boom creative

OK, we’re setting aside a bit of bragging time on our new and improved blog. We throw a lot of energy and passion into our work and at the risk of sounding conceited, we like to think we’re pretty good at what we do. As it turns out, a few other people agree.

At the local 2008 ADDY awards, which were held on March 3rd, Boom took home a Judges Choice award, 2 Gold ADDYs and 22 Silver ADDYs—more than any other entrant. At the district level (which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska) we were awarded a Gold ADDY for our 2007 Boom Holiday Card. We’ll keep you posted on how we fare at the national level. In the meantime, here’s a sample for those who are not on our very exclusive mailing list (although if you’d like to be just let us know).

We need a national brand! We need a national brand!
Like throngs of angry villagers trying to capture the local Frankenstein monster, CUNA marketing representatives at the National Business and Development Conference testified on the dire need for the development of the elusive national brand. In my three years of attending the CUNA Marketing and Business Development sessions, these noises have turned into a cacophony.

The problem is, most of the people talking about a national brand are taking a page from a 1992 playbook. They’re looking at a Harley Davidson or Starbucks model when in actuality they should be looking at a brand more reflective of 2008, such as…

Barack Obama
LIke him or not (and I must admit I do so much that I became a party delegate after years of voter apathy), Obama has become a branding phenomenon. The current issue of Fast Company focuses on The Brand Called Obama

The fact that Obama has taken what we thought we knew about politics and turned it into a different game for a different generation is no longer news. What has hardly been examined is the degree to which his success indicates a seismic shift on the business horizon as well. Politics, after all, is about marketing — about projecting and selling an image, stoking aspirations, moving people to identify, evangelize, and consume. The promotion of the brand called Obama is a case study of where the American marketplace — and, potentially, the global one — is moving. His openness to the way consumers today communicate with one another, his recognition of their desire for authentic “products,” and his understanding of the need for a new global image — all are valuable signals for marketers everywhere.

It goes on to say that he has moved beyond traditional identity politics

Obama has risen above what he calls a “funny” name, an unusual life story, and — contrary to the now popular (and mistaken) notion that nobody sees race anymore — a persistent racial divide to become a reflection of what America will be: a postboomer society. He has moved beyond traditional identity politics.

Obama’s web and online presence is more savvy and dynamic than that of his competitors, says Fast Company, but to me, his brand appeal goes far deeper than just being in touch with the technology of a younger generation. Obama has, what Digital Interactive calls an “Open Brand,” an acronym for on-demand, personal, engaging, and networks; it is a framework for companies to think about distributing brand messages in new ways. Obama’s brand advocates get feedback on the their brand from the campaign and their peers.

What the brand shouldn’t be
At the CUNA conference, the credit union brand seemed to revolve around one thing - banks. Here’s a news flash to all those in the room: “banks suck” is not a relevant brand platform. Speakers advocated “getting hard on banks.” But to the average consumer (like Renae, my 23 year-old designer who is just content with her big national bank relationship), this positioning comes off as just kind of weird.

Where the national brand lies
OK, I don’t have the answer here. But for a clue, I’m going to refer to two experiences I had at the Gaylord Opry during the week of the convention.

In one of these experiences, I was charged $180 to run an extension cord to my trade show booth, securing the cord to the floor with duct tape. The representative of the Gaylord Opry seemed put out to make this request. It was a surreal experience from a national organization that, in its materials, stresses how remarkable your experience will be. Remarkable is an apt word, in this case.

Equally surreal was my experience with Rent-a-Center. As I mentioned in a prior post, an individual, Randy, experienced difficulties from the resort staff when he tried to deliver our plasma screen and DVD player on Saturday. Rather than just tell me, “sorry you’re screwed” (or simply not be available) Sunday, he drove the Rent-a-Center truck to the resort on his day off. Not only that, he set up the units and played my DVDs to make sure everything was working. When we tried to tip him extra, he refused. “It’s just the way I am,” he told us.

That’s the difference that I hear over and over again between credit unions and other financial institutions. It’s a difference that’s not easy to distill into a clever little tag line or an easy to remember url. But if a credit union brand campaign doesn’t capture that difference it has failed.