New Open Blog

Hello everyone!!

Our lovely blog has a new home now at: http://www.theopenconsultancy.com/blog/

So update your RSS feeds or your bookmarks and bask in the sunshine of our tales.

Stopped-Open-Motion

Fluoro Brights flooded the Open studio last week with inspirations from the current catwalks and present trends we're spotting.

Shades essential complete with eye popping gear, here’s a snap straight from behind our closed doors to give you the first sneak preview of something bigger yet to come very soon here at OPEN.

"Five on Fifth"

Fond of all these store openings going on over the pond at the moment, and a brand never to disappoint when it comes to memorable activity, Diesel is no exception.

Linking in nicely with NY Fashion week and restoring our faith in retail, still being strong and being exceptional eco-chic. The grand opening of Five on Fifth, Diesel’s new flag ship store seizes our attention again.

Multiple 'mad hatter tea parties' sporting different themes daily, with endearing colorful characters and a few twists at its store front window for consecutive nights of its opening week.

The pap’d engagement of unwitting passers by and originality here was what we liked here at Open and the fact that the store also boasts a large amount of neon lighting, free wifi, recharging stations, multilingual staff and DJs on the spin and some nice attire too.

With lots of street teams handing over the freebees alongside the intimate window dinners we say one up for Diesel for this creative, inspiring and well executed Guerrilla campaign.

Bring on more alternatives for store openings, and lets hope we start seeing the UK doing the same!

Breakfast Clubbing

Ever heard the expression - I'm having a party in head?

Well now imagine a collection of random Open folks doing this together while munching down crumpets, muffins and bagels and slurping lovely mugs of tea.

That'll give you some idea of what our weekly Breakfast Clubbing sessions are like. We get together at 8am every Friday morning to share the thoughts that have been burning a hole in our heads.

We use it as a way to discuss cultural issues and breaking trends... today we were swearing. Well talking about it anyway and discussing language and how social culture effects our perception of different words. This and where belief comes from.

Yeah, not your usual banter about last night's TV, but that what flicks our switches.

If ever you want to raise a topic for us to discuss and share via the BC, feel free to drop us a line.

The Art of Being chipper

We're not up for plagarism, but this excerpt from the Hospital Club publication rings so true, we felt compelled to share it...


It's a critical time for the creative industries. The gloom and doom of the credit crunch, the redundancies, budget slashing, ring fencing, cost cutting - this vocabulary of financial misery is surrounding us. As Auden said 'For nothing now can ever come to any good.' Glooooomy or what?

But hold on a minute - isn't this the language of 20 years ago?

Following the 1980's Black Monday, Dim Tuesday, Darker Wednesday, Very Gloomy Thursday and Could-it-get-worse-than-this? Friday, something extraordinary happened in the creative industries.

A positive reaction. Bands from nowhere began making lots of noise, the new generation fashion designers back-lashed, artists took control - there was a renaissance in British creative attitude and the following decade became Cool Britannia. Blur, Damien Hirst, Pop Magazine, Alexander McQueen, Oasis, John Galliano, the Turner Prize, Isabella Blow, the Brit Awards, Portobello Road, St John's Restaurant, White Cube and Moro.

All over the place people took creative risks; the underground pushed its way into the mainstream and drove a stake into the heart of the Yuppie filled world of Neighbours, Wine Bars and Stock, Aitken and Waterman. It was a turning point in British Culture.

With a little less in the bank, how does the creative future pan out this time round?

When the cost of paper went up during The War, Penguin simply made their books smaller. Adjust, rethink, take risks and be creative. Welcome to 2009.

Neophilia : a love for things new.

Last week we got along to trends co PSFK's 2009's Good Ideas Salon in London.


Some interesting multi-disciplined designers, Troika with their ‘Cloud’ installation, currently being showcased at Heathrow's Terminal 5 and brand new concepts to storytelling from Punch Drunk engaging experiences.

And on a less positive note, A slow afternoon, with not many aspiring views coming out of it. The day needed less chattering around subjects with more clear points being made.

The day was stirring but unfortunately not outstanding, although what made it a success was the inspirational mix of content - Good Ideas Salon did have a number of engaging speakers, and the balance between designers and experts in their field was just right.

We definitely took away an interesting outlook on world trends but as we already have active absorbent minds here, we're not sure if sitting inside the ‘Good Ideas Salons’ four walls inspired us enough.

Highland whisky tour for The Glenlivet

Last week we were lucky enough to fly up to the Scottish Highlands and pay a visit to a couple of Pernod Ricard's Single Malt distilleries.

We picked an awesome time to visit with about 3ft of snow it really set the scenery off.

We were really well looked after and learned loads about the spiritual home of the err... spirits.

We came back perhaps a little tired and hazy, but definitely inspired by what we saw and could bring to the brands from our experiences.

And talking of experiences, Bex and GInny discovered the massage chairs at the airport, which proved a bit too much to handle!


Thanks for setting this up Mark.

Creativity all around us

People are tiring of the traditional forms of advertising and in turn brands are having to work harder to be more innovative in looking for new formats in communication.

We all want our public environments to provide more inspiration and less noise, so we're starting to see more effort coming out using creative application.

The launch of the new Nike store in Covent Garden created a glow street advert which was produced using UV ink onto the pavement so that the trainers stood out all night long!

Adidas Grün – known as plantvertising – the campaign was enhanced by using the words ‘made from’, ‘recycled’ and ‘reground’ giving it that all important ‘natural’ feel which is becoming more and more important for people in today’s society.
Another trend ‘sweeping the streets’ is clean graffiti, this is where a pressure washer is used to graffiti onto a dirty wall. An artist universally known as Moose has made a name for himself by creating a brand of street art which livens up streets and cleans up the dirt too!
Finally, artist Michael Bosanko who uses a torch and a camera to create light graffiti – the beauty of this work is that it looks like neon sculptures but it is 100% natural.

by Katie H

Web 3.0

It's a funny thing marketing. Everytime someone does something vaguely new, they put a tag on it. So in this great tradition, we're claiming web 3.0!

This Dutch site for a department store has created an online guerrilla animated experience for their own online shopping site.

The idea of using web space as an experience playing with our expectations of the site is a good one.

We look forward to the next generation of digital, the online experience place.

http://producten.hema.nl/

Three Big Tips

The Big C. Crunch is right here right now the topic of banter up and down the UK and promptly leaking into Europe. So, we can’t avoid it.
Following on from our optimism in 2008, we’re thinking 2009 is the year for survival, not just for consumers but for brands too – being positive about the future here’s our critical three big tips to get you through the year.

1. Spirit of Do

In-experience.
Hidden in the word but not that secret it’s about staying in, and why not?
With the British pound deflating the Euro is getting that little further out of reach and people this year can’t afford to be star-railing it around the EU as much, so focus here is going low key and local. So staying in.
Sunday DIY. Supermarket sprees. Pre party drinking at home. Allotments. Frugal cooking. Board games and playing cards. Achieving more within your community and quality time with friends and family.
Holidays and mini breaks on the cheap and more importantly that extra peek into what the UK has to offer: grand history and glorious inbound trips.
Rounding that up, these concerns and a considered focus cover a number of things. You may not be able to afford niceties but be resourceful with the opportunities around you and grab the Spirit of Do.

2. +Positivity

As we said this optimism stuff is infections and like moths around a light consumers want to gravitate towards things that make them feel happier.
Brands providing experiences where consumers can socialise and enjoy new things will be seen as champions of the cause to feel better.
It’s about being generous – Generation G. Consumers hate greed – embrace generosity and give something back to the people.
In tough times it accentuates how you need a little more in life – self-help, physical support, seeking a little further afield to untap lost potential to deal with the doom and gloom. Not running away, facing things head-on.
Maybe brands can start redistributing? Giving is the new taking. Share it out.

3. Creative Capital

Brand involvement in culture and arts is longstanding – a deeper brand collaboration responding to the pressures and expectations of X-tra. 2009 is about integrity and brands truly facilitating new arts and culture, not just sponsoring it.
Social pressures are extreme – being complacent doesn’t cut the mustard any more; so we’re all having to work harder, take deeper roles, have greater substance. Using what brands can offer to our advantage.
Take it on board. Use it to get through it in 09.

Louis Vuitton Stephen Sprouse Collection : Launch Party

Enticing halls of graffiti, custom neon coloured signs and live 80's shows.

A few of the things that brightened our eyes to the Louis Vuitton launch held last week in NYC.

Breaking all moulds of the usual fashion launches this party kicked off at the Louis Vuitton flagship store in SoHo to celebrate the new Stephen Sprouse collection.


Louis Vuitton Vs Stephen Sprouse.
Fashion/Design & Art.
nice.

Aloha Optimism

Here at Open we're a pretty bright and breezy bunch. But even our chipper smiles could be faded by the tough times and uncertainty in the world today!

BUT, we are optimists and our optimism is infectious!

With this in mind we're also predicting that 2009 will be the Year of the Optimist! Folks that work harder to see the positive will be the ones that stay ahead and we also believe that brands that represent an optimistic outlook to consumers and provide communications that focus around hope, self help and positivity will gain the most attention.

Adding to the feel good vibe, this month a book on the said same subject. Entitled... wait for it... The Optimist is being launched this month. The author has interviewed folks whilst traveling around the world, from Bill Clinton to the Dalai Lama's head adviser, to Desmond Tutu.

Here's his top tips learned:

Accept your reality and embrace it. Modern culture is about creating an ideal or fantasy reality and then spending our energy and efforts trying to change reality to our fantasy. Accept the good in what is.

Or

"Happiness is wanting what you have not having what you want."


Listen to the negative voice in your head and be observe what it's saying. Only then can you know the negatives to overcome.

Each evening take moment to recount 3 positive things that have happened in your day. You may even find that things that negative things you were forced to do meant that you experienced things that are actually positive.

Have a nice day!

Open running club

It was nothing if not predictable that a few of the girls would search a quick fix for January fitness and start munching down salads.

After 3 days of route planning, 1 hour choosing the right outfit/ trainer combo, 30 mins getting changed and 10 minutes waiting for each other to warm up... Off they went, bounding through the snow no less!!!

15 mins later they were back and a little camera shy!

To be fair it's a good motivation guys, nice one. Next stop sounds like it'll be the triathlon in May?!

Open t-shirt line

Back at the beginning of 2008, we promised we'd launch a line of T-Shirts under the Open brand.

Well we nearly nailed it...

Yes there are the excuses, big staff growth, new business wins to look after, moving offices in Worcester and opening the London shop, etc. etc...

But we just managed to squeeze in series of designs and slogans in December that have started off the intentions for 2009.

I hope you like them and we'll share a full 'designed' range shortly.