Janet Giampietro :: Gblog

Get Involved :: Win the Future

The tongue-in-cheek post below was written after the State of the Union – on the verge of the many North African (and beyond) revolutions. I set it aside as current events unfolded. I think it’s worth a look in retrospect, and as President Obama recently announced his re-election campaign.

Team Obama is once again deep-diving in social media and laying the foundation for the Obama community. There’s no sign of the slogan, Winning the Future, beyond reference to the budget. For the bare bones merch, the campaign slogan is TBD. The Huffington Post broke the complete launch story. Catch up here. In the meantime, enjoy my take on past events. (more…)

“Words, words, words.” Not meaningless, as Hamlet implies.

President Obama’s recent State of the Union (SOTU) address set many publications and bloggers into an infographic frenzy. Examining words and patterns is one revealing way to look at relationships between language, political branding, social patterns, and trend-spotting. Informative pictures emerge.

Two exemplary interactive sites provide a wealth of words as a basis for analyses. They are wonderful in design and simplicity of use, and deliver an abundance of information that could only be possible so quickly via tech innovation and open resources.

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Can the NYC subway map ever satisfy everyone?

In a few weeks, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will unveil a revamped version of the NYC subway map. The MTA is positioning the map as “a resized, recolored and simplified edition of the well-known map, its first overhaul in more than a decade.”

The last time the subway map generated this much chatter: the famous, or infamous Vignelli design. The highly stylized, abstract version had some designers kvelling and most civilians yelling. Architectural critic Paul Goldberger described the map as “a stunningly handsome abstraction” that “bears little relation to the city itself.” But it’s an informational interpretation of a system… (more…)

With Earth Day celebrating its 40th anniversary today, I wanted to take a look at its origins. We tend to think of branding as a modern concept, but while the term may not have been in use in 1970, its concept was firmly in place. From its inception, Earth Day was perceived as an actionable commitment to improving the environment with a legion of loyal followers.

The Birth (edited from Wikipedia)

Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin announced his idea for a nationwide teach-in day on the environment in a speech to a fledgling conservation group in Seattle in September 1969.

On 22 April 1970, Earth Day marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Approximately 20 million Americans participated. Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. That was the remarkable thing about it. Earth Day organized itself. [Precursor to social media, perhaps?]

The first mark

Artist and designer Ron Cobb created an ecology symbol which was a combination of the initial letters “E” and “O” from the words environment and organism. Cobb published it on 25 October 25 1969, placing the symbol in the public domain. Look Magazine took the theta/ecology symbol and incorporated it into a flag for their 21 April 1970 issue.

Symbolically, the lore goes: The flag is patterned after the US flag using 13 alternating green and white stripes representing the 13 original colonies. The yellow theta symbol in its historical use, is a warning symbol. The color green became synonymous with the land and environmental action, while the theta symbol would be an important visual foundation.

The Brand

With Cobb’s symbol adapted into the Ecology Flag, the groundwork for the future global brand was set in place. From the 1970 Earth Week logo to the current 40th anniversary version, the visual elements that would play a part in Earth Day’s continuing evolution are clear in the design progression and adaptive forms: the crossbar from the theta, carried through the wavy horizon and back to the current “e.”

The engagement and emotional attachment to these symbols continues to surge. Add in the availability of websites and global social media, and the Earth Day brand is functioning at fever pitch.

Many argue that Earth Day has gone the way of Christmas or Halloween in its commercialism (Earth Day merchandise developed early with handmade pins and posters used to spread the word) – that its meaning and purpose is diluted or even forgotten within the crowd mentality. I think the message gets through to some. And on a global scale, some is a large number.

Images: The ecology flag is in the public domain. / Official 1970 Earth Week logo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. No attribution found. / Earth Day 2010 logo © Earth Day Network.

Earth Day illustration on website home © 2010 Janet Giampietro

Humanistic, meaningful, distinctive – different: Harvard Business School professor Youngme Moon recently released her new book, DIFFERENT: Escaping the Competitive Herd.

I’m her target audience. As someone who trudges through as few business books as possible (most seem choppy and predictably written, and with lots of reconstituted ideas ~ all code for boring), DIFFERENT was, different.

The title is the book’s theme. Ms Moon builds her case for DIFFERENT, around a few basic ideas:

• Homogeneity gets disguised as betterment, in actuality, sameness rules.
• Current business models are ubiquitous ~ so much so that we tune them out.
• Brand loyalty has become brand sampling.

Moon encourages us to set aside weaknesses – instead, turn strengths into differentiation. She talks about differentiation, not as a marketing tool, but as a mindset. Similar to a design thinking state of mind.

I found DIFFERENT refreshing, humorous, surprisingly open-ended and most of all unique. And that’s not easy these days. Ms Moon achieves this feat not only by what she is saying, but through a combination of her distinct “voice, storytelling ability, wit, and insight.” That’s how the PR tells it, and it’s actually spot on.

Perhaps the future of successful marketing is not about competition, but differentiation and coexistence.

The book has been criticized as the same-same wrapped up in beautiful package. Agree or not with Moon’s message and approach, the book is a good read. Pick up a copy. Let me know what you decide.

As a practice-what-she-preaches approach, Ms Moon employed an interesting direction and tone to her marketing efforts.