the brand builder blog

Thanks for the nod, Advergirl Blog!

0 comments Published 20080519 by Olivier Blanchard.

From the very awesome Advergirl Blog - hat tip to Dave Armano's fierce Twittering:

Question: What blogs and books do I read to stay on top of trends?

Well, I should say that 'staying on top of trends' is a pretty relative term these days. But, to stay somewhat aware of the cool stuff in my tiny area of addiction/interest, here are my top picks:

Blogs:

Adaptive Path

Advertising Age - CMO Strategy

Andrea Hill

B&A

Bokardo

ChangeThis Newsletter

Chief Marketer

Church of the Customer

How Advertising Spoiled Me

I Believe in Advertising

Lynetter's Online Dev Slides

Marketing Profs Daily Fix

Tom Fishburne: Brand Camp

Trendwatching

Labels: best blogs, blogs, influencers, link love, links

The Brandbuilder deflects another bonehead attack

Published 20080121 by Olivier Blanchard.

Someone tried to school me in the difference between verbal/written expression and visual expression today, and I feel like I am a much better man for it. Yes, I have grown today, if not professionally or... physiologiclaly, maybe spiritually. It's good to know that there are still brilliant, polite, thoughtful people out there who value the power of making positive connections and understand the importance of being cordial, positive, and friendly when reaching out to complete strangers.

Ahem.

So I was asked to remove an image from an earlier post this morning. The request came via an email threatening to take legal action against me. Ha.

Yes, good morning to you too. I am doing great, thank you. Would you like some toast with your tea?

Interesting thing, this blogging business. We're so used to cutting and pasting people's opinions that borrowing other people's intellectual property has become almost a non-event: Find a passage you like or think is relevant, copy it, paste it, write a blog post around it, give the author credit and link back to his/her blog/book/website so readers can go there and find more good stuff, and voila. Finito.

If you're a true web 2.0 rennaissance man, you even send them a note to ask permission to use their words, but that is seldom done these days. Credit given and a link are usually all that is required. (Still, most of us do this with images even when we don't with text out of some sense of duty or jurisprudence.)

To date, I have not received an angry email from a blogger or author threatening me with a lawsuit because I quoted them on my blog, and for good reason.

As a photographer, I understand the potential cash value of images. You can take a photograph and sell it. you own copyrights to it - or can share it with others at will. It's a slippery business, but ultimately, someone owns every image that has ever been printed - very much like every written word can become someone's property.

The reality of it is that both photographs and prose are modes of expression. Both are protected by copyright provisions. Some people use words while others use images to express themselves, but the only difference is in the medium, not in the level of legal protection. Those of us who write for a living value our written work the way a photographer values their visual work. The medium may change, but the principle is the same.

Yet here we are: Someone actually threatened to take legal action against me for having quoted them visually on the Brandbuilder. How sad.

I promptly removed the image (which wasn't that great to begin with) along with all associated credits and hyperlinks - and will replace it with another when I get a chance. Not because I am afraid of getting dragged into court, but because I have no want to give someone so stupid and arrogant any kind of exposure whatsoever. You don't want to be featured on this blog, I won't argue with you. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

What is funny about this whole little tangent is that a simple email politely asking me to remove the image would have sufficed. It would have still been silly, but whatever. At least the author wouldn't have acted like a rude little child. My email asking for permission to use her image was not rude at all, as I recall.

I have to wonder... would being polite really have killed her?

So anyway, to the young lady who sent me that threatening email this morning, I have this to say: If you don't want exposure, if you want people to discover your work, fine. Stick to submitting your stuff to any of the dozens of stock photo outfits that might be interested in buying it for mere pennies. (Not that they have, incidentally, since the email didn't come from them.) Knock yourself out. But then don't post your images on flickr and make them public. Jackass. And when someone asks for your permission to use an image, reply with a simple "no" if you don't want them to.

That being said, it is indeed your image, and you have every right to control how it is used and by whom. If you don't want me to borrow it for a post and direct people to more of your work, that is your right. I won't stand here and argue with you. It's your life. Have at it.

One thing you probably should know before I close this little monologue is this: Not only are you a crappy photographer who got lucky with one image, you're also rude, and a complete moron.

End of post.

As always, go to the home page to leave comments.

Labels: blogs, brandbuilder, copyright, photography, rant

The Brandbuilder debuts in Bulgaria. (Finally.)

0 comments Published 20071024 by Olivier Blanchard.

This is the kind of stuff that makes my day. (Thanks, Todor.)

Find out more about Bulgaria here.

Note: www.NovaVizia.com is arguably Bulgaria's most popular management, business and professional development blog.

Labels: blogs, bulgaria, novavizia

BrandingWire: Finally letting the cat out of the bag.

0 comments Published 20070605 by Olivier Blanchard.

So it'stime to let the cat out of the bag. A few co-conspirators and I have been working on a little behind-the-scene project lately, and since it's about to finally launch... well... I will let Steve Woodruff - the mastermind behind the entire operation tell you all about it:

We’ve been working on something behind the scenes, and now it’s time to take the wraps off!

Next Monday will be the official launch of BrandingWire, which will provide a monthly jolt of powerful branding creativity to the marketing community. Read on to learn more…

What is BrandingWire? It’s a collaboration of high-profile branding and marketing pundits, who are banding together to tackle branding challenges and topics on a regular basis. We’ll take on one theme per month, and apply our combined creative energy to showcase how great branding gets done. We want to put forth Branding That Works!

Who is BrandingWire? The team of marketing experts making up the charter membership of BrandingWire includes:

Olivier Blanchard (that's me!)
Becky Carroll
Derrick Daye
Kevin Dugan
Lewis Green
Ann Handley
Gavin Heaton
Martin Jelsema
Valeria Maltoni
Drew McLellan
Patrick Schaber
Steve Woodruff

As time goes on, we may invite other pundits to join our posse. It’s like herding cats just getting the “dazzling dozen” above on the same page! Just joking - there has been a sweet sense of unity of purpose and mutual deference, even in the midst of spirited discussion and (at times) diverging opinions. Exactly what you’d expect from a great group of collaborators, who are no slouches at their craft!

In fact, our first branding challenge was BrandingWire itself - developing the name, purpose statement, tagline, graphics, site design, workflow process…and we accomplished it all electronically (we never did end up having that conference call, did we?). All of which proves the point - a “virtual community” of creative marketers can, in fact, do branding.

Why BrandingWire? It’s simple - there’s a lot of bad branding out there, and it’s got to stop! Seriously, many of us see - and comment about on our individual blogs - examples of poorly-executed branding (we also commend the good stuff!). But now we want to showcase our talents and creativity by tackling challenges as a group - focusing our beams together - and try to promote better branding practices. Of course, we won’t hide the fact that for many of us, we hope that a spillover from BrandingWire will be new or increased business.

Allow me to dream for a few moments here. The old model of work, which our parents’ generation once knew, is dead. It’s no longer the case that you’re going to set down your roots in one company for decades, and that organization is going to “take care of you” for the long haul. No, the new model will increasingly move toward teams - even virtual teams - drawn together for projects demanding specific skill sets. And as we build our community and learn to work together, I can foresee that someone will call Lewis Green, and he feels confident that he can do 60% of the work - but Valeria Maltoni is the perfect resource for the other 40%. Or Chip Heath finishes one of his stellar talks, and an attendee comes up to him with a business challenge. He quickly concludes that this sounds like a combination of CK and Matt Dickman. And so it goes - the Collaborative Community supports each other, interlinks on projects, watches each others’ backs. Can we evolve to that? Why not?

OK, you had me at “Hello.” Where’s BrandingWire? Well, of course - BrandingWire.com. In the early part of each month, we will post our contributions on our individual blogs, with a “stub” and a link on the main site. Except this month, of course. To see the inaugural posting, you have to make a note to yourself to go to the site on our official launch date, Monday, June 11th. Also, for ease of viewing, there is a Pageflakes BrandingWire portal, where you’ll be able to see the participant blogs all in one view.