Friday 28th November:
How can you help people be more sustainable?
Think like Carbon Dieme who have developed innovative cellphone software that fulfills users’ wishes to adopt environmentally sound practices!
Social trends such as LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) show that people are willing to make personal contributions to address global environmental problems like carbon dioxide emissions, climate change, and resource scarcity. Now mobile phone applications make it easy to monitor the individual “carbon footprint,” compare it, and suggest how to further reduce it.
(Ref. CScout)
Thursday 27th November:
How can the functional become beautiful and contribute to its environment?
Think like Penguin Classics who have recently released a new line of jacket-less hardcovers featuring handsome covers which have a wallpaper like quality when put on the bookshelf. The designer, Coralie Bickford-Smith, is known for her brilliant and simplistic fusion of plot themes with visually stimulating layouts, including a three set collection of the Arabian Nights and a Gothic Horror Series. This particular series is unfortunately only being sold in the UK, exclusively through Waterstone’s.
According to Bickford-Smith, the pattern design was organized with collaboration from researchers familiar with the books’ specific themes and historical contexts. Everything from the aristocratic hierarchy of Great Expectations to the jarring psychology of Crime and Punishment is captured through the elegant covers.
http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2008/09/book-design-to.html
(Ref. PSFK)
Wednesday 26th November:
What are the possibilities of your brand and your colleagues behaving with conviction and commitment and collaborating globally to do so?
Think like the Charter for Compassion who have launched an inspiring global endeavor to celebrate compassion and to promote a new collaboration between the world’s religions. The initiative supported by TED (the event and website that features inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers.) See 3 minutes of inspiration at the link below:
http://charterforcompassion.com/
Last week millions of Muslims, Christians, and Jews were sent an email inviting them to come to the site and offer their choice of words, in their own language, to help create a charter capable of inspiring the world to focus on what the great religions share, as opposed to what divides them. Already people are responding to this amazing idea with passion and excitement. The goal is to obtain all input from global participants within the next four weeks, select the best contributions with the help of a council of religious “sages”, and conduct a major launch of the finished document in 2009.
(Ref. TED http://www.ted.com/)
Tuesday 25th November:
How to combine two trends
Think like Reebok with their bold, brightly colored pop-up store which taps into the desire for ‘reassuring’ retro – this time the 80’s.
Reebok’s first ever pop-up store ‘Reebok Flash’ is located in a 3,000-square-foot gallery space in New York City and will be open until mid-December.
The flash store sells Reebok shoes designed in the 1980’s and also exclusive limited-edition shoes and clothing designed in collaboration with visual artists including Rolland Berry, John Maeda and the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
“The design of the space plays with sense of depth and perspective, tricking the eye by extending three dimensional shapes into distorted graphic patterns,” say designer’s Formavision.
(Ref. Trendhunter)
Monday 24th November:
How can you combine your brand’s tone of voice and a user insight?
Think like surfer dudes Rip Curl who’ve cheekily named their wet suit disinfectant. (Tx Wadey)
Friday 21st November:
How can you create smiles in the mind?
Think like Coca-Cola who is partnering with Sony Entertainment in the promotion of the upcoming Bond film “The Quantum of Solace.” Coke is launching this special edition bottle of Coke Zero with the name: Coke Zero Zero 7.
“The new, edgier Bond persona is the ultimate embodiment of the Coke Zero brand personality, and is expected to deepen the brand’s engagement with its core target audience of 20-something men,” said Bobby Brittain, Brand Director of Coca-Cola Great Britain.”
The limited edition bottles are set to hit Britain next month, and will be sold through Harrods department store.
Ref. Trendhunter.com
Thursday 20th November:
How to build your brand through limited edition
Think like the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark
What we wear and own isn’t just about self-expression and individualism; these things broadcasts our affiliations and display our social capital. People pay a lot of money for limited-edition Aston Martins and LV handbags, while others take pride in their Karmaloop hoodie or copy of Tigermilk on vinyl.
Social Souvenir, a new interactive art installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art , takes this clothes-as-community concept to the next level by bring in social networking into the mix.
The concept is based on 300 T-shirts that are exhibited and put on sale at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde, Denmark. Each T-shirt is imprinted with a text fragment inspired by 15 renowned artists represented in the museum’s collection, such as Yoko Ono, Erik Satie, Marcel Duchamp and Per Højholt.
Visitors can buy a T-shirt of their own choice, the only condition being that they share a bit of personal information about themselves, or more precisely: their name and address. When paying for the T-shirt at the museum-shop, the information is automatically mapped in Google Maps, thereby making it possible to see where each T-shirt ends up after leaving the museum.
During the course of the exhibition, the 300 T-shirts will gradually disappear from the physical museum space only to re-appear on the web. Consequently, by buying a T-shirt visitors do not simply get a personal piece of the installation – they also help contribute to its collective development and distribution.
The aim of Social Souvenir is:
1) To re-activate the museum’s collection and make it available to the public in a new way using new forms of media.
2) To create social links between (random) museum visitors, thereby creating a stronger sense of community.
Ref. PSFK
Wednesday 19th November:
How to do well by doing good
Think like Hand-me-downs who recognize that as belts tighten ever more in a continuously precarious economy, it’s fairly certain that more and more parents are turning to second-hand sources for children’s clothes and other items. While thrift stores tend to be hit-or-miss this new classifieds site for mums promises to aggregate such listings from across the web, making it quicker and easier for parents to find high-quality and low-cost kids’ goods.
Of course, besides benefiting consumers’ wallets during tight times, facilitating the recycling of second-hand goods also helps the environment by reducing the tons of products that would otherwise get sent to landfills. Expect to see this industry taking off!
http://www.handmedowns.com/welcome
Ref. Springwise.com
Tagged with: Retail, Sustainability
Tuesday 18th November:
How to increase chatter around your brand to circulate it’s point of view?
Think like The Economist Group which is using the power of the blogosphere to build ‘buzz’ for its political stories before they are published. (Many thanks to Claire D for this one).
Having identified a group of influential US political bloggers, the media company gives content to these individuals in order to begin circulation.
Seery’s comments came in a discussion with Dr Dietmar Schantin, director of IFRA’s Newsplex project, about how to increase page views online.
Schantin, who advised the Telegraph Group on its move to a fully integrated
newsroom, said he was aware of the importance of blogs in driving up viewing
figures. He said blogs and aggregation sites have become the main source for links to newspaper sites as this is where most of their content comes from.
“What we’ve found to be very successful for getting views is to actually
engage with bloggers,” said Seery.
“In the US we identified the 100 most important political bloggers and we
effectively give them content before it’s published in print, so that it
builds a buzz around the thing before it’s there.
“It takes work and it’s not the exclusives you might get in a national daily
here [in the UK], but it’s the sort of thing that create a big buzz and
brings lots of traffic the next day,” he added.
(Ref. http://www.journalism.co.uk)
Tagged with: Social networking
Monday 17th November:
How can you take your brand into parallel worlds?
Think like Tigi famous for Bed Head who now have created Pet Head! (Thanks to Ben for this brilliant find)
The edgy fashion forward line will perfect every doggie’s ‘do and style! Man’s best friend will be living the lifestyle of the leashed and famous in no time!
Pet Head’s line of grooming products includes shampoos, crème rinses and sprays that suite every type of furry situation. Whether it’s a stinky mutt who needs “Dirty Talk” shampoo or a purebred you want to indulge with “So Spoiled” conditioning crème rinse, Pet Head will have them smellin’ and lookin’ fabulous!
Once you’ve perfected your pet’s furry do, Pet Head completes the total look with four rockin’ collections of K-9 clothing, trendy accessories, fun toys and fashionable carriers. The “City Soul,” “Punk Princess,” “Biker” and “Grungy Pop” collections will have your four-legged friend stylin’ from head to paws!
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