Sticking to the music theme of todays posts here’s one we found, Major Look – Hush Your Gums. Out on the 4th March. Simple to the point. It’s on it and works with the track brilliantly, effective way of of shooting a video and integrating graphics and animation. Old school, we love it and works so well.

M.I.A Bad Girl

Sick visuals featuring some mad car tilting and a Moroccan crew getting down to “Bad Girls.” As usual, there’s the international spin and her reemergence is looking strong as ever with what is looking like her best video ever. Filmed in Morocco, the video is directed by Romain Gavras who also shot her controversial “Born Free” video.

OK Go in Chevrolet’s “Sonic Anthem” commercial by Nick Catucci.  Brilliant or an insane waste of money – what do you think?

A month and a half in and Valentines like time, flies by… regardless of us all ‘having fun’!

Is it just me or has it been manic? Since just before Christmas everything has been changing, moving and redirecting and I’m not talking about a fat burning, low carb, #stillnotshiftingit New Year’s resolution.

It would seem that this could be the year ‘Mr Steady Away and Mr Gently Does It’ both opt to lose their back seat inhibitions and take the driver’s wheel.

40 days in and opportunity is kicking at the door with the high street domino effect continuing to topple more ‘old brands’, establishments and not least perceived expectations. Don’t worry all have been duly lamented for a whole 5 mins, before being trampled over by the leaner, meaner, brighter but not necessarily younger or smarter things!

Online thrives but Facebook begins to lose its love, sports brand capitalise on our guilt gene post Christmas and all brands will do the same with our national pride to engage our Olympic spirit. How it’s all responded to depends on the approach taken with the ages targeted but this is in a potential third down turn… tricksy!

Speaking of age…DATA, who’s got mine and do you know where I am? Why are you tracking me on-line? I want choice not pre selection, stop shrinking my input and don’t tell me who I am! Damn you Geo Location, get out of my face and off my phone! Not what you want to hear in brand marketing but likely to be a reactionary stance along the line in 2012.

Hard when more and more brands are putting their faith in data to drive strategy and communications. But they are leaning increasingly on information grabs and lets face it this doesn’t necessarily mean organisations are getting more useful intelligence, or in fact that they are using it any more efficiently. 

There is an ever-escalating flow of inputted data that needs defining, because if it’s not understood then it can’t be validated in context. No one can really use it – analysis paralysis, as its been so charmingly referred to…

We’re putting our money on this being one if not thee hottest topic of the year, it’s already the biggest bag of mashins ready to release itself on every possible area of consumerism and security.

Speaking of which, security…As brands push for more online and mobile engagement the explosion of an app market based on ‘point, click and know’ now covers just about every facet of potential consumer enagagement, rest assured it’s going to blow…

Sooner. MDG

Reviews for both commercial and creative showing that even though there’s been some hard times out there, creative and innovative thinking is still strong and it’s still insistent on being challenging not subservient.

The creative industries like most have found it tough going but they’ve been part of the breakthroughs made to create significant changes in society, cultural and commercial thinking in both 2010 & 2011.  I guess there’s nothing like a never-ending recession to make an industry get it’s head out of it’s backside, hammer home unsettling realities and incite a bashing of over egged ego’s.   In the past three years since the beginning of the downturn we have without doubt seen a lot of dormant brains cells kicked awake, which has in turn generated much smarter thinking.  Though it’s the learnings we take forward from the past three years on to the next three which are going to be key in 2012.

So, what is smarter thinking? Well, in a world lobbing a multitude of messages through a galaxy of media channels, grappling for our attention and our reach; most are preaching off a conveyer belt of ‘easy to use, best ever, % said…’ intgratiated products, services and gadgets, perhaps the time is right to be a little more emotive and less statistical in our personal and professional choices.

When we say emotive I’m not referring to the ad-mans warm, fuzzy glow feeling although that still counts, but emotive in mindset. The type that talks to deliver lifestyle change, creates ideals, processes and adaptations. Emotive actions and thoughts that make people live, work and think differently to improve their circumstance and others around them.

We believe that Smarter Thinking will once again be about the reigniting the flame of the long term relationship not the short term romances. One where quality (in all things) is an absolute and will always precede excessive quantity. Where a throw-away culture may well step back and once again begin to value things for their longevity, for the purposeful values in life that they bring, not just for their aesthetic lifestyle trends and quick fix mentality.

Honestly, we believe that communicating this in terms of value both financially and emotionally, will be hugely relevant in the next five years.   Don’t discount the fact that people in general aren’t fools and won’t suffer being treated as one.   What they are is pressured, the simplest forms of these pressures being either financial or time based constraints.  This is why the long term relationships of old have all but fallen by the wayside battered and seemingly abused, ‘I can’t afford and I don’t have the time for this’ being the led perpetrators!

Where industries or brands can move forward over the next three years is to actually show some empathy, generosity, humility, flexibility, maturity, humor and dare we say it, character and humanity; companies with these traits will be best placed to take on a long term future to meet what will soon be a changing mindset.  It’s a tough thing to do in an unstable economy but its already been set in motion and those that don’t listen will find themselves faltering.

This emotive challenge this isn’t about clever marketing terms, latest on trend visuals and beautiful ad campaigns, this goes deeper to were they have an honesty about their flaws and a reality as to who and what they are.  Why?  Because we can all ‘find stuff out’, there’s no hiding behind noise and pictures, every brand, product or service has a history and a voice that its spoken with or been commented on.  When we dig to communicate with it or take the time to engage with it, there really is nothing worse than being unmoved and disappointed.

And what of the crazy world of digital culture we live in, one where everything is based around time and accessing ‘sometimes questionable’ knowledge, be that mobile technologies, social networking, blogging, surfing and trending.  Well in 2012/13 the Point, Click, Know culture will be massive and to many that’s going to be unsettling.

With personal privacy issues and data being at the forefront of today’s digital culture, nervous twitches can only be heightened by the fact that the largest data network Facebook is preparing to float next year.  Out of the hands of their hippy overlord who pledges that all he wants is for the world to talk. Into the hands of the dark overlords who see the commercial power and money that 100 billion dollars of personal data can buy you.

Online corporate sources will without doubt come under serious scrutiny, not least in how they manage their data but in turn how they then allow you and I to use it. Don’t forget those transient little love buttons of  ’Like’ & ‘Share’ which we all prize and covet will at some point soon be turned to ‘dislike’, ‘close down’ & ‘turn off’.

Fun times ahead.  I think 2012 will be a good year… what about you?

MDG (MD – L&K Team)

The ‘About’ section of dearphotograph.com says it all:

“take a picture of a picture from the past in the present”

You could call it ‘schmaltzy’, but for us it’s the closest anyone has got to inventing a time machine so far.

Waitrose, Mulberry, Molton Brown (you have to appreciate a little luxury!) – I love them and they love me! There are other brands that don’t love me and so I don’t love them anymore. A very senior and well respected marketing man gave me the best piece of advice many years ago. I was moaning  about a client, “He’s an a**hole”, I said. He shot back with the insightful comment that, “whatever you are thinking about him, he’s probably thinking the same about you”. Since that day I could give you countless examples of how that is true and I think it applies to brands too.

Back to Waitrose; we have a mutual admiration for each other. I love shopping there. Their shopping experience, for me, is fantastic. I like the way it’s all laid out in there. I love the deli section and the wet fish counter. The meat is presented just the way I like it and their wine offering is great. It’s probably not as comprehensive or price competitive as Tesco, but it’s the way I like it. I even love their household section. What’s not to like about Waitrose Essential stuff? Their staff communicate with me one-to-one – I can tell Waitrose like me. So they they get my love back. I think a little of the right music in store would be good and I have offered to help them with that – but anyway!

One particular car rental firm don’t like me. I don’t think I’ve done anything to offend them. I am not even mentioning their name here, but they obviously don’t like me. They do like to keep me waiting if I’m hiring a car. It might be at the desk, it might even be in the garage, because they haven’t finished cleaning it yet (although you wouldn’t notice.) They also like to keep me hanging around when I’m returning the car to the airport – particularly when my flight is departing in minutes. So now I try and avoid their brand at all costs, although it has to be said the others aren’t that much better.

You reap what you sow, do unto others, etc., etc. Whatever that brand feels about me, I am probably feeling about them and vice versa. This definitely works on a client / supplier level too.

Shit, I’ve just thought – I hope this is true for my love life as well?

Believe it or not this giant-sized birds nest, designed by Inredning Sgruppen architect Bert Harström, forms part of a hotel in the trees in Northern Sweden.

Built last year, this huge nest has a retractable staircase, three beds (one double and two single child beds) and is one of five existing hotel rooms on the site. With another twenty five planned for the site over the next five years.

The concept is based around the contrast between interior and exterior, with its discreet windows almost hidden behind a latticework of branches and supported by existing trees, whilst inside it’s a high spec modern design family room.

Now that’s the kind of treehouse I dreamed of having as a kid.

These days reality works best, or a good fairytale…or both…

Once upon a time there was a charming Prince who wanted to impress his friends by putting on a big show in his kingdom. So he gave the Ringmaster a large pot of gold to bring his circus to town. However, when it was time for the circus to put up its big top the Prince’s soldiers were being very mean to the people of the kingdom and there was fighting in the streets. Everyone agreed that it wasn’t safe for the lions and tigers and elephants and horses to come to town at that time, so the Prince asked the Ringmaster to postpone the show and bring it back when it was safe for everyone and the people would enjoy the show.

Time went by and the Prince and the Ringmaster thought everyone had forgotten about the mean soldiers and the fighting with so many other things going on in the world, so they announced that the circus was coming back. Unfortunately, they had forgotten the two main things about an elephant – it never forgets and it has a loud trumpet. The elephant remembered the fighting in the streets and thought how the people might not want all the clowns, the pretty ladies and the prancing horses of the circus when they had more important things to worry about. He also thought it was rather inappropriate for the clowns to be clowning whilst there was bad stuff going on. So he tweeted as loud as his trunk could trumpet that this was not a good idea, even though a new date had already been set.

Nobody thought the elephant would really hold much sway over his boss the Ringmaster, but people far and wide in important circles heard his trumpeting and they all agreed that it was not a good idea and they told the Ringmaster. So, all of a sudden he changed his mind and said the circus would not be coming to the kingdom after all. Some even thought the Ringmaster might have to give the pot of gold back to the Prince, but that’s another story…

Of course the other content that works well is sport.

RJ

We mustn’t get cocky, but I’m not sure that everything is as bad as the financial pundits and politicians are telling us. I was in York on Saturday. It was rammed. Shoppers, hen parties, more shoppers and a queue 30 minutes long – yes, 30 minutes – to get into Betty’s Tea Room where it’s not cheap for cheese-on-toast. However, let me tell you that £8.50 for Betty’s Yorkshire Rarebit is worth every penny, washed down with a glass of bubbly (£4.50).

Later the same weekend, the O2 Arena, Jerry Seinfeld performing live in the UK – 18,000 punters, just two prices per seat, £95 or £100. One hundred quid for stand-up? And they’re saying there’s no money around? Come on!

A day later, Bicester Shopping Village, okay it’s a discount outlet, but even the overflow car park was full. Shoppers shopping, money changing hands…

What are your experiences? Have I got this wrong? Anyway, I need to get back to work to make that £113 I spent, not including the stuff from Bicester – but just look at how much I saved!

RJ