I thought it would be an interesting exercise to take a look at some of the best picture nominees of this year and see how their movie posters stack up against one another with a rating system that I started while writing this.

Starting with this year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

The first thing that struck me with this poster is the starkness of it, there is something kind of beautiful about the barren grey background. This is offset by the heavy red lettering of the movie title. I have been noticing a trend of moving the credits that have traditionally been at the bottom of a poster and integrating it more with the overall design. If I had not seen the movie, I would have no idea what the person in the poster was doing nor would I have understood the term “hurt locker.” But I do get the gist that it is a war movie, and that war is indeed unpleasant. Rating 3.5/5

I saw marketing for this movie everywhere and had absolutely no idea what it was for. It looked like an ad for a video game or an animated movie. After seeing it, it was neither, but think that even though the main image is graphically well done, the poster did not relate well to the movie. Rating 2/5

In a word, masculine. What man doesn’t want to see the good guys fighting the bad guys led by Brad Pitt with some beautiful women in the background holding guns? The design has a bit of a 40’s look to it but with a modern twist to it. And it wouldn’t be a Tarantino movie without some blood which is aptly captured with the background strip of red. I thought overall it was very well done and gave a pretty good idea as to what to expect. Rating 4/5

This poster was hands down the best of the bunch. I thought that the illustration was amazing and captured the essence of what the movie was about. I liked the boldness of the red dress contrasting with the blackness of the figure’s skin and white clothing. My favorite part was the cleverly used Precious necklace which is a reference to urban living (made famous by Sex and the City). There really is nothing that I don’t like about this.  Rating 5/5

After initially seeing the trailer and movie posters for this I had absolutely no interest in seeing it. But I did go and will be the first to admit that it was amazing. And I wish I could say as much for the poster. I think what bothers me the most is the typography, the papyrus font is one of the most reviled fonts by designers. Part of this has to do with the fact that it is the go-to font for most restaurants and it tries to be more than what it is, a mediocre default decorative font. If James Cameron is going to drop $300 million, is it too much to ask that he either purchase a much less overused font or have one made specially for this? The poster is a close up of a blue female face with a slightly come hither look, with “From the Director of Titanic” being the only other text, not terribly engaging nor interesting. Maybe it is the cropping that bothers me. Rating 1/5

And if you haven’t had enough movie posters yet, here is a very humorous tongue and cheek look at this years nominees posters.

The ad is part of the new anti-smoking campaign from the city’s health department showing shocking photography of exactly what smoking does to your body. This is not the first time the health department has taken this type of controversial approach. Last year the NYC health department had advertisements warning of the health risks of soda. The ads depicted soda bottles filled with body fat being poured into drinking glasses. New York also has free condoms available at stores through out the city to promote safe sex. A lot of people think these sort of initiatives are vulgar but I find them not only refreshing but totally appropriate. New York is known for being this sort of gritty and real city. Deemed the city that never sleeps, everyone in NY is always on the go and in hurry. New Yorkers get a bad wrap for being “mean” but in actuality they are just so on the move they don’t have time for unnecessary pleasantries and small talk. A feel good wordy advertisement would be totally wasted on this fast-paced community.

Here at Blue Daring we really value information consumption. We think it is important to understand your target audience and deliver your message in a consumable way that resonates with them. The NYC Health department presented a real in-your-face ad approach to a real in-your-face city. Would this campaign work in a small middle-of-nowhere town? Fuggedaboutit no chance. But it is right at home in New York. Knowing your audience and adapting to their tone and lifestyle is a sure fire way to have a successful campaign.

NY ANTI SMOKING POSTER

The 2010 logo is simple, colorful and representative of the history and culture of the country. For centuries, the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic stacked rock in human form to create the inukshuk, a stone landmark that provided direction for food and navigation. Over time, the inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship, an expression of hospitality that welcomes people with open arms every day. This inukshuk tradition was transformed to create the iconography of the 2010 Olympic logo, the contemporary interpretation of the stone formation is paired with clean san serif typography. There is a nice choice of using all lowercase letters which compliments the stout and boxy shape of the icon.

What I think I like the most of this brand is the color palette. The choice of the acidic green and cerulean blue were brilliant, the colors really stand out on the wintery white slopes of Vancouver. The color blue represents water in its many forms (ocean, lakes, ice, snow), while the green represents the growth of vegetation and natural resources of the area. These colors bring to life the dynamic illustrations, which are representative of each sport. They are sleek and have a modern superhero feel to them. With each one of them, you can feel the action of the event and can see the power and spirit of the athlete in beautiful detail. The background of each of these is surrounded by swirling waves that include detailed aspect of both the environment and canadian culture.

I am already looking to see what will be done with the branding of the 2012 London Summer Olympics. They are off to an interesting start with the logo, we will see what happens with the rest of the brand.

In the past Maker’s Mark advertising has been consistent with the look and feel of the product — a very classic, refined and exquisite spirit. They usually pair their classic image with tongue-in-cheek copy to keep it current, modern, and with the times. While out and about our president Melissa noticed this new billboard and snapped this photo with her cell phone.

This ad is a prime example of a company trying to keep up with changing trends but losing their brand consistency in doing so. Simply slapping what appears to be a cut-and-paste friend request button onto an existing company stock photo not only lacks creativity but weakens the company’s brand. If I could give this ad a makeover I would love to see a picture of someone serving a Maker’s Mark cocktail and copy along the lines of “Watch the friends start pouring in.” with a URL to their social networking site.

It is important to be conscience of the delicate balance between current trends and your brand’s integrity. I commend this company for including social media into their marketing approach but what looks like a lack of strategy and creativity has left them with an ad that has missed the mark.

Traditional networking sites are a great venue for social media marketing but there are also other sites that are a bit more dynamic and can enhance your organization’s social media strategy. For example using Youtube can really enhance your social media plan. Youtube allows you to upload short videos and share them with your network and the web. Making a little video update and incorporating it into your company’s e-newsletter will make it stand out from the text-only newsletters in everyone’s inbox. Another social media tool that businesses often overlook is Flickr. Flickr is a photo hosting and social networking website. This approach seems the trickiest for businesses but it is very simple. Think of your organization’s products and/or services. Than go out take and upload pictures that showcase or directly apply to those products and/or services. The trick here is to take advantage of the tag options. Tagging your pictures with relevant keywords will make them pop up in search engines. Be sure to make your Flickr name your company’s URL so when these pictures do come up in web searches people’s curiosity will lead them to your website.

The beauty of these alternative social media options is both of them are easily integrated into your current social networking sites or official website. These creative approaches to social media will set you apart from other organizations and give your target audience yet another opportunity to get to know you.

So what makes a good client? According to Bierut, the profile of what makes a great client is brains, passion, trust and courage.

Brains refer to working with intelligent clients, who not only value the services we are providing, but also possess big picture thinking and understanding. It is not our job to educate the client on the intricacies of what we do per say; but it is to our responsibility to learn as much as we can about their company and transfer that knowledge into the strategy and creative.

Next up is passion. Working with clients that are passionate is a joy. Their passion brings an increased energy to the project and their enthusiasm makes the collaboration more communicative and engaging. This makes for better work and hopefully future work.

The third thing is trust. What is meant by this is that the client inherently trusts us and the processes that we follow to distill information and create solutions. Trust means following recommendations that may not always have a quantifiable outcome. A good client will be open to ideas and believe we have their best interests at heart. They will trust that our ideas are based on expertise and experience.

The last thing is courage. Courage to get approvals when needed and also stand by the work that is executed. The client is not always the decision maker which sometimes makes for a disjointed approval process. A client with courage will communicate clearly with all parties so the concepts and deliverables are understood and decisions are made thoughtfully and nimbly.

When all is said and done, good clients lead to good work which will in turn lead to more good work. And the opposite holds true as well, bad clients lead to more bad clients. Bad clients take up a lot of time and energy; time and energy that could be spent on good clients – our favorites.

All of this caught my attention because I am a graduate of MSU and am familiar with the Spartan brand. While I was in school, MSU had gone through a similar change in identity and iconogaphy without any fuss. I can’t help but wonder if this protest is because people truly dislike the logo or if the social networking bandwagon is at it again. Let us not forget that MSU is the 8th largest public university in the nation with an enrollment of 47,000. With that many people and the endless number of alumni and sports fans, it doesn’t take much to get people riled up. Does anyone remember what happen when MSU lost to Duke in the Final Four in 1999? Hello riot. Maybe this logo backlash is just another example of the mob mentality taking over just a bit.

This is not to say that standing up to bad design is not necessary… Look at what happened to Tropicana and IKEA. But when looking at the Spartan refresh my overall thought is that it could have been significantly worse. The changes are pretty subtle. The new icon is little bit more chunky but tougher and more warrior-like. You’d think sports fans would be pleased. As far as university sports logos go, this icon is pretty refined. It is without the usual bevel and emboss, heavy drop shadow, and thick outline.

According to a memo: “This logo is just a single element of a new comprehensive brand and graphic identity project undertaken by the Department of Athletics. They will be unveiling all elements of the new program in April. The new logo, and the other elements in the program, are the result of a two-year collaboration between MSU Athletics and a team of top designers from Nike.”

I predict that this will reach a fever pitch shortly and the new logo will still be quietly released as planned in April. I think that if people were to get behind something it should be about more fundamental things, like the rising cost of education at public universities, the overall quality of education, and allocation of school funds to diverse student endeavors. For example, maybe if more money was allocated to their art school, they would not need “top designers from Nike” and would instead use their internal resources and student talent and/or alumni for their creative and marketing endeavors.

Immediately my first thought was “it is too cold to have these poor employees out here on the street.” My next thought was “this is a terrible marketing campaign.” I could easily think of a few reasons why it was not an effective plan.

1.There is no way to track the campaign’s success
The employees who are out in the street do nothing but simply dance around and hold up the mentioned sign. Lawrence & Western is a busy intersection so when a car honks there is no real way of telling if it was because of traffic or whether they truly love Liberty Tax Services.

2. There is no strong call to action
Liberty Tax Services committed a common mistake which is to roll out what they think is a great campaign with no call to action. Let’s say someone in their car was driving by and loved the idea of the dancing Statue of Liberty. They honk their horn and drive off smiling. What if that person went home and wanted to know more about the company behind this campaign? How would they find you with no URL or phone number on your sign?

3. A single layer campaign
The Statue of Liberties focus all their energy on shaking their signs and trying to get the attention of people in their cars. Several mornings I have found myself standing shoulder to shoulder with one of these employees waiting for the traffic light to change. There currently is no interaction with pedestrians. Having a handout for foot traffic would cover all bases and get them better results.

Had the good people of Liberty Tax Services taken the time to map out a strategic AND creative marketing campaign they could have had wonderful results. Granted some could argue their goal was merely to get noticed. To that I say well done and congratulations! You just got featured in my blog!

Judging from most political campaign logos out there, my guess is that they are done by someone who “dabbles” in design and/or knows how to use Photoshop. Campaign materials is something they do on the side. But what value do amateur materials bring to an overall campaign? The campaign brand is something that needs to have strategy and a marketing plan behind it; it’s not just a logo. The way you choose the people that do your design and branding should be viewed the same way you hire the rest of your campaign staff. You will likely hire an intelligent staff of people with experience and expertise in areas that help you build a strong and smart campaign that will get you elected. The same should be said for the people that create your brand, they should have experience and expertise in design and branding. That expertise will translate into a unique, smart and noticeable campaign that will help you win. Case it point…Obama.

Shortly after the news about the earthquake hit, the American Red Cross sent out a tweet letting their followers know they could help by donating $10 and all they had to do was simply text “Haiti” to 90999. By the same time the following day the Red Cross had already raised 800k. Red Cross efforts continue to be re-tweeted everyday and currently have raised nearly $20 million (and counting!) The Red Cross has also used other social media platforms to help generate awareness such as their Flickr photo stream and YouTube channel that both aid in showcasing just how crucial donations and volunteering are at this time.

Social media can be an effective tool for non-profits to bring awareness to their mission and help generate donations for their causes. For more information on the earthquake and how you can help Haiti visit http://www.redcross.org/.