Some branding tips

Here are some links about how to brand yourself for dating, how to brand your hospital, and how to brand your tourism campaign.


1. Seattle Children's Hospital

From Brand New. Be sure to download their simple and effective branding brochure.


2. Tip 107 - If You Are Single, You Are in Sales

From Never Eat Alone.

Technically, this is sales. But sales and branding are intertwined
-David

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We're all in sales. Do you want a raise or a promotion? You're in sales. Do you have a new idea at work? You're in sales. Are you single? You are DEFINITELY in sales. Even though I was a CMO at Deloitte and then Starwood (where I also led sales for awhile), in fact I was really terrible at applying this "sales" wisdom in bars when I was single. But the rules are the same, whether you're selling a house, the services of your start-up, or yourself:

1. Understand your product. That's you. Know who you are - your strengths, your weaknesses, your mission - and what you have to offer someone.

2. Know your target. Focus on the other person. Ask about his or her passions. Be sensitive to the other person's emotional temperament (wild, introverted, etc.) and tweak your conversational style accordingly.

3. Solve someone's problem. Be generous by introducing her to a person she would benefit from knowing or offering him advice on his struggles. If the problem is a dateless Friday night, cha-ching!

Oh, yeah, if you're no longer single, you're also in sales! This is a great time of year to develop a little more "currency" with the one you love. Go overboard this year to remind her or him how much your relationship means to you! We're all in sales.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Warmest,
Keith

3. The iconic I Love New York campaign

From Brand New. It's nice to see a campaign develop around this classic logo.

How big is a whale?

Something to brighten your day with.

"We snuck out into the middle of Broad Street to snap a pic in front of City Hall and all the crowds. When Will raised his hands for the picture, cheers erupted. So he continued to repeat the gesture, getting wild response from the crowd on both sides of the street up and down the street as far as we could see. We couldn't have planned this if we practiced and practiced. I wish the video was longer."

via it's Nice That

Yet another creative ad for a foreign car company

The Good and Slightly Ugly

ADiki.com

This site's design isn't completely up to par yet...lacking input from lovely individuals we call Art Directors, but the idea behind it is awesome.

Basically, post your ideas, let employers see them, clients see them. If someone likes it, they will pay you for it. So for example, in P3 you come up with a campaign for Home Depot. The Richards Group, or The Home Depot, find it on the site, fall in love, and pay you for the idea.

Revolutionary way of doing advertising/job-hunting?

Random commercial

Spend this amount, get elected?

Obama’s ad spending in top tier
Posted: 02:32 PM ET

(CNN) — Presidential candidates are sold in much the same way a new product is: with an expensive, flashy, and ubiquitous television campaign.

And according to advertising figures provided by Campaign Media Analysis Group, CNN’s consultant on ad spending, Barack Obama’s campaign has spent more money selling its candidate on television than most major brand name companies do selling their products.

The Illinois senator’s campaign is projected to have spent $250 million on ads in the past four months — a number that is equivalent to $750 million in a full year. Only AT&T, with a yearly advertising budget of about $1.3 billion, and Verizon, which shells out $950 million a year on ads, spends more than the Democratic presidential nominee. Most major companies spend far less, including McDonald’s ($588 million), Sprint PCS ($482 million) and T-Mobile ($404 million).

John McCain is projected to have spent about $110 million since the general election began.

–From CNN’s Alexander Mooney

Are Microsoft and Crispin copycats?

Microsoft's new ad campaign is titled "Life Takes Vista". Sound familiar? Back in February, Visa was rebranded with "Life Takes Visa". The AOR (agency of record) for Microsoft Windows is Crispin Porter + Bogusky while the AOR for Visa is TBWA\Chiat\Day.

Coincidentally, this is round two of Crispins clients directly-or indirectly-taking on TBWA\C\Ds clients. Apple is a client of TBWA\C\D. The first round was the I'm a PC vs. I'm a Mac ads.



Thanks to Lornie for the link.

update: I'd like to apologize to The Ranch readers for not verifying "Lornie" and the authenticity of the information before posting it. I'm assuming that's a basic rule of journalism.

Free PS brushes

From Austin-based Nathan Brown. Download these high quality brushes here. Be sure to click on "Related Posts" as well.

Burma PSA

Great idea. Even better execution.


CRISIS IN BURMA from Scott Denton on Vimeo.

Credits
Client: MTV/Burma Arts Board
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Amsterdam
ECD/Copywriter: Carl Le Blond
Agency Producer: Brenda Bentz van den Berg
Production Company: Shilo, HANraHAN
Director: Shilo
Creative Director (Shilo): Andre Stringer, Jose Gomez

37 pictures the world must see

“I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it, in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age.”
-James Nachtwey

from TED e-newsletter.