Nick's Chinese Warning

Nick Barham has given a talk in the US AAAA Planning thing and shared some of his insights from his Chinese experience compared to here: "In Britain, it feels like things are winding up. In China, it's as if things are just getting started" - Nick Barham mmm why do I feel I am in the wrong country?

Is this getting too close?

According to imity if you are walking down the street and you pass someone who is a fellow subscriber your phone will tell you. Basically turning your mobile into a GPS for your friends and other like minded individuals. It takes social networking online into wirless. Interesting.

Services like this is why I love the power of the internet...

Masses of music online and offline. How do you find out what you want / like? Here is a cool example of how somebody worked out how to solve the 'Paradox of Choice' ... check this out: Pandora

The most talked about brand in broadcasting...

"The brand values are incredibly clear. Everybody knows what Channel 4 stands for. It is about innovation and causing trouble. It is about being mischievous and challenging". Andy Duncan - CEO - C4.

Well not everyone can be C4 but maybe everyone should be challenging something...just a thought.

Simple But Rich

aresh in the Guardian liked this ad for its simple but rich execution. He argued that in advertising we've been obsessed with keeping things simple particularly when doing a global campaign - often impoverished of intimate insights. Keeping things simple often means keeping them stupid. As this new ad from W+K shows, instead of finding a real world 'generic global insight' you create your own world and make it exceptionally rich. Add another dimension to that hackneyed idea of simplicity - RICHNESS. It is interesting that Naresh's view echoes Russell's where he advocates that many small ideas are better, than just one big (and often meaningless) one. Interesting. Whenever I spoke to real artists about their work they always talk about the composition - 'the art is in the composition' - they say. I hardly ever heard any artist, filmmaker or musician talk about THE BIG IDEA. Maybe in advertising we are actually obsessed with Big Ideas because often it means Big Budgets - we should really be thinking of adding creative richness not bigness. If you make it simple AND rich success will follow and with that the big budgets stupid.

stillfree.com

Seeded on 20 sites only at an astronomical marketing cost of ... 0. Picked up by major t.v. networks and reached 30 million on t.v. alone. Online views 87 million. If you live in the US and you never heard of Marc Ecko before, now you do. The site is of-course full of articles on the Americans' right to express themselves (the first amendment apparently)and graffiti as an art form for expressing yourself. As a fan of Banksy and Shrigley I think it is great that something as simple as a spray can and a lo fi viral can create so much talkability it does so because it starts a fight, fights get audiences. Would this has been as provocative if it wasn't Marc Ecko who did it? I don't think to the same level but provocative and buzzworthy absolutely.

I think we a have a lot to learn from fashion brands

Chosen by Selfridges as their creative partner for the new season, Marmalade magazine have created and installed two exciting window displays. A team of ten embroiderers worked for seven days and used over 100 metres of fabric to create the displays that combine interactivity and robotics with embroidery. It is interesting how fashion brands and brands that have their own creative directors they have a very unique perspective on how they advertise and as this interesting example shows 'who' does their advertising for them, they probably don't think of it as advertising ... think Benetton & Toscani, Diesel and Renzo, and most recent fantastic example from Marc Ecko here stillfree.com.

Admiring Adidas

http://www.mercizidane.fr/

GENERATION I

Generation I is an article that I wrote some time ago about a mindset in culture that of individualism. Generation I can be briefly summarised as Innovative, Inspired, Informed, Intelligent, Independent, Impulsive and very very I-solated. Some of the evidence: 50%+ of UK pop put personal fulfillment as #1 wish compared to 25% in 1985, 1 in 2 people research online before making a purchase and perfectly healthy people don't give up their seats to old people on the tube. Consider how brands communicate to this generation ... no surprises here: Where do you want to go today? - Microsoft Because I am worth it? - L'Oreal Whatever you want, just yell. - Yellow Pages Be all you can be - Various armies Everything we do is driven by you - Ford Hear what you like, when you like - Rex Records Visa - It is everywhere you want to be Your fragrance, your rules - Hugo Boss You can - Canon Make yourself heard - Ericsson I want my MTV Be the CEO of your life - Compaq and my personal favourite Screw yourself - IKEA Norway Clearly a well trodden strategy by most brands sucking up to the individualism of generation I but consider this: We are less happy than we've ever been in the west, we have the highest depression rates in the world and a recent study highlighted by Corentin showed that number of people the US without ANY friends has DOUBLED in the last 20 years. BELONGING. Maslow as well as a whole load of others (psychologists, neuroscientists, sciologists etc) confirmed that the things that actually make us happy are friends, family, partners and relationships. Which brands can you think of that provide, promise or work on this cultural, connection and funamentaly human social level? Here is a clue.