A lot of people tease me because I’m “Always On.” If I’m not in the office, I can usually be found through any number of social media channels. Whether it’s my Twitter page, my check-ins on Foursquare or my Facebook page; it’s not very hard to find me – for good or bad.
This last week, though, I decided I’d take a vacation. You know, the “relaxing, kick-back-n-nap by the pool kind of week” that many of us need to recharge the branding battery and focus. Well, this is what I did…
I cleaned. Boy did I clean. My house looks like we just moved in.
I gardened. It finally stopped raining in central Iowa, so I pulled about 100 lbs of weeds and found that my garden still survived underneath it all…
I played with the kids. I have three great kids that are on Summer vacation, so after I made them help me weed and clean, we had some quality family time. Movies. Fireworks. Carnivals. Dinners out…
It really was a great week!
But I couldn’t stay away from social media, work and talking about branding. I tweeted and used social media to coordinate projects for work. I scheduled meetings. I went to business and sales improvement seminars… (relaxing?) My coworkers tease me, but maybe this will show them that I should get MORE vacation days. I seem to be pretty darn productive when I’m not sitting at my desk.
One of the activities I’m VERY proud of accomplishing this week was going on-air for the first time in 20 years with Michael Libbie and his Insight On Business webcast that airs daily at http://www.webcastliveone.com We talked branding, business, social media, banking, cause marketing and general current events. I had a blast!
Below is the stream. You may need to jump forward a minute-or-so to get through the set up, but it’s well worth the watch. Maybe I’ll do more of these in the future! (click here for the video in FaceBook and Feed readers)
I don’t mean to fire another shot at the marketing community in the U.K., but…
What the heck are the marketers for the London 2012 Olympics committee smoking?
VIDEO:
Sorry about the auto play… (Notice the kids giving the Nazi salute to them? WTH?)
To have such a prestigious organization adorn your city would be an honor to last a lifetime. But it seems like the folks marketing for the occasion have taken the opportunity and turned it into a Duran Duran meets The TeleTubbies on LSD experience.
Let me back up about four years… If you haven’t read it yet, I did a blog post(June 2006) about the incredibly ill-conceived logo designed for the London 2012 Olympics. Saying:
“I’m saddened when I think of the world’s athletes that have put so much effort and time into achieving the honor of competing in the Olympics having to walk around the Olympic Village slathered with a logo that looks like they just got back from a Duran Duran concert.”
And now the marketers have launched a campaign to show off the new mascots. All I can say for them is at least they’re consistent.
Good Lord, They look like the love child of Timothy Leary and TinkyWinkie! I’m thinking the Aztecs saw this for 2012 and just decided to end it all there. What the heck would be the point of living after that?
Marketing in a Vacuum?
Normally, in these horribly off-the-mark situations, I’d point my finger at some self indulgent agency or myopic company trying to be “cutting edge” without the first hint of research or understanding of the target market. But according to The Telegraph UK, the chairman of the London Organizing Committee, Lord Coe and his marketing group spent 18 months and did over 40 focus groups in preparation and development of these atrocities!
40 FOCUS GROUPS?!?
What did they do, design them AND THEN hold focus groups until they found someone to say they liked them?
Here are a couple more images that come to mind when I see these mascots:
At least Vancouver 2010 Mascots related to the region and didn’t scare the hell out of people…
Stephen Bayley, the prominent design critic, said: “What is it about these Games which seems to drive the organisers into this cretinous infantilism?
“Why can’t we have something that makes us sing with pride, instead of these appalling computerised Smurfs for the iPhone generation?”
“If the Games are going to be remembered by their art then we can declare them a calamitous failure already.”
I mean c’mon, if one of the biggest design critics in your country says they suck, shouldn’t you reflect on the direction you’ve taken?
So, what is the London 2012 Olympic committee to do? It’s too late to start over. It’s too ugly to ignore. Is this a public relations issue now? Can they make this all make sense somehow?
He was a troubled musician that had a talent that was second to none. He changed the world of music. He changed electric bass.
He completely altered jazz for ever because he was DAMN good. He embodied unmatched creative innovation.(All before the age of 35.)
Take a look / listen here (from the early 1980′s & well worth the 9:41): (Facebookers and feed readers, click on this link to see the video.)
Because of his amazing talent and passion for his trade/art, he was able to move mountains – just look at some of the “shout outs” in his bio.
But he was troubled. An addict. A broken soul… And he was taken from us too soon.
So, what’s the connection?
Jaco Pastorius’ track helped me realize there is a difference between just being good and being DAMN good.
If you’ve ever asked yourself any of the following questions:
“Is there more? What kind of impact will I have? What legacy will I leave for my children – the world?”
you may want to ask yourself…
Are you good or are you DAMN good?
When I say DAMN good, I mean do you simply do what is expected or do you innovate?
Do you clock in and do your work to get from point A to point B? Or do you utilize your talent, your passion, to change the perspective of those around you? Do you make the world better for yourself – for others?
Jaco Pastorius, through the pain, loneliness and mind-numbing distortion of addiction, left the world a better place. He took the one thing that seemed to make him happy and worked it to its pinnacle, a mark to which the rest of the music world would measure themselves against.
This leads to a few final questions:
“How can you take your current situation and become more like Jaco Pastorius? How can you take your passion to a level that further defines you, your career and solidifies your future?”
Food for thought.
Keep Cooking (innovation over stagnation)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef
This last week, though, I decided I’d take a vacation. You know, the “relaxing, kick-back-n-nap by the pool kind of week” that many of us need to recharge the branding battery and focus. Well, this is what I did…
