Two hundred and sixty-eight penguins lived in the colony of beautiful emporor penguins in Antartica. Only Fred was curious and observant enough to discover a potentially devastating problem threatening their home - and pretty much no one listens to him. Its a problem shared by marketers and communicators today, whether we have realised it yet or not.
This 6-minute video - marking the first anniversary of Internet Branding Strategy - shows the three easy steps that I took, and showing in which direction you should start swimming (if you are not already doing so!)
I was thrilled to hear this morning that this, my first video, won a prize in a For Immediate Release contest designed to encourage business communicators like myself to experiment with video. My prize is tickets to attend Web 2.0 Expo Europe in Berlin, Germany, on October 21-23, 2009. Many thanks to FIR hosts Shel Holz and Neville Hobson for selecting my video to win the European prize. Its also quite a relief as, due to the short timeframe, I've already signed up for a few side-events and let clients know I'll be in town - could have been embarassing!
October 14, 2008
A curious penguin's guide to social media (video)
October 2, 2007
InterContinental and the ‘Girl from Ipanema’
“Why do we play ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ when no one in the bar is over 40?”
Believing that we had the answer, my Sound Strategies colleague, ex-Burson Marsteller London CEO Reginald Watts, contacted him straight away.
Since then Sound Strategies has been working with the Group’s lead brand, Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, to develop a comprehensive Acoustic Program that will affect all the sound and music touch points in the brand’s 148 hotels around the world and across all communications channels - whether online, off-line or in the physical spaces of the hotels. Intercontinental will launch its Acoustic Program in early 2008.
According to David Anderson, vice president, global brand innovation for InterContinental Hotels & Resorts:
“Over the last year, we’ve been conducting in-depth consumer research around the world and one area of focus was the application of sound and music in our hotels. Music and sound have a profound and distinct affect on people’s physiological states and their moods. And of course, music and sound contribute significantly to the essence of our Brand. Therefore, we chose to take a comprehensive and scientific approach to our acoustic program.”
Music is such a fundamental part of our lives, our every tradition and celebration – regardless of culture – is accompanied by its own special sound-track. It’s so integral to our life experiences, in fact, that it is very easy to slip into cliché. And, as was only too obvious to Andy Cosslett, a hotel bar, restaurant, or even elevator, were potentially major transgressors! In fact, the company’s own research found that while two out of three guests consider themselves ‘passionate about music’ and are very clear about which styles they prefer, other research cites that nearly half of all hotel guests consider music used in hotels in general is ‘poor or very poor.’ This despite the widespread availability of hotel-branded CDs!
For us, this has been a fascinating and challenging commission which has opened up a new way of thinking for the use of sound as an effective communications tool. The whole of the work was underpinned by a year long research and analysis project into all aspects of the brand and business, and informed by the latest psychological and neurological information into how we associate with music. Not to mention a great day-long Music Awareness Workshop at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London with the entire Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts brand team – not quite Take That recording ‘We can rule the world, ’ but as close as a brand team gets, I’ll wager!
The end result has been the creation of a robust methodology which can be used for briefing music suppliers, agencies, live musicians, in fact anyone who is involved in sound in the hospitality industry. One that will take into account the differing needs of both communications media and audience (participator, really) situations, be it in physical spaces, online, television, telephony, or navigation.
Sound Strategies aims to help business understand more about sound and how we interact with it. We work closely with companies’ corporate affairs and marketing departments and the communications and advertising industries to examine how the use of music and sound can be more effective in all aspects of communications.
