Mel Leaning
Reading about Korean artist, JeongMee Yoon’s Pink and Blue project was horrifying but fascinating. The subtle segregation of sexes which begins so young is brilliantly document.
But is there a backlash?
Hamleys has changed its store layout – toys are now organized by type rather than gender after being accused of ‘gender apartheid’ by a blogger. Getting my boys to go to the art and crafts part of the store was always tricky as it was pink! More…
Lizzie Carr
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year was announced last night. The award this year has gone to Mark Cavendish, an Olympic Cyclist. There was much debate, post-awards, as to whether giving this prestigious award to a cyclist will help the younger generation reappraise cycling as a professional sport.
I can remember growing up and being fixated on Steffi Graf. I knew that I was never going to be a professional tennis player but it did encourage me to get out and play lots of tennis, whether against the garage door or with friends at the local club. More…
December 2010
Every Christmas, London’s Hyde Park is transformed into
a Winter Wonderland complete with wooden chalets selling
mulled wine and hot cider and a large ice rink. Combining
the two may not have been smart, but it gave us courage.
The whole team hit the ice for a bit of Christmas spirit and
festivities. Who knew that Tyler was an ice hockey jock,
or that Charlotte could BlackBerry Message while sliding
gracefully round?
Simon Massey
I discovered Kickstarter in New York when I was invited to the premier of Girl Walk // All Day (see my blog post), which was funded by Kickstarter. As well as the screening blowing my mind, Kickstarter’s concept did too – it’s an amazing altruistic model which supports all things creative.
As the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects (think music, film, art, technology, design, food and publishing), each week, Kickstarter enables thousands of people to pledge whatever they can afford to fund creative projects that resonate with them. More…
Hayley Burnham
For several years now, there has been much talk around the need for brands to be ‘authentic’. There are several drivers that have led to this global trend: Economic and social crises drive a yearning for ‘the good old days’ when things were simpler and easier. We also blog, ‘like’, comment and tweet about the brands we consume, hear about and interact with. As we know; consumers – and not brands – are often in the communications driving-seat. So it was interesting to read Faith Popcorn’s article, which argues that ‘genuineness’, and not authenticity, is what everyone should be thinking about.
Lizzie Carr
Heston Blumenthal was recently quoted at the Marketing Society conference saying “I often get asked what the next trends are, which is so infuriating – if you know what they are, they are not trends anymore”. We couldn’t agree more – once a trend is written down, it becomes old news.
What is important is applying trends to ensure they have a business and commercial relevance for the next three years or so. So how we do this at The Gild? We’ll we can’t give away to many of our trade secrets but have got a unique cultural and opinion-leading network which we tap in to. Trends we registered in 2009 are now coming in our culture. Ahead of the game!
Lizzie Carr
Bravo to Boots and P&G for following the government’s latest plans to tackle body confidence through their use of natural images in recent advertising campaigns. As The Gild recommended in our ‘What Women Really Want’ study in 2010, truth is one of the fundamentals a brand needs to show in order to gain female loyalty. 90% of our consumers in our survey responded that they felt L’Oreal was an untrustworthy brand due to its false advertising claims. Come on L’Oreal, you have a powerful brand but you need to start acting more responsibly.