In an effort to protect the official sponsors of the Olympic Games from competition by non-sponsored brands, Beijing is taking the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sponsorship-protection practices to new extremes.
According to this WSJ.com article, it’s consistent with IOC rules to hide prominent logos belonging to a sponsor’s major competitor. But enforcers in Beijing have gone so far as to apply tape across virtually any logo in any place, whether it belongs to a sponsor competitor or not. Wandering through the Olympic grounds you’ll see pieces of white tape on elevator button plates, fire alarms and even toilets. There’s even an official tape replacement squad to ensure that any piece of tape gone astray is quickly replaced. Which points to the fact that these pieces of tape do tend to “go astray”.
There may be no better way to draw attention to an inconspicuous graphic than to cover it with an out-of-place bit of masking tape. Would a similar campaign actually be an effective guerilla-marketing tactic to promote your brand?
For most people, when you think of creative minds, you naturally think about the arts, music or dance. Science and technology rarely come to mind. But it’s obvious that in order to develop innovative ideas, creativity is an essential part of what inspires breakthrough thinking. This was the shared vision in creating Dexter Station, a new 347,000 sq. ft. office building slated for South Lake Union.
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Lately I’ve been taking note of companies that really make an effort to create a positive environment and experience for their customers, and sadly, those that don’t. Granted, many factors come together to create a positive experience for a consumer—from finding a convenient parking space to being greeted by a friendly staff person. But why is the actual environment—the aesthetics, the architecture, the signage, the paint color—so often overlooked by marketers and business owners?
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Competition is the by-product of productive work, not its goal. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Ayn Rand Author
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A short history of revelation
“Eureka!” This is the exclamation Archimedes shouted while running through the streets naked. He’d just invented a method for measuring the volume of an object through water displacement. A new gold crown had been made for King Hiero II, and Archimedes was tasked with determining if the crown was solid gold. Archimedes had to measure the crown’s density without damaging it in the process. While taking a bath, Archimedes noticed that the water level rose as he got in. He then realized submerging an object in water displaces an amount of water equal to its own volume. Dividing the weight of the crown by the volume of water displaced would yield its density—which would be lower if silver or other lighter alloys were present. Archimedes was so excited by this inspiration that he didn’t bother getting dressed for his celebration.
Another popular story claims that an apple falling from a tree inspired Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of universal gravitation. Seeing the apple fall, Newton contemplated that gravity extended so far from Earth that it was also responsible for holding the moon in its orbit. That’s a big idea. These famous anecdotes have become symbols of inspiration, and reminders that big thinking is hard to schedule. That is, the best ideas don’t always occur when we ask them to occur. Bathtub revelations and fruit-inspired contemplations show us that a relaxed and receptive mind is more likely to generate the best ideas. For the modern thinker, thoughts in the shower and bar-napkin sketches testify to this truth. But what if Archimedes or Newton had been on a deadline?
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