branding « ‘Cross The Breeze

What a ride!

12 07 2009

The last 2 months have been kinda crazy. After my last day at Microsoft, I started jobhunting right away, jobhunting new style that is – using my blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, … and every other network that could help me spread the word. Interestingly enough it all became a bit of an experiment along the way as well, like when I introduced the #hirefriday tag, but nevertheless still a rather unpleasant reality of being unemployed during a crisis. Lucky enough for me things paid off rather quickly and 5-6 weeks after my last day at Microsoft I started working again.

My new home is Duval Guillaume, an idea-centric communications agency with offices in Antwerp and Brussels. Since 3 weeks you can find me in the Brussels office (photo below) as the new head of strategy there. But more on what I’m doing there in future blogposts.

A lot of people have been very helpful during all those weeks and I’m very thankful for that. I realize I have been pretty silent on this blog during most of that time but we’ll be going to a more regular rhythm again soon. First I need to change a few things here, for one I should really get that self hosting thing going (yeah I know it’s not the first time I talk about this).

Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: advertising, agency, duvalguillaume, hirefriday, jobhunt, microsoft, twitter
Categories : advertising, belgium, branding, inspiration, marketing, media, microsoft

Turn on the pre-recorded website

8 01 2009

My buddy Matth just IM’ed me this one, a pretty engaging promotion from ING for their Lion Deposit. I reckon it’s not easy to make promotions for banks these days given the whole sector lost quite some trust with their customers… like me for instance.

I won’t say too much about it as you have to go see for yourself but know that not all is in English (although you’ll get the idea). I especially like the banner girl… and her preference for Yahoo! banners, as they are bigger and allow for more creativity. You’ll :)

And yes I know similar things like this have been done before, but that doesn’t mean this doesn’t work. I watched it until the end… and I even clicked. Was this created by Emakina? Job well done to whomever did this anyway!

Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: advertising, bank, ing, liondeposit, movie, promotion
Categories : advertising, belgium, branding, consumer, inspiration, marketing, movies, video, viral

Candlelight

22 12 2008

I’m pretty sure the guys at Buzzing Bees won’t mind but I have copy their latest post, it’s too good. They show the latest commercial made for Electrabel by Famous – filmed in Stop Motion with 288.000 candles. Note – Electrabel is a energy provider.

Here’s the making of:

Great stuff Famous!

Comments : 6 Comments »
Tags: commercial, electrabel, famous, stopmotion
Categories : advertising, belgium, branding, inspiration, marketing, movies

All new Windows Live

19 11 2008

Last week we announced the all new Windows Live, updating some existing services and adding new ones. Windows Live is basically split up in 2 free rich web services (such as Hotmail, Skydrive, …) and also free downloadable software called Windows Live Essentials. The software has been in public beta for some weeks now, but last week we announced the full story including the web services part. To be totally clear, the web services will be rolled out soon, but here’s what they’ll look like.

Together with the folks from CommonCraft they made a little movie – in the known style – to explain it all a bit more.

What it all means? It’s almost there, it looks good and I can finally talk about it :) I’ve been using the full set of services and clients for a while now I find it the best release (this on is called ‘wave 3’ internally) so far. Checking on the blogs after the announcement shows that most bloggers, reviewers, … seem to agree. So that’s even better. Hope you will all like it too, here are some quotes:

”My early reaction is surprisingly positive, and I can’t say that the two earlier Live Waves impressed me. Microsoft had the right concepts, but marginally executed on them. Wave 3 feels different and may follow the old axiom that Microsoft gets things right on the third version. The private beta was very fast—surprisingly so. Response was quicker than running desktop applications in Windows.” Joe Wilcox (Microsoft Watch)

“Microsoft’s software plus services strategy has clearly infiltrated Live.com as well as their approach with Office. Live.com users can now access a variety of online services like mail, calendar, photos, online storage, etc., as well as downloaded services that include a mail client, instant messaging, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, the Toolbar and other services. And now it’s also one big social network. The result is an impressive personal productivity suite that makes me almost wish I wasn’t solely a Mac user.” Michael Arrington (Techcrunch)

“This is Big. Overall, these new services represent a major upgrade to the online part of the Windows Live suite. Microsoft is clearly trying to challenge both Yahoo and Google with its new photo application, while the new profiles and groups tie all the Live services together into a very sophisticated social network.” Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb)

I hope you all take some time to check out what’s available already and check all of it once it’s out there. With the renewed services, more integrated approach, 25G of free storage, social network partner integration, … I really think it’s worth it.

Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: windows, windowslive, release, announcement, microsoft. live
Categories : beta, blogging, branding, consumer, microsoft, mobile, social media, software, technology, video, windows live

Personal/corporate identity

17 11 2008

Last week at SIME during the first speaker gathering Ola Ahlvarsson (CEO of SIME) thought it was a good idea to introduce Thomas Crampton and myself to each other… he sure was right :) Thanks for that Ola!

We got talking right away (part of which translated in a little video interview – see below) on several things relating blogging, corporate blogging, identities, transparency, … and how difficult it can be to turn small company learnings to good use at corporations, or how US learnings wouldn’t necessarily work in Europe or Asia (where you don’t have one market / one language).

Interestingly enough, the topic seems to surface at other places as well these days, look at this post on MarketingProfs for instance. The video below is part of the conversation I had with Thomas, focusing on identities. Thomas called it “difficulty of blogging for Microsoft”, I see it more as “challenges in corporate social media” or something but that doesn’t sound half as good… and the chat would have been the same anyway so why bother ;)

The reason for this was the notion that corporate blogging projects that get listed this days only seem to relate to initiatives that are set up centrally and less about the ‘accidental spokesperson’. LionelatDell or ComcastCares (aka Frank) or … are real people, real but corporate identities, transparent and honest (I presume) but set up for the company they work for. What if you (like myself) already have that presence and identity, which is personal, but talks about work stuff as well? What if you set up a corporate initiative next to your own, that you own for a long time already? Again, not really problems, but questions/challenges I like to think about… and so does Thomas.

Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: blogging, corporate, identity, interview, ola, personal, result, sime, thomascrampton, twitter
Categories : ageofconversation, blogging, branding, community, influence, microsoft, pr, social media

2nd Edition: Age of Conversation

3 11 2008

Some 18 months ago I was part of a project called the “Age of Conversation” and today I’m happy to announce that the second edition of the “Age of Conversation” is a fact. Instead of 100 authors there are over 200 contributors this time (not me anymore) and it’s themed around “Why don’t they get it”. Other than that, all proceeds still go to charity so to encourage you to by the hardcopy this time, John Moore lined up the ‘Money Quotes’ in one little presentation.

Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: autopsy, book, brand, charity, conversation, presentation
Categories : ageofconversation, books, branding, community, presentation, quote, social media

Building relationships

18 09 2008

This is truly brilliant! Thanks Darryl for sharing, it’s probably the best take on brands building direct relationships with their customers ;) And I guess for all women who can relate to this… there’s always The Women of course.

Check it out.

Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: marketing, megryan, movie, relationships, viral, women
Categories : advertising, ageofconversation, branding, consumer, fun, influence, movies, pr, social media, video

Coming soon

2 06 2008

… to a computer screen near you. I hope you have seen / remember this little movie that was launched about a year ago? ‘Bring the love back’ or ‘The Break-Up’ as it was officially titled. Today the sequel to that is almost ready and Geert – my colleague responsible for all this – made a little teasing trailer of it. Hope you like it.

Nice little detail, the voice over on the trailer is done by Don Lafontaine, who is an American voice actor famous for recording over 5.000 movie trailers, etc… so you might recognize that voice ;)

Comments : 6 Comments »
Tags: advertising, bring the love back, microsoft, movie, sequel
Categories : advertising, branding, bringtheloveback, consumer, marketing, microsoft, movies, video

Most Contagious 2007

19 12 2007

Contagious magazine just released it’s ‘most contagious’ overview for 2007 which you can get here (in PDF), and which is “a round-up of the most intriguing, effective, and downright exciting happenings of the past year from landmarks to gaming, from design to social media”. In the report you’ll find Facebook, the iPhone but also Photosynth, Halo3 and ‘The Bomchickawahwahs’ and much more. Enjoy the read.

Technorati Tags: contagious, report, 2007, viral, technology, campaigns, gadgets, gaming, advertising, socialmedia, mobile, brands

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : advertising, branding, community, consumer, design, electronics, games, marketing, microsoft, mobile, social media, technology

Great quotes galore

5 12 2007

I just stumbled upon an interesting presentation that was made by a Belgian friend of mine who works for Naked Communications in London. The presentation is named: “Great Quotes to Use and Repeat When You Can’t Find a Better Way of Saying It” … and that’s exactly what it is. Maybe you had noticed it already since it’s 5 months old by now, if not check it out. I suggest you download it as well, might come in handy one day… when you can’t find a better way of saying it ;)

And allow me to add a nice one from our chairman Bill Gates: