The other day a friend of mine brought H&M’s global website to my attention again. Back in 2006 I was one of their consultants until I more or less lost the assignment due to the fact that I told them what the didn’t wanna hear – Your website sucks! Of course I was wrong and they were right. After all, they’ve been awarded time after time at major advertising shows (Thanks to among others to me and the team I worked with back then) so why wouldn’t they know what they are doing.
This is exactly where the problem start for most major brands – at ad awards like Cannes Lions, Eurobest, Clio and others where people with no understanding for how to build an online presence beyond Adobe Flash and cool animations take these monsters to new heights. Back in 2007 I was also a part of building these kind of platforms for major brands but behind closed doors I constantly tried to convince my clients that sticking to these worn out technologies was nothing but stupid.
Let’s take a look at couple of major players and have a quick look at their online presence.
The Online Nike Store
The online store belonging to the worlds leading sports brand. All built in Flash…in 2010
Nike has always been among the first brands to adapt to change. Back in 1999 when I took part in pitching them into Framfab they were even heading the pack.
At first glance it all looks great. The site design is inspired by blogging with that clear and present left hand menu hanging there. But once you start looking deeper it’s a mess. The entire store is built in flash which is just plain stupid. To Nike’s defense [click to continue…]
psst. You haven't missed the new app for kids aged 1-9 years old? It's created by my other company JAJDO. Check it out in the App store
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!
If you’re into marketing you should really have a look at this new iPhone app from Nike. It really puts focus on what’s going on in the world. Old school people keep talking about how the mobile will advertise the store when you pass it. New school don’t give a shit about the store.
This new Nike ID app puts you in total control over your product. If you wanna bring in inspiration from the street you’re walking on – go ahead. Once you’ve created your shoe, buy it in directly in your iPhone. No stores. No browsers. Only you, the world you live in and your new pair of sneakers.
I’ve already downloaded the app, that can be found via NikeID, and created a pair of sneakers from a photo of my kids – my favorite pair from now on!
Ah. It’s a lovely world but it’s fast. No it’s not fast it’s faster than a bullet. No! It’s faster than light!
Last week I was contacted by Superbrands. The company that releases a book with the same name. I was asked to write a post on their blog about Branding. I know I’ve got some followers interested in that subject so I’ve decided to post the same article here too.
Back in 2000 a flash based message containing the phrase ‘All your base are belong to us’ spread like wildfire through emails and internet forums. Back then most of you had probably not heard about viral marketing, web 2.0 and social networks. Facebook and Twitter were still 6 years away from being established and most brands didn’t bother to much about digital marketing.
About the same time Nike took their first stumbling steps towards a digital brand strategy. Back then Nike would probably not know that their global strategy would be [click to continue…]
Sustainability is a beautiful word, especially in terms of how it affects brands. The true meaning of it is ‘the capacity to endure’ and that’s more or less what every brand owner wants out of his brand or company – endurance. Then of course I do think [click to continue…]
This year when the students at Berghs School of Communication graduate they sum up their examination exhibition like this:
No one reads ads.
People read what is interesting.
How do we become interesting?
We create news instead of advertising.
Instead of having a regular examination exhibition they’ve launching a live news channel the 27th of May where all their projects will be highlighted. The news channel will be available online on the Berghs Live website. Apart from that you can visit the studio at the Berghs school. Finally they’ve managed to get the channel live on Stureplan, Stockholms most central public square. Of course they’ve created a Twitter # for the event as well.
Larger than life. Make it larger than life. That’s what I was told when I was working with a Nike campaign back in 1999. Today, make it larger than life but make it true!
What the student have actually been working with for their final examination is yet to be seen. But the wrap up of it all in the context of Berghs live shows they’ve got what future communication is all about:
Make things interesting.
Make it bigger than it actually is.
Use multiple channels.
You can’t buy distribution, you have to create it.
Viral marketing is achieved when context beats the hell out of surface.
Good Luck ›› Class of 2009! ps. If you wanna check it out
Lars Bastholm and I worked together on a Nike project at Framfab back in 1999. Ever since then I’ve had a great deal of respect for the man. He’s now the Co-Chief Creative Officer at AKQA New York.
The other day Lars wrote an article on Social Storytelling. Lars is commenting on the fact that some people in the business thinks digital cannot keep up the branding story. An opinion that according to me is based on the fact that people are afraid of change and believe things will stay the same for ever. Digital is changing everything, we just have to adapt to it and not try to bend the consumer into old marketing models, it’s not going to work.
Lars ends his article with six checkpoints that’ll help get you started mastering the art of social storytelling and invite consumers into the conversation. A great list. Personally I just love nr 5.
Look at any marketing effort as the beginning of a conversation.
Closely monitor the conversation and be ready to respond to consumers.
Provide consumers with tools that help them carry on the conversation for you.
Leave room for consumers to interact. Make sure your creative universe is big enough that there are unexplored areas.
The conversation is over when the consumers say it is, not when the media plan (or the budget) says it is.
This blog is 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. In 2010 the readers of Microsoft Indikat named Johan Swedens most influential authority within digital communication
