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Don‘t Mess with the Logo is a book about branding I recently started reading. The authors proclaim it is „the straight talker‘s bible of Branding“. I must say I am enjoying it a lot. Not only did they want to use a profanity in the title, but they make branding seem easy and the books vibe is kind of easy going (can books have vibes?).

Early on in the book there is a list of rules about how to build a brand that caught my eye:

1. Develop a strategy that is clear and easy to understand.
2. Create a simple brand architecture that links the different things you do in a way that makes sense to your consumers.
3. Develop a distinctive brand identity that you can protect by law
4. Make sure you have a consistent and iconic customer experience across your products, the places in which you sell them and the people that work for you.
5. Set up dedicated brand management and measurement structures and processes
6. Don’t f*** (sorry, mess) with the logo.

I took a good look at this list and realized that it sums up the branding work we have been doing for our product Brand Regard.

Notice how I made nr. 5 bold? Brand Regard actually helps you follow this rule. Brand Regard is a user-friendly, cost effective brand asset management solution that helps organizations make sure their employees use the most up-to-date logo and other marketing related assets so their brand stays consistent and on message.

Check out the video that shows Brand Regard in action, and solves a common branding problem:

Last February Procter & Gamble launched a campaign, created by the ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, called The Man Your Man Could Smell Like (aka Old Spice Man). The rest is internet history. The ad has become wildely popular and the original video has raked in over 15 million views on youtube.

Regardless of the ad’s success, marketing tracking agency WARC reports that sales of the specific product the Old Spice Man is holding are down by 7%. Some agree and explain, others refute.

One thing worth looking at, apart from the sales data, is how many people have been searching for “old spice” and how the campaign impacted the search volume. Below is the timeline of how often people have been searching for “old spice” in Google (from Google trends).

Notice how the campaign only hit the viral sweet-spot in July. According to BrandWeek, the 7% figure is for 52 weeks ending in June the 13th 2010. The viral effect only takes off in July, which isn’t included in the data.

The campaign’s impact on search volume from February to June might not be reflected in sales, but the jury is still out on the impact of the viral aspect, which only just took off.

If you were planning to fly somewhere recently, chances are your flight was cancelled. And if so you might have cursed the country that prevented you from keeping your schedule. The Icelandic government has teamed up with the tourist industry to take advantage of the publicity surrounding the volcanic ash. The result is a 5 million dollar ad-campaign called “Inspired by Iceland” which has the goal of getting travellers to visit the country this summer. It features celebrities like Eric Clapton, Stephen Fry and others who tell stories about how they experienced the country and why they found it inspiring.

Although most locals agree that in the long run the eruption will be good for the tourist industry, there is concern about the short term effect. The fear is that people might be afraid that their visit to the country could be disrupted by the ash.

On the campaign’s site right now there’s a video with Viggo Mortensen singing the country’s praises. The site will  launch officially in a few days and then other celebrity videos will be added. Whether the campaign has enough creative sparkle to get the message across is still up for debate. While the volcano is in full swing people might simply not want to risk being stuck for days on an island against their will (kind of like the plot in Lost). What is your opinion? Is this money well spent?

Every Christmas every media is filled with commercials and most of them are simply annoying. But there is always one commercial I never mind seeing every Christmas and it is from Coca Cola:

On behalf of Transmit, I wish all our readers a merry Christmas.

According to this article in the Guardian, PR experts question Tiger Wood’s wisdom of hiding away as sponsors ads vanish from TV screens, raising the question that perhaps it is not the smartest move to sit this one out. Tiger is (or was) a very lucrative commodity that is associated with some of the world’s biggest brands like Nike, Gillette and Gatorade. Gatorade decided to revoke their 100 million dollar contract but said it had nothing to do with his personal life.  But he isn’t the first athlete to be caught cheating on his wife so he will probably be back.

But how does a celebrity regain his former status as a valuable brand, you might ask? Well I am glad you did. I have sent an idea to his people and I am waiting for a call from them as we speak. Here is my plan:

Nike, Tigers biggest sponsor, should start a contest called “Christmas with Tiger” where you can win all sorts of Nike golf products, but the grand prize would be to spend Christmas with the golf legend himself! Thousands of families will enter the competition for the once in a lifetime chance! Tiger will go along with it to keep Nike happy and besides his wife left him so he has nothing better to do. The media will tear this campaign apart and calling it a pathetic attempt to buy him some goodwill.

But wait, there is a twist! On Christmas Eve they announce the winner of the competition and guess what? It is his wife Elin that comes forward and says she entered the competition and claiming she can’t spend Christmas without him. This will be the beginning of Nikes new campaign “Nike, family first” or “Nike, bringing families closer together”. The campaign will feature families playing golf together and enjoying each other’s company.

Families will buy golf clubs in bulk to be like the happy family in the commercial. Nike will make millions and the public will forgive and forget all about Tigers’ infidelity.

On second thought, maybe he should just wait this one out.

The Brand Republic is publishing various “top 10″ lists where they’ve chosen their favourite ad campaigns of the noughties in various genres.

Their list of top 10 viral campaigns includes the classic Budweiser “WASSUP” ad which found its way into popular culture, popping up in a Friends episode amongst other places (without anyone paying for it presumably). As sushi lovers we also recommend the Wasabi version: “WASSAAAABI“.

Of course, we don’t agree with every item on their list and are perplexed as to why their Top 10 worst celebrity ads would include Alice Cooper throwing TVs from his hotel room. Who doesn’t like Alice Cooper?

The software company 37signals got a bit of flack recently regarding how they communicate with security experts about their products.

This brought our attention to one thing they are doing very well. Below is a screenshot of their security page:

The message doesn’t get much clearer: Adidas, Kelllogs and Sun trust us, so can you.

It’s a nice example of “association branding”, i.e. conveying trustworthyness by associating your own brand with brands people are already familiar with.

As soon as Barack Obama starts using Brand Capital, we will certainly make sure that as many as people as possible will find out.

It‘s official, the Bank formerly known as Kaupthing is reading my blog. A few months ago I wrote that Kaupthing was in need of a new brand. I also wrote about their internal branding. You might say I am obsessed with the bank but in my defence, it is the bank where I conduct all my banking. The bank took “my” advice and changed its name and is now called Arion Bank. The name is controversial; some people like it while others hate it. The new name comes from Greek mythology and it symbolizes persistency, cooperation and comeback.

Finnur Sveinbjörnsson the CEO of Arion Bank, says that it was about time to make these changes:

“New name, policy and value marks the new beginning with the bank, we are in a certain way saying goodbye to the old and are determined to face the challenges that our community is facing with force. Our goal is to create a solid and trustworthy bank that works with and for the people.”

The cost of the rebranding is said to be very little, they will even use the remainder of the old stationary and use the old debit and credit cards labeled Kaupthing.

This is a huge step towards the future of the bank. Whether you like the name or not, it isn’t connected to Iceland and its’ failed banking system. In a few years we might have a functional banking system once again!

There are many ways to demonstrate your wealth to others. You might drive a fancy car, live in a big apartment, eat out a lot etc. Some people might envy your lifestyle but some don’t care how you live your life or spend your money.

I was browsing http://billionairexchange.com (not that I can buy anything there), and I came across a very interesting champagne brand – to say the least! The champagne is called (brace yourself) “Le Billionaire Champagne”. Don’t let the promotional video fool you, this is, according to the manufacturer, “the world’s most expensive and luxurious champagne of all times.”

I am not sure if this will get the attention of the key demographic, which according to the name, are billionaires. After the recession hit, my estimate is there are only about 700 left! And I don’t think this champagne will be served in the parties of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or Ingvar Kamprad. That leaves only 697. Now, I have nothing against finding your niche, but this one seems a bit small.

The regular sized bottle costs $2.500 and it doesn’t exactly have an elegant or refined look. It looks like the carcass of a Muppet character with fake diamonds glued on it. To me “Le Billionaire Champagne” has nothing to do with luxury even though it is priced as such and the name “Le Garbage Blanc” should be more fitting for this product.

Haagen-Dazs has recently been running a campaign called Help the Honey Bees. This kind of marketing is often called “cause marketing” where big brands team up with charitable causes for mutual profit.

This particular campaign, created by San Francisco’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, is about saving honey bees (apparently, bee colonies in the US are declining rapidly).

The company’s target for the first phase of the campaign, which ran in August and September, was 1 million impressions. It generated more than 13 million impressions.

The second phase of the campaign will rely heavily on social media. Haagen-Dazs teamed up with ExperienceProject.com and used their TwitCause site to promote the campaign, offering to pay $1 per tweet generated (up to a maximum of $1000 per day).

Whether the social media phase is as successful as generating impressions as the first phase remains to be seen but if a Twitter storm gathers around the honey bee cause, which seems likely judging by the campaign’s initial success, Haagen-Dazs will have created quite a buzz for the bees – and their brand.