Branding
MapQuest finally gets some direction
Mapquest was one of the early originators of online mapping but the brand and it’s site have been dormant for a very long time. They are trying to change all of that and close the gap on Google by making a comeback with a new site and some new branding.
New branding – It’s a logo, it’s an equation, it’s a character?
Let’s start by taking a look at their new logo / icon which is a departure from the old color palette and design with the addition to a new logo mark. When I saw the new logo for the first time I honestly thought it looked like M to the power of Q. I know other people either simply see the letters M and Q or get far more creative and see the letters forming a dog or elephant like character with the Q as the head of the animal. I can see how you could all of those interpretations but I keep debating with myself how I feel about the logo. On the one hand it is unique and I can’t think of another logo where you are able to see it so many different ways but I’m not convinced all that interpretation leads to a lasting or positive brand impression. MapQuest is trying to embrace all as these different forms as they acknowledge and explain them all in their new brand video but I think their explanations go too far into overreaching marketing speak trying to give every form meaning that relates to the site. If the three it would seem that the brand may be favoring the creature interpretation because on the new site the logo can be seen tapping its feet while content loads.
MapQuest.com – Differentiated or redecorated?
Google Maps
For me a new logo is nice but the real question is what are they doing on the new MapQuest.com that is going to differentiate the site and pull it ahead of Google Maps? I started in the obvious place by pulling up both sites and searching for the same address to do a side-by-side comparison. It was a bit of a disappointment when after all the build up I couldn’t really find any significant differences. I went down the list of features on both sites. Zoomable map – check. Street views – check. Live traffic – check. Search nearby – check. While MapQuest had a slightly cleaner design with more modern interface buttons the only real difference I could find took a page from a few popular iPhone apps and added an icon bar where you can quickly display restaurants, parks, movie theaters, etc. near your chosen location. They have also gone those basic markers to ass time sensitive content like ‘July 4th events’ and paid branded content from companies like Holiday Inn so you can find the nearest hotel.
It was only after I did some digging that I did find one interesting feature on the site. You can plan your trip online and save the results to the My Maps section and then either customize the map with your own information or pull up the route you want to take on your iPhone through their application. It’s a useful feature I would probably use when I travel because I don’t always 100% trust my car’s navigation system. The problem is that I NEVER saw one mention of this feature anywhere on the site outside of an extremely short mention of it in their new brand video. This is a huge miss for a brand trying to create some differentiation from a competitors who has a huge market share over them.
So when I look at this re-launch as whole I don’t see how they are going to gain any ground on Google. Using language like ‘started designing with a blank canvas’ sound promising but then you need to deliver something that is truly breakthrough and takes advantage of an opportunity like that and doesn’t have that canvas look more like a xerox than an a new original work of art.
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KAWS at The Aldrich
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is a plain, modern building that sits back off a quite part of Main Street in Ridgefield Connecticut about 50 minutes outside of New York City. You could drive right by it and not even notice it but this little museum has played a major role in launching the careers of some of the world’s greatest modern artists. Yesterday the museum hosted the opening for the first solo museum exhibition of Brooklyn-based artist and designer Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS who is tied with Takashi Murakami for my favorite living modern artist. But to be honest the edge probably goes to KAWS since I became a fan of his work really early on and I have followed and collected it for the past 15 years.
A brief background for those who may have never heard of him – KAWS started as a graffiti artist in Jersey City which is right across the river from NYC. He got his hands on a tool for opening bus shelter advertisement boxes and he used the posters as a platform for his work where he would take them, add an inflated skull with crossed bones and X-ed-out eyes (called Companion) and then replace the poster back in the bus shelter. From there the Companion grew into more characters and those grew into a line of toys, apparel, graphic designs and high end art and sculpture. This piece on CBS Sunday Morning or his interview in last months Interview Magazine tell his story better than I can.
I love his work because, like so many of my other inspirations, his creative process gives him the freedom to play with his iconic style and brand in a few different ways. There are times when he works as an artist who creates completely original work like the Companion character which I have always loved since it was born in a co-op take over of commercial advertising.. He will then take his style and overlay it on famous brands like The Simpsons to create the Kimpsons which is a twisted version of the famous characters with his iconic X-ed-out eyes and Companion skulls. Then he will work with artists like Hajime Sorayama will overlay his unique style on top of KAWS Companion to create the No Future Companion. It is this play between the original and co-oped that has kept me interested in his work all this time and it’s great to see the work get this kind of recognition. The show is going to be up through the end of the year so if you are anywhere near NYC between now and then I highly recommend checking it out.
There are also some great photos of the show on Highsnobiety.com including #23 and #24 where you can see yours truly waiting for KAWS and Monica, the curator of the museum to finish their press interviews.
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Dodge Loses its Horns but Gains Some Stripes
Three months after taking legal action against the logo for the Lake Mary High School Ram’s in Seminole County Florida Dodge, under the direction of their new owners Fiat, has split their brand in two. The Dodge brand kept the name but changed their logo to completely lose their iconic ram logo in favor of a more generic, chromed out type treatment. The ram logo is now a new brand simply known as Ram that will be used on their heavy duty truck portfolio.
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Dodge recalls their logo. Sort of…
I certainly understand protecting your brand, your logo and your image but in this case attorneys for Chrysler aren’t going after another car brand but Lake Mary High School in Seminole County Florida. The Lake Mary Ram’s logo is an exact lift of the Dodge Ram logo and are insisting that the school spend tens of thousands of dollars to phase out the logo from everything from the gym floor to school stationary. So the question is should be take this hard line even with a case like this where the offender isn’t even using it for commercial gains or is this the right call to protect their brand?
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Domino’s Turnaround builds up then destroys their pizza and brand
By now you have probably seen the new Domino’s Pizza campaign from Crispin Porter called The Pizza Turnaround where Domino’s monitored consumer comments about the brand on social media channels and according to this feedback they created new pizza recipes. Crispin did a great job with the TV spots and a slightly longer form documentary because it makes you want to give Dominos another chance. My wife who is a serious foodie even turned to me on the couch the other night after one of the spots aired and said ‘I always hated Dominos but after that I would give them another chance.’ The advertising did everything you could have asked of it because it changed people’s opinions and created an intent for them to act on it. Pop the champaign, make room on the trophy wall and tell the client to increase the advertising budget because we have a winner… or do we?
I went to the campaign site today to dig around a little more before I wrote this post about how successful the campaign has been when that feeling and my intent to actually try the new Domino’s came crashing down around me. On PizzaTurnaround.com you find the previously mentioned documentary, one news story and a Twitter feed that displays tweets with the tag #newpizza running down the right hand column. As you start to read down the column you quickly see that people’s love seemingly only extends to the campaign as I did not see one positive comment from anyone who actually tried the pizza. The first four found Tweets I read were “Tried the new Dominos pizza….. In my mind, collossal fail.”, “Meh it was ok…”, “im not feeling the new crust. i miss the old dominos.” and “not so great. Since when did “add more garlic/butter” = make things better?! Blech.”. That noise you hear is my intent to try the new product exiting stage left.
Using social media to give brand transparency to consumers can be a powerful tool but it has be used carefully and thought out to work correctly. In this case you are asking consumers to give your brand another chance and your advertising delivers that intent but it is a tenuous opportunity. From the time when you create that intent until the time when it gets paid off you can’t have any bumps in the road because the bond to the brand isn’t that strong yet. These Tweets are big bumps that are going to break that bond and kill the opportunity. I don’t know why this site didn’t take it’s cues from the video it was supposed to support and MAKE IT A TWO WAY DIALOG! Your video said you were listening to consumers and you were responding so why did that stop once the campaign launched? It makes the video feel like just an advertising stunt and that the brand really isn’t listening. You have a chance here to be transparent and let people post their thoughts BUT Domino’s has to be part of the conversation. They have to address these comments and not let them destroy what they are trying to build. It is the only way this is going to go from a quick fix to a real long term solution that will restore their business.
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Art Directors Club new logo minus the art direction
After nearly 90 years of service to the creative community the Art Directors Club has decided to re-design their iconic logo designed by Paula Scher around 2005 which was an update of Albrecht Dürer’s mark that the ADC had been using almost since its inception.
I have to be honest that the new logo leaves me flat and uninspired and I echo the views of Armin over at Brand New in his assessment of the new logo when he said “The biggest problem I have with the new logo is that it really doesn’t do much. I understand the direction to go with an all-type solution and as an advocate of all-type solutions I don’t complain about that aspect, but why so dull? Why just Franklin Gothic tightly letterspaced? One thing is to “embrace our origins and heritage” but it’s another to ignore and disregard the present or even the future and not offer a new kind of visual language for a new century. For an organization that clearly has its own unique, edgy voice and is well respected in the industry, they surely had an opportunity to create something that reflected that same attitude that they have applied to their annuals and competitions. Dressing it in magenta is unfortunately not enough.”
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Verizon iDon’t play nice with Apple
Looks like Verizon is finally fed up with Apple’s continued iPhone exclusivity with AT&T and has decided to do something about it with a new phone called Droid and a new campaign called “iDon’t” that takes the biggest swing yet at the iPhone. The visual design of the campaign clearly mimics Apple’s typography and music style while the content uses copy like “iDon’t have have a real keyboard, iDon’t run simultaneous apps, iDon’t take 5-megapixel pictures, iDon’t customize, iDon’t run widgets, iDon’t allow open development…” to get their point across. If you are going to poke he bear you better have the goods and early tests with the phone has generated some really good press but can good performance generate the same kind of breakthrough appeal and sales that happened with the launch of the iPhone?
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Estee Lauder gives women a social media close up
Estee Lauder is the latest brand to tie their product to the wide spread adoption of social media. Starting next week they will be offering free makeovers and photo shoots at its department store cosmetics counters coast-to-coast to produce photos women can use for their online profiles, blog or Web site. You will also see in the fine print that they understand the power of the medium and the potential exposure as you can get your photo done with no purchase required. I still think creating these types of assets for consumers to use in social media is really smart as it gives not only a lasting brand presence but puts their branding into a context thats feels much more personal than any ad ever could. It will be interesting to see if we all starting seeing these photos in our friends lists as quickly as saw the Mad Men Myself creations appear.
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London Calling (For designers)
I have seen tons of brands that have lost their way and identity as they have hung on more and and more logos under the corporate umbrella but I can’t happening to a city. With the Olympics right around the corner London is trying to clarify their identity and have put out a substantial RFP to create a unified brand for London, set the direction for London after 2012 and develop an international promotion into a powerful policy mechanism. I can’t say I blame them going through a process like this after seeing the PR nightmare that created after the reveal of the disjointed 2010 Olympics logo. If you are feeling like your brand jung fu is strong you can request an invitation to tender a submission here. The firm Moving Brands has already publicly said that they will be submitting a response and they have taken the interesting step of make their process open to and informed by public opinion at their blog called A Brand For London. The blog has only been live for 3 days and they already have 3 pages of posts so it will be interesting to watch and see how the work evolves and is influenced by the comments left on the blog.
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myspace – not friendly any more
I noticed today that flagging social media pioneer MySpace.com has tweaked their branding to remove the “.com” and “a place for friends” from their logo. The site ha been under siege from all angles. They have had huge employee layoffs that Fast Company called “the largest de-friending in its history” laying off 30% of its U.S. workforce and two-thirds of its international employees a week later. They have seen Facebook surpass them in global unique visitors on top of declining marketing spends and millions of pissed off users. I will once again repeat my thought of only once post ago and say that you are not going to to be able to re-invent your business by re-inventing your logo.
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