Bombs Gone

I confess I have a small addiction to old black n white British war movies. Not something I imagine Paris Hilton or Mylie Cyrus suffer from. Thus I have probably seen the classic 'The Dambusters' (a re-make by 'Lord of the Rings' Peter Jackson is in the pipeline) about 98 million times. Which leads me to this wonderful spot from a good few years back from beer giants Carling for their 'Black Label'. The tagline 'I Bet He Drinks Carling Black Label' was used for years in their TV campaigns and for me (and my addiction) this one is the pick of the bunch...

Dad ROCK!

A combination of two unlikely ingredients can sometimes make the best of meals. Don't panic I'm not going all celebrety chef here. Just making the point that the most impact can sometimes come from having our preconcieved ideas shattered. It's a key tool of marketing. I know I'm not explaining this very well so instead here's a clip of 'The Hold Steady' appearing on the David Letterman Show. Most of the band look like someones drunken Uncle dancing at a wedding BUT the subsequent song and performance is a sublime slice of feel good bar-band rock. If they looked like say the Strokes or The Kings Of Leon then it just wouldn't be as good. See what I mean....

It's all Bluff

The continuing rise of online Poker games and ESPN’s world poker series and other Poker related spin-off’s has seen a huge increase in the general interest if the errrr sport? Print publication ‘Live Poker Magazine’ used DDB Paris to produce a fabulous campaign featuring the fundamental poker ‘art’ of bluff 'BECOME THE KING OF BLUFF'
Personally my initial reaction on seeing this one was to send two jets of recently sipped tea squirting from each nostril and into the murky depths of my Vaio. Wonder if Sony can include a ‘Re-cycled Tea Brown’ as a colour….

Official car of The Sith

Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘Cockometer’ rarely fails. He might scale pretty high himself on some occasions but generally when it comes to how much of a errrrrr…’Thingy’ you look while driving along The ‘Cockometer’ is up there with the Richter Scale as an effective measurement. He says:

'The Saab has no cockometer because it doesn’t need one. You’ve deliberately gone your own way, deliberately bought something that isn’t a BMW or a Merc or an Audi. And in the process you’ve ended up with something that’s not only a little bit different, but also rather good.'

Course, being a Saab driver I already knew this. I got my serviced yesterday at a Saab specialist and seeing all those assorted Saabs together in one place was, for the Saab lover, akin to chancing upon a flower strewn woodland clearing with families of pure white Unicorns frolicking around. OK that’s a tad strong on the waxing lyrical front but you get my point. There are such wonderful cars and the undying strength of the Saab brand makes it impossible not to know with every sense of your being that you ‘Belong’. Which, leads me rather neatly to Star Wars. Of which I’m also a fan. Another equally undying brand that will never fade away. The combination of the two is naturally almost too much to bare…..

Brand Epiphany

This is a blog about branding, marketing, design and creative ideas and how all that stuff is used to connect people to companies and companies to people, or at least how i see it. it's NOT about helping companies to sell stuff - that would be a little to one-way, a little to asymmetrical. This blog started because after 15 years in branding, advertising and marketing I realised that the brand process was being looked at the wrong way, or if you like, only one way - from the companies point of view, but what i realised is the need to not only building brands to connect to people, it's about helping people connect with it brands! The difference? perspective.

I don't want to 'just' help companies build their brands anymore i want to work from the perspective of the 'people' who i feel would like, need, would 'get into connecting with a brand - and then build it from that perspective - sloppily said i know - but of epiphanic (not a word- it should be!) never the less - a shift in dimension, a fresh perspective on things, a break through if you like - a new way of looking at things that gives deeper meaning for me when i am presented with an opportunity to work with a new client or even to look at the way I'm working with them now - inner peace? yes, almost...