We’re going to post a few clips from our thinking approach over the course of the next few blogs.

For the folks that work with us already our Culture Making ethos is at the heart of what we do along with the 3 principles by which we work for consumer lifestyle brands:

Being human, Creative thought leadership & Doing the right thing.

In line with this basic ethos we pull any number of aspects out the bag on social & cultural capital and positioning/ communicating strategies.

The first thing we want to touch on is Brand Duality.

What we mean by this is creating a two prong approach to communicating a brand to provide different layers of tone and personality. Contagious have referred to a variant of this calling it Two Track branding where a brand has core brand activity and then niche sub-communications.

The analogy bit: Imagine one of your favourite musicians or performing artists. Imagine what they’re like on stage, larger than life, composed, focused, confident, assured, capable and impressive. Now imagine them back stage, or sometimes in an interview… Possibly they’re different, shy, awkward, or a prankster and witty.

This is duality right? The glossy external image, well lit, amplified and controlled, super human image… vs rough cut, honest, disarmed and human.

Naturally there are other aspects to consider; like when the image is owned by the fans (ie. consumer generated), but for this purpose we’re focusing on projection from the source.

Our thinking is always to consider firstly whether there is an advantage to portraying a brand in two lights and if there is how to create the different components of their On and Off stage persona.

One example of a brand that has tapped into Duality really well would be Ray Ban. Using a glossy global TVC portraying a stylized american dream sub cultural lifestyle. On the flip side they commissioned an MTV Jackass Director to produce You Tube virals under their brand strapline of Never Hide films.

The viral work features the director and his sidekick performing stunts using pairs of Wayfarers under video headings like ’Guys catches glasses with face). The viral has received just shy of 5m views since it’s launch.

Each of the brands ideas achieves the same brand objective from two very different tonal approaches – connect with the emotional attraction of Ray Ban.

Just in the same way a friend or celebrity has different interesting facets to their persona, so too can brands illicit stronger following by revealing different tonal dynamics on different occasions, in different ways.