Interbrand - Best Global Brands 2012 - 2012 Report (Brand View)

Best Global Brands 2012

Yet another great list of the Best Global Brands - they always fascinate me!

I am really pleased to see that one of the brands I work on here at the P&G United team at Starcom, Pampers, has joined the list at number 34.  It isn't the highest P&G brand - that honour goes to Gillette at 16, but I do believe that it has really earned its new spot on this globally recognised method of brand ranking from global brand consultancy agency, Interbrand.

My Logan

As a mum, nappies are very much a part of my life right now! and yes, I am a Pampers mum... not because I work with P&G but because the products work for my baby.

I wanted to use Huggies as I like their packaging more and their ads and branding speaks more to me as a consumer if I am honest but when I tried them, the products might look good, they didn't work very well for my particular child.

I like the nappies - they don't leak, and I love the sensitive wipes for both him and the rest of the family and around the house - they are perfect for cleaning shoes!

I see every day at work how they are trying to humanise the brand with their Pampers facebook activity, their Pampers Village site etc and I think it is powerful the work they are doing to connect with us mothers on a level and in places where we are happy to engage. I don't need to tell most people that mums spend a lot of time online! Shopping, talking, venting, researching, escaping, dreaming - all of this can be done in the online space while the kids play at your feet... It is the perfect media for me as a mum!

Lil-lets new packaging

I just wish they would reinvent their packaging and product descriptions - I have no idea what the differences are between some of the varients - active fit v baby dry v simply dry - it doesn't say anywhere on the packs and it has foxed me and my husband for the past year! Also the design is pretty *whispers* ugly - I just wish it looked a bit more stylish - I like the way that the Lil-lets Feminine Care brand reinvented itself and its packaging to try and compete with Tampax - another top P&G brand that I work with.

I am not surprised that Apple is number 2 in the best global brands list - let's face it - Macs, iPhones and iPads are the most desirable products out there. However, I am genuinely surprised that IBM is above Google... Maybe it is just my geeky digital head but I never think of IBM as a major innovation company. However, it seems I am massively wrong and as Interbrand says "This year, among other innovations, IBM researchers developed low-cost photovoltaic cells made from natural materials that have set the world record for PV solar-to-electric power conversion efficiency." Therefore I might have to relook at IBM and the work they are doing - it sounds far more exciting that I thought!


Interbrand - Best Global Brands 2012 - 2012 Report (Brand View)

This is the reason I love these lists - I always end up learning more about companies that I had underestimated...

Is Facebook about to do everything?? According to the media it is...

Honestly - the journos of the world seem to think that Facebook is like a giant alien race trying to take over the Earth, like in this Guardian article about Facebook here where they think the whole IPO was a conspiracy

The rumours abound of what Facebook will do next.... Make a mobile phone, buy Opera the Browser company and replace Instagram with Facebook Camera - oh they actually are doing the last one...

I know that Facebook does push to innovate on a startlingly regular basis and not always with much thought of their user's sensibilities and aversion to change. I always find it ironic that the newest of innovations, once it reaches critical mass, is subject to the usual human rubbish of not wanting to change anything about it...


To listen to all the blow ups in the news around in the last week or two since the Facebook IPO, you would think that this was the biggest thing to ever happen in the history of everything, not just a fancy pants sharing site going public...

The site can only remain relevant while it innovates and I think will only achieve its true advertising potential when ads can be served and tracked as part of a regular campaign. The adverts on there can achieve startling ROI for brands in terms of sales figures and can, if done properly, create real engagement with the current fans/consumers and drive incremental growth through driving new consumers as well. However, some advertisers are not seeing the value - cue GM's pull of its $10m advertising spend on Facebook recently.

Facebook is a powerful tool for sharing and increasingly for advertisers, but it is hardly the Decepticons... so please can the media stop overhyping and getting far too overexcited about a company going about normal company things like trying to expand and make money!!

They may be a bit dubious on the privacy front etc but they never promised to be Google and "not be evil" - we shouldn't assume that digital/internet companies have the ideal outlook on being good online citizens...

Arse... or why everything sucks today!

Today is one of those days...

My husband and I are still sick so our bedroom sounded like a plague ward this morning. After coughing our guts up for 10 minutes and girding ourselves to give the (thankfully germ free) angel his breakfast, we found out that our childcare for the next 2 days had let us down (Mother in law was whisked off on a birthday holiday as a surprise so I can't really be cross about that).

However, with the imminent house move, a need to sort out our subsiding house before the workmen arrive today and my husband being super busy work wise, it does create rather an issue for the next 2 days...

I would perfectly happily book a day off but my boss and her boss are in San Francisco all week so couldn't approve it anyway, plus I have a ridiculously large and mystical meeting with Facebook and a client tomorrow so can't take the morning off anyway.

Then I journeyed to work. It was super bloody cold. My ears and nose were FREEEZING. At Clapham Junction, there were loads of rude people who weren't looking where they were going. At Victoria, the Victoria line entrance was shut AGAIN - thanks TFL - due to overcrowding so had to stand in the cold.
Then my husband called with yet another company I have to call - British Gas - to sort out the subsiding house. Yet another log on the to do list... Plus loads of people, rude people, were pushing through the packed crowd trying to get across the queue to a part of the station that was clearly blocked off, with backpacks. I fucking hate backpacks, but that is another story.

Then the people I called to see if they could babysit munchkin tomorrow couldn't. I made it to the office to be confronted with a really crap presentation from a creative agency who clearly haven't thought through any elements of the planned campaign and now I have to do a conference call with them all, and my clients, without shouting, ripping their heads off or questioning how on earth they pass themselves off as a fully functional agency when they are clearly so SHIT at understanding how media and digital works.

I also have 20 calls to make today to get my house move sorted, plus a load of other little tiny bits to do that in general, along with everything else, add up to me wanting to either crawl under my desk, cry and drink wine or set fire to everyone and everything that comes near me.

I am blisteringly angry, frustrated and generally about ready to snap. So if you are reading this, and likely to encounter me for the next 24 hours or so, I really suggest that you avoid me like an unexploded IED and back slowly away as I am likely to rip your head off and spit down your neck for saying hello.

In summary, the world can fuck off today. Call me when it is Wednesday.

30 Days Hath November - What I love about my job

What I love about my job is that it requires me to spend all day, every day, online. Talking about, writing about, researching about consumers, digital, media, social networks, blogs etc. I can indulge my inner geek. I don't think there can be a better job than that...



Brought to you by Sofawned 30 Days Hath November
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e-borders... What's the issue?

The government plans to retain all travel data for everyone entering and leaving the country in a centralised database for 10 years, and is in the process of updating a centre near Manchester to process the data, the Home Office said on Monday.

"Our hi-tech electronic borders system will allow us to count all passengers in and out of the UK and targets those who aren't willing to play by our rules," said UK border and immigration minister Phil Woolas in a statement.

Personally I don't see the problem - there are so many ways for people to follow where you are nowadays, especially online that most people could find me in a heartbeat...

Between Facebook, twitter, blogs, comments etc, people could suss out pretty fast where I am going to be...

I know that the civil liberties people will be jumping up and down on this idea but is it really so bad - why is there always so much to hide....?