Weekly Round-Up: Branding, Google+ for businesses, Olympics 2012

Martin Creed's Olympic Poster

This week we've been in and out of meetings with clients for a variety of services, including social media marketing and website renewal. We're also very excited to be adding some new features to the Clifton College App (currently available as a free download for the iPhone). 


Here's what's been catching our eye's this week: 



Businesses using social media
This week, we've got some articles which focus on 2 specific areas: branding, and the launch of Google Plus profiles for brands and businesses.


Branding
We've blogged before about the rebranding for big brands like Coca Cola and The Gap, so we were interested to see Adweek's timeline of the changes Coca Cola and Pepsi cans have undergone over the past few years. The number of changes is striking, as is their attempts to interact with other events/issues and attract customer engagement.

unloading bales of Harris Tweed via @brainpicker

What is your brand's story and how are you delivering it? An important way to think about branding, especially in the context of social media and viral marketing - a useful reflection on branding from Drew Hawkins.


Thinking about your brand's story, might come back to its history or what makes it special - this celebration of the traditional craftsmanship of Harris Tweed demonstrates the varying ways brands attract our interest, be it tradition, uniqueness, quality, localization, fashion.


Google Plus for brands
This week, Google's social network Google+ made it possible for brands and businesses to sign up for the service. Mashable had some good introductory posts for businesses getting started on the site, tips and tricks and ways for those wanting to promote their presence. While we're all adjusting to the different possibilities it offers from other sites like Facebook and Twitter, What do you make of the design of site? We will be featuring it on the blog next week, so we'd love to hear your thoughts - in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.


Art & Design
This week we seem to be focusing on the upcoming Olympics, with a post from Creative Review on the new Olympic posters, which explores the history of poster design for event, thus placing the new designs by artists like Tracey Emin, Bridget Riley, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris and Martin Creed in an interesting context.


In addition, The Guardian featured an interview with Ruth Mackenzie about what's in store for Britain's cultural life while the Olympics is on, with the cultural Olympiad.


Bristol
In Bristol this week there was more Olympics news, as the route for the Olympic torch through the city has been confirmed.


Remembrance Day is being commemorated by The Pierian Centre today with a whole day of film, poetry, art and discussion. On Sunday, there will be a parade through the city.   Tweet