Open for business

Today, dynamic and vibrant brand identities are no longer just the preserve of broadcast channels or tech start ups.

Established businesses in critical industries like health, finance and energy do not have to be constrained playing by a traditional, monolithic corporate rulebook when it comes to they express themselves.

More than ever, it’s important these big organisations, which touch our lives everyday, begin to look, feel and behave in new and ever more compelling ways.

It’s always been the job of a brand identity to amplify and emphasise the world view of an organisation. But at a time when technology brings us closer together, it is also critical the same identity is able to empathise and respond to the needs of individual users.

In a year long collaboration, we worked with Enel’s leadership team to design an Open Power strategy. Helping to position Enel as the first open, responsive and sustainable modern utility company, the new brand identity aims to capture and convey the spirit of moving and active energy.

It began with a period of intense exploration as the whole design process embraced the idea of being open and collaborative, working closely with the client team and a range of partners, specialists and cross disciplinary mix from our four studios.

At the start of the creative process together, we explored how to visualise different kinds of power, including kinetic energy, physical phenomena and data driven systems. Using what we learned from these experiments, we put a cursor at the heart of the new brand; it is the starting point of an energy that is always moving and visually echoes the core behind the power of a light bulb – the filament.

The cursor informs the look and feel of the new brand and creates a consistent design language. This ensures everything from the word mark logo, to print and digital applications tie back to the principles of the Open Power strategy.

The brand is intentionally experimental; the cursor can be used in new and unexpected ways to create endless interpretations of Open Power. This means the brand is truly open to others and we encourage people inside and outside Enel to play, innovate and experiment with the cursor.

Visual scalability, flexibility and downright desirability is a must for any modern business. A brand presence should engage and inform your user and be as comfortable in the hand and in motion as it is in the FT on the side of a building.

To make this happen isn’t easy, it takes vision and self confidence but the brands that really change the world always look like they mean it.

Chris Moody is Global Principal and Creative Director at Wolff Olins. Follow him @MoodyThinking

3 Minutes On: BBCThree

In our new series, “3 Minutes On,” we give the mic to one of our own for three minutes to respond to what the Internet is talking about on any given day. Running the gamut of topics, expect some pointed and passionate opinions you may or may not agree with. And if you don’t, drop us a line.

"It's a waste of money. It looks like X or Y. I can't even read it. A five year old could have done it…"

Just a few of the responses levelled at the new BBCThree identity from the press, design media and social streams.

It's predictable, lazy and more than a bit derivative - the reaction that is, not the work.

Derision is the same response that seems to echo round cyberspace every time there's a vaguely new piece of design or identity put out in the world.

It's fair enough to critique but it would be good to hear something more constructive, or a really fresh perspective. But as Taylor rightly says, haters gonna hate. Its always easier to knock something down than be brave enough to stand behind something new.

There’s a certain irony in seeing these near identical claims of recycling other people's ideas or accusations of bandwagon jumping stacked neatly one on top another on a Twitter stream.

Sure the new design looks a bit weird (but weird goes hand in hand with anything that's new or out of the ordinary). It feels a bit bold and blunt (but it's going have to work on an app button or a mobile). It could be misread (but it doesn't really look like any other channel). But at least it's switching things a bit.

Design needs to consider craft and care but sometimes it's also about context and cojones.

The truth is we can't know yet if the design is really any good. We need to see it in action, swipe it, press it, prod it and flip it.

Maybe we should give it some space, let it breathe in its natural environment. See if we skip past it tomorrow. See if it sits well with our favourite programmes. See if it really annoys us when it's sat in the corner for a whole hour programme. Discover if we get bored to death of of it after two weeks.

The chatter seems to be almost entirely around the logo - but a broadcast logo is always one bit of a bigger whole of bugs, indents and lower thirds. Paul and Mary wouldn't judge a cake on The Great British Bake Off just by looking at a bag of flour, so perhaps it's better to look at the bigger picture.

Test the new formula, give all the ingredients time to rise and then we'll know if we should give it three stars or ten.

-Chris Moody 

Illustration by Oliver Thein.

To hear more from Chris on why people need to get brave, check out his recent Web Summit 2015 talk in Dublin here and follow him @MoodyThinking

The world. Luxe. Different.

Last week saw the introduction of the British Army’s new TwitterTroops (Orwell’s original brand name of Thought Police obviously was notalliterative enough). Whatever you think about its potential success, its very existence at all reflects the key triumphs of the Internet age - democracy and access for all.

These central tenements you would imagine are great for traders but when it comes to certain industries the transition into a digital world has been a little awkward. As all luxury brands rely in some degree on hierarchy, inequality and restrictions, is it possible that the luxury industry isn’t really ready for our hyper connected universe?

Luxury used to be about a select few getting their hands on their deepest desires but now anyone can access more than ever with the click of a finger, what it means to be a luxury brand has changed forever. In the modern digital world luxury is attributed by the consumer not prescribed by taste making marketing departments. It is therefore complex, fragmented and defined in different ways by a series of multiple tribes that have very diverse taste and even contradictory behaviors. To borrow another Orwellian idea - in a digital world, all luxury consumers are not the same animal.

That said, it was clear from last week’s news reports that high value products like Rollers and Rolexes are flying off the shelves. Sales of luxury goods in 2015 are booming. Look closer and you realize these numbers can be attributed in large part to an equally modern phenomenon – the 1%.

A combination of wealthy consumers from emerging markets idly clicking on established names and the need for the hyper rich to invest in SWAG over Sterling is skewing luxury brand interaction. The average billionaire is likely to be sending a driver to the store or a PA to the site so they are not really engaging with a brand at all. This is often a pure transaction with the buyer more likely to be thinking about the deposit box they are keeping their stuff in than the box that stuff comes in.

When it comes to the super rich normal branding rules do not apply. Yes, they are pumping plenty of cash into the market but in terms of brand building they are an anomaly and a dangerous species. In a way this audience is holding the industry back, making it behave in lazy ways, slapping recognisable badges on the same old product and reverting to stereotypical reliance on ‘heritage’ and ‘authenticity’.

Moreover, on a creative level the super rich are actually a drain, far from providing a trickle down of insight and innovation they just want what they have seen before (giving a platform for copycat brands that trade on image alone)

Whether you’re the part of the rarified 1% or the great 99%, modern consumers all share a common need - the human desire to define for themselves what is ‘special’. In their own way, each show how the consumer is in greater control and how less and less corporations can prescribe to us what we should aspire to. 

Just like countless other ‘industries’ luxury has been empowered, exploded and democratised by the Internet. It’s redefining luxury around the individual, rather than the brand. As a term ‘luxury branding’ can be an excuse to cling onto the past and blinged out billionaires are boring. Here’s to the 99%.

The Guardian's write up of this event can be found here.

Who do you think you are kidding art director?

Picture the scene - May 2015. The Prime Minister is at a news conference in the Downing Street rose garden and to the far right stands a new coalition partner. A tiny hairy bluebottle darts from the shrubbery, lands on the philtrum of the deputy PM prompting an instinctive stroke of the lip with the index finger. At the same time the PM swipes away another pest by launching a hand high into the air. Both break into jovial laughter. At that precise moment a hundred cameras flash, the titanium bulbs casting the yew trees in the distance into dark relief. A front page image, guaranteed.

Whether its Farage’s moustachioed microphone or Obama’s multiple halos, some of the most memorable political images have been created more by accident than design. It's a real shame because well-considered, smartly executed political design can have much greater resonance and impact. Sadly, it appears that the world of design is just as bored with politics as the electorate.

Last Friday the Conservative party (big C) 'launched' a conservative (small c) poster campaign for the Great British Vote Off in May. For those who haven't seen it - it looks like the title sequence of Dad’s Army re-imagined by way of Google Street View. It is literally, metaphorically and unashamedly a middle of the road piece of communication.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party will respond today with a weak rehash of a previous Conservative campaign, bad kerning and all. But does it matter? Well, yes. Of course it does. These images were built to speak to you. They are meant to convince you to select who you want to run the country for the next few years. They are saying you are boring and unimaginative. Britain deserves more talent.

Politics should be a crucible of creative energy. Its creative output should be vital, relevant and even provocative. Obama kicked off his campaign with Shepard Fairey art directing, our Premier chose funkypigeon.com

So how can we make it better?

First up. Stop making posters. It's telling the 'launches' are for billboards - the most traditional of communication mediums. One way, shouty, the lowest common denominator.  It's no surprise that 60% of youth voters don't want to put pen to paper in the Spring. Campaigns need to engage in more interesting ways - build a mobile game, get the newly honoured Jamal Edwards to front an online panel debate. Anything other than another dull 48 sheet.

Second - have a bit a more wit. The most political poster of 2014 was for The Interview (the Third World War baiting vehicle from the people who brought you Pineapple Express). Sure they triggered a global diplomatic incident but at least they had the good manners to nail the poster artwork - a pitch perfect agitprop pastiche.

Finally, make something that has conviction. If you are going to call the UK's media to a press conference, make sure what you are going to show is memorable and meme-able. A triumph of content and communication design that truly deserves a fanfare.

Political parties should be taking design, creativity and image making seriously. It should be a valuable tool to bring to life what they believe in, rather than regurgitate what they believe the people want to hear. As Emily Thornberry found out in November and the next Prime Minister may well find out in May, take care with the art and copy what you put into the world. Because if you don't, the world is more than happy to design it, redesign it, tweak it and twerk it on your behalf. Nobody is waiting for another poster…

A new identity for net neutrality

Bloomberg Business Week gave some top design firms about 24 hours to come up with alternative identities for net neutrality. You can see the result here, and read more about our contribution below.

Net neutrality is a belief not a product and as such it can't really be branded. So what if the net neutrality 'brand' was more of a movement, brought to life with a series of disruptions? A reminder of our freedom, a slap in the face to wake up and a celebration of the amazing nature of the internet. In our version, you'd click on ‘internet is ours' and be are invited to add a pixel to the virtual tapestry. You can then create your own intervention by linking the tapestry to your homepage, or covering your company logo. Every time someone comes across it they can click and add their own pixel. All you need is a Facebook page. The campaign will spread in glorious, disruptive colour across the web. A simple reminder that we all own the internet.

With thanks to

Anthony Galvin, Technical Director Neil Cummings, Creative Director Chris Moody, Creative Director

Semana Rio Design - Day 2

Ok. Put your phone down, close your laptop, re-sheath your slightly too big and frankly unnecessary ‘phablet’. Step away from this blog post, there's nothing here for you...

Still reading?

Can't blame you really, I’m the same. Cronenbergenly attached to my mobile. A 100% FOMO MOFO. Or at least I was until I heard this:

"Moody... why are you on your phone? Check that out!"

It was Mr Cummings pointing to our venue. A stage in a racecourse next to a cliff with Catholicism's number 1 doing jazz hands to a thumping bass. Rio sure knows how to grab your attention.

The Semana Design Rio event is simply unlike anything else. Design do’s can feel a bit empty, this was different, a gentle reminder about what design is really all about…

Sharing.

Sharing vision, sharing knowledge, sharing stories, sharing beliefs, beers, business cards and personal passions (yes Leo, I'm already looking for a pair of Puma Pelé’s and a Playmobile Christ on Ebay).

What stood out was that it wasn't just a 'design crowd' in the stands it was regular folk - old people, people with kids, kids with skateboards, the intrigued, the perplexed and the excited all there because they just thought it might be fun. The content of the event mirrored the audience too, diverse, smart, sexy and odd looking all at once.

The standout talk on the second day was from Unfold. A duo from Antwerp who didn't really like being put in a box (and if they had been they would have reinvented the concept of 'box-ness' immediately). Claire and Dries shared their story of how they crowd-sourced investment by selling bonds to family and friends. They dazzled everyone with their experiments in 3D printing with clay and provoked with a project which questioned the authorship of artwork.

The questioning didn't stop there. Giacomo and Jeffrey (sound like, but aren’t, magicians) from Business Innovation Design shared their view on how to build a business around a core of design thinking. Smart, focused and with conviction they, like all of the speakers, where trying to find new ways for design to take a much more active role in our lives.

After our discussion around creative partnerships Daniel, the event curator and our most excellent host, told us about a popular Brazilian beach game Frescobol, unlike other sports it's a cooperative not competitive game, the aim being to help your opponent to keep the ball in the air. It was a fitting analogy that captured the mood of the whole event – for design to thrive it must be shared.

There’s a technicolor vibrancy to Brazil that is often lacking from gatherings of designers. A ‘do it’ spirit that permeates the work and is hugely intoxicating. You leave happy to lay aside the yellow pencil aside for a bit, grab a fistful of felt tips and have some fun.

So to our Carioca brethren we say thanks, we’ll try make sure we keep hitting the ball back.

Image via: Unfold

Is it the font wot won it?

By Chris Moody, Creative Director

So in the closest we will ever come to an X Factor meets Newsnight mash up. Scotland stays.

Whilst the majority of today’s commentary will focus on the socioeconomic bullet that has been dodged, or the oleaginous handshakes of Westminster's finest, I will stick to what I know. Graphics.

One of my favourite films is Brewster’s Millions. In a Caledonian twist on the Richard Pryor morality tale we have just witnessed a 'None of the Above' style political campaign played out for real. With both sides of the referendum debate having to build their stories largely around the power and influence of absence, the way in which the visual and verbal language of each campaign came to life was fascinating to watch.

The NO campaign certainly had the toughest gig. It was literally asking people to vote to achieve nothing, (insert your own coalition government reference here please).

Language-wise they had to land the most negative of TOV’s. The associated messaging largely built around fear and 'what ifs'. Even Scotland's distinctive colour palette had been co-opted by the YES vote, leaving them with a Faragey Pantone of UKIP purple or unpalatable palette of banking crisis blue.

So how did they pull it off? Well alongside many other (much more important aforementioned socioeconomic) factors. Perhaps some of the key aesthetics that were generated and repeated ad infinitum by the campaign played a tiny part.

Maybe it was the fact they flipped a plain old NO into 'Better Together'. A double positive (think 'stuffed crust' pizza or ‘deep fried’ Mars bar). Or maybe it was the deployment of military grade propaganda in a Jamaican flag-style rendition of the Union Jack that did the rounds last week (see below for our alternatives). Maybe it was just Bowie.

Maybe it was because they inherently had the one thing the YES campaign didn't - a replicable icon. A big fat hand-drawn cross. The thing everyone in Scotland was going to recreate the moment they stepped into the booth, irrespective of who they were siding with.

Check out the two placards next to each other (not with a design eye but with a critical eye, there's no D&AD pencil here) The YES with its designery chunky Helvetica Neue and accompanying rock hard X from the flag. Now look at the NO with a rounded font and its little hand-drawn ‘x’.

YES speaks to a nation like a nation, hard and brisk. NO in contrast is more individual, softer, warmer and a bit goofy like a wobbly little kiss. Could it be a graphic 'hanging chad' that nudged a few of the undecided?

From a sweaty Nixon to a light bulb headed Kinnock via John Heartfield, Jamie Reid and the awesome Steve Hardstaff political imagery can swing political debate. We will never know if this time round it played a winning role. But it's does highlight that design and creativity matters in the important things in life.

Time to sharpen your pencils people, because next year we take down the government.

Placard image via Getty.

Self service

By Chris Moody I believe Tesco's problem is in its purest sense a 'brand' problem.

They have too much 'brand'...

They have believed their own hype (or advisors). They are now drowning in a sea of pointless 'branded properties' with confusing 'price drops' and 'click&collects' and 'club cards' and 'club points' nonsense speak that works well in testing. Marketing wallpaper with all the joy of the real world stripped out.

The problem is acute but simple.

They need the boardroom to get out of the boardroom. They need to stop using real people just as focus group guinea pigs and start treating them as real valuable board members, with real power to influence real change.

Only then will they be able to reconnect with any relevance.

This is made more vital by Dave Lewis's background. Leahy stacked shelves so did Clarke. Mr Lewis is a marketeer by trade.

To trigger this we could suggest the creation of a new 'board' (which will host it's very first board meeting at regents wharf naturally). A board better structured to deal with real needs of 21C shoppers not just a bunch of the 1% working out how best to unsettle the competition.

A board with real power and influence constructed of clever thinkers and people with real knowledge but most of all...

This C suite should reflect the customer...

Chief 'feeding two kids' Officer Chief 'tesco metro is ruining my business' Officer Chief 'where's the real people at the checkouts' Officer

Let's not aim to reinvent Tesco

Let's reinvent the mindset of a global corporation to make it less self serving.

For further thinking on Tesco, Manlio Minale and Robert Jones share their views.

Touch harder to connect

For me the world ‘mobile’ once meant a Nokia 1100 on Orange Pay As You Go.

Now, in a post PC, post Edward Snowden, nearly post Facebook world, mobile is a state of being. It describes the freedom and access technology gives us, less the physical object that helps us do it.

‘New mobile’ is a key, a passport, a way to pay, a way to measure health, even a way to weaken governments. We expect on demand in our hand, all wrapped up in a Wi-Fi enabled, retina screened, sleek rectangle of gorgeousness.

The PAYG N1100 with its nightclub floor repellent casing, small torch for locating 3am keyholes and ability to send a text on half a bar has been surpassed by progress.

Yet to a 26 year old me it made a connection not even 4G can reach, by facilitating my life in a humble and human way.

The telco industry could still learn a lot from that.

The ‘new mobile’ explosion has been a pat on the back and a punch in the guts for telecoms industry.

That’s because their consumers no longer simply consume. They’re active, sceptical, creative and most of all smart. They enjoy getting around the system. They use their social networks combined with crowd sourced knowledge to come up with their own way of dealing with problems.

The power in the relationship with Joe Schmo has shifted. Ultimately telcos now find themselves under the thumb of the consumer in more ways than one.

The whole industry from networks to handset manufacturers now have to deliver more innovative, personalised and flexible customer experiences instead of just cold hard tech.

They have to connect to people’s heads, hearts and souls. Now, trust is as critical a currency as cash.

Have you noticed how the queues for digital passports are still much shorter than the paper ones or how so few people use e- tickets at the cinema. That’s as much down to a lack of trust as a lack of bandwidth.

The social media boom fanned the flames of mistrust with its approach to data sharing and transparency.

On one hand people are beginning to realize they have already given away billions of dollars worth of information through their mobile and are likely to become more, not less, cautious. Whilst, on the other, kids just don’t care. In fact they are playing the system becoming YouTube millionaires.

Both generations are trading in trust, one just happens to be in hock.

As we move toward a world of converged tech, trust will matter even more. Quadplay means we are starting to invite fewer brands into our lives. We will be pickier and trusted relationships are going to challenge excepted consideration factors like price. Look at Netflix, Spotify and Skype - people are more than willing to pay for premium extras in return for more control.

So perhaps the way forward could be to learn some lessons from that trustworthy N1100…

It’s telling that Spike Jonzes new film ‘Her’ feels more like the near future than Minority Report. Perhaps its because Scarlett Johansson’s husky voiced OS Samantha responds to the fact that humans are seriously hard to measure and predict.

Accepting that life is quite frankly unpredictable is an interesting way to address the future of mobile.

The truth is the strength of my tiny N1100 wasn’t its tech (even then it was outdated) it was that it propped up my weaknesses - from the tipsiness it helped me through to the fact I lived in a crappy mobile reception area.

At the moment the mobile industry’s response to difficult, real human behavior is to maintain a chilly distance.

Look at the trolling debate, or the way when people pass away their Facebook life just hangs there like an unfinished diary entry. Or kids running up massive credit card debts on Tiny Monsters.

The telco industry just doesn’t compute when life gets real.

Perhaps ultimately mobiles next step will not just be creating more connections, adding more gigabytes or increasing speed. But actually doing less at richer human level.  Enhancing the quality experience of connection by facilitating real human presence.

There are tentative steps in this direction with things like Amazon Mayday or Virgin’s parental control features.

Apple’s do not disturb function or Wolff Olins very own Higby go even further by temporarily disconnecting humans from tech to encourage a better connection with fellow humans. Using the off button wisely so mobile technology can help us to engage beyond the screen.

There’s a possibility that the future of mobile isn’t about being ‘always on’ but being ‘on point’ at the right time.

The discreet, trustworthy reliable helper in our increasingly busy lives - just like my PAYG N1100.

Chris Moody is Principal and Creative Director at Wolff Olins London. 

Cultural Jäger bombs and the public consciousness

By Chris Moody 

Mrs. Moody suggested we turn off the television this weekend. And so we went to Tate Britain – essentially a HD, 3D version of i-Player that predominantly broadcasts BBC4 content. 

Throughout the course of the morning we managed to down a veritable cocktail of cultural influences. Changing the channel from James Martin to JMW Turner, toggling from Paul Hollywood to Klee. A mishmash of masterpieces and mass media.

I can't say if it was the Chapman brothers poking fun at McDonalds with their creepy wood carvings or a creepy child, in a hat with a Pringles logo, poking fun at the Chapmans but I found myself questioning the crucial role the public has in making, breaking and forsaking brands. I also started to realise just what it means when something enters our collective minds.

Getting the public to acknowledge (let alone interact with) a brand is a distinctly Darwinian process. First, a brand needs to survive an early clubbing by studio and boardroom. Next, it has to negotiate PowerPoint pedantry, then a barrage of tricky focus groups. Then and only then can it face its toughest battle – a planned invasion of the public consciousness, preceded by more defeats than victories.

Public consciousness is not 'the zeitgeist' or 'what’s trending' nor is it simply 'pop culture'. It’s not high art or low trash it’s a complex Gaga'ian mashup of all these things.

More importantly, it's also a privileged space that, once earned, gives a brand license to behave in ever more creative, provocative and imaginative ways.

The Olympics opening ceremony was a fantastic display of the power of public consciousness - Brunel, Berners-Lee and Mel B all sat side by side in a fresh take on Britishness. 

Over the pond The Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular comedies on TV precisely because it skillfully weaves jokes about Schrodinger's cat and CERN with everyday banality.

Wikipedia’s public consciousness transcends notions of class or cultural elites. It does not discriminate. It just celebrates what it likes and encourages true creativity. 

Recently two chocolate brands showed how to and how not to embrace the public consciousness...

Google launched Android KitKat a seemly ludicrous amalgam of an operating system and the worlds favourite four-finger wafer snack. It was simple, daft, bold and warm. Brand cross-pollination that makes everyone smile.

Cadbury, meanwhile, got kicked out of the high court for trying to own a colour they already own in the minds of the public. Rather than trying to outlaw Pantone 2865C, Cadbury should be spending that money on more of the wonderfully weird stuff they do, like the current Christmas ad.

Creatives often think that if a product, service or expression has mass appeal then it's a dumb sell out. Far from it. It means you've already got over the threshold, people know you, now they want to be impressed and amazed.

The public consciousness isn't a cul de sac. It's a drag strip where you have to constantly innovate just to keep up – and keep up you must.

Take Sony, years ago they exploded into the publics living room with a range of awesome products illustrated with the famous balls ad.

But then nothing. 

While the product stuff remained smart, the way they talk about their brand is stuck in 2005. Today they are chasing past glories with an ad that references it’s history so hard it's indistinguishable from a load of balls.

It takes a brave/idiotic brand to maintain a constant presence in the public consciousness. Kanye West’s brand activity implies he is both. You can't deny that, having forced his way into the public’s minds, he's behaved like a restless innovator and he revels in playing there.

Ultimately the public consciousness is hyper intelligent. Our collective mass knows their stuff and won't put up with laziness. Brand builders should want to embrace all contemporary culture and not just busy themselves with their creative cliques. Stop being precious, stop worrying about selling out and drink it in. In fact Jäger bomb a bit of everything, at every available opportunity.

Everyone knows you're a lot more creative when you've had a few...

Chris Moody is a creative director at Wolff Olins London. 

Image credit: Mariel Clayton, after Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring from c. 1665

It's not where you come from. It's where you're going.

By Chris Moody

I'm from the North. North of England. North London. Born in Huddersfield. Live in Hampstead.

Essentially I'm bi-northern. Like anything with a bi prefix (lateral, sexual, polar) this twin perspective means you tend to see the world a little bit differently (also see bi-focal).

The world of branding, however, tends not to deal very well with dual personalities. Lloyds TSB was essentially a 'bi-bank' - two regional entities forced together, first flowering, then wilting in the City of London. That was until this week when, with the resounding sound of ripping financial Velcro, they parted company.

This raises a bunch of questions about how modern UK brands are affected by their roots. As a new TSB customer, with one foot on either side of my north north divide, I feel compelled to add my tuppence worth. Let's begin with history.

As a 'new' 'new TSB' customer I find it interesting that they have chosen to launch themselves as a 200 year-old bank. There is an argument (mine) that when it comes to brand building, heritage is just a bit boring. The fact your brand did something pretty good in the 1800's means absolutely nothing if you can't make it mean something to a generation of tweeters and twerkers.

I have shoes that are older than Google and tinned food that has seen more birthdays than Paypal, yet those newbie brands are doing fine and I trust them. So, the fact that TSB were around when we were still paying for things in guineas is not particularly important when I can't open my mobile banking app.

If you can't just build your brand on history, what have you got left?

Part of TSB's heritage is being the 'local' bank. This is more intriguing as, in many respects, it challenges the idea of a bank being a faceless monolith. It also flies in the face of the digital thinking that extolls the virtues of an interconnected and borderless marketplace.

Branding used to be about consistency, now it's about cohesion, this means that you can successfully tweak your brand to be locally relevant. Tone of voice used to be a brand's most important asset, but now it's more about tone and quality of 'conversation'. Brands don't have to bray in a monotone, they can adapt for their audience and talk with them not just at them.

So, the real question is just how 'local' will TSB dare to become? Will the branches and communications in Wolverhampton feel different to those in Westminster? Will they engage real people in real conversation or will they just end up speaking 'bank' at them like everyone else?

The problem they have is that it takes bravery to speak differently to those around you. Even on a personal level where you come from, how you speak, is often seen as shorthand for your entire personal brand (that’s why people sometimes play safe and dilute it) something exemplified by two recent stories:

BBC presenter Stephanie McGovern recently claimed her strong northern accent had been criticised at an early point in her career and she had even being accused of being “too common for telly”. Whilst conversely a few weeks ago the TV personality Donna Air was ridiculed for conducting an interview in an accent that viewers felt denied her Northern roots. Donna was deemed to have 'sold out'.

This is, of course, nonsense. Both women are bang on for their brand. Because their tone of conversation is appropriate for where they find themselves today - Steph the queen of the VT from the Macclesfield pie factory and Donna the new BFF of the future queen.

Successful 21st century brands are built from an accumulation of assets and experience delivered and expressed in a way that's relevant for right now. It doesn't matter if you change your accent or tell people what you did years ago. What matters is that what your brand actually says and does today is both true and authentic.

Time will tell if TSB find their true north but they won't find it looking backwards.

  Chris Moody is creative director at Wolff Olins London. 

The worst thing since crustless bread

By Chris Moody 

I went shopping the other day. To Sainsbury's, but that’s not important. As I ambled along the aisles I saw two things that made me question if what I do for a living is evil and a third that restored my faith in the power of brand and design. Let me tell you about them…

The first was in pride of place in the bread section – a little poly-wrapped loaf of 'crustless' bread. Now don't misunderstand me, I like my snacks to be maize based, my wheat in puffed form and my MSG bountiful. A man who eats as many crisps as me is no food snob but, really, crustless bread? That’s one step away from me getting a trolley full of baby food every week because 'it all goes down the same hole'.

It's not the quality of the loaf or the packaging that was unnerving – it's the brand idea. What is this in the world to do? The fact it exists at all means someone thought the idea had legs. I blame all of us.

This is a product not born of passion and determination but of consumer research and focus groups. We asked the public what they wanted and they said this. Not everyone can make their own hummus or sun-dry their own tomatoes but this isn't about convenience, it's about laziness; too lazy to cut, too lazy to chew. This is Henry Ford's premonition of faster horses brought to life as an anaemic blob of carbohydrates.

Focus groups are fascinating places to be - in an anthropological sense. The ones that I have been in seem to always follow the same patterns. Loud person dominates the room for a bit, then everyone turns on them, nothing much gets resolved and the occasional bit of gold comes from the quiet one in the corner. Focus groups have their place but not as a way of 'testing' a brand. You can't test the unknown. You just bring a carousel of baggage from other things to it. Viewpoints from a wider audience have to be baked in as you develop a brand idea but not taken wholesale as the answer. A large part of what we do at Wolff Olins is to balance what the world thinks it wants with what we think it really needs to succeed in the future.

The second thing I saw was a copy of a national newspaper. Its entire front page was devoted to the split of a band who were runners up in a talent contest in 2008. It's a shame. But is it the single most important thing 3.13 million people need to be told about on Wednesday 24 April 2013?

I know tabloid newspapers are there to entertain as much as to inform, so it's not the paper or even JLS that bother me, it's how the JLS brand came to be and the plain safeness of it all.

The band are universally liked; sister, brother, granny, mother, everyone agrees they are/were definitely OK. And that's the issue. Like the crustless bread JLS were born of consensus. 28 writers are credited on their first album. 34.66% of 8 million viewers thought they were better than Alexandra Burke. Of course Marvin and JB will sell more papers than Syria – it's a safe bet.

The Manic Street Preachers once said "we don't want to be anyone’s second favourite", all or nothing, you’re with us or you’re with someone else. The best brands think and act like that – fearless and peerless, they take risks and know that if they are striking out on their own they are, at least, doing one thing right.

Bringing a great brand to life needs strong creative leadership and similarly bold approach with singular decision-making. A clear vision for people to get behind, coupled with a desire to not play by the rules. It’s about maintaining that passionate startup mentality no matter how mature your business is.

Which leads me to the final thing I saw (not surprisingly, in the drinks aisle). A single bottle of Swedish Vodka by a 134-year old brand, and next to it another perfectly un-identical version, row upon row of discordant bottles, sat like interlopers at a tea party.

The idea of limited edition bottles is nothing new but this bottle was one of four million, each one different from the next. I saw the idea for this a few months ago at an awards ceremony. Naturally, it did well but on the shelf it makes even more sense. I watched an old woman put three in her trolley; the care with which she chose each specific bottle from the shelf implied she wasn't planning to get off her head. What I like the most is this is a perfect extension of the spirit of the brand. A brand that has spent years building the idea of their bottle being a canvas for creativity and now, in an ultimate act of confidence, taking their production line apart to make it a reality. It's different, brave and it just works.

This is particularly relevant for the UK in 2013. Hell, we even run a government on a consensus driven timeshare basis. But today, more than ever, we need great brand ideas and innovative design to hurl us forward rather than nanny us with vanilla blandness, telling us what we want to hear. We should be making a concerted effort to shake ourselves out of a triple dip funk by embracing the different and difficult. There's a great opportunity in these times of austerity to break the rules, make some new ones, to put some noses out of joint.

Great brands are peerless, they rebel. They say 'I'm doing it this way, you do what you like.'

Let’s be more like that.

  Chris Moody is Creative Director at Wolff Olins London. 

Nobody listens to music anymore.

By Richard Chinn and Chris Moody

Ask anyone who even slightly cares about a band or a specific genre of music and they will tell you that they do much more than listen…

Real fans feel music. Real fans buy records on the sleeve design alone. Real fans have the download, the single, the Japanese import and the 12inch of the same record because it just feels different on vinyl. Real fans can taste the snakebite and smell the sweat in the venue when they heard 'that' song for the first time.

Music lives in fans' hearts and they take that spirit with them everywhere, not just when they walk into a venue or turn on the hifi.

HMV, UK’s largest music retailer, going into administration last week shows just how much the former top-dog has lost its way. Yes HMV's old business model is sickly, but there’s something in its heritage that could be it's cure. In the 50's it was one of the very first experiential shopping experiences. With road closures for store openings and personal booths that played everyone from Little Richard to Big Joe Turner.

HMV was a sensory overload on the High Street…The 80's love of plastic and disposability should have been the warning sound. The bloated record industry went a bit Phil Spector and shot itself in the foot with astronomical margins for CDs and their tacky jewel cases, forcing the stores to become grand warehouses for alphabetised blandness. And everyone knows that someone who organises their CDs in alphabetical order is a bore…

By the early noughties, fun, danger and exploration had left the building. Bays of iPods and speakers neatly displayed next to the racks of CD holders showed the customer how confused stores had become. Outside the store, HMV did little to celebrate our passion or get people more into music.

HMV became bland, like an Amazon.com warehouse in real life.

Suggestions that labels like Universal, Warner and Sony will join forces to "save" HMV don't bode well for the brand’s long-term viability. Their involvement is likely to perpetuate old model thinking, putting formats before fans, and prevent the necessary transformation that needs to take place.

The key for HMV to find its feet again is to remember what it’s selling—and it’s not five inches of plastic. It’s selling icons, future memories, soundtracks to adolescence, friends and the experience of finding music. Their job is to excite people; make them dwell, explore, discover.

That said, here are four ways we think HMV could do their job better:

1) MIX IT UP With each HMV store stocking the same anodyne guff anyone can buy cheaper online, customers are only likely to go into store if they know what they want. There's a parallel to look to in the world of fast food or fast fashion: Byron burger sell patties all over London but no two restaurants are the same because no two sites are the same. Topshop has different stock in every store, spanning the range from big volume to boutique. And while some of HMV's current stores might be the wrong size, there is still a place for various sizes and shapes of HMV stores up and down the country. What if HMV Hackney had exclusives that HMV Kings Road didn't?

2) BECOME A DESTINATION AGAIN HMV has some iconic retail locations, but there is no reason to meet your mate in the once brilliant Oxford Street store. HMV could stop acting like a supermarket and became a destination again. A place people want to hang out in to experience the passionate, exciting and escapist world of music that shapes young identities and returns spirit to old ones. Think in-store gigs, in-house DJ’s not high rotation fodder, record label take-overs, second-hand sellers, boutique concessions. Give His Masters Voice some personality again.

3) EMPLOY PASSION Celebrate difference and discovery by hiring all sorts of people that live and breathe music (just like Majestic staff not only love but speak passionately about wine). Reward staff that write reviews, go to gigs, tattoo their favourite band to their arm. A conversation with someone in store should always leads visitors to walking away with more great discoveries. Amazon proudly claims to never have accidents, but we've all discovered brilliant bands by accident. HMV can be the place where we do that again.

4) EMBRACE DIGITAL Not as a competitor to the retail store, but something that compliments it and gives people more of what they want. Just as our music tastes are a mixed bag of obscure artists and guilty pleasures, so too are our listening habits that include Spotify, vinyl, iTunes and good-old radio. Digital isn't just a channel. It's a cost-efficient and scalable way to play a more useful role in customers’ lives. HMV can lead the way with curated email newsletters, surprising online radio stations, and shared playlists for all the music moments in our lives.

Today, we’re enabled to listen to more music than ever before. This is a great thing. HMV can be one of the few brands at the very top of the tree that help us get more into music and become fans. Real fans feel music and will follow it everywhere. And that’s a powerful place from which to build a brand.

Richard Chinn is a strategist and Chris Moody is Creative Director at Wolff Olins London.

Image via hmv_getcloser

Don Draper Has Got It Wrong

By Chris Moody

Have you seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRDUFpsHus 

"It's not called the wheel... it's called the carousel."

Bet you wish you had said that, don't you… Well don't, because it's nonsense.

The whole idea of strolling into a client meeting after musing on a problem in a darkened room for days, then solving it in ten seconds flat is as dated as the words 'strolling' and 'musing'.

Clients aren't morons, like every other human being on the planet they are savvy consumers making thousands of decisions everyday about brand (about 5000 brand identities in a single day according to the New York Times). They understand brand and more importantly, they understand their own business. Great agencies therefore don’t 'sell' ideas cold, they work collaboratively and closely with a client to create a better story based on reality and then put it in the world.

At Wolff Olins we find lots of ways to co-create with our clients. From workshops and brainstorm sessions to one-on-ones and team off-sites – we often take a brief and together re-write a better one. We regularly devote whole sections of our building to a workshop and spend time asking questions and capturing answers. This is where the great ideas come from: a seemingly throwaway comment from an honest client is worth far more than a week of designers rubbing their beards in hope of the big idea.

Most importantly, we also make sure our creative teams are there from the outset. At Sterling Cooper, 'creative' is the magic dust that’s rationed out and sprinkled on at the last minute. At Wolff Olins, we bake it in from day one. It doesn’t mean that design and designers can't surprise, delight or even scare (in my opinion that’s a fundamental part of the job) but resting the success of an entire project on doing a Siegfried and Roy - Ta-dah! style reveal in front of baffled clients, just seems a bit old school.

Collaboration doesn’t mean you just give clients whatever they want, the fact that a client is knocking on the door tells you they don't have all the answers. But a really successful brand solution will always be empathetic to their problems. It's not all philanthropic either, if we understand our clients and they trust us, the opportunity to do seriously game changing work is far more likely.

Still not convinced?

Just remember Don's client was Kodak. This episode is set in 1961, by this point Kodak were just about to launch the Instamatic, which would revolutionise the idea that photography was both mobile and instant and pave the way for a digital revolution – that was the real job. So maybe if Don had asked them what else they were doing he wouldn’t have had to bother reinventing the wheel in the first place.

Good luck at your next meeting…