July 2008

It's not just your humble Sandbox blogger who marvels at the Obama team's brand management talents.

The Guardian has just posted a photo essay on the brand that is Obama. And what do they tell us? For one, that a halo behind Barack's head helps his chances (well, duh). But also, more intriguingly, that his use of Gotham trumped Hillary's use of New Baskerville, which the Guardian describes as "stuffy," and will trump McCain's use of that infuriating, neither-here-nor-there font, Optima.

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The new guy. The latest gal. When you arrive on the scene of that upcoming job you worked months to line up, you'll cause a bit of a stir. People will want a peek at you. Colleagues may make special efforts to say hello. Rumours will swirl about why and how you're there. And your world will open up to different ways of doing things, unique ways of looking at situations and, and a whole new series of relationships.

It can be a dizzyingly upbeat experience. Especially if the employer has set up some welcoming process to guide you inward to the group's true workings. If not there are things you yourself can do to make your "onboarding experience" more effective, while you create a bigger positive first impression.

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When it comes to lifestyles, attitudes and marketing, green is good, right?

Not always, at least in the latter case. According to Brandweek, about 10% of U.S. consumers belong to a demographic called the Never-Greens, and they're either tired of or indifferent about being preached to.

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Tracy Fellows’ leadership encompasses strategy development and integrated marketing programs, including Advertising, Customer Relationship Management, Creative Services, Events and Public Relations. Throughout her marketing career, Fellows has been responsible for building brands for some of Canada’s leading consumer goods and retail companies, including Revlon Canada, Sobey’s Capital, Inc. and Canadian Tire.

With strong expertise in the strategic and tactical development of impactful, integrated marketing programs, Fellows has a common-sense approach to finding targeted solutions to meet consumer needs.

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To celebrate its 75th anniversary, Esquire is planning to light up the newsstands in style.

As the New York Times reports, the legendary men's magazine will feature an electronic cover on 100,000 copies of its September issue.

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Because it's Friday, something fun.



Wordle uses text you input (even from an RSS feed) to create strangely compelling typographic word clouds, which you can admire, share, and even save as a PDF.

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So what did Canada's winners in the Young Lions Film category get up to in Cannes? Why, they "partied with the lights out," among other things.

Click through to view a "behind the scenes" video of Team Canada's submission for Cannes' official Young Lions Film competition last month.

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Per•sua•sion, a new page about advertising, marketing and media, debuted in last Friday's Report on Business section. This new weekly feature will give both general-interest readers and those who toil in the trenches a snapshot of what's happening in the biz--and how our industry is changing in the 21st century.

This print feature is complemented by veteran Globe business reporter Jennifer Wells' blog, Adhocracy, which appears on ReportonBusiness.com.

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You probably first heard about Twitter by way of an email from a friend. Like MSN's Hotmail during its heyday, word-of-mouth has been the primary driver of this Web 2.0 tool. It's speculated that Twitter--a micro-blogging Web application that allows users to post updates on their actions for other users to see--now has anywhere from 1 million to 7 million users.



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It's an old debate: Brand gurus have long maintained that too many line extensions can dilute a brand's core essence. At the same time, consumer packaged goods companies have successfully used brand extensions to boost revenues. Who's right?

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Dial down all the wailing about the music industry's imminent demise, and you'll hear something else: the sounds of new sales and distribution models being developed by an unlikely source of innovative thinkers.

Said thinkers aren't hotshot label execs or of-the-moment producers. They're ordinary marketing folk like you and me.

As the New York Times reports, companies like P&G, Red Bull and Nike "are stepping outside of their core businesses to promote, finance and even distribute music themselves."

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Modern inventions: the telegraph, railroads, telephones, airplanes and cinema. Since these major advancements in technology came along, the world has changed as never before. Distances between cities, countries and even continents shrank dramatically.



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