Posted: October 24th, 2011 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Last week, a fact finding mission for our client DDFA took me to the exotic, hectic, fantastic, extreme wonderland of India’s capital city, New Delhi. It was an overwhelming experience from many perspectives. One of my objectives was to visit, scout and establish relations with the FDCI, organisers of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week event. Due to the experience from my past job as Programme Director of Amsterdam’s Fashion Week, I had an interesting perspective on its development.
I was very impressed with the professional production of the event, the inspiring range of designers and their collections, but most of all with the exceptional quality of the garments.The shows by yound designer Nida Mahmood (inspired by Rajastani puppets, combining traditional Saris with jeans) and big names Rohit Gandhi &Rahul Khanna (who reminded us of Dutch top labels Iris van Herpen and Avelon) stood out for me. The craftsmanship and finishing of all the garments was incredible. I’d like to thank FDCI President Sunil Sethi and his team for their kind hospitality – and the honor of asking me to present the award for best Photographer. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 16th, 2011 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: brand development, Byron Sharpe, Emoday, How Brands Grow, Kevin Roberts, Lovemarks | 5 Comments »
Lovemarks - all credit to Mr Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi
One of the perks of writing for great magazines like Second Sight is that you can sneak into conferences under the cover of journalism. This week i blagged into EMODAY, an event organised by the excellent Tijdschrift voor Marketing about the role of emotions in marketing. Speakers included ING Insurance’s Chris Kersbergen, Roland & Rogier van Kralingen, celebrity AkzoNobel CEO Tex Gunning and ‘keynote’ showmaster Kevin Roberts.
Like many other people out there, i’ve been interested in the Saatchi ‘Lovemarks’ concept since i first heard about it a few years ago. The opportunity of seeing Mr Lovemarks himself present it was my main reason for going. In the good tradition of ad agency brilliance, the model was conceived late at night, at a bar. The essence is a seductively simple framework of 2 axes: (a) Respect and (b) Love. Naturally and instinctively, we all want to be in the top right-hand corner: to be loved AND respected. Why? Because, as Roberts argues… this will get you millions of ‘likes’, increase loyalty and boost your margin.
Sounding good so far? Hold that thought… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 18th, 2011 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
This week was princess Maxima of Orange’s 40th birthday. In celebration of this joyous occasion, Dutch magazine HP de Tijd asked 40 diverse individuals to write her a letter, giving her advice for her future role as Queen of the Netherlands.
To my great honour (and to be honest, a slight sense of shock), I was invited to contribute to this project alongside politician Lodewijk Asscher, authors Robert Vuijsje and Susan Smit and Hafid Bouazza, poet Ingmar Heytze and publican Patrick Hendrikse. Buy the book or read my contribution here.
Posted: April 18th, 2011 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Nxnw | No Comments »
I really struggle to understand what everyone is complaining about…
Posted: March 30th, 2011 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
This Monday, I had the pleasure of being invited to attend the Amsterdam edition of MoMo (Mobile Monday), focusing on the theme of mobile music.
Full marks for the event, crowd, the line-up of speakers and number of iPad-2′s in the room. I was especially impressed by the effective & efficient MoMo App (shown on my iPad-1 in the picture) which shows the event program and allows you to view back all the speakers on video, Ted-talk style.
Since none of us had been able to go to Austin this season, it was also fun to see Tim Heineke present Shuffler, a Dutch music blog channel platform that won an innovation award at SXSW. Great stuff, we went home and tried it right away. www.shuffler.fm
Thanks to Yuri for the invite (hope to be back next time).
Posted: March 1st, 2011 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Last night at the beautiful Pakhuis de Zwijger I had the pleasure of hosting ‘Music@Fashion’; an inspiring debate about collaborations between musicians, dj’s, stylists and designers crossing the boundaries of their disciplines. The night was very well organised (thanks to MCN), resulting in both great speakers and a room full of movers & shakers from both fashion and music side.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: November 18th, 2010 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Amsterdam, brand development, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Maybe it’s just because the ‘Gift Giving’ season is upon us, but it feels like Luxury is ‘back from the dead’. On the cover of Forbes Magazine, Bernard Arnault shares his ambition to sell luxury to emerging markets. In the same week, Bain&Co’s luxury industry expert Claudia D’Arpizio traveled to Amsterdam to talk about ‘the state of the industry’. Whoever thought that luxury goods will be gone for a while… think again.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: November 17th, 2010 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Last week i had the pleasure of hosting ‘Beyond Green‘ – a conference about sustainability in fashion, organised by Amsterdam Fashion Institute. Beforehand, I was pretty hesitant, i have to admit : the concepts of fashion and sustainability are complicated to bring together in an interesting and fun way – fashion people tend to be more interested in the creation of beauty than in cleaning up the industry.
Fortunately, Beyond Green is not about sustainability per se – it’s about change, new ideas and innovation. We had a diverse and inspiring list of speakers lined up to tackle this challenge. Also, to my delight, the team at AMFI had adopted a strong ‘Denim’ theme throughout the event. Always a good way to grab my attention… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 20th, 2010 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
This week i had the pleasure of being invited to PINC, a TED-like conference about People, Ideas, Nature and Creativity (thanks to COO at Getronics) organised in Zeist, The Netherlands. I had spoken to many PINC devotees in the past years but never been able to attend.
The range of speakers was very stimulating: lectures on wireless electricity (in shops from next year, apparently!), A-frame holiday homes (i want one), images from the microcosm (strange beauty) and the history of the entire world in just over 20 minutes. Truly inspiring.
But the most refreshing example of ‘thinking outside the box’ i’d heard in a long time came from celebrity comedian/conferencier Freek de Jonge. His brilliance came to life through a song, which he accompanied on an electric guitar. Nothing special at first glance… until he told us he’d only been playing for one year. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 12th, 2010 | Author: J A M E S | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: failures, innovation, strategy | 1 Comment »
Many of our clients struggle with the same question : how to give valuable ideas the elbow room to develop properly; how to protect fledgling ideas from ‘short term’ budget and performance pressures.
What to do if they don’t ‘fit the mold’ or are harder to quantify? What if you need partnerships ‘with the outside’ to develop and monetize them? What if they seem strange but feel right? Read the rest of this entry »
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