On Tuesday night, we were treated with a very passionate, edgy, and exciting presentation from Paolo Volpara (former CEO of Leo Burnett). What was interesting with his presentation is his emphasis on using passion and creativity to create a “brand.” When I think of “Brands,” immediately what comes to mind are things like: Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple, ect. If we take a look at what these companies have done, we see that they have used passion and creativity to create long lasting brand appeal.

Let us take a hard look at Apple. When you think of Apple, you think: simple, attractive, and trendy. I would bet that most people have at least one sort of Apple device. The passion that this brand has created is quite amazing. People seen using a NON-Apple .mp3 player are usually scoffed at. Why is this? It is because Apple has created a brand in which it is attractive and trendy to be seen using an iPod. Other devices are seen as cheap, generic, or not as effective; even if they are just as good, if not, better than the iPod in terms of functionality. The thing that keeps the iPod on top is the brand: Apple. They are passionate about what they create, which shines through with the products that they continually produce.

Now where does this passion come from? It comes from the people that are employed at Apple as well as the people they employ to market and advertise their products. From a marketing standpoint, it is all about discovering the passion and creativity of the client through their beliefs and values and effectively communicating that in any advertisement or marketing scheme that is produced on their behalf.

Now, with a marketing company, your service is marketing for others. Where the passion and creativity comes into play is where you put your special spin or touch on everything that you produce for your clients. Now, the trick is to not lose sight of the vision of the client, but rather combine their vision with your touch to produce something that is utterly fantastic. You want people to be able to say, “Yeah, that campaign is by Panik!, and it looks wonderful!.” People need to be able to see what you have that sets you apart from the rest of the pack, and that is what your voice or style will be.

One thing that Paolo said that was quite controversial is that Google was not a “brand.” He saw Google as just another service that will go the way of AskJeeves, Yahoo!, or Altavista. The argument against that is quite strong. When you take a look at Google, they are doing things that none of their predecessors had done. They are now “powering” phones for T-mobile and other phone companies. They have made their own web browser, Google Chrome. Their email, Gmail, is probably the most powerful email around; and at 1GB for free, the best deal around as well. Universities have begun to partner with Google and Gmail to power their school email. Their name is synonymous with searching. People now use “google” as a verb. That is priceless advertising and PR. Google will be around for quite a long time. Where Paolo was speaking on Google is that he did not believe that they had the power to last like other great brands. I would think that we can begin to compare Google to a gigantic brand such as Apple. Google is now the place that most people will look when they are opening an email address. Whenever you search for anything on the web, you use Google. With Google maps, I don’t believe anyone goes anywhere else to find directions. Google’s passion is reliability, convenience, and simplicity. You go to Google.com and you have everything you would ever need right at your fingertips. That is long lasting power and brand recognition, all achieved through passion and creativity.

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