A bunch of Ideas, provocation, irreverence and news. Edition 1.
from
Helen Cale Serial Cupcake Baker
Rhian James Old China Hand!
Jessica Duncan The Little One
Julia Steele Mile Muncher
Dan Monteith Armchair Rugby Player
Ellie Nuss Cultural Junkie
Ben Brears NBA Prospect Michael Dye Could have been a footballer!
Keely Jackman The Ginger One
Lee Forster Fantasy Football King
Tony Charlton Valiant driving, coffee drinking, globe trotter
Rebecca Deere Lady Archer
Ben Harris Amateur Art Dealer
Peter Aldous Front Row Forward
Debs Stafford-Watson Permaculture Apprentice
Ruth Wood Amateur Knitter
Katie Wharton Crafty Candle Maker
Erika Lenzi Blogosphere Lover
Amanda Cragg Bird Lover Paul Durrant Spin King
Nick Adams BBQ Pro
Wendy Pearce Haberdasherer
Kate Brown Ballerina
Jamie Saunderson Compulsive exaggerator
Anne Kernahan Amateur Sleuth
No, we’re not being rude about our new people; we mean that all our new starters get their own personalised mugs, decorated with a self-portrait. And with thirty newbies swelling our ranks globally, that means thirty new mugs in our kitchen cupboards. Dan Monteith, our Client Services Director, is one of our new starters
Blair Triplett Ah, Mr Blair
Kingsley Lu History Geek
Bryn Berry Coloured Beard
Steph Oglesby Fancy Dress Maker
Sam Gill PADI Divemaster
Marilyn Tjitra Frugalista
Dan’s strong advertising background includes consulting work for VW, Audi, P&G, Bosch and Flymo, plus a few years working on Husqvana in Sweden, where he also helped establish an ad agency’s consumer division. Before this, he worked at London ad agencies including Lowe and St. Luke’s, on clients such as Stella Artois, Whitbread and the BBC World Service.
Brittany Mesolella Coupon Enthusiast
Polly Sands Polka Dot Queen
Right now, Dan’s hard at work on a piece of global FMCG business, so he’s spending a lot of time in Tokyo and wrestling with the rudiments of Japanese. His weekends are as full as his working week, starting with Friday night curry, then Saturday Morning Kitchen, and finishing with a spot of Sunday rugby.
The science of sense Sentic triggers generate emotion and action by bypassing the conscious part of our brains. If you see any kind of relationship between two shapes, be it protective, caring or love, you’ve just experienced a sentic trigger.
With so many brands demanding consumers’ attention, sensory triggers can help make a connection quickly. Elmwood’s Simon Preece looks at the theory, and how the practice worked for Andrex. Products like toilet paper and cleaning products are selected within three seconds or less. So how can brands like Andrex make a meaningful connection in such a short space of time? Part of the answer, we believe, lies in the use of sentic triggers, sensory cues that affect our subconscious.
Sentic triggers occur widely in nature. Cusp shapes signal fear and caution. You don’t need to be told that a thorn is sharp or a shark fin means ‘Get out of the water’ – it’s instinctive. On the other hand, there’s nothing threatening about a peach. Curves suggest softness, comfort and safety.
Eyes also trigger strong reactions – when someone looks at you, you look back at them to understand why. In nature, animals look at each other for one of four reasons: they want to fight, they want to feed, they fear or they fancy mating. Interesting stuff, especially when you start applying sentic triggers to brand design.
Designed for softness and strength We applied sentic triggers to Andrex’s packaging, using cusps to frame the brand mark and get attention. We emphasised curves in the typography, window shape and in the pack structure, and introduced a gentle colour vignette and a new soft feel substrate to enhance perceptions of softness and strength. The famous Andrex puppy played his part, attracting customers with a ‘buy me, take me home’ gaze. Where sentic triggers have informed the new pack design, this in turn has brought measurable results.
4% 17% +32% Sales increase of Andrex core range
Sales increase of Andrex premium range
Improvement in brand bonding
Design Effectiveness Awards Gold – Anchor Silver – Bob’s Bitters Silver – Make Mine a Builder’s Bronze – Carman’s
Graphic Design USA’s American Package Design Awards Walmart Canopy Elmwood Tin Can Mailer
Roses Creative Awards
Gold – People Can (Corporate Literature and writing) Silver – People Can (Identity) Finalist – Make Mine a Builder’s Xmas Cards
Design Week Awards
Cannes Design Lions
New York Festivals
Cream Awards, Yorkshire
Finalist – Hall & Rose
Finalist – People Can Finalist – Hall & Rose Finalist – The Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town
Pentawards
Gold – Ann Summers Rampant Rabbits Bronze – PZ Cussons Radiant
Fresh Awards Gold – People Can Silver – Royal Mail Bronze – NordStar
Silver – Wearhouse
Grand Prix – People Can People Can (Craft and Corporate Literature) Gressingham Nordstar Commendations: Make Mine a Builder’s (Direct Mail and Outdoor Advertising) Angus McDonald
Yorkshire Post Excellence In Business Awards Exporter of the Year
This was just one of the questions we posed at The World Retail Congress back in September. By way of provocation, we also asked who the next retail game changer, following on from Amazon, might be…
Store-walking is something we spend many working hours doing at Elmwood – from New York to London and from Singapore to Shanghai. It’s one way of keeping tabs on the latest and greatest in retail. But the fundamental truth is, if it’s already on the streets, it’s already yesterday’s idea. So what’s the next big thing? Thanks to communication technology, we live in an immediately transparent world. So if pioneers, such as Walmart founder, Sam Walton, were around today, how might they reinvent EDLP (everyday low price)? One way might be to cut out the middle-men – the store AND the warehouse – by selling product direct from the shipping container. Buying trips could be advertised online for anything from toys for Christmas to barbecues for spring, with buyers uploading live images of the products along with indicative selling prices direct to a customer base via the same site. Consumers could then purchase online, and then the container with the goods would be delivered to a nearby arena car park for pick-up. No shop, no warehouse, no colleagues. Just product
straight from the dock at the lowest cost. Maybe that’s what someone like Sam might do. If so, we have a great brand ready and waiting! And so to Amazon. If the online world is making it tough for traditional retailers, what might pose a threat to the Amazon business model? 3D printing is one thought. It wasn’t so long ago that we took our 35mm film to a high street store to get our photos printed. Today, many homes have their own colour printer hooked up to their home computer. The next big thing is to ‘print’ products in three dimensions – and 3D printing shops are already emerging. One day, you’ll have a 3D printer in your home. In fact, you can already buy one for around $2,000 US. Just like your colour printer, which prints four colours one colour at a time, so too does a 3D printer print one layer at a time.
All you need are the digital files of the object and a printer containing the relevant compounds. And here’s the scary news. In the summer of this year, the US Agricultural Agency received an application to fund the research into the printing of meat. Providing you have the right molecular compounds in the printer, you can theoretically print anything. Maybe even your Sunday Roast. 3D printing may well put a hole in the Amazon model in the same way Amazon put a hole in the high street. This is an extract from a presentation given by Elmwood at the World Retail Congress in September, 2012. If you’d like to see a full copy of this paper, please contact Emma at emma.stapleton@elmwood.com 3D printed sculpture by Joshua Harker
Melbourne: The Lui Bar
Leeds: Friends of Ham
New York: Little Italy
Located on the epic 55th floor of the iconic Rialto building, this bar’s a real stunner. Floor to ceiling glass shows off a view that tourists used to pay for (up until 2009 it was the site of the Melbourne Observation Deck) and there’s an array of decadent chaise longues to kick back on. A tall list of tipples and exquisite nibbles tell a distinctly Australian story – from high-end ham and cheese toasties to Sherry Cobblers – giving a delightful charm to this special little bar in the sky.
It doesn’t look much from the outside, but this bar-cum-eatery is a real little gem. Huge sheets of greaseproof paper adorn the walls, detailing the speciality cheese and meat on offer that night. A cured leg of pork, trotter and all, graces the bar, and behind that, beardy barmen jostle to pour artisan beers and serve giant platters groaning with cured hams and pots of sweet, spicy relish. It’s my kind of place. There’s even a wooden shuffleboard downstairs – perfect oldschool entertainment. www.friendsofham.com
This little Italian deli IS New York. Hell, Frank Sinatra used to go there. Inside is a typical old school deli counter, with the exception of an entire glorious wall that’s packed with morningbaked bread in all shapes and sizes. This place is famous for two things – borderline rude service and deliciously fresh MASSIVE Italian sandwiches. Back at the office, we put one on the postal scale for kicks – 2.6 lbs!!! We had a good laugh about it, but I realised something slightly troubling. I actually have finished one of these in a single sitting…
Natalie Woodhead
Tet Marti
www.vuedemonde.com.au/the-lui-bar
Harley Augustine
For more thought-provoking finds, check our Daily Pokes. These bring you some of the best creative ideas from around the world. Browse through our Poke archive and sign up at: www.elmwood.com/poke
www.parisibakery.com
www.elmwood.com