one of a kind

KINDED is a fantastic idea – one of those rare occasions where I want to go out and try a brand just because of its communications.

It’s organised by KIND, a “not-ONLY-for-profit” brand of hand-made, all-natural snacks from Australia.

I’ll refrain from calling this a campaign, because it’s not.

Rather, it’s a wonderful way to bring the brand philosophy to life, giving KIND relevance and making the brand a welcome part of your life.

The underlying concept of this ‘movement’ is ‘ random acts of kindness’, but it adds elements of the game ‘tag‘ and features from this fascinating initiative that tracks the movements of dollar bills in the U.S.

Here’s what the brand has to say about its ‘movement’:

“Ever wish you could do an incredible kind act for someone else, but can’t do it alone? The KIND team wants to help make it happen.

KINDED is a movement inspiring unexpected kind acts. These kind acts can be anything from helping someone carry heavy bags, sharing your umbrella, or paying for a stranger’s coffee.

“KINDED cards” serve as licenses to do kind acts for people who might otherwise be wary, making KINDED easy to pass on.

And since each card has a unique code and can be mapped online, you can track how far your chain of KINDING travels and view kind acts happening around the world.“

They go on to explain that the KINDED cards make it easier to overcome the social awkwardness that some people associate with helping a random stranger, by acting as an ice-breaker and explanation.

At the time of writing, 719 ‘KINDINGS’ have already been performed.

You don’t need to wait for someone to pass their card to you though – you can apply for one and start a chain of your own simply by popping over to the KINDED website.

So why do I think this is such a great activity?

Firstly, the concept is very simple: it focuses entirely on sharing the brand’s philosophy.

That may seem a narrow objective, but I now know exactly what the brand stands for – what makes it different, and why I should be interested. And that’s enough to make me want to try it.

Secondly, there’s no need for people to buy anything. It sees the world from the audience’s perspective, overcoming the “I know you’re trying to sell me something, so why should I even pay attention?” factor.

But most of all, this activity will bring joy and warmth to people’s lives – it will make people happy.

That’s powerful ‘CSR‘ that will inspire conversations, PR coverage, awareness, and goodwill.

All in all, a highly engaging communications proposition.

Brilliant.

Thanks so much to Springwise for the pointer. Images ‘borrowed’ from the KINDED website. And no, as far as I’m aware, I have no connection of any kind to KIND – I just think this is a great way to build a brand.

diversity and creativity

Learning and creativity require a common characteristic: the ability to form new connections between things that already exist.

It follows, therefore, that diverse influence can inspire more strategic solutions, as well as more innovative creativity.

I regularly discover exciting ideas as a result of exploring things beyond the conventional boundaries of marketing.

Design blogs are great for quick lateral side-steps – from aggregators like ffffound! and notcot, to more specialised collections like i can read, oneplusinfinity, and it’s nice that.

However, I find that one field provides more stimulus for new ideas than any other: science.

I subscribe to a number of ‘mainstream’ science feeds, notably New Scientist and Wired (it’s not just a tech site!), that keep me up-to-date with important discoveries and quirky research.

However, a recent article in Ogilvy’s Fresh Influence blog drew my attention to a great new resource: Futurity.

Futurity is:

“An online news source featuring the latest discoveries in science, engineering, the environment, health, and more…“

It’s an amazing collection of research findings from America’s top universities that makes it easier for people to access work that others have already conducted.

In their own words,

“In an increasingly complex world, the public needs access to clear, reliable research news. Futurity does the work of gathering that news. Think of it as a snapshot of where the world is today and where it’s headed tomorrow. Discover the future.“

In the short time since I subscribed to their feed, I’ve learnt a wealth of new things on subjects as diverse as exoplanets, political cynicism, and how olive oil can be used to combat Alzheimer’s.

I may not find immediate, direct uses for all this new information, but each article sets off a thought process which inevitably helps me re-frame at least one marketing challenge.

Take a look for yourselves, or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed*.

Where do you get your inspiration? What non-marketing sites do you find most useful? I’d love to hear your suggestions – please share them via the comments section below.

* You’ll need an RSS feed reader to make best use of this resource – check this post for more details on RSS feeds and readers. Thanks to John over at Ogilvy Fresh Influence for introducing me to Futurity. Image of Futurity website is a collage of screenshots.

learn something new every day

There’s always something new to discover and explore.

The best education never ends.

Inspired by a comment on yesterday’s post

1000 stories

Most of us are familiar with the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words.

But some pictures tell entire stories.

The illustration above, by Christoph Niemann, is certainly worth a few thousand words.

In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that it expresses more than words ever could.

And that’s the key to strategic communication – finding the most efficient and effective way to establish a common understanding.

The ideal means for a specific end.

See more of Christoph’s fantastic work here -  I especially liked this image from his children’s guide to learning Chinese characters. I discovered Christoph thanks to ffffound! – a great resource for regular inspiration. Please note that the copyright for the above image remains with its original owners – please let me know if you’d like me to remove this image and I will do so immediately.

thinking allowed

The stuff inside your head is only valuable once you let it out again.

With thanks to icanread and forgottenworks for the Einstein quote.

get sharp

When it comes to sharing ideas, what role do you perform?

evolutionary thinking

Making mistakes helps us understand better ways of doing things.

As long as you learn from the things that didn’t work out in the way you hoped, they’re not mistakes; they’re just steps on the journey to success.

Thanks to icanread for the inspiration

tweet and make up

This really tickled me – a great idea from Iain at Amnesia.

He’s managed to get Coke and Pepsi talking to each other on twitter.

The idea works on so many levels, but above all, it demonstrates marketing maturity from both brands.

Holding out a hand to your rival is a great way to demonstrate a strong brand personality and a responsible social attitude.

And it’s doing wonders for PR and conversations too…

Who’s next?

million-mile tomatoes

Every so often, I see a presentation that inspires me.

Matt Webb’s ‘Scope’ is one such presentation.

Full of facts, anecdotes, and curios, ‘Scope’ inspires improvement on a grand scale.

He tells a compelling story that builds with each slide, and then ends with a brilliant challenge.

I really encourage you to read it all for yourself.

Many thanks to Russell Davies for introducing me to the presentation, and to Matt for sharing it.

rock the boat to stay afloat

Advertising’s purpose is to share news with people, in the hope that it will influence their attitudes.

So if the news is unremarkable, or if it doesn’t influence its audience, what’s the point in advertising at all?

‘Safe’ serves no purpose here: messaging or creativity that takes no risks will make very little difference.

And as I’ve observed before, if you don’t make a difference, why bother at all?

*Update: more useful thoughts on risk and reward in this great post from Seth Godin

Many thanks to ffffound! for the image, which originally came from here [oops, the original page seems to have disappeared].