Category: Trend

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There has been a growing desire among brands to take a political or social stance in their campaigns.

Marketers feel that connecting the brand with relevant causes and messages not only is their duty, but as their product interacts with millions of people every day, they believe that they are in a great position and scale to positively change the world.

As creatives, our role is to help brands to identify the right and relevant connections and communicate that with authenticity, and in the right tone.

In fact, I have always made a point to dedicate a small portion of my time for any client I work with to help connecting them with meaningful messages that do good in the world.

But identifying the right connections between a specific purpose and the brand is not easy. Without a credible history of advocating a certain cause, brands will only appear as opportunists.

Another key issue is the choice of media. Message with a purpose do not always fit into the traditional media format where it’s more a one-sided communication and not a dialogue with consumers. With limited length, lack of context or limitations in square inches, traditional media also often force brands to over-simplify or over-generalise their messages.

Nevertheless, we should continue to encourage brands to have a purpose, and we should also help to make sure that it aligns with the brands’ values, with messages that have been carefully crafted so they appear in all the right tones and play the right role. We should remind brands that they need to remain humble and wise and encourage conversations and inspire people rather than adopting a didactic tone.

Last but not the least, be sure to make it a long-term commitment, and not just blindly following what’s been trending.

I have gathered below some of the examples of brands investing in a relevant cause that engages with consumers. Whether they have been executed well or not? I like to hear what you think.

I also like to hear if you have any examples from local brands that had successfully achieved similar goals.

Gillette “The Best Men Can Be”

The brand attempted to take an ancient and highly distinctive slogan “Gillette, the best a man can get” and revitalise it for a new era. The film calls on men to improve themselves by standing up against bullying, sexism and harassment.

Volvo “Defiant Pioneers”

In 2018, Volvo partnered with Sky to produce a short film series entitled “Defiant Pioneers”, exploring the remarkably resilient recesses of the human mind. Chapter 6 of the series is a film called “Unseen Ocean” in support of the fight against plastic pollution in our oceans. In 2019, Volvo sustained the message and released a children’s book of the same theme. The book is available on Amazon and all proceeds will go towards City Kids Surfing, the non-profit founded by primary school teacher Tom Franklin, who featured in Volvo’s “Unseen Ocean” videos.

Heineken “Open Your World

The Heineken’s “Open Your World” campaign challenges Brits to break down barriers and find common ground with others who have opposing views.

Nike “Dream Crazy”

Nike launched “Dream Crazy” campaign to celebrate the 30th anniversary activity for the “Just Do It” campaign. The film features athletes including tennis star Serena Williams, American footballers Odell Beckham Jr and Shaquem Griffin, skateboarder Lacey Baker and the controversial Colin Kaepernick.

Nike “Dream Crazier”

Nike’s answer to the follow up on the “Dream Crazy” campaign. It features a voiceover by Serena Williams and celebrates female athletes who have broken barriers.

The Body Shop “In Our Hands”

At the start of 2019, The Body Shop is putting “activism at the heart of its brand strategy”and turn its stores into “activist hubs” and attract more visitors to its shops.

Lush “Spycops”

In 2018, Lush launched the campaign, promoted using the hashtag #spycops, with Lush storefronts decorated with fake police tape emblazoned with the slogan: “Police have crossed the line.” The brand claimed that the campaign had a specific aim to make changes to the undercover policing inquiry, and to address “a controversial branch of political undercover policing that ran for many years before being exposed.”

Dove

Dove’s launched “Crown” in partnership with Kelly Rowland, at the GRAMMY Awards in 2019. The music video centred around self-esteem and confidence.

Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood has long stood for what she believes in over the years, from green energy to freedom of speech to anti-fracking, and this was one of the many manifestations of the campaigns she involved in.

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video wall_1

The increasing popularity of using pictures and video to share on social media is driving a huge trend for using moving images to tell the brand story.

Speaking at an event in June this year, Facebook’s Nicola Mendelsohn endorsed this trend and said she would put money on Facebook “becoming all video over the next five years.”

No wonder clients want videos – lots of them.

Consider these stats:

  • Facebook grew to 8 billion average daily video views from 500 million users in Q3 2015. The jump from just 4 billion video views per day in Q2 the same year was massive.
  • More than a third of Snapchat’s daily users create their own “Stories”, broadcasting photos and videos as chronological narratives, and users are watching 10 billion videos a day on the application, up from 8 billion in February this year.
  • The time people now spend watching video on Instagram has increased by more than 40 percent in the last 6 months.

And that’s just a glimpse into the burgeoning popularity of video content.

Interestingly, we’re not just watching more video, we are becoming more discerning about it too.

We expect videos to offer a more immersive experience – for example, the 360-degree videos that let us move around and explore a certain space, and interact with responsive elements. The 360-degree video from Expedia, created by 180LA in partnership with Tourism Australia, lets viewers lead their own exploration of the dramatic land- and sea-scapes of Australia. Since making its debut on YouTube in June, it has already gathered more than 3 million views.

Tourism Australia makes the best use of immersive videos

We also have a totally different perception of “quality” for videos. Instagram used to be less aesthetically forgiving than Vine, but I think the line is going to be blurred.

Then comes personalization. Amazon has just started dynamic video ads as a pilot, using browsing data to decide what creative to show prospective shoppers on the fly and tailoring itto individual users’ interests.

The media, more than ever before, is becoming the message. And it is constantly evolving. Even the greatest creative will fail if it is not delivered via the latest and most relevant visual format.

The Video Revolution

There are countless forms of video content. At one end of the spectrum, you have the most practical eLearning or product videos delivering informative / educational content, while at the other you might have highly engaging, entertaining and stylized content that tells a brand story. Then there’s everything in between. All forms of video content serve a very different purpose and certainly take a very different type of talent to create and produce.

In addition, every channel demands a different format and creative approach in reaching a high level of engagement. And as every brand is likely to adopt a multi-channel strategy, we are going to see more and more services dedicated to curation. Brands will need to have a central hub overseeing the creation of videos across all touch points and bring them all together.  After all, in the eyes of the consumers, the different types of video content should all be channelling the same brand.

So, what type of video content is suitable for your brand? What are the latest trends? Let’s take a look at some of my recent observations.

Long Form vs. Short Form

The common belief is that short videos, with text overlays instead of sound, are becoming more popular. They grab attention quickly and, when designed appropriately, they can produce an instant emotional response.

However, that doesn’t mean long videos won’t work. It’s all down to the creative idea. Brands now understand that if the content is engaging and rewarding to view, consumers will be willing to seek out the longer form.

Gautam Anand from YouTube APAC recently remarked on the trend for longer video ads in the region. The most popular ads from 2015 averaged more than four minutes. Four of the top ten YouTube videos were more than 5 minutes in duration. The single most viewed ad, from Malaysia Airlines for the Chinese New Year celebration, is a majestic 12 minutes long!

Sound vs. Silence

Voice-overs, when produced cheaply and unprofessionally, can wreck even the smartest and most beautiful content. Worse than being ineffective, they can actually damage the brand. In this case, silence is definitely golden.

Another reason why videos for social channels are increasingly being created without sound is that, in many cases, people are in locations where they can’t consume the audio. Savvy brands ensure their idea resonates even with people who haven’t turned their speakers on.

“Tiny Magic” Videos from Lostmyname can be fully enjoyed with no sound

As video consumers become more discerning, the bar for quality video is raised higher every day. Even the humble screen text is enjoying a renaissance. It’s not just about adding functional subtitles or uninspiring supertitles any more. Visualizations and overlays are getting more sophisticated all the time, raising consumer expectations, and therefore requiring us to plan ahead, to include them as part of the storytelling rather than an afterthought.

Local vs. Global

Can video content really go global? Just because you can (technologically speaking), it doesn’t mean to say you should.

If we know how crucial it is to draw emotional responses from consumers, we know that we have to reach them not just locally, but somehow personally. Does anyone really still believe this can be achieved with one version of one video that has not been even adapted or localized?

Inevitably, global brands do have finite resources, so it can be hard to create different content for every platform. Not to mention tailor-make it for each market with its different language and culture.

The key is to think global from day one – to take a brand’s core assets from the beginning and consider how the local audience will consume them.  This will allow you to think about how to tailor your content for different platforms, and how certain assets can be shared for global releases.

Localization of video content has come a long way from the days when subtitling or dubbing were the marks of a successful international brand. As an example of just how far, take Coca Cola, who recently launched Coke TV in the UK and Ireland. Instead of globally developed TV ad campaigns featuring global celebrities, the channel is aiming to target young local audiences via YouTube. Fronted by two YouTubers, Dodie and Manny, each episode will be based around the themes of gaming, sport and music. The appeal is obviously very local (or at most regional). It will be interesting to see if Coke TV rolls this tactic out globally.

CokeTV GB

CokeTV France

One thing is certain – for video content to go global, pre-production and planning are essential. Great videos, like any other content, demand the time-honored ingredients of success: a deep understanding of the consumer, superlative storytelling, and inspirational creative work. If you can combine that to deliver stories to people in each market in a new, exciting, and locally relevant way, then you will have won them – and quite possibly won the world.

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choose happiness

Coca-Cola recently announced their “One Brand” strategy. A series of changes affecting the advertising campaigns for the portfolio of brands, and the detail packaging design alignments were announced. This shift from brand-specific advertising will see the brand uniting all four distinct brands – classic Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Coke Life, logically under one master brand marketing banner: The Coca-Cola family. The objective is to drive synergy across the portfolio.

The overriding tactic is that Coca-Cola is the only thing the company will position and give meaning to, and underneath it will sit different product variants. Each variant will be equal in the overall portfolio but “won’t have a meaning attached to them.”

Coca-Cola continuously ranked at the top in the world’s global brand rankings over the years. In 2013, according to The Best Global Brand from Interbrand, it slipped from the top spot after 13 years to third place. Perhaps it was the “wake up call” for the brand. But was the dilution of brand strength really due to its diversification into campaigns for individual product variant?

The strategy was an outcome of recent consumer research, which revealed that 5 out of 10 of consumers don’t know what differentiates each product in its portfolio. For example, people don’t know that Coke Zero has no sugar and no calories. Consumers are also unclear about the different between Coke Zero and Diet Coke.

Coca-Cola considered the company’s efforts to build personality behind its individual brands has become an obstacle to consumers’ understanding of the products.

Building meaning in the communications will not affect consumers’ understanding of the product. A brand under the brand halo itself could become an identity in its own right, as opposed to just being seen as one of the variants. I believe the heart of the matter is when the “meaning” is not connecting with what the product represents, then it ends up a waste of effort.

Product differentiation is increasingly hard for brands operating under portfolio brand strategy. From FMCG brands to service brands, the fragmentation of brand messages often causes confusion in consumers’ mind. When HSBC launched the “Personal Economy” platform for their “Premier Account”, was it distinctive enough to help consumers to clearly differentiate among the “Premier”, “Advance” and “Business” accounts? Do consumers clearly recall the commercial starring Jude Law was for Johnnie Walker’s Blue Label? What about the differences among Red Label, Black Label, Gold Label Reserve and Platinum Label? How does the whole range connect with the brand message of “Keep Walking”?

The list goes on.

In the case of Coca-Cola, should the “Open Happiness” platform be given an even bigger playground with universal appeal? Or should it be changed to a more rational statement such as “Choose Happiness”?

The “One Brand” strategy will be executed on campaign level and on product level, and will affect agencies working within the framework. Some of the changes can be summarised as:

  • The newly evolved brand tagline “Choose Happiness” will be launched in Great Britain before moving to the local markets globally. It will be hugely interesting to see how the tagline could be adapted.
  • New brand campaigns will focus on the brand idea of happiness and optimism and will roll out in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Nordics and Spain.
  • All advertising campaigns from May in Northern Europe will feature all four products, with the lower and no sugar Coca-Cola variants presented in the final frames of all Coca-Cola TV ads.
  • Although all four variants will feature in future campaigns, Coke will be able to spotlight or “hero” whichever variant is relevant to the campaign, through visual representation and strategic executions.
  • Individual campaigns for individual product variant will be scrapped. That includes some of the newly launched campaigns such as “Regret Nothing” for Diet Coke.
  • Brand message will suggest there is a “Coca-Cola to suit every taste” by more clearly communicating product differentiation rather than personality – to enable consumers to make informed choices.

On the product level, some of the strategic changes include:

  • New packaging will see each variant being given the “same design” and set of characteristics, such as the iconic Coca-Cola script, ribbon and layout.
  • The “Cola-Cola” trademark will be made larger and more visible, with more presence of the iconic red colour.
  • Text will also be added to the front of Coke Zero, Coke Life and Diet Coke to enable consumers to better understand the range of products and the distinctive attributes of each. On the front of Coke Zero cans, the descriptor “zero sugar – great Coke taste” will be strategically repositioned in the foreground.
  • There will be an introduction of colour coded front-of-pack labelling showing fat, saturated fat, salt, sugar and calories.

All these design changes are aiming to create a more visual “common identity” across the brands. The more unifying set of characteristics that the brand shares.

We are already seeing some of the new ads hitting major touchpoints.

In brand advertising, the big change can be seen in the latest global print campaign starring Marilyn Monroe and Elvis in celebration of the 100 anniversary of the brand’s contour bottle.

cc100_ooh_heritage_elvis_landscape_web-under-embargo-2nd-March-1002x752

In product-as-hero communications we see a deliberate attempt to present the range in equal light. But will the execution help the different product characteristics come to life when “product truth” are being communicated in a much more straightforward way? Or will the lack of “meaning” turn the ads into something better fit for corporate presentations? The result is yet to be discovered.

2015-03-13 18.24.19

New strategy brings new collaborations

At the end of the day, any new strategy won’t succeed without collaboration across the board. Here are some of my predictions:

Communicating product truth for each product variant is important but cannot be done without the support of a meaningful brand message. Product message needs to be connected with the brand’s umbrella message.

It’s not a choice between logic and magic, but a balance.

On a positive side, I think the strategy will be instrumental in paving the way to a more efficient and single-minded global campaigns. But this will only be achieved through rethinking how the brand campaigns are created and implemented across each product in the portfolio.

Doing it well, it will allow the brand to innovate into the future with a single voice, and do it in a way that doesn’t require the brand to invest in creating a new entity every time – a much more flexible approach in accommodating product manifestations.

I can also see there will be a need for tighter collaborations among the creative agencies handling different channels. Leadership will probably be driven centrally, where collaborations among agencies are encouraged and well facilitated.

The lead creative agency, on the other hand, needs to spearhead the development of the big brand idea, and create a strong creative platform on which messages of individual brand in the portfolio can build on. More important, creatives need to think of media-neutral platforms and not media-centric ads. Each agency needs to put their egos aside and completely understands the DNA of an idea and be able to expand it beyond any boundaries of a specific media.

For a global brand with local connections and meanings, any new creative platform needs to offer each country an opportunity to interpret its own “moments of happiness” and the brand’s role in those. The brand should tap into local talent to add to the effort to their marketing programs through joint global initiatives.

Coca Cola_shaes of happiness

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2015 prediction

It’s not quite what you are expecting. I know.

It doesn’t start with “50 tips to…” or “15 trends for…”

I did try. I promised you. Towards the end of December I have been thinking a lot about what happened in the industry in 2014, and what I think will we be facing in 2015. Like every year for the past couple of years I started jotting down the thoughts even a couple of months earlier. But I found that no matter how I tried to stay away from the “expected”, it’s hard not to be biased.

The truth is, we all tend to defend what close to what we do professionally. We feel almost a duty to do that, as we will be sharing the thoughts with our peers, who are, in the same way, pretty much defending the same thing.

It turns into almost like a sales pitch. An advertorial. Or worst, a product placement of some kind.

May be that’s the reason why when I stumbled upon Bono’s A to Z of 2014, his version of the year’s account, that I think it is so refreshing. It does not feel like selling. It’s real. It’s authentic. It’s transparent. It’s slightly flawed. It’s human.

It leads to my thinking that perhaps that’s exactly what we should all be doing in 2015. No matter as an individual or as a brand.

Content is cheap. Meaning is expensive. Don’t make content marketing another form of advertising.

Produce tailored content that does not feel like selling.

We want to be connected with things other than those directly related to our business.

No preconceived answers. Give me a bit of surprise.

We don’t need to hear that you are the greatest. Because “nice is the new cool”.

We have been so obsessed by the new, shiny trend that we fail to realize what consumers are really just looking for a brand they can believe in. If there is no “purpose”, there is no brand.

We want brands to be good. Not necessarily the best. Just good in every sense of the meaning.

If you are a bank, don’t just sell finance products, talk about how you help people to be a better human being. If you are a food producer, stop just reinforcing how good the ingredients are, but tell us why associating with you make a meaningful relationship. If you are a business software brand, stop just promoting the new features, start telling me how you see things the same way as I do.

In 2015, the only way to stand out from the competition is not just thinking out of the box, but go beyond product truth and think what it means for the consumers.

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Work Relation 2014 - A film by Marina Abramović, in collaboration with adidas_00001

We ought to be excited when we saw this video. Commissioned by Adidas, designed to be coincide with the World Cup season, it featured an artistic interpretation of the brand’s ongoing “All In or Nothing” proposition. It’s the perfect example of brands creating cultural properties in the world of branded content.

Entitled “Work Relation”, the three-minute film captured the first ever re-staging of the iconic 1970s performance of the same title by Abramović and her partner at the time Ulay. In the statement from Adidas, they described it as a performance that “focuses on commitment, teamwork and the strength found in togetherness – reimagined through the lens of the 2014 FIFA World Cup”.

As part of the World Cup themed content, it was not the usual celebrity fuelled spot, nor did it deliver yet another manifesto type of script. It was actually a surprise in many levels. The collaboration is one – not a lot of artists are willing to let commercial brand take such a big part in their original piece of art. Timeliness is another – Marina Abramović is currently staging a premiere of her new durational performance at the Serpentine Gallery London.

Yet there is a certain kind of uneasiness about the film.

Perhaps it is the unnecessary placement of the product in the performance.

Perhaps it is the deliberateness of the set up. (In the reenacted piece, eleven performers reference the total members of a football team.)

Perhaps it is the over rationalization – or over simplification – of the idea of teamwork.

Work Relation 2014 - A film by Marina Abramović, in collaboration with adidas_00012

The “human chain” passing the stone by hand was described to be “the most efficient method”. “The chain has the most endurance. The chain stays forever.” says Marina in the voice over. We all know that the human chain is, in fact, not exactly teamwork, nor can it be called collaboration. It depicts the most primitive form of assembly line work. Each person in the human chain has the identical skill, not complementing each other. They might collectively accomplish a “task”, but they will never be able to innovate.

In the video, the eleven performers were recruited from “varying walks of life” and probably have never trained with each other before. That is a fundamental key element in any collaboration, and is not being represented in the piece.

In a true collaboration, differences between partners mean that one plus one will always equal more than two.

Teamwork is often chaotic and messy. And it may not always last. But it is the most enjoyable, and the only way to be creative.

If we choose to be rational, we can analyse it forever. But debates, discussions and active engagement from the consumers are what brands really want nowadays, especially if brands want to become cultural properties of the world. In one of the interviews of Marina Abramović in the book “Live Art and Performance” (published in 2004), she pointed out the need to “elevate” the public in order for them to experience art:

“…They (the public) have to make this radical step of not being an observer anymore, or a passive thing, but being participants. It’s essential, they have to be creative to finish the work.”

May be that’s what the best content should be – being open-ended, let the consumers interpret it themselves and own a piece of it. May be that’s the point.

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Airbnb introduces the Bélo the story of a symbol of belonging_00001

Airbnb had just unveiled their new identity as part of a brand overhaul. Many people would say that it’s time for the brand to think global. Afterall, in 2013, it was reported that more than 10 million guests stayed at an Airbnb rental. On a global scale, counting “beds on offer”, Airbnb is already the fifth-largest “hotelier” in the world, with unparalleled global reach. However, despite the scale of its success, what does the brand stands for?

Technology brands traditionally tend to believe that better products will win the market, therefore putting brand building as something of a luxury or an afterthought. They often also need to push to the market quickly and going global from day one, very little thoughts have been put in crafting something that works across different cultures.

So it is great to see that Airbnb starts to think more holistically. In 2013, their strategy was to build the company into one that delivers “a seamless end-to-end experience when its customers travel”. That’s a pretty transformational statement. Let’s take a look at some of the areas that the new identity will help to achieve this in the long run.

A meaningful story

For a brand to succeed, it has to mean something – something that matters to people they want to connect with. If it doesn’t, no matter how sharp the graphic design of the logo, or how unique the choice of color, fonts and all that, it will not work. Airbnb has crafted a rather interesting message here. In the introduction video that accompanies the launch, it eloquently explains that while the world is getting bigger, people feel less connected. Recognizing the desire of people to connect and share, is the reason why the brand stands for a world where people can “belong everywhere”.

For a change, even the logo has a name. It’s called Bélo. The key message is that it has transformed the “transaction” from a pure mechanical “accommodation booking” to a “connector” from which you can find a place where you feel you belong to. Like a friend with a name.

There is indeed a trend that we all crave for human interaction in the world of digital channels. When you buy a book from Amazon, it might add to the memory and experience if you know that someone you know is also reading the same book. Recent research also have found that LinkedIn lacks the emotional attachments that encourage people to stay and spend time on the platform, which sparked the recent brand positioning drive worldwide.

Giving power back to the consumers

Consumers no longer engage with one-sided marketing messages. Social media has further intensified this relationship. Consumers are now more connected as they have an easy access to information. The battleground is now leveled and consumers have all the power to shape your brand and bend it right. It makes sense that this way of thinking starts right from how the brand is conceived, literally.

“The community has outgrown the brand” Brian Chesky, the founder of Airbnb, said passionately about how “friendship” is an element of the brand that has been so underrepresented.

The Airbnb Bélo was designed to be accessible and universal so that it “can be drawn by everyone”. To facilitate that, users of Airbnb can personalize the logo and place in their property or share it with the community. The companion project “Create Airbnb” has put this in practice and let the users to experiment with it. The notion of a “shared brand identity” is a bold one (though I have to stress that it is not the first time that a brand has done it) and it shows the brand’s confidence and really meant what they say.

Create Airbnb(The create airbnb website)

More important, this is not just a trademark, but a platform for future growth. It paves the way for the development of other “sharing-economy services” down the road. At the end, a good identity defines what the business is and where it is going.

Creating a culture and a movement

The idea that the logo is so simple that anyone can draw it, and so basic that it’s not likely to be drawn the same way twice, connotes something larger than the logo itself. It celebrates and embraces diversity and recognizes the fact that everyone is different. Unlike a typical hotel brand that guests may need to conform to what the brand projects, with Airbnb, you have the feeling that you are in charge.

A brand is no longer just about the product, but about creating a culture and a “movement”.

Airbnb collage

So, what’s next?

I hope the new brand identity really lives up to the brand’s ambitions, and provides a fertile ground for product extensions. Whether the rather bold statement and fully customizable brand identity will be able to withstand the risks that in certain markets there could be a sudden influx of copycats bearing a similar “identity” is yet to be seen. But I think as a defining statement of what the brand stands for, it is instrumental in crafting a pretty clear and sharp picture.

What I think also interesting is how the identity could be interpreted for the users in different countries, and how the message of “belonging” could be adapted globally, regardless of territories or language barriers.

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JOMO

It has become very difficult for us to think about just one thing at a time. In the process, we have all become self-confessed information junkie. We absorb everything from every sources, and joining the dots along the way. In the past month or so we have been reading every piece of articles and reports from journalists, thought leaders, trendspotters, you name it, on what we will expect in 2014.

One insight that I find particularly inspiring is the desire to stay focus in the increasingly mad world of multiscreen, multi-channel, multi-everything life.

The JWT Intelligence team call it ‘The mindful living’, predicting that more people will be drawn to the idea of shutting out distractions and focusing on the moment. The Ford 2014 trend report defines it as ‘the joy of missing out’.

There is a saying in Chinese 物极必反 that literally means ‘when something reaches its extreme, it reverses its course’. That is exactly what’s happening here.

In the visually dependent culture, every day, 300 million photos are uploaded to Facebook. An additional 40 million go up on Instagram. We are very busy.

We look at our smartphones 150 times a day, sometimes during times when we should be enjoying the moment right in front of us.

We multitask. We spread all the devises in front of us while watching the TV, and willingly interacting with everything and everyone at the same time.

We all do these sometimes not out of design, but out of a FOMO (fear of missing out) mentality, a habit, or that they are just so readily available.

We crowdsource. From making things happen to getting funding for our next invention.

We strive to gain the first million users in the first week of launch of any new app, so we do everything we can to ‘growth heck’. In the process, we lose sight of the fact that we could be damaging the brand rather than building it.

We give excuses for imperfections.

I think this will lead us to the next wave of new opportunities – for brands to focus back on genuine experiences and differentiate what they offer with the others.

Technology once were a novelty in our lives had become a commodity. We crave personal connections again. We want meanings. That I believe is what will guide everything in the year ahead.

I believe there will be true innovations that help us to achieve a new kind of mindful way of living.

We still take pictures, but now we may use it to learn something. Enter #Jelly, the new app that allows you to snap a picture and ask questions about it to your network of friends. Co-founder Biz Stone said, “Because knowledge is different from information”. A snap on Jelly, may seem to have a bit more depth to it then?

Food creators will do more in order to draw our attention back to enjoying the food rather than photographing them. May be even a ‘slow food movement’?

Now, if you think you have missed out on any of the trend reports, don’t panic. Here I have curated a selection that had caught my eyes. But scan it quick, for you should know that, what’s true today will be history tomorrow.

Enjoy the moment.

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brand experience China

There is a subtle difference between brand pushing messages to consumers, and letting consumers discover what the brand represents.

Recently, a giant pavilion in the shape of a Louis Vuitton suitcase emerged on Moscow’s Red Square. The construction is part of an exhibition called “The Soul of Travel”, marking Louis Vuitton’s 150th anniversary. The blatant display of branding in a conservative culture didn’t go down well.

In fact, consumers in parts of the world where branded goods used to represent status are now turning towards more subtle expressions of taste. China is one of them, and luxury products have already seen heavily branded merchandises slowly losing their charm.

Brand presence has to be more intelligent, subtle, understated, and localised.

In doing so, brands need to dig deep into their DNA or develop a multidimensional personality, and not just fulfilling a functional benefit. Sportswear is not just for helping people excel in sports performance but as a fashion statement; cosmetics is not just about beauty but about fulfilling a social purpose; and coffee shops are not just about beans but about sharing with friends.

Brands are also becoming more like publishers. Creating content around the brand needs more than just one dimension. To be involved in popular culture, particularly the creative side, gives brands the opportunities to contextualize the brand stories, and build key components of their brand promise. It can also give them “currency” and relevance in specific local markets.

There’s a trend that resonates this movement – brands are making the most of retail space. Not just as a place for transaction of sales, but also as a place where they can project a multidimensional character of their brand.

The beauty and make up company Sephora created a pop-up museum concept in New York entitled “Sensorium” in 2011. The category of perfumes has always been solely relaying on glossy print ads and images, but the interactive journey of the setting of the “Sensorium” space introduces consumers to a new way of appreciation of fragrance. All of a sudden, beauty is not just skin deep, but adds a layer of intelligence to it.

In September this year, Starbucks opened two flagship stores in Beijing. They are not ordinary flagships, they are brand-defining establishments. One, located at Beijing’s glitzy and busiest Kerry Centre, is a 4,000 square-foot, two-story “coffee tribute”. The temple-like space features a giant, bold, Starbucks siren icon on the exterior of the building that illuminates at night. The other “eclectic” version, located in Sanlitun, is a 24/7 operation. Featuring ceiling-to-floor glass windows with a special club on the second floor called “Club 1971” that features live music by local talents on weekends. The Chinese Millennials are in dominance. It also reflects the young Chinese growing up in the one-child system with a strong desire to connect with their brothers and sisters outside the family.

In Shanghai, Under Armour opened its first store in China by blending art and science, presenting the Chinese consumers a sensory journey into the brand. The “retail theatre” is located in the new Jing An Kerry Centre, and designed by Marc Thorpe Design in collaboration with HUSH Studio.

China has a complex relationship with sports, although Chinese athletes are winning more medals in the global stage, but still relatively few Chinese has a personal relationship with sports. Global brands such as adidas adapted their strategy by creating two different divisions, on the one had is their flagship sports performance line; and on the other hand, capturing an aspect that translate sports into lifestyle and fashion. The result is, sub brands such as Originals and Y3 had been successful through the halo effects and the connections with its sports performance heritage, effectively crafting out a strategy that is relevant in the local market.

But developing local product strategy is not enough anymore. The idea behind the Under Armour’s “retail theatre” is to open up the minds of the consumers by redefining the notion of training – not as a pursuit of profession in sports but working to achieve physical greatness. It elevates the proposition from a physical one to an aspirational one.

In an age where authenticity of the brand is so critical that it defines what the brand is all about, by presenting consumers a production quality of epic scale it breaks down the boundary between the physical space and the digital, it will certainly triumphant over any content people get just from small screens.

Creating unique brand experiences is one of the most powerful, immersive means of building a brand. Ultimately, it boils down to making it relevant to local consumers while enabling sharable conversations.

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I came across this campaign earlier this year. It was created by Print Power Europe, advocating the effectiveness of print media in the multi-media environment. Like any organisation exists to protect the role of a specific media in the integrated marketing world today, the message single-mindedly focuses on the effectiveness of the media, communicating the notion that print often demands the ‘full attention’ of the reader.

However, this is of course just one side of the story. When was the last time you were not being interrupted by a push message appearing on your mobile while reading the newspaper? Or have you ever read something interesting from the newspaper, and quickly tweeted it in 140 characters?

In fact, any single media attempts to operate in silo is surely going to fail. The Print Power Europe also acknowledged that digital integration is central to the success of the print media.

But newspaper and magazine advertising now offer that interactivity with the use of QR codes, Augmented Reality and Near-Field Communication. 
This digital integration is now central to the success of print media and offers the marketer a host of opportunities to engage with their customers in a number of new and exciting ways.

The challenge today is not only because of the multi-screen media consumption habit of consumers that caused huge disruptions to any specific media, it’s also much more difficult to make a strong business case if we frame contributions of one single media too narrowly – and not from the entire customers’ journey.

What we have started to see happening is cross over interactions. Twitter had successfully reminded the advertising industry about their close relationship with TV viewership, their 140 characters actually could be a good fit as and when the consumers’ eyeballs are glued to the TV screen.

In the context of print media, we also see innovative partnerships. Here are just two of the recent examples:

Enhanced Lexus print ad:

By inserting an iPad screen under the print ad, it transforms a print ad into multi-media visual sensation.

Independent+ Powered by Blippar:

Through ‘visual discovery’ pioneer Blippar app, the enhanced Independent content is enriched with videos, pictures, story updates and all sorts of interactive engagements.

The original page:

Independent_original page

Scan with Blippar which triggers additional content:

Blippar_independent_screen_1

Instant access to constantly updated online content:

Blippar_independent_combined

As everyone is talking about ‘mobile first’ when it comes to digital strategy, we are in fact just touching the tip of the iceberg in its potential. I am so looking forward to seeing how the creative folks can think of even more innovative ways to create interesting partnerships with traditional media channels; and how such ideas could be implemented for brands on a global scale. It’s a constant and never-ending iteration, and it’s only going to get better.

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Sir Dave Brailsford

It was a blast at the recent first ever Advertising Week Europe in London. There were truly diverse viewpoints from a wickedly broad representation of thought leaders in the industry.

True, it was pretty London-centric, and not representative of ‘Europe’ as such.

However, there was one point I found particularly refreshing.

Sir Dave Brailsford’s ability to balance art with science and his point on ‘clarity’ as the most important thing in winning is truly inspirational, especially for an industry that is constantly in a state of change.

Clarity, not contradiction, is what we need.

The advertising industry at large remains operating in silos. When mobile becomes increasingly important in the consumers’ journey, the only way to be creative is ‘to be mobile’. As clients demand the evidence of effectiveness through big data, creative ideas have to be ‘data-driven’. As the boundaries between ‘content’ and the traditional form of advertising are blurred, everyone starts raising their objections and protect their line of business, reminding everyone else to ‘mind their own business’.

Everyone has a point, within each individual’s own territory. But why can’t we think in a media-neutral way?

Or should be listen to what Chuck Porter from CP+B said: ‘Don’t start with ads, start with business solutions’?

Nevertheless, there were some fantastic debates and remarkable insights coming out from the conference. In the true fashion of today’s ‘bite-size’ communications, I summarise it in a slide show here.

And as Sir Dave Brailsford also suggested, ‘don’t let numbers inform observations’.