December 14, 2007

A blogrocking naked goodbye



This blog have been quiet for a long long time. Lot's of things have happened. In highlights I'm now a married man to my fantastic wife Cecilie. I given up my job for nearly 5 years at La Familia. I'm now a Naked Man.

More specifically I have just co-founded Naked Communications new Copenhagen office, where I will be a partner. We will be an office in Naked's Nordic & Central/Eastern-European offering. This exiting journey began officially in the beginning of december and we are going to document the making of an office in true flickr style on the below address - if anyone should be interested:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nakedcomms_cph/

So, this means this blog is going to continue to be quiet as I will devote my time to my new adventures. Blogging here has been one of the most valuable experiences in my time in communications. The blogosphere has given me such an outlook and my RSS feeds are still up to more than 100.

A part from our Flickr thingy - my new contact details are:

casper_willer@nakedcomms.com
+45 40 98 52 35

Naked Communications
Kompanistræde 10, 3'rd floor
1208 Copenhagen
Denmark
Att.: Casper Willer

Hope to see you in the real world.

July 10, 2007

Super Normal Brands



I stumbled upon an article discovering the design philosophie of Jasper Morrison (http://www.jaspermorrison.com/html/index.html) recently and what he has to say about design is very similar to a lot of the tendencies we see in communication and among brands these days.

Morrison’s main belief is that he - and people in general - are growing tired of an over designed world, where anything is put through the big branding and lifestyle machinery. He wants simple usable design without al the colours, attitudes and attention seeking surprise elements.

He and Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa has coined the term Super Normal. Super Normal is something that’s normal, yet very special.

(It’s all explained here:
http://2021supernormal.wordpress.com/about/ , and you can see more on flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/supernormal/)

If we took his philosophies to the world of communication and brands, I think it could be a great way of explaining a lot of the tendencies driving through the more successful part of the brand landscape.

The brands that are not driven by differentiation through big ad concepts, but brands that has taken another approach often with smaller budgets and proximity to their customers.

Super Normal brands could be those who are - doing the normal real well – by being:

Function more than form
Authentic
Basic
Simple
Interacting (and inviting consumers to participate)
Utility based
Honest & transparent
Storytelling
Sustainable and CSR oriented (not just greenwashing)
Folksy (as John Grant put’s it)

I think Super Normal applies to brands like:

American Apparel
Muji
Vitamin Water
Ben & Jerry’s
3M
Innocent
Ikea
Target
Tesco
Apple (they are also of other things than Super Normal)
Micro Breweries (in general)
Howies
BIC
Moleskine
H&M
Most of the Web 2.0 companies from Flickr to Facebook.

And then lot's and lot's of others.

Off course everyone can't be super normal and everyone shouldn’t be – but, I think there are still a lot of opportunities in this belief and approach.

June 13, 2007

Likemind this friday

Likemind is back, so come on you people - let’s have a chat and some good coffee.

Details are:

where: Risteriet, Studiestræde 36, Copenhagen (
MAP)
when: friday, june 15 at 8am (PST)
The Likemind badges now comes in four different version - first in the house, first to choose. Once again thanks to the fantastic Likemind people - Piers, Noah & Amy – and thanks to the sponsors Anomaly (
http://www.anomalynyc.com/home.html).

The Likemind movement is now spread to 25 countries (see them all here: http://likemind.us/).

June 05, 2007

The new musical generosity

The music industry mostly get’s criticized for being caught in the last century – and often they are – but some players have really brought great value to all us music fans.

Apart from the constant innovations from iTunes and great brand utility initiates like Nokia’s Music Recommenders (
www.musicrecommenders.com) there are publishers that have understood that one free tune can lead to new fans and buyers more effectively than any other marketing ploy.
One splendid and legal generous site is http://betterpropaganda.com/ which is filled with great free tracks (may I recommend a free download from the likes of Albert HAmmond Jr., Arcade Fire, Ratatat, HOT HOT HOT, Cat Power, Klaxons, New Young Pony Club, Soulwax, MSTRKRFT, Man Man, Peter, Bjorn and John, Van She, The Softlightes, Wolf Parade)

Also recommendable is:
The free and very influential music blog (which you probably already know):
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/
If you ever need to write a lyric (or a rhyme full line of strategy for that matter): http://www.rhymezone.com/
Or have to find a specific lyric: http://www.azlyrics.com/

Can you buy that for money?

Either it’s a brand enthusiasm thing or Big Steve has been paying the big bucks to the Coen Brothers with them endorsing the new Apple Color feature on Final Cut Pro like this:

“Color is really revolutionary,” states Joel Coen about the new, professional color grading tool debuting in Final Cut Studio 2. In fact, the application “seems calculated to appeal to us.” That’s because the Coen Brothers enjoy being on the leading edge. Their highly praised “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” was “the first feature film where the entire movie was digitized and where we used digital intermediates as opposed to photo chemical grading.” Known for taking a holistic approach to filmmaking, the pair involve themselves in every step of the process. “We write our own scripts. We cut our own movies. And we’re involved in the process all the way to the end.” With Color, they can now sit down in front of a Mac and “play with contrast and de-saturation and approximate the look” they want for their film.

The probably got a couple of them for free but, I don’t think this is a case of corporate prostitution. What do you say?

Thought provoking statistical art

Go check this art project out if you haven’t seen it already. http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php

The picture above is called:Jet Trails, 2007, 60x96". And it says:Depicts 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours.

May 16, 2007

No Likemind Cph. this Friday

There is a bank holiday in Denmark this Friday, see you next time.

Diesel Wall in Copenhagen

If there is a company that always dose great collaboration (or piggy-backing - depending on how you see it) with the urban influencers it’s Diesel. Their initiatives into art , music and - a bit closer to the jeans - in high fashion are always interesting and seems like they are coming from a brand that has creativity deeply rooted in the personality.
The Diesel Wall initiative is simple and cool stuff. You find a big wall in a city and make local artist compete for the space. Now it has come to Copenhagen, which yet another example of my hometown becoming part of the “must do cities” when it comes to international company selecting cool cities to launch their initiatives.
Their new explorations into the digital age with the “Heidies” campaign also works really well and seems to be really effective too.

And finally their Global Warming Ready print campaign seems to cause some stir – superficially exploiting the new found green consciousness or intelligently commenting on that - you decide?
Enough Renzo Rosso praise for now - here are the links:

Diesell Wall
www.dieselwall.com

“Heidies” underwear campaign results:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=116571

Global Warming Ready campaign discussions:
http://www.print.duncans.tv/2007/diesel-global-warming-ready/.

April 19, 2007

Likemind Cph. tomorrow



where: Risteriet, Studiestræde 36, Copenhagen (MAP)

when: friday, april 20 at 8am (CET)

The first 10 will receive an exclusive badge sent all the way from our friends in New York – you don’t’ want to be late.

Great brand integration definition

"Brand integration used to be saying the same thing everywhere. Now it's believing the same thing everywhere."

From the blog (http://zeusjones.blogspot.com/) of exiting new start-up company ZeusJones with people from Fallon. Check out their site http://www.zeusjones.com/ which is really communication 2.0. Thank to Gareth (http://garethkay.typepad.com/brand_new/) for the link.

March 19, 2007

Likemind Friday in Copenhagen



Friday we had our first Likemind Cph. gathering at Risteriet.

Nine early risers made it this cold but sunny spring morning. Since it was our first Likemind I think it was quite ok to see that many faces for a premiere - mostly coming from the Danish planning community. The discussions where around many different subjects, the ultimate centre of attention though, where the Mattel Badge Maker - designed to make you do a badge on the spot.

Suggestions where many – from our Frenchman Bertrand’s “Vive La Stratégie” to the very optimistic Yes badge (Ja, in Danish) from Rikke. I’m sure we are going to see lot’s of very professional pre-produced suggestions next time.

Next time we hope to see lots of new faces and people from more diverse backgrounds (we would like to se both you Maria, and you Einar).

The Likemind date for next month is April 20th - same time, same place.

More photos on my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/casperwiller/

March 06, 2007

Likemind Cph.

We have just been officially uploaded to Piers Fawkes and Noah Briers Likemind worldwide coffee morning mafia (http://likemind.us/). I’m one of the hosts here in Copenhagen and the details for the first coffee morning are:

where: Risteriet, Studiestræde 36, Copenhagen (MAP)
when: friday, march 16 at 8am (CET)
hosts:
casper

For anyone not aware of the concept it’s an opportunity to enjoy coffee and conversation with likeminded people - likeminded as in people within the wider world of communication. Probably for the people that are both curious and conversational about topics like “what’s interesting in communication right now”. People coming from background as: planners, digital wizards, agency creative’s, designers, marketing department strategist or other similar backgrounds.

So please spread the word if you know anyone, who is in Copenhagen and ready to go.

Our newly formed CPG (Communication Planning Group) a Danish equivalent to the British APG is behind, amongst others. We are an association of planners from both advertising and media agencies who in the name of a more overall communication planning and media-neutral approach have gathered forces. So far it’s been a pleasure to have a closer collaboration and common agenda.

The Gondry Puzzle

Here is two of my favourite pop cultural things brought together in a little puzzle countdown. It’s Michel Gondry vs. The Rubrick Cube.

Here is the clip you should see first where Gondry does magical things with his feats


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiQXgmVVGNA&mode=related&search=

And here is the analysis and solution to the puzzle:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaVsaWjzsds&NR

Youth Plnin

ImageChef.com - Create custom images

I’m doing a project that includes understanding of the wonderful world of teenagers and their relations to cell phones and more specifically to text messaging. Text messaging for me includes no codes, no abbreviations and often a lack of understanding of the messages I receive written in that txt stylee. But here is a little help to embrace the txt language yourself or get the txt translated to plain English:
http://www.transl8it.com/cgi-win/index.pl

February 20, 2007

Method Planning

How de we find those rare nuggets of insight or other creative thought starters. How do we dig deeper into either the consumer, within the cooperation, into the product, or tap into a broader cultural context?

How de we equip ourselves with enough knowledge to truly understand was goes on in the Herd?

What do we need to know about those brand communities to dive into the new vast world of transmedia planning?

How do we look at both advertising and media planning at the same time?

How do we truly disrupt the marketplace?

How do we add new knowledge, if the focus groups and the piles of data doesn’t do the job (with no intentions to rebel against the more data-driven rigour)?

I’m looking for the planning behind the planning out of a belief that real life experience and a more personal involvement close to where the action is at, can get us new perspectives to the problem solving we are facing.

Then a little while ago I came a cross Wikipedias explanation of Method Acting and intuitively felt there was something in that.

The fact that it was a possibility to give a little “Actors Studio meets Lee Strasberg meets Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro & Al Pacino coolness” to the planning profession was no downside. Even the fact that it could provide a new set of explanatory tools for the daily merits of the planner - in a dinner party small talk perspective - wasn’t bad either.

I simply tried to replace acting/actors with planning/planners, characters with brands and performance with communication. The definition is then as goes:

Method Planning is a planning technique in which planners try to replicate in real life the emotional conditions under which the brand operates, in an effort to create a life-like, realistic communication. "The Method" typically refers to the generic practice of planners drawing on their own emotions, memories, and experiences to influence their portrayals of brands.

Next up was to try to come up with some tools and tactics to come closer to a TO-DO list for Method Planning.

This could be the first 10 techniques of Method Planning:

1. Do a Cindy Sherman!
Become the target group, dress and behave like them. It’s not observing but experiencing through an active involvement in the crowd. I, realize this can be a bit hard and very weird if let’s say - you are middle aged male planner searching for the golden nuggets amongst young female cosmetic users in Asia– but probably still worth a try. If Cindy can, you can.

(See more on the woman that can make even David Bowie “chameleon envious” here:
http://www.cindysherman.com/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman)

2. How may I help you?
Let’s forget all the explorations on how our messages, propositions, promises, reasons to believe fit into the realms of a specific crowd. Let’s instead find the utility angle. How could a brand improve our daily lives? What’s interesting? What’s helpful? What’s could be improved? Are there any existing online/offline utilities that could need the scaling from partnering with big brands?

3. La Source
How did they hear about a certain phenomenon or brand? It’s all about drawing a media pattern recognition map. How does the specific crowd work? What are the dynamics? Where are the touchpoints where the brand is welcome and effective? And where does the crowd want the brand to keep out and decide and discuss for them selves?

4. Lap observing
A really simple way of getting to know your target group, market, product is to simply spend a day or two in the production facilities, in the back of police car (I remember one specific law enforcement campaign as the result of a creative team doing just this), hang out with a certain crowd, be part of the new product development for a little while, do a stand-in for the personnel in a retail outlet etc. etc. This can be done more or less biased having a set of questions or totally non-interrupting.

The Staufenberger Repository had a great example of a creative team doing a project with this intention (see more here
http://staufenberger.typepad.com/repository/2007/01/ollie_and_janso.html and http://www.spendadaywith.blogspot.com/)

5. CyberStalking (no resemblance to this sad phenomenon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberstalking)
It’s hard to truly understand peoples cyber life’s if you haven’t been to Second Life, Myscapce, Flickr, Youtube and all the other social networks and communities. The easy thing to do is creating a profile and become a part of the fun – off-course steering out of the obvious immoral places for a thirtysomething to be.

6. The Cause
John Grants brilliantly coined term marketing enthusiasm should also go into The Method Planning fieldwork. Ask what they really care about in certain categories and areas both internally and externally? Opinions wherever they come from, are highly inspiring.

7. Do the real life Water Cooler
Stand right there in the spotlight of informal chat - from the infamous water cooler, to the stadium seats, the café corner, in the smoking areas, in the bus and off-course let’s hear what the cab driver has to say. Let’s hear what they talk about and what they think about what we’ve done communication wise in the past.

8. Find the Internet Zeitgeist
There are lot’s of online resources to tap into the cultural zeitgeist. The likes of Digg, Del.icio.us., Stumbleupon, Bloglines, Flickr, Youtube and off-course Google (and Google Zeitgeist) are all great resources of what’s top of mind in people lives. I remember doing a an experiment on brand affection some time ago looking at how many people had posted pictures and tagged brands on Flickr and it was indeed correlated to high scores in brand temperature measurements like Lovebrands and Brand Asset Valuator.

9. Prototype the product/service/communication
There is nothing more honest than standing with the actual center of attention in your the hand - whether is product or service - talking to people. Preferable having the thing explored outside of the unnatural frames of the focus group room and instead using people’s natural surroundings to create a realistic context.

10. Do the WHAT IF?
I’m a big fan of this method both as a standalone tactic and a way to ask question for several of the other techniques. Something always comes out of asking this way in my experience. One WHAT IF? leads to another and suddenly you are in another place.

That’s it for now. Love to hear from you if you have any suggestions or techniques to explore the world of Method Planning.


January 10, 2007

Calories, calories, calories...


It’s 2007 - and happy new years by the way – and time for resolutions and all that jazz. For the first time in many years I’ve decided to take a little trip down the diet highway. Being somewhat focused on my daily food consumption I came across this What 200 calories look like website.

It’s photos of 200 calories-worth of various food, so you can fully appreciate the calorific density, as they say. Funny calculation can come from assembling the 2000 calories you need a day from the various options some more healthy than others.

See them all here:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm

January 09, 2007

Editing Extravaganza



U2 has a new single out its called "Windows in the Skies " it’s from the U218 Singles Album. The director behind is Gary Koepke from Modernista (colleague of Brand New’s Gareth Kay http://garethkay.typepad.com/). I have already watched it ten times – engaging stuff.