From banal to the facile; a review of Cannes Lions thusfar
Cannes Lions has always showcased the best in creative advertising. Each year the event reflects society trends. 2016 is no exception to the rule.
In chandelier adorned halls Creatives and Suits keep fingers crossed, trouser zips in check and lipstick refreshed …all in the hope that they will walk away as champagne winners rather than stumble through the rest of an evening in a drunken stupor.
Behind the scenes, organisers check that entrant ‘invitations’ to submit work have covered costs for food, guest appearances, judge ‘expenses’, photography, staging, hotels and left enough to cover personal executive comfort upgrades.
Beyond behind the scenes smoke and mirrors, the real winners of the Cannes are neither the brands nor agencies that pick up coveted gongs to display in otherwise drab offices (beyond reception areas) or feature in resumes as power-play points for claiming higher salaries. Valiant victors…
Marketing Lessons from How Apple became the Dad’s brand and the kid’s choice
Ah the good old days. Aged in my twenties, I must have looked like a prat lugging my arm-breaking Apple computer – simply to demonstrate I was so out (from the conventional crowd) that I was ‘in’.
Everything about Apple was different. Especially its marketing. In 1984 the brand ‘disrupted’ the American Superbowl showcasing an ad predicting armies of former independent thinkers who had turned into insipid automatons, eyes fixed and living in a dystopian ‘ Big Brother society.
In terms of futurology, the Cupertino brand got it right about people’s heads down to their their chests and thoughts high in data clouds and the surveillance observation via ‘Big Data’. However rather than feeling under duress to submit every private thought, thanks in part to Apple’s lifestyle…
Will 2016 be the year of the authentic brand?
The ten-day search for something worth watching on TV during the Holidays is at last over. Time to join what has become an annual crystal ball gazing love fest…
So what’s in store leading up to next year’s channel hopping search for an alternative to The Sound of Music?
Firstly as brand strategies continue to reflect global concerns and attitudes, the importance of brand psychology will become increasingly important in planning and strategy. (In fact, brand psychology affects every aspect of my following predictions).
1. Brand authenticity
Virtually all surveys concur that public opinion regarding the legitimacy of commercial, social, cultural, religious and political leadership, is at an all-time low.
This lack of faith can be directly linked to a list of issues affecting societal norms and shifts. It includes a clear contradiction between what leaders idealistically ‘promise’ and what can actually be realised. This incongruence, comes…
Making purpose core to your marketing strategy
As a futurist, I always remind my clients that the future isn’t just somewhere we go but something we actively create. Simply because our actions today directly influence and shape our business of tomorrow.
In this article I introduce some of the key trends I discussed in my Smart Insights webinar on December 18th 2014- The Marketing Trends Management Toolkit - free registration to view here:
If you attend the webinar you will have a chance to win a free copy of my new book the Trends Management Toolkit with a prize draw…
Using lotteries as a marketing tool
Suppose you’re the new director of customer experience at British Airways looking to build a stronger emotional connection with your brand. How do you do it?
If you’ve been told once, you’ve been told a thousand times: Consistently offer a fun and enjoyable experience. Easier said than done, right? What’s new, unique, and appealing that’s low cost, drives traffic, and improves sales conversions and relationships…and hasn’t been done already by your competitors?
The advantages of lotteries
Believe it or not, some marketers are starting to think about offering entry into official nationally run lotteries. When it conforms to rules and legalities, giving away lottery tickets as promotional gifts can make a lot of sense. In fact, it’s surprising that more marketers haven’t figured out their potential to make an emotional connection with customers and prospects, and incorporated…
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September 11, 2015
Is Customer Experience the New Branding?
Something I've been thinking about for some time is the relationship between brand and user experience. I've come to realise that for me, when it comes to exposure in an online world, there really is little distinction and it's hard to determine when one process starts and the other ends - or even if there are start or end points... Working as Digital Director for a brand consultancy, more often than I and my team are tasked with making a brand "come alive" or "get their story across" online. For me these client driven terms have some weight and value, but for me the key challenge for our digital team is making their "brand values, promises and customer expectations, clearly and appropriately experienced online".
Branding Before Jesus
To help explore this new shift in branding, it's important to explore the origins of brand. Staring in 2,000 BC there was branding, farmers' cattle and livestock were branded…
Optimise your content by understanding the power of the brain
Sharing long-form content across social media channels in formats including video, infographics, blogs and other media is becoming more of an 'art', as companies are understanding the importance of 'humanising the brand' to reach higher levels of engagement.
This art or skill is through 'storytelling' and it's been around for years. Only last year, Hubspot announced that it 'would be the biggest business skill over the next 5 years'.
Creating content is becoming more of a 'science', taking into consideration how the brain processes information - did you know that 'the brain processing images 60% faster than words'?
Expert members can learn more in our new guide to Brand Storytelling which will give you a structure and examples for creating brand stories.
[si_guide_block id="50995" title="Resource download – Brand Storytelling" description="Our new resource from Brand Psychologist Jonathan Gabay."/]
Take a look at Onespot's infographic which explores this…
Making the Internet human again
By 2020, the amount of digital data detailing just about every aspect of our lives will exceed 40 zettabytes. To put that figure into perspective, 40 zettabytes is 40 trillion gigabytes. (Estimated to be the equivalent of all the grains of sand on all the beaches on earth.)
Little wonder therefore, that a child will grow up finding the notion of total privacy as foreign as blue bags of salt in crisp packets, or bottles of Tipp-Ex. People from all stratas of society in our high-tech dystopian world are resigned to the fact that details of their personal lives are increasingly being left to the stewardship of an ever-decreasing circle of power-brands.
In this pseudo-Orwellian world, Data Scientists have reassigned the 20th Century title of ‘Mad Men’ to ‘Maths Men’ (poignantly pointing to the fine-line between intellect and insanity).
Former giants of creative advertising like David Ogilvy would, no doubt find…
Combine your online and offline strategies for an industry-leading brand presence
Branding isn’t just about getting your logo seen everywhere. Your brand is your business. Successful branding is about communicating your values and vision to your target markets to attract, maintain and grow a loyal customer base.
Your brand should instantly communicate why you are better than your competitors, but it takes a lot of work to get to that point. To reach this point you need a branding strategy which incorporates every aspect of your business, from how your CEO behaves and how your employees feel about their jobs right through to the quality of your product or service and the end customer experience. Slideshare features a good deck on how to write a brand plan step by step.
To do this you can use an effective mix of online and offline techniques. However you present your…
Protect your brand in 2015 with the right tools
If you thought brand competition was intense in the real world, you can only imagine what it's like in the free-for-all digital marketplace. Sales online are constantly rising northward, and as someone who expends a lot of energy, time and money in building relationships with your customers, while heightening visibility and increasing rand awareness to grow your brand's bottom line, this post is for you.
Your days can't possibly get any busier. You might be a one-person show. You might have a staff. In either case, while you read this post, you might think your work and of those around you might be heading into overtime. It doesn't have to be that way.
Below are some questions you should consider asking regarding the ever-growing online threats your brand faces. By choosing to implement a brand protection tool, you will be…
