The other day I came across the above “Catch VD” banner ad for the seven-time Teen Choice award-winning Vampire Diaries.  The campaign is also running outdoor (see below) in Times Square and on Sunset Blvd. - excellent use of negative space, by the way.





I understand the angst that some people have regarding the double entendre headline and I couldn’t help but wonder how many people in the show’s teen-heavy demographic even say “VD” or know what it is - I think by the time most of them were born “STD” was already in vogue.  What I don’t understand is the responses by the CW when asked about their marketing choice.  In case you haven’t heard, CW, your viewers aren’t stupid.  Please don’t answer questions regarding such clearly purposely provocative messaging by saying:

“VD simply stands for Vampire Diaries, and anyone who thinks otherwise should probably get themselves checked out.”

And I suppose this is just a reference to the stuff that trees produce.  At the risk of sounding a bit like Love Story, let me end this by saying: Branding means never having to say you’re something that you aren’t. 

To see what fans of the show are saying about the new campaign, check out this poll.

There have obviously been many things observed/written about the logo formerly known as the new Gap logo.  Clearly,

“My mom could have made it on PowerPoint.”

“Why? They don’t need a new logo.”

“Helvetica... again.  Really?”

“What’s up with the square?”

And of course, this tweet:



... are all funny and frankly good observations.  The follow-up by Gap to the whole fiasco was interesting, as well... and depending on who you ask, the truth about their reaction changes there, too.  I’ve been told:

“Gap just pulled it.”

“Gap tried to say it was an experiment in crowd-sourcing.”

“At first Gap tried to defend it, but gave up about a day later.”

And frankly, the truth to this isn’t entirely important either.  Regardless, several lessons can be learned:

1. If you’re going to make a massive identity change, you better believe in your brand.  What was missing here wasn’t so much the presence of a great new logo as much as it was the presence of a confident brand.  About nine months ago Apple announced a new product that they were proudly calling the iPad. The reaction by at least 50% (most women and some men) of the world was astonishment.

“I only want to think about pads during my period.”

“Doesn’t Apple have any men working for them?”

And of course references to this MADTV gem from 2007 flooded the Internet. In other words, it’s important for brands to appear confident (even when they aren’t).  Nobody jokes about the name iPad anymore because Apple stuck to their guns.  I wonder if Gap had retained their confidence from this era if things would have turned out the same way.

Today, Apple is a leader, Gap is a follower.

2. Before you crowdsource anything... make sure you get the opinion of your most avid advocates.  A massive amount of Twitter and Facebook traffic that was responsible for killing the new (old) Gap logo was from people who likely don’t even shop at the store. Had Gap properly ran their idea by the right people – their advocates, prior to launch:
It would have likely been killed before it was ever launched.

The kneejerk reaction by Gap to kill it wouldn’t have happened, because they would have had more confidence in their decision to go with it.Knowing that you’re talking to the right people is important for more than just old-fashioned focus groups.

3. It’s the brand, stupid. Relevant brands trump “modernized” logos every time. A few years ago Gap understood this. What happened? What are your thoughts?

Following my post yesterday on great quotes from TEDx, I wanted to share some takeways from the event.

I was fortunate to attend the fourth TEDx Atlanta last Tuesday.  It was the third TEDx Atlanta that I have been lucky enough to both attend and help organize (as well as the second TEDx Atlanta sponsored by Definition 6).  As expected from any product or event associated with TED, the speakers were all great and the content was interesting and insightful.
















Having had a few days to let the content percolate, a few patterns have emerged:

The first is the importance, not of dropping out of college to change the world (we’ve all heard enough from geniuses who skipped school to accomplish great things), but of looking in perhaps unexpected places and connecting perhaps unlikely dots to do your best work.

Having the ability to see opportunity when others don’t, while obvious in its own right, was pervasive all day long.  A few years back, a book called The Medici Effect showcased how successful people all through history have repeatedly had this skill.  Being able to sit in a conference and have what Stanley and Danko might call “the geniuses next door” demonstrate this aptitude was enlightening. 

Ranging from Farmer D, who one day while stoned and skipping class in college, asked his Turkey sandwich “where did you come from?” to Mills Snowden, whose thinking about building a more efficient home randomly led him to being a contender for the X Prize. 

Perhaps Coca-Cola’s VP of Global Design, David Butler, summed it up best when he said: “We can’t think in silos anymore.  We have to think horizontally.  We have to think hollistically.”

While the only group to take the stage was the band Modern Skirts, the pattern from the day involves the importance of collaboration and sharing in accomplishing great things. 

Presenter Logan Smalley, maker of the award winning movie, “Darius Goes West” was a prime example of this.  He started making the film with a Google search asking how to make a documentary film.  By collaborating with people online, he eventually got passed his frustrations of not being able to afford the equipment when somebody told him that it doesn’t matter what he shoots the movie with – if he has a story to tell, people will listen.  Had he not pursued collaborating with other film makers as strongly as he did, there’s a good chance the movie would have never happened. 

Likewise, by working with a close group of friends (all of which knew nothing about movie making) he was able to build the alliance and gain the support he needed to accomplish his goal of making a movie to raise awareness of the disease that his friend was suffering from all while giving his friend the experience of a lifetime.  He additionally said, “The modern approach to movie making is one of mankind’s most incredible and perhaps most underutilized tools for collaborative problem solving.”  Today, everything is about collaboration.  

This leads to what was probably the most prevailant pattern of the day:  As David Butler coined it: “Learn by doing.”  Logan Smalley’s Google search is an example of this, as is Mills Snowden’s work on creating a car that can achieve 100 miles per gallon (like Logan, Mills had zero category experience prior to his effort).  On this subject, Mills said, “The most important part of developing your idea is that you have to start.”  Farmer D (Daron Joffe) is a self-taught organic farmer.  Even the band’s opening set which utilized various furniture to make noise exemplified this notion.

When asked by an audience member how to move beyond the brainstorming stage, a panel of the first five speakers responded:

• You need to enroll people in your idea... You’re very limited if you’re the only one doing it.

• Be sure you’re prepared to know what you’re talking about before you get people involved.

• Use the language of the people you’re talking to... Don’t get lost in your own language.

If you weren't one of the lucky few to attend the TEDx Atlanta Re:solve event last week, here are some great quotes I wanted to share with you:

• “The modern approach to movie making is one of mankind’s most incredible and perhaps most underutilized tools for collaborative problem solving.” - Logan Smalley

• “In the modern world, we’re all marketers, we’re all neighbors and we’re all pulling up a chair to the same fire – the Internet.” - Logan Smalley

• “There is a window of opportunity that exists while you’re young to get advice form the smartest people around because they don’t expect you to pay a consulting fee.” - Logan Smalley

• “The Internet of the ancient world was the solar system.” - Farmer D.

• “By 2020 there will be more millionaires in India than there are total people in Canada and Australia.” - David Butler

• “Learn by doing.” - David Butler

• “Hydrogen has the most energy of any element shy of radioactive.” - Mills Snowden

• “The most important part of developing your idea is you have to start.” - Mills Snowden

• “The world conspires to help whn you are up to something big.” - Harrison Dillon

• “Energy time operates in 10 year cycles.  Political time operates in 2 year cycles. [It’s the reason we have such a hard time solving our energy problem].” - Harrison Dillon

• “We have to make sure that our politicians know that we all care about more than what happens beyond the next political cycle.” - Harrison Dillon

• “Everyone has a sea of influence that can be traced.” - Jim Hartzfeld

• “There’s a fundamental difference between curing sickness and creating health.” - Jim Hartzfeld

• “Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion.  Not everybody’s entitled to their own facts.” - Sam Williams

For more information on TED and TEDx Atlanta, visit the TEDx Atlanta site here. You can also view photos and videos from recent events.

Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for this observation as I lifted it off of a friend on facebook.  And as a blogger, the image’s beautiful irony leaves me a bit speechless.  Perhaps the lesson here is that in blogging, as in life, some things are better left unsaid.

 

The adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” is widely attributed to Frederick R. Barnard, who published a piece extolling the effectiveness of graphic images in advertising titled "One look is worth a thousand words", in Printer's Ink, December 1921. And while certain devices are rendering printed publications somewhat obsolete, the immediacy and therefore power of a quality still image will never be deemed old-fashioned.

Speaking of such devices, in this brilliant iPad demonstration, a friend cheers on her teammate who is competing in a national level dog agility competition while her brother receives his Master’s Degree.

Brands play an important role in helping people design their own personal image.  In return, brands help the rest of us, however inappropriate or unfair, shape opinions of others.  I remember as a child, my older sister would always crack jokes about another kid in our neighborhood who “bought her clothes at Kmart.”  Her remarks, however childish, left me with a sour taste in my brain for both my sister’s rival and Kmart.  And while much of Kmart’s image problem has been documented in case studies, in other words, it is rather deserved, I attribute most of my dislike of the brand to the few comments my sister made circa 1985. 

Today, a similar situation exists for Walmart (only on a digital level), as sites such as People of Walmart and Wakeup Walmart, in much the same way my sister did, attack the megastore’s patrons as well as the brand/company itself.  And while I know I’m not revealing anything new here, People of Walmart has already been spoofed by College Humor, called one of the Top 50 websites of 2009 by TIME and has over 20,000 fans on Facebook; considering my sister’s effectiveness of negatively branding Kmart for me, I can’t help but wonder what the long-term affects of such sites are going to be on the Walmart brand.  What do you think?

As for this picture, I snapped it at 11:45 PM at the Walmart on Cobb Parkway in Acworth, GA last Saturday.  I had just realized that we didn’t have any wine or beer and company was coming on Sunday (in Georgia, you can’t purchase alcohol on Sunday).  I ran for some Heineken and Yellow Tail and left with brand experience that keeps me thinking.  I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone stuff a puppy down their bra like that before.  The kid with the mohawk doesn’t hurt either.