Mostly the simple and straight forward solutions are the best. When you see work you get a bit jealous of… when you think “Darn I want to do that…” then it’s normally good.
Panasonic’s earphones displayed below are a great example. Imagine standing in front of a big display of earphones, all the brands are there, different price ranges. Question is which one to choose? Suddenly you see these, admit they would get your attention, making the Panasonic brand stand out in the crowd. The brand talks to you, saying; We know what you need, because we know music.
But the simplest solutions are not easy to crack, the most obvious ideas /designs / strategies, once ready, are normally those that took the longest to come up with. As mark Twain once said: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so i wrote a long one instead”.
I stumbled across this very entertaining video with Conan O’Brien who’s attended a Google seminar a couple of months ago. Amongst a lot of classical Conan jokes he gives an interesting insight about what happened to him, after he got sacked by NBC.
Have a look 14 min. into the film where Conan gives a transparent view of how NBC wasn’t prepared for (and didn’t understand) how powerful social media is. Also try to make a parallel with brands and traditional agencies of today and you’ll quickly see similarities. Many organizations out there are still wondering what’s going on and how they can stay on top of things. We dare say, many are scared and don’t know what to do… Luckily we do, that’s why we constantly remind ourselves that “Only one thing is certain, change will happen.”
Have a look:
Most agencies charge for the time they spend on projects. Many clients we talk to say they pay ten hours of overhead for every hour of creativity! No wonder agencies have big in-house production teams, huge management departments, traffic, PA’s, and a love affair with marathon meetings. Should it be like this.
More often then not, this type meeting culture creates problems, which in turn creates meetings to solve those problems leading to, well you know …
We love solving problems not creating them.
We’re not saying we can see the future like Paul the octopus, but this type of behavior does not seem to be efficient enough to survive much longer. Let’s help it on its way, shall we?
Meetings are not for displaying problems.
Meetings are for solving problems.
Meetings are a tool…use them properly.
- Be relevant
- Keep it simple
- Use something the audience can relate to
Apply the above onto your story and it’ll certainly get noticed and deliver impact.
Below is a great example;
Current size of BP’s oil spill…
All of you have with out doubt come across facebook’s new “Like” button.
A button that brings all of our opinions into one spot. In one go facebook took ownership of peoples opinions, something many others have been trying to own, digg, twitter, Google buzz, to name a few. So why is this so revolutionary? Well, if you have the biggest global social network fueling your database, a database you can tap into to find out everyones opinions you instantly have a huge amount of power. In this case size does matter and no one can measure themselves with facebook when it comes to numbers. Funny enough Lateral thinks that the like button will generate new facebook users, making them even more powerful.
So how can you use the like button? Well imagine this, we can now find out what people think about almost anything out there. Do you have a campaign? Smack in a like button and count the amount of fans it gets. Trace how it travels in peoples social networks, etc. Here’s a great example how sites already can follow their fan base all in one great aggregate feed: likebutton.me
During my recent judging at the D&AD awards in the website category I noticed the increased amount of aggregated content that was integrated into different contexts. Here are two examples: CP+B and Jung von Matt. Advertising agencies scrap the internet and publish content where they or their campaigns are mentioned, brands include social media content through aggregated feeds where their products are mentioned and so on. Now we’ll be able to aggregate content with an opinion, which is a HUGHE difference!
Google watch out, facebook is after you… and they have something you don’t; peoples opinions and their relationships with each other.
Lateral likes to look around for brands that inspire us.
When looking around we, not that surprisingly, come across tons of copycats that follow a handful brands that really have nailed it. Brands that have identified and sometimes invented their own unique positioning and communication strategy. The followers on the other hand focus so much on the trendsetters that they forget to stand for their own values and identity. Looking at others all the time makes you lose your true reason to exist, you become a copy of some one else. Another effect of being a follower is the lack of consistency, where are brands like Reebok, pepsi and Opel today and where where they 2-5 years ago? You’re probably saying, “Hmmm don’t remember”, well there you go, inconsistent brand identities make brands disappear into the clutter.
So what about brands creating their own paths? What do they do that is worth talking about? Well first of all they stand for something consumers can relate to, over and over again. If you are consistent, anchoring everything you do and say to your strategy, you come across as reliable and proud. Take Red Bull as an example, some say that Red Bull’s branding is revolutionary, calling it an ‘anti-brand’ strategy.
Red Bull is defiantly a trendsetter being a brand that consistently relay on ‘buzz marketing’ or word-of-mouth. They have been doing this for very long, before most brand managers knew what the word buzz-marketing meant. Red Bull’s consistency has created and cultivated an amazing association between the product and youth culture. As soon as you come across extreme / adventure-related sports, motor sports, mountain biking, snowboarding, paragliding, base jumping, well anything that generates adrenaline you think of Red Bull. Through following their brand strategy they have become a brand that owns a lifestyle, a lifestyle their core consumers love to be part of.
Where ever something happens that relates to Red Bull’s identified brand values they have made sure they are there. And they are there in person through their brand endorsers, utilizing their consumers to cary the brand forward.
Below is a great example, it’s a film showing the biggest and best jumps ever, it has been seen by almost a million unique users. Have a look and count how many times you’ll see Red Bull appear in the film? And the film itself is well worth a look… Last but not least as far as we know, Red Bull is not behind the film, giving them as usual a lot of great publicity and brand strengthening PR, for free! Or is it a build up towards Red Bull’s most brave project so far, Red Bull Stratos?
People love stories and we love to talk about them with others. We at Lateral love to think about ideas that can add value to products or services, something that adds value to the end consumer. We like to create something that instantly makes the product or service offered stand out in the clutter. Here’s a great and simple example how a product / service can become more attractive with some creative sprinkle added to it.
Honestly wouldn’t you instantly notice this envelope in your pile of daily mail?
Designers Rahul Mahtani & Yofred Moik from the Industrial Design program at Syracuse University came up with this concept called Google Envelopes. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to map the course of the mail you have in your hand telling you a story you surly would share with others…
Have you seen Dell’s Swarm campaign?
We at Lateral constantly come across brands that use Social Media just as “another media channel”. We see a lot of traditional communication being squeezed into Social and doesn’t really use the power of Social, yet alone giving the campaign a meaning. Swarm on the other hand is different, it is created around an insight that is directly connected to how consumers use Social Media, it takes the insight and generates value for the consumer. A really good example how a brand can add value utilizing Social for what it actually is.
Well done Dell.
Want to know how successful your Social Media activities are? Tired of all the time and locations you need to visit to get an overview of your Social Media metrics?
Lateral just found this easy to use statistic tool that delivers. Register, set up your Social Media campaign and there you go, everything is now accessible in one place.
Thanks SWIX for creating this free service, we like it!
Ohh a suggestion, why not look at your competitors activities?
Here’s a great example of the power of social media:
Greenpeace has just launched a controversial film attacking Nestlé SA and their Kit Kat bar. They state that palm oil used in the Kit Kat bars kills Orangutans in Indonesia. Nestlé SA removed the film from YouTube hoping they could escape the attack but Greenpeace answered by seeding it on other video sites such as Vimeo . Sometime later Nestlé SA could only do the obvious, take the negative WOM against them seriously and make a change for the better. Read more here
