Clock free weekend

Swatch always on hand, even when showering...
Daily alarm iPhone application....
Sleep Cycle iPhone app....
Computer clock...
Outlook calendar...
To do's computer application...

In a world where we are rolling out our daily lives against the clock, how would it be to spend a weekend without the eye on the clock?

What started as a rather unconscious move of taking off my clock for an unrelated reason and leaving my phone in another room, soon turned into a purposeful action not to use any time measuring objects/apps for the whole weekend.


















So, what's good in this?

- It gives you the feeling of infinite time to be with yourself and do everything that you spontaneously wish to do.
Although this might seem like a not the most efficient use of your time, you will soon realize that you have more time than when you go by the clock. Why? When you plan let's say... 2h for yourself, you will spend the first 10 min thinking of how to use this limited time and the last 10 min with the eyes on the clock for the next appointment. As such, you don't really relax.

- You discover new ways to enjoy yourself that you haven't tried before because you were thinking that it is not worth investing your precious time in.
For example, when it's pouring raining outside and you had outdoor plans, you start becoming anxious when thinking about the wasted weekend. However, it doesn't need to be wasted! Try and cook some dish that you always wanted to cook, but never started doing because you thought it would take too long to do.

Or, re-arrange your wardrobe and you might discover clothes that you didn't wear for a long time because you were always taking on the first clothes from the top of the pile. This can be a 2 in 1 activity:
1) You select what you really need, and what you can give away and thus free up some space in your closet.
2) During this time you free your mind to wander around, review, process and learn from what has happened in the previous week.

- You may even end up doing more things than when going by the clock. Why?
Let's suppose that you plan your weekend well in advance and that you end up with a to do list for the weekend. However, when the weekend comes, you are not in the mood to start doing the planned things. Consequently, you choose one of the activities that you ought to do and then you take numerous breaks, because it's weekend and you know that you should take it easy. Sunday evening you realize that you have done 10% from what you have planned and you get frustrated.

However, if you don't go by the clock, you realize that after some time spent doing everything that you were in the mood for, you are get caught in the frenzy and start doing productive things. This urge to do becomes stronger when you are pleasantly surprised to see that you still have more time than expected. And you get on track and become more efficient in doing those things than in the case when you planned to do specific things.

All in all, leaving the technology away and going by your gut feeling can be a good thing to experiment every now and then. It gives you a liberating feeling that is comparable to a whole vacation week at the seaside or in the mountains.

Disclaimer:
I am not suggesting to have every weekend a clock free weekend. However, I find it beneficial from time to time.

The brand Switzerland

This post is for all those interested in country branding and to the ones who want to see nice videos about Romania...but mostly for the former reason :-)

Why write about this now?

1) The topic has been a hype in the last 3 years in Romania.2 totally different country images were developed for Ro.Although one of them had many good things inside, they've lacked a holistic communication, that one idea to leverage at different touchpoints: through TVC, Print, Internet banners,national tourism website,prints in each townhall, mobile phone apps, etc. Consequently,nothing was built around it and it faded away.

2) A few weeks back I've been to the Museum of Design in Zurich to visit "Paradise Switzerland" - the exhibition. It has been mind opening to see what and how long it took to create the Schwiitz brand. In this case, it took 50 years for the brand Switzerland to stand for:quality, mountains, and precision.




It all started in the 1920s, when the Swiss government advisertised Switzerland to Swiss as a winter holiday destination. The communication idea was: healthy kids thanks to fresh air and sports in the nature.
In parallel, Switzerland has promoted its agriculture: fresh mountain milk and cheese.

So, how did Swiss build their brand?
-Find 3 things that define your country,are different from the ones of neighboring countries and are deeply rooted in the
territory. In the Swiss case: spectacular mountain scenery, quality products, precision (clock industry).
-Think of a campaign idea that is general enough to include the 3 characteristcs to promote.The campaign idea needs to be easy understood so that it can be leveraged at multiple touchpoints. In the Swiss case: keep yourself fit and enjoy the quality Switzerland has to offer.
-Think of a logo and a slogan that reunites these 3 elements.This will be the common element in all advertising media. For CH, the flag was chosen as a logo. As for the slogan: Swiss Quality.
-Develop the Tvc to leverage one element at a time.If you can logically connect 2 elements, you can then include boh in
one Tvc.Do Not try to fit all the 3 elements in one Tvc b/c it will dillute your message.Use alternatively different
Tvc,having as a common element the slogan and the logo.
-Repeat,repeat,repeat the same ideas over and over again.The executions can be different,but the idea Must be the same.

And now, to the Switzerland example:
- for mountains they chose Matternhorn and they repeated the same image, though in a modern look,for 70 years;
- quality - the executions were always different,but same idea;
- clocks - he idea of precision was communicated.In some instances, quality and clocks were
connected in the same commercial by "precision".
-to this, they added a fourth element: chocolate.This was alternatively connected to mountains and the fresh milk of mountain cows or to quality.

So, what can be done in Romania's case?
1) elements:
- wild, virgin nature and the Danube Delta as an image for this;
- authentic villages - which is easily connected to nature;
- hospitality - fits with villages.

2) Slogan/logo - the use of the flag is not recommended b/c it is too disturbing in a print;
3) Tvc - below are 2 attempts to portray Ro. I prefer the former b/c it is captures some of the typical ro elem.

1st video- was done by Ogilvy 4-5 years ago. The campaign idea is: Romania - simply surprising. It is my favorite one due to the combination of music and image choice.


2nd video - the positive in there is the placement of known personalities, sport people like: Hagi, Nadia Comaneci, or Ilie Nastase. However, the slogan was less inspired, as well as the image selection, which doesn't really capture the most special things/places in Romania. To end with, this video tries to cover too many distinct aspects of Romania and it thus dillutes the message. At the end you cannot really tell what Romania is. This probably proofs that the creatives behind this video weren't briefed correctly and didn't really immerse in the topic. However, enjoy it! There are 2 versions for this video.
The first one is a teaser. It's funny and it serves its purpose.


The second version is the real TVC:



and finally...a teaser sponsored by SAB Miller to refresh/ learn more about Romania: