K.I.S.S

This made me laugh out loud - sometimes in this business we over complicate things, simple and straight to the point, advertising at its best.

Source: designspiration.net via Kevin on Pinterest

What's your point of view?

This is bloody amazing, by using the one point perspective how one of the legends in film makes his films look so stunning and dramatic.

Don't make me laugh, well actually please do.

As marketeers we all know the importance of laughter, how many times have we laughed at an ad or sketch and felt warm towards that product? You have a have a common bond if you share the same sense of humour. You are also most likely to try or buy the product. Marketeers have know this for decades. Below is some interesting facts on laughter.

• Laughter is universal: All humans in all cultures laugh

• Laughter is unconscious: You can’t actually laugh on command — it will be fake laughter if you try to.

• Laughter is for social communication: We rarely laugh when we are alone. We laugh 30 times more often when we are with others.
• Laughter is contagious: We will smile and then start laughing as we hear others laugh.

• Laughter appears early in babies: at about 4 months old

• Laughter is not about humour: Provine studied over 2,000 cases of naturally occurring laughter and most of it did not happen as a result of “humour” such as telling jokes. Most laughter followed statements such as “Hey John, where ya been?” or “Here comes Mary”, or “How did you do on the test?” Laughter after these types of statements bond people together socially. Only 20% of laughter is from jokes.

• We rarely laugh in the middle of a sentence. It is usually at the end.

• Other primate and mammals laugh. There are videos of rats laughing while being tickled.

• Speaking of tickling, laughing seems to have “evolved” from tickling.

• Most laughing occurs by the person who is speaking, not the person who is listening. The person who is speaking laughs twice as much.

• Women laugh more than twice as much as men.

• Laughter denotes social status. The higher up on the hierarchy you are in a group, the less you will laugh.

So the next time you're thinking of your next marketing campaign try not to take yourself to seriously and if your team show you something that isn't funny hold the work aloft and shout out: 'you're 'aving a larf' and set light to the work.

Nike - Find your greatness- great, really great

Don't cover it up

Having three daughters myself this put a shiver down my spine.

YouTube makeup star Lauren Luke, a UK personality with almost half a million subscribers and more than 125 million video views, took a break from her regular tips on covering up in her latest video. The self-taught makeup artist encourages teen girls and women not to hide evidence of domestic abuse in her latest post, “How to look your best the morning after.”

This is such a powerful piece of communication, love how they use a make up tutorial via YT as a way to get their message out there, perfect in every way. Beautifully simple and yet so powerful.
 

Show your support by sharing this video. For help in the UK: Refuge UK and for help in Australia

Poster with bite

Love this little number,  simple, graphic and very eye catching, all the ingredients of a great idea.

I also like ideas that use the media too, well done, nice work.

Why brands should care?

Do you remember when you were a kid there was always one kid, who was a spiteful git and by his very nature greedy, always took and gave nothing back. Their response if someone pulled them up, with vented spleen they would reply; ‘I don’t care. We all disliked those kids and over time they would lose friends, and they became the outcasts in the playground.

These kids never had any empathy towards others. As human beings we warm to people who show empathy and these principles are the same for all brands, more so now were a brands actions are for all to see via online.  So why do so many brands totally ignore this human trait?

But they’re companies that genuinely do care beyond selling products take the company Seeds Of Change: http://www.seedsofchange.com here’s a company that 3:1% of net sales go towards promoting the use of sustainable agricultural practices. In 2010 the company used this to support three apprentices for a UK charity; Garden Organic.

They also set up a school programs around ‘Sowing millions, growing millions’ where they helped teach children where food comes from, the best foods to eat, they also went one step further by helping kids to sow and grow organic school gardens. Many of these gardens are in urban areas which have a very poor social demographic, where most kids would be lucky to get one meal a day. Now there’s a company that stands for something, they want to help others.

According to research from Havas Media, which tapped into 14 countries and looked into 300 brands, from a sample of 50,000 people, improving people’s collective wellbeing is imperative for brands. From the research 57% feel that they can make a company behave more responsibly, they feel as a collective they have a say on how a company should conduct itself.

And there’s a connection with the growth of so many social conscious organisations sites like Brand Karma and Kiva.

Brand Karma is giving the power to the people, they now have a collective voice on how companies should act and if they don’t act in a responsible manner they tell others and they all then boycott the brand.

The site http://brandkarma.com/ looks at brands in how good their products, are, how well they treat people and how well they look after the planet, good or bad it’s all there for people to see. There’s no hiding place.

Kiva http://www.kiva.org/ is another organisation that has grown out of caring, but takes a slightly different approach, quite simply they leverage the web and worldwide network of microfinance institutions to help other small businesses, especially women. Since Kiva was founded in 2005, they have 771,590 Kiva lenders with a staggering $317 million in loans given out with an equally impressive 98.94% repayment rate.  Dermalogica the skin care brand in the US is heavily active in Kiva http://www.dermalogica.com/au/fite/index.html and all new employees become part of the Kiva program. Question why wasn’t this started by a bank?

Interesting and much more worrying for many brands is the view that 70% of people surveyed would not care two hoots if brands disappeared completely, according to

Havas Media brands are becoming increasingly irrelevant to people;  ‘We need a new way to measure and build brand value’

So what can brands do? Quite simply, brands who haven’t in place a ‘caring policy’ should get one and get one quickly, believe in something, something that is genuinely going to help people, this needs planning and put into action from key staff. This has to come from the top down where everyone in the company believes and knows that the company they work for is doing something for the better.

This doesn’t mean getting people to ‘like’ your brand or a cheap giveaway, this has to be something much more tangible and it needs to be an ongoing outlook it goes beyond marketing, it’s about a belief.  It’s about a shared value, for instance take Pedigree Dog Food's shared value in the belief that every dog deserves a loving home, they don’t just flog dog food, yes that’s the long term goal by association but they know to get people to respond in a positive manner towards them first a brand needs to clearly communicate a brands philosophy or higher purpose.

Shared values are the new currency and brands with a social conscious are the ones that will be of value to people’s lives, the others will slowly disappear from people’s life’s as people couldn’t care less what they have to offer or eventually have to say.

You can follow me @kevinferry