The most entertaining presentation was from Dan Germain, head of creative for Euro brand Innocent Drinks. Germain said the 11 year old brand is about the moral imperative for brands to be interesting.
"I don't have enough time for dull in my life," he said. "Think about the time in your life, you day, do you spend considering a brand like Nike...not much. How about your family? Most of it? Your
friends? Stuff on TV? What I'm having for dinner? We spend our lives spending incredible amount of money on ideas for brand and what do they do? Ignore it."
As example, he mentioned those old
moleskin notebooks. "They are just a bloody notebook. do you feel a little cleverer than everyone else?" He said Hemingway heritage is part of it. "It works on me, I'm a sucker. it's just a notebook,
but somehow the act of holding it, touching. when yhou see someone else, you think, 'yeah, one smart chap.'"
Another example: Howie's urban sportswear. "They had a little 'by the way' feed on
their site. A blog. It made me more interested in what they are doing.We want stuff to be interesting, we are looking for interesting. I'm obsessed with this. All I ever say to them is it interesting
and is it useful. Because people hate useless and waste." The backs of the Innocent Drinks cartons became messages. "Hello, is anyone reading?" gradually people emailed back or phone with ideas.
things like "If you're bored, really bored, phone us, we are sitting around doing nothing like you. Gradually our packaging has evolved into this world that's like the back of the cereal box when you
were a kid." He said Innocent does some two hundred new messages a year
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