Meat Your Match

No longer do you need to worry about choosing the perfect chook. From the most talked about butcher shop in Sydney comes their new educational app "ask the butcher". Once downloaded it helps meat lovers find their perfect cut as well as grab recipe tips for whipping up a meal that would make Jamie proud.

Complementing the app is their "Ask the Butcher" website where anyone can write in and ask for help on meat-related challenges - for example, "How do you cook the perfect steak?" This is a really clever way for the brand to provide value and pre-influence shopper behaviour whilst skillfully capturing (future and existing) customer data to sustain future conversations.

VC's offers home delivery for orders over $100 plus a cooking school and other experiences (like store tours). They are a great local example of a retailer that's truly changing the playing field.

Hit Refresh scores more votes than the US election

Mashable has just reported on the continued success of Hit Refresh in the USA. This is one of my favourite examples of a big brand 'doing good'. Hit Refresh has seen Pepsi redirect their entire superbowl spend into making this program happen.

I love it because it leverages a brand truth beyond "CSR" to join, create and embed positive difference into culture.

Nic Mackay from The Human Race spoke about brands 'doing good' a few months back at Battle of Big Thinking in Sydney. He said " When 'doing good' is at the centre of everything a business stands for and does, genuine business advantage will arise'

Couldn't agree more.

Read article here

(article via mashable/ thanks Christian)

Store Space As Brand Space: Disney Stores

I truly believe that the retail space IS the brand space. Anyone who works with me knows I harp on about it.......alot. Why? Because (far from being the ugly cousin of marketing) retail is the place to create experiences - powerful, tangible interactions that keep customers coming back for more.

Look no further than Disney for rampant innovation and turnaround in the retail space.

No surprise with Steve Jobs on the board ...........they're about to launch a heap of new stores in the USA (at the cost of US $1m each) creating retail destinations where customers are completely engrossed in total sensory magic (Disney-style, of course).

I could go on but perhaps you should just hear it from the source.

Full the full overview, check out The Hub's interview with Jim Fielding (President, Disney Stores Worldwide):

http://www.hubmagazine.com/archives/the_hub/2010/mar_apr/the_hub35_disney.pdf

Another Reason to Love Lego

Lego is using play to help educate kids about renewable energy.

Is there anything this brand can't do?

I LOVE YOU LEGO!

Positive Exposure NYC

Positive Exposure is one of my most admired social cause ideas. The founder, Rick Guidotti, combined his talent as a photographer with his passion to educate and make an inspired difference.

The result is Positive Exposure.

They're about to run a fundraiser in NYC with Fashion Designer Ralph Rucci and Vogue Magazine’s Editor at Large, Andre Leon Talley as co-hosts. I would love to attend - shame I'm here in Sydney!

Positive Exposure fuse disability and fashion. They have created a conversation about genetic difference in a way that is humanising, inspiring, empowering.

Difference is rarely embraced in our society. Mainstream media bombards us with what "normal" supposedly looks, sounds and feels like. It's very misleading. We need to see people of all abilities depicted in brand-centric communication. The more we "normalise" disability and include it in our collective social image, the less we will unconsciously discriminate.