Getting close to your clients product is very important for any creative. Having an all business class airline as a client does have certain advantages until the matter of a fleet of only four 767's leaves you at Stansted, due to there being no spare.
oh well perhaps its not ment to be. flight cancelled, meeting off, back to London
The online world seems cool with flexible ideas regarding copyright. The automotive industry (outside of kit cars) has never really faced such dilemma until now.
Much talk in the motoring press at present about Chinese Car makers copying western models. Michelin's newsletter has a good overview HERE. Shuanghuan are the company of the moment with the BMW X5 look-a-like called the CEO. Everything seemed ok while the cars were only sold in China but now plans are afoot to export them suddenly everyone's getting very excited. Honda appeared first off the blocks a few years ago pulling legal moves on a CRV-a-like weirdly called the Laibao.
My favorite (!) is less a copy more a rebirth. The delightfully named Roewe is indeed a Rover 75 first seen in Europe in 1999. Apart from being ludicrously cheap i really can't see any brand benefits.
We have just had a demo of the music discovery mash-up we're planning for one of the 7th floor clients. really rather full on,
if all goes to plan it should be something rather special. In the mean time a few things that caught my eye that are actually up and running (beta nonsense notwithstanding) One Llama sweet music discovery and play list maker neat share via Facebook tool. Speaking of which came across Ning a build yourself facebook type private communities tool. good graphics and a starting point for a number of mash up ideas. Finally Twittervision design by David Troy is a fantastic bit of time wasting. A Google earth Globe spinning while Twitter icons appear showing the slacker world in action, excellent.
This is a heart warming Japanese TV spot. Kids are a bit of an easy call when a corporate brand wants to make a statement about seeing things different.In this case Japan / whales / ad council mmmm But just like the epic Lego 'box' commercial this still works so well.
You just would won't you? the new ipod range including the touchfeely (not iphone) touchpod, I still get really rather childishly excited by new stuff and this is no exception. A smart brand doing smart things (mm Starbucks tie up aside)
The smoking ban has seen a rush to the pavements from all corners of society's puffers. The Royal British Legion on Lavender Hill can be seen embracing European cafe culture like no other. The detailing in using cones to mark out there territory is rather charming. Truly an inviting location.
Sharing an office with a bunch of media planners means you can get an insight into the finer points of the perfect placement. However, as this rather amusing site I'm bored by Christian Lin shows awareness of the real world counts over any demographicgooglemapmashupoverlaywith%buyingpower examples HERE
How to sell a TV production brand. Oh my, did the boys and girls at HBO have fun with someone else's money (BBDO and Big Spaceship spending between them $7 - 10 million to get it done) THIS is the most amazing use of cross media to push a media brand i've seen. Everything from street screenings, blogs, faq, even phone numbers plus of course youtube previews. What I really like is that it could so easily have been a cliptastic experience but has ended up as an exercise in lateral utilisation of the media platforms its broadcasted on. HBO as a brand in the UK is so linked to certain key shows, but here you get much more a sense of what the brands values are. Detail, Realism, Risk and audience reward. While i have seen notes about Voyeur on other sites, big thanks to Ashley Ringrose at Bannerblog for a fullsome review of the idea.
The 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective. mmm very Friday friendly bit of research time killer. Very very cool interactive version here Found on the Information Architects site; map by Oliver Reihenstein. via a link from Greg Verdino blog, which in turn came via Charles Arthers blog -(championship level WILFing today)
Already posted on the jolly excellent All The 7th Floors
Fed up with your neighbours using your broadband connection? find passwords passe? try this. code HERE. turns the images files upside down and back to front. Genius. Thank ex-parrot for taking the time to work it all out.
I always think subjugating brands is a good sport*, and a good test of a the brands resolve to with stand such attacks, but this is one of the first I have seen for a whole service.
* = That highly questionable VW agency gag HERE. Not the Australian Tourist board HERE
or go HERE for the full 1976 > 2007 pictorial mac progress which you then can't help plotting your own career against via the machines you have used. A real joy. Big thanks to Edwin Tofslie for taking the time to do it'..Working in Marketing is like out running a rain cloud. Slightly pointless but satisfying to be successful..'
Today started with the BBC saying showers were coming and a dark cloud sat above our house...but its a sticky 20c and full wet weather motorcycle gear is very hot. So to give Monday a lively start I put on summer body armour (lots of padding held together by mesh, water proof as tissue paper) and drove like a nutter into central London to 'ta da' successfully out run a rain cloud. Pointless but fun. - or rather a way of avoided the obvious concerns regarding car bombs masquerading as minicabs
In a rather charming reversal of the traditional agency entertaining client masquerading as sales pitch. 
Our new client invited us to a day at the cricket in his box. Ebullient entertainment followed. All in all it was quite an experience (oh and Surrey won)
A whole bunch of research for a tourist authority we are designing a new web portal for has resulted in a range of rather interesting found links.
Great picture viewer here = letstakepictures
Top navigation and cool music = Konspiracy
Great illustrations = Overmode
Nice menu and navigation = Leitwerk
Clever design company = Upwithg
Another design/web cleverness = Soleilnoir.net
Bunch of rather smart creatives who work at the above = Creaktif
Good info, articles and links = lastickerie
Small but perfectly formed site (its about Burmese cooking) = Hsaba
Finally an almost Last.fm, MTV.com type cross over = musicmesh
If you take a look down the left hand side bar you will see a rather fun little clock/video graphic thing. A promo blog widject clock or 'uniqlock' from the Japanese discount retailer brand Uniglo. A rather sweet bit of subtle brand 
advertising that may burn bright for a few months across the blogs of the world. A very neat interface has been designed including a bit of sales promotion to win a watch. Red Bull have a great charity idea running at the moment. For £10 you can sponsor a F1 car at the British Grand Prix.
Well in truth your tenner does only buy a 20mm square but considering Vodafone paid $40 Million to put there logo on the Ferrari its not bad value. See results of my attempt HERE. The web site by Less Rain is pretty good with some sparkling copy. www.facesforcharity.com
Kia is a car brand that promises 'The power to surprise' . The Kia Carnival I've just spent a couple of weeks with has made me wonder if there is not a mould breaking campaign hidden within. The current Kia brand advertising has always appeared to me to massively over promise what is after all simple cheap cars for non-petrolheads. Even with such high(!) expectations of the brand I was still massively disappointed when handed the keys, 
(It did have an F1 team sticker which was sort of neat) more really because the Kia engineers had obviously spent ages fitting in extra cup holders and handbag clips, double sets of aircon controls etc, but had singularly failed to spend any time on the steering (vague in the extreme) or brakes (soft to the point of non-existent) But after a cavalcade of sub-TopGear criticism I did start to think maybe I had got it all wrong and it wasn't supposed to be a Renault Espace substitute (thanks Hertz) but was simple 'a way of moving around' not a car brand after all. The brand promise for the Carnival of 'pleasure of life' may also be taken another way. Its not about the drive more the fact your going some where better (when you get out the car). The Kia brand could be the antichrist to the god of BMW. 
The Kia brand could speak of travel, moving around and how great an advantage mobility is. The fact it involves poorly assembled wafer thin steel and oceans of grey plastic are kind of by the by. Its a brand for people who want to move around but don't like the idea of cars, sort of like a bus you drive yourself. Kia. We are Transport.
Yippee, last day before I decamp to northern Spain for two weeks. 
How can this not be a good day? London is looking great, the city shimmered in sunlight this morning as I blasted over Waterloo Bridge. Plus a creatively challenging set of meetings awaits. Kicking off with final discussions between client, media owner and us about the epic online music project we have planned for the autumn. Lunchtime and its a conference call with the airline, we have a new campaign that everyone seems chuffed with, plus a bunch of new online ideas and potentially a shoot in NY to sort. The day rounds off in Soho House discussing lingerie, - now tell me how is this not going to be good?
