A nice timely move from Yahoo to hire the football star as the brand ambassador during the FIFA World Cup.

The project will drive more users to the online company’s products and the first ads featuring one of the planet’s biggest stars will appear in the UK later this week.

Becks is not supposed to comment on the World Cup games but the users will still be interested to read his thoughts on his previous tournaments which will be posted on his Yahoo weblog. Later, Beckham will start getting involved in chat sessions with online users.

Offline campaign will include posters sites, London underground and newspapers, all in the UK.

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The design studio did the naming, branding and packaging work for the client.

The idea of the packaging is very simple: the bottle looks pretty much like a bee with the yellow and black stripes on it.

Here’s the studio’s discussion:

A simple and little idea of packing for honey. We tried to treat jar as a playground for a character design. Dark cap and stripes made the idea quite clear. Through this project we tried to encourage kids to reach for honey instead of refined sugar. Especially for them we create logo which smiles bee’s face. It’s hand calligraphed, custom made, and it softens the overall simple, geometric look of the packaging.

Here below are the pictures:

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It’s always been a matter of interest and excitement for me to follow the offline businesses applying online techniques to promotion.

Here is one pretty example: the well-known Italian brand (dealing with pasta, of course) Barilla introduced a website – called DiscoverBarilla where a visitor can fill up his/her friend’s name and have a postcard with Italian landscapes sent to a postal address.

Different destinations of Italy are represented in the cards and each destination has a specific pasta recipe on it.

This idea brings you away from viewing the communication as delivering pure commercial message. This is interactive communication from a friend who, in the first place, cares to say hi to you, and the shares a story of Italy… And all that is done through a brand. Guess that might work better than an ordinary monologue you hear every day through TV, radio, print, billboards and even online.

Could it be pure online? It could – we know numerous free and paid services for e-cards delivery. I am certain, however, that a chance to feel the real card, touch and smell the piece of Italy your friend shares with you, has to add to the response that the brand aims at.

One could even think of using certain scents on the postcards that would add to warmth and romance of the Italian atmosphere.

Well done, Barilla! Still some way to go, though:

• The site is made in flash, and way too heavy. Even with broadband connection you need some time for download, there’s no way to change between flash and html
• The service is only active in the US, but I am guessing it wouldn’t be so bad to bring it over to other parts. At least, I would appreciate…

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With the recent Olympic hype, let me take a couple of examples from this huge event of the year.

Nike were set to a heavy position when their competitor Adidas were taken as the official sponsor of the Games. Their obvious way around, of course, was to use the athletes they are sponsoring as the official endorsers of the brand. One of the most important figures that Nike gave credit to was Liu Xiang, the “best Chinese track-and-field athlete ever”, as Nike’s manager had put it. Not to put the athlete’s skills and prominence to doubt, but he lost his race this time, without showing any spark. It is up to Nike to calculate the outcome of this failure, but obviously, they lost on this sponsorship, at least during these two weeks.

Let us now take a woman, who has hardly been known to public before the 2nd week of the Games started. This story from USA TODAY has caught my attention, so here I pass it further. Debbie Phelps is a loyal customer of Chico’s, selling clothes targeting at baby-boomers. I am sure the Chico’s people would have never expected anything from this lady. But, see, her son had to beat a outstanding record to bring his mom on to public. Guess what she was wearing. Every time she was on TV or print, Chico’s had free exposures to the world.

“Customers have been coming in and asking for what she’s wearing,” the Brand President Michele Cloutier said.

Of course, Debbie Phelps is not an ordinary person any more, but I believe she used to be one not so long ago. And no one could imagine her as a possible powerful brand advocate just a month ago… Now, there she is, not as good as her sponsored son, but good enough to pay attention…

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A number of factors (call it filters) are put down for you to consider how well you are performing to keep your reputation at a decent level:

1. Being remarkable. Obviously, try to not only find a point differentiating yourself from your customer, but make it as clear for the customer. Make them notice you and give them a chance to talk about you as someone who stands out (in a positive wat, naturally).

2. Having Values. Financial results are part of the objectives, but they can’t be the core of the business. Try make the financial success smth that goes alongside with the main idea of the business essence. Stand for something that your customers will believe in.

3. Being Genuine. Be real, do not try to disguise yourself into something you want to be but you are not. You will be discovered one day, and that’s the end.

4. Having Empathy. Treat your customers so they become loyal customer. Treat your loyal customers so they bring you more loyal customers. Breed the evangelists, mother the fans so that it pays off soon enough.

5. Having Vision. I mean, really having it. Not for having it but for having it but for doing it. Create a dream and live to bring it through – for yourself, your employees and your customers.

6. Being Conscientious. This is about everything you do. Be honest to yourself and to everyone around, have strong beliefs, cultivate and support them.

A nice one from Paul Williams, should bring some thoughts on the subject, whatever business you are in…

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Something similar goes to brands in transition economies. These brands, however, grow old overnight. They do not just age with ageing audience but rather become outdated with new mentality coming in. Economies are set free, borders open and new strong brands with strong managerial expertise come to play. The “old” brands are just not able to compete, and the only connotative aspect that is left is the nostalgic emotions that people feel when hearing the brand name familiar from those “good old days when we were young”… This is the feeling that managers often appeal to when trying to revive their brands. But in most cases it’s a dead end – the audience is not as promising as the new wave…

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