Wally Olins, a tribute

Yesterday I shared a lively interview with Michael Wolff only to discover a few hours after I posted it that Wally Olins, the other half of legendary Wolff Ollins, had died. Creative Review has a lovely tribute.

Wally Olins, co-founder of Wolff Olins and chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants, has died aged 83. CR editor Patrick Burgoyne pays tribute

The Financial Times once described Wally Olins as "the world's leading practitioner of branding and identity" and it's hard to disagree with that assessment. Certainly Wally didn't as, in typical style, he placed it in a prominent position on his website.

Earlier this year Michael Wolff and Wally Olins were reunited at the Kyoorius Designyatra in India, which was chaired by Creative Review's editor Patrick Burgoyne. In this first video, Pat asks the influential pair what drove them mad about the other.

Earlier this year Michael Wolff and Wally Olins were reunited at the Kyoorius Designyatra in India, which was chaired by Creative Review's editor Patrick Burgoyne. In this second video, Pat asks the influential pair about their split and their attitudes to the Wolff Olins company today.

In the third of our extracts from their discussion at the Kyoorius Designyatra in India, Michael Wolff and Wally Olins talk about life after their split, and their impact on the design community

In September this year, Michael Wolff and Wally Olins were reunited on stage for the first time since going their separate ways in the 80s. In a session at the Kyoorius Designyatra conference in Mumbai, which was chaired by Creative Review's editor Patrick Burgoyne, the pair talked about working together, splitting up, what they achieved and what they think of the branding world today.

What does, "it's too expensive," mean?

Seth Godin on the value, cost and affordability of your product:

Often, it actually means, "it's not worth it." This is a totally different analysis, of course. Lots of things aren't worth it, at least to you, right now. I think it's safe to assume that when you hear a potential customer say, "it's too expensive," what you're really hearing is something quite specific. A $400 bottle of water is too expensive to just about everyone, even to people with more than $500 in the bank. They have the cash, but they sure don't want to spend it, not on something they think is worth less than it costs.

Not everyone will value your offering the same, so if you wait for no one to say, "it's too expensive" before you go to market, you will never go to market. The challenge isn't in pleasing everyone, it's in finding the few who see the value (and thus the bargain) in what's on offer.

Allison Johnson: On Apple & The Difference Between Marketing And Selling

There are only a few people who have worked directly under Steve Jobs, and Allison Johnson is one of those people. The former head of marketing at Apple, Johnson oversaw the launch of the company's hallmark products like the iPhone and its famous campaigns like "Mac vs. PC" and "There's an app for that." In this interview with Behance's Scott Belsky, Johnson shares stories from her time at Apple, emphasizes authenticity in business, and reveals how we can find a balance between launching a polished product (like Apple) versus shipping fast for feedback (like Google). About Allison Johnson Allison is the founder of West, a new kind of strategy and creative accelerator based in San Francisco focused on introducing new companies, products and ideas to the world. Prior to West, she ran marketing at Apple for six-plus years reporting to Steve, where she was responsible for launching some of the most iconic products and campaigns of our time. A self-professed revolutionary, she's found herself at the center of some of the industry's most historic turns including IBM's embrace of the internet era with e-business, Netscape's pivot from browser to enterprise software purveyor, HP's reinvention under Carly Fiorina, and the launch of the iPhone and iPad.

There are only a few people who have worked directly under Steve Jobs, and Allison Johnson is one of those people. The former head of marketing at Apple, Johnson oversaw the launch of the company’s hallmark products like the iPhone and its famous campaigns like “Mac vs. PC” and “There’s an app for that.”

In this interview with Behance’s Scott Belsky, Johnson shares stories from her time at Apple, emphasizes authenticity in business, and reveals how we can find a balance between launching a polished product (like Apple) versus shipping fast for feedback (like Google).

The History Of The Movie Trailer

Some people consider them the best part of the movie going experience - the Movie Trailer. Take a look at the evolution of the "coming attractions" from simple silent film splices, through the template style of the Golden Age of Hollywood, through Auteurs and finally into the Blockbuster era. This lesson is proudly sponsored by: http://BlackMagicDesign.com Creating the world's highest quality solutions for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. For a full write up along with more trailers check out: http://filmmakeriq.com/2014/03/the-history-of-the-movie-trailer

Some people consider them the best part of the movie going experience — the Movie Trailer. Take a look at the evolution of the "coming attractions" from simple silent film splices, through the template style of the Golden Age of Hollywood, through Auteurs and finally into the Blockbuster era.

Learned a lot of things I didn't know about the movie trailer. More trailers from throughout history can be seen at Filmmaker IQ

How “Lion King” Regained Its Crown As Broadway’s Top-Selling Show: An Algorithm

Patrick Healy, New York Times: 

Since 2011, the show’s producers, Disney Theatrical Productions, have been relying on a previously undisclosed computer algorithm to recommend the highest ticket prices that audiences would be likely to pay for each of the 1,700 seats at every performance in the Minskoff Theater. While other shows also employ this so-called dynamic pricing system to raise seat prices during tourist-heavy holiday weeks, only Disney has reached the level of sophistication achieved in the airline and hotel industries by continually using its algorithm to calibrate prices based on demand and ticket purchasing patterns.

By charging $10 more here, $20 more there, “The Lion King” stunned Broadway at year’s end as the No. 1 earner for the first time since 2003, bumping off the champ, “Wicked.” And Disney even managed to do it by charging half as much for top tickets as some rivals.