Sunday 31 October 2010

Finally...a post about sonic branding...sort of...


So I spent last week in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, at the second Global Multi-Sensory Branding Forum. Here's a little of what I learned:

1. VERY few organisations have created clear, successful and recognisable multi-sensory platforms for their brands
2. When people talk multi-sensory, most of them are actually selling 'olfactory' branding - which is fine but very hard to successfully activate
3. The word (brand) 'activation' is only slightly less over-used and under-defined than the word (brand) 'experience'. Both have simply become short-hand for 'not a TV Commercial'
4. When a most honourable Chinese host pours a bottle of brandy for some Gom Bui action, even a battle-hardened 38 year old sonic brander can turn into a vomiting idiot.

Many thanks to the hosts of the event. Next year in Shanghai!

Monday 18 October 2010

Born To Lose


Whilst parenting this weekend, it occurred to me that my oldest son is an appalling loser. By which I mean that he HATES losing.

Full disclosure: He is 5. I had two running races with him. I won the first because he ran to the wrong tree. Because he was upset we had a second race and he had a big head start. To my shame, I sprinted as fast as I could and beat him. He was beside himself. But hey, the kid's gotta learn.

As with all things father and son-ly, this got me thinking. Is my son a bad loser because I am? Or can I blame his mother?

After literally minutes of self-analysis, I figured out that I am a bad loser but not in the crying and stomping around way. Even worse I have realised that I am a bad winner but again not in a conventional 'in your face loser!' kind of way.

Here's the deal:

I love the competition. Running races, pitches, thought leadership arms races in sonic branding...I love to compete. I do like to win. It is nice to have the 'champagne moment' but my problem is that as soon as the bubbles have been drunk I am thinking about the next race. The last was nothing - the next is everything. So winning is just a moment - one spark in time followed by an instant yearning for the next race.

And here's the real kicker. Losing is not just a moment - a fragment in time - losing stays with me for months, years, decades. I carry my failures with me everywhere I go. They are enduring, they are the permanent scars of a life spent competing.

It is my fear of losing that really drives me - the knowledge that a slip-up will last forever is naturally stronger than a desire to sip-up the champagne.

I will try to teach my kids to enjoy the wins little longer, forget the losses a little quicker. I will also seek their forgiveness as it seems that I have no deniability at all when it comes to passing on poor character traits. Sorry boys.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

It's NOT a post about sonic branding...


I can't help it. I may be a sonic branding guy but what really interests me these days is the business rather than the creativity; I'm in it for the deal - not just for the music; I want to make a difference - not just make some noise.

My strategy? It's simple.

Here it is. No lie - no bullshit - I am really working this. It is simple, not particularly original and I won't explain it. It is:

Good things with (or for) good people.

If you catch me doing rubbish things for bad people, feel free to arrange some kind of intervention.