Brand Jam Mag #3 - Highlights

THE

GIRL POWER ISSUE

WONDER WOMAN POWER AND THE YEAR’S TOP BRAND TRENDS MUSIC, UNDERGROUND ART, MILITARY STYLE + FASHION’S LOVE OF FOOD

Supplemento a Milano Licensing Days, anno IV n. 3 Poste Italiane S.p.a. - sped. in abb. Poste - 70% - DCB Milano

BRAND JAM MAGAZINE | N.3, OCT 2017

THE BEST OF LIFESTYLE BRANDING

03

THE BRAND JAM

MAG

WELCOME TO THE THIRD EDITION OF THE BRAND JAM MAG: A PORTAL FOR THE MOST INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES, BRANDS AND FLAVOURS IN MARKETING TODAY. IF TRENDS ARE YOUR THING,

O

SETTLE IN FOR OUR BEST ISSUE YET!

ur cover star neatly straddles two of this issue’s key themes. With recent events creating more urgency for women’s empowerment issues, Girl Power [page 12] looks at Wonder Woman as a symbol of growing activism in fashion and lifestyle. Gal Gadot’s gritty,

militant styling dovetails with our Universal Soldier reportage [page 46], where future-facing ideas collide with no-nonsense, utilitarian design. Going Underground [page 36] delves further into the urban aesthetic, with a look at the growing recognition for street and tattoo art.

As always, we continue to report from the international trade fair circuit, but since our last issue our media research desk has grown. From a distance, it’s been fascinating to watch the music industry revolutionize its relationship to retail…find out more from page 20. Finally, the pop-heavy tone of previous issues continues with a report on the love affair between fashion and food brands [page 28].

Special thanks to our friends and sponsors at DXL, OpSec, Perfetti Van Melle and Warner Bros – whose insights and brand-boards feature among the following pages. Their enthusiasm for the type of new-generation innovation we love speaks for their commitment to progressive branding solutions.

For more, don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly B2B newsletter – or drop us a mail if something we’ve suggested inspires you to go deeper. We’d love to hear from you!

Power to the innovators!

The Brand Jam team

SOLDIER

UNIVERSAL

UNDERGROUND

GOING

FOOD

FASHION LOVES

MUSIC

THE POWER OF

GIRL

POWER

20 28 46 36 12

The BRAND JAM MAG is a Brand Jam project | N.3, OCT 2017 CONTRIBUTORS: Gavin Brown, Tim Burns, Andrea Demodena, Ambra Farioli, Paolo Lucci, Alessia Pettinari, Jessica Prunotto and Branddy Spence | FOLLOW US ON www.brandjam.it @BrandJam_news Supplement of Milano Licensing Days, reg.Tribunale di Milano N.93, 14/03/14.

Publisher: Luccitm srl, Corso Sempione 11, 20145 Milano, Italy. Tel +39 02 349 38 355. Editor-in-chief: Paolo Lucci.

Layout: Tortuga Comunicazione, Corso Sempione 11, 20145 Milano, Italy. Printing: Luciano Manservigi srl., Via Marche 34, 60030 Monsano AN, Italy.

The publishers have attempted to obtain copyright for all images published. In case of any omission, the publisher is available at brandjam@brandjam.it.

01

L R I G

BRANDING TREND #1

R E W O P

A

s marketers confront the need to

mood appears more of a wave than a ripple. With

cater for society’s most margina-

the entertainment industry heartened by the

lised members, women’s rights have

success of empowered female characters and

become less politically charged.

huge inroads being made by women’s sport,

Suddenly, challenging female stereotypes is

whole new avenues of opportunity are opening

becoming less of a big issue and more of a

up – from gender-neutral sales floors at Zara and

big business.

H&M to an entire new ecosystem of products and services designed for athleisure lifestyles.

A positive to emerge from the political malaise of the last year has been its galvanising effect on the

Confidence is the common thread. The take-no-

equality movement. It’s a point the market has been

prisoners spirit of Diana Prince and Katniss

quick to recognise: from Dior’s “We Should All Be

Everdeen infuses product identity through slogans

Feminists” t-shirt to summer’s Wonder Woman

and a revisionist, post-modern approach to colours,

box-office take-over, an alignment of values across

cuts and characters – with Barbie and Hello Kitty

politics, culture and marketing indicates a sea

transformed from cutesy icons into assertive

change is under way. Of course, brands and retailers

heroines. We’re expecting much more over the

have rallied around messages of activists, artists

coming year but, for now, take a look at how things

and non-profits before, but the current affirmative

are shaping up.

Left: Sugarbird X Wonder Woman

#1 1 Lego Women of NASA 2 Wildfang X I Am That Girl 3 Lego Women of NASA 4 GAP X Wonder Woman 5 Zara Larsson X H&M 6 Cara Delevingne X Puma X UNHCR 7 Cyndi Lauper for True Colors Fund/ Planned Parenthood on Omaze

8 Zadig & Voltaire

#2

#3 #4

#6

#5

#7

#8

#9

#11

#10 #12 9 10 11 12

Nike Advertisement Demi Lovato X Fabletics Shantell Martin X Max Mara/Safilo Rihanna in Dior’s ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ tee

#13 #15

#16

#14

#17 13 14 15 16 17 18

Lego DC Super Hero Girls Her Universe X Wonder Woman Missguided X Barbie Lazy Oaf X Hello Kitty Missguided X Barbie Lazy Oaf X Dr Martens

19 20 21 22 23 24

Moschino X The Powerpuff Girls MEY Design X Game of Thrones Pussyhat on Time Magazine Tegan & Sara Foundation X Kiehl’s MEY Design X Game of Thrones Groovy UK X Suicide Squad/Harley Quinn

#18 #19

#18

#20

#21

#22

#23

#24

THE BRANDSCENE

BY GAVIN BROWN

FOCUS: LICENSING

THE COLLABORATION

GENERATION Not long ago, brands could build huge followings by rallying around big, over-arching concepts. But today they feed demand with a menu of snack-sized ideas.

In early 2015, we began keeping record of every

How do brands break down the opportunities? And

co-branding and collaboration project we could find.

what does licensing have to offer them?

Some 8,000 cases later, it’s clear that the identityobsessive sneaker business has inspired many copycats.

Market clutter and changing expectations are having

Brands in the so-called “Collaboration Generation” are

a huge impact on how brands present themselves.

shining through everywhere, from related branches of

Whereas power slogans like “Think Different” and

fashion, through to historically bland categories like

“Finger Lickin’ Good”, used to rule supreme, now brands

audio and spirits.

are spread much thinner.

Nike’s monolithic “Just Do It” has spawned a web of sub-brands that use bespoke innovation to nudge demand and project an image of vitality. In March, Nike revealed its 20th anniversary Space Jam tribute as the most successful launch in its history: a tight range of licensed and “inspired” styles layered onto its Jordan franchise and worth millions in sales, media value and brand equity.

Like Nike, many of today’s most successful brands are power-users of iteration, licensing and collaboration.

Whereas meaningful innovation used to take place on five- or ten-year cycles, now dynamic brands like Vans release new product packs on a weekly basis. Most arrive bundled with some kind of outsourced intellectual property – from Peanuts to Thrasher magazine.

Collide

With

Pop Cul tur e A license with Marvel allowed Santa Cruz Skateboards to lean into comic culture, while giving its iconic Screaming Hand motif the full hero treatment.

Gavin Brown is a brand consultant who writes “The Month in Brand Innovation” for Brand Jam online.

Follow him @CrescendoBrands

Frequent, small-scale innovation is helping brands

By looking more closely into how the most prolific

of all persuasions break through the clutter, while

innovators work, we noticed behavioural patterns that

also portraying them as nuanced and personalised.

we summarised into a report called “Ten Successful

Instead

market

Habits of Dynamic Brands”. Whether you’re a brand

hierarchy, today’s ascendant brands are often those

striving to achieve more, or an aspiring supplier of

that regularly launch remarkable, culturally relevant

creative content, the principles it identifies identified

products. In this climate of fast creation and quick

are a useful checklist for success.

of

advertising

budgets

dictating

engagement, licensing offers obvious advantages.

But

licensing’s

value

is

often

more

subtle

and

Here’s a small sampling of what we found...

ephemeral than many property owners are accustomed to. Brands are shopping widely for properties and collaborators – not to fill a gap, but to enhance their cultural

profile.

Understanding

what

drives

their

decision-making is useful, especially as more and more brands – and retailers – opt for a more dynamic model.

FOR

Design SP EC IAL

F O S T I B A H l u f s s e c Suc S N O SI

CA C O

Converse and CLOT celebrated Chinese Year of the Monkey without losing coolness or resorting to cliché by incorporating Andy Warhol’s iconic art. Yellow laces optional!

Re Em ma br rk ac Con abl e ten e t Montblanc broke from its usual, classical mould, inviting young creatives to invest in a fine writing instrument with the awardwinning M designed by Marc Newson.

ate r o b a Coll

To Stand Out AND Lean In

Cambridge Satchel Company leveraged common values of clever design and British craft by making bags that integrate seamlessly with matching Brompton bikes.

02 BRANDING TREND #2

R E W O P OF C I S MU

THE

N

o branch of popular culture has been

have morphed from t-shirt production lines into

more effective at growing its consumer

dream factories – using sophisticated, experiential

products footprint than music. Is the

platforms to command premium prices and lay

industry’s newfound ambition a bubble?

foundations for downstream business. Meanwhile,

Or is its success a sign of a power shift?

musicians are helping brand-owners like GBG elevate and energise portfolio brands.

In under two years, music brands have radically transformed the ways they interact with fashion and

Influence is key. Constant touring and social media

lifestyle. Led by Kanye West (adidas) and Rihanna

presence make music artists statistically influential,

(PUMA), artists are finding that seemingly nothing

but retailers are also discovering the value of

is beyond their reach: endorsements, creative

music’s deep relationship with style and lifestyle.

directorships, designer collaborations, sponsored

The rapid acceleration of new launches throu-

tour merchandise, themed capsules and pop-ups...

ghout 2017 suggests shoppers can’t get enough.

Simply by pushing out the perceived boundaries of their identity and creativity, they are proving

With more people listening to more music than

that just being present can be as lucrative as being

ever before, where do things go from here? Let our

legendary. Major licensing players like Bravado

gallery highlight just some of the possibilities…

Left: Moleskine X Rolling Stones

1 Le Coq Sportif X Kraftwerk 2 Raymond Weil X David Bowie 3 Happy Socks X Yellow Submarine 4 5 6 7 8

A$AP Rocky X Guess Fenty Puma by Rihanna Zenith X Rolling Stones Uniqlo X Pearl Drums

9 Def Leppard X Six Hundred Four

10 XO/The Weeknd X H&M 11 12 13 14

Stance X Rihanna Kanye West X Adidas Pretty Green X The Beatles Michael Jackson X Illesteva

Debbie Harry X Obey Clothing

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5 #7

#6

#8

#9

#11

#10

#13

#12

#14

#15

15 Kings of Leon X Hap & Harry’s

22 Skepta X No Fear/Sports Direct

16 XO/The Weeknd X Puma

23 Ben & Jerry’s X Bob Marley

17 Supreme X Fender

24 Radiohead X Millican

18 Justin O’Shea X Metallica

25 TSPTR x The Grateful Dead

X Selfridges

19 Nicki Minaj X MAC Cosmetics 20 Selena Gomez X Coach 21 Sade X Supreme

26 Sennheiser X Pink Floyd 27 H&M X Coachella 28 The Chainsmokers X Xbox

#16

#17

#18

#21

#19

#20

#22

#23

#24

#27 #26

#25

#28

03 BRANDING TREND #3

N O I H S A F LOVES

O

D O O F

Andy Warhol famously found truth in everyday objects like cans of Campbell’s Soup and Coca-Cola bottles. Five decades on, food brands are a go-to creative resource for an ever-expanding pool of designers and marketers.

Many of the best new designs clearly tap into Warhol’s pop sensibilities, with integrations ranging from overt to subtle: from House of Holland’s logo fetishisation to colour palettes inspired by iconic meals – like Saucony. Others take a more straight-ahead approach: leveraging supermarket brands to articulate freshness, flavour, craftsmanship or lifestyle. Chupa Chups (a Brand Jam client) continually impresses with lifestyle brand extensions that tap into its full sensorial repertoire – visual identity, flavour, heritage and the promise of “a life less serious”.

Left: The Rodnik Band X Chupa Chups

If retail is becoming increasingly infiltrated by FMCG brands, brandowners too are recognising the benefits of a more fashion-aware approach.

Hard Rock pioneered the use of merchandise as part of brand experience. Today, savvy product selection and brand association is helping names like KFC, KitKat and Dogfish Head drive attention, affinity and sales.

Whatever the motive for lifestyle and food brands to show their mutual love, marketers can be confident that consumers have the necessary sophistication to recognise a Coke hat can be an aspirational accessory rather than a delivery-man uniform.

Grab your trollies and shop some of 2017’s tastiest creations!

1 Cadbury by House of Holland

#1

2 Nathalie Ghosn X Nigo 3 Leo loves Chupa Chups by Leo Studio Design 4 Timbuk2 X Froot Loops 5 6 7 8 9

Magnum X Moschino Popsicle by Inc. KitKat Chocolatory X Georgia Perry Beams X McDonald’s Bulgari Ice Cream Collection

#2

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#8

#7

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13 10 11 12 13

Pinko X Coca-Cola Starbucks X Cath Kidston Froot Loops X State Bicycle Co. Lil’ Yachty by Bravado

#15

#14

#16

#18

#17

#19

#20 14 15 16 17 18 19

Julien Macdonald X McDonald’s adidas Originals for Oktoberfest Pintriil X ‘47 Fila X Pepsi Hype X Coca-Cola Studio Job X Seletti

20 21 22 23 24 25

AAPE X Coca-Cola Zero HUF socks inspired by Heinz Uniqlo X Kellogg’s Fyodor Golan X Chupa Chups Element Skateboards Vilebrequin X La Tarte Tropézienne

#21

#21

#22 #25

#23

#24

04 BRANDING TREND #4

G N I GO

R E D UN D N U O GR B ritain declares a Banksy wall-stencil its

undoubtedly helped the market develop a taste for

best-loved artwork and a Google Doodle

products that shun conventional beauty in favour

commemorates 44 years of hip hop. In

of a grittier aesthetic.

2017, mainstream tastes have moved

on from simply tolerating urban subculture to

The political climate is helping fuel the trend’s spread,

emphatically embracing it.

along with a new wave of attention from luxury

Familiarity has propelled aesthetics once regarded

little common ground exists between high society

as fringe to wider notoriety. Subcultural art forms

and the skateboarding scene, the directness and

like street photography, tattoo and urban art have

intimacy of underground style appeals to both ends

long been staple ingredients of streetwear and

of the fashion spectrum. Between them, an incre-

urban athletic labels, but their broader acceptance is

asing number of shoppers are weary of high street

evident in categories from watches to leathergoods,

homogeneity, embracing products that reinforce

cosmetics and spirits. Across the spectrum, street-

their independence and identity. Retailers like Uniqlo

centric looks and backstories are giving designers

are skilled at using urban art to drive footfall and

and marketers an edginess that resonates far

demand without diluting its essence.

houses like Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Dior. While

beyond the underground. Heading the field are the licensed archives of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel

Our wrap of the year’s best urban collaborations

Basquiat: over many years, Artestar’s fine work has

and licensed products follows…

Left: Saira Hunjan X Tod’s

1 Felipe Pantone X River Island 2 Basquiat X Urban Decay 3 Scott Campbell X Hennessy 4 Basquiat X Alice + Olivia 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Mark Gonzales X Stance Steven Harrington x IKEA Jägermeister X Montana Cans Ricardo Cavolo X Zara TRF JonOne X Hennessy Stash X Casio G-Shock Faile X Kiehl’s

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#7

#8

#9

#11

#10

#13

#12 #12

#14

#15

#16 #17 12 13 14 15

AndrĂŠ Saraiva X Uniqlo UT Megan Massacre X Happy Socks Mister Cartoon X Nike Indian Ink by Indian Motorcycle

16 Moleskine X Bradley Theodore 17 Rica Lewis X Keith Haring 18 Shepard Fairey X The Skateroom

#18

#20

#20 #19

#22 #24

#21

19 20 21 22 23

#23 Basquiat Bearbrick Saira Hunjan X Tod’s Tristan Eaton X Hublot Roa X The Skateroom Shepard Fairey X Amplifier Foundation

24 Coach 1941 X Keith Haring 25 Shirt King Phade X Champion Athleticwear

#25

05 BRANDING TREND #5

U

L A S R E V I N

R E I D L SO B

e polished? Or be prepared? It’s a

military, exploration and science fiction sources

question confronting many consumers

are important references. NASA and space are

as dystopian fears push back against the

recapturing levels of fascination not seen since

century product

the 1960s as the emerging realities of civilian

design. Gritty, utilitarian influences and ideas are

space travel, robots and A.I. loom alongside the

transforming how products look, feel and function.

bombastic reboot and diversification of Star Wars.

On the outside it’s all about camouflage, military-

New recruits are attracted by more than stylistic

style patches and finishes that improve with age.

appeal. Economic and socio-political pressures

On the inside, modular design and reductive

are driving consumers towards self-sufficiency in

functionality converge with upcycled materials and

ever-greater numbers. Tools and accessories are

technological enhancements ready for the rigours

gaining in prominence and importance as social

of modern life.

media users share images of EDC (everyday carry)

utopian ideals of 21

st

as a way of validating of their identity.

In the new social climate, lifestyle brands steeped in grit like Alpha Industries and Timex have been

Pull back the tarpaulin to discover more on the

making steady progress. For designers, tropes from

following pages.

Left: Vespa Sei Giorni

#1

1 New Era X MLB Memorial Day

8 Nike LeBron Soldier 11

2 Eastpak X Christopher Raeburn

9 Alpha Industries/BAIT X G.I. Joe

3 Lowercase X Seiko

10 Diesel by Seletti

4 SANKUANZ X Casio G-Shock 5 Heimplanet X Helinox

11 Carhartt WIP X Timex 12 Diesel X Rostarr

6 Mtn Dew X TrueTimber 7 WTAPS X Herschel Supply

13 Moncler X Greg Lauren 14 Timberland X DJ Khaled

#3

#4

#2

#5

#6

#7

#9

#8

#10 #11

#13 #12

#14

#15

#15

#16

#17

#18

#19 15 Moschino X Transformers 16 Coach X NASA 17 Alpha Industries X NASA 18 19 20 21

#20

Blauer bag Coach X NASA adidas Pitch Black Urban Utility Star Wars by Po-Zu

#21

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