Orange: First internet balloon race

Orange launched another advertising campaign: the world's first internet balloon race.



The game is a little bit different than most other internet games in that the game does not occur on one site, but instead occurs among multiple sponsor sites. Anyone can be a sponsor--all you need to do is submit a URL to the game.

Anyone can join the game and get a balloon. The only way to move ahead though, it appears, is when you visit a site, or when anyone decides to give you a boost or when you landed on a site that would give you extras.

The whole experience feels a little bit like web-ring meets 1010wins. If you are determined to win the race, you ended up visiting a ton of sites that you normally won't get to. The 'sponsors' in turn get some brand exposure. In this sense Orange is providing a free advertising platform in the name of an internet game, and through doing so create brand awareness for itself... power to the users?

via CrackUnit

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Keep Life Sexy / Personal lubricant rebrand through UGC

www.keeplifesexy.com is KY-Jelly (a personal lubricant)'s venture into UGC-powered advertising.



The concept is really simple and straight-forward, to the point where I actually question its creativity. That said, I also felt that many interactive seen these days are so 'innovative' that the target audience might just not get it.

Bottom line: it's an innovative approach to any pharmaceutical marketing site and it succeeds in updating my brand perception for this old-school standard. That makes for a successful campaign.

via Tom Ajello's tweets

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Personal Branding

Back in the spring of 2007, I started the exercise of personal branding.

I love doing branding and identity projects, but there aren't many opportunities at the moment. I have learned over time that the best way to keep myself fresh is to do it constantly and persistently. So I follow the paths of Oprah and Martha Stewart and started the exercise of personal branding.



My extensive exploration of self is my research on understanding my brand, and it is from these analysis that I came up with the logo that you see today, from which I have developed my color system and branding guidelines.

The Logo

The logo is composed of three circles: small, medium and large. The three colors are the origin of colors, and represents design (magenta), technology (yellow) and marketing strategy (cyan) respectively. The execution is simple because I had a Bauhaus education.

The logo is placed everywhere where I exist, and extend beyond the seeminglee.com domain and into all the collaborative communities. I use the logo to 'stamp' holiday greetings. I also use it as my avatar on all my social networks. Because the logo scales well, it is also used as the favicon on my main hub.

Fun today

I was doing some experiments with video projection the past couple of days and I thought that it might be fun to brand myself directly on my body.

So here's my current advertising campaign running on Flickr: this is the closest I've been able to get my logo on the product—myself.









©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Queen Elizabeth II Christmas Broadcast, 2007

Queen Elizabeth II joins her country folks and posted her annual Christmas Broadcast this year on YouTube:

YouTube: The Christmas Broadcast, 2007 Embedding disabled by TheRoyalChannel so you have to see it on YouTube - Read transcript

The video was uploaded at 3pm GMT on 2007-07-25 and so far has been favorited 288 times, over 900 ratings with 123,651 in 3 short hours. At the time to this writing, it has received 7 honors:

+ #7 - Most Viewed (This Week) - United Kingdom
+ #2 - Most Viewed (This Week) - People & Blogs - United Kingdom
+ #11 - Most Viewed (This Week) - People & Blogs
+ #7 - Top Rated (This Week) - United Kingdom
+ #96 - Top Rated (This Week)
+ #4 - Top Rated (This Week) - People & Blogs - United Kingdom
+ #12 - Top Rated (This Week) - People & Blogs

TheRoyalChannel joined YouTube 2 months ago, has 19 videos posted, and now has 14,680 subscribers and 732,121 channel views. Fairly impressive.

Web 2.0 save the queen.

Related SML Universe
+ Life 2.0
+ SML Channel
+ SML Data
+ SML YouTube

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Uniqlo Grid = Branding through interaction design

http://www.uniqlo.com/grid/

YouTube: Uniqlo Grid / Inspirations Are Everywhere



SML Thank You
I would like to thank Tom Ajello (Blog / Facebook / Flickr / LinkedIn / SML Wiki / Twitter) for alerting me to this on his recent tweet.

Related SML Universe
+ Inspirations are Everywhere
+ SML Collection
+ SML Ideas
+ SML Interaction Design
+ SML UI

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Wear your brand colors everyday / See-ming Lee / SML Everyday + SML Life

Wear your brand colors everyday / See-ming Lee / 20071031.SD850IS.0949 / SML Everyday / SML Life, originally uploaded by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML.

My halloween costume for 2007: SML

SML Brand Colors
+ Cyan by Ben Sherman
+ Yellow by Puma
+ Magenta by Swatch

Related SML Universe
+ Design for everyday living
+ I am SML
+ SML Brands
+ SML Everyday
+ SML Me
+ SML Life
+ SML Wiki: See-ming Lee

SML Copyright Notice
© 2007 See-ming Lee (Blog / Facebook / Flickr / Google / LinkedIn / YouTube)

SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

ACOS Group / 2000 / SML Projects

SML Flickr: Collections: SML Projects: ACOS Group / 2000 / SML

ACOS Group = Global Management Consulting Specialists

Brand Presentation / 2000-07-31 (22 Pages)
+ 1: Brand Presentation
+ 2: Analysis of the original logo
+ 3: Mark
+ 4: Mark: strategy
+ 5: Typography
+ 6: Typography
+ 7: Typography: strategy
+ 8: Naming
+ 9: Naming: strategy
+ 10: Company values
+ 11: Company values: Stable / Flexible
+ 12: Company values: Global / Local
+ 13: Company values: Team / Individual
+ 14: Proposed identity
+ 15: Proposed identity on black
+ 16: Proposed identity on white
+ 17: Proposed mark
+ 18: Proposed logotype
+ 19: Branding Statement
+ 20: Typography
+ 21: Typography
+ 22: Preliminary Application

Stationary / 2000-08-25
+ Binder
+ Business Card
+ Letterhead
+ Letterhead - Grid

Related SML
+ SML Graphic Design
+ SML Identity Design
+ SML Information Design
+ SML LinkedIn
+ SML Projects

SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

City = Brand

As a special report in the June 14, 2007 issue of Business Week, writer Tom Lowry discusses how New York City Major Michael R. Bloomberg applies brand management techniques to New York City:

1. New York City = Corporation
   
   
2. Citizen = Customers
   
   
3. Sanitation workers, police officers, clearks, deputy commissioners = Talent
   
   
4. Major = Chief Executive
   
   
5. NYC & Co. = a not-for-profit entity consisted of three existing operations
   
   
6. Annual marketing budget = tripled = $22 million USD
   
   
7. George Fertitta = Brand management for Coca-Cola (KO), Perry Ellis (PERY), Walt Disney = NYC brand management lead
   
   
8. NYC & Co.'s goal = lure 50 million visitors a year by 2015
   
   
9. Branch offices around the world = Presence in 14 cities, with new offices set to open in Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai in coming months
   
   
10. 311 = 24-hour customer-service
    
    
11. Cost of 311 Startup = $25 million USD
    
    
12. Number of 311 Calls = 49 million since 2003
    
    
13. Number of 311 Round-the-clock call takers = 370
    
    
14. 311 Call data-mining = 1 million less 911 traffic = Inspections for excessive noise up 94% = rodent exterminations up 36%
    
    
15. City Hall meeting rooms glass doors = better and faster communication
    
    
16. Presentations = Easy-to-follow charts and tables
    
    
17. Semiannual mayor's management report of yesteryears = >1,000 pages in 3 printed volumes
    
    
18. Semiannual mayor's management report under Bloomberg's reign = 186 pages, available online, includes many more features than before, including neighborhood data + five-year trends that allow New Yorkers to compare past and present
    
    
19. City Plans + Budget = fully accessible on the city's Web site with specific agency's overhead costs (e.g. pensions + legal claims)
    
    
20. Katherine Olivier = ex-Bloomberg global radio and television operations = executive from the city's Office of Film, Theater + Broadcasting
    
    
21. Within a month of Katherine Olivier's arrival, her 22 employees had new Dell (DELL) flat-screens, and production companies were able to file for permits online
    
    
22. 15% tax credit to film + tv produtions that complete at least 75% of their stage work in the city = generated $2.4 billion in new business = 10,000 new jobs since 2005
    
    
23. Dedicated team of 33 police offers to ease shots in the city = B2B = microcosm of what Bloomberg wanted to do for the entire city
    
    
24. Efficiency in city's film office = maps + diagrams + suggestions of where to shoot during one-on-one meetings with folks in the office
    

Read the full article:
Business Week / 2007-06-14T11:51-4:00 / Bloomberg: The CEO Mayor / How New York's Mike Bloomberg is creating a new model for public service that places pragmatism before politics

Synergy of Business = Design + Technology + Marketing Strategy

You have seen many PowerPoint presentations that speak of the power of the successful business treo: design, technology and strategy. It usually goes like this:

1. A circle appears, representing design.
2. Another circle appears, representing technology.
3. Yet another circle appears, representing strategy.
4. These circle overlaps one another, looking like an RGB mixing diagram.
5. Drum rolls... and the presenter talks about the importance of being at the center where all three circles overlap.

This presentation bores so many to tears that it doesn't see the light of day very often these days. It also neglects the reality that being at the dead center is not really what matters (the result), rather, it is the constant balance among the three groups that matters most (the process by which to achieve equilibrium):

• design + technology / strategy
  
• technology + strategy / design
  
• strategy + design / technology
  

It is an important business idea, however, and I propose that the wordings be changed from the What to the Why. When you show the ROI first, people generally listen more intently:

• Usability = Design
  
• Longevity = Technology
  
• Commercial Value = Strategy
  

When you wish to back it up with examples, instead of picking a single product to demonstrate the effect, pick all of them. Show your audience how the same formula applies to all products and services that wish to be successful in the market place. It is especially true if you wish to reap the benefits from the power of cult branding: from Apple to Linux, from Harley-Davidson to Volkswagen, from the World Wrestling Entertainment to Oprah Winfrey.