Humans can be simple creatures, we love to generalize and place things into boxes. It makes it much easier to understand our world. While someone may have diverse and complex interests we define people by their role in society. Fred is a plumber, John is a lawyer, everyone has a role to fulfill. City identity is similar. Consumers like to generalize about locations.

It seems to me of late that storytellers prefer to have audiences daydream about romance or mysterious discoveries. Marketing cities has therefore become less about the Single Minded Proposition and more about what happens to you when you get there.

In advertising it seems to make some sense to place the projected consumer in a romanticized context in hope of consumption. These fantasy environments, reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland for example in the Auckland campaign “BiglittleCity” have interwoven reality and truth. Only time will tell if Big Little City comes close to the cry of City of Sails.

What interests me is, how do these creative campaigns build long-term regional identities in the minds of consumers. How do we get everyone signing of the same page so to speak, and the same song?

There are a myrid of possibilities in this question given that locals get to define their song, and consumers or visitors may already associate right or wrong stories with a location. Which may make convincing them otherwise more difficult. Take my home city Dunedin for example. A commonly heard story outside of Dunedin is “Dunedin is too cold”. Yet Dunedin has a beautiful climate even in winter where locals get outside in the sun. Stories are everywhere, and they can confuse and complicate the marketer’s role.

So what core stories exist already in New Zealand? When thinking about the core story for Wellington, I would use the words, fun/quirky, lively, forward thinking/proactive, and creative. Brand advertising and even on the ground environmental design evidence reinforces this story.

When Dunedin questioned whether to build a stadium there were people for and people against it. Ultimately, that passion came down to touching a nerve of the core story of the city. When the idea was progressed it was a defining moment where the core story of the city was changed. Dunedin through off conservatism and reflection and became progressive, proud, bold and confident. Dunedin’s evolutionary story will always be about revitalizing a proud prosperity and a new future and not languishing on what it was in the past.

The challenge of the City Brand Identity champion is to define a role for the city and to craft a song. A single minded proposition that sets the location apart from any other. We can flirt with supporting campaigns and other objectives but before all that everyone must know the core story. After all, like cities, we may all have jobs and roles to play but we are all have our own unique story, and this is what sets us apart in this world, this is what attracts like minded people to us.

Work, well that’s what we call it. It isn’t really what we think it is. Work is an exchange of utility for another. Somewhere in between we get some money and that helps the exchange part run alot smoother or not. Work means we can provide a service to our community in so much that we can share the benefits of belonging to a community.

The fact that some people get paid more than others can be dependent on legacy, smarts, foul play and down right luck. Ultimately, everyone is as important as everyone else to ensure society functions efficiently.

We need work. We may grumble about it, moan about the monotony of it but at the end of the day most of us are routine junkies, craving the importance and achievement work brings us.

Work enables us to exchange responsibility for wants and needs to other people, with the added bonus of specialization. We don’t need to hunt, breed chickens, write books, make iPods, it’s all done for us and by people with much better skills.

In the tribe we become known for being able to do something. People then come to us to get that done. What we do has a market value. We can then use that value to in turn purchase something from others.

Organizations and companies are just groups of people who choose to spend time together with related areas of specialization.

Some people create work that has flexible hours or less hours than others. Some people prefer to work all the time. Some people receive no money for the work they do. All in work benefit the whole.

The rare few have accumulated or inherited excess value. Meaning, they have more value than they need to exchange. These people often do not need to work to produce value for exchange. Naturally, they end up exchanging additional value than is necessary for additionally developed needs and wants. Additionally these people also are great gifters of value and/or work for the fun of it.

Anyone can become someone with excess value. You simply need to exchange less value than you earn on a consistent basis.

Work is not work, work is living.

Perhaps it is not pedigree that separates one man from another – a mans success is defined by whether his will is determined by every voice that resides in his head.

It is enough to live to a personal standard – to conceive of and seek the accomplishment of challenging goals. To think and feel and autonomously action irregardless of mood and thinking. This is a state of true self awareness.

If we are wronged, it is the fool who directs anger and frustration within. Seek respite by your standard. Hold face with honour and poise. An angry face will miss the beauty and magic. A wise and open man will gain wisdom, as inspiration is a waiting gift.

We are privy to a constant flow of thought and feeling. All are engineered and of our own design. Our place is to choose those that serve us well, accept those that do not, for all are of this place.

It was once a highly useful search engine sitting at the opposite side of the world. Now Google is a super brand and its reach grows more global and more local every day. Lets face it, Google is way more local and real. Its now setup camp in our back yard whether we like it or not. Today I got a letter from Google and I am sure that tomorrow a Google representative will be knocking at the door.

I guess with Globalisation we got Ronald McDonald, so why not a Google on every corner? Oddly, ask an average person on the street and some would tell you that Google “is the internet”. Google wants to replicate the real world on the internet. It has placed it’s hands in many many pies in order to achieve this.

We rely on Google and that creates a power differential. It only makes sense that while Google gets busy placing more of the real world on the Internet, it will make itself of the real world.

The Warehouse opened a new store in my old home town Mosgiel, and almost instantly the local stationary store closed. We can call it progress, evolution or growth. Good or bad, Google is coming to a town near you and it’s impact will be felt.

If you are afraid of losing your current way of life you are afraid of change. The mind simplifies and interprets your fear to mean all change both good and bad. Thus your fear of loss blocks transformational change. You must be willing to remove in order to gain.

Who should be paying the professional content providers? News media players know they have to be online, generations are abandoning traditional papers by the thousands. So traditionally this means abandoning the subscription mindset and this income channel. Ironically cruel is the delay in online advertisers jumping on board. Naturally this process is occurring gradually.

Thankfully, distribution is cheaper online, no printing presses here or trucking tones of trees throughout the city. But wait consumers themselves are now a threat. Who would have thought that an individuals daily activities would become news in sites like Facebook and Twitter. This news is not only relevant, it’s personal and this is a powerful and addictive attention grabber.

So who Is getting paid? Downstream the ISP controls the tap and they are technically getting paid for the service but really for content. The grand filters such as Google, Bing, Yahoo etc have carefully managed advertising models that ensure they get their piece of the pie as users are in transit. So again technically they are getting paid for content. Unfortunetly, the media content provider is at the end of this sales cycle and it shows. Whats the answer?

One option is to move closer to the start of the cycle cutting out the intermediaries. NZherald are developing closer relationships with consumers thanks to sexy applications on the likes of new devices like the Ipad. Here the relationship is simpler and the journey more consistent with traditional brand loyalty equations. Delivery of content is fast, direct and potentially controllable. This is where I see the greatest benefit for news media at this time and the expansion of news ready handheld devices will drive rapid growth.

So dear news media you have served us well, and while we may be excited about sharing our own personal news and views it’s not the end as long as you can see the potential in mobile devices and the new web 2.0 interface. Now if only we can convince the service providers to give us the data.

The sea drew back as if to take breath. I thought between the roar that I heard a gasp. As waves flowed back towards the horizon, forward moving waves were already lurching towards the beach. Then they hit. At that moment of intense emotion all that was positive in the world collided with a counter balancing force of negativity. Sometimes the sea quietly crawled higher towards the dunes as if the retreating waves missed their call. At times the surge forward was humble.

If your state of well being in a day was represented by the sea we would forever be attempting to move forward towards the dunes, always drawing back by our own advance. It seems to me that we could easily surge forward and engulf the earth with our joy. But perhaps this would not be as beneficial as we might think. To be truly alive we need to accept that we are like the sea. All positive thought and motion cannot be limitless – it must be constrained so we do not explode into euphoria and ultimate insanity. So be happy if you are positive at least half of the time, enjoy your tides and marvel as the sunset shines over your shores.

I knew this dog once, called Jack. He was like any other dog. He would sit steering at you while you ate hoping for a treat to be thrown his way. Jack is a master motivator. He understands basic principles about how to get what he wants. Firstly he must be near the opportunity. Where the food is. For a dog proximity is key. He will sit close to the food.

Secondly, jack plants the seed or consideration in your brain. He sits directly in front of you and if you notice he doesn’t stare at the food, he looks you directly in the eyes. For Jack he must be noticed, he must be considered for his wish to potentially come true. Jack plants the seed of his success without saying a single word.

Finally for jack to be successful he is persistent. Think of how many times Jack has had to wait patiently only to be ignored while i stuffed my face with a sausage roll. He has failed time and time again but every once in a while, Jack gets something.

Are you getting some?

Most of us go about our lives drinking cups of tea without a care in the world. It often pays to stop and check the quality of the beliefs in which we base our routines. What I mean is, it pays to check the kettle every once in while.

My Nana enjoyed a beautiful cup of tea several times a day. She meticulously prepared the Choysa bag in her favorite white mug. Neither did she know that there were ants in her kettle. No one knows how long the ants had been there and why they were there. All we know is that they were there and that’s concerning.

Let’s stop and check the kettle once in while.