Heineken+007: Crack the case campaign

As an ardent, die hard, life long, fan of the MI6 super agent, I feel an urgent need to post this.
What 'this' is, is basically a tv and online campaign for the 23rd bond film to be premiered on the 2nd of November. The campaign titled 'crack the case' was created by the amsterdam office of Wieden & Kennedy (not a Nigerian) ad agency. Here's how they coined it..
"Crack the Case opens in a train station with the Heineken Legend, a Man of the World, being mistaken for James Bond by some nasty looking villains. Our hero has to use his resourcefulness to get himself out of a sequence of different Bond-esque situations, all taking place through a succession of train carriages, to outwit the villains and get to the 007 agent himself, his female companion Severine and a mysterious silver case.
Viewers of the film are then plunged straight into their own unique digital Crack the Case experience – a seamless transition, made possible through Flash technology. Focusing on the case left next to the bar by James Bond in the film, this experience continues the journey online in a social space, allowing the viewer to Crack the Case themselves, through a series of tasks designed to see if they have what it takes to be a secret agent."
There's also an opportunity to win 4 tickets to the movie premiere taking place in all the major cinemas across the country  as well as a 6 week promotion in partnership with major retail chains such as Shoprite, Game and Park'n'Shop for patrons of heineken to get a limited edition branded gift with every purchase.

Here's the link for the online campaign http://www.heineken.com/ng/home.aspx and for the original film (not skyfall ohh!!, the film for the campaign ohh!) from the makers themselves http://www.wkamst.com/?forcefull=true#!/work/detail/crack-the-case.

Aside from the beauty of this partnership, the exposure for the brands and the efficiency of this marketing campaign, I just love 007.

MY BEST BRAND EXPERIENCE...EVER

Awhile back, I went for a meeting in Lagos, on the Island to be exact. I arrived earlier than scheduled, so to kill some time i strolled in to the new eat'n'go, home to both dominos pizza and cold stone creamery. Seeing as I was flying solo, I opted for ice cream over pizza. On walking into coldstone, I was met with this pleasant and melodious surprise...

watch out for me somewhere around the 0:32, 0:33 mark.

Yes Ke! me sef feature. 

Had to get a Big cup after the performance, it would have been criminal of me not to.

WHERE'D THEY GO?: Laze and hypno, our very own urban clothing

It must have been back in 1999 or 2000, when i saw a tribesmen video 'plenty nonsense' (remember trybes men..shake bodi!! good'ol days), then i saw freestyle and El-dee, wearing these jersey like tops with designs i have never seen before, good designs, no scratch that, GREAT designs. I mean this was the era of Rocawear, Sean John, Fubu, and yet these young boys were rocking this unknown, (at least to me) but great looking stuff. That was my informal introduction to LAZE, i designer whom i believe was from Yabatech and did these wonders on t-shirts by hand! Then not long later in school, either late secondary or early uni, I saw this guy were an ash-coloured t-shirt, with the letters H-Y-P-N-O, boldly printed on top and what seemed to be a feminine figure upside down in some sort of 'backflipish' position.

"NOT AS VIBRANT AS I REMEMBER..."

The shirt was in a word,..MAD! I was like were did you get this? he was like 'some dude in Lag does them...', also by hand might I add. Thus, i was introduced to HYPNO. Time passed and I keep seeing more and more of these fabulous designs, Cartoon Characters inspired by Naija, consuming the entirety of the front facing side of the shirts, gritty inscriptions, bold logos...crazy stuff, i even read a couple of newspaper articles and features of these artists/designers. As a young designer at the time, with ambitions of having my very own clothing line (which i still do) these guys were a great inspiration to me, like the holy grail of urban clothing design matching the likes of Fubu, damani dada(where'd they do to), marc ecko etc . But, in the last couple of years, it dawned on me that the these guys are gone, like, nowhere to be seen, Why? I mean in this age of the Nigerian Music industry's boom I'd have thought they'd be making a killing, cuz those seemed to be their foremost customers, but, still nowhere in sight. I did some digging and found http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hypno-Clothing-Company/216888475093, not as vibrant as I remember it, but still in existence nonetheless... and as  for Laze I'm still searching. The long and short of my rambling is that I miss seeing these proudly Nigeria urban graphic designs out in the media where they belong, I miss seeing them being celebrated, I miss being inspired and challenged by them all at the same time, and I keep wondering, Where'd they go?

photo credits go to the above referenced facebook page.

SOMEWHAT FUNNY, BUT HONEST.

 In my usual foray across the world wide web, I came across these brilliant comical pieces termed, HONEST LOGOS-they're basically a bunch of popular brand logos re-designed to reveal what the brand stands for and should really be called. This was a while back and i've had them on my laptop for ages, some funny, some genius level funny and some i dont get probably because i dont know the actual brand. You should be able to guess some of the brands, hope you find them as funny as I did..bless. 

For more of such brilliance... http://www.viktorhertz.com/50717/439429/gallery/honest-logos

AIRBALL FOR THE NETS.

JUST SOME HARMLESS FUN.. TEE HEE!!

BRANDING 101

 Good morning class, sorry, I mean, readers. MJ here. Now while branding and designs maybe my passion and forte, to the average person, its basically a logo and stationery, and to some others, well, you’re thinking ‘????’, Let correct some misconceptions and enlighten some people along the way. Now as much as I would love to get all technical and form “tush” guy, by giving some superfluous definition of branding, I’ll let Wikipedia and google do exactly what they’re made for so get to searching. However, permit to offer a description in layman’s terms, ahem..

Branding, my dear readers, is the reason why you feel comfortable banking with GTB and not some random Microfinance bank or shoddy financial institution….

Branding,… is the reason why you’d go into the new KFC’s in town and feel comfortable buying lunch but be put off at the sight of some roadside hawker selling the same products….

Branding,…is the reason why you feel more comfortable buying fuel or diesel at Oando  as opposed to ‘UNCLE DEBO’S PETROLEUM COMPANY LTD’…

Branding,…is the reason why you’d feel comfortable flying aero, than, ermm,…some other airlanes…(even though aero don dey mess up for some time now.)

Branding, I tell you, is the reason why you’d rather drink dansa than some random fruit-concoction…

You may claim its quality, but, truth is, quality without proper ‘packaging’ as we like to call it, can only get you so far. You need to have, (wait for it…) B-R-A-N-D-I-N-G!!

While you may vehemently disagree with the above stated instances, for a plethora of reasons (see grammar!! U wan try) branding to a very large extent is what draws customers in, by being unique, attractive and consistent. A brand resides in the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospective patrons. It is the emotional connection between the product or service and the customer. Branding successfully differentiates products and services in an over-crowded market place. It is how you know that “Khaki is not a leather”.

I can hear someone saying, So? Why should I spend money on branding? What is it worth?..well, let me leave you with some figures…as at the last time I checked (just now..), coca-cola’s brand name, I repeat, brand name in 2012 was worth a little over   $74 billion,

Johnson&Johnson (those guys that make everything from insecticide to baby powder) had their brand name pegged at $3.1 billion (2006 facts), and more recently, the great Dr.Dre sold a 51%stake in his beats by dre company to htc for a whooping $100 million,…so, ermmm…any more questions?

THIS IS BRAND'NG

Hi there, I'm Johnson Michael Temidayo, but you can call me EMJAY(an architect by training and designer by passion) and welcome to BRAND'NG. This blog is, basically, a take on the world of branding and design from a fairly enlightened Nigerian perspective. From time to time you'll see stuff ranging from logo designs to crazy furniture and awe inspiring buildings (as in really,.. architect!?). Notable mentions of designers and design companies (predominantly Nigerians) will also be made. Like i said, I'm very passionate about branding and design, so if you share my passion and have anything interesting to share hit me up on foremjay@gmail.com. Bless! P.s. Did I mention I'm musician as well?...