Economics is about deciding what’s valuable.

After nearly a decade that saw the global re-set and the recent uncertainty of a new American President’s impact, people everywhere are re-evaluating and sorting out what is valuable in their lives and what is not. What the world needs now is to have more value added to it. And that’s what brands must do — add value to the world — if they want to lead the market in the age of disruption.

Creating new value is fundamental to the healthy functioning of our free-market economy. Like the natural law of gravity, creating new value is the natural law of increase. People are always seeking an increase to their lives — wanting to be a higher and more fuller expression of themselves. As marketing oriented leaders and professionals, when we have the opportunity to serve people well, we find greater meaning and satisfaction in our own life experience.

For 50 marketers that are focused on creating new value for those people most important to their future, The Blake Project and Branding Strategy Insider have designed a uniquely powerful experience for brand leadership in the age of disruption. We call it The Un-Conference: 360 Degrees of Brand Strategy for a Changing World.

It’s unlike any other conference you’ve attended before:

• Everyone in the room is an expert and gains from the sum of the expertise in the room.
• Our competitive learning format is fun, energized and impactful.
• The walls are down, there are no podiums or stages, there is no hierarchy – your uniform is jeans.
• The focus is on learning outcomes, not ticket sales.
• Small is powerful, with only 50 marketers participating in hands on learning.
• As in your marketplace, some will win, some will lose, all will learn.

No Attendees. Only Participants.
The best pathway for learning is through participation, not observation. The Un-Conference: 360 Degrees of Brand Strategy for a Changing World will challenge your thinking about brands and brand management. To do that, we’ll put you on a team of 10 and offer you opportunities to compete, lead and learn alongside other marketers in a unique environment. The challenges you’ll tackle are based on and influenced by the actual issues that you and other participants are facing.

In May of 2017, our 5th event, we are focused on: Disruptive Marketing Trends, Building Emotional Connections, Encoding Brands In The Mind, Brand Storytelling, Brand Leadership, Digital Strategy, Customer Experience, B2B Brand Strategy and more.

It all takes place at The London Hotel in West Hollywood, California May 1 – 3, 2017.

Our schedule…

Monday, May 1st – Kickoff Mixer: 7- 9pm at The London Hotel Rooftop Pool

Tuesday, May 2nd – Day 1: 8am – 5pm, at The London Hotel / 6:30pm – ? Team building event and dinner

Wednesday, May 3rd – Day 2: 8am – 5pm, at The London Hotel

Who Should Participate?
We have reserved these two days (and a kickoff mixer on the evening of the 1st) for 50 senior B2C and B2B marketers who see professional growth and value creation as a mandate for success and who seek a learning experience superior to last century’s format of marketing conferences:

-Marketing oriented leaders
-Marketing professionals (brand managers, product managers, directors, vice presidents, CMO’s, brand strategists etc.)
-Advertising agency professionals (account executives, planners, creatives, agency heads)
-Marketers facing brand strategy issues
-Marketers seeking a competitive advantage
-Professionals in charge of brand building, brand management, human resources
-Professional brand consultants, digital consultants and researchers
-Marketers who prefer participation over observation
-Marketers who don’t believe that last century’s format of marketing conferences advances them as leaders.

Every year a wide range of marketing oriented leaders and professionals from around the world join us representing startups, emerging, regional, national and global brands. Past participants include AAA, Bayer, Bloomberg, Humana, Land O’ Lakes, Liberty Mutual, Pilot/Flying J, RJ Reynolds, TD Ameritrade, GlaxoSmithKlein, Wounded Warrior Project, Monsanto, Ogilvy, Kawasaki, GE and many more.

Only 50 marketers can participate. To secure a spot for you or your group at The Un-Conference: 360 Degrees of Brand Strategy for a Changing World call me directly in Los Angeles at 813-842-2260. Or simply email me.

Special pricing for MENG / Marketing Executives Group and American Marketing Association Members.

I do hope you can join us.

Sincerely,

Derrick Daye for The Un-Conference, Branding Strategy Insider and The Blake Project

Recently Ryan Holiday, noted author, gave some interesting advice on why you should not start a podcast. I read it and disagreed with it at first because we as brands now all have tools to create and produce anything we want.

But I read it again and again and over time I agree with Ryan. Brands usually do things because they are tasked with driving growth. As a result, many brand marketers will do what everyone else is doing. This makes sense. As the famous quote goes: “good artists copy, great artists steal.”

As a result it isn’t foreign to customers to see brands who want to continue to grow to tweet, post on social media, market content, start podcasts, live stream video and pretty soon will try to create AR using AI.

The issue is that because brands assume they do these things, they will be relevant and successful right away.

Accenture recently released a study that should be an eye-opener to many CMOs and brand directors. You can’t simply manage a brand anymore. That is not your sole focus and duty. Just like writers no longer just write, film directors just direct or marketers just market, brands must drive growth.

So what’s the best way to make this transition? Well, the tools of a traditional past aren’t the right tools and maybe it’s time you realize you’re using antiquated metrics, belief systems and even staffing organizational hierarchies to get ahead in a world not shaped like the one you were used to in your career trajectory.

So how do you turn your brand marketing team into a growth engine?

1. Don’t rely on conventional tactics. Conventional ways to build your brand don’t work as well because disruptive technology is all around us. So you must use this to your advantage. This means tons of tests. Make sure you hang a sign on your wall that has two phrases on it: I don’t know and I may be wrong. Use this as your guide to growth. Growth isn’t just doing the same old thing so risk is essential.

2. Use rebellious “go to market” plans. Be rebellious. Think about the best way to get customer attention before thinking about conversion. People don’t buy immediately. They ponder and decide but if you emotionally connect with them in an authentic manner you convert them faster than through staged approaches. The only way to move them to a purchase decision faster is to rebel against past planned marketing strategies. They need to hear and see about your brand not simply from you, but from others in their social circle several times before that exposure leads to a decision. This goes back to point number one. If you listen too much to the voice in your head that “this isn’t going to work,” you’re never going to find out if you don’t know or that you may be wrong.

3. Don’t over rely on the data. As we’ve seen recently, data is not a predictor, it is a probability. The best growth marketers understand this and exploit data through action faster than their competitors. If you’re waiting around to see if the data is right on what creative you should use, well, you’re going to be waiting an awful long time. Test the probabilities, find what resonates best, repeat.

No one says growth is going to be easy but it is essential to long term success and sustainability.

Learn how to keep your brand relevant in the 21^st Century in my new book Disruptive Marketing.

Compete. Win. Learn. Join us in Hollywood, California for Brand Leadership in the Age of Disruption, our 5th annual competitive-learning event designed around brand strategy.

The Blake Project Can Help: The Brand Positioning Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers

intu, the owner of some of the UK’s largest and most popular shopping centres, is launching a new TV campaign under a new brand platform this Christmas: “Your kind of shopping”.

The Christmas campaign, created by Now, features beautifully and painstakingly crafted bird puppets inspired by stage shows such as War Horse and The Lion King to personify seven different types of shoppers and shopper behaviours – from the ‘Last Minute Panic Shopper’ in a flap to the ‘Wise Shopper’. The message of the campaign is that, no matter what type of shopper you are, intu understands you and can make your Christmas shopping experience better.

The puppeteers in the film include specialist performers from Henson and War Horse and the puppets, film and photography were produced by Blinkink and directed by Joseph Mann, who together have also helped create loveable characters for the likes of Cravendale and Churchill.
Having the puppeteers as part of the performance, a technique traditionally reserved for the stage, allows the film to feel more like a piece of theatre..

The integrated campaign launches on TV on Monday, November 7th and will also run across digital, social, OOH and in-centre media.
Now, which was appointed to the business in January this year, also worked alongside media agency Blue 449 for the campaign.
Remco Graham, Executive Creative Director at Now, said: “In a world of elves, bright lights, jingle bells and sad songs, we knew we had to do something a little different to ensure intu stood out at Christmas.”

Roger Binks, Customer Experience Director at intu, said: “The intu brand is all about curating the very best customer experience. To support this, we wanted to create a consumer proposition that resonated with our audience and that could act as a platform for the next phase of our brand development. Our “your kind of shopping” proposition using the seven shopper groups has been crafted to drive an emotional connection with our guests, allowing them to see themselves in our advertising and to demonstrate that we understand them.”

Joseph Mann said: “Keeping the puppeteers in shot was always our plan but it came with some challenges. The puppeteers are used to working in front of a screen so they can see what they’re doing. Making them part of the performance meant this wasn’t possible. They had to almost be an extension of the bird and therefore act alongside them, looking at them rather than straight on. As you can imagine, this required a lot of tests, rehearsals and choreography and with only four shoot days to work with it was a real challenge, but we are very pleased with the result.”

CREDITS:
Now Credits:
Executive Creative Director: Remco Graham
Creative Team: Juliet Kent and Clint Harding
Head of Film & Content: Jeremy Muthana
Planner: Amelia Wood
Account Director: Jack Howker
Account Manager: Katy Stanage

Client Credits:
Roger Binks, Customer Experience Director, intu
Richard Bailey, Head of Group Marketing
Izzie Peskett, Regional Marketing Manager, South
Charlotte Ullathorne, Regional Marketing Manager, Midlands

Production Credits:
Production Company: Blinkink
Director: Joseph Mann
Producer: Ben Lole
DOP: Matthew Day
Editing House: Stitch
Editor: Max Windows
Post-production: Finish
Audio: Wave Studios
Music: Simon Pegg
Media:
Blue449

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By Matteo Tonello, Managing Director, Corporate Leadership at The Conference Board Stock awards have taken up the slack of virtually every other component of pay. S&P 500 CEOs receive 47 percent of their total pay in the form of stock awards, up from a third in 2010, while in the Russell 3000 it has risen […]

Watch the new 2016 John Lewis Christmas TV advert featuring Buster The Boxer. This is the story of a little girl called Bridget who loves to bounce. When her mum and dad buy her a trampoline for Christmas, they soon discover that she isn’t the only one with a passion for jumping.

The music is One Day I’ll Fly Away performed by Vaults, the original song was by Randy Crawford.

CREATIVE CREDITS:
Ad Agency: adam&eveDDB
Chief Creative Officer: Ben Priest
Executive Creative Directors: Richard Brim, Ben Tollett
Copywriter: Ben Stilitz
Art Director: Colin Booth
Production Company: Blink Productions
Director: Dougal Wilson
Editing: Final Cut
Sound Design: 1618 Digital
Composer, Soundtrack: Randy Crawford, “One Day I’ll Fly Away”
Performed by: Vaults

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Nancy Pelosi at TEDWomen 2016 – It’s About Time, October 26-28, 2016, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts, San Francisco, California. Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED

Nancy Pelosi has represented San Francisco’s 12th district for 29 years, is currently the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, and made history by becoming the first woman Speaker of the House. But before all that happened, she never felt that she was on a course for public office. When the opportunity to run came along, she was a young mom; while she was heavily involved in the community, the thought of running for office had never crossed her mind.

Pelosi’s predecessor, Sala Burton, encouraged her to run when she became ill. Pelosi, feeling confident that she had a clear purpose, decided to go for it. “I knew my purpose and my call to service was to children,” she says. She wanted to make sure that all children had the same opportunities that her own children had. She won the election and the rest is history.

Asked by interviewer and TEDWomen co-founder Pat Mitchell what makes women’s leadership different and beneficial, Pelosi reflects how, when she ran meetings as Speaker of the House, people sometimes remarked on how different the meeting would have been if it was led by a man. Women are intuitive and respectful of other views, she says. They listen, learn and are ready to use their time well — and those differences make a difference. In fact, Pelosi believes that nothing is more wholesome to government than the increased participation of women.

Reflecting back on her long career, Pelosi offers advice to other women seeking leadership positions. When setting out on a course, she urges women to know their purpose, know their subject, act strategically and use their intuition. “When people know that you are going to act, your leadership will be very, very respected, and people will not try to destroy your options while you take your time,” she says.

Most important, she encourages women to be sincere. “It’s wonderful to have mentors and to have role models, but you must be your authentic self,” she urges, remarking that people want to see sincere and authentic candidates.

Nancy Pelosi with host Pat Mitchell at TEDWomen 2016 – It’s About Time, October 26-28, 2016, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts, San Francisco, California. Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED

When she attended her first meeting at the White House, Pelosi was aware that this was unlike any White House meeting that any other woman had attended. As she sat down at the table with President Bush and the other leaders, she suddenly felt that the chair she was sitting on was very crowded. “It was weird, it was so tight, and I realized that on that chair were Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth,” she says. “I could hear them say, ‘At last we have a seat at the table.’”

In that moment, she was standing on the shoulders of all the women who had come before her. “Women fought for the right to vote — it was not given,” she says, correcting the headlines that came after women’s suffrage in 1920. She realizes that one day, other women will stand on her shoulders, too.

Pelosi believes that the issues that face the United States are part of something bigger — and it all boils down to respect. “It’s about creating a government and society that are respectful of the voices of the people in their country,” she says. That future, she believes, is on the horizon.

This fall, TED welcomes Colin Helms as its Head of Media. In this leadership team role, Colin will oversee strategy and operations of TED’s core media business, including video production, new format development, distribution, social media, mobile and design.

Colin brings more than 20 years of experience in both digital and traditional media content strategy and platform development. Prior to joining TED’s New York office, he was the SVP of Connected Content at MTV, where he oversaw the brand’s digital evolution from broadband video and social media to its pioneering multi-screen programming and original digital content studio. Before that, he served as a founding editor of Complex magazine as well as the editor-in-chief of the music magazine and festival CMJ.

“It’s more important than ever to give ‘ideas worth spreading’ their greatest potential audience,” said TED curator Chris Anderson. “Colin’s expertise navigating today’s media landscape—at once vast and unpredictable—will help us expand that mission into an exciting new future.”

“My team’s challenge is to make TED available and relevant to audiences we haven’t reached yet,” Colin says. “Media behaviors and habits vary depending on so many factors — geography, economics, cultural norms, you name it — and our job is to meet these audiences where they already are. That means online, yes, but it could also mean TV, radio, and a very broad variety of other content platforms. I’m excited to help TED become a part of millions more people’s media habits.”

Credit: Dian Lofton / TED

ENVY Advertising and adam&eveDDB have teamed up to deliver a heartfelt ad for a new Volkswagen campaign that asks people to share their cherished memories of the brand’s cars.

Shot by award-winning director, Amanda Blue, ‘VW Barry Openshaw’ tells the beautifully nostalgic story of Barry and his father’s golden Beetle. In the film, Barry shares the important role the car played in his childhood and the fond memories it conjures up of his father in his prime. Skilfully told through a montage of old family photographs, and a mixture of archival and newly-shot footage, the film deftly captures the story’s intimacy and features a touching surprise at the end.

adam&eveDDB enlisted the expertise of ENVY Advertising to bring Barry’s vivid recollection to life. With memories playing a central role in this campaign, ENVY Advertising carefully scanned Barry’s old photos in high resolution so that they could be woven into the film. Colourist, Vicki Matich, worked closely with Amanda to lend the film and photos a suitably nostalgic feel. The post-production facility removed distracting elements from the background to keep the attention on the story.

ENVY Advertising were also responsible for the audio, which played an important role in the film, since Barry narrates throughout. Despite being hundreds of miles apart – with Barry in Manchester and ENVY in London – location was no obstacle for the post production house. By opting to record Barry’s voice over ISDN, a remote link-up, ENVY Advertising was able to secure the perfect delivery. Whilst combining it with music, Sound Designer, Arge, was mindful of keeping Barry’s voice at the forefront.

Philip Archer, Producer at ENVY Advertising, comments on the collaboration: “It was a pleasure to work with Amanda. A consummate professional, she did a wonderful job bringing out the heartfelt story. Because of the film’s personal nature, our main aim was to keep any post work as invisible as possible to allow plenty of space for Barry to speak to the viewer. I think we achieved that and helped make a really beautiful piece for adam&eveDDB.”

CREATIVE CREDITS:
Creative Agency adam&eveDDB
Agency Producer Nicholas Akinnibosun
CCO Ben Priest
ECD Ben Tollet, Richard Brim
Creative Director Matt Woolner, Steve Wioland
Account Director Loella Bowles
Account Manager William Menko
Business Team Mike Stern
Planner Nick Hirst, Mattijs Devroedt, Alistair Owen
TV Producer Louise Richardson
Production Company tantrum
Director Amanda Blue
Executive Producer Stuart Wrigglesworth
Production Assistant Nic Akinnibosun
Cinematography Ian Murray (repped by Vision)
Editor Nik Hindson (at The Assembly Rooms)
Post Production ENVY Advertising
Colourist Vicki Matich
Flame Kieran Baxter
Producer Philip Archer
Sound Design ENVY Advertising
Sound Designer Arge and Dave Williams
Media Planner Victoria Tait, Megan Kennedy (at Mediacom)

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Just because there is a better product or a better way of doing some­thing, it doesn’t mean that customers will embrace the new solution.

If a new offering doesn’t fit with engrained behaviors and expecta­tions, customers will be reluctant to change and will look for reasons not to shift to a new solution. Companies will be forced to invest resources fighting both actual and perceived obstacles.

For example, in many parts of the world, mopeds are a popular way of navigat­ing congested urban areas. Despite similar traffic and hassles in many U.S. cities, mopeds have never really taken off in the States. Part of that can be attributed to perception. When you think about mopeds in other parts of the world, you often think of old, loud, dirty contraptions that—while practical—aren’t particularly com­fortable or esteemed. We think of them being used to carry families of four down dusty roads in South America or through crowded traffic jams in India. Back in America, we just don’t see the need. If we want to get around the city, public transportation is typically good enough to get the job done. When it’s not, cars are becoming more and more luxurious. Cars give us the option to turn on our seat warmers, sip our coffee, make a phone call or two, and belt out the lyrics to the newest Taylor Swift song completely free of judg­ment. You can’t do that on a moped. And with favorable lease terms, a car can actually be pretty affordable.

But things are changing, and cars aren’t always ideal. Parking costs are starting to soar. Gas is getting more expensive, and people are becoming more environmentally conscious. Cities—though his­torically designed around cars in the United States—are making strides to be friendlier for bikes and mopeds. People are getting married later, delaying the move out of urban areas. Even families are choosing cities over suburbs with increasing frequency. As ur­ban areas become even more densely populated, cars begin to make less sense. And when you need to carry groceries or bulky items home from the store, public transportation is less than ideal. There’s clearly a market opening for mopeds in U.S. cities, but consumers are going to need to be convinced. They’re not going to shoulder the burden of determining why mopeds are actually a good idea. Companies need to be well aware of stubborn behaviors that can impede the successful uptake of their new product and think, from the very outset of the design process, how they can excite people out of their comfort zone.

GenZe has taken a number of steps to fight inertia and non-con­sumption, in hopes that its new electric scooter will take off among younger, urban consumers in the United States. Before launching its new bike (the GenZe 2.0 – pictured above), company employees traveled to cities around the country to talk to people about how they were commuting today, where they were experiencing pain points, and what they were trying to get done in their commutes. Using that knowledge, they de­signed a bike that accounts for the jobs and job drivers of their target demographic. It offers cargo units to carry briefcases, groceries, and other personal items. Those units are even rainproof for people in cities with less forgiving climates. The scooters are environmentally friendly, allowing riders to save on fuel costs and feel as though they’re doing their part for the environment. The scooters are also visually appealing and tech-heavy, featuring a 7-inch touch-screen control panel. Consumers don’t choose the GenZe 2.0 because they can’t af­ford something better; they choose it to make a statement. The bike also helps lower the barriers to adoption by introducing features that make it safer and easier to use, such as taller windscreens and a special driving mode for those still learning to ride. While it remains to be seen how well the GenZe 2.0 will do in the United States, GenZe’s dedication to customer centricity and its focus on defeating traditional purchase obstacles will give it the best possible chance to succeed.

Fighting inertia means lowering the barriers to trying a new product. While some companies continually “wow” their loyal cus­tomers with a parade of shiny new products, most do not. This latter group has to work hard to induce trial. We created a chart that illus­trates several ways companies have found success in improving the speed of product diffusion.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by Stephen Wunker, excerpted from his new book JOBS TO BE DONE: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation, with permission from AMACOM publishing.

Compete. Win. Learn. Join us in Hollywood, California for Brand Leadership in the Age of Disruption, our 5th annual competitive-learning event designed around brand strategy.

The Blake Project Can Help: The Brand Positioning Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers

There was a trend identified by many brand and digital strategists a few years ago, due to the behavioral changes ushered in by two-way communication media.

Its name? Brands as publishers.

Its theory was that brands no longer could act in a way where they simply advertise and then iterate products every five to seven years. They had to begin acting as publishers, curating and creating content to engage in an always-on world which then required a whole new set of skillsets to implement a modern brand strategy.

It also required brands to update its products as often as its content. But many companies didn’t understand that behavior and several thought the more they tweeted, posted on Facebook or produced videos, the more they would persuade customers to buy more.

How disassociated from reality they were with that logic.

This of course ushered in the new (old?) wave of content marketing into the mix. If brands were publishers, then that would require massive amounts of content to push and amplify to an audience much like how The New York Times, Mashable or BuzzFeed would operate.

Many brands are still defining what this process means using hierarchical organizational charts to do so. Of course, this means that the people who do the day-to-day work the least, have the most say in the work because businesses and brands still use an operations process defined in the 19^th century by railroads.

Now behavior is shifting again. And this time it’s not going to be a simple incremental change. While brands staffed up with writers, copywriters, designers, illustrators, etc. to be “publishers,” now the pivot is into a more dynamic realm.

Brands are taking the role of broadcasters.

What this means is that brands now have the ability to be the media rather than have to beat it. Much of this disruption is the result of the democratization of tools that allow any of us to take the airwaves of the world wide web.

What used to require a TV network, an AM/FM bandwidth or a cable signal can be brought to life on a Facebook or Twitter feed, a YouTube or Twitch channel or with a SoundCloud account.

Of course, simply creating the content won’t mean you will reach people nor will they react. This is the creative angle brands keep missing. They think customers want to know more about them but the pivot is that they want to know more about the world around them and how you can help them adapt to it.

If mainstream broadcasters are simply reporting about the world around them, can companies now define how to evolve in this world with no rules, lack of best practices and disruption?

Or will they simply broadcast more branded content junk that will get many turning away faster than you can say, “skip this”?

Learn how to keep your brand relevant in the 21^st Century in my new book Disruptive Marketing.

Join us in Hollywood, California for Brand Leadership in the Age of Disruption, our 5th annual competitive-learning event designed around brand strategy.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers