Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Melbourne - do yourself a favour.

Have you been following the furore over the new city of Melbourne brand identity. Well, in a nutshell, public money used to commission Landor for new brand work. Herald Sun goes ape shit over the whole expense ($240k); gets a bunch of students to knock up some alternatives.

So, what's my beef? Not the money, not the design, not even the outrage. It's the cheapening of the whole process through the low quality debate. Yes, it could have been done for less. Yes, it could have been given to a Melbourne agency to do. But the public debate has, not surprisingly for journalism, gone for the lowest common denominators. Money; not invented here; it's "just" a logo; my kids could do better. Frankly, from the self proclaimed city of culture the debate is rubbish (one great exception from Peter Singline commenting in B&T).

If Melbourne wants to do it's brand a favour then they could start by elevating the level of debate about a really important question - what is Melbourne?

Monday, July 27, 2009

Dunderhead DM on Mumbrella

the hub agency has a rant on mumbrella re: DM Dunderheads. That's right...you know who you are...

Follow the link below to the mumbrella website

http://mumbrella.com.au/why-is-there-so-much-dunderhead-dm-8036



Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Amazon Buys Zappos.com

Brilliant presentation from Amazon CEO.

Simple, short but really thought provoking. . His rationale behind the purchase of Zappos being based on culture, leadership and the brand is possibly the most interesting part of the presentation. Something that every business can learn from. Whilst no doubt revenues, profit, business model and technology were key influencers, he cites these 3 factors as the most influential.

Set aside 8 minutes of your day and check it out here; its well worth it.

http://mashable.com/2009/07/22/amazon-buys-zappos/

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Budget Direct...so many questions

Budget Direct ads.

Why is she French? Why are they cycling in the country? Why do we all remember it? And why does everyone I know, know the ad?

God we hope its working because for some reason, which we cant quite pinpoint, we all quite like it?

Booojay Direct. Inspirational.

The New VB work from Droga 5

Hmm. Just seen the new VB ad...There's a nice idea in there, but I'm not totally won over by the execution. That said, a couple of the 'groups' brought a smile to my face. I believe for the primary target audience of males 18+, C,D& E's, this will be extremely successful. On a personal note... I LOVE the new tag. The Drinking Beer positions it perfectly as a beer without pretense; a beer for consumption by people who like a drink. And most likely excellent to get ratted on. Dear Media Planners, do not attempt to achieve your numbers by dumbing it down to 30" spots. Allow it to live and breathe.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The end of consumerism. Long live the consumer

Much talk has been made of the death of the conspicuous consumer. Especially in the states where over 70% of GDP is basically people buying "stuff". Well, here in Australia the story is a little different with the most recent retail figures showing the biggest growth in 2 years. Remarkable. Any one think the stimulus package is not working?

But what makes things more interesting is the rise of the neo (that's new eonomic order) consumer. A new way of buying. The neo consumer is not price sensitive. They buy less, but better. The buy brands that mean something to them. ANd they will carry on buying unrepeatable experiences. And there are about 4million of them in Australia. Big implications for product mix, brand building and, crucially, pricing. Could be time for a new approach, or maybe the time to ramp up marketing of the right products and services rather than throttle back.

For more on neo consumers have a look at http://www.socialintelligencelab.com/. For ideas on how to repsond, lets talk.