HTC unveils new 'Quietly Brilliant' brand positioning

HTC Corporation has unveiled its first global ad campaign, based on HTC’s new 'Quietly Brilliant' brand positioning.

The 'YOU' ad campaign is being rolled out across 20 countries in the coming weeks and features the tagline,‘You don’t need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you.’ 

It is hoped to represent HTC’s "focus on people, their needs and how they work and live to ensure that HTC devices suit them." The YOU campaign is focused on driving broad, global visibility and understanding of HTC’s unique brand promise – that it’s all about the consumer and not the device.

“Quietly brilliant is doing great things in a humble way, with the belief that the best things in life can only be experienced, not explained,” said John Wang, CMO HTC Corporation.

HTC worked with Los Angeles-based ad agency, Deutsch LA Inc. to create the YOU campaign that will use an integrated-media approach to reach consumers via TV, print, outdoor and online. HTC’s design expertise will be echoed throughout the campaign, with commercial spots highlighting the unique functionality of its smartphones.

"We've come to have a very emotional relationship with our phones. Many of our key experiences in any given day come through this one device and yet most of the advertising in the category is still about utility," says Eric Hirshberg, co-CEO and chief creative officer, Deutsch LA.

HTC worked with London-based creative consultancy, FigTree to create the quietly brilliant brand positioning. It will be rolled out in all forms of communication and brand touch points across the company.

News Releases

Ireland Innovation Comes Naturally

IDA Ireland, Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency, is running “Innovation Comes Naturally”, an international advertising campaign in television, print, online and out-of-home media, online at www.idaireland.com/innovation/.

“Clean energy. Green technology. And fresh thinking. Why businesses are putting down roots in Ireland.”

The television advertisements emphasise the sometimes spontaneous nature of innovation. It depicts the lines left by a piece of chalk as it sketches out an idea on a blackboard. As we watch, the chalk doodles and dashes about the board. Finally it comes to a successful conclusion, as we see a chalk representation of fireworks above a doodled map of Ireland.

Actor Stanley Townsend provides the voiceover. “Innovation. What it isn’t is something that happens step-by-predictable-step. It doesn’t always stop at the lights. Sometimes it goes backwards to go forwards. It goes up blind alleys. It zigs and it zags. It wiggles. And then… And then it lets rip. Your job is simple. Just give it the right environment. Ireland. Where innovation comes naturally”

“New thinking is not about the dollars you invest,” one ad asserts. “It’s about the people you invest in.”

“See how your business can benefit when a nation thinks laterally.” “Step by step logic will only take your business so far.”

“Facebook found a space for people who think in a certain way,” the headline of one ad proclaims. It’s called Ireland.” “Google googled the planet for the perfect location for their business. They came up with Ireland.”

“We’ve created clusters of expertise in many different technologies”. “New thinking is not about the dollars you invest”.

Mudie told the New York Times about the inspiration for the campaign coming from stencil maps of Ireland that came out as whie on black, looking as though they were drawn on a black board. That led to thoughts about the famous picture of Einstein at a blackboard, which triggered images of a group of people, trying to think of something, using a chalkboard because you can stand back and take a look at what is written. All that inspired the concept of a green board.

The TV commercials are appearing on the Bloomberg and CNBC cable channels. The print and online ads are running in business magazines and newspapers, and their related Web sites, like The Economist, Fortune, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Credits

The Ireland campaign was developed at McConnells, Dublin, by creative director/copywriter Laurence Keogh and creative director/art director Tim Mudie. Media planning and buying in the United States are being handled by BCA Marketing Communications in New York.

The Brand Gap

How to bridge the distance between business strategy and design

The Brand Gap

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Yahoo's $100M Marketing Campaign: “It’s Y!ou”

Yahoo outlined its new global branding campaign today, dubbed “It’s You!”, which is focused on the personalization of its homepage and products. The campaign, which has a budget of more than $100 million, includes tag lines that will be featured on the homepage such as “It’s time to get personal” and “The new Yahoo lets you do it your way every day.” The company also released an updated version of its Yahoo search product. The update, shown to the media last month, includes a left-hand column that lets users filter their results by using Search Monkey data. The layout resembles Microsoft’s Bing, which is interesting since the two companies inked a search deal in July.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said that the ad campaign isn’t a short-term marketing scheme, but a harbinger for the company’s new direction and its products going forward. “What we want to do is show (people) what the new Yahoo is about so they come (to the site) all the time,” she said.

The ad campaign will launch in the U.S. on Sept. 28 and in the UK and India on Oct. 5. Yahoo will roll out the campaign to other markets, including Brazil, Canada, France and Hong Kong, throughout the next year. “It’s you!” will be featured online and through a variety of other mediums such as TV, print and radio. Yahoo said it expects to see a shift in consumers’ perspective of the company brand within 12 months as a result of the campaign.

Reports surfaced earlier this week that Yahoo was preparing to unveil a marketing campaign focused on the size and scale of the company and personalization of its products. Examples of the campaign have already sprouted up in New York, according to the Wall Street Journal. Bartz hinted at the upcoming “It’s You!” campaign during the company’s July earnings call, saying that Yahoo’s “Q3 plans include an initial wave of incremental marketing spend which will increase substantially into Q4 and next year.

Since Bartz took the helm of Yahoo in January this year, the CEO has made sweeping changes to the beleaguered Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s image, including rolling out a revamped homepage and updated versions of its Mail and Messenger consumer web products that tap into social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Bartz also has been quick to correct widespread assumptions that Yahoo is a search company, trying to set it apart from rivals like Google and Microsoft.

Releasing fresh versions of its products isn’t the only way the company is trying to redefine its image.Yahoo is looking to offload Zimbra, an open-source email company that it acquired for $350 million in 2007, in an effort to slim down its portfolio, AllThingsD reported this week.

When asked to confirm whether the company is selling Zimbra, Bartz said, “We don’t comment on whether something is being shopped or not. What I can tell you in the spirit of the question is that Zimbra technology is very, very important to our mail system.” But she added, ” The technology is already integrated into our system.”

According to Bartz, 76 percent of the U.S. population are Yahoo users and 581 million people visit the site each month.

Rebranding exercises in Arabia::: Looking ahead of Logos

In Arabia Mainstream brands have undertaken rebranding initiatives to shed their old corporate images and position themselves in a new, more modern light. Some have simply upgraded their logos, while others went much deeper. Which leads branding enthusiasts to wonder, just what is the difference between an identity refresher” face lift” and a true rebranding?

People are sensory beings. Yet branding is typically defined through the single sense of sight. To merely focus on the visual element of a person's interaction of a brand (logo, pantone colours and so on), it fundamentally misunderstanding people. Sound alone has an immense impact on the experience that people have with a brand. This realisation amongst brands has led to a significant increase in brands investigating what the Sound of their Brand is, what it means to consumers and how it needs to evolve.

It is true that the rebranding goes beyond logos but it is an interesting place to start. As visually oriented creatures, we conceptualize a brand into a logo (and perhaps the sum of its parts). If the brand represents an interface, through which the consumer interacts with the organization, then the logo is a useful touch point.

Is changing the logo enough?
In situations where firmly established brands become outdated, rebrands can be tricky, and often resemble identity makeovers rather than full-blown rebrands.

But is this logo change enough to bring brand’s into the modern marketplace—especially one that’s hypercompetitive?

There is no reason to completely rebrand a brand that isn’t suffering from an internal identity complex. Sometimes creating an effective logo is enough to upgrade an identity and penetrate markets. According to an executive creative director “There are some brands where heritage is important and it is foolish to get rid of it, in order to stay relevant with the times.”

Brand identity in Arabia
“The notion of brand identity as representative of something more than a recognizable symbol is relatively new in India…brand names and symbols in the past often did not represent something that the brand stands for.”

Today, however, brands in Arabia are moving beyond a simplified view of the marketing and advertising world and see the need to comprehensively rebrand themselves. The proliferation of several international brands in recent years has caused several homegrown brands to undertake an all-embracing approach to their brands.

Simply because of:

1. Higher disposable incomes,

2. change in consumer demography

3. and greater reach through media

Brand makeover boutiques.

pressure on brands to resort to an identity makeover, to realign themselves in the new environment is increasing “It should not be like a trip to a hair salon, where after two weeks your hair goes back to normal. It should go beyond just a cosmetic change, where only the logo is altered, but should reflect a fundamental change in the company.”

Rebranding beyond logos

Tweaking a logo and leaving everything else unchanged is pointless. “A logo change raises expectations, both internally and externally,” . The branding exercise should not be isolated to the letterhead; it should be an experience for the customer. The moment one steps into the office, employees should be able to feel it just as they expect their customers to. As a rule ;The old logo portrayed trust, warmth and confidence. However, with the entry of many me-too’s trust could no longer be the key differentiator for the brand. So the new logo, along with the tagline supporting the logo upgrade might add a fashionable, young and international image of any brand.

The logo change was only a small part of the rebrand. “ a deep-rooted A 360-degree approach across customer touch-points to be taken to convey the new identity (merchandising display exhibits, new uniforms …etc.)

But change isn’t always easy.

In organizations that are several decades old, employees are entrenched within the system and find it difficult to come to work one morning and adopt newer systems.” Change must be gradual in order to be effective.

For a new identity - image overhaul -to be effective ..the makeover has to be an experiential makeover, and not an advertising makeover in a way to involves integrated transition in systems, processes, employee orientation and customer experience without destroying the core values it was founded on.

Smart transformation is the key driver here to retain the essence of the brand’s heritage, while projects a contemporary image in sync with today’s lifestyle.

Finally , talk to your users “consumers”… they know better …

Gillette launches first global brand campaign in five years

LONDON - Procter & Gamble is introducing a new core brand message to Gillette following the recent addition of hair styling and personal care products to its shaving care range.

Gillette's first global branding campaign in five years is designed to expand the brand beyond shaving and strengthen the brand's emotional bond among men.

Following extensive global research among thousands of men, which found that even confident males have doubts at many moments throughout their lives, Gillette is progressing its "The Best A Man Can Get" message by with a new campaign called "The Moment." The FMCG giant says men are looking for products that give them the confidence they want and need to look, perform and feel their best.

The campaign features everyday guys, as well as the Gillette brand ambassadors -- Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Derek Jeter -- experiencing moments of doubt and how they overcome them to succeed. The ad was created by BBDO New York.