The case for Brand Aotearoa

15.12.2024/11.18

Originally published in Scoop During our mid-year travels, I was surprised to learn that Aotearoa New Zealand doesn’t have the profile that we think it does. We’re not riding the wave of The Lord of the Rings: few abroad remember the connection two decades later. No one I encountered recalls 100% Pure, and if […]

From The Lord of the Rings to Border Patrol: how Sweden sees us

26.07.2024/11.21

My visits to Sweden have been few and far apart, since it is quite a distance to travel from New Zealand: summer 2002, autumn 2003, winter 2010, and summer 2024. There are many interesting observations one can make with so many years in between, seeing how society has changed with brief snapshots from each visit, […]

How not to do a rebrand, and feeling #UnWell

27.09.2018/12.58

A rebrand should be done with consultation, and that should be factored in to any decision-making. In the 2010s, it should consider out-of-the-box suggestions, especially in an increasingly cluttered market-place. It should be launched internally first, then externally. A new logo would surface after months of exhaustive design work. The result should be something distinctive […]

New Zealand slips to 17th in latest Good Country Index

11.12.2017/08.29

Above: Simon Anholt, giving a talk at TEDSalon Berlin. Out today: my friend Simon Anholt’s Good Country Index, with the Netherlands taking the top spot from Sweden, which drops to sixth. New Zealand is in 17th, failing in prosperity and equality, and in cultural contribution (previously we had been 5th and 12th). On the plus […]

Joan Rivers had better facelifts, but it’s the future of the black cab

06.01.2014/11.59

Part of me admires Nissan for going after the taxi market in a big way in New York and London. Another part of me wonders why on earth the London Hackney Carriage solution is so ugly. I think Nissan should have asked Mr Mitsuoka for advice on how to Anglicize one of its […]

Let’s improve on the Wellington logo

07.11.2013/21.24

The city’s new logo—it is not a rebrand if the underlying tenets are the same—has not met with much support. The next question must be: all right, if we’re all so smart, can we do better? Ian Apperley and I think we can. Ian approached me yesterday morning to ask whether we should […]

Absolutely Positively Wellington’s new logo: where’s the plus side?

/11.03

The below was written on the 4th inst., the morning of the release of Absolutely Positively Wellington’s “plus sign” logo, and ran on Scoop, where I am told it is one of the most liked for the Wellington section. As it is to do with branding, I have republished it in full here. (The parody […]

Responding to blog comments—and where to from here?

28.10.2013/23.49

Wordpress, with its automatic deactivation of Jetpack after each update, messed up, so I have no metrics for the last two months of this blog. Nor did it send me emails notifying me of your comments. It would have been useful to know how the last couple of posts went, to gauge your reaction to […]

Cities are, or at least should be, driving globalization

06.06.2013/14.08

My friend and colleague William Shepherd directed me to a piece at Quartz by Michele Acuto and Parag Khanna, on how cities are driving globalization more than nations—a theme I touched upon on this blog in March 2010. As he said, I had called it three years ago, though admittedly Acuto and Khanna have […]

When it comes to convention centres, it pays to think ahead

13.05.2013/00.17

The New Zealand International Convention Centre has been announced in Auckland. In 2010, my campaign team proposed a convention centre for Miramar Wharf, which would include a technology complex, in a format that could have been licensed to other countries, earning royalties for the Wellington business that came up with the idea. The location was […]