Successful creativity is not a question of money, it’s a question of handling the resources.
Corporate Advisory
bodin.consulting is an international team for branding and creative content with digital intelligence. For clients who want passion, excellence and exceptionally sustainable ideas.
bodin.consulting offers a modular ecosystem with leading minds in different fields. Frank Bodin is one of the most renowned names in the industry, who brings in the necessary partners depending on the task at hand – an armada consisting of speedboats instead of a supertanker agency. This enables clients to find exceptional solutions quickly and flexibly.
The Zurich branch of bodin.consulting, newly opened on 1 January 2020, unites the internationally active branding agency Brand New World and Twitter under one roof. For public affairs and public relations, bodin partners works closely with furrerhugi and for influencer marketing with Kingfluencers.
Excerpt from an interview with Yves Seiler “Frank Bodin, der Dirigent”.
You have become a brand yourself. What distinguishes a successful brand?
The most important thing about a brand is its conviction. Apple didn’t just want to make computers or phones, it wanted to change the world through design. Nike didn’t just want to sell shoes, it wanted to create a movement in sports. Success is never the goal, it’s just a result of what we do.
To get the right answer, find the right question first.
Branding
A brand is like a personality. It includes a name, an appearance, a style, a character and an inner conviction. Especially the inner conviction is important for success: “Think different” was Apple’s conviction – not only to sell computers, but to revolutionize the world with design thinking.
Successful brands have another important value: “Purpose”. “Purpose driven marketing” describes the efforts of a company to achieve something socially meaningful. Customers identify more easily with companies that have a strong attitude. The concept of “Purpose driven Marketing” dates back to American Express in 1983. The company’s “Purpose” was to participate in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. Whenever someone used their customer card, American Express donated one cent for the restoration. As a result, the number of new cardholders grew by 45% and card usage by 28%. It is often difficult to differentiate between products and services because they become quickly interchangeable. Therefore, it can help to find the “why” or the one characterizing factor of a company that distinguishes it from its competitors.
Values create trust, identification and enthusiasm. In the digital age, brands are not artificial constructs, but lived values. This begins in the company itself.
With a smart team and sophisticated tools, bodin.consulting supports the development of brands as well as their further development and consistent management – from strategy to CI/CD to the holistic brand experience.
Quote from an article in Credit Suisse Group’s Bulletin “Markenführung im digitalen Zeitalter”
People’s interest in brands is limited. The desire to communicate with brands instead of with friends is limited. The need to receive messages from companies is also limited. Fresh ideas are more in demand than ever so that brand messages – no matter in which medium – are not annoyed and digitally filtered out. By the way, Big Data can help. But watch out: Big Data does not replace the Big Idea.
Scheherazade survived only by not being boring for 1001 nights.
Creative Content
The mix of creative and analytical thinking makes Frank Bodin a decathlete of communication. As one of the leading agency managers and at the same time the most award-winning creative, he unites several talents:
With the agencies for which he was responsible, he not only occupied top positions for many years, but also restructured agencies abroad and was most recently Chairman of the Global Creative Council of Havas. As the first advertiser to chair both the industry association leading swiss agencies and the association of leading creative professionals in the communications industry, ADC Switzerland, he has shaped and changed the Swiss advertising scene like few others for years.
Explain your idea in one sentence:
Strategy and Consulting
Strategy is creative action. If the strategy is interchangeable, so will the measures. The analysis of data on target groups, the competition and one’s own brand and market position are the basis for finding an overarching, sustainable brand idea. By the way, a smart strategy has room on a maximum of one A4 page.
1. Determine
2. priorities
Reputation Management
«If you’re going through hell, keep going.» (Winston Churchill)
Frank Bodin knows from his own experience about the “Loneliness At The Top” and how helpful it can be to have someone at one’s side with whom one can confidently deal with different paths and scenarios.
Excerpt from an article in the Bilanz “Warum Martin Schulz die Bundestagswahl verlieren musste”.
Why Martin Schulz had to lose the German Bundestag election
Never before has the world undergone such rapid change. Surprising changes in power during elections are on the increase. Suddenly there are personalities like Justin Trudeau, a man who is committed to cannabis and feminism and who would also cut a good figure on a catwalk. Or Emmanuel Macron, who enchanted the masses with “En Marche”. Many people want change so much that they succumb to a promise like “Make America great again”.
Martin Schulz neither smokes canabis nor wears a toupee. That speaks for him and speaks against his choice. But the willingness to change power in Germany was also in the spring air. At the beginning of the year it seemed that the reign of Merkel was over. People have seen it: These coloured tops to colourless trousers. This Merkel rhombus. This soporific serenity. These meandering sentences that mark around the problems such as “For a Germany in which we live well and gladly”.
Martin Schulz didn’t even have the rhombus. The formulation of his mission could come from a Sunday school teacher: “Time for more justice”. Nobody has time for such a slogan. With Merkel versus Schulz, a woman with the great characteristic of having few characteristics met a man without characteristics. That was no real challenge for Merkel and no alternative for Germany. It is not surprising that the voters stayed with the “there-you-know-what-you-have” strategy. “There you know what you have” was the famous slogan for a German laundry detergent. Not particularly original, but an original. Just like Angela Merkel. Laundry detergent advertising is still a synonym for rather boring but effective advertising. Angela Merkel knew from the beginning that no new state could be created with it, but that the re-election could be won.
Extraordinary creatives ask not only 'Why?' but especially 'Why not?'.
Second Opinion
Many companies and their agencies lack the external view and thus sometimes also the one or other insight resulting from it. Distance creates space for a holistic view and new perspectives. bodin.consulting analyses and evaluates the communication of companies with a neutral view.
Companies need to know where they stand in comparison to their competitors. What are the benchmarks, what do they do well, what can they do better? With a second opinion from bodin.consulting, companies can quickly and cost-effectively gain valuable insights.
Cha(lle)nge.
Digital Intelligence
Two digital trends currently dominate the marketing world: 1. individualization, 2. automation.
The individualised approach is made possible by data that is able to give a clearer picture of a person’s needs and preferences than traditional target group models. Big Data now has a greater fascination than the chain-smoking womanizer Don Draper from the series “Mad Men” – the new name for the series should be “Math Men”.
However, despite all the technological fascination, one must not forget: Only the combination of technology with creative content makes digital transformation successful – Data are stories with a soul.
Excerpt from a speech by Frank Bodin 2016 at the ADC Switzerland Gala
Big Data oder Big Idea?
Data is just a means to an end. Technology has never been the solution. It is a tool, not more, not less. Successful communication is not only information, but information plus emotion, whereby the factor emotion is significantly more important than the information content. Aristotle had already recognized in his “Ars poetica” that “how” is more important than “what”. “How” I sell a sneaker by means of creative staging is significantly more important than “what” the sneaker can do. This is the magic of creative brand communication.
Big Data without a Big Idea leads to nothing.
The secret:
1. Do excellent work.
2. Share it.
BIS Brand Indicator Switzerland
“Brand Indicator Switzerland” – or “BIS” for short – is the first survey to measure the current and future success of over 200 leading brands, including the total population and influencers. While most brand studies depict the present, the “BIS” also reveals an outlook for the future. This is done by comparing the opinion of the total population with the view of influencers. Because the latter are ahead of their time and influence their followers, the opinion of these influencers is a good indicator to predict the future success or failure of brands or industries. The results are now available and are remarkable.
“BIS 2020” was developed in cooperation between bodin.consulting and the insight platform deeptrue Ltd. as well as the social influence agency Kingfluencers.
You can get a free insight into the “Brand Indicator Switzerland 2020” from bodin.consulting.