Developing A New Brand of Yogurt

There is no better challenge than to have a client say "I have an idea..." and to bring that to life and onto the store shelf. Last year I had the pleasure of working with WhiteWave Foods and Growth Catalysts to develop several new ideas for an Australian Style yogurt brand. 

Through months of work on naming, brand positioning, identity, and packaging we worked with the internal creative team at WhiteWave on several new products, one of which is now available at grocery stores across the country... Yulu Yogurt. 

Not only is the development of a new brand incredibly fun, but it's also a great challenge for any design team to open up the possibilities of where a product can go. I count myself lucky that we were able to integrate consumer feedback into our work and create a brand that we can feel proud to put out onto store shelves. 

Jack Daniel’s Packaging Refresh

I found this to be an exemplary case study on how to modernize and update a heritage brand without just change for changes sake. The simplification and reorganization of the face panel really incorporates a lot more white space, making it easier for the consumer to read the content. The subtle hints of grey and dimension keep the packaging looking premium without overdoing it. The refresh of the side panels begins to tell a much clearer brand story and reinforces the important heritage items without being cluttered. The icons that were developed look both typical of Jack Daniel’s but refreshing and new, an incredibly hard balance to achieve.

Overall, the new label design really encourages you to read and engage with the brand story after removing all of the less important seals and periphery claims. The design (and brand team) did a magnificent job of editing. While I’m sure the average consumer will not notice much of a change on shelf, I think this is a huge step in the right direction. It’s always a challenge with a brand like this that has as much equity as Jack Daniels to update without over-doing or creating something new that consumers will not connect with.

 The case study is available on Packaging of the World.

What's Branding Got To Do With Stock Price?

According to Rob Osler (Sr. Director of Brand Strategy, Anthem) in Business Insider... everything.

Intel - The Museum of Me

Intel's new campaign "The Museum of Me" is a stunning journey through the lives we all share on Facebook. The Museum of Me creates a poetic journey through each user's personalized art gallery by simply gathering content from facebook photos, posts, links, etc. The interface is a bit clunky, but the rich web story it tells is very compelling and I'm sure the interaction numbers will be sky high as this takes off through the ether. 

Excited by brand guidelines?

Tribal DDB (Hong Kong) developed a fantastic program called Lipton Millionaire to excite their Lipton brand managers and company partners to engage with the Asian brand standards. With the incorporation of new technology and a twist on a typical brand guidelines they turned a typical throwaway piece into a game to encourage participation and competition among their marketing partners. The sense of humor and whimsy involved is really engaging.

I don't have to sell my soul

Iconic British shoe brand Dr. Marten is running a great new promotion to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Borrowing on their history as a mainstay within the British Music scene they worked with a wide variety of musical artists to record cover songs (with music videos!) for a bevy a similiarly iconic songs. With tracks from The Buzzcocks, The Stone Roses, The Human League, Jeff Buckley and the like being covered by some of today's great musicians this is sure to connect well with their audience. Personally I'm totally enamoured with the Raveonettes cover of I Wanna Be Adored. Check it out and partake of their free mp3s at http://50.drmartens.com/.

Pulling the cheese

One of my designers recently discovered a new promotion from Domino's Pizza which takes people inside the world of food photo shoots. This is the closest representation I've ever seen recorded to what we go through on a professional set. I am absolutely in agreement with the hand model that food stylists are miracle workers. Take a peek on YouTube of their 3 minute video and if you feel like you can do a better job than a professional photographer, stylist and the 50 other people on set you can submit your own photo at www.showusyourpizza.com. The interactivity between the consumer and the brand is really well done in this promotion (even if it does devalue the gruelling hours we sometimes put it on food photoshoots).