In my last post I mentioned the nostalgia for children’s toys as seen in the Santander’s commercials. How delighted I was therefore, to see that Lego have pulled from their illustrious archives their award winning stop-frame animation ad ‘Kipper’ by TBWA. It’s a surreal look at the things kids can make out of a Lego with a brilliant voice-over by the late and great British comedian Tommy Cooper. ‘I said a kipper not a slipper. Ha hah ha.”

This master-class of creativity, simplicity and charm has more than stood the test of time – it’s appearing on TV and at cinemas now. Well done to Lego and their agency for having the courage to air it again. Have a look for yourself on YouTube. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY9lctGCZZE

With Spanish financial giant Santander’s rescue of the beleaguered, bankrupt British banks, I’ve watched with interest to see how they manage the change process as familiar high street brands like Abbey disappear forever.

One thing struck me on watching the Santander commercials, and I hope it’s unintended, is the pattern forming of children’s toys from my past. Lewis Hamilton, 2008 F1 world champion spearheads the brand. He’s been depicted as a plastic construction model (Airfix), racing his model car (Scalextric) in front of a plastic crowd, Airfix again. And in the latest unintelligible commercial, we see the construction of a bridge from red toy bricks (Lego – Danish for ‘let’s play’). So here’s my confident prediction for the future – Meccano, the model construction system set up by one Frank Hornby in 1908, will make an appearance very soon.

Are we seeing an unintended ‘mash-up’ between James May on the BBC and Santander’s advertising campaign? Probably not – it’s just that good old nostalgia is back in fashion.

Much was written on the aesthetics of Wolff Olins’ creation of the London Olympics 2012 brand when it was launched in 2007. The controversy no longer rages but having given it over two years worth of the ‘over night’ test, I’m still not a convert.

There’s probably little that I can contribute to the debate other than the fact that Wolff Olins have used a similar aperture technique of placing different images and colours behind the logo for other clients including NYC and Visit London. Old ideas for a new audience, that’s acceptable of course.

www.everyjoe.com/articles/2012-london-olympics-logo-controversy-the-2007-branding-year-in-review/

But, and it’s a big but, is there even a need for an Olympics ‘sub-brand’ for each host country? The Olympic movement has one of the strongest, globally identified brands there is. And it’s reinforced every two years to hundreds of millions of people across the world. Ask yourself these questions. Do you recall the logo for the Moscow, LA or even Rome games? Or the Winter Olympics 2006 in Torino? The answer is probably no.

But you could draw the Olympic symbol from memory couldn’t you? And you probably know that the interlocking circles represent the five continents. The personality of the games, but not the brand, comes through the history, culture and individuality of the host city, enhanced by the sporting heroes of the day – Bolt, Redgrave-Pinsent, Spitz and Owens spring to mind. And that’s an important distinction; the Olympic brand is independent of location. By creating a sub-brand - the offspring challenges the parent and weakens it.

Perhaps a more courageous Wolff Olins might have recommended as the logo for the Olympics 2012 something like this. The Olympic symbol with London 2012 in Helvetica placed underneath. If that was the case we’d probably now be debating whether London 2012 should be in black, blue, green, yellow or red?

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the first major conference dedicated to how the Aerospace and Defence industry can help combat climate change. The Energy and Environmental Defence and Security Conference (E2DS’09) held at the RSA, London on November 5th to 6th gave a fascinating insight. Sponsors included Rolls Royce, EADS, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Saab, Northrop Grumman, ITT, Finmeccanica, ADS, ASD and others.

The extent of the very real climate change threat that we face was hammered home by keynote speaker Dr Berrien Moore, co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

This illuminating and thought provoking conference was a result of the vision of Nick Cook, journalist and MD of Dynamixx, the organisers of the event. As Nick said, “Our mission is to create a dynamic forum for the Aerospace and Defence community and so foster dialogue, debate and analysis of the many opportunities that await it in the energy and environmental arenas.”

Here at Beechwood, we’ve developed creative marcoms campaigns for our technology clients on The Greening of the Data Centre, Energy Efficiency, IT for the Environment and more. So it’s reassuring to think that, maybe one day, the Aerospace, Defence, IT and Technology sectors will all combine together to take up the challenge of climate change through collaboration and innovation.

http://dynamixx-e2d.com

With congratulations to Roz Littlewood and Graham Hart for managing such a successful event.

Working with American technology-based clients consequently means working with our cousins from across the water. American Craig Storti’s book Americans at Work is very insightful. It offers advice for those who need to understand more about how Americans work and there are some fundamental differences. Beechwood has selected some direct quotes on the differences in business culture and they are found in one of our Thinklets. Enjoy!

I’ve just reread the late Paul Arden’s  ’It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be’. It’s a gem of a little book that uses the creative processes of good advertising as a metaphor for business practice. Rather like the way that Machiavelli’s The Prince is written about power and government but is used as a guide to management.

As executive creative director of Saatchi and Saatchi, and I quote Dave Trott writing in The Independent newspaper, “Arden was the ringmaster behind the whole creative circus that saw British Airways become ‘The World’s Favourite Airline’ The Independent become the new intelligentsia’s favourite newspaper, Margaret Thatcher the nation’s favourite leader and Silk Cut their favourite fag (English slang for a cigarette for any American readers).”

One fascinating extract from the book in particular got me thinking about the strategy, positioning and marketing of brands for business start-ups. And how it’s essential when developing a brand from the beginning, from a blank canvass so to speak, to have a clear, simple focus and vision.

“When Charles Saatchi started his ad agency it was regarded as a creative boutique. His brief for the company stationery was to make it look like a bank (about fifteen years later they tried to buy one bank).

He also invested a third of his capital in a full-page advertisement in The Times.

The effect was to make his creative boutique appear an established company.”

A simple, clear brand strategy with a big impact marcoms activity to help start making the brand vision a reality. But what else would you expect from Saatchi and Arden?

Two important dates this year for the Mini, Britain’s most successful car of all time that influenced European car production for at least two decades.

One - the 50th birthday of Alec Issigonis’ designed Morris Mini Minor and the Austin Seven. Two - the 40th birthday of the seminal film The Italian Job, starring Michael Caine and the Mini Cooper S.

According to Peter Collinson, the film’s director, British Motor Corporation (BMC), who manufactured the car, were not completely committed to the film project at all. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that they offered the filmmakers just three Mini Coopers. The production company had to buy the remaining 25 needed for filming, albeit at trade price. They clearly hadn’t recognised the benefits the film could bring to the brand.

Fiat, by contrast, understood the commercial marketing potential of the film straight away. They offered as many Fiats, and limited Ferraris the production company needed, plus cash of $50,000. The producers turned down their generous offer however as it would have meant replacing the Copper S with the Fiat 500, missing the point of the film, somewhat.

BMC’s management seemed unaware of the value of the opportunity at the time – a full length commercial for the Mini brand. In contrast, BMW the maker’s of the New Mini, understood the opportunity and supplied unlimited cars for the remake of the film in 2004. They also gave some financial support. The film was a critical and financial success, grossing over $170 million worldwide. That’s quite an audience for the Mini brand, which prospers under BMW.

As Oscar Wilde commented,  “a cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”. 

Google, became the world’s first $100 billion brand this week according to a report to a business analysis report by BrandZ. While studying the paper, we were all struck by the number of technology brands in the top 20. The power of the brand in the technology sector is stronger than ever and as important as ever. Especially in today’s economic climate, where the brand can help see businesses through difficult times. 

As everyone knows Google was named as a misspelling of Googol - the number one with 100 noughts after it. So, even at 100 billion, the brand has quite a few noughts to collect before it reaches parity with its parent!

Top twenty most valuable brands 2009 in $M:

Google - 100,039; Microsoft - 76,249; Coca-Cola  - 67,625; IBM - 66,622; McDonalds- 66,575; Apple - 66,113; China Mobile - 61,283; General Electric - 59,793; Vodafone 53,727; Marlboro 49,460; Wal-Mart 41,083; ICBC 38,056; Nokia 35,163; Toyota 29,907; UPS 27,842; Blackberry 27,478; HP  26,745; BMW 23,948; SAP 23,615; Disney 23,110