by YannigRoth

These Videos From Spain, Ukraine and France Made SK-II Rethink Their Marketing

Image via SK-II.com.sg (click to access)

Image via SK-II.com.sg (click to access)

Earlier this year, SK-II (one of the few beauty brands that P&G decided not to sell this summer) announced a new brand philosophy: #ChangeDestiny. The big idea is that women should take their destiny in their hands, to position SK-II as a brand that allows women to do more and “to inspire women to change their own destiny, regardless of the little “dictators” in their life.” The campaign was launched with a film featuring Misa Kuranaga – the first Asian to become Boston Ballet’s principle dancer – and showed how her life story defied the odds to achieve professional success. To bring the brand platform to life online and make it more relevant to young consumers, SK-II also turned to crowdsourcing. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

My Favorites in October: Importance of Self-Discipline, 100 Years Contour Bottles & Meaningful Branding

Image via VSA Partners (click to see video)For the first time since I started blogging, I’m sharing a self-improvement a.k.a. life advice article written on Medium, which seems to be the top of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs’ Hierarcchy of Needs. Entrepreneur and blogger Oskar Nowik writes about the importance of self-discipline in life, and it’s geniunely a great article. Other cool stuff in October include a fantastic interview of Coca-Cola’s brand historian Ted Ryan, a feature about the most prolific of all Wikipedia editors, and a short video called “IBM on Brand,” part of a series of short films created to capture the current thinking behind leadership brands. I hope you’ll enjoy it, and I’m looking forward to an inspiring and exciting month of November now! Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

My Favorites in September: Airbnb’s Brand Strategy, The World’s Last Globemakers & Mothers of ISIS Fighters

Image via boredpanda.com

Image by Bellerby & Co Globemakers

How/why did the Amazon Phone fail? What do Converse and Airbnb do in order to make their brands attractive to existing communities? And do globemakers still exist today? Some answers are answered in this month’s favorites.

It’s a heterogeneous mix of articles about branding, marketing, ISIS and more that I would like to share this September. My personal favorite is the last link of this list, a truly insightful post by Standard Chartered Bank’s Global Head of Digital Marketing, Damien Cummings. I would urge every other brand marketer to write something similar, it would make my life so much easier 🙂 And it would allow for a lot of synergies between brands and agencies.

Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

My Favorites in August: Brand Challenges, Speaking Out Against Racism & The Creative Apocalypse

Illustration by Andrew Rae (via nytimes.com)

“The Creative Apocalypse That Wasn’t” (via nytimes.com, illustration by Andrew Rae)

August, the month of holidays, sunshine, nature and sports… right? To me it was all of the above, but I also read a couple of very interesting articles, watched debates and opinion pieces. In this month’s favorites you will find a single article about cycling (!) and many more about creativity and innovation, marketing challenges and tolerance.

Yes, tolerance. I translated the short position piece of a German TV anchor, published it on this blog and on YouTube, and was stunned by all the hate comments that it received. After the surprise, and thinking about it, I see it as a sad manifestation of trolls’ and racists’ hopelessness. I prefer them to just comment under a video than to represent me in our parliaments and institutions. Anyway, here are some much more interesting things to read and watch. I hope you’ll like them too.

Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Immigration, Religion, Sex… Some Of My Favorite @Intelligence2 Debates

Image via robertleeming.com (click to read his interesting post about IQ²)

Image via robertleeming.com (click to read his interesting post about IQ²)

I love debate, even when I face stupid or irrational arguments. It’s stimulating your mind, makes you work on your self-discipline, entices you to find smart arguments, and encourages dialog which is healthy for any stable society. Recently I found out about Intelligence Squared, an organization that stages debates held in the traditional Oxford style around the world, and which broadcasts these debates on YouTube. I’ve watched dozens of them, from business to politics, sex or religion. Here are some of my favorite Intellgence² debates, as well as my positions to the motions that are being discussed in them. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

“Open your Mouth. Show Attitude.” @AnjaReschke1’s Comment Against Hate Speech (in English)

In a time where Europe sees increasing news coverage about migrants both inside (ex: Paris, Calais) and outside its borders (ex: Syria, Lybia), there is a worrying uptake of public hate speech on the internet and attacks on refugee shelters. Yesterday evening, in the German television news program Tagesschau, broadcast on the German public-service television network ARD, Anja Reschke made a 2-minute, important statement on German public TV: “Open Your Month, Show Attitude.” While anyone can have an opinion on the way – and the extent to which – countries should receive and help migrants, there a universal, important message in what she said. Here it is in English (links and bold passages added by myself). Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

My Favorites in July: Heineken’s Creative Ladder, Airbnb in Cuba & Pretending to be a Successful Startup

Image via Short Film Corner Cannes

Image via Short Film Corner Cannes

Stay thirsty for creativity, “Creative Marketer of the Year” Heineken said at Cannes Lions this year, where Senior Global Brand Director Gianluca Di Tonda said the brand was “in the business of connecting emotions” while Global Marketing Executive Director Soren Hagh added that great creative work is often made by “people who take risks.” In this post, I share some links about the good & the ugly of creativity, about eYeka’s community members, about scaling a business in a country where there is little or no internet access. You’ll also find two links about failing crowd-based businesses – Quirky and Homejoy – and about pretending to be big when you’re not. Continue reading →