May 2013
6 posts
9 tags
Is trolling the new branding?
Buycott is a new app designed to support voting with your wallet.
Created by Los Angeles-based developer Ivan Pardo, the app helps people scan the barcode on a product to see which companies own it, and avoid companies whose principles they disagree with – such as those owned by the Koch brothers, or who oppose labeling GMOs. The app provides contact information...
5 tags
What's a Nano for?
By Zia Patel & Aditya Julkat
Touted as the ‘People’s Car’, when Mr. Ratan Tata unveiled the Nano in 2007, it was expected to be the next big thing for the Indian automotive industry. All the ingredients were there to make it a huge success but somehow it never took off. Some said it was “too cheap for its own good” while others tagged it as a “poor man’s car”. Though most would pin the blame...
8 tags
Yahoo can turn the spotlight into a stage for...
By Nick O’Flaherty
Yahoo is the slowest-growing U.S. Internet company in its class—a trend the company is furtively trying to reverse. With Marissa Mayer at the helm, and former Goldman-banker-turned-‘Chief Development Officer’ Jacqueline Reses at her side, Yahoo has been busy restructuring and acquiring. With its latest high-profile acquisition, Yahoo has specifically promised not...
3 tags
Infosys: Back to the Future?
By Zia Patel and Mayanka Sharma
In India Infosys is a 21st century Icarus- like Icarus they were highly ambitious and wanted to fly high. They were a firm which soared above everything else but soon lost its wings and fell steeply.
In 2006, though Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was larger on paper, it was Infosys that was considered the poster boy of India’s IT industry. It was known for...
4 tags
Disrupt the commute
By Rebecca Dersh
We love a good story of positive impact. So of course when we heard about Yazmany Arboleda’s latest global art project, we couldn’t help but share.
For the fourth installation of his Monday Morning series, the Colombian-born artist is planning to distribute 10,000 pink biodegradable balloons to commuters in Kabul, Afghanistan. Partnering with local and global human rights...
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Acela means business...
…Or so the new “Take Off” advertising campaign for Acela Express would have us believe. And maybe they’re right. According to the New York Times, 75% of travel between NYC and Washington DC occurs on Amtrak trains. And Acela ridership specifically accounts for nearly 3.4 million passengers on Northeastern corridor rail transit every year.
Here’s a video from the campaign:
When Acela was...
April 2013
18 posts
5 tags
Five questions with Zena Bruges
In the first of a series of interviews with inspiring female leaders, Wolff Olins’ global COO, Sairah Ashman, interviews Zena Bruges.
Zena Bruges is managing director of The Future Laboratory, a business that helps clients look into the future to understand how consumers will behave. After studying at Edinburgh University, she has led a number of successful creative consultancies.
What...
8 tags
The worst thing since crustless bread
By Chris Moody
I went shopping the other day. To Sainsbury’s, but that’s not important. As I ambled along the aisles I saw two things that made me question if what I do for a living is evil and a third that restored my faith in the power of brand and design. Let me tell you about them…
The first was in pride of place in the bread section – a little poly-wrapped loaf of...
Start your content engines
By Sam Wilson
This week, a few colleagues and I were able to spend time at FastCo’s Innovation Uncensored in NYC. Much of the discussion was focused on the disruption of almost every category by changes in media - here are a few of my key takeaways on what this all means for brand:
A smart content strategy has to start with brand purpose When there are a million things you could do to engage...
7 tags
Designing Democracy
By Tom Petty
Last week it was announced that gov.uk — the government’s new digital presence — was the winner of the Design Museum’s Design of the Year award, making it the first website to claim the prize.
Gov.uk (designed by the government digital service) aims to combine all the UK government’s websites into a single entity, the idea being to save public money and make vital services simpler...
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WO London looking for senior strategists
There’s no formula for game change
Can you be a ground-breaking thinker, doer, leader and influencer day after day?
We’re a highly ambitious business determined to help clients across all sectors better address the challenges and opportunities presented by today’s turbulent world. We’re also one of the Sunday Times’ Top 100 Best Small Companies to work with.
We’re committed...
9 tags
The Quiet Leader
By Melissa Andrada
Rosa Parks. Bill Gates. Warren Buffett.
What do these three popular figures have in common? All three are introverts – quiet leaders who have had a tremendous impact on the world.
A quiet leader sounds like an oxymoron. However, Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts, would argue that quiet leaders have always existed – and often are more effective than...
5 tags
Has this generation missed the boat?
By Sairah Ashman
The results of the latest report from the Cranfield International Centre for Women leaders came out last week. You’d be forgiven for not noticing and it doesn’t really make for happy reading.
New FTSE board appointments have slowed and there are just 32 female executive directors of FTSE 250 companies, compared to 558 males. It is rather disappointing, but not at all...
Appleshift: Trope Scope
By Sami Mallis
Last week kinetic artists and researchers Carol MacGillivray and Bruno Mathez, collectively known as Trope Scope, popped into Wolff Olins London for our weekly Appleshift share. We had recently met with the duo at this year’s Kinetica Art fair where the group were exhibiting their three-dimensional audio-visual work “One, two, three…”. The work was a piece of their broader...
7 tags
We Enjoy IPL BUT Do We Love it?
By Zia Patel and IIM Lucknow
As a follower of the IPL since its infancy, I have seen it evolve into a colossal sporting event unlike any. Right now the entire nation and Indian diaspora are engulfed in this two-month long cricketing madness and it has something to offer to everyone. The newest edition of the IPL kicked off with a grand opening ceremony last week on 3rd April.
The IPL seemed...
9 tags
A Work of Art That Works In Life
Here’s a film we just made about Little Sun - a work of art that works in life by bringing light to millions of people living without electricity.
Little Sun taps into the most abundant raw material in fast growth economies: the power of creative optimism. It is a raw material we think all brands need to learn to take advantage of.
We hope you can feel just a little of it in this clip.
Little...
14 tags
What makes you special?
By Melissa Andrada
You’re an entrepreneur. You’ve identified a gap in the market and come up with a product with huge potential for growth. The problem? You’re not the only one.
If everyone is trying to solve the same problem, then what’s going to make you stand out and be different? This is a tricky question for startups to answer, as you do not have the same history and heritage to draw from...
9 tags
Digital Native
By Olivia Sudjic
‘The Digital Age’ is an immersive, seamless experience so pervasive that terms like ‘the Internet of Things’ are not at all silly - but trying to think critically about it - without resorting to its proprietary tools for thought - can feel like looking at an image in the mirror. Will ‘digital natives’ become better equipped to do this, or do they lack the perspective...
2 tags
Account Manager, London
Game change is at the heart of Wolff Olins’ work and our account management team is vital to making that change happen for clients.
We’re looking for an experienced (5+ years) Account Manager who is at the top of their game in their current role but looking for the kind of challenge that Wolff Olins will deliver.
We need someone who thrives on intellectual challenge. Someone who has the potential...
9 tags
As the skies crowd above India, what’s the secret...
By Zia Patel
In a timely manner
Indigo’s success can be attributed to its single-minded focus on service – unquestionably, this is the key strength of its brand.
Planes leave and arrive on time. Such reliability makes Indigo the dependable option for business travellers, something that is absolutely essential when managing a busy schedule that requires city-hopping across a country as vast as...
We're looking for a midweight designer developer...
We’re looking for a super-creative designer developer. You’ll need to be a brilliant conceptual thinker with a great eye for design. Happy to generate and contribute ideas at the early stage of the creative process, comfortable thinking about the bigger picture, and shaping the digital outcome rather than waiting for a prescriptive brief. A confident thinker, able to communicate your...
7 tags
A forum for the future
By Olivia Sudjic
Forum for the Future came to our London office on Wednesday - providing a lunchtime opportunity to pick outside brains and talk to us about further ways to develop Wolff Olins’ role in creating sustainable social impact.
They are an independent non-profit working globally with businesses, governments, and many others, to enable the shift towards conscious, sustainable...
8 tags
A real brand for real people
By Sagarika Sundaram
How many Indian companies devote a whole person to brand and culture? Kassia Karr, who up until now has been an Internet friend, handles both at Bhane, a new entrant in India’s online retail scene. Based in Delhi, Bhane is a little company that sits within a much larger one. Founder Anand Ahuja and his team of 14 operate the business out of one section in a massive...
2 tags
Account Director, London
Game change is at the heart of Wolff Olins’ work and our account management team is vital to making that change happen for clients.
We’re looking for an experienced (10+ years) Account Director who is at the top of their game in their current role but looking for the kind of challenge that Wolff Olins will deliver.
We need someone who thrives on intellectual challenge. Someone who can inspire...
March 2013
22 posts
12 tags
Brand: What’s missing from your startup strategy
By Sam Wilson
Another acquisition, another day: early this week, Yahoo snatched up Summly, a mobile product startup. Since falling under the leadership of Marissa Mayer, the struggling Internet giant has been making aggressive moves to bring in killer talent and innovation by acquiring the rising star startups. But in a world where every three out of four startups fail, how can new companies...
11 tags
Brand your body
By Amy Lee
Atkins, Hollywood, South Beach, Master Cleanse, Zone, Dukan. Over the last decade there’s been a proliferation of diets with capital letters. Celebrity diet setters who claim to have the key to skinny nirvana. Pseudo medical insights that rationalize bizarre eating habits. And merchandise to follow.
We’ve become accustomed to branded diets advocating that we only put certain things in...
9 tags
Yahoo + Summly
By Sam Wilson
Yahoo has just bought Summly, the mobile news reader app founded by 17-year-old British entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio. D’Aloisio is a programming whiz who wasn’t even born when Yahoo was founded in 1994.
His free app launched last year, designed to summarized top headlines for quick, mobile reading, allowing its users to browse headlines along with concise...
4 tags
Appleshift: Armoury
By Sami Mallis
Last week Wolff Olins London were excited to welcome founders of Armoury London Clare Gibson and Jack Laurance to speak at our weekly Appleshift share. Since July 2011, the production company have built an impressive roster of clients including the BBC, Skype and Reebok.
Jack’s previous role as a brand agency design director and Clare’s interest and experience in documentary film...
1 tag
@Twitter turns 7... what's next by 10?
by Melissa Scott
Seven years ago the first tweet was sent out by @jack. Today, Twitter has 200 million active users and 400 million tweets daily, transforming not only the way the world communicates but giving a voice to millions globally—to use for fun, for political change, to build movements, to save lives and to inspire. We’ve started a list of seven big Twitter moments and pose the...
5 tags
#kittencamp
By Sam Liebeskind
Last night, a few of us had the pleasure of attending NYC’s first #kittencamp, a rap-battle-inspired showcase of ‘viral awesomeness’ that pitted four ad-industry strategists and their favorite YouTube videos against one another.
While I had no clue what I was getting myself into at first, I’m now sort of wishing these things happened more often.
Here are some highlights from...
6 tags
BTW from Wolff Olins
Earlier this month, we launched BTW, a monthly roundup of our best thinking on brand, business, technology and positive impact. Check out the archive of our March issue.
If that sounds good to you, you can sign up for updates at http://wolffolins.com/subscribe. Enjoy!
5 tags
Don’t change game?
1
Think about your business. How many of these boxes can you check off?
[ ] everything’s working well in our marketplace, and customer needs are being fully met
[ ] we have a fair share of the market, we’re growing steadily, and there’s plenty of room for innovation and expansion in the years ahead
[ ] our industry is doing well, growing healthily, and is admired by society,...
4 tags
Goodbye Reader
By James Kape
Yesterday morning, I was met with a rather depressing message during my reading routine. “On July 1st, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.” Behind the decision, apparently, is Google Reader’s steady decline in users and Google’s bigger aspiration to focus on perfecting fewer products as a company.
The news caused momentary panic, but it soon changed to excitement...
7 tags
Open Source Branding
By Mary Ellen Muckerman
The night before Mobile World Congress 2013 kicked off, Mozilla invited 17 of its partners onto the stage with them to announce more details about Firefox OS, Mozilla’s open mobile operating system. The crowded podium certainly represented a global vote of support in making their new web platform a success. And these are just a handful of many great collaborations that...
3 tags
Head of Business Development (New York)
The New York Head of Business Development will be bright, creative, quick on their feet and recognized as a strategic leader in branding. This role will be focused heavily on new business but it is not your typical sales job. In fact, our ideal fit is likely to be a strategy or account director who will naturally jump into business development as a door opener and relationship builder.
The right...
3 tags
3 Internships in San Francisco
We’ve just posted openings for 3 summer internships in our San Francisco office. Check them out and get in touch if this sounds like you.
Design Intern
Strategy/Account Management Hybrid Intern
Marketing/ New Business Hybrid Intern
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Design Summer Internship @WolffOlins San Francisco
About the internship:
We’re looking for two crazy, innovative, digital savvy Design interns. You will work with our team in San Fran.
There are no “junior” designers at Wolff Olins. Even our interns require a certain instinct and raw skill from the start. The work we aim to deliver is bold, ambitious and different. The primary role for the designer is to explore. This is the creative...
4 tags
Strategy/Account Hybrid Summer Internship...
About the internship:
We’re looking for a kick-ass strategy/account management intern to work with our teams in San Francisco and New York. You’ll work on a range of internal and client projects, experiencing firsthand how brands are created and evolved. This internship is based in San Francisco. You’ll get to:
Research into clients worlds and their competitors
Look at macro trends
Work with...
6 tags
Have you seen this warrior?
Our friends at the Asian Art Museum just launched an awesomely unique guerrilla marketing campaign around their new show (antiquities from China’s famous Xian Terracotta Army). Brandchannel called it “one of the more memorable, unconventional recent attempts by a museum to promote an exhibition.”
Such a creative (and likely affordable) way to promote what they’re loving at...
8 tags
Doing well
By Robert Jones
Turn on the radio in the morning, and one company or another is getting it in the neck. Amazon for allegedly not paying taxes. Barclays for bonuses. Last week, it was British Gas for pushing up prices.
If businesses increasingly need to create social value as well as commercial value (if only to keep Radio 4 off their back), what’s the role of brand in this?
We know brands in...
7 tags
Culture, truth and beauty
By Sairah Ashman
I recently wrote about how culture can pretty much drive or derail your strategy. Acknowledging what kind of culture you have is an essential part of understanding how to achieve your goals. Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones wrote a great book back in 1998 called ‘The character of a corporation’ – I have a yellow dog-eared copy on my desk. Despite the Mad Men era title, it opens...
4 tags
Go outside and play
Yesterday I took a field trip to the Barnard Park Adventure Playground…the best thinking often happens outside of the office.
”Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport.” - Robert Wieder
Melissa Andrada is a strategist at Wolff Olins London.
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Summer Internships at Wolff Olins NY & SF
We’ve posted four openings for summer interns. Check them out below.
Account Management Internship
Strategy Internship
Design Internship
Marketing Internship
Or visit our website to learn more about Who We Are.
4 tags
Marketing Internship at Wolff Olins New York
About the Internship:
We’re looking for an enthusiastic marketing intern to join the Wolff Olins marketing team in New York City. Working closely with the content and PR managers, you’ll work on a range of company projects, gain a strong grasp of the elements of marketing communications and the ways Wolff Olins shares and showcases its work, thinking and people.
You’ll get to...
9 tags
Brand is the Effect of What You Do - Not the Cause
By Wolff Olins CEO Karl Heiselman and Head of New Thinking Robert Jones. This piece was originally published on the LinkedIn Influencer community.
Brand is dead.
Brand is alive.
Brand is, as never before, design.
Why do we say this?
There’s now a widespread belief that talking about brand in the conventional sense slows everything down, and that all those brand strategies, brand models, brand...
10 tags
I wish I did that...
By Mads Jakob Poulsen
As a creative, and a senior designer here at Wolff Olins, I am a big fan of ideas. Good ones, new ones, sweet and fun ones.
Here are six of the latest ideas that have struck me, visually, emotionally, or conceptually.
1. The bicycle airbag
We all know it, we should wear helmets when riding a bike.
I had one as a kid, I wore one when I worked as a bike messenger in...
4 tags
Culture still eats strategy every time
By Sairah Ashman
We’ve had the incredible privilege of working with many great businesses and brands over the years. And some outstanding leaders too. But not all of them have been successful. Or at least, not as successful as I imagined they would or should be.
When I explore why, I find myself returning to the question of culture. It’s obvious that a leadership team should invest time,...
February 2013
19 posts
8 tags
Michelle Obama + Nike
The ‘Let’s Move Active Schools’ brand launches today
The new ‘Let’s Move Active Schools’ brand just launched at an incredible event in Chicago. Over 6,500 kids, plus parents, teachers and inspirational public figures and athletes, will join Michelle Obama for a day of active fun on their feet. Wolff Olins is thrilled to have contributed to this important...
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Q+A with Astro Studios
By Harry Rosenbaum
Brett Lovelady and Jim Goodell of Astro Studios (the “multi-dimensional brand experience” creatives behind brilliant products like the Nike+ Fuelband) recently visited Wolff Olins New York to share some thoughts. I talked to them about their intriguing positions on the role of the designer and how a startup can build empathy.
Harry: First, you have awesome...
