Tuesday 23 March 2010

Help nourish your brain

It dawned on me that its amazing what a claim can do in the home, and in this case - in my fridge.

The best claims are:

1.simple
2.have stopping power
3.believable, (or at least make you feel that its believable)
4.make you buy
5.make you come back and buy again

" Help nourish your brain" from the Minute Maid brand is a remarkable claim. It wins my attention, makes me use and buy, and beats "Natural spring water" each and every time....

Monday 22 March 2010

Throwback is back

I got really excited  in my post about the Pepsi Throwback campaign earlier this year, and now the cereal brands have caught my eye.


The packaging artwork with old skool cartoons are so much more captivating simply because they look hand drawn and lovingly cultivated - although to what extent they represent todays 'family' highlights how the perspective of that era has evolved so dramatically.




Sunday 21 March 2010

Disrupting Relationships

Disrupting Relationships
I'm an ardent Man Utd Fan and was content to scour 3 channels via my provider Comcast(ESPN, Fox Soccer Channel and formerly Setanta USA) to catch their games (of football ...soccer). I have been forced out of my comfort zone this month with the demise of Setanta USA, leading to the creation of Fox Soccer Channel Plus. The downside has been that Comcast have not signed up the channel.

Building Relationships
The good news is that Foxsoccer.tv has an online service that is showing games and at $4.95 for 24 hours access is reasonably priced, and I was able to tolerate (just !) a few of the glitches during transmission of today's Man Utd vs Liverpool game.

The Dilemma
Today was the first time that I contributed to the decline of 'tv' as a broadcast medium. Comcast now have a dilemma, as a disruption to the status quo has led their consumer (me !) elsewhere and I don't see a reason to return them. The savvy content providers will serve their audience, and build relationships with them directly........Now Comcast have to make an effort to win my custom back .. eg make it easy for me to have online access to my sports channels as part of my package and perhaps I will return...

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Dont forget... to do something different

Last week I posted on the 3six5 project about a day of attempting to do things differently. It was a truly liberating experience that is still lingering in my mind, and  you can read the full post here .

Sunday 7 March 2010

Al Gore is watching

If you're ever looking for an example of effective communication this perfect sign at Mocha coffee shop  in Milwaukee does the job. Suffice to say I only took 1 napkin.

Friday 5 March 2010

Fast Company - Masters of Retention

I happily completed my subscription renewal to Fast Company yesterday. The trouble is, for over 3 months I haven't told them my new address, but they still knew the correct place to send the invoice. So now I'm puzzled - why are they still sending the actual magazine to my old address ? which is then being redirected to my new address ? I guess it doesn't matter, because masters of retention do two simple things well:

  1. have a remarkable product (service etc..)
  2. use implied permission to hold on to their consumers.
I wouldn't expect any less from them....Now if only they could incentivize me to actually mail the renewal form back.

Thursday 4 March 2010

Persistent innovation at its best - Gorillaz (Stylo)

Gorillaz have nicely reinvented themselves and now launch their animated avatars into the 3D human universe in true hyper-real surreal and magnanimous fashion.

Just to take it to the next level - add Mos Def and Bobby Womack on vocals, and use Bruce Willis in the video and you have drama that rivals 24 and the Grammys combined.......take a look here.
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