Brand Noise

What we are reading: Monocle

If you haven't stumbled upon this at the newstand yet..Monocle is worth picking up. Launched in February 2007, Monocle is a global briefing covering international affairs, business, culture and design. Developed for an international audience hungry for information across a variety of sectors, Monocle's team of award-winning editors and correspondents have been drawn from The New York Times, The Independent on Sunday, the BBC, CBC and a host of other news and current affairs outlets.  A very diverse and satisfying read.

Fine Tuning the Language of Russian Luxury

A luxury conference organized by the International Herald Tribune showcased a fine tuning of premium brands to tap into the staggering growth in high-net-worth individuals in Russia. This challenge is similar from China to India to Latin America, they said, though perhaps nowhere is it more crucial than in Russia, a rapidly developing market where huge oil wealth has already helped spawn 53 billionaires.

Unlike wealthy clients in some established markets - like Britain, where a soccer player's wife might drop thousands of pounds during a brief jaunt to Bond Street - Russians like to think about the product, executives said.  Read more (InternationALLHerald Tribune)

Facebook Members Not Opting for Total Disclosure

Facebook plans to make the sites that work with Beacon more visible and provide more information about how Beacon works...The promise follows a Nov. 27 tweak to the system designed to ensure that users were clearly notified, both on Facebook and on partner sites, that news of an off-Facebook activity would be sent to friends, unless the member explicitly declined to send that information. Those earlier assurances did little, however, to appease upset users, many of whom don't want Facebook to share information on their Web activity for advertising purposes—even if it's shared with people they’ve identified as friends. "I feel duped," says Frank Kruller, a Facebook member for seven months. "If I wanted to share something with my friends I'm pretty sure I could tell them myself."

Any move that weakens Beacon's appeal to advertisers leaves Facebook under pressure to find other ways to lure marketers...Users of social networks are typically less responsive to standard ad formats, such as the posterlike banner ads commonly seen on the Web, than to newer, more interactive or personalized advertisements. Some marketers say that when they place banner ads on Facebook, the so-called click-through rate, a measure of user responsiveness, is one-fifth the rate for the larger Web.

Now, why would you think total disclosure would be a good thing? It's antithetical to human nature. In the wake of technology, we tend to look at what we CAN do vs. what we SHOULD do. Back to the drawing board for everybody!

Tribune Takes a YouTube Channel

Tribune Interactive recently launched branded Channels on YouTube for the Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, Chicago’s WGN, LA’s KTLA and NY’s WPIX.
"Our arrangement with YouTube underscores our efforts to leverage our award-winning content and make it more widely available to engage a new group of consumers," said Tim Landon, president of Tribune Interactive.
The question is will Tribune Interactive build enough interaction and mobility around its YouTube presence to beckon a younger generation in. It's not enough to just change the viewing platform.

Branded Hybrid Vehicles, Local Beacons of Sustainability

NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg joined Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) executives to announce that the company is undertaking energy saving measures here in New York, including introducing the first five hybrid-electric delivery trucks, which will operate out of the company's distribution center in the Bronx.

"Sustainable business practices will save businesses and government money in the long run,” said Mayor Bloomberg. "Although clearly a major international brand, there are important local implications resulting from this decision."

In June, Mayor Bloomberg joined officials from Hertz Rental Cars to announce that they would convert a major portion of their New York based fleet to hybrid.

In May, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the City's yellow-taxi fleet would be required to meet stringent emission standards that currently are only reachable by converting to hybrid taxis.

Model of the Future: Collaborative Existence

In 2006, a conversation started on CIO Insight in answer to the question of "Am I a bad parent if encourage my child's musical pursuits rather than encourage a technical education?" Posts flooded in flaming about on both sides of the issue: Music=starving artist. Tech=guaranteed income. This made us here at scenarioDNA wonder: Is the issue truly that cut and dry anymore? We don't think so.

Take our own world of planning. Here the best lessons learned come from a wide breadth of disciplines. But Wired Magazine brought it all home however in this latest article:

Video Games Live is a 135-minute showcase of music from arcade, computer, and console titles, arranged for and performed by a 66-piece orchestra and a 16-person choir. Its creator and emcee is Tommy Tallarico. When he was 10, he'd use his Commodore 64 to splice together his favorite sound effects and then invite friends to come by and watch him play air guitar over the tracks. As an adult, he has written scores for games like Advent Rising and Earthworm Jim, and today he hosts The Electric Playground on G4 TV, a cable network devoted to gaming.

Videogame music first invaded US concert halls in 2004, when Jason Michael Paul, founder of Play!, brought Dear Friends, a program of music from the Final Fantasy catalog, to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

To date, these venues are more fun than profitable. But the collaboration that is thriving among these worlds mixing pop culture with art with things people love breeds a model for success. Our hope is that someday no one will have to make the choice between what they love vs. what makes them a living—however modest. Already no one from Gen X and beyond is willing to sacrifice design for cost. Why would they sacrifice their careers?

Self-Defining Heroes Make the Game

When it comes the “rhythm music genre,” aspiration holds the key to the Guitar Hero franchise. Smith professor Steve Waksman explains, that Guitar Hero isn’t simply about keeping up with a game: “You’re keeping up with specific songs, by specific artists, who are marked as heroes.”

This meshes with the somewhat contradictory guitar-hero idea, which is hierarchical (the hero is better than you) but also implies more of an invitation to join in (start your own band) than, say, classical music does. That is probably part of what makes the guitar such a potent symbol, even as music making itself has gotten steadily more digital: once an emblem of modern sonic rebellion, the guitar now represents a kind of tradition and a “way of making music that’s more physical,” Waksman says.

Yet, no matter how good you may get at Guitar Hero, if you decide to take up the real instrument at some point, you’ll be starting from scratch. This isn’t to say that Guitar Hero doesn’t require the steady acquisition of a measurable skill. It does. It’s just not a skill that involves creating music.

Read the whole story.

Our talks with gamers fall right in line with this thinking. For them, there is fine mix of skill, sociability and competitive nature that comes into play with their choice of Guitar Hero. That includes statements from some LaGuardia high school students. This is less about musicians, than it is about social networking.

(Image from Dr. Snafu.)

At Macy's NYC, Only Santa is Real

We made the annual trek to Macy's Herald Square to see Santa with much insistence from my 60-something mother. It's the only place where Macy's is like it used to be, claims she who has had a Macy's credit card since 1956. Or is it? She paraded herself proudly at each sales counter waving the 20% Macy's discount card recently mailed to her--Only to be dismayed that the card was not accepted at any of the favored spots that make Macy's feel like the "old days." It's been policy for as long as I can remember that certain discounts are not extended to these leased departments. Yet the prolification of today's leased departments have deconstructed Macy's Herald Square into essentially a mall. So the Macy's my mom thinks is a nod to yesteryear is simply on lease. That makes it impossible for the essence of what was Macy's to ever extend beyond the...(er)...flagship.

But at least we know that the Santa at Macy's is real. According to my five-year-old, he never has to ask her name and he knows that she's grown a lot. That gives Macy's about another five years to grab hold of their brand before this kid hits tweenhood and steps up her retail expectations. As for now, she thinks Macy's is magical--that one brief visit each year holds her imagination for 365 days.   

chashama performance windows

chashama is an NYC arts organization whose mission is to support artists of all genres. chashama adopts vacant properties that are donated by their owners and converts them into theaters, galleries, studios, and window performance sites; chashama then regrants this space for free or at heavily subsidized rates. Since 1995, chashama has transformed more than 40 vacant properties and has given more than 6,500 artists access to space. "

Publicis Ramps Up Planning in US

Publicis USA is overhauling its strategy-planning department, announcing a raft of hires with various backgrounds and new structure with an eye to better understand consumers.  (read the full article in AdAge)

It seems like the underlying story here is that agencies have to figure out what business they are in.  It starts with what role planning takes in building ideas and generating actionable insights.  A couple names here that I know - I've had conversations with some of these folks (really smart people) - but they have voiced to me in the past a definition of planning leaning as much to business strategy as to consumer insight. They are not alone - many planning departments have (and have had for some time) an identity crisis going on - what value do they offer and how is that value evolving with the agency and plugging into the work they do.  Reminds me of digital shops in the late nineties wanting to be more like technology consulting firms such as Accenture. Not a good move for agencies or clients.  Confusing - especially when it often did not integrate into the existing process of creative development the agency already had. 

The reality is that you can't do both - i know we all want to say that  we can - but fundamentally you can;t have credibility on both sides of the process equally.  Great shops need to be great at being creative - that is a big enough task under the new challenges of the marketplace. Advertising (and that word is certainly evolving) is about creative ideas - and the fundamental source of these ideas that result in messages, products and experiences is knowing more about people.

I'm glad to see more agencies getting in touch with this "knowing people" thing - but it only means something if the whole agency organism takes on that as what their fundamental value is.  Be creative and be in touch with people in ways that companies/clients can't be.  I remain optimistic.