As I mentioned in a previous post, I took part in a seminar recently where, together with our design partners at Spoiled Milk, we spelt out why we think companies should embrace blogging.

Well, this morning I was delighted to see an email in my inbox from one of the attendees, Andreas Zecher from Swedish software development company Fantasy Interactive, pointing me in the direction of his company’s blog.

Andreas had written a great summary of mine and Russell’s key points and included some great pics as well.

This is a great example of the blogosphere in action… information and experiences are shared in instant, interactive ways. It’s such a powerful tool and it’s only going to get bigger.

You can read Andreas’ post here.

You can’t get away from it. It’s always on the news, it’s at the movies, and every time you look out the window. Climate change.

The issue is now widely acknowledged as a global problem affecting us all, and people are starting to be more aware of what they’re doing and how they can make a difference.

As consumers, we want to know that the companies we’re lining the pockets of are also doing their bit. Our latest Wordspin article gives some suggestions on how to develop a green branding strategy that will stand up to consumer scrutiny. With people keen to know exactly what companies are doing in their daily operations to make a difference, companies can no longer get away with simply paying lip service to the issue.

So has your company’s brand gone green? Or do you think this is just another flash in the marketing pan?

We had a presentation from Red Barnet today.

A couple of their staff dropped by the Eye for Image office and talked to us in a warm and friendly way about their work.

One of them gave a quick PowerPoint presentation detailing some of their current projects and some facts and figures, including the rather alarming statistic that Denmark currently has more than 90,000 children living below the poverty line.

But for the most part, it was more of a discussion, touching on charity work in general, the best ways to communicate their message, and fundraising techniques.

I told them that having sat with them, and gotten a feel for their passion and enthusiasm, I was about 100 times more likely to start donating than if I had merely received an e-mail or a leaflet through my door.

It’s a simple equation really - people respond to people.

What message is there here for companies?

Well, I guess it’s that the best marketing tools are your people. Find a way to put them front and centre and have them engage with your potential customers and you’ll reap the rewards.

I think what struck me most today was the way I responded to the sheer enthusiasm of our guests. When one gave an anecdote about a recent camp she had attended with work, her face lit up and her obvious joy at what she does shone through. That is real communication.

I know, I know, this is not exactly revolutionary thinking, but for me personally it was an interesting experience to have this simple lesson confirmed in such a positive way.

Eye for Image took part in a great seminar on why companies should embrace blogging this morning.

Held at the studio of our design partners Spoiled Milk, the seminar addressed two key issues - why companies should blog, and how to do it.

I had the pleasure of speaking about the former while Spoiled Milk founder Russell Quinn addressed the technical issues.

Both our presentations will soon be available as PDFs. If you would like to receive them, either leave a comment below, or email our marketing manager at nathalie.erb@eye-for-image.com

Recently, a colleague and I got into a debate about commas and quotes.

He had edited a document for a client and I was taking a second look at it to ensure consistency.

I came across a split quote. Something along these lines:

“Why there you are Johnny,” said Jeremy. “I’ve been wondering where you’d gotten to!”

I had something of a brain-freeze and decided that the comma after Johnny needed to be outside the quote marks.

I found a source on the net that backed up my assertion, made the change and then sent the document back to my colleague.

Thankfully, my colleague is not one to back down easily and did a little research of his own. Somewhat more thorough research!

It turned out that my colleague was right, and I was wrong. All’s fair in love and war, and it was a good learning exercise for both us.

But what I really wanted to share with you was the following extremely insightful observation from the World Wide Words site which I came across during the course of my own research:

“Nobody will misunderstand what you write because of where you choose to put your stops relative to quotation marks. A writer who fixes too much attention on the correctness of his punctuation, or a reader who does the same, is missing the point: the job of text is to communicate, not satisfy pedantic rule makers.”

This seems to me to be the key learning here. It’s all too easy to get bogged down in the minutiae sometimes, and lose sight of the big picture.

Over the last week, I’ve been doing some work for Carlsberg. The task is for The Brew, the company newsletter, and has involved writing two articles based on three interviews.

After completing the interviews, I sent my first drafts for review. And each time, I received feedback from the interviewees the same day (in one case, within an hour). It’s wonderful to write for a company that is so swift in replying. The benefit for Carlsberg is that their texts are still fresh in my mind when I implement the changes and suggestions.

These aren’t the first articles I’ve written for Carlsberg. And every time, the people there have responded quickly and positively.

It seems like the work practices are as refreshing as the product!

If you’re marketing to English-speaking markets, it pays to remember that you will likely be up against some of the world’s best communicators: the sales and marketing executives recruited by native-English speaking countries. These days, a standard job description for American or British sales and marketing people almost always requests things like:

Superior verbal and written communication skills
- Theikos (USA)

Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability of attention to detail
- (Sprint/Nextel)

Excellent oral, written and presentation skills…
- A.M. Nielsen

Strong oral and written communication skills…
- Merck & Co. Inc.

Professional-level written and verbal communication skills…
- New-edge Networks, Inc.

Since verbal communication is the backbone of almost any persuasive task, Danish companies have their work cut out for them in oral presentations, written marketing materials and so on. Their native-English speaking counterparts simply have a natural advantage when it comes to speaking or writing persuasively.

As part of the effort to lift Danish competitiveness in the international arena, I suggest that Danish companies view the English language skills of their marketing and sales people as a competitive element that needs to be developed and improved in the same way as any other strategic asset.

A strategic asset is any asset that has strong significance for an organization’s competitive positioning, whether it be a production, financial or marketing resource. The organization should have a plan for maintaining and further developing each of its strategic assets to make sure that it performs strongly in a competitive marketplace.

In a recent exercise I took the marketing management of a major food producer through, we looked at advertisements across the food industry. We asked them to cut out ads from the industry’s trade publications and put them into three piles: the first was for companies that had no particular visual and verbal brand. The second, for companies with a visual and verbal brand that wasn’t really great. The third, for companies with high-impact visual and verbal brands. It turned out that their key competitors were in the third pile. But the company itself was in the second pile. Its managers realized that there was only one choice if they were to be seen as a market leader – they had to get into the high-impact pile. The interesting thing was that the companies picked out for this pile shared a few things – and I’d like to share those with you:

1) They didn’t use words such as ‘innovation’, ‘partner’ or ‘leading’.
2) They didn’t crowd the page with messages – instead, they were highly visual in their approach
3) They used at least a full page, often two, to get their simple, but powerful message across

The key learning is that you can write mission statements that say you lead the world. You can mention countless times how your company is the leader in your industry. But, unless you really, actually, look like a leader when you communicate, you won’t be perceived as such.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve seen my words mangled in various ways by designers who didn’t read them before they put them into layout. I know I’m precious about my words – after all, I did spend hours getting them just right – but I still think I’m justified in feeling a mix of horror and sadness when a designer seems to use the text as purely a visual aid. Some recent horrors include:

- squiggly arrows that pull the reader’s eye AWAY from the title of a brochure and into blank space
- a carefully chosen customer endorsement squashed in the bottom corner where no one will ever see it
- forgotten picture captions (captions are a great place to do some subtle product promotion, don’t forget them!)
- excessive use of italics (notoriously difficult to read)
- words like ‘text box’ written at the top of a text box

A great designer should not just read the words, they should understand them. Because the design and words need to work together to make the message clear. If designers read the words carefully, they can design something that increases the power of the message. But if they don’t, their designs will inevitably detract from what the words are trying to achieve.

In Denmark, this is not considered enough. Every designer should read the text. And any designers working with English copy must be able to read English well enough to really understand the ins and outs of the message.

Am I alone in thinking this is obvious?

The highly respected Monocle magazine has named Copenhagen as the world’s second most livable city.

The article is for subscribers only but thankfully Visit Copenhagen has provided a précis of Monocle’s chief findings:

“When it comes to quality of life, Copenhagen is pretty hard to beat. In fact, only Munich does better in Monocle magazine’s recently published survey of the world’s most liveable cities. To sum up the spirit of the Danish capital, Monocle writer Stuart Husband quotes the advertising slogan ‘there’s something modern in the state of Denmark’, which in his view ‘encapsulates Copenhagen’s current mood of creative maelstrom and youthful dynamism rather adroitly’.

Contributing to this sense of dynamic modernity is the new wave of architects, designers and chefs - combined with ’some joined-up thinking by city officials’ - which has seen Copenhagen reborn with ‘a bullish mood’. Monocle lists a number of ‘metrics’ that contribute to Copenhagen’s high placing. They include public transport, the extension at the city’s airport, the freshly-minted statement buildings lining the harbour, a well-developed bicycle network, the café culture, the neither harried nor sleepy pace and design and creativity.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. But I wonder what your thoughts are?

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here’s the full top 10:

1. Munich
2. Copenhagen
3. Zürich
4. Tokyo
5. Vienna
6. Helsinki
7. Sydney
8. Stockholm
9. Honolulu
10. Madrid