Latest work from Italian ad agency, Auge for Ikea Italia: Oggi è il giorno giusto per coltivare nuove idee which translates in English to “today is the day to cultivate new ideas.” The ad features the song “Don’t touch me tomato” by George Symonette.

Creative Credits:
Advertising Agency: Auge Headquarter, Milan, Italy
Executive Creative Director: Federica Ariagno, Giorgio Natale
Creative Director: Federica Ariagno, Williams Tattoli
Copywriter: Niccolò Bossi
Art Director: Veronica Ciceri
Agency Senior Producer: Cecilia Del Favero
Production Company: (H)Films
Director: Pensacola
Post Production: Edi

Over the past months I have read quite a bit of speculations about Apple’s iWatch, and I am cautiously optimist about the its launch. No doubt the company has launched products which have reshaped the market landscape, but it has also been spinning out several ‘not very different from the previous one’ products. However, every single product launch sees an amount of buzz which is the envy of its competitors. There has been so much buzz about iWatch too. Seeing the past trend one may wonder if the iWatch is just going to be a ‘watch like something’ coming with iOS optimized for a smaller screen! The internet is abound with both optimistic and pessimistic speculations, and I am not going to add to the speculation grind mill with less than few hours to go before the launch. In this blog I am going to tell you what I, a strategic designer, will be keenly looking for as details of the iWatch are unveiled today.

How is Apple handling fashion, which is very much about self-expression?
Apple recently hired British luxury watch designer Marc Newson and it had hired Paul Deneve, formerly the CEO of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent some time ago, to work on “special projects”. Over the last two days, a news about Jonathan Ive‘s remark that the iWatch may screw Swiss watchmakers, has drawn quite some attention on the internet. The hiring of people from the field of fashion, and Ive’s remark, point to the fact that when it comes to form design, iWatch may be a fashion accessory (in addition to being other things), and a fashion accessory is essentially a medium for self-expression. Since each one of us is different in some way, innumerable variations in fashion accessories exist. I am curiously waiting to see how even when going the fashion accessory route to design, Apple will enable people (if at all) to express themselves uniquely through the iWatch. Perhaps the iWatch could come in a few different colors and form factors. Or perhaps, Apple could go a somewhat unexpected route and create many variations of iWatch by tying up with several renowned watch-makers and co-designing the interface with them – something similar to what Apple did with automobile makers for its CarPlay.

How does the iWatch go beyond the hype of quantified self?
Amazon recently added wearable products to its online marketplace. The below picture shows the main categories of products being sold on Amazon.
Interestingly, most of the products are meant to ‘track’ things – from tracking your activities to tracking your pets. iPhone already tracks many things and Apple is known to have hired several medical and bio-sensor experts, such as O’Reilly’s chief medical officer Michael Masimo and Vital Connect’s vice president of biosensor technology Ravi Narasimhan, for its “special projects”. I am expecting some kick-ass fitness applications. But there are already so many tracking devices which inundate us with data. So what I am waiting to see is how Apple puts all the data together and make the iWatch tell new stories about us. Can iWatch go beyond the ‘quantified self’ hype and tell us things that really help improve the quality of our lives?

Does iWatch introduce any new meanings in wearable category?
We have seen cell phones being used for controlling objects (locks, thermostats, light etc.), enabling transactions and tracking our activities. But perhaps there is a completely new need which the iWatch could address through a feature which is unique to the wearable medium. If iWatch does so, it will be introducing a new meaning for the medium itself. For example, Alessi gave a whole new meaning to kitchenware by infusing playfulness in them. I am waiting to see how radical and/or how nuanced meanings Apple will introduce by addressing our needs which others have not paid attention to.

How the iWatch will handle fashion, which is all about self-expression? How the iWatch will make use of all the tracked data to tell a story about improving the quality of our lives? And how (if at all) the iWatch will introduce new meanings to the category of wearables? These are some of the questions at the top of my mind with less than few hours to go before the launch of iWatch. Is there a special angle that you will be looking for in today’s unveiling of iWatch? I am curious to know the questions in your mind.

Update: Here’s the video of ‘Apple Watch’ being introduced by Jony Ive.

To stay tuned with me  Follow @nbhaskar888

Ben’s publicist reached out to me a while back when he was in Vancouver with Lionel Ritchie. She connected the two of us which lead to this interview. It was fascinating hearing Ben’s story of how he got the gig playing with Lionel Ritchie, Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera, John Fogerty, Tony Braxton, Don Felder and many more. I will hint that it had something to do with playing all the open mics and jam nights in NYC. Equally as interesting is hearing about how he is pursuing a parallel solo career as an independent artist.

We talk about how he got into music, the importance of practicing, getting the right type of support, persistence, playing out, remembering your beginnings, attitude, personality, learning the hits and how it has affected his personal career, as well as life on the road and his new album.

This is an interview that a lot of you that are working hard to get the big break you’ve been waiting for will find inspiring and insightful.

This episode was edited by Andy Warren of www.applesandchocolate.com

Aaron Bethune.

Music Specialist. Creative Collaborator. Author. Musicpreneur.

Take a lisen to the interview here.

By Cecily Joseph, VP, Corporate Responsibility & Chief Diversity Officer, Symantec Corporation Symantec’s vision is to make the world a safer place, and to accomplish this we need a team with the diversity of expertise and experience to protect against threats, both known and unknown. I believe that diversity helps us understand our customers better, […]

Here’s my latest “brand book bites” post!  Today I’m featuring LinkedIn Daily Dozen: 12 Things You Can Do Every Day On LinkedIn to Grow Your Network, Build Your Business and Make More Sales by Phil Gerbyshak.  It includes easy yet important LinkedIn tips. 

Phil is a popular speaker, trainer, and writer on social sales and social media — and you can listen to my conversation with him about his new book to learn:

how LinkedIn has changed and how big it is now the #1 mistake that people make on LinkedIn how to make connection requests that people respond to what is social selling and how to use LinkedIn to do it

Since LinkedIn Daily Dozen is a short e-book (which you can get here for free with subscription:  http://socialsellingdailydozen.com), I thought I’d forego the usual “brand book bites” format and share some of my own tips on using LinkedIn.

I need to make a disclaimer/explanation first, though:  I am not super-active on LinkedIn.  I do have over 2200 connections and I regularly request and respond to requests for connections.  I also use the platform to do research on people and companies that I interest me.  But I usually don’t participate in discussions, I operate in “private mode” (meaning I can’t see the people who have looked at my profile/content and people can’t see if I’ve looked at theirs), and I usually only read people’s posts if they’ve been promoted on Twitter.  This is because I’ve made Twitter my primary social network and Facebook my secondary — LinkedIn comes in third.  I just don’t have the bandwidth to actively participate on multiple networks and prioritizing your participation is my #1 overall tip for social networking — that is, I believe you make more impact, make better connections, and have a better experience in general if you actively participate in fewer networks than if you spread out your activity and dabble everywhere.

With this in mind, I feel I should only provide recommendations for the primary way I used LinkedIn — making connections.  So here are 5 recommendations for making connections requests:

Make it personal. Nothing says “I’m lazy” or “I don’t value you enough to make an effort” than the generic message “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”  In fact, I rarely accept these impersonal connections requests (exception:  if I know someone very well or just met/connected with them elsewhere — even so, I would still prefer a short personal note.)  If you want to connect with a stranger, address them by name and tell them why they should accept your request — e.g., who you are, why you’re interested in connecting, what you might offer to them, etc.  Not only is a personal request more likely to be accepted, but it also makes a positive and impactful first impression.  Your request message may be the one and only time you get the person’s attention — use it wisely. Find common ground. Reference connections you have in common, groups you both belong to, or some other thing you have in common.  This can help to convey the value of connecting with you — and again, it makes your request more personal. Do it right away. Make a connection request as soon as you’ve met the person or connected with them in some other way.  This will help keep your LinkedIn connections list current and accurate, which is particularly important if you are trying to build your email list.  It will also help you stand out and be remembered more. Follow up. Once someone accepts your request, send a short, direct email message as follow-up.  Just a quick “thank you” or “nice to connect with you” will do.  Even if you don’t have a specific next step, a short note will further your personal connection and also ensure you have a direct email connection if you need it later. Start offline, when appropriate. When requesting a new connection through an existing one, sometimes it’s best to send a direct email to your contact first.  I’ve found that some people use a different email address on LinkedIn from their main one, so a LinkedIn request could get delayed or lost before it reaches your contact or your requested connection.  Also many people are connected to others that they don’t know, don’t feel comfortable making a connection to, or have some other reason why they don’t want to make the introduction.  If you contact them directly, you can discover these dynamics and adjust your plan without putting them in the sometimes awkward position of officially declining your request.  You also can be more forthcoming about your desired connection and they have the option of giving you insight about the person — all without exposing your exchange in the LinkedIn messaging chain that will eventually reach your desired connection.  Finally if you reach out to your contact directly, sometimes they might just put you directly in contact with the person you’re trying to reach, which is what you really want.

I hope the combination of these tips along with those in Phil’s ebook are helpful. And please share your own tips in the Comments section below.

The post brand book bites from linkedin daily dozen appeared first on Denise Lee Yohn.

Liberty Public Market is one of the newest entries in a growing food retailing trend — the rise of public markets and food halls.  This video explains why these venues are so popular and gives you a brief tour of Liberty Public Market in San Diego.

DLYohn Brand Experience: Brief Liberty Public Market from Denise Lee Yohn on Vimeo.

other brand experience briefs:

Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room San Diego Public Library Downtown Project

transcript:

Today’s Brand Experience Brief covers a new entry in a growing trend — the rise of public markets and food halls.  I’ll take you inside one of the newest, Liberty Public Market in San Diego — but first let’s set the stage by examining the popularity behind venues like it.

Public markets and food halls are like fancy food courts that are sometimes part of a larger shopping center or entertainment district.  They often feature gourmet food sold to be eaten on premise in communal seating areas as well as meals and groceries to be purchased to-go.  They are usually comprised of artisanal non-chain vendors and restaurateurs with a focus on local ingredients, local tastes, and local business owners.  Although food halls have existed in Britain for many years (perhaps one of the most famous of which is in in the iconic Harrod’s department store), they started in the US in 2010, when the first American Eataly opened in New York City.  Then came similar concepts in Chicago, San Francisco, and Portland, and now public markets and food halls have been popping up in almost every major market.

Their popularity has arisen from the intersection of several trends:

First, Americans’ interest in food and culinary has been growing over the last decade — people don’t just want to eat a meal, they want to savor every aspect of their food. A related trend is how grocery shopping has evolved — many people no longer simply visit one giant big-box store. They’ve gone back the future and are more likely visit multiple specialized shops like a butcher, bakery, farmer’s market for produce, etc. Which also relates to the growing popularity of community-based agriculture and locally- sourced food and ingredients. People are also more interested the experiences that surround their purchases and food halls and markets offer creativity and novelty. And entrepreneurs and aspiring restaurateurs are looking for lower-cost, lower-risk ways to start up food businesses.

This has created the perfect environment for public markets and food halls to thrive and Liberty Public Market in San Diego is no exception.  Even though it’s only been open for a few short months and still needs to add tenants to round out its offerings and to improve the warmth and glamour of the environment, Liberty Public Market has been attracting a steady stream of locals and visitors and getting pretty good reviews.

Its strength is its appeal to a wide range of people and purchase occasions.  Foodies enjoy shops like Baker & Olive, where you can sample and learn about infused olive oils.  Folks looking for a convenient meal have plenty of choices including several ethnic options like empanadas and Thai cuisine.  For shoppers, there’s a butcher, a florist, and several specialty retailers like a beer shop showcasing San Diego’s burgeoning craft beer business and an outpost of a local cheese store.

Like public markets in other towns, Liberty is anchored by a full-service restaurant called Mess Hall, in a nod to its location of a former Naval base — but the separation between restaurant and hall is unclear so I imagine some customers might become confused or frustrated.

There’s ample communal seating inside and outdoors and a nice feature are the windows in the halls lining the perimeter that give you a look into the back of the house of the shops.  A huge digital screen displaying tweets and content from the merchants lends a progressive feel to one area, but the place needs to incorporate more art and design to make it feel less industrial and generic.

In general Liberty Public Market serves up an exciting, new food experience.  Keep your eye on it and other food halls and public markets. They’re changing the face of food retailing.

The post brand experience brief: liberty public market, a new food hall appeared first on Denise Lee Yohn.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Coverage of social justice issues affecting girls in Rwanda earns international acclaim

San Francisco, CA—Global Press Institute (GPI) reporters Gloriose Isugi and Noella Nbihogo, of the GPI Rwanda News Desk, won the 2013 Ulrich Wickert Award for Child Rights in the international category. The winning arcle, “Sugar Daddies Prey on Female Students Headed Home for Holiday in Rwanda,” detailed the ways in which young Rwandan schoolgirls become susceptible to predatory, older men who offer rides and gifts in exchange for sexual favors.

“Gloriose Isugi and Noella Nbihogo explain how easy it is for men in Rwanda to persuade teenagers who do not know the facts of life into having sex,” said Renate Meinhof, a member of the selection jury. “Their [article] insistently gets to the bottom of a concrete issue in the country by examining it from various angles. The reporters of the Global Press Institute describe the situation from close proximity, but they keep the required journalistic distance.”

Isugi and Nbihogo live in Kigali, Rwanda, where they have been reporters with the GPI’s Rwanda News Desk since it opened in March 2012. The GPI Rwanda News Desks is operated in partnership with Girl Hub Rwanda—a collaboration between the Nike Foundation and the U.K.’s Department for International Development. GPI is an international nonprofit organization that uses journalism as a development tool to educate, employ, and empower women, who produce high-quality local news coverage that elevates global awareness and catalyzes social change.

“Gloriose and Noella continue to demonstrate the power of ethical, authentic journalism and the change that it can inspire,” said Cristi Hegranes, GPI founder and executive director upon learning of the award. “They have shown an extraordinary commitment to highlighting important social justice issues affecting girls throughout Rwanda.”

The winning article was selected from among applications from fourteen countries and recognized for its journalistic prowess by a jury composed of prominent German broadcasters and journalists.

Isugi and Nbihogo will attend the awards ceremony, hosted by Plan International Germany, in Berlin in October 2013

About the Ulrich Wickert Award
The Ulrich Wickert Award for Child Rights is awarded by Plan International Germany. Plan International is one of the oldest child-centred community organizations in the world. Plan International Germany annually confers the Ulrich Wickert Award for Child Rights upon journalists whose writing represents the rights of children and girls in a detailed, balanced and understandable fashion and that encourages/stimulates engagement with the content. The award is made possible through the support of Ulrich Wickert, a prominent German journalist and broadcaster.

About the Global Press Institute

GPI is building a network of professional women journalists throughout the developing world who earn a fair wage for reporting on their local communities. Their unique coverage of issues overlooked by mainstream media contributes directly to the development and empowerment of their communities, brings greater transparency to their countries, and changes the way the world views their people and cultures. Today, GPI employs 135 women across 26 developing countries.

For more information please contact Cristi Hegranes, (415) 561-7831, [email protected]

New work created by Allison Josephs of Jew in the City, who is breaking down stereotypes about religious Jews and offering a humorous, meaningful look into Orthodox Judaism.

Forced modesty clearly subjugates, but what about the pressure to uncover? With summer nearly upon us, newsstands are replete with magazine covers instructing women on how to get the “perfect beach bod,” but this is not a seasonal phenomenon. In an age when gender equality is on everyone’s mind, there is a discrepancy between the sexes that no one is talking about — call it “The Skin Gap.” The term, coined by social media nonprofit, Jew in the City, is illustrated in this thought-provoking new video.

The skin gap is the difference in the amount of skin men and women are expected to show in the same social setting. Images of the nearly flawless, scantily-clad female form bombard girls and women year round via billboards, ads, TV shows, and movies, subliminally conveying how a woman ought to dress and how her body ought to look.

The video forces the viewer to see that from pajamas, to summer street wear, to formal wear, the amount of skin that is “normal” for young, thin girls and women to expose versus their male counterparts is highly inequitable. The skin gap begins in toddlerhood and only ends when a woman has exceeded a certain number in age or pounds and no longer fits the Western Beauty Standard. The video closes by asking the viewer: “Gender equality is demanded everywhere else. Why not here?”

“As a secular American teen, I was so excited to get my first bikini and pair of Daisy Dukes, because it was a sign of being ‘grown up,’” said Allison Josephs, Founder of Jew in the City. “But something unexpected happened: I’d always feel gross when random men would give me the ‘up down.’ I never did anything or said anything because I had no language to express what I was feeling.”

“A few years later, I became an Orthodox Jew and started covering up purely to follow `the rules,’” adds Josephs. “I discovered something fascinating: covering up actually made me feel empowered. The first time I wore a long skirt and a random guy at the mall gave me the ‘up down’ but had nothing to see, inside I screamed, ‘Yes!’ No one can deny that the skin gap exists, and if this video helps one more woman feel more empowered about her body, then we’ll consider it a success.”

Studies show that there is a direct correlation between girls and women viewing scantily clad pictures of perfect-looking women and female body dissatisfaction. As many as eight out of ten women (more than twice as many women than men) are unhappy with their figures, leading to depression, obsessive dieting, eating disorders and plastic surgery.

“The Skin Gap” video aims not only to start a conversation around gender inequality in regards to fashion and dress, but also to raise awareness for Jew in the City and to hopefully make people have a second thought about Orthodox modes of modesty.

Creative Credits:
Title: The Skin Gap
Client: Jew in the City
​Written, directed, produced by Allison Josephs
​Production ​Company: Elie Creative
Director of ​Photography: Elliot Gabor
via: Shannon @ Glossyinc.com

The most famous brand archetype success of all time is also the most documented.

In 1924, Philip Morris introduced Marlboro cigarettes as a brand for women, milder and filtered to contrast with the stronger unfiltered brands smoked by most men. The filter was even printed with a red band to hide lipstick marks. The original tagline for the brand was ‘Mild as May’.

By 1954, the world had changed, and smokers reconsidered their love of unfiltered cigarettes. This led Marlboro to consider how to leverage its safer filtered cigarette to a wider audience, leading to the creation of the ‘Marlboro man’ by Leo Burnett. The iconic image of the Marlboro man led to one of the greatest U-turns in branding history, and was found in response to Leo Burnett’s question, ‘What’s the most masculine symbol that you can think of?’ to which one of his writers said ‘a cowboy’. The ad campaign was launched in 1955 and within two years had increased US sales from 5 billion to 20 billion. Marlboro was the leading global brand by 1972 and is still the number one cigarette brand.

The new image appealed to both men and women, embodying independence, defiance, adventure and authenticity, a combination of Explorer and Rebel, drawing on the mythology of the US Wild West frontier. The imagery taps into human universal themes, creating connections to strongly embedded associations with the American West and the cowboy films and TV shows were popular as the brand grew.

Jerome Bruner wrote that in classic information theory a message is considered informative ‘if it reduces alternative choices’. The power of archetypes is to access elaborate networks of associated memories that come from our cultural as well as personal memories. When these networks are aligned with our individual goals, they help us to close down other choices and focus on the brands that are most mentally available, as long as they are physically available to us at the right time.

The secret to building brand essence is to understand the impact of sense, symbol and story on each customer, and their connection to the customer’s values. Does the sensory experience of the brand provide consistent patterns? Are brand symbols sending the right signals to customers? And does the brand personality tell the right story?

Successful brands build brand experiences, brand symbols and brand stories anchored by archetypes that consistently reflect their core essence.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Neil Gains, excerpted from his book, Brand Essense: Using sense, symbol and story to design brand identity, with permission from Kogan Page publishing.

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By Dr Rob John, Visiting Senior Fellow, National University of Singapore Business School, and Advisory Board Member, The Conference Board Initiative on Corporate Philanthropy In my forthcoming working paper on the changing face of corporate philanthropy in Asia I’m exploring how giving by businesses is influenced by new models of philanthropy and the rise of […]