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Coldplay sold 10 million copies of their last album, but despite the success they realized they were in serious need of re-invention.

Their music had become predictable and formulaic.

They were just like U2 in 1992, who turned to veteran producer Brian Eno to reinvent themselves.

Coldplay followed U2's path to Eno.

Eno is clearly a master of shaking things up and getting the band to think and behave differently.

This month's article in Q Magazine, mentions some of Eno's tactics.

1. Hypnosis-Using it to help the writing process

2. Changing the studio hours from rock star hours, to business hours

3. Thinking about making music as performance, not a studio act

4. Encouraging experimentation- getting the band to play with rhythm and time signatures

5. Cutting things down- encouraging brevity

6. Widening the bands musical knowledge- getting them to listen to German death metal and African folk.

On the evidence of the first single- The LA Times seems impressed.

"there are moments where "Violet Hill" ranks as some of the more exciting music Coldplay has recorded. The first guitar crush arrives after a lengthy ambient intro, and brings an electrifying jolt to the striking piano melody. And Martin brings a booming confidence to his vocals that has been more evident in Coldplay's live shows than on record, his dip into a falsetto in the chorus more matter-of-fact than sorrowful."

However, everyone will need to wait for the album to see if Eno's done enough to shake the critics off the band and deliver that's something truly fresh and interesting.

The point is re-invention is a serious job, it's not cosmetic and it requires action and the willingness to shift out of your comfort zone. This applies as much to inspiring creative teams and re-positioning brands, as it does to people and bands.

If you want to create change, you have to do something and not just talk about it.




Posted by Ed Cotton There are a some interesting data points from a study completed earlier this month by Ci for its SHIFT Report on North American environmental attitudes and behaviors.

1. Consumers Aren't Recognizing Social Responsibility

While consumers feel its important for companies to be socially responsible, they have trouble naming companies that are. Two of the biggest companies, Wal-Mart and GE, who've been big spenders in PR and advertising to demonstrate their green creds, are only recognized as socially responsible by 19% of consumers.

2. Green Ad Campaigns Aren't Proof

Consumers are smart enough not to be Greenwashed by advertising. In making their purchase decisions they are going deeper and investigating other areas. These include product design (65%), packaging (64%), produced locally/sold by a locally based business (57%).

Both these findings illustrate the importance of proof, it you are going to say something you have to back it up with hard evidence.

While this is becoming a pervasive force generally across marketing, it's especially important in areas relating to Social Responsibility.


Posted by Ed Cotton People have been using the web to do consumer research for over a decade. Its had its fair share of problems especially in quant, where it's already been proven that only a very distinct group of consumers ever complete surveys online.

However, as people become comfortable with sharing more and more of their lives online, it's becoming a very interesting place to get a feel for what people are thinking and doing. People are using blogging tools and media uploading tools to help them get a better understanding of their consumers and these are often richer and more insightful than the typical focus group.

With 2.0 technologies, all this only going to improve.

One example I really like is Noah Brier's Brand Tagging project. This simple application that allows people to enter words they associate with specific brands

and see the results from others.

What I like here is that the tool employs some good thinking. It feels more like play, than research. It doesn't take a lot of time and who doesn't want to be rewarded after they've contributed by seeing everyone's results.

Obviously, Brand Tagging isn't going to replace anything fast, but it illustrates the power of a relatively simple and low cost tool to generate some useful insight.

It would be great to hear of more examples of this type of thing


Posted by Ed Cotton Picking up a copy of USA Today this morning it was easy to be struck by the negativity of the content.

- Nelson Mandela is a terrorist

- Jet fuel prices set to make air travel a luxury item

- Fed rate cut does nothing to change Wall St. sentiment

Basically, doom and gloom all around.

Then there was this Harley ad, which offered a contrary point of view.

It reminded us that America is a strong nation and it's bounced back from tough times before.

It took the long view and reminded us not to be fearful with the simple statement:

"We don't do fear"

Some might say this irresponsible, but I say it's brilliant to seize on the moment and offer a counter point that's so true to the brand and its ridership.

It's brave and gutsy, just like the brand.

I don't have the ad, but there's a taste of it on the Harley web site.



Posted by Ed Cotton Lots of smart thinking in this from Clay Shirky's presentation at the Web 2,0 conference and therefore, plenty to steal, or use and build upon, depending on where you stand.





Posted by Ed Cotton AEG Electrolux has embarked on an interesting campaign in Europe, the company sells quieter washing machines and has developed a campaign about noise pollution to sell them.

I've often talked about the need for brands to rally around a big idea that transcends their products, but I am not sure about this one.

It certainly works great in the cities where AEG's innovative interactive billboards inform citizens of noise levels, but it seems a little far removed from the washing machine that creates a fraction of the noise compared to construction work and of course, transportation.

On the positive side, it demonstrates good citizenship in helping drive awareness about an important and often ignored topic. I also wonder if AEG has got themselves wrapped up in an issue that's too big for them to make an impact?

When Unilever celebrated the goodness of kids getting dirty and playing, they could demonstrate their belief in the idea by taking urban kids on trips out to the countryside.

Other than pointing out the issue, I am not sure what role AEG can play?

While Unilever's kids can get their clothes clean with Lever detergent after playing in the dirt, I am not sure how quieter washing machines really help city noise levels.

Perhaps AEG needs to close the loop on this for us?

Any thoughts?


Posted by Ed Cotton The PSFK empire knows no boundaries and it was just a matter of time before it landed in San Francisco.

On July 17th, Piers is hosting a conference here in town and I am flattered to have been asked to speak.

It looks he has already lined up a great bunch of presenters, including some friends and people I've been wanting to meet for some time;

Adrian Ho, Zeus Jones, Andrew Hoppin, NASA, Chris Riley, Apple, Eric Ryan, Method, Jean-Marie Shields, Starbucks, Mark Lewis, DDB, Polly LaBarre, CNN, Rohit Bhargava, Ogilvy PR.

NOTE: This is a partial list.

More details on the event can be found here.

Posted by Ed Cotton Back in March, Starbucks asked their customers for ideas, it created a website and the ideas have been been flooding in, exceeding the expectations of the company.

It makes me thing that every brand should be doing this, why not?

Here are the top 20 ideas that are being considered.

It's a great list that includes new products and experiences, ways to reduce waste and more healthy items.

Option to not print Receipts



Posted by Ed Cotton Interesting data visualization exercise from the folks at Current TV.

It's a technique that fits the brand.

In 48 seconds they cover the 500 most popular images on current.com.

The length of time the image stays on the screen represents its popularity.

Done as an experiment for the Web 2.0 conference and spotted here.




Posted by Ed Cotton "Grand Theft Auto IV is such a simultaneously adoring and insightful take on modern America that it almost had to come from somewhere else.

The game’s main production studio is in Edinburgh, and Rockstar’s leaders, the brothers Dan and Sam Houser, are British expatriates who moved to New York to indulge their fascination with urban American culture.

Their success places them firmly among the distinguished cast of Britons from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards through Tina Brown who have flourished by identifying key elements of American culture, repackaging them for mass consumption and selling them back at a markup."

NYT


Posted by Ed Cotton