Unless you’ve been under a rock in the past few months you’ll know about the LinkedIn IPO and you’ll have picked up on the buzz about The Business Social Network growing at a rate faster than a new user every second. As I have blogged previously; increasingly if you’re not LinkedIn, you’re left out.

Hackday is the day every month when LinkedIn’s engineers get together to leave the regular day job and take their creativity ‘off-piste.’ One outcome from this is the visually gorgeous and intellectually fascinating LinkedIn Swarm. Taking the idea of the Tag Cloud (a ‘cloud’ of keywords with the most commonly searched / mentioned keywords being displayed in proportionately larger, bolder fonts) and adding movement, that’s Swarm.

In a rotation, the swarming cloud of keywords shows you the terms, jobs, industries, sectors, titles currently receiving the highest search enquiries across global LinkedIn. Check it because it’s beautiful. Check it because it’s fascinating. Check it because it’s useful. Click it to find out more.

Find out more from its creator, Matthew Shoup here on the LinkedIn Blog.

Read another of my blog posts, 14 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find Your Next Job.

Everywhere I go, everyone is carrying a Moleskine Notebook.

What makes the Moleskine the notebook of choice is that it is more than a notebook. Notebooks cost about £1.00 and are available from supermarkets and stationers. The Moleskine is altogether more special, a talking point and your very own creativity zone and mobile status device – money well invested at £13.00.

Of course what makes it so special is that it has its own brand story. You and I weren’t the first people to take pride in our Moleskines; Picasso and Hemingway were there way before us. We are just following in their creative footsteps.

Arriving in Mumbai, I find my Brandscapes friends Parvati and Aparna arrived with their Moleskine Notebooks too.

Wherever you go in the world you’ll find creative types proudly displaying their Moleskine notebooks, not because the paper is better, but because the brand story is.

Read the story and get yours here.

Just when you thought you’d seen all the Apps, games and ideas…

Check this from McDonald’s in Sweden: “Pick n’ Play” enables consumers to select their favourite McDonald’s item and then play for it on a giant public interactive billboard screen in the centre of Stockholm, using their smartphone as their control.

And because you just login, there’s no need to download an app… thus reducing the barrier to entry into the fun…

Is it successful? Well I’d say the answer is in how much fun the consumers are having! An interactive branding home run!

Discover the win-win for brand and consumers in their video:

When your brand is about fun and pleasure, this genuinely delivers for all.
Perhaps most importantly it shows the Golden Arches are continuing to push boundaries.
I’m lovin’ it.

If you like this, you might also be interested in this interactive campaign by IKEA – also in Sweden, using Facebook to push boundaries way back in 2009.

To discover new ways to drive your brand forward in food, beverage and ingredients categories, visit the HMT at www.healthymarketingteam.com

The latest Synsodyne Television Commercial in the UK shows two important lessons for Marketers…

Lesson 1: Move with Changing Trends and New Consumer Beliefs

For many years children and adults alike enjoyed the pleasure of refreshing, tasty carbonated soft drinks. But times have changed and fears of obesity and dental decay have gone a long way to change the drinking habits of the nation. Back then, the toothpaste companies had clear enemies; those ‘bad for you’ sugary, acidic, fizzy drinks and sweet confectionery. But now, realising the importance of eating more healthily, we’ve changed our dietary habits. Less soft drinks, more fruit juice. Less sweets, more salads…

…And just look how this toothpaste company have quickly repositioned their brand to win against a new enemy: Healthy Foods!

That’s right, the new enemies of your teeth are those good for you ingredients you’ve been thinking you should eat more of. In this particular advert, consumers are cautioned over the acidic fruit juices they’ve switched to, as well as the acidic dressings that accompany those healthy salads they’ve increased consumption of.

I’m not saying these new on trend foods don’t have their problems, but what’s smart here is how Sysodyne have read the changing trend and have built a new proposition based on the changed beliefs of consumers.

Lesson 2: Position Your Brand as The Obvious Solution to Today’s Problems

Having clearly positioned the foods we are trying to eat more of as the enemy, Sensodyne are able to present their Pronamel brand as the solution. Doing this correctly and owning the idea of the new relevant solution to ‘Today’s Problem’ in the mind of consumers has the additional benefit of re-positioning your competitors to look out of date / behind the game as they appear to still be fixing old problems that you the consumer have moved on from.

How Can You Benefit From These Lessons?

So the questions are:

• What is changing in your category?
• What are consumers’ new beliefs?
• And how can you reposition your brand or new launches to be The Top-of-Mind Solution to Today’s Problem?

What is Acid Erosion?

For anyone interested in learning more about what to look out for and how to minimise or prevent Acid Erosion of teeth, you can find out more from Sensodyne at their website.

Positioning and Re-Positioning Brands is at the core of the Healthy Marketing Team’s offer and expertise. To find out how you can join our list of Clients with accelerated brand growth and focused innovation programmes, email sam@healthymarketingteam.com

An important story, creatively told by Stephen Follows…

Made by Catsnake (catsnake.com) on commission from Friends of the Earth (foe.co.uk).

foe.co.uk/​lovestory

Written and produced by Stephen Follows (stephenfollows.com)
Directed and edited by Danann Breathnach (vimeo.com/​danannbreathnach)
Music composed by Michael Csanyi Wills

For more information on bring the values of recycling alive through your brand and products, contact the Healthy Marketing Team.