Category: Inspiration

Critical Form – Landor

In this critical forum, Carl Wills stressed the importance of getting the strategy right because if you design based on the right strategic approach, it can get people to invest in the brand.

Kellogg’s
Kellogg wasn’t going to reduce its sugar content while other brands were doing it. The question was, how do you get such a brand crowded when everyone is so health-conscious?

Their strategy was to make – Kellogg’s had to come first, and the sub-brand follow. This reaffirmed Kellogg’s as the best brand in all cereal categories because subbrands tend to fight subbrands. But because everyone knows Kellogg’s, by highlighting, the focus shifts on the main brand rather than the subbrand itself. Kellogg’s is the first thing you see, and then you see the rest of the packaging.

Le shuttle
Many brands are trying to strip away personality from their branding
But Landor did the opposite for this brand. The strategy was simply to make people aware of the brand’s unique benefits that already make it different from other competitors like Eurostar.

Be Average and Curious
Carl also talked about suffering from the impostor syndrome, even after years of being a creatiove professional. The only solution to this fear of being average is to take these average things and then apply things to it.

For instance, you can take the average and then add curiosity to it – Carl has been a very curious person, which has really helped him in his career. In one of his projects for the UN, he was really curious about them and kept surfing their website. He came across the list of every single one of their meeting which have been recorded and uploaded there. The aim was to show people that the UN takes action and has a real impact through its words. This was further taken up to show how they are using words to make changes.

Be Average and Naive
Ask questions that people don’t usually ask. For example, during the Kellogg’s project, an intern questioned why we weren’t using the “og” in Kellogg’s. That’s when everyone realised it had been in front of their eyes all along, but no one questioned it until the intern did.

Be Average and Persistent
For a D&AD project for Brewdog, Carl’s team came up with an idea to flip the often negative connotation of rain – dull, inconvenient, unwanted: They came up with the idea that if “It’s raining outside, then it’s pouring inside.” A playful twist that turned gloomy weather into an invitation, not to stay in, but to head to BrewDog and enjoy what’s on tap.

Despite no initial response from the company, they didn’t give up. He believed in the idea, so he found a way — sending 30 guessed email addresses until one finally landed. If you believe in your work, persistence finds a path.

Be Average & a Storyteller
You can’t judge only based on the design; it’s the story that wins hearts. You need to get your idea down to 5 to 7 slides and also need to be able to put out your idea in one sentence.

All of this is thinking about –
How do you centre on one key insight?
How do you show your thought process?

You need to –
Find a way to provoke the recruiters
Don’t give everything away
Hook them in and then show the process

Carl on Ethics
Most companies have questionable clients, but you have autonomy in life. If I can make one of the world’s worst companies sustainable, then that’s it.

Carl on Strategy
Strategy is about mining information – It’s the clever bit. It’s the clarity.

Things to consider when applying for Jobs

Links
https://landor.com/en/our-work/kelloggs/
https://landor.com/en/our-work/leshuttle/