Some interesting things have been happening that I’ve only really properly noticed since I returned home to recession hit England for a holiday – and that’s loads of my friends seem to have a side project that they didn’t have when I left 2 years ago.
Now I don’t know if it’s the recession, as they always seem to give people a nudge to do something, or technology making things easier. It might even be something cultural, relating to consumer excess and wanting something more fulfilling in their lives than a nice car and money in their pockets to spend on over priced beer.
First of all there are the side business projects that are financially driven, but firmly rooted in something they love. Some examples include a Longboard equipment company, international surfing holidays, fashion and record labels to name but a few.
Then there are the non-financially driven people who have started bands, grown vegetables in allotments, become obsessed with a new sport or simply gone back to something they loved doing when they were younger such as painting.
Undoubtedly this is rubbing off on brands as they begin to understand they also need a side project to capture people’s imagination and engage them. Red Bull has always been great at this and Cadbury’s was one of the first to get this with its Glass and a Half Full Productions strategy. Now we have Coke’s Happiness Factory and a mission to make the world happy, but probably my favourite side project at the moment has to be VW’s Fun Theory. We have all probably seen the piano video but there is a series developing over at thefuntheory.com.
Good stuff. The art of selling without selling is to have a side project.
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