This weeks branding news digest

Po Po Po Polaroid

Retro photography brand Polaroid go Gaga for their 2010 re-launch after twice emerging from bankruptcy.

The iconic brand is making bold moves to revamp its image and squeeze the equity from its name.  After being declared bankrupt last year, Polaroid has become an intellectual property holding company and licence it’s biggest asset, the name, for use on a whole range of gadgets and electronics.

It was also announced at the 210 International Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas that Polaroid have appointed Lady Gaga as Creative Director of the brand.

It’s a smart move by Polaroid.  Their brand is worth hundreds of millions, yet they have gone bankrupt twice, showing that something they were doing wasn’t right.  The emergence of the digital age of photography was inevitably the downfall in sales of traditional Polaroid’s and so appointing Gaga, herself an icon of modern pop culture, could in theory turn the fortunes of Polaroid around.

Polaroid and Gaga are working on both digital and traditional instant photography ranges, which are set to launch later this year.  I don’t think anyone is under the illusion that Lady Gaga will be sitting behind a desk in Polaroid HQ working 9-5 but hopefully the addition of Gaga to the Polaroid brand will bring its products into the consciousness of a whole new generation.

I was excited to hear the news of Polaroid re-launching.  My first camera was an instant Polaroid 600 and despite the questionable picture quality, bulky design and caustic smell – I loved it!  I for one can’t wait for the new range and look forward to ‘shakin’ it like a Polaroid Picture!

Lego Cl!ck, Find Your Inspiration

Another iconic brand, childhood favourite Lego have launched a new site.

Designed to celebrate the love of Lego and inspire budding creators, Lego Clicklaunches with a fanciful short film about an uninspired inventor entering the world of Lego before his eventual ‘Eureka!’ moment.

The site is quite cool, it’s essentially a social media sandbox which encourages inventors, artists and creative types in general to come together, upload videos and photos, tweet ideas and generally feed off one another’s creativity!

It’s an interesting development for the Lego brand.  Lego is still so popular, probably due to its simplicity and has legions of die-hard fans across the generations.  Lego aided massive debt problems in 2004 with lucrative blockbuster film ranges like Indiana Jones and Spiderman sets and diversified further with Architectural Lego, video games and even Business Consultancy services!

Lego already captures the imaginations of a hugely broad range of people so I imagine that once people get on board with Lego Click it will be a great success.

Everything about the site is engaging and endearing.  Take a look and let me know what you think to it.  Will you use it regularly?

McEat Your Way to the Olympics!

What do you think of when I start a sentence with ‘In preparation for the Winter Olympics, world-class athletes are…’?  The correct answer is ‘eating McDonalds’, or so they’d have us believe!

McDonalds has launched a huge marketing offensive riding on the wave of the Winter Olympics.  Temporary restaurants, Olympic packaging, limited edition menu items and Twitter, Facebook and MySpace campaigns are all part of the marketing strategy that will ensure you see gold(-en arches) every time you see anything Olympic related next month.

McDonalds have been official sponsors of Olympic Games since 1976 and will continue their current sponsorship throughout the 2012 Summer Games in London.  In 1968, McDonalds actually airlifted burgers to homesick American athletes at the games in Grenoble, France!

Because this relationship has been going on so long, it feels quite normal that the world’s biggest advocates of unhealthy eating sponsor the competition, which celebrates the world’s best physical performances!  The other main sponsors of the games are Coca-Cola and Cadbury, it doesn’t seem quite right but unfortunately the commercialism is such that without their sponsorship, the games wouldn’t survive financially.

I have been following a strict Olympic diet and I can report that eating ‘like an athlete’ is remarkably easy!