Sometimes a change is as good as a rest, this was very true for NoteToSelf. We took the decision change the venue for the last NoteToSelf and it completely change the feel of the event for the better!.
The new venue offered us more space to play with and more of a underground feel. 2022NQ has had a lot of press recently and for good reason, the owner/promoter is at the top of his game and the venue echos the old Manchester rave seen. As you can tell we are very happy with the new set up. Now for the event, we had an amazing line up of speakers and this time a special guest DJ. The night kicked off with Neil Marra Creative Director and and Founder of Creative Spark, he took the theme Hype and ran with it. He began with a simple narrative of "What is Hype" and then went on to explain how Muhammad Ali "The Greatest Hype" in world boxing was/is a massive inspiration to him. "I loved the fact that he (Ali) told everyone that he was the "Greatest" and then delivered the goods time after time." Neil M.
Neil touched on the idea of "Creating Hype" around a brand, the example he used was the MandS food adverts. "This is not just a chocolate pudding, this is a luxury double chocolate M&S pudding. However he then reveled the reality of the "Hype" and how it left him very underwhelmed.
To find out more about Creative Spark and Neil Marra visit: www.creativespark.co.uk
Second up on the bill were Andy Buchan and Neil Boote from Ubiquitous, they started down a similar road with products that did not deliver after the Hype. The perfect example of this was a great little youtube video of the Segway!
They explain how it was doomed from the start, the segway was going to change the way we get around the planet. "The reality was that its a death trap! and it has a shit name!" Andy B.
The main focus of their talk was about finding the truth in the brand and/or product and using this to sell it."People/customer are savy, they can tell if your bullshitting a mile off, we believe that staying true the product is the best way to create a brand and brand loyalty."
Andy and Neil have got a genuine passion for branding and the vaules that can be associated to the brand. This can be clearly seen in the work that they produce and the cleints that they deal with.
To find out more about ubiquitous visit: www.ubiquitous.co.uk/
The final speakers of the night were Alun Edwards Creative Director and Johanna Drewe Design Director from Studio Output.They have an amazing portfolio of work and this lent its self perfectly to the theme of HYPE. They began by talking about how hype can either help or hinder a brand. They talked about "Building Hype" and they showed how using latest technology can build hype around a brand and get it exposure across lots of different platforms. The piece of work that illustrated this was the "Immersive playStaion" Commercials.
The thing that made this really interesting was that Alun gave the background about the actual making of the ad. He explains that they had some of the world most advanced Green room tech on set but they also had some super low tech things like fishing robs and sticky back plastic that where invaluable on the the shoot.
They went on to talk about how sometimes you need "change the hype" to build trust and integrity with in the brand. Their where refering to the Hype surrounding Cher Lloyd following her exit from X-Factor. They made some very clever brand decisions regarding the re-postioning of Cher Llyod, they started by flying her out to New York where they could film/shot freely with out the constant paparazzi interruptions. They also got well respected artists to collaborate with her, not only on the Album but on the album artwork and photography. They started to leak 7 second teasers back in to the industry, these create psoitive hype around her and they began to get alot of press coverage. When the full music video went live it got over 45,394,503 views on Youtube. These where the first step of the re-brand and you could argue that it was a successful campaign. To find out more and to see lots more great work simply visit: www.studio-output.comhttp://www.studio-output.com/
The night draw to a close with a DJ set from David Bailey formerly of TDR and now Founder and Creative Director at Koisk.
