May 22, 2013 Leave a comment
An advert for Tempur-Pedic mattresses from America has nailed the concept that Snickers has been working on in their current campaign.
Without adding much more this clever ad really has you guessing and is worth a watch.
Take a look below and let us know what you think.
May 22, 2013 Leave a comment
When branding a company or product a lot of thought needs to go into the colour used as it has been proven that certain colours provoke certain psychological responses.
For example, most fast-food chains use red to provoke hunger, whilst luxury brands will tend to use black, gold, silver or white to convey a feeling of sophistication.
These and other reactions to different colours are highlighted by the infographic to the right.
Featured on PR Daily, the infographic was produced by CertaPro Painters, possibly a marketing ploy of their own.
May 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Getting people to notice road signs can be difficult, especially on busy commuter route.
In Australia the government is trying to tackle this head on, as they have experienced problems from people ignoring warning signs when entering a tunnel in which there was a fire.
As a possible solution, the ‘softstop‘ sign was created. A sign made from water and light it was brought to fruition by an R&D programme that used technology from Laservision, a creative technology firm that designs architectural lighting, permanent attractions and special events primarily for the entertainment industry, along with pump manufacturer Grundfos.
The combination of the two allows for a sign that appears directly in front of the car, making it difficult not to spot.
Watch it in action below.
May 22, 2013 Leave a comment
The Design Museum has opened a pop-up garden in ‘The Tank’ outside the museum along the Thames. The garden is a joint venture with Swiss design company Vitra.
The garden, with its overgrow grass, features designs from some of the biggest names such as Charles and Ray Eames, Jasper Morrison, Jay Osgerby and Verner Panton. It also provides a space for visitors to sit and enjoy the area and sights.
All the pieces featured are also on sale at the museum shop or online here.
May 22, 2013 Leave a comment
This week is Clerkenwell Design Week, running from 21st to 23rd May.
We have been sent this wonderful piece of work that is featured in the event, designed by Mobile Studio.
Called Mirare Maze Folly, the piece reinvents the classic garden maze, with walls that are made entirely of clear acrylic and uses plays on light and reflection.
The maze is a new addition to Mobile Studio’s family of modular systems offering infinite size and configuration, retaining the idea of permeability and sitting almost like a ghost folly within the design festival.
Find out more about the maze and the design week here.
May 22, 2013 Leave a comment
In an insightful project, io9 has procured a series of photographs documenting what has happened to the buildings used in past Olympic Games.
The series focuses on the structures that have gone unused and derelict, including some from recent games in Athens and Beijing.
Take a look at the full collection here.
May 17, 2013 Leave a comment
In a new advert Audi has brought together two actors who have played the same character. Both Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto have played Spock in the Star Trek movies, with Nimoy portraying the character in the original series and movies and Quinto taking the reigns for the new ‘rebooted’ movies.
So it comes as no surprise that Audi is asking the question, which Spock is better? In the advert we see the two playing chess online, then a new challenge is laid down.
The commercial is comical, showcasing their latest car, but drawing on some past achievements of Nimoy with an interesting ending.
Created by the same team that produced the viral dollar shave club commercial, Paulilu and agency PMK*BNC.
Watch it below.
May 17, 2013 Leave a comment
Brand reputation is the collective experience of those who work for or deal with an organisation or company; it’s not just about customer service. By Samantha Dawe, Director at The Think Tank
The value of your company and products’ reputation should not be underestimated. Reputation should be treated as an asset. Reputation is everyone’s responsibility. A good reputation buys you the benefit of the doubt when things go wrong.
The toughest lesson is to learn that sometimes it’s not what has happened that is the issue – it’s what people think has happened. Perception is everything.
What is an issue that can affect an organisation’s reputation?
“A condition or event, internal or external to the organisation, that if it continues will have a significant effect on the functioning or performance of the organisation or on its future interests”.
Potential issues
Online
Sign up to relevant Google alerts around your organisation’s name. If appropriate use other software available that will help you monitor mentions online. Be prepared to respond to comments if needed but you must be straightforward about who you are and never let emotional language influence what you are saying.
Dialogue
Do you know who your organisation’s stakeholders are? If not, find out. Stakeholder groups can include employees, clients/customers, opinion formers such as trade associations and professional bodies, your local community, investors in your organisation and key media who will act as commentators on what you are doing.
Don’t wait until there is a problem to engage with people; be proactive wherever you can. This also means getting together with colleagues in other departments to share and help identify potential causes for concern, even if an issue does not actually materialise.
You can gather information to help identify and manage risks via:
Be prepared
Think about developing a crisis plan – you may need to get in expert external help. At least have a record of people/agencies that can help you if needed.
What threats can you anticipate? What do you know based on past experience? Do you know how to handle journalists, or who is the nominated person in your organisation that looks after this? This all goes back to having regular dialogue with your colleagues in other departments too – not just when the problem has happened.
Five core tips to get you started:
1. How much access during work time do your employees have to engage with social media and company data?
Blocking access to the internet or certain sites is often seen as the domain of the IT manager, but in today’s workplace this goes beyond merely the computer at your desk.In our networked environment people can access content and store information and data via their phone, tablet or laptop at any time of day. Therefore the rules are changing and your organisation needs to adapt.Expert Jamie Claret (www.amazingsupport.co.uk) suggests for starters you need think about:Good antivirus softwareSimple blocking systemsAdvanced blocking and monitoringPreventing sensitive data leaving your businessThe impact data leakage and wasted time during work hours versus empowering staff with access to these sources.
2. Does your organisation have a clear social media policy?
Social media encompasses a broad range of online activities, all of which can have a marked impact on the credibility, perceptions and awareness of an organisation. Outside the workplace rights to privacy and free speech can protect online activity conducted in someone’s personal social network with that person’s personal email address. However, the inevitable connections that can and are made with someone’s workplace can blur the boundaries. What is your organisation’s policy on this?
3. Have these policies been communicated to all staff?
Are they part of your induction programme?Your policy and procedures need to be communicated – don’t just rely on a document that sits in the drawer. Building this into your employee induction programme or at a team update meeting brings this to the forefront of people’s minds.Are your employees aware of the potential negative impact that online comments can have? Where social media interaction is not used exclusively for business, it is important to provide reasonable guidelines on online behaviour if any reference is made to the workplace. Furthermore you may need to draw attention to matters regarding confidentiality as they relate to your organisation or business, and how this can also cover photos or images posted online for example.
4. Are you aware of how other stakeholders might be looking at your organisation through social media?
Media management is likely to rest with either an external agency or your in-house communications team, or for smaller enterprises with a nominated employee or manager. The press have increasingly turned to social media channels not only regarding breaking news, but also to uncover more intimate details about an organisation.This can also be true of any stakeholders. And content posted online is hard to have removed… therefore you need to be as aware of what is being said about the organisation online, as others will be. Do you have any mechanisms in place to facilitate this?
5. Are you ready to act if something potentially negative happens?
You need to have a contingency plan; whether it’s customers commenting on a faulty product or poor service, or a disgruntled employee out to stir up some reactions or actually carrying out some form of deception. How will you react? Who needs to be aware of a problem as and when it occurs and importantly who should be tasked with sorting it out? Do you have an issues management team and plan? Does this plan map onto the online world?
May 16, 2013 Leave a comment
Award-winning photojournalist Daniella Zalcman has released an incredible series of photographs called New York + London.
The series was created as a way to connect the time she spent in New York with her new home London. The series was released on Instagram using a set of photos she took of New York on her iPhone during her last month in the city, she then took the same number upon arrival in London. She then used software on her phone to carefully overlap the images, created a merged image of the two cities.
The full collection can be seen on Yatzer here. Zalcman also has a Kickstarter to get the photographs published as a book here.
May 15, 2013 Leave a comment
American Airlines has rolled out a new perk for social media users, use of their Admirals Club lounges, regardless whether you are flying with them or not.
To gain a one-day pass for the club, you need to have a Klout score of 55. What does this mean? Klout is a tool that measures your usage and engagement on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
The perk includes almost 40 lounges across the world including airports in San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and London.
With others already signed up to Klout Perks including Sony, Nike, Microsoft, Disney, Audi and Gilt, this is a major push by the social measurement tool.
A clever development, but one can’t help to think that social influencers may see through it, regardless of whether they take advantage of it or not.
May 15, 2013 Leave a comment
A collection of strange adverts promoting Windows 8 have emerged on the Internet. The videos, called ‘Training Camp’, are meant to highlight the capabilities and features of the Operating System.
The videos, which were originally made for the Asian market, first appeared on Microsoft’s general YouTube channel by mistake, but now are openly being shared.
Watch the unusual series below.
May 13, 2013 Leave a comment
IKEA is continuing their campaign to get people to use their gardens more, following on from their interesting Gnome ad.
The Swedish furniture company has this time sent out digital and direct mailers to customers, giving them a weather report for their garden over the recent Bank Holiday weekend.
The mailer, created by LIDA, was sent out to the 900,000 IKEA Family loyalty customers, encouraging them to make the most of their gardens, weather permitting.
There is also an online invite system so that IKEA Family members can create fun, bespoke weather reports with the help of its weatherman, Harry Caine, to encourage friends and family to visit.
The campaign could work well, with its level of humour and personalisation, coupled with the unpredictable weather we face in Britain.
May 10, 2013 Leave a comment
Carphone Warehouse has recently set up a competition in their Oxford Street store to promote the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4.
They set up a promotional display including Samsung’s latest phone, encouraging customers to answer it when it rang to win an instant prize, claiming “Everyone Wins!”.
The trick was that the phone calls are made by famous ‘Fonejacker‘ comedian Kayvan Novak.
See what happended in gthe video below.
May 9, 2013 Leave a comment
To almost brighten up your day, Buzzfeed UK has compiled a list of the 26 most annoying things about working in an office.
The list spoke to us at The Think Tank so much that we had to share it with you.
Buzzfeed built the list from this BBC article and this thread on Facebook.
Some of our ‘favourite’ points are:
Take a look at the full list here, and let us know which speaks to you the most.
May 7, 2013 Leave a comment
This year’s Sony World Photography Award winners have been announced, and are currently on display at Somerset House, London.
The awards are organised by the World Photography Organisation, and have two main categories; open and professional. They are judged by an Honorary Judging Committee which is broken up in to groups for a selection of categories from Architecture to Sport.
The Professional winners from each of the 15 categories are being exhibited at Somerset House until 12th May 2013, including the overall winner, Andrea Gjestvang for her series, “One day in history,” which intimately captures the young survivors of Utoeya, Norway July 2011 massacre.
Other winners include Fabrice Fouillet in the Architecture category and Christian Aslund for Campaigns.
Take a look at all the entries and winners here.
Buy tickets for the exhibition here.
May 7, 2013 Leave a comment
Design studio JamesPlumb has followed up their refit of East London based store Hostem‘s shop floor with a new showroom in the basement of the same building.
A dimly lit room, decorated with some unique furniture, The Chalk Room is currently dedicated to Hostem’s bespoke service, made-to-measure clothing and accessories, but shoppers can also order furniture from JamesPlumb including a chandelier made from clusters of antique lampshades and a chest of drawers built from stacks of suitcases.
To create the downstairs room the studio opened up the space, painted it dark and dimmed the lighting, creating a calmness by making the corners and edges of the walls disappear.
Some of the unique furniture they have provided for the space includes a Chesterfield sofa that has a table coming out of the centre and a wardrobe that appears to be falling over.
Find out more about their work with Hostem at dezeen.
Photographs by Thomas Giddings.
May 2, 2013 1 Comment
This piece has been written by Samantha Dawe, The Think Tank’s PR Director.
Working with the press can be a great way to get stories about your products and your organisation across. But before you leap in for a chat take a few minutes to think through what you are going to say.
Using the press effectively to get your point across is a skill. In most cases, you only get one go at this in an interview, so you need to get it right first time when you are speaking to journalists directly.Whether you’re speaking at a planned face-to-face interview, a quick chat catch up at an industry event or a short briefing over the telephone, you will be in the spotlight. Here’s a short memory-refresher on the dos and don’ts of dealing with a press interview.
DO
Prepare, prepare, prepare
Wherever possible build in time to do some preparation before you meet the journalist. Read the publication they are writing for. Ideally find out what the journalist wants to cover in advance so you can be ready with the right sort of information for them. If you don’t know this in advance, ask them when you meet or speak to check. This will also give you time to collect your thoughts. Have you had some media training? It’s worth it if you are in any type of marketing role.
Know your facts and figures
Remember you can talk to a journalist about any information that has already been announced, and bringing in other examples as context can often help illustrate a point. Again, have facts and figures to hand (be prepared wherever possible) so you can refer to them.
Be succinct
Try to speak in short sentences and repeat key points that convey your view. This helps to minimise the risk of being quoted inaccurately. Resist the temptation to go on and on about your favourite theme unless this is the only subject to be covered in the interview.
Raise points that you feel may be of interest
The journalist may have done some preparation but you are also able to raise points on a subject too. Make sure they that are relevant to the journalist’s train of thought; showing them you are trying to give them as much information as you can is usually perceived as helpful as long as you don’t go overboard.
Be interesting
Bring in how you see the industry or your sector developing, if appropriate. This sort of insight also shows that you and your company are continuing to keep track and responding to change. Don’t speculate though unless you are happy to see your speculations in print.
DON’T
Don’t talk about areas you don’t know about
Don’t make forecasts about products, markets or sales, unless the information has been agreed beforehand and you can produce the data to back it up. If you don’t know much about a subject, say so. And wherever possible get someone in your company to speak to the journalist who is an expert.
Don’t gossip
And don’t be derogatory about the competition; it’s unprofessional. Just give factual information to the journalist, and let them make their own comparisons. Talking too much about the competition actually helps to sell it, so you may want to avoid that.
Don’t be evasive
If you don’t know something (see point 1 above) or you feel you need to get more information in front of you, say you will find out for the journalist and get back to them; check the deadline they are working on. This can also be used to ‘buy some time’ while you formulate an appropriate response to a tricky question. But if you promise further information, make sure it is followed up, even if it is to say that you need more time.
Use colourful phrases with care
Avoid the use of particularly colourful phrases unless you are absolutely sure you want them used. Otherwise, they may appear out of context or as headlines. A sub-editor may well select the juiciest quote from a journalist’s copy just for this purpose: “Widget Ltd’s Marketing Director Paul Smith says that they are murdering the competition”. Enough said.
Don’t go “Off-the record” unless you are really, really confident
This can be a dangerous trap – you are giving information ‘off-the-record’ for a journalist’s guidance, they should not publish it under any circumstances.
You have to tell the journalist the information is ‘off-the-record’ before you give them the information. The phrase should not be used retrospectively.
You should then say when the information you are discussing is ‘back on the record’ that means they can write up what you are saying.
A general rule of thumb is not using ‘off-the-record’ at all. In exceptional circumstances with a journalist that can really be trusted and you know – for example a trade press journalist you are in regular touch with and you know writes in a fair and informed way, and above all will respect this convention, you might be OK. But why chance it?
A Director I knew went ‘off the record’ with a journalist to say that he expected the privately-owned company he worked for would be floated in the next six months. It was a great story and appeared in print. You can imagine the fall out that happened when it was published.
This piece was written as part of The Think Tank’s sponsorship of the PR Section of B2B Marketing’s Knowledge Bank, and forms part of a series of guides, blog posts, case studies and a white papers.
May 1, 2013 Leave a comment
The Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart has a bit of an unusual attraction.
The building has the world’s most powerful man-made tornado, and whilst this does attract visitors, this is not the reason for its existence.
Created from 144 jets spewing 28 tons of smoke in a 112-foot-high column, the idea of a tornado in a showroom containing over 150 luxury vehicles may seem like an odd one, but it is actually a clever fire-safety mechanism.
The building is made from a steel structure based on a double-helix, featuring a massive central atrium viewable from the floors that spiral around it. All rooms are open, all walls are curved and each of the 1800 triangular window panes on the exterior walls is unique. This however means that there are no fire zones within the building so by creating this tornado they are able to expel smoke emissions from within the building. It is said to take about 7 minutes for the jets that line the interior walls to get the smoke to whirl into a tornado and escape through vents in the roof.
Watch a video of the tornado in action below.
May 1, 2013 Leave a comment
Jaguar‘s F-Type is their first sports car in 50 years. To celebrate that fact they have released what can only be described as a mini movie.
The twelve-and-a-half minute film, created by The Brooklyn Brothers in London and RSA Films, stars Homeland actor Damian Lewis and also features a specially commissioned song, “Burning Desire,” from Singer Lana Del Rey .
Shot in Chile’s Atacama desert, the film plays up Mr. Lewis’ upper class British heritage, comparing him to Prince Harry and casting him as a smooth operator with a dry sense of humour.
Whilst it has been compared to BMW’s 2001 film by Fallon, but George Bryant, founding partner of Brooklyn Brothers has denied the similarities.
Watch the video below and let us know what you think.
April 29, 2013 Leave a comment
This week interactive image platform ThingLink officially hit Facebook. Already available for use on Twitter since November, the platform allows users to embed links to anything, meaning that you can link an image to a website and the person viewing it would not have to leave their Timeline.
The images work by having anchor points embedded on them, when a user hovers over that point they get information and with a click, they can open YouTube videos, audio clips, other websites and virtually anything else that would previously have been linked to in the description.
This could open up new avenues for brands, marketers and general users providing interactive images that will have more impact than normal posts might.
Whilst this isn’t the first interactive image brand to launch their services on Facebook, Stipple launched on the network back in January, it does show a growing trend for people and brands trying to improve the level of engagement they have with their followers. One company to already try it has been Doctors Without Borders with this post.
The platforms reps have said that since it launched on Twitter, engagement on posts was increased, with some up by five times, so the scope seems to be there for it to do well on Facebook.
Is interactive imagery the next step for social marketing? Let us know what you think.
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