Right-Half Chow

Chimitz - que?

I found this movie a while back, I'm not sure anymore where I got the link from but I've just watched it with some creatives from the agency and we were all stumped.

The bad translation (Engrish), the over the top imagery, the mixing of different styles, the length,... It is intriguing though, if anybody can tell me anything more about the brand that would be great (I'd love to see their marketing department).

Analogies for dummies

Finding analogies to make a point or to clarify a relation is a useful skill in planning, as this list on Adliterate  makes clear. Here are a few great examples of how not to do it (although I secretly believe the list contains some real, and very direct, gems).

Just a few noteworthy examples:

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr. Pepper can.

The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red crayola crayon.

The last one just proves the Crayola-Lovemark appeal...

Pouring Stella & Toprain

Great atmospherical game for Stella. Via Adverblog. Being Belgian, it should be obvious that low scores on this test are a nono.

And I quite liked this intriguing idea I found on Advertising/Design Goodness. It's got this great physical feel to it, you can imagine how the plant feels and is tugged by the weight. The second one doesn't do much, and I've got the feeling I've seen it before as well.

The Early Bird...

I must admit I'm not great at this, but I do know the feeling: whenever I succeed in arriving very early at work I get stuff done much more easily. It would probably make a lot more sense to start doing it on a regular basis.

In my defense: tomorrow is what we call a 'bridge' day (today is a bank holiday) and most colleagues took the day off. There will be about 5 people at the agency so it should turn out to be a productive day.

Jazz and the art of presenting

Garr Reynolds over at PresentationZen has some excellent quotes by jazz musicians that contain some great advice for disciplines like planning. Some of my favourites:

"When people believe in boundaries, they become part of them." (Don Cherry)

“It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.” (Dizzy-Gillespie)

“Don’t bullshit… just play.” (Wynton-Marsalis)

And John Moore at Brand Autopsy dug up some great photos to go with them...

Holland's secret weapon: Heineken

Football might be serious business in Latin America, our northern neighbours Holland are probably just as fanatic. And after the letdown in Portugal (they couldn't bring their Heineken hats into the stadium because of sponsorhip issues) they've come up with a solution:

In addition to the launch of the 'hat', they also started a global campaign supported by two footballfreaks called Marco and Marko. Using specific websites in different countries (see the list below) they tried to get as much information as possible by pretending to support the local team.

http://www.hollandfuerdeutschland.com/
http://www.hollandforengland.com/
http://www.hollandforjapan.jp/
http://www.hollandforusa.com/
http://www.torcidaholandesa.com/
http://www.hollandforaustralia.com/
http://www.hollandepourlacotedivoire.com/
http://www.holandijazasrbijuicrnugoru.com/
http://www.olandaperitalia.com/
http://www.hollandepourlafrance.com/
http://www.holandafavordeargentina.com/
http://www.holandaporportugal.com/
http://www.holandaafavordeespana.com/
http://www.hollandepourletogo.com/

For those who understand Dutch: check out the results at the Heineken website and their press announcement (look for 'Hollands Geheime Wapen').

Being Belgian, one naturally wonders how Heineken could ever constitute a secret weapon.

Via Adverblog.

Exactitudes

I stumbled upon the work of Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek when I found the Up With Grups article a while back.

Their Exactitudes series can be found here. Essentially, it is a collection of portrait compositions in which several people are photographed in the dresscode their subculture prescribes.

By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people's attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity.

I've often read and said that such specific subcultures have almost ceased to exist. We like to talk about the 'à la carte - generation' today: picking the stuff you like from the different subculture's menus. The web and the way we can grab influences from every corner of the globe and every different culture means that we develop other skills, and excellling in the combination of different elements becomes the new badge for members of the creative class.

It seems as if embedding yourself in one specific niche is just not original enough anymore. Especially since most subcultures have been abused (and in some cases downright raped) by brands and marketers alike, turning them into a kind of 'precreated identities' which are the cheap cop-out for some. 

What's worrying is that marketeers don't seem to understand the idea, a lot of companies are still trying to create and define new groups, and that can take on ridiculous proportions.

Look at the recent Get a Mac campaign: it's the creative, hip and young individual versus the rest of the (nerdy and boring) world. Yet drop in to the Apple store in Prince Street and you'll see a whole different image: grannies with tons of questions because they promised to buy a nano for their grandchildren, 50 somethings willing to join the evergrowing legions of mp3 users who opt for the leading brand, shopping tourists who do every concept store in Manhattan,...

The term exactitudes suggests a certain scientific categorisation, which was never there in the first place. And it's about time we start to live with it and forget about overt identity strategies. Clients can come from anywhere for different reasons and might just be a good idea not to alienate them by putting them under a different (and unwanted?) label.

Nice photo's though.

Kiss Fragrance

You could probably speak of a revival, especially after Lordi's victory on the Eurovision Song Festival, but that does not mean we want everyone and their dog to start bringing out perfumes.

Not sure what smells I'd associate with Kiss but if I ever wanted something to remember them by it's hard to imagine said something being olfactory... Stale beer and sweat is the first thing coming to mind, but Gene Simmons seems to disagree:

"KISS fragrances have the smell of success for us....and for all the men and women who will wear it. These fragrances hit all the right notes and will top the charts in no time."

So wrong on many levels (the puns are just a start), this has marketingstink all over it.One can surely find more interesting ways to merchandise the loud and painted ones. Sex toys anyone?

Via Strange New Products.

Organoleptic

Clients sometimes ask us to bring out the tastyness of their naked product: no packaging, no icons, no symbols or values. The product and the consumption of said product, nothing more, nothing less.

I think I'll show them this commercial (hope it stays up) for Hardees whenever the question comes up again. We don't really have a burger culture here, but it made me wish we had (although this could have something to do with the fact that I'm trying to avoid adding more "stoppedsmokingweight" at the moment).

They make a lot more sense now than Paris Hilton ever did...

Specialisterne

This caught my eye while rifling through the paper this morning:

Specialisterne (the specialists) is a Danish company where most of the employees are diagnosed with the syndrome of Asperger: Autism. Thorkil Sonne started the company after his nine year old son was diagnosed as an autist.

Because of their extraordinary memory and their sense of detail they are actually very well suited for software tests, data entry, checking up on manuals and other work where others might start making faults out of impatience.

A great idea to start with, and it's all the more interesting because he follows market conditions, not just some scheme where people gather around to be kept busy as some kind of therapy and earn some money to cover the costs associated with these activities. A real company with real  expansion plans, and with a great benefit for it's employees, who develop themselves on a personal, social and professional level.

Vision

Specialisterne wants to give people with ASD a chance to use and develop their special skills depending on their own qualifications, strengths and ambitions.

Specialisterne wants to supply the corporate sector with new competences within niche areas which require insight, precision and regularity.

Specialisterne wants to prove to society that people with ASD can develop as equal contributors to society development.

Specialisterne wants to establish itself on market terms and open offices nationwide to allow as many people with ASD as possible a chance to realize their career ambitions.

Just goes to show what playing to your strengths instead of focussing on your (conceived) weaknesses can do.