Reports: Latest

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Getting away from it all: the changing face of festival branding

A new generation of consumers is looking to escape the ubiquitous 'sponsored experience' that characterises many festivals. At the same time, brands are becoming more attuned to the needs and attitudes of festival-goers.

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New and booming: spending power in Canada

Canada's large immigrant population and economically powerful older generation present clear opportunities for brands. But the full potential represented by the changing face of the typical Canadian consumer has yet to be fully realised.

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Forever Now

How has nostalgia been affected by the digitisation of culture? People are using the internet to focus on curating their own histories, viewing every moment as ripe for potential documentation and attempting to create an online legacy.

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Samsung's semiotics across three continents

This analysis of the semiotics of Samsung smartphone adverts from three different markets (India, the US and the UK) highlights some fascinating differences in how the same product can be marketed to disparate global audiences.

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Holiday identities

Much of the appeal of holidays lies in the fact that they present us with opportunities for being who we want to be for a short time, rather than who we feel we must be. This helps towards the creation of modern, faceted identities.

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Civic Brands

In a time of economic uncertainty, brands are trying to increase their cultural and civic clout. This report discusses the drivers behind the shift towards Civic Brands, and brings together recent case studies and statistics.

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Brands and their role in society

A surprising range of brands, both large and small, are addressing how they connect with and provide for customers and communities in more socially meaningful ways. This is changing notions around the role that brands occupy in society.

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Holding digital attention

Successful campaigns masterfully build anticipation before a launch, capitalise on buzz during the event, and find ways to extend and maintain communities afterwards, turning ephemeral moments into cultural totems. Those which don't, vanish.

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Inside Track

With the global network comes the prospect of inclusion for everyone, forcing both consumers and brands to find new means of acquiring and delivering an ‘insider’ status that can only exist when others remain outside.

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Japanese TV sends warning signal

Japanese broadcasters have been struggling for the last decade, as viewers turn to other media and advertisers reconsider their reliance on television. But what are the drivers of this decline, and what can be learnt from the industry’s mistakes?

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Global Mindset

A young, aspirational generation of westerners, reared on a diet of diversity, travel, globalisation and foreign food, are embracing a lifestyle with a global outlook that is in contrast to the more nationalist tendencies of their elders.

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Branding and consumer ethics

Corporate Social Responsibility is not a one-sided system; it requires consumers as well as brands to discover where their priorities lie in terms of values and ethics, and to help each other along in this process.

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Alternative Currency

A severe recessionary decline, coupled with the emergence of a networked knowledge economy, has caused society to reassess notions of wealth and luxury. No longer satisfied with traditional monetary values, people are hacking the system.

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The rise of the 'swoftie'

Single women in their fifties are defying stereotypes by travelling, dating and starting their own businesses. This presents opportunities for products, services and brands ready to tap into the demographic's new-found sense of adventure.

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Identity Games

Online, switching between multiple seemingly inconsistent personas is an acceptable and authentic expression of the self. These multiple identities can be used as a means of engaging others directly, or maintaining an air of mystery.

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Fluency: a new psychological tool

The concept of 'fluency' describes the ease or difficulty with which people make sense of information such as advertising messages. The idea has long been familiar to academics, but it has the potential to be a powerful business tool.

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Almost famous

While the media continues to proliferate and decry 'celebrity culture' in equal measure, technological development has made the social dynamic more complex, and the lines between star and fan are becoming almost indistinguishable.

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Truth in pictures

Images can have an extraordinarily powerful, long-lasting impact. A dramatic example of this is a recent advertising campaign in New York, which virtually shamed consumers into eating and drinking more healthily.

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Brand Me

At its most basic, having a digital presence is a necessary precondition for inclusion in the economy. A well-managed personal brand can elicit authority and influence over others; and people are beginning to understand this and capitalise upon it.

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Living the Dream

A subtle, widespread fantasy is taking place which, suffused with the hopes and dreams of an emerging generation, is becoming increasingly intoxicating as it comes ever closer to reality. This is the phenomenon of Living the Dream.