Author Archives: Julian Stubbs

Today Barcelona is one of Europe’s, if not the world’s, most successful destinations for both tourism and as a business location. People even talk of adopting the Barcelona model when it comes to redefining a post-industrial location. However, it was all very different forty years ago. In the 1975 series Fawlty Towers, Manuel, the hapless Spanish waiter who lived in fear of Basil Fawlty, was cast as coming from Barcelona. His home town was chosen with great care – as at that stage Barcelona was considered by many to be a run down, dirty, industrial black hole. It wasn’t until the death of Franco in 1975, that a new regional focus could be put in place to get the city back on a path to regeneration. Arguably Barcelona has more brand assets than most places. The stunning architecture, famous artists, a successful Olympics in 1992, a wonderful song about the city and one of the world’s greatest football clubs Barca. Which brings me rather nicely to the beautiful game, football – or soccer to our colonial cousins. May 28th saw the final of the Champions League 2011 between Barcelona and Manchester United, respectively the champions in their own countries domestic competitions. Josep “Pep” Guardiola’s team not only beat Manchester United 3-1, they made them look like they didn’t even play the same game. It might only be football, but it’s actually a lesson in sound management and brand management. TEAM IS KEY First and foremost Barcelona play as a team. Look at the majority of the UK’s Premier League Clubs and they are filled with exotic foreign and domestic players, who are all too often prima donnas- and more interested in their own particular brand than their clubs. Barca play the most compelling passing game, involving the whole team and when they celebrate they celebrate together. A lesson for business if ever there was one. The Barca team also has more home grown talent than most others. Arsenal or Manchester United’s first eleven rarely has more than a few local players, preferring to recruit expensive overseas stars. Or look at Manchester City’s billion pound team – a wholly artificial construction brought about only with money. By contrast eight of the Barcelona first eleven were groomed through the clubs own football school, La Mesia, and that includes Lionel Messi, probably the world’s finest player at the moment. This creates fierce loyalty, a genuine team spirit and a real passion in representing the city and region the club comes from. The team’s manager, Guardiola, himself came through the same school before going on to play for the Barca first team for seventeen years. If ever there was a lesson for brands it is contained in this real enthusiasm and shared values that creates team spirit and belief. Many brands today live in fear of the new rules of engagement they have with their customers in the internet age. Today’s two way dialogue has forced many to involve the consumer more in their own brand and how they should develop it. But none has gone as far as Barcelona in letting their core fans have a direct say in major decisions. The club is even owned by its members, again unlike the majority of UK clubs who are owned by wealthy, often foreign, tycoons who have little true feeling for local pride or passion and the role football plays in people’s lives. As with many great success stories the key ingredient is also having a long term vision. The success of both Barcelona, as a destination, and their team has not happened overnight. Having a long-term plan and sticking with it pays off. Reaching the position Barcelona is in today has taken thirty years or more. I once jokingly remarked in a magazine article that a destination brand had to have three things to be considered genuinely great. Proximity to water, an outstanding sports team, preferably with the destinations name in it, and a famous song. Think New York, San Francisco, Liverpool and Barcelona – which each has all three. I guess The Manchester Ship Canal and their club’s song Glory Glory Man United was just not enough on the night. Order Windows 7 Ultimate Cheap Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Cheap Windows 7 Ultimate Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Cheap Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Discount Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Sale Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Buy Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Cheap Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus

A month or so ago I was fortunate enough to attend a creative business writers course at Merton College Oxford. The company behind the course is called Dark Angels ( http://www.dark-angels.org.uk/index.html ) a UK based organisation dedicated to improving business writing. There were just eight fellow writers attending, amongst them some of the most creative business writers I’ve ever met. Too many corporations struggle to communicate in human terms, and I’ve always felt it’s part of my job to help them find a voice that is both their own and human. As part of our Oxford session we also had the pleasure of an evening with Philip Pullman author of the well known Dark Materials Trilogy. Truly inspirational. The BBC Radio 4 program In Business was also there to cover the course, and I was asked to contribute to the program. You can hear the episode and interview at the link below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010y316 Peter Day, the presenter of In Business, described UP* There, Everywhere as the world’s smallest global advertising agency. I rather like that! Today UP* has 60 members and we are in 18 cities around the world. When will we reach 100? Discount Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Order Windows 7 Ultimate Order Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Cheap Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Order Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Cheap Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Order Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus

A good friend, who has been a client several times during our relationship, pointed out to me one of the really big advantages from his perspective of *UP There, Everywhere. He knows that if he takes his business to an agency he will end UP being given a team to work on his business that hopefully will be the best team for his business. However, he’s also realistic enough to know that the agency will first and foremost be looking to make the most of the limited resources they have available. Agencies have a tremendously high fixed overhead cost to cover – I know I’ve been there. In his words ‘they’ll give me a team that has spare capacity – but not always the best team for my business’. He went on to point out that at UP* we are in the fortunate position of having a much wider resource base – more talent, more people to choose from, with no fixed overhead to cover – so there’s no pressure on forcing a team onto the client. We can even offer the client the choice of team and location that makes most sense for them. Think about it. How many agencies can offer that. Sale Windows 7 Ultimate Order Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Discount Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Buy Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Sale Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Buy Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Discount Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Discount Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus

The word different has played a pretty important part in my life. At my old company, Dowell//Stubbs, our tagline was A Different Point of View. It spoke to one of the fundamental elements of branding– that of being different. Today we are launching a new company. A company that takes that concept a huge step further. *UP There, Everywhere is in itself new and very different. The business model is different. In fact there’s nothing quite like it anywhere. We have no fancy offices. We have no formal employees. But we do have a hugely talented and experienced pool of people who work together 24/7. So we are certainly different. Helping our clients find difference is key to what we do as well of course. Helping them differentiate their brands and organisations. Helping their brands define themselves so their positioning makes them ‘different’ in their marketplaces. Helping them stand out from the crowd. Offering truly global integrated marketing and creative services, whether it’s in social media campaigns, advertising, public relations or on websites. Our name is pretty different as well and many people ask where it came from. Well it began life in a small restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden. We’d been discussing the scope and business model of this new company and using the table cloth to scribble notes and ideas on (it was paper – luckily we don’t eat in fancy restaurants too often). But we needed the right name. We knew we were going to work in a completely different way – no offices, no employees. We knew we were going to be international from the moment we launched and we knew we were going to be using digital media and cloud based services. Like a cloud we knew that we would be literally ‘UP there.’ Like a cloud we knew that we would also pretty quickly be ‘Everywhere’. The original concept for *UP There, Everywhere was scribbled on a napkin over dinner. I remember scribbling it on the napkin in marker-pen in bright colours. UP There, Everywhere. A colleague then leaned over and scribbled in an asterisk – our symbol. It was different. Over the course of the next couple of weeks we bounced it off friends and colleagues and realised pretty quickly it was a very special name. It was quirky and certainly not normal. It got people to ask questions. The word ‘UP’ in itself is an extremely positive word, a word we felt represented the new company and its energy. After a couple of weeks of digging and probing we knew we’d found a special name. So welcome to *UP There, Everywhere. Are we different? From our name, to our people, to what we do and how we do it, you’ll find out that we are. Are you UP* for it? ————————– Julian Member *UP There, Everywhere Stockholm, Sweden www.upthereeverywhere.com Order Windows 7 Ultimate Cheap Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Cheap Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Cheap Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Buy Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Discount Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Order Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus

Always had a bit of a thing for collecting corporate Brand Books and Identity Guides. Interesting to see how companies and brands attempt to keep a consistent approach to their identity. And Identities and brands aren’t just restricted to commercial operations of course. In that respect just found a rather interesting one. I’ve just been given a digital copy of the NSDAP Brand Book from 1937. Six hundred pages of rules and regulations for running the Nazi brand basically. Interesting section as regards ‘the exclusion zone’ and brings a whole new significance to the phrase ‘brand police.’ Cheap Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Discount Discount Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Discount Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Order Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Cheap Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus