This weeks branding news digest
Tweethearts
Why use 140 characters when you can say it in two words?
Romance is no longer about those ‘three little words’…if you class ‘Tweet Me’ as romantic!
Iconic chalky sweet brand Sweethearts are going all modern on us and adding the message ‘Tweet Me’ to their repertoire of cute phrases printed on the sweets.
An online survey asked consumers to come up with the new saying and more than 10,000 responded, backing the new Twitter related message.
Last time Sweethearts tried to introduce some cutting-edge technology into its stamped messages, the phrases ‘Email Me’ and Fax Me’ were added to the Sweetionary!
This is of course brilliant free PR for the Twitter brand and will probably boost pre-Valentines sales of the sweets too. ‘Tweet Me’ joins 79 other Sweethearts messages so your chance of finding this eight character message is about one in 80.
It’s a really interesting concept. I wonder what other brands could cross-pollinate to form more unconventional advertising activities; Apple Mac Chicken Sandwich? Micro Soft Mints? Sony D orange juice?
Turbo Charged Idents
Discovery’s planes, trains and automobiles channel Turbo is doing more to establish its brand with the launch of a series of new idents.
The idents are all made from recordings of what they decided their viewers might want to hear – the sound of engines!
Each of the idents shows the Turbo logo, manipulated differently to complement the sound. For example, one has the sound of a revving Ferrari engine with graphics created in the trademark Ferrari red.
Idents are rapidly becoming a more crucial part of a TV stations branding. The complexity of modern idents is a far cry from the static images and mechanical models like the BBC Globe of the 80’s.
MTV Australia recently rebranded their idents with a series of 12 abstract idents based around the themes “Aggressive”, “Calm”, “Lively” and “Organic”. ABC in America also caused a bit of a ruckus (and brilliant PR) with a station ident featuring various stars from some of their programmes. Forums were buzzing when Lost fans spotted Brit actor Dominic Monaghan in the ident, leading to speculation that his character Charlie would be returning to the series despite his death in a prior series!
I’ve linked to some of the idents I’ve mentioned below. Which ones do you think work well for the brands?
‘On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?’ ‘You’re hired!’
American online shoe shop Zappos.com is rolling out its brand values into its recruitment process.
Gone are the days when a job interview would consist of questions like ‘what is your greatest strength?’, if you’re going for an interview at Zappos.com you can expect to be asked things along the lines of ‘on a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?’
There was a time when personal lives were separate from professional lives but in an age where your phone doubles as your laptop, your games console doubles as workout equipment and your car is capable of playing DVD’s, it seems that nothing is as segregated as it used to be!
Many companies, such as Zappos.com, are getting increasingly more familiar with potential employees before recruiting to ensure that the candidate will fit in with the ethos and brand values of the business.
Rather than an hour and a half in a board room, as many of us are accustomed to, it’s not an unusual occurrence for Zappos.com to invite candidates and their families to company barbeques, happy hour at the bar or out for dinner before making a decision on whether they’ve got the job.
Getting to know the candidate on a personal level apparently gives the employer the opportunity to judge whether they will fully engage with the brand and align with the company ethos.
It’s a theory that I think makes a lot of sense and would probably lower staff turnover in the long run. However, with the specific laws relating to equal opportunities and recruitment in this country, I wouldn’t expect UK employers to go quite to these lengths in the very near future!