Meet Andrea Kates

Meet Andrea Kates. We just met her the other day ourselves. But we allready consider her a friend of ours, and we hope also our mentor-to-be in the process of exporting our Hotel Creativity book and concepts to the US. It’s become a small world when likeminded people from San Diego and Scandinavia can find each other, skype,... Read more

Find your NEXT competitive edge

You and your company will need a new competitive edge sooner than later. That’s for sure. The turbulent waves of change in our society confronts your brands with new trends, consumer criteria and competitors. What’s your answer? Directing-the-brands-as-usual, practising-what-other-brands-do or openminded recretation of the... Read more

MTV the master of reinvention

You of course know a lot of people that were in their late teens by the summer of 1981. Next corner for them will be 50. How are they handling aging? Moving forward, staying in tune, surfing the waves of society or are they stuck in the past? Are they living the life in past tense. Are they suffering the psychological death not even thinking... Read more

AQUA's branding understanding

With this blog post I know, I take the full risk of ridicule amongst the music litterate people. Danish pop band AQUA is clearly not the most respected band in the music business, when it comes to the quality of the music. I know. I know. I know. This blog post however is not about music. It’s about branding. AQUA broke... Read more

The DJ Juicers get more sex

My favourite snack shop is Joe & The Juice. It’s all over Copenhagens coolest areas and now expanding across Europe. Simple concept. Fresh fruit and vegetables in the smoothies and the sandwiches made at the bar and great coffee to go. You can definitely get this treat elsewhere. So what’s different? The juicers are. And a lot of other things.... Read more

Chief Integrity Officer 2.0

Burning calories at the gym. Smiling all over my face having nailed my next blog post. Back at the hotel. Testing my idea by googling CIO as short for Chief Integrity Officer. Dammed. Allready taken.  Chief Information Officer as well as Chief Integrity Officer. But not quite... Read more

Unfortunately words are for free

Imagine a world with a pricelist on words. A world where selfpromoting people and brands have to pay for the words, they choose to represent and market their identities. The farther away from the truth and the less interesting, differentiating and valuable the words are, the higher the price on the words.

Would high prices on bad... Read more

Dear normalizers and simplifiers complexity works

Famous american rapper JAY-Z’s new book decoded has been marketed in a very succesful combined guerilla and on-line campaign called decode JAY-Z. Each of the 320 pages of the book has been printed upon various media in the coolest areas of the american landscape. From the bottom of the legendary Miami design hotel Delano to billboards around the... Read more

Today monopolies are built on market empathy and business creativity

Back in the days monopolies were built on the grounds of owning and controlling every single part of the value chain needed to produce and deliver a product or service so cheap that no-one else could compete with the offer. Today there is quite easy access to most parts of the value chain whether you can find it in your neighbourhood or you have... Read more

Become a brand action hero

The most profitable brands of today are creative and explosive. They reinvent themselves with the speed of lightning. They understand that the customers get bored with repetition and only wants brands, that will surprise and excite them in a fully integrated manner. So you need to become the Bruce Lee, Rambo or Spiderman of your company’s... Read more

Are you a Chicken Executive Officer?

Who are you hiring to help your brand and business to get up and stay on the top. Macho MBA’s looking for the future among the fake and misguiding facts of the past? Are you hiring ”normalizers” getting promoted by worshipping you? Don’t. As the future kind of CEO - the Creative Executive Officer - in your company, one of your most... Read more

Start worrying now

One of the biggest personal psychological issues in our complex and affluent society is worrying. We worry about everything. Some of the few clever things to worry about is our kids, our physical and mental health, our friends, other people and our society in general. We are becoming a race of more and more concerned people and professional... Read more

Join the ideachain of command

Are you an ideachief, ideamaker, ideafacilitator, ideaseller, ideateller, ideatactic, ideacoordinator or ideaexecutor? If you aren’t taking care of any of the ideastuff, you will be out of job very soon my friend. It has become time to launch the ideachain of command. No brand, no company will survive without becoming way more creative and more... Read more

Mind the details in your branding

Just got my best massage ever in a 5 star hotel spa 15 minutes out of Alanya. Loud singing sweet turkish mama’s stretched my body into positions I’ve never thought possible. Off course I couldn’t just enjoy, I had to go investigate the brand. And the minute my eye caught the clup word at the sign, my perception of the quality fell a step or... Read more

Are you idealirious? Then try to get off (it)

Are you generating a lot of ideas theese days, but not realizing any of them? Are you idealirious in another word? Then try to get off this way of working immediately. Ideas aren’t worth the iPad they are written on. As a creative you shouldn’t get caught up in your own self-righteous creative universe. Ideas aren't worth dickshit if they... Read more

Greedy Creatives are the future

Creative people all over the world struggle hard everyday to get influence in the left-brained world of business. They try to get the product innovation, brand direction or the ad campaign exactly the way they think it should be most often without any luck. Unfortunately most creatives lose track of the bottomline in the process of being creative.... Read more

To be creative you have to become fearless

You yourself are without doubt your strongest enemy trying to create outstanding ideas. First and foremost I want to state that creativity is not an innate talent you either got or you don't. Creativity is all about early specialization and practise. Beatles, Lady Gaga, Picasso and Steve Jobs weren't born with the ability to setting new standards... Read more

LADY GAGA IS NOT JUST THE ON-LINE VERSION OF MADONNA SHE'S THE NEXT STEVE JOBS

Stefani Germanotta aka Lady Gaga is without the hottest pop artist of the moment. In my opinion her music is not that outstanding. But the staging of her products whether its video, concert or her on-line presence it takes everything one step further. She is an artist, brand creative, politician and ceo in one person. She is a prima case study in... Read more

Integrated Branding

In my opinion the only way of branding any kind of identity in the future is a fully integrated one. Every action in the company has to fit together in the pursuit of creating strong brand value. Every act behind the scenes and upfront on the dealers shelves need not only match and deliver on the brand promise to secure a strong sense of... Read more

The future CEO is the Creative Executive Officer

In my opinion the only way to start up your company's creative revolution is for the CEO to think of her/himself as the Creative Executive Officer. The new kind of CEO need to lead the creative processes in the company. You need to secure the motivation and drive for performing the business creativity inside your company. You need to secure the... Read more