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Whatever the drivers, wishful thinking, or sensible planning, there has been a recent shift in the focus of our work. Our marcoms projects in the last six months have been dominated by recessionary realities, but recent briefs are more forward looking. More of our current projects revolve around the post recession future – projecting shifts in consumer values, re-modeling brands to fit changed business realities or gearing up for future events like the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics. Is the tide finally turning?

If you have a marketing challenge then we can help understand > inspire > direct – so don’t hesitate to contact us with a question or a brief at matthew.carlton@xtremeinsight.net
 

New Icons – Defining The Post Recession Future 
 
  Radical change in the cultural landscape offers opportunities to develop new icons that tap into emerging desires, reflect social impact, challenge accepted thinking and define the future. When this slump finally ends we are likely to see such a period of change. We have worked on a project to map how a car client might make the most of this opportunity by launching a post recessionary icon (as the Mini did in the 1960s). Analysis of the rise of previous icons – from products to people – sees them summarise and simplify new values and perspectives emerging from accelerated periods of change by telling compelling stories through strong cultural roots and powerful visual clues. Which marketers will succeed in creating stand out post recession icon? Which new themes and paradigms will they draw on – perhaps ‘we not me’ or even ‘ecology and economy’? Or has the landscape shifted so far that the recession has brought an end to the era of the manufacturable/marketable brand icon?
 

Success – The Evolution Of Male Success
 
  Over recent decades brands have been defining and redefining what success means to men and we have recently analysed this evolution from both a cultural and an advertising perspective. Our project, supported by 1000s of executions, identifies, explores and maps the changing nature of male success. From the Greed is Good mantra of the 80s, we have seen a paradigm shift (and a splintering) of success values fostering a new age of
male holistic living and a search for something more. Recent events have seen the landscape shift again, and sees the arrival of Gentleman 3.0 – who combines characteristics driven by cutting edge technologies and post recession aspirations of choice, opportunity and time with more traditional chivalric and honour-led values. Attempts to connect with this new male model are building momentum, especially across alcohol brands, and it will be interesting to see this new man evolve and mature.
 

Readjusting Marcoms Models – From Big & Best To Small & Specialist
 
  Some marketers are emerging from the recession to find themselves promoting a very different business to the one they worked for a year or so ago. Big beasts used to leveraging size/scale/breadth/depth as key reasons to believe, have scaled back/cut down as entire business divisions have been axed. We have been analysing specialist financial brand marketing models of the recent past to provide fresh insights for a bank that once positioned itself as big and bold, but now finds itself in the unfamiliar position of being specialist and niche. An enforced switch from dominant, reliable generalist incumbent to specialist challenger brand pioneer involves fresh strategic and tactical approaches in every marketing area – from missions and philosophy, values and messages, architecture and tone, right through to media and, of course, the big umbrella communications idea itself. This is the post recession reality being faced by many marketers today and tomorrow.
 

Guarding Against Guerillas – Mass & Niche Sponsorship Strategies
 
  Official World Cup and Olympics sponsors are fine tuning their strategies and one key area of focus is how to combat guerilla activity. Attacks from unofficial competitors are now so sophisticated that sponsors can’t rely on official legislation and must plan to counter such threats. We’ve been helping an official sponsor understand what to expect and prepare for attack by analysing official vs guerilla battles in recent sports spaces. Traditionally the tone/approach of official sponsors has been staid formulaic, allowing idiosyncratic, innovative sponsors to exploit this weakness. It is vital today’s sponsors remain open and flexible to reactive to event twists and stories as they unfold. Who can forget Nike lightening fast print ad response that turned Liu Xiang’s event failure into a marketing success? One way to do this is to develop twin-track mass and niche strategies for their sponsorship work. This will squeeze the space that guerillas work in.
 
 

NewTube – London Underground ads go digital
 
  Anthropologist Marc Auge says tube stations are transient "non-places": ambivalent spaces with no sense of belonging or social interaction. But is this paradigm shifting? London Underground is becoming a place for communication experimentation – from advertising to art. Marketers are increasingly exploring new tube technologies such as digital escalator panels, vertical LCD panels, 3D billboards, cross track projection and jumbo digital screens (see video). Artists too are exploring communication and socialisation on the tube – and we aren’t talking about poems on the underground. A new exhibition by photographer Yusuf Ozkizil explores tube encounters,
relationships and juxtapositions between commuters and advertising imagery (see www.ozkizil.com). Once the tube has finally added two-way mobile communication to its range of new media platforms perhaps underground conversations between brands and consumers will begin in earnest and Auge’s paradox that the expansion of communications technology is increasingly the intensity of our solitude might be consigned to the buffers.
 

Insight Youth - UK Youth Special 
 
  The latest interactive report from our Insight Youth series focuses primarily on the youth market in Britain today. Combining editorial analysis, expert opinion, content aggregation, and case studies, the issue investigates the youth mindset in the UK today, analysing key contemporary socio, cultural and consumer trends - across areas such as the recession, the 2012 Olympics and the increasing influence of social media - exploring how these issues are being leveraged in contemporary marketing and communications. A must for all brands and agencies attempt to connect with this lucrative yet elusive
demographic, the report also boasts a showcase of the most successful and innovative youth-targetted campaigns in 2009 thus far. To order or to see extracts email matthew.carlton@xtremeinsight.net
 
 

 
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