approvingly lounging ...

the internet: under threat?

The argument for net neutrality, or against the commercialisation and privitisation of the Internet by powerful telecommunications firms, is compellingly made in this video. Found at Radiohead’s official site, via Save the Internet.

It’s a reminder of how passionate many people out there are about this issue, and for brands especially, a reminder to tread carefully, and provide people something of genuine use or entertainment online, as opposed to a corporate or product site that nobody will bother to visit. To do this well, it really helps if brands get the whole concept of the Internet - it’s about people creating, individually or socially, all linked in a unfathomably large, non-linear network of an ever-increasing number of media. ‘The human network’, as we helped Cisco define it.

For more info on this movement, it seems to make sense that Wikipedia is the site I should direct you to.

/Tom

visa swap: a great brand idea

Visa Swap, which I participated in at the weekend, is an excellent example of positively associating a brand, and giving people something that will benefit them, that they will seek out, and will enjoy getting involved in.

The basic idea is simple - bring in your old or unwanted clothes in exchange for a certain number of swap points (put on a temporary Visa card), and then a couple of weeks later, turn up to the swap store in Covent Garden and exchange your points for other people’s swapped clothes and accessories.

Anything not swapped on the big weekend is donated to Traid.

It works because:

• It was superbly organised and subtly branded (looking beyond the name)

• To get involved you must interact directly with the Visa brand, but you are sure that you will actually get something(s) worth having as a result
  
• Anyone can do it

• In these thrifty days, the idea of swapping some of your old stuff for exciting new stuff is very appealing (check out the queue in my photo above, one hour before the doors opened on Saturday morning)

• The clothes that you can swap for are of a high quality, and you will invariably leave feeling happy about what you’ve got
  
• As there is a charity association, Visa benefits hugely, as does Traid:

“Last year’s monetary donation to TRAID was ring-fenced and put towards the purchase of 27 new large textile banks positioned across the UK. TRAID also received a donation of 2,151 pieces”
And the people swapping feel good about the whole thing too.

• It is backed up by a simple website, which gives clear information about how the process works, and where and when you can take your clothes in to swap - including roaming vans that went to other parts of London, if you couldn’t get to Covent Garden

• Associations with Visa it can inspire include words like cool, helpful, charitable, useful, trendy, ethical, and down-to-earth, pushing a supposedly rational financial service provider into more emotional areas in people’s minds - ‘they actually did something for me’, you might think.
  
  

All in all, a great example of a brand connecting with people in a charitable move you wouldn’t necessarily expect them to pull, providing a useful service free of charge, that is perfectly pitched for the current social/economic/environmental climate. Plus, Visa Swap is something that was clearly talked about (among friends, colleagues, online etc.), attracting a considerable amount of positive word of mouth promotion. And it was great fun to boot …

/Tom