one part truth, two parts mixer

Double dinners

I've written about 2 screen or double dipping - or whatever you want to call it - a couple of times before (here, here and here), but was interested to see Channel 4 facilitating it on Come Dine with Me. While the show is live, they invite viewers to vote and as the show wraps up, there is a screen that shows your vote, the average viewer vote and the shows' actual winner.

Not the most advanced use of online support for television broadcasting, but it's nice to see that broadcasters are acknowledging that it's rare that one screen gets our full attention anymore. Hopefully this is the start of something beautiful.

Being thoughtful

This email from Wired arrived this morning. All the more powerful because it was unexpected. We shouldn't be waiting for our customers to tell us what's wrong all the time, but instead pre-empting and addressing their problems. Nice one Wired.

Finally!

I was quite happy to see this when I checked into Amazon today:

I remember once recieving a ricer in a box that could have fit a microwave. Grrr. Seeing as I broke said ricer yesterday with my superhuman strength, I may order another one to see if they really have changed.

Free lunches

As you will know I was offered a free lunch on Pizza Express earlier this week. So was Anjali (who very kindly tagged me) but what interested me was that in her post she very nobly justified to her readers why she was taking the free meal, whereas I sort of insinuated that it was my divine right and was just up for the free meal.

Anyway, what interested me was that one of her reasons was that she liked the food. Which got me a-wondering, is there anyone I would actually turn down? Seeing as I haven't eaten high street fast food for over 10 years (apart from the occasional omlette and chips at Wimpy or veggie burger at Nando's) I wouldn't even consider courtship from McDonald's, Subway, Pizza Hut or Burger King, no matter how much they'd told me they'd changed. But who else?

Would I be comfortable promoting a brand like Primark, who have a dubious record regarding how their clothes are made. I actually do buy clothes from Primark (I can enlighten you with the reasons why next time we go for a pint), but I wouldn't be comfortable aligning myself with them publicly. What do you do if you're a brand that noone wants to stand next to?

Light lunches

In my past life as journalist I can't say that I was that much of a puff merchant, but freebies were quite a nice perk. Every now and then this blog gives me a taste of that. From a work point of view, it's always interesting to see what brands are prepared to put on the table. So, this month it's 'Leggera month' at Pizza Express. If you didn't know, these are those pizzas with a hole in the middle, around 500 calories, space for dessert.

So a couple of weeks ago I was invited to the Holborn restaurant to meet other bloggers and make my own pizza:

Sadly there was a bit of mix up and Jenny ended up with my Tabasco-covered pizza. I also learnt that making pizza is quite hard. They also introduced some new Leggera flavours, but they were all meat/fish so I couldn't have a go. But given by the state of the plates at the end, I take it they were tasty.

Interestingly, a couple of days before I went to Pizza Express I read a post by Willem which revealed that Pizza Express take a cut of staff tips that are given on card. The representatives from Pizza Express were quite happy to answer my questions, saying that unlike their competitors who top up wages with tips, they pay above minimum wage and only take the processing fee out of card tips. Apparently they have ridiculous retention rates for staff as well. But nevertheless, mental note: always tip in cash.

Anyway, as part of Leggera month I get to do a sort of free pizza meme thing. I can tag my dream bloggers table and  we all get to go for lunch for free. So... Amanda, 90sguy, Sam, Whatleydude, Charlie - who's free for lunch next week?

No logo

Repost from Run on Toast

Saw an in interesting post over on Influx Insights the other day, about how Freshjive are removing branding/logos from all their products (you can read the interview with owner Rick Klotz here). I always thought that the interesting thing about a lot of luxury fashion is that there is no branding on the outside of the clothes. The kudos comes because fashion people are so geeky that they will be able to recognise who you're wearing by what you're wearing. It's interesting to see a brand taking it further, with no branding at all.

Around the time of No Logo I remember there being a brand called No Label (can't find anything on the internetz, sorry), which made canvas shoes with a label that said No Label. I always thought that was a pretty stupid statement to make - it being a label called No Label - but I'm sure some people felt it was a zeitgeisty, ironic and cool statement.

But does this box become a logo of sorts? Pic via The Hundreds

A couple of quotes from that Klotz interview:
"Throughout the years I’ve become uncomfortable with this business of branding and brand identity. I’m not the type of person that buys something for the brand name. I’ve also never done a very good job at creating a captivating identity to our own brand logo." The cynic in me wonders if this just a savvy marketing ploy for a brand that hasn't built a successful reputation as it would like?

"... when I see kids wearing company logos it reminds of people who are trying to be a part of a “tribe” or “gang”, as if they need to be part of something, which seems to go against the idea of individualism in style."

"It’s really invigorating to approach designing a line WITHOUT the constrictions of how the logo is gonna be placed or used on the garments. " Imagine designing an ad without having to consider where to put the logo. Within the market that Freshjive operate in, it's as radical a thought.

It's an interesting case to follow. If you take away the brand and the logo, you are left with just the product. What to do you to your product to make it desirable?

TOV

That used to stand for Trouble on Vinyl until I got a job in marketing. Now I hear it and I think 'tone of voice' - how things change.

So, there's a tone of voice, championed by brands such as Innocent - you know, the quirky, colloquial, affable, lovable and eminently human tone of voice that set brands like Innocent or Ben & Jerry's apart from the corporate norm of the time. I've noticed that over time it has become the de rigeur way of talking for brands. Even the banks are at it:

 

At what point do we become totally cynical about this type of language? At what point does it become ineffective because we just read it as marketing speak? Does this ever happen?  

Vouchers and hiding

Was at the Future Foundation's Changing Lives conference last week. A couple of things struck me as particularly interesting, so I thought I'd share.

Firstly, the idea that for brands that have been discounting heavily in these dark times (just wanted to say that) consumers will continue to expect these discounts once the recession is over. How do Pizza Express et al justify a premium post-recession? Will they have to be voucher restaurants forever?

Secondly, Nik Shah said something about one of the possible outcomes from widespread take up of GPS enabled phones: retailers cluster their stores together so that people know where to go. If your phone can tell you all the businesses in the local area (with ratings, vouchers, images of stock), then does it remove the disadvantage of being on a winding backstreet? Been thinking about this sort of stuff a lot recently.

Ugh, sort it out

I found this mildly annoying. I was rating my friends short film (btw watch it) and I would actually like to hear more about the competition, but my only options are hear nothing or hear everything. Why can I not hear more about Virgin Media Shorts without being bombarded with crap from Virgin Media (which I can't even get) and Virgin Mobile (which I don't even want)? Surely the whole point of doing stuff like this is (or should be) to make people warm towards your brand? A soft-sell if you like. Not just a way to build a database for mailings about mobile offers.

And anyway, it's not like you couldn't advertise to the 'Shorts info only' people. I'm sure you're allowed to put  adverts within emails that are about the thing they've signed up to.

I know I need to stop ranting, but brands need to stop being annoying first.

Awww, more heart for Howies

This is from the most recent Howies catalogue. I love love love the fact that you can borrow books off them. A company that is just genuinely nice.