Tocquigny

In the past few years, thanks mostly to the influence of the Internet, stereotypes regarding any and all things “branding” have come under scrutiny. Many of the ideas regarding what makes for a good brand and how it’s maintained – ideas that were foundational within the advertising industry – are now crumbling.

It doesn’t seem so terribly long ago that we all thought of a “brand” as an ideology solely created by an entity as an ideal reflection of itself, with the purpose of conveying that ideology to a given audience. A successful brand didn’t change or fluctuate. It was the suit of armor that every company wore, a steadfast and true identity.

Of course, the Internet – especially social media – changed all that. So did the fact that we now have so many new mediums (smartphones, tablets, viral videos, etc.) upon which brand messages can play themselves out.

In essence, those of us in the advertising business now have to grapple with the reality that a brand is really a much more organic thing, shaped through the living conversation that occurs between an entity and its audience, as well as through the medium in which the conversation takes place.

I mention all this because I recently came across the new logo design for the TBS cable network and automatically saw it as a particularly brilliant and concise demonstration (as all good logos should be) not just of how TBS wants the world to perceive them, but of how a brand really functions today .

TBS 2011 Network Rebrand from ferroconcrete on Vimeo.

How fun is it to watch it dance around and morph to purpose, acting and reacting as if it’s part of a conversation rather than a steadfast idea? It begs the audience to interact with it and influence its next move. Don’t you want to take TBS home with you and make it part of your family?

Welcome to branding 2011. Welcome to the conversation.

Social. Mobile. Video. CRM. APIs. Experiential.

No one word better defines 2011 for brands and marketers than convergence. Technologies and consumer behaviors have encouraged the fusion of content, channels and interactivity – allowing for the execution of more integrated immersive brand experiences.

We’ve been fusing interaction and storytelling mediums for quite some time now, but one recent project truly defines convergence.

“At The Moment” was an interactive video installation unveiled during the 2010 Teradata PARTNERS Conference at the San Diego Convention Center. Featuring 52 LED monitors and three 77” LCD panels, it exemplified the concept of “The Socialization of Data” and used a dynamic visualization of non-traditional data to help attendees follow the action at the conference. Mobile phone signals were used to track attendees’ whereabouts and dwell times at various locations. Heat maps of attendees’ locations showed exactly where the action was at any time. The wall also showed real-time data from 25 unique multi-form sources, including YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, stock market indices, polling results and crowdsourced points of interest, such as the geographic representations of registrants’ home cities. Attendees could also interact with the wall by utilizing the custom PARTNERSmobile app on their smartphones.

You can experience the convergence without a plane ticket by visiting the virtual At The Moment installation here.

OK Go is teaming up with the new Range Rover Evoque and their Pulse of the City app to create a gigantic “OK Go” sign over their hometown of Los Angeles on November 17th. OK Go will be using the app’s GPS technology to create the artwork during this “psycho-spatial, geo-musical, techno-sonic parade party” (an 8-mile street parade through L.A.).

OK Go is also encouraging their fans to download the app to create inspiring artwork across their own city and send it in for the chance to be in an exclusive video with them launching in January 2011.

Range Rover definitely picked one of the biggest and best viral YouTube  superstars to help gather user-generated content and promote the launch of the newest vehicle in their lineup. We all look forward to seeing if this will be another example of viral success.

Incredible documentary about the thought behind designs of toothbrushes, chairs, and countless other objects we use daily. This is only a trailer, but you can buy the movie here.

IDG, the world’s largest tech media company, came to us with a challenge: how do we communicate the breadth of services we offer to a multitude of diverse audiences across the globe?

Our solution: an action-packed 90-second brand film that drives home the fact that IDG is no longer only a magazine publisher, but the leader in the digital, event services, market intelligence, and social media spaces.

Combining 3D rendering, more than 250 multimedia assets, and a dynamic music track, we’re proud of the final product now traversing the world with the “who’s who” of tech executives.