Smörgåsbloggers

Relationships with brands

rchahn — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:52:00 +0200

One of the greatest things a brand can hope for from a consumer relationship is devotion and admiration. This translates into active participation in the form of not just purchasing, but advocating. Take IKEA Hackers for example. It has become a thriving online community where people share ideas about how to use IKEA products in creative and innovative ways.

But relationships can be scary, even for big brands. You can’t control the other party in a relationship, you can only trust and respect them and be responsible for your own actions.

Sometimes in a relationship it’s necessary to make it clear you don’t like what the other party is doing. I think it’s important for consumers to speak up about what they want and expect from brands. I also think it’s important for brands to protect their intellectual property and identity, but how and when can be a bit of a conundrum. There are, of course, straightforward situations where a brand would want to take action, but what about all the grey zones? Would IKEA be in the right to send IKEA Hackers a cease and desist order? Probably. Should IKEA break up with IKEA Hackers? It seems a good relationship to me.

I’ve been thinking over all this because world Nutella day has been cancelled. That’s right. You cannot officially celebrate the beloved chocolatey hazelnut spread this year. The day was founded in 2007 by co-author of “The Unofficial Guide to Nutella: History, Stories, & Recipes”, Sara Rosso. She announced the news of her court ordered break-up with Nutella on the World Nutella Day website, calling it both “a surprise and a disappointment” (like most break-ups tend to be).

As Sara and thousands of other Nutella enthusiasts try to deal with this, my question is: With spoon firmly in hand, ready to shovel comfort into the pit of loss, do you think mourners will reach for a jar of Nutella or perhaps a tub of Ben & Jerry’s?

***UPDATE***

Nutella has rescinded their cease and desist order due to an outpouring of support for Sara and World Nutella Day. They even sent her a love letter (scroll to the bottom of the page for the tender prose). Let the healing begin.

It’s Friday, so enjoy these owls hoo will list “27 Delightful...

rchahn — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:33:00 +0200

It’s Friday, so enjoy these owls hoo will list “27 Delightful Obsolete Words” for your linguistic and viewing pleasure.

snbblog: “Saving badass dogs from idiot humans.” Three things I...

svenglanders — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:07:00 +0200

snbblog:

“Saving badass dogs from idiot humans.”

Three things I know to be true this morning:

I want to rescue a badass dog

Their dogs have THE BEST names

I have never been more envious of a strapline writer.

The Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue has rescued more than 750 dogs since opening in March 2011, and if NYC is too far away for your next dog, you can still look badass and non-idiotic by buying one of their T-shirts.

The world’s first blue box is getting a paint job. Battleship...

svenglanders — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:43:00 +0200

The world’s first blue box is getting a paint job. Battleship grey, in preparation for her next role as the IKEA Museum.

Loving this OREO video

michelebianchi123 — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:08:00 +0200

I absolutely love ad campaigns—like this OREO cookie video—that create a feeling of good will.

Back story: I grew up eating OREO cookies (and Salerno butter cookies and countless girl scout cookies…) when I lived in the U.S. And I was very happy when I moved to Sweden two years ago and found OREOs at the local grocery store. It wasn’t until I became an expat that I realized certain foods, like OREO cookies, created a nostalgic bond. A comforting memory. An actual feeling. In this case the memory revolved around that creamy white center. It was such a prize that I would spend (what felt like) hours inventing new ways of savoring it.

There was the scrape-it-away-with-your-bottom-teeth technique, the twist-and-pull technique which, when done correctly, left all of the cream on one side. Then for those impatient days, there was the pop-the-whole-thing-in-your-mouth technique: a kind of Sieze The Day approach. I still eat them in the same ways I did as a child and I have handed down my techniques to my daughter, who now has some of her own.

Food products that have been around for a while (in this case, over 100 years) have the dual task of appealing to older generations like mine and capturing a new, younger audience. The Martin Agency did a great job of tapping into the timeless feeling of childlike wonder, opportunity and a feeling of “what if?”

It’s easy to be a copywriter and get cynical of others’ work or even your own. It’s a competitive business and one of the ways we assert our own intelligence is by putting down others’ efforts. We find reasons to be wry, overly clever or downright mean. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can all compete with ourselves to find the next great idea or product name or headline.

I’ll always appreciate talented folks out there who are able to look at something old and familiar, and make it fun and joyful again.

Mmmm, OREOs….

"The consumer is like the curator of his own life. -Lidewij Edelkoot"

melaniraeschultz — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:16:00 +0200

“The consumer is like the curator of his own life.
-Lidewij Edelkoot”

melaniraeschultz: I saw this video in my Facebook feed with...

melaniraeschultz — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:00 +0200

melaniraeschultz:

I saw this video in my Facebook feed with loads of comments about how “awesome” it was and how what this guy was going was so “great”.

Hmm, not sure I agree with all that.

All brands target sections of the population – with some casting a wider net than others. Abercrombie & Fitch targets the young and thin. So do loads of other brands. Trying to change a brand’s image by giving their products to the homeless seems ill thought through – since the homeless population is an invisible population – and an ineffective method – better to have hacked the clothes for the plus-size folks the brand aims to exclude and who would be seen.

I think if a brand (in this case Abercrombie & Fitch) wants to be seen as exclusionary and “only for the cool kids” then so be it. That’s their vision. Every brand needs one. And as long as it’s not harming* anyone, who gives a hoot? As this dude points out, their clothes are for “douche bags”. So let the douche bags wear them. There are plenty of other brands out there for us decrepit, fat, middle-aged folks.

*if you are harmed by not being able to wear a certain brand of clothing, perhaps you have some deeper issues that need to be addressed.

snbblog: On a train journey recently I watched the teenage boy...

svenglanders — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:48:56 +0200

snbblog:

On a train journey recently I watched the teenage boy sat next to me reacting to a text message conversation. He would smile and blush, hold the phone tight, close his eyes, breathe out and then type a reply. And then he would wait. Noticeably. His whole body a mess of anxiety. The twitch reflex to check his phone - ‘why isn’t there a reply yet?’ hung in the air between his eyes and the unresponsive screen.

It reminded me of first love and steps toward independence, but it also made me melancholic. This boy was immobilised by his longing and there was no getting away from it. And yet, he didn’t really suffer, for another message of affection or affirmation was mere seconds away.

What penetrating despair I went through waiting for messages from my first love. The postman, calling only twice a day (and once on Saturdays!) could be a source of torment for days on end.

And then it would happen.

That handwriting! That stationery! Or maybe a picture postcard - so daring! An open message that my parents might see if they reached the post before I did. But of course they never did. A teenager in love will awake at 5am without a problem if she suspects, hopes, cannot live without the next letter…

So this - Lettres d’un Inconnu - while not letters of love, is a service I have joyfully signed up to. For the price of a couple of magazines I get two handwritten letters per month - from Paris no less. Now that’s romantic. And I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy checking my mailbox every day again.

Who is Really Famous?

melaniraeschultz — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:17:00 +0200

Who is Really Famous?:

No one’s really famous unless our moms know who they are.

snbblog: Does the Canadian Space Agency win awards for brand...

svenglanders — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:32:00 +0200

snbblog:

Does the Canadian Space Agency win awards for brand communications? Based on this it really should.

Incidentally, the trailer for Alfonso Cuarón’s new film, Gravity was released this week also. Woah.

(via Cooking with insects: a minibeast maxifeast - video) Those...

svenglanders — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:35:03 +0200

(via Cooking with insects: a minibeast maxifeast - video)

Those meatballs we love so much might not be on the menu in the decades to come. Many consider a diet reliant on meat to be unsustainable, but will we ever see cricket soup or roasted wood ants on the menu at IKEA?

Freedom Room

melaniraeschultz — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:23:00 +0200

Freedom Room:

Who better understands how to live in small spaces than a prisoner? A group of Italian designers and researchers have been working with inmates at a high-security prison to teach them design—and the resulting collaboration has been an interesting new model for a low-cost, multifunctional …

I like to see what people are saying about IKEA on twitter. Most...

rchahn — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:37:58 +0200

I like to see what people are saying about IKEA on twitter. Most tweets involve relationships, assembly or surviving the store.

Here are a few IKEA tweets that made me smile.

Light-hearted, straight forward and human — a great way to talk...

rchahn — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:14:20 +0200

Light-hearted, straight forward and human — a great way to talk about LED. Living and working in the IKEA bubble means I sometimes become deaf to the constant din of our campaigns, but this short film was a refreshing reminder of the great thinking behind how and why we make home furnishings.

"We also undertake commissions, so unless your company does something utterly abhorrent, we would be..."

rchahn — Sat, 04 May 2013 21:58:00 +0200

“We also undertake commissions, so unless your company does something utterly abhorrent, we would be very happy to work with you.”

- Favourite corporate copy of the day, care of Herb Lester. (via rchahn)

Toy Stories

melaniraeschultz — Sat, 04 May 2013 21:34:03 +0200

“Toy Stories” is a series of portraits by Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti, featuring children from around the world displaying their favorite toys. Shot over a period of 18 months, the project gives a revealing look into diverse cultures as experienced by kids.

source: http://www.gabrielegalimberti.com/projects/toys-2/

snbblog: Joy

svenglanders — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:09:57 +0200

snbblog:

Joy

My archive dive for D&AD

svenglanders — Thu, 02 May 2013 08:50:00 +0200

snbblog:

As briefs go, the one from 26 and D&AD has to rank as one of the most pleasurable. The task was simple, take a wander through the Awards archive and write a few words about something beginning with S.

There’s a great selection of work in there, no matter the alphabet, and I was easily distracted by all manner of things that I wasn’t supposed to be looking at. But back at S, and in Advertising, campaigns for Sony PlayStation and Scottish Courage were close contenders. In Graphic Design I beamed at johnson banks’ Black Pencil-winning stamps and swooned all over everything ever entered by Sagmeister and Farrow Design’s beautiful work for Spiritualized.

But it was Sound Design that won my heart. From the first time I saw it, to watching it again just now, everything about Street Music is simply brilliant.

It was made for 1xtra, one of a group of digital-only stations created by the BBC to explore DAB radio. Coming into the 21^st century, popular radio seemed to be on its last legs, a victim of the ways in which people accessed and owned music. iPods, mobile phones and the internet were king. Mix tapes were consigned to geek history for this was the era of playlists, file sharing and school kids using their mobiles as horrible tinny mono ghetto blasters on the bus.

I never have been the target audience for 1xtra but that doesn’t stop this 1-minute film from touching me. Street Music gets to my heart. It reminds me of being a teenager and of how the airwaves were my holy grail. Too young for clubs, late night radio was the only way to get a musical education. I spent most nights underneath the duvet with Andy Kershaw, John Peel and a torch, my fingers ready over the pause record buttons.

When you’re young, music can be overwhelmingly important. Both an expression of and escape from the world you’re in, it can help to make sense of things. The people who made Street Music got that. In another context the location might seem grim, the montage menacing. Watch it on mute and you’ll see what I mean. Like many great films, the sound design changes everything. Suddenly there’s humour and insight, the world is a playground full of young people finding their place. That’s what’s magical about music and sound designers Parv Thind, Nick Gordon and Joe Guest (who also cut the film) nail it. I think it’s one of the most perfect 60 seconds of film you’ll see in the archive and a wonderful example of why a D&AD Award matters – because craft matters.

Here’s the spot:

1xtra Street music from we are fallon on Vimeo.

Have a gander at what other writers found on their rummage through D&AD’s archive.

Archive Dive is curated by members of writers’ group 26.

This is how to live with children. Source: http://goo.gl/79jOJ

melaniraeschultz — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:35:00 +0200

This is how to live with children.

Source: http://goo.gl/79jOJ

Video

svenglanders — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:46:46 +0200