Owen's View: 'Branding' yourself- tattoos

Examples of sugar skulls

Since my college days I have been thinking about getting a tattoo, but haven't yet made the commitment to a design that I am prepared to wear on my body for the rest of my life. Our recent work with Treboom Brewery, and our research into sugar skulls got me once again thinking about tattoos, but also branding, and how the two are alike in so many ways. 

Tattoos symbolise being part of tradition, part of a group or clan, or to stand out and even shock. In the same vein, the reason businesses and individuals 'brand' is to differentiate themselves from the next person or business.

Recently the worlds of branding and tattoos have mixed quite dramatically, with huge brands including Reebok, Red Bull, HBO, ASOS and Sailor Jerrys offering free tattoos at various film and music events. The number of willing participants just proves how dedicated some brand fans can be, and that tattoos are no longer a symbol of rebellion.

And what about being dedicated to your company? I have thought about having the United by Design logo tattooed on my body, but this is my business, it's a part of me and something I feel strongly about. But I am not so sure about what's going on over in New York at Rapid Realty, the company is offering a 15% rise in commission to every member of staff who has the company's logo tattooed on them. Over 40 staff have been inked so far!

Tattooing is highly profiled in the media. The rise in popularity of shows such as Miami Ink is inspiring more people than ever to go out and get inked. The amount of celebrities now sporting tattoos makes the once frowned upon art-form even more part of the norm. After the 2012 Olympics, several of the GB athletes, including the majority of the women's basketball team, went and had tattoos incorporating the 5 Olympic rings, highlighting their dedication and pride to sport, Great Britain and the Olympic games.

Azania Stewart- Member of GB Women's Basketball team with her tattoo.

On the other hand, there is still a certain amount of prejudice when it comes to those with tattoos. Air New Zealand have been forced to rethink their policies after being slated for turning away a prospective employee due to her moko, (Maori), tattoo on her forearm. It is reasonable to say that some tattoos are offensive or inappropriate, but taking in pride in your heritage is no bad thing!

In Japan, tattoos still shock and unnerve people, as the showing of body art by Yakuza gang members is considered a sign of aggression. Attitudes are warming slightly to the tradition, as more and more people have started experimenting with irezumi (japanese style of tattooing).

As for my tattoo, I am inspired by japanese, polynesian and moko styles, in fact I have a Pinterest board dedicated to the tattoos that inspire me, check it out here. While I continue to make my mind up I may experiment with some temporary tattoos, such as these by Lydia Leith.

And just like tattoos, branding is something that has to be thought about and considered carefully. There should be a meaning behind your choice and why you are going ahead with such an investment. With regards to both tattoos and branding, seeking advice from an expert, and doing your research, are paramount. It may cost you, but you want the job to be done properly- money definitely well spent if you're going to have the branding, or the tattoo, for a VERY long time!

Are you inked? Tweet us some inspiration @ubd_studio



Sources of information: 
http://www.today.com/money/company-ink-agents-get-15-raise-corporate-tattoos-6C9714898 
http://www.details.com/blogs/daily-details/2013/05/the-tattoo-as-corporate-branding-tool.html 
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/opinion/8739378/Editorial-Air-NZ-makes-a-moko-mistake
http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/radar/horiyoshi-iii-inks-japan

Annabel's View: European Confectionery Brands- My Sugary Inspiration

The 'Face of Kinder' campaign.

Recently, Kinder launched the new campaign, 'The new face of Kinder' and I've seen it everywhere. The ads use naive and whimsical pencil-drawn-style illustrations and type. It's a great way to get kids and parents actively involved in the brand.

Having had a couple of holidays in Germany, I know how important their confectionery is to them, how the aisles and aisles of chocolate and gummy bears running down the Galeria Kaufhof food hall (large German department store) are much-loved by residents and visitors too.

For inspiration for children's brands and confectionery brands, I often think to those long aisles of colourful packaging and soft sweet scents, and the light-hearted adverts that make us smile.

Haribo and Maoam

One of the most popular German brands is Haribo. I bet we all know their strapline by now. To get some childlike inspiration and a smile on your face, watch the Haribo and Maoam (sub-brand) ads here:



Maoam ads: www.maoam.de/lang/enGB/index.html

Ferrero and Kinder

And for more inspiration watch the Ferrero and Kinder ads here: www.ferrero.co.uk/?IDpagina=1776

To see the New Face of Kinder campaign, with its lovely typography and illustration style, and to enter your little'un: www.faceofkinder.com

Ferrero is currently running two competitions: to design and win your own bike helmet, and to win a family cycling holiday at Centreparks, with its other sub-brand Nutella. The brand is very much about family involvement, which is smart; it's the parents who buy the product.

Ever noticed that the Nutella and the Kinder logos use a similar style? That's brand continuity, the subtlety that lets you know the two brands are connected.

Milka

Another great European brand, founded in Switzerland, is Milka (now owned by Kraft, together with Cadbury's and Oreo), who took their purple cow from the packaging and made it into a purple chocolate icon:

Ritter Sport

And for the adults, who love their continental chocolate, take a look at the clean, fresh and colourful Ritter Sport packaging.

Ritter Sport, founded in 1912, was the first chocolate company to use yoghurt in 1970 – an innovative move, and brave for a small family-owned company; the packaging very much reflects the business.

It's also great of Ritter Sport to put their packaging evolution on the website so we can see how they have evolved over the years:

From my research I gather the museum and factory in Waldenbuch, Germany, or the museum in Berlin, Germany, are very much worth a visit:

Ritter Sport shop at the Waldenbuch factory, credit: www.joetheexplorer.com/

Ritter Sport Museum, Berlin

The chocolatiers can create your own bespoke Ritter Sport bar to take home …or consume on the spot.

Are you hungry yet?

Personalisation: putting people in your marketing strategy

Just two of the 150 names available on Coke products this summer.

By now we are sure that you have all seen Coca Cola's latest marketing campaign: "Share a Coke with..." It appears that personalisation is a big thing in the food and drink industry at present.

Personalisation can be as simple as using a lead or client's first name on an email, or you could go to the extreme like Coke, and put your customers' names on the products.

Coca Cola have used the top 150 names in the UK to create personalised bottles of regular Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero, the idea being that you share the bottles with friends and family.  The campaign is set to be around all summer, and Coke are even hosting events for those whose name do not appear on the shelves, allowing them to have personalised bottles printed.

The one and only name featuring on an Irn-Bru can

HP Sauce are also jumping on the personalisation bandwagon specifically for Fathers Day (June 16th). Using a Facebook competition, HP are allowing 100 of their biggest fans to win personalised bottles of sauce for their dads. No surprises that your chances of winning are doubled if you choose to share the campaign on your Facebook timeline. HP Sauce state that the reasoning behind the campaign is to reward their most loyal fans (and their dads) in "a new and exciting way".

A slightly tongue-in-cheek nod to personalisation is Irn-Bru's new can. Following on from their TV campaign, the scottish soft drink has released pictures of a personalised can, but it's only suitable if your name is Fanny. Unfortunately the can is not available in stores, and there is no word as yet that it ever will be.

An example from the HP Sauce campaign.

Personalisation is a rewarding strategy, both from the prospective of the
business, and your audience. The customer feels that they are being given something back from the company, and the company is able to encourage loyalty and advocacy.

Do you use personalisation in your marketing strategy?





Sources of Information:
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/05/31/hp-sauce-offers-facebook-fans-chance-win-personalised-bottles-father-s-day
http://www.thedrum.com/stuff/2013/05/31/irn-bru-jumps-personalised-can-bandwagon-suitable-only-people-called-fanny
http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/faq/products/share-a-coke.html

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/

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. 

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?