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I was looking through the Edelman site earlier today, and the whole time a line from a conversation I had with a friend the other day kept popping into my head:

If you want to have a cool brand, you have to do cool shit.

I don’t think I can put it any simpler than that.
P.S. It was also said in the conversation, “Oh yeah, and you’re not the one who gets to decide what’s cool or not…”

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Tony D. Clark
Tony D. Clark
17 years ago

I think an important distinction is that it has to be cool to *other people*. Lots of folks think they do cool things – unfortunately it’s only cool within the walls of place creating it.
If you have to convince someone it’s cool – it’s probably not.

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hugh macleod
hugh macleod
17 years ago

D’accord, Tony, it was also said in the conversation, “Oh yeah, and you’re not the one who gets to decide what’s cool or not…”

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RKR
RKR
17 years ago

Tomorrow, I am going to wake up and do some really cool shit!!
(Right now, I am going to say my prayers, go to bed and hope I die in my sleep.)

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Daniel Stout
Daniel Stout
17 years ago

Yes, that puts it pretty succinctly. Jason Calacanis was complaining yesterday that one of the Wall Street Journal’s technology columnists put the Netscape Web site down because, essentially, it wasn’t cool. And I think that’s right — Netscape aped the Digg-like features, but totally missed the cool factor.

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Crawford
Crawford
17 years ago

Ever notice how the coolest people in the room are generally the quietest in the room?
Try that with your brand.
No, really.

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deannie
deannie
17 years ago

Perusing the link you provided to Edelman, one walks away also with the sense that what makes something cool is when it isn’t about you or your product. It is when the observer says to themselves, this is for me (how did they know?).

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Peter Clough
Peter Clough
17 years ago

Exactly! As I tell clients who want to “Do something viral” – First, create something brilliant. Like those jibjab guys – try 18 times and get better each time and then – Boom – you create something brilliant. ANd people like it and talk about it and pass it along – simple as that really…

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