Bianca De Sousa

The curated thoughts of a Planner

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Urban Ears scratch poster. Clever, very clever.  

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Next time someone tells you immigration is destroying our country, show them this.

'Mathematics' Spoken word by Hollie McNish

via Upworthy

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Why Teens are abandoning Social Media

Great article, that puts this all into perspective. Technically what our industry references as 'social' is not that at all. There is little conversation, which is starting to get younger demographics questioning the point. They don't need it for gossip, they have school for that and as more parents and brands filter into their social circles, they are simply turning it off in favour of more private and sociable apps. 

https://medium.com/understandings-epiphanies/aae8d5f880cc

This point further articluated by a good friend of mine, as she commented on the current state of her Facebook newsfeed. 

'When did FB get so bossy? I don't remember adding McDonald's as my friend on FB. Or Bulmer's cider. Or Viagra. So why do I see stuff from them? Plus FB keeps telling me to tell people how I'm feeling or what I'm doing. Well. You asked for it, FB:

Suddenly I feel like I have a friend who is urging me to eat some really unhealthy food, have an alcoholic drink that I don't really like, and telling me to some medication that will have no effect on me, even though Sex and the City once promoted the idea that it would.  I also feel like like FB is a stupid bossy idiot I'd like to unfriend. '

Hopefully, this will get brands asking why they are on social media, and how they intend to add to conversations by being there. Rather than the current, doing it for the sake of being 'social.'

[biancatheplanner-blog]

donottouch.org

Interactive crowd sourced video, celebrating the imminent death of the computer cursor. 

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Wi-Fi Posters. 

The video is awful, but the concept is interesting. Although I still dont understand what prompts the consumers to connect with the poster in the first place, I do think there is a place for something that has a better user experience than a QR code. 

The right execution and a little imagination, this concept could be really interesting. Especially to promote film and music and even events. 

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Teens Abandoning Social Networks, Study Says

A dramatic generational shift. Profiles are out, ephemera is in.

A sign of things to come? Definitely.  

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Creating A Better More Adaptable Brand Strategy

Mark Shillum visualizes a brand as a pattern and challenges consistency as the most important concept.

I enjoyed reading this a few months ago. An article that challenges one of the brand strategy commandments - how to make our brand messages consistent. 

As Shillum rightly points out - the notion of consistency is, well, boring.  The idea of consistency makes brands stale. Brands like Kodak were consistent, and look where that got them.

In my opinion the modern brand should be anything but consistent. Consistent is boring, unchanging and unimaginative. Brands need to focus on being relevant, understand the needs and habits of the consumer and work with them, not against them.

Brands that are consistent, spend too much time focusing on keeping their product, and not enough paying attention to the fact their consumers have grown up, moved on, or just simply got bored.  

Being relevant means brands are more than just temporary solutions, and subject to fads. Relevance means you grow, change and reflect your consumer.

Relevance is what should be consistent.   

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Booktracks, a new app that adds a soundtrack to the e-book you are reading. 

The future of publishing has brought up a lot of opinions and divided people into print vs. digital. In my opinion, I dont understand why it has to be one or the other.

Personally, I am excited about these innovations that actually use technology not to distract but to enhance the book reading experience. 

[biancatheplanner-blog]

A great concept from some advertising students, that asks the question- what will library's of the next 3 years become?

We always have anything we ever need at our finger tips, is there need for a physical presence of the library in our communities? Now that we dont go to libraries to get books, opens up the space to become something much more than a home for books. 

Potentially used to bring all those Millennial looking to connect 'in the real world' to come together, share their literary discoveries and discuss them. 

Maybe. 

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Images from the National Geographic archives. Makes me want to time travel. 

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Without a doubt, the best use of this new platform. 

[biancatheplanner-blog]

Fanta Middle East edible print campaign. Yeah. 

Basically like scratch and sniff, but more rip and lick. Absolute genius. 

http://popsop.com/61780

[biancatheplanner-blog]

MoMo in NYC introduce a new urban exhibition. One that takes place on the streets of New York and takes you back to 1993 - using the cities disused payphones. 

[whatyourmumwouldsellyoufor]

A must-have for every office.

[biancatheplanner-blog]

[biancatheplanner-blog]

The end of advertising?

I was incredibly lucky to attend Contagious Magazine's 'Now / Next / Why?' seminar, an incredibly insightful day. Something they mentioned while I was at the event was the changing role of advertising and marketing; the 'Marketing as Service design' trend.

This really stuck with me. The premise being that in order for advertising to work, it will  have to take on a new shape. Forget selling product, the brand will create services. Quite simply creating scenarios allowing your audience to use more of your product. 

Currently reading Velocity (by Ajaz Ahmed & Stephan Olander) this is a shift that is spoken about quite a lot. I couldn't agree more. As consumers have grown accustomed to brands and advertising- it takes a lot more for us to pay attention. We are also getting smarter at filtering these out.

Working in the Ad industry there are a lot of buzz phrases throw around all the time, like 'Content is King' -surely, this has always been the case? However, the shift the marketing and advertising will have to endure I think is genuinely going to be something that alters how we think about campaigns and brands. 

If they are not proving useful - they are useless. 

Some good examples of Brands thinking like this;

Nike 'Pay with Sweat'   by offering a service for people to monitor their running, they are compelled to run more. Nike are beginning to use the new motivations they have created and building on them further. 

Hellmanns Recipe Receipt - in Brazil, when customers bought Hellmanns they were given recipes based on the other ingredients in their shop. thus inspiring them to use Helmans differently, and probably more frequently.

Lurpak Good Food Finder-  similarly, the food app sources local gems, to enjoy the finest fresh produce, to which Lurpak is the vital ingredient.