The latest John Lewis TV commercial is the best ad I’ve seen for a long time. Click here to view it.

It’s an ad that’s uplifting, aspirational and rather sad. There’s also a strong, self confident brand message. Plus of course, it’s beautifully shot with a lovely soundtrack.

Quite an achievement. No wonder John Lewis is such a powerful and successful brand.

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I  was really surprised at the Kellogg's launch their new breakfast cereal Krave. The website describes it as:

'a crispy cereal shell made of oats, wheat and rice and devilish smooth chocolate hazlenut flavoured centre'

Should they really be launching another chocolate based cereal in this era of healthy eating and childhood obesity? Feels very anti-trend and not particularly innovative. I guess they can get away with it because it appears they're targeting young adults rather than young children. However, in reality because of the taste profile, I reckon that children will become the main consumers.

I'm sure that with enough marketing support it'll do ok. However it can't be good for the overall image of the brand and I don't think it's a positive move for Kellogg's.

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Check out this new website which takes a fresh and enlightened look at creativity in the workplace.

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Am unimpressed with the Liberal party  slogan - see above. It's too long and appears to be an amalgam of the other party slogans. Labour are promising us 'a future fair for all' and the Conservatives' are hoping for a 'year for change'. It only serves to reinforce the perception that the Liberals are a bit wishy washy. However, over the course of the election campaign will it really matter? Probably not. I don't think voters will make their decisions on the basis of a slogan.

The only slogan that had a real impact was Labour Isn't Working, by Saatchi and Saatchi for Thatcher's 1979 election which really put the agency on the map.



And of course, there's d:ream's 'things can only get better', which became the New Labour anthem in 1997. I wonder if Gordon wil revive it for this year's campaign?

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The Formula 1 Season is about to begin, with all eyes on the McClaren dream team of Hamilton and Button. And guess what, Santander is going to feature Button in their latest advertising. This offers another creative challenge. What will he do in the ads? Will he just stand around with nothing to say or do, as Hamilton did ? Will they appear together. Can't wait.

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I read recently that a number of big brands have signed up to a government initiative to reduce waste throughout the supply chain. Of course, reducing waste is not a new development, but being such powerful brands their actions are likely to have a bigger impact on our lives in 2010.

For example, Tesco is trialling plastic bottles for its spirits brands and lightweight glass for its wine range. Expect this to become the norm as other wine brands follow suit.

Other examples I’ve come across in the past year include:

Vapur:  a reusable waterbottle that can be flattened when empty. This feels like a step on from Evian’s crushable bottle which was launched over 10 years ago. There’s a lot of room for eco friendly packaging innovation in the drinks category so look out for similar developments.

KFC switching from cardboard boxes to paper bags early in 2009. Again massive scope for reduction of fast food packaging waste

Concentrated formats in detergents, for example Persil’s Small and Mighty.

So, watch out for more examples of crushable, recyclable, minimal and re- usable packaging in the year to come.

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In a previous post I talked previously about the importance of sustainability in defining future brand strategy and how important it was to get to grips with this topic

One brand that’s addressed this in a simple and powerful way is Kenco. What I like about this is the fact that they’ve focused their sustainability efforts on 2 strong initiatives which consumers can easily understand and relate to:
1.The refill pack resulting in 97% less weight in packaging
2. Clarity on their sourcing: 75% of their coffee comes from Rainforest Alliance Certified Farms

Neither of these initiatives is particularly new – refill packs and ‘ethical’ sourcing are used by many brands. However, what’s laudable is the marketing investment they’ve put behind them, particularly the Eco Refill pack which is used in tv advertising. (Nice Joanna Lumley voiceover, shame about the music). It demonstrates that this is not just tokenism. They’re committed to these initiative and see them as important.

 
Compare this with Gold Blend which still is trying to inspire us with its vacuous ‘Coffee at its Brightest' message. I'm sure Nescafe are undertaking a number of important sustainability initiatives. I just wish they'd talk about them a bit more.

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Last week I stayed at Yotel in Schiphol airport, Amsterdam. I arrived very late and needed to get a really early connection. As I  just wanted to get some kip, it was the ideal solution. It also meant I didn’t need to leave the airport.

Yotel was the invention of Simon Woodroffe, founder of Yo Sushi. It consists of really small rooms which you can buy in 4 hour blocks. Not exactly a conventional brand extension, but Woodroffe isn’t a very conventional guy.

The interior with its purple and red lighting, plastic moulded fittings  reminded  me of Virgin Upper Class – although apparently the designer worked on BA First Class cabins. For what I needed  it worked really well. Comfy bed, nice shower, lots of different plug connections and free wifi. All a bit cosy, but luckily I didn’t have much luggage.

Not sure they’d be successful beyond airports, but if you’re catching a very early flight, or simply need to kill time whilst waiting for a connection I’d definitely recommend them.

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