what your brand stands for. But when you’re communicating products and service – make sure the actual products and services are top notch and then create relevant communication that makes people search for them. If they do you’re home free! (that is if you’ve made sure to be seen everywhere online).

But worth repeating. Create advertising that make people search for your product or service category. Then by making sure your digital activities are focused on value, spread over a vast number of social networks, your AdWord campaigns and earned search positions in place you’ll make sure to get people hooked.

A qoute from Jeff Jarvis, the writer of ‘What Would Google Do‘, is in order here: “Construct information (on your website) so it can be understood by machine and man. In a word, be clear. If you’re a dentist, say you’re a dentist, not a smile doctor. Use the word “dentist” in the title of the page, the headline, and the beginning of what you write – make it so obvious even a computer couldn’t be confused. This also means that when human beings come to the page, they’ll know what you do. Clarity is always beneficial.”

So how do you get going. How do you make sure your brand platform is ‘future proof’?

Move your media budgets!

Most brands today seem to think change can be achieved within the production budgets. This is wrong. There’s just not enough money in that pot. There is only one way to make this happen. You’ve gotta take money from that eyeball highjacking fund called media and instead spend more on earned eyeballs.

Move 10% of your allocated media budget in order to gain a long term digital effect

Of course you shouldn’t move it all today. Start small but start. The next time you’re campaigning. Cut the media with 10% and start focusing on value as I wrote about earlier. Do the Michele Phan thing, whatever that means to your brand, products and services. Boom – now you’ve entered the long term value creation communication process. Keep doing it for another 6 to 12 month and make sure you track what you’re doing. You’ll see change coming your way!

Come on! You can do it!

Dear Saab. Your Site Sucks

ronnestam — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:01:41 +0000

Usually when I don’t like something I try to give constructive feedback. But in this case there’s just to much of a history involved. About 9 years ago I tried to pitch ideas on Saab. Partly because I really wanted to work with a car brand and partly because they were Swedes. Already back then were the account managed by Lowe Brindfors. I thought Lowe did a shitty job then and obviously they do a shitty job now. Will they never learn? (That goes for both SAAB and Lowe)

Today, as was writing a blog post about integrated communication (soon to be published) I decided to do a quick video analysis of the current SAAB presence online. And let me tell you…it sucks big time. Sorry for the shitty English. But it serves the purpose.

I don’t get it. Aren’t car brands supposed to senior managers employeed that knows their shit? These guys sell products that costs a fortune and they can’t even product a simple site that will convert people into buyers. It scares me.

The first thought that comes to mind is that the marketing department don’t know what they’re doing to the brand, and that’s of course true, but then I think about it a little bit more. This is not a marketing department problem. This is a management problem.

Jan Åke Jonsson and the rest of you ‘silverbacks’ way up in the hierarchy! SAAB is not an industrial company – it’s a B2C product oriented and brand driven car company backed by great technology but emotions and brand comes first. And Jan, don’t come telling me this is a thing for the marketing department. Branding and marketing should be your, the management group and the board of directors first priority. It’s what your future is all about!

So. Jan Åke and the rest of you managers at SAAB.
You’ve sold SAAB to another company outside Sweden, but the a large majority of the cars are still being built in Sweden and lots of peoples incomes rely on you and your management team taking the right decisions. In the long run even I will be affected if you close down. And trust me, if you don’t stop acting like fools when it comes to branding issues (cause personally I think there are more problems than the site) you’ll close down anytime soon. It’s time to stop loving your history and focus on the future!

Case: The Story Of How Sweden’s Newest Bank ‘Marginalen Bank’ Was Created, Implemented and Launched

ronnestam — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:44:15 +0000

What do you do when someone asks you to sign a non disclosure agreement and then asks you to spend the coming year planning, creating, implementing and launching a new Swedish bank?

Say yes of course!

This is where the story of the freshly launched brand Marginalen Bank starts. Together with recidivist Caroline Karlström I found myself 50% giggling like a child about the fact that we had secured the coolest and most complex project I’ve ever worked with while feeling 50% scared to death about the fact that this was that big ass project where you either succeed or you end up in a grave. Well, we did a fairly good job with Poseidon last year so why should this be any different? Little did I know what we had coming.

My main responsibility on the project that follows below has been:

Head of strategy – Develop the brand platform and the product positioning strategy
Creative direction – Creating, overseeing and keeping together everything that was produced and communicated in this project from a brand perspective.
Art direction – Designing visual brand components and overseeing the implementation of these.
Conceptual copy writing – Developing the brand vision and tonality
And some design here and there…where needed.

This project could never have been executed without my partner in crime – Caroline Karlström. In Sweden we have a saying “I vått och tort” – boy let me tell you she’s been there for me and everyone involved in this project. Caroline did a lot of the planning including most of the interviews and then managed every little piece of the project…I ran of into the wild and she took care of the tigers.

September 2009 / The challenge – create a brand that stand the tests of time!

Marginalen was founded back 1979 and has since then primarily been a B2B brand with services like debt collection, business administration, legal support and a lot more with offices in Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia and the Netherlands. Since two years back they owned a bank called Bank2 and an online service offering real estate financing. Now, in my hand I held a confidentiality agreement in which I learned that Marginalen were aiming to buy Citibank’s Swedish operation. If Marginalen succeed in taking over the Citibank private bank business Marginalen would have 6 month before every piece of communication going out from former Citibank should be re branded.

This was the challenge from a brand point of view

Ok, what had I just say yes to? We knew the deal with Citibank would be finalized sometime in April 2010. Before then we had to plan and create a strategy that could be executed in two ways depending on if the Citibank deal would go through or not, so back to the question: “Can you work out a brand strategy for Marginalen that tells us how to handle the old brands vs implementing the customer base of Citibank into our business, then create a new brand platform with accompanied visual brand guidelines, implement that platform both off and online and finally develop an advertising strategy and execute that?

One of the biggest challenges was to develop a new design that were to replace the 4 existing brand sites and implement that in only 3.5 months.

In 12 month our task was:

4 brands to be brought together as one.
4 brand and bank sites to be rebuilt into one.
Create a new brand and brand platform.
Implement the new graphical guidelines on everything that communicates the brand.
Create an advertising platform.
Launch the god damn thing!

April 2010 / The solution – Let’s build one bank and let’s make sure people get we’re not like other banks.

Following several interviews, meeting with the board, taking the international aspect into play and also the history of Marginalen we decided to build the brand – Marginalen Bank. This meant we’d scrap the two existing brands Bank2 and LånEtt. The main reason for going with one brand instead of three or two for was quite simple. We felt that building three separate brands would require far to much money and an even bigger problem was that it would require a very complex restructuring of the product portfolio and the organization that kept that portfolio intact.

On our way to the final solution we opened a lot of doors in order to get a feel for the brands. These are just some of them

Sometime in June this year the project was getting ready to explode. Until then me and Caroline had handled both the strategic and the conceptual part of the project. This is how I usually work. Go in, work out a strategy using the NEW process that I’ve developed over the years with among others good friend Per Robert Öhlin.

The three main stages of the N.E.W brand model

Prototyping carried us forward

As the strategy unfolds I tend to visualize it. And the aim with the visualization is to bring it close to final design and usually even a little bit further. I call this prototyping and I usually do that in the emotionalize phase. Prototyping means we can visualize the new or changed brand without taking realism into account. It’s better for me, but It’s even better for the client as their organization easier can let ideas through knowing it’s only a prototype. This technique has been used by the car industry for ages, but also brands like Apple has together with IDEO used prototyping to push things forward.

Once the conceptual design and the prototype has been developed it’s time to choose what and how to implement it. When we got to this stage in this project me and Caroline started to build a virtual communication house. Basically we established a virtual production house that could do what most large Swedish agencies could do…and a little bit more.

A virtual communication house

We had since some time back met with potential agencies and production houses. After bringing Marginalen Bank into the decision process we finally brought the following freelancers and agencies in to work with us: Per Robert Öhlin – Lead Copywriter, Visual ID led by Steve McDonald – graphical design, Nansen – web, Per Torberger – web copy, Hey People – print and banner production, Bizkit – media agency, Anders Freij - 3D/TVC production house and Andreas Westin – Illustrations. Once the virtual organization was set up me and Caroline led the team from both a creative and management perspective.

Very few of the logos we created during the free brainstorming process in order to find the future logo of Marginalen Bank

July 2010 / We’ve got a name and it’s Marginalen Bank

Stop. It’s a new logo!

Following many hours of bouncing logos back and fourth we finally had a first choice. This clean beauty (screen shot straight from the graphical guidelines showcasing how to place it) was a mix of the fonts Dessau Pro and Chalet from my favorite font maker House Industries with a lot of small adjustments. After I’d set this one on paper Steve from Visual ID fine tuned it and we had a winner.

No. The blue stripes are not supposed to be there

The result is a great logo that can stand the test of time. It also draws your eyes to the fact that this is a bank. Something that we believe is extremely good since bank safe and safe means people get ready to listen.

Creating and implementing the new graphical guidelines

Early in the process we introduced a gradient that became a clear brand marker. Something that we could dress different things in and thereby create strong recognition while keeping it flexible, timeless and modern.

My goal has been to give every piece of communication a unique touch. Among other things we decided to go for white credit cards. It took some investigation before we finally ended up with a pigment that actually withstands dirt. But the final classic credit card is a beauty!

We’ve so far launched a traveller and a gold card as a complement to the white classic card.

Signage was of course part of the job. This is one of many different versions.

Business cards coming to life

Examples of how to treat photography

Several potential versions of the future website was developed before we finally decided on the design below

When the final designs were approved. We met with several web agencies and finally brought in Nansen as our production house. Right now we’ve focused on getting the site up. Next is changing how it works and why.

Some examples from the first photo shoot we did for Marginalen Bank this summer together with Bsmart.

August 2010 / The advertising strategy

Ok. How do you advertise a brand new bank? Try it yourselves. Say bank and await the reaction. Making people understand that Marginalen Bank is not like any other bank would require quite a lot of money and especially tons of guts. Luckily this was something that this company had. The owners of the company and the board early understood that we had to focus on building the brand. Marginalen Bank was in it for the long run so our advertising had to support that!

October 2010 The TV commercials

When this blog post goes live there’s only one TVC that can be seen on television. However it’s one of many to come and I believe we’ve really found a format that breaks through the noise. We’ve created a concept that rely on artful executions. This first TVC, written by me and Per Robert Öhlin has been produced by Anders Freij and illustrated by Andreas Westin. Andreas has hand drawn each and every scene in ink and then colored it with watercolors.

One of the first colorings of the family by Andreas Westin

It’s then been cut out and brought into 3D where Anders and his crew has hand-animated each and every frame to give the commercial a hand crafted touch to it. It’s been a time consuming process that never could have been executed with a regular production company as it would have cost way to much. Finally we’ve worked out the music together with Erik Häusler who has done a tremendous job composing a unique piece that will be used over time to create recognition and identification with the format and Marginalen Bank.

An early rough drawing from the storyboard compared to one of the final frames

When combining hand drawn illustrations with 3D you end up with a time consuming process. However, the results is a format that stands out from regular hand animated short films and 3D renderings as well. The advantages is that we’re able to set light and movements in 3D and speed up the production process. The 35 second short film we’ve created for this first TVC was written, illustrated, painted and produced in 3D just under 5 weeks. Hand animating a piece like this would take up to 3 months. This enabled us to stick to this artistic format while working against the ‘sick’ time frame.

Building a brand with commercials like this leads to a much stronger brand over time, compared to if we would go straight for tactical advertising. However, we have to do just that, build it over time, which means we’ll follow up with new commercials, made in new artful techniques in order to broaden the scope and earn a sweet little spot inside the hearts of people. Personally I’m very pleased with the results. This TVC will do the job and start building the attention we want for the new Marginalen Brand. But it’s when we’ve broadcasted many more that the brand position will truly be established.

The print advertising

For this first campaign we’re kicking of with extremely simple print ads. We have maximum focus on establishing the tone of voice while slowly getting people used to how our brand look. We’ve kicked of with a manifesto. This one will only run two times and it’s targeted both internally and externally. We need to get that position out there.

Making people understand where we’re heading

As you will see in the papers we seem to be running quite tactical ads. This however is a strategy where I felt it was extremely important to show parts of our product portfolio to make people see that Marginalen Bank is not just any small bank. Marginalen Bank already has a great deal of products and services. This is important to communicate. And that’s why the ads look the way the do. Over time we’ll integrate them tighter with the TVCs.

3 examples of ads showcasing savings accounts, bank cards and loans.

So there we are. It feels pretty darn nice to have gotten this baby elephant out of the zoo. And I’m looking forward to keep you updated on the progress. We’re right now finalizing the implementation of the brand in house. We’ve also started do create TVC nr 2 and a print and outdoor campaign that will be more closely connected to the TVC.

This is the start. But now, when we’ve managed to get this brand kickstarted it’s time to expand on all levels. But that’s another story.

Now / Moving on from here

This is how I work. Strategy, concepts, creativity and helping my clients to establish virtual organizations so that I can move on to the next brand that want’s to solve problems. I wish that I could finish this post of with a twist but…it’s just to much and I really wanna push publish on this one cause it’s time to build some brands.

Gotta run!

Yvon Chouinard Knows How To Run A Business And It’s Not Called Run

ronnestam — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:26:55 +0000

If you are planning to start a company, or maybe running one already then there’s one speech that you just HAVE to watch. It’s this one below featuring Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. It’s freakin’ fantastic and appeals to me as an entrepreneur, a human but first and foremost as a father cause if companies would be grown the same Yvon grew Patagonia I know my daughters will be living and working in a better and more inspiring world!

So here you go. No more excuses!

Life Is Made Up By Small Things That Don’t Seem To Matter

ronnestam — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:27:36 +0000

We are born. Even before we’re born our life is being shaped day by day. Every day, every hour and every second life passes by.

Sometimes tons of things happens at once and suddenly we notice a shape, we call these shapes memories. But most of the time life is made up by small things that never form shapes. The truth however is that these small things is what life is all about. The more of em’ you notice, the more you’ll notice life. And the more you notice life, the more you’ll enjoy it!

This all came to me when I looked at this video below found over at Mario Vellandi’s Melodies in Marketing, which by the way is a great blog on Ethical communication.

Thanks Mario, but above all, thanks Everynone for putting images to life!

Think People Will Read About Your Service? Think Again!

ronnestam — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:06:32 +0000

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 once again in slow motion how to swipe that card of yours.

Third – Things for the Ipad

Things is according to some people the ultimate To-Do list tool. Available for the iPhone, the iPad and your Mac.

This little beauty isn’t even a minute long. As a matter of fact it’s only a teaser for the iPad app. However I think it’s worth showing here cause it actually makes you get the whole idea in 34 seconds. Impressive.

Fourth example – Flipboard

Flipboard is a social magazine for your iPad. It’s definitely one of the apps that have changed my behaviour in terms of how I read information fed from my Twitter and Facebook account. If you’ve got an iPad and haven’t got this app yet. Go go go!

And yes. You got that right. It’s Adam Lisagor who’s back again. This time even more laid back. I do like the Square video better but isn’t it pretty cool how he actually makes you listen better once you’ve seen him before. As I said before – when do we get our first demo-superstar of Sweden?

Last but not least, the fifth example – Google Gmail Priority Mail

As fresh as they come. Google launched this video yesterday showcasing a new service called priority mail. Priority Inbox is a new view of your inbox that automatically helps you focus on your most important messages

The music combined with simple animations and certain keywords really pull you through this + 6 minute video. The case with the Google demo videos is that they a often little bit tooo long. But I thing this one did the job anyway and definitely worth having in this line up.

Ok, so there we have it. I hope you’ve stop thinking about press releases measured it words and letters. Go simple. And remember – on brand!

I Spent The Weekend On An Island And Challenged My Fears

ronnestam — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:59:50 +0000

Yesterday I got back from a fantastic weekend spent on the island of Tjärö, Sweden. Together with another 400 people I took part in something called the Sweden Social Web Camp (SSWC 2010).

This morning Swedish TV channel TV4 broadcasted a report made by Lisah Pettersson aka @JournalistLisah featuring a short comment by me.

Thanks Dr Spinn for guiding me towards this clip

Part from sharing knowledge the SSWC is also about party. And late the first night I found myself in the bar with my good friend Mattias Östmar. We both spoke about what makes you change things in your life and how you can make that happen. As we chatted away I mention I’d always wanted to jump of a high cliff into water. I’ve never had a problem dropping down a cliff with skis or snowboard but landing in water has always scared me. Seconds later we posted an announcement on a wall saying “Jump the cliff of death at 5 pm tomorrow – join us” and then signed it with our names.

This is how you accomplish your goals. Not only store them in a private room inside your brain. Tell people about what you wanna accomplish and make sure to set a date. Otherwise you’ll end up dying with a brain full of shit. Cause trust me, dreams do rot!

As the evening closed in 5 people had signed up to jump. Something stopped two of them from coming but a forth guy turned up in the last minute. Heidi Harman led us in the right direction. Then I followed. Mattias Östmar not far behind and finally Tobias Basilius left the cliff last. What a kick!

Martin Källström, CEO of Twingly held the camera and Robin Danehav brought the ‘pair of scissors’

Whatever you do in 2011. Make sure you join us on Tjärö, cause if nothing out of the ordinary happens I trust Thomas Wennström and Kristin Heinonen will arrange yet another killer conference.

Talar framtidens kommunikation med Göran Adlén och TrendTV nu igen

ronnestam — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:26:31 +0000

För nästan precis ett år sedan blev jag intervjuad av Göran Adlén, god vän och populär föreläsare. Ämnet då var digitala och sociala medier och hur framtiden såg ut. Sedan dess har jag varit ständig (nästan alla fall) gäst i TrendTV och fått friheten att uttala mig och lite vad jag vill.

Nu var det dags igen. Förra veckan när fröken Sol bjöd på ett strålande humör bjöd jag över Göran och TrendTV’s producent, filmare och editör Robin Danehav tillika uppskattad personlig samarbetspartner på grillkväll hemma i Täby. När vi smörjt kråset och dukat av bordet var det så dags att till viss dela svara upp mot förra årets sägningar samt dela med mig av mina tankar om framtiden.

Här har du 33 minuter samtal mellan Johan Ronnestam och Göran Adlén om framtidens kommunikation:

(For you English readers. Sorry, this is only available in Swedish. But feel free to come by for an interview of your own)

Missade du förra årets intervju så har du den här.