30 years of 'Now that's what I call music!'

"Now that's what I call music!" has been part of our vinyl / cassette / CD / mini disc / download collections for 30 years, and is a name that is recognised by tweens and 40-somethings alike (maybe older if you have a cool grandma!). At some point, you probably owned a 'Now', whether it be 1 or, the most current, 84 or any in between.

Now! took over from the cheap and nasty compilation albums of the 70's and gave the public what they had been waiting for, all the biggest hits on the same album. They also gave lesser known bands and singers a chance to be heard, as producers often cut deals to push new artists; e.g. "you can have Phil Colins if you feature these two tracks (from lesser known bands) on the album too". This has resulted in the Now! albums providing an eclectic mix of music three times a year since 1983. Despite rival record companies offering similar compilation albums from time to time, none have managed to knock Now! off the top spot.

NTWICM 3 featuring the pig as
part of the branding.

The first Now! album.

The back of the first Now! featuring
the poster from which the series got its name.

We were surprised to discover that the Now! series was created by Virgin, for some reason we just assumed it was its own brand, it has been such a huge success without having to broadcast who created it!

After watching ITV's documentary, and doing a bit of research, we found out some more facts about Now! some of which are quite surprising:

- The first ever song to appear on Now! was Phil Colins - You can't hurry love.

- Girls Aloud are the longest running consecutive artists having appeared on 13 Now! albums (54 to 66).

- Songs are edited to remove swearwords, this happened to ruin the concept of Mark Owen's song Four Minute Warning, which, you guessed it, was supposed to be exactly four minutes long.

After Now! 5 the pig was dropped.

At this point Now! had found their
signature look. This grouping of text
has not changed much since.

By Now! 18 the 'snooker' ball logo
was dropped for a bolder look.

- Now 4 was the first album to be released on CD.

- Madonna has never appeared on a Now! album, and was once knocked off the number one chart spot by Now! 10. She campaigned for compilation albums to have a separate chart.

- The series has had over 100 million sales globally.

- Many countries have their own versions of Now! including Korea, Turkey, Israel and Norway.

- The total number of tracks on the UK Now! albums is 2693.

The lastest numbered Now! album.

The pigs have made a come-back on
the commemorative album.

All of this got us discussing the first Now! albums that we bought. Owen has the first 'Now that's what I call music!' on tape! (Thinking about this caused a couple of laughs reminiscing about the issues we faced with tapes, such as winding the ribbon back in with a Biro). The first album Lucy remembers listening to is Now! 42, which included the likes of Steps, Billie and the Spice Girls. Annabel remembers Now! 43 as her first album, and Ross has Now! 44 somewhere at home, and he distinctly remembers that CD featuring Eiffel 65's 'Blue'.  

Which was the first Now! Album you bought?

Sources of Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_That%27s_What_I_Call_Music!
http://fatherandy2.proboards.com/thread/46675#
http://www.nowmusic.com/

Annabel's View: Mr. Waterstone's new app 'Read Petite' in development

The new service
expected this autumn.

A new reading app, called Read Petite, is due to be launched to the public in autumn. For any traders who've missed this piece of news, it was launched to trade at the London Book Fair in April.

Read Petite is founded by Tim Waterstone (founder of the book retailer Waterstones) along with literary agent Peter Cox, the former editor of The Bookseller magazine, Neill Denny, and founder of book supply chain specialist, Batch, Martyn Daniels.

The app will allow more people, who may be interested in literature but are short on time, to get in on some wonderful literary pieces. You could expect short stories by Graham Greene and Aldous Huxley.

"A lot of the best short fiction has never been properly exposed, because publishers don't find it commercially comfortable," says Waterstone. "Even with a collection, how do you package it? It's difficult in print: traditionally, money was used up on production and distribution, and not enough was left for promotion. In the digital world, production costs are virtually nil, and distribution costs don't exist, so you're left with a much cleaner sheet."

Each book will be under 9,000 words, and many will be serialised, allowing the reader to dip in and out of series comfortably. Denny and Waterstone, when chatting to the Guardian, spoke of their excitement at reintroducing the art of the cliffhanger, and how e-readers have increased people's appetite for a short story.

Some have dubbed Read Petite as the Spotify of the literary world, which some claim has poor quality control. However, Waterstone guarantees that only high quality material will be featured, and authors appearing on this new service will already be "an established, published writer". Although this does not mean the actual works themselves will have been published in the past.

Interesting news, not only for this commuter consumer, but also for the writing industry.

There is no doubt the service will provide a great platform for published authors everywhere. However, I do think it is slightly unfair that those wishing to be published on the site must have been published in traditional print first. Read Petite could be missing out on some great works by those wishing to publish, but who are short on time and resources. The site could have provided the opportunity for authors' first short(s) to be earning the money to fund the next in the series. That way Read Petite would be good news for new writers, as well as those who are winding down their writing careers. (In any case, bad news for printers – sorry.) It will be interesting to see if policies change over time.

Further to this, the possibility of Read Petite publishing journalism is also on the cards if the funds keep coming; "if the site works, if the total subscriptions are high enough, it should leave a decent sum", Waterstone told The Guardian. The details of how this will run have yet to be confirmed.

An interactive app that allows you
to be part of the story.

Another reading app that came to my attention while researching Read Petite, is Versu.

Versu is an interactive app, that allows you to become one of the characters in the story, and to make choices about what your character will do next, to see how your fellow characters react, and react to them. Less likely to be literary genius, but will perhaps attract a younger market than Read Petite.

Either way, at least we might be reading more.

As a twenty-something who is often short of time and can often feel uncommitted to a lengthy tome, I look forward to Read Petite. And, as someone who knows a few young writers, I am very happy at the new opportunities that may arise here for them.

To subscribe for more information from Read Petite, see readpetite.com.
To find out more information about Versu and to get the app, see versu.com.

Are you looking forward to the release of Read Petite?

Sources of Information:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digital-media/9985362/Waterstones-founder-to-launch-Spotify-for-books.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2260971/waterstones-founder-will-launch-a-spotifylike-digital-book-service
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/09/tim-waterstone-reading-entirely-digital

Owen's View: Looking to extend brand reach – at the cinema

Robert Downy Jnr. as Tony Stark in Iron Man 3.

Having just watched Iron Man 3, which I really enjoyed, I found myself particularly drawn to those brands and their products both obviously (Audi and Oracle) and subtly (ABB and FIOS products) injected into the movie. I even missed some, which others have since highlighted.

It is almost laughable now how brand product placement is something we come to expect as part of our movie experience. Not since Minority Report have I been blown away how cinema can exploit the captive audience of the cinema. 

Do you know what this little icon means?
 

The 'PP' icon used in the UK for programmes
containing product placement.

Product placement has been common on UK television since February 2011, when the 'PP' symbol was introduced. The EU define product placement as "any form of audiovisual commercial communication consisting of the inclusion of or reference to a product, a service or the trade mark thereof so that it is featured within a programme".

This form of advertising is popular due to its ability to show products in context, for example how people interact with products, and how a product interacts with its environment. This facilitates an emotional connection between the product and the audience. Product placement on commercial television has been common practice in the US for a lot longer than in the UK.

However, long before television entered our homes, product placement was already taking place in the cinema, with the earliest instances taking place around 1895! More recent, and much more well-known, instances of product placement include a Capital One credit card in 127 Hours, Domino's Pizzas in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nike trainers in The Terminator, and Heineken lager in Skyfall.

Is product placement effective?

One of the sarcastically obvious product placements in
'Wayne's World'.

Quite simply, yes it is. There are several ways to measure the effectiveness of product placement, one being implicit memory. A study used the film 'Home Alone' to test the product placement of Pepsi. One group of children watched a clip of the film featuring Pepsi, and when asked to pick between Pepsi and Coke, 67% of the children chose Pepsi. Out of a group of children who watched clip of 'Home Alone' which did not feature the soft drink, only 42% chose Pepsi.

Studies have also shown that a number of factors can affect the success of a product placement, including the attractiveness of the characters, and the degree of subtlety used when placing the product. The 1992 film 'Wayne's World' did a great job of highlighting how to do product placement badly in their parody. In the scene both Wayne and Garth decry product placement while at the same time blatantly promoting many products by looking directly at the camera, holding up the product, smiling widely, and sometimes giving a thumbs-up. 

And as for Iron Man 3...

The main product that I was drawn towards through the excitement, action, thrill and MARVEL madness was the Audi R8. This is more than likely why I really like the super car and Audi as a brand but one thing I did not notice was the fact that Audi appear to have category exclusivity in the film. It has been pointed out that one of the cars in the film is a Mustang, however does not carry the Mustang logo.

Audi take centre stage in the Iron Man movies.

I was also intrigued by some of the sunglasses Tony Stark was wearing. Several eyewear brands were represented throughout the film but the one that caught my eye was the luxury brand Matsuda, who have a very cool website! You can also check them out on Twitter.

And of course MARVEL did not forget to advertise the Avengers franchise with their trademark bonus clip after the credits!

However, it has been questioned whether product placement was taken too far in Iron Man 3, especially in the chinese version. Chinese audiences we treated to an extra 4 minutes of footage, but from the reviews it seems that most of this footage was used to promote a cheap chinese milk brand!

What about the future?

Product placement occurs everywhere; in our streets, on our screens, in our books, everywhere. Are we as creatives going to be asked to persue further avenues to promote and advertise a brand's products and services? Red Bull have already gone to the heady heights of space to push the boundaries, we're pretty sure that if practicality hadn't have gotten in the way Felix would have been enjoying a can just before he jumped to earth...

Notice how his suit is Red Bull branded.

We'd love to hear what you thought of Iron Man 3, and what you think about product placement in general. Leave us a comment or tweet us @ubd_studio.

Sources of Information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_placement#Product_Placement_in_Historical_Cinema
http://brandsandfilms.com/2013/05/product-placement-slideshow-iron-man-3/
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=78666
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/20/ofcom-product-placement-uk-tv
http://www.slashfilm.com/5-things-that-bothered-me-about-iron-man-3/

Sensible Social Media

The careless tweet that may have cost a woman's career.

Social media is becoming an ever more popular form of marketing for businesses worldwide, but used incorrectly this instant, and free, form of communication can become a disaster for even the biggest of companies. This week has seen another three social media blunders each resulting in a huge backlash from the public. There are lessons to be learned here.

Making an 'opportunity' out of a crisis will never work

Without a doubt the biggest social media error of the week comes from Friends Reunited, who posted a rather insensitive tweet following one of the most horrific incidents to affect the UK in recent times. After public reaction to other such social media mishaps in the last few months, it is seemingly obvious that unless your sending your thoughts / condolences, it's probably best not to say anything at all, let alone newsjack and try and force a marketing opportunity out of a tragedy. Friends Reunited have since apologised, suspended the person responsible, and have stated that the post was not cleared by management. Another lesson here, know who has access to your accounts!

Strong personal opinions should be kept away from the internet
 
It's not just companies that can be affected by the power of social media. A flippant tweet by a 21-year-old trainee accountant explaining how she hit a cyclist may have jepordised her career. The girl has already been suspended from her job and has stated her contract may be over. It doesn't matter whether you are the social media manager for a huge company, or simply expressing your opinion on your own personal social media accounts, you are at risk of putting damaging information out there. Do not post anything which you may later regret. Sure there is a delete button, but you can't delete those hundreds of screen grabs just by removing the original post, and you can't stop those hundreds of screen grabs from being circulated, and hate being directed towards you. Do yourself a favour and think before you tweet / post, please!

If someone loves your brand, do not give them reason not to
 
Not as controversial as the other two examples, but potentially as damaging to the company, was the way that Fererro handled a Nutella superfan this week. Sara Rosso created World Nutella Day in 2007, and the event has over 40,000 fans on Facebook. However, Fererro initially panicked, and delivered a cease and desist notice against the event, claiming that their branding was being used incorrectly on the fan page. Luckily, Ferrero backtracked and are now supporting the event. But why the panic? Fans are a great asset to a brand, they are an opportunity, not a threat, especially when they already have 40,000 fans of their own!  We hope Fererro are now making the most of this and are assisting Sara. Send her the brand guidelines, help her use them correctly, make her a brand ambassador, reward her loyalty.

There are those who get it right
 
A great example of how brands can reward their superfans, and use social media in a positive way, comes from Taco Bell, who have been sending rings and hand written letters to their 'special ladies'. These ladies are all high profile celebrities, but they are also people who apparently promote their love for the chain on their social media accounts. This may seem a little bit odd, but a picture is worth 1000 words and some of the receivers of these rings have taken to Instagram to show them off, jackpot for Taco Bell.

What lessons have you learned through using, or watching others use, social media?

Kanye West uses unconventional marketing to promote "New Slaves"

Were you in a big city over the weekend? Did you manage to see a projection of Kanye West's face onto a building near you?



"New Slaves" is the first official song to be revealed off the artist's latest studio album, expected to be released on June 18th. To help fans find the projections, kanyewest.com has been turned into an interactive map highlighting the times and locations of the 'performances'.

Artwork for Kanye West's upcoming album, 'Yeezus'.

Speculation and hype about the upcoming release of the album has been fuelled by this Instagram posted by Kim Kardashian, released before Kanye appeared on Saturday Night Live, (18th May), to perform.

Is this the way marketing is going now, bigger and bolder? And more importantly integrated? It's one thing to set up your website to promote the launch of a new product, in this case an album, but it's another to use your website as some sort of 'treasure map' directing your customers to another form of marketing. Plus the use of Instagram to promote the album artwork just before a live performance is a very clever and free way to get news out to the masses, and to start to cause a stir.

Moreover, Kanye West must have a lot of faith in his personal brand, the projections don't feature any gimmicks, logos, or any other branding apart from Kanye himself. Whether you like him or not, you have to admit his methods of self promotion definitely stand out from the crowd. 

UbD must see: Fast & Furious 6

Friday saw the release of Fast and Furious 6, the latest offering from the Fast and the Furious series, and it's got most of us here in the studio pretty excited, especially since we found out Vin Diesel does a lot of the stunts himself!

Most of us were still in school when the first film, 'The Fast and The Furious', was released in 2001. Since then the series has provided us with over a decade of action, consisting of 6 full length movies, a couple of spin off short films, AND the promise of Fast & Furious 7 to be released next year! We're already looking forward to it, and we haven't even seen number 6 yet! 

One of the customised cars featured in the Fast and the Furious series.

Just as we have grown up, the Fast and the Furious films have somewhat switched their focus to move with the times. The earlier films touched on the culture of street racing which, although illegal, was a way of life that racers could not live without. Car customisation also played a large part, and was portrayed as an art-form, highlighting that to earn credibility in this culture, it is important to produce something beautiful, as well as engineer something high performance. This is something that applies in our industry as well! Now, from the later films, we expect fast-paced crime-packed action thrillers, and by the looks of the trailer, Fast & Furious 6 is not going to disappoint. We're organising a cinema trip ASAP!

Have you managed to see Fast & Furious 6 yet? Or are you heading out to see it soon? Let us know what you think.

Owen's View: No more Gnomes!

The not-so-friendly garden Gnome.

Something sinister is lurking in our gardens as summer is drawing closer and IKEA is challenging us to fight back.







With its dramatic music, and numerous cinematic references, we think the new advert from IKEA is great! Created by Mother (London), the campaign captures an all out turf war between a family and their garden gnomes, who are getting the boot to be replaced by IKEA's modern and stylish garden furniture.



Film buffs will notice the hints of 'Platoon' and 'Apocalypse Now', and music lovers should appreciate the orchestral cover of Mötley Crüe's 'Time for Change', performed by The Palace of Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra and The Heritage Singers. All that said, the plight of the Gnomes has lead to some backlash towards the advert, regarding the level of violence towards the garden dwellers, one critic even stated:

"The advert seems to express the worst excesses of imperialistic bombast. Encouraging people to laugh at creatures being thrown out of their homes and blown to pieces is extremely sinister in my book."

A still from the advert.

The 'Platoon' scene.

 In our opinion it's the Gnomes themselves that are sinister, in our book they are similar to clowns, and they can be a bit creepy too! IKEA and Mother are right when they say Gnomes are "tired, old fashioned and uninspired", we're sure there is a place in the world for the Gnome community, but nowadays that's not in our gardens.

The 'Apocalypse Now' scene.

Currently, as a family going through the green fingered challenge of taking on a front and back garden that have not been tendered since the late 1950's, the advert resonates. Trying to take aspects of the 'inherited' garden, yet bring our personality to our home, and at the same time add value to the property, means finding a balance is hard, but one thing is for sure, there will be no Gnomes in the garden. That's not to say there won't be one in the house...

'Deadly'- The Firetrap Gnome.

Meet Deadly, some of you may recognise him as the Firetrap Gnome, who has been featuring in marketing campaigns for Firetrap since 2004. We have one of these sat on our mantel piece. He is a cool Gnome, he's ditched the red hat and moved forward with the times, something which IKEA is encouraging the family in this advert, and the nation, to do.

IKEA have always been about moving forward, pushing the boundaries and using big and dramatic stunts to wow consumers. We've found our favourite promotional stunts from IKEA branches all over the world. 


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

What do you think of the new advert? And, possibly more importantly, what do you think of Gnomes?

Annabel's View: The over use of Gill Sans

Variations of Gill Sans

The use of the font Gill Sans divides designers' opinions everywhere.

Personally I find it everywhere I go and therefore think we, as designers, have saturated the world in it, and the world (and I) can't take any more.


 






Where did it come from?
Gill Sans started as a signage font, that Eric Gill painted onto his friend's, Douglas Cleverdon's, bookshop front. He also painted a guide for Cleverdon to use the font in further designs.

Then, in 1928, Eric Gill was commissioned by Monotype Corporation to design Gill Sans. In 1929, Cecil Dandridge commissioned a further version for use by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), so they would have a unique typeface. Of course this is not longer the case.

Where is it used?
Monotype themselves used Gill Sans for their own logo, and over the years many iconic designs and well-known companies have adopted the font for their brand or for their published materials. Of those, notably are the BBC, Penguin's book circa 1935, Network Rail, United Colors of Beneton, Tommy Hilfiger, Saab and Philips, and another pet hate of mine, the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Other than these, I'm sure as you look around on you on a day to day basis, you may spot Gill Sans everywhere.

Why is it used so commonly?

One of the many uses of Gill Sans

In 1991 Microsoft bought the digitised data copyright for Gill Sans MT, and it became a system font, then a new trend. Since then it has been used prolifically by designers around the world.

My conclusion
Because it saturated our world in the 90s and early 00s my mind can't help but think it feels over-used and old-fashioned now.

We have so many exquisite fonts that we can use, many of Monotype's other fonts are wonderful for both layout and logos. Why don't we update our font collections every now and then, have a spring clean and acquire something new and beautiful and enjoy using something new.

Failing that, there's always Helvetica and Garamond.

Is austerity the new luxury?

An example of the austerity trend from
local jewellery brand, Twopenny Lane.

The financial climate is still tough, and the trends in the economy have been reflected in trends within the packaging industry. Design has been stripped back, muted and simplified, initially to reduce cost in packaging production, but it appears now this has become accepted as 'trendy', but why? Because we think it sits well our price sensitive audience, or conversely, because we think it's the new sign of luxury?








As with everything, there are several sides to this debate. First let's assume that we are designing with the cash strapped economy in mind. Let's suggest that gold still means luxurious and that

Benefit's 'Great Gatsby' inspired collection.

flamboyancy is the way to sell luxury products. Look at The Great Gatsby for example. The Guardian hit the nail on the head when they said that Baz Luhrmann's latest offering is "celebrating opulence". The jewellery for the film was designed by Tiffany, the costumes by Prada, everything about the film screams luxury, and some companies are riding on that wave. Take Benefit cosmetics and their 1920's-inspired limited edition packaging. The luxury cosmetics industry never ditched their metallic, intricately designed boxes, velvet covers and superfluous layers of packaging, for butchers twine and a brown paper bag, yet they are still selling products by the bucket load. They know their products have value and people will pay for it. Fact. So with that said, luxury is the new luxury.

The new Leona Lewis collection from The Body Shop.

So now let's look at another side of the argument. This might be a little controversial, but are we the only ones who think that some of the Benefit packaging looks a little cheap? When you compare it to a brand like The Bodyshop, who have stripped their packaging right back to allow the product to take centre stage, Benefit's packaging just looks a bit much. The Bodyshop have not lost their personality by being more reserved with their designs, they have simply aligned themselves with the austerity trend. Although it is not technically a luxury brand, the price point is towards the higher end of high street make-up brands, making this brand a bit of a luxury when financial times are hard.






Looking at some of the greats in graphic design, such as Herb Lubalin, it's easy to see why design austerity can be such a successful strategy for a brand.  He has been described as proving that "to be effective, all you need is a typeface and a good idea" (Adrian Shaughnessy), removing the need for all the excessive elements of design. Furthermore, it has been argued that because of a change in attitudes towards 'organic' and 'pure' products, (both of which are becoming increasingly important in the cosmetics industry), consumers now associate luxury products with packaging featuring quirky graphics, hand-written styles of text, less focus on colour, and more on texture. In times of austerity, brand loyalty is easily swayed. Packaging plays such a huge role in consumer decision making, and getting that right for your potential, (and existing), customers is paramount.

The power of the typeface. The development of the food wall, designed by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase for Lou Dorfsman, director of design at CBS in 1966.

Finally there's the argument that people will buy what people will buy, regardless of the economic situation, or trends in packaging. Suppose that with or without the pomp and ceremony of the golden YSL box that people would still buy the product because they "simply can't live without it", ask the majority of women who own Touche Éclat how many they have bought, and whether they pay that much attention to the packaging!

However we believe that, when a consumer is in the market for a new product, your packaging plays too much of a part in purchasing decisions to be ignored. Once that purchase becomes habit, packaging plays a lesser role. But surely you always want to be attracting new customers, so packaging always matters.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this, how do you think the economy has affected luxury packaging, if at all? Are you more attracted to the 'shiny' or the quirky?

Sources of information:
http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/design/markets/a-quest-for-luxury-in-austere-times-markets-luxury-packaging/ 
http://www.printmag.com/interviews/designer-for-the-age-of-austerity-adrian-shaughnessy-on-herb-lubalins-life-and-work/  
http://www.jkrglobal.com/design-gazette/flapper-fabulous/#comments

Lucy's View: Social Media

Studio 'Research'

We hear about it everywhere, businesses should be making more effort on social media, in order to connect to their customers, and it's true, they should. We like to use our social media channels in order to let our network know about company updates, share things that we find interesting, and to shine a light into studio life.

Nowadays there are so many websites offering tips, e-books, white papers, you name it, all about how to run your social media channels, how to strategise, how to automate, create and curate. And a lot of it is contradictory.  I subscribe to tens of social media experts and 'gurus', and yes I find a lot of the advice useful, but some of it is far too confusing! Especially if you're just starting to expand your company's social media efforts.

To me, the idea of social media, is to be just that, social. While automation is great for regular features, and days out of the office, surely the point is that your presence on social media is to interact with your network. Ask questions, discuss the answers, post that quick snap of the 'research' going on in the studio (see picture). This enables you let people in to who you are as a company, and as individuals, and share experiences. Sharing is such an important part of social media. Don't be scared to share articles and pictures by others, they might do the same for you!

Of all the guides, tips and tricks I have read and picked up through developing my role in social media, I go back to my dissertation for the most valuable and simple advice. A pair of academics (Kaplan and Haenlein) broke the term social media into it's two components, quite simply 'social' and 'media', and offered five guidelines for each. As many of the gurus I follow suggest that you 'put your own spin' on curated content, I have decided to add my comments on the matter.

Social Media Guidelines from UbDStudio

We'd love to hear your feedback! Do you have any social media golden rules you abide by? Tweet us @ubd_studio.