Brand

Nude! Lewd? (Or Is It Perhaps Branded Content?)

August 12, 2008

No! I would say nude is NOT lewd! Check out Terry Richardsson’s S/S08 campaign for Tom Ford for example. Completely super-nude (even hairless nude) and still super-cool, super-classy, and super-beautiful. Compare that to the stereotypical “men’s magazine”, even the ones that are completely non-nude and see the difference. The classlessness is NOT in the nudity, [...]

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Passwords, pass-pics and pass-songs. Could this be made into a campaign?

August 12, 2008

We all hate memorizing passwords. I do too. Computer Security was one of the last advanced courses I took before getting my media technology M.Sc., and still, I’m as bad as anyone at maintaining good password security routines. It’s just a pain. Enter ObPwd, another achronym representing “Object-Based Passwords”. What if a song, a picture [...]

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The Message is The Meaning, Or is It?

August 7, 2008

A few Swedish blogs (here they are 1, 2, 3) have spent some time discussing if advertising needs a message. I believe it was all sparked by this article by Paul Feldwick. For those of you who can’t read Swedish (don’t worry, we’re only 9 million people), I can just quickly recap the discussion: They [...]

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Often Wrong, Never in Doubt

August 7, 2008

Three years ago, advertising zillionaire Donny Deutsch wrote a book called “Often Wrong Never In Doubt”. And even though he perhaps didn’t mean it in the way I’m going to describe it here, I think it may describe one of the more profound truths of advertising today. Not least in Sweden. If you think about [...]

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Design Talks: Supercars of the late 60′s

August 4, 2008

On my new little section “Design Talks” I’ll look at some design case studies that interest me. First out is the supercars of the late 60′s and early 70′s. They are interesting for several reasons. The designs have sprung from technical innovations like the mid-engine layout, but are also politically inspired by the space age [...]

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Ben & Jerry’s: The Product Is The Medium

June 27, 2008

I love Ben & Jerry’s. The ice cream – sure – but now I’m talking about the brand. Ben & Jerry’s just feels genuine in a way that few brands can even get close to. How do they do it? By having a congruent personality would be the simple, but all inclusive answer. The link [...]

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no-more.com?

June 26, 2008

Have you ever considered that .com or .net or .se or whatever is pretty geeky and oldfashioned? I mean, really, what has .com got to do with your brand besides being a convention? Now, the end might be near for .com and it’s family. As noted by Brand Republic, brands can soon get their own [...]

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Communication Driven by Design

June 24, 2008

In Cannes I got the question several times why I worked in the design business and not in the advertising business, and for how long I intend to stay. My answer was: I intend to stay with it forever. Regardless of how long I work in “the design business”, I will always keep design as [...]

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Technology Clowning

June 23, 2008

There was A LOT of talk about technology at Cannes this year. A lot of talk about social networks. And mobile. I think there is much confusion about technology. Being an old media technology engineer, I guess I should embrace and defend technology, but even though I love technology, I don’t view it as an [...]

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Cannes 2008 Day X: Wunderman

June 19, 2008

The Wunderman talk, featuring Nick Moore was one of the better ones this far. Clearly one of the not so many who has really put thought into digital communications (or simply 2008 situation for communicators). Interesting company as well. I’ll keep a closer eye on them. Nick’s statement of “don’t make big campaigns, create ongoing [...]

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Cannes 2008 Day 2: Inspiration

June 17, 2008

Identity Works were enjoying the perks of Cannes yesterday. (In the pics: Creative Director Helena, Chairman of The Board Johan, CEO Catarina and… me! Design is also a hot topic in Cannes as it has it’s own category for the first time in Cannes Lions history. After running into several people eager to discuss branding [...]

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Winning

May 28, 2008

“Winning” is a concept that fascinates us humans. Especially men seem to be fascinated by it, and have been since we were still just mamals butting heads. But there are really three types of winning. The first type is when you compete with your friends, family, spouse, girl-/boyfriend, or even kids. Not a very rewarding [...]

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The CopyCat Agency: How To Become Rich And Famous In Advertising

May 23, 2008

Good artists borrow, great artist steal, right? Why put all this effort, strategically and creatively, into putting out new campaigns when you can just steal an old one? Stealing the ones that are tested and proven is just so much cheaper! And they work! Most of the customers out there are not pathological followers of [...]

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Transformator and The Role Of Product Design In Brand Communication

May 22, 2008

Industry design consultants Transformator made it into Dagens Media yesterday with a statement that they’re better than the advertising agencies. I’m sure they ARE better. At product design, design of the user experience, the brand in it’s physical product appearance. But that is not what advertising agencies do. What Daniel Ewerman (CEO of Tranformator) is [...]

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Just Imagine How Fast A Computer COULD feel

May 21, 2008

Oh – by the way. At the lecture I mentioned a test where a 20 year old Mac beat a brand new PC in doing the most common tasks. Here is the article. Amazing.

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Entertain and Thou Shall Be Read

May 14, 2008

A few days ago I felt the need to start another blog – a blog that is everything Walter Naeslund is not. (I won’t tell you exactly where it is. It might be a good thing to keep brand consultancy separate from the dark side of the force). But what’s interesting is that the new [...]

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I Talk The Walk

May 14, 2008

Sometimes people whisper about people that just talk and never do. I think that they probably whisper that about me sometimes. Understandably. I do talk a lot. And write a lot (around 400 posts and counting). And I don’t have production managers, project managers, receptionists, assistants, or a cleaning staff. Sure that lowers my production [...]

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Some Fresh Air Into The Stale World of Internet Advertising

May 12, 2008

It feels like the advertising industry is lagging behind when it comes to the Internet. When looking around I get the feeling that campaigns winning prizes and fame have all been done before, and that the core idea has been around for years and years. I don’t know why. Perhaps the jury people don’t know [...]

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More Seth: The Passion Pop Gulf

May 7, 2008

Seth Godin writes about the dangers of getting stuck in the middle in this post. True to form he has a brand name for his concept, and he calls it The Passion Pop Gulf. And it looks like this: He pulls examples from the music biz, which are relevant, but really, I wonder if not [...]

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