R. KLANTEN S. HEMMAN
Anyone currently working in brand communication is facing fundamental yet compelling challenges. In an age in which we are flooded with information, consumers are becoming more critical and discerning. They are deploying ever finer filters so that only the most relevant pieces of information ever reach them. Because of this development, traditional brand and advertising messages are far less likely to be seen.
Taken by Surprise is a collection of communication measures that are sophisticated and relevant enough to overcome these hurdles. They include limited special edition products and signature collaborations between brands, artists, and designers such as those between Julian Schnabel and Maybach, Issey Miyake and Dyson, Sagmeister and Levis, Olafur Eliasson and BMW, Jonathan Meese and Staehlemuehle, Terry Richardson and Colette as well as other innovative work by the likes of Damien Hirst, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, David Lynch, Geoff McFetridge, and Pharrell Williams.
The book also showcases select promotional gifts that have become collectors items, arresting trade fair stands, guerilla campaigns, and exclusive events. Portraits of trailblazers such as Maison Martin Margiela, Bompas & Parr, Fiona Leahy, Krink, and Trigger Happy Productions provide insight into the process and strategy involved in their creation and implementation.
The brand communication measures introduced in Taken by Surprise are so cleverly planned and disseminated that they become self-promulgatingeither through word of mouth or in the flow of digital information. Target audiences become brand ambassadors, customers become collaborators, and consumption becomes an experience.
Taken by Surprise offers advertising agencies, designers, and marketing departments inspiration for the development of more original, more creative, and more attractive brand communication than ever before.
