Last week I finished “Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close” and caught myself thinking about this digital x print discussion. And I already have my answer: for me, print is not dead and will never be. And the reason is pretty simple: it’s about the experience. Reading a book and reading an e-book are just completely different experiences.

Reading a book makes me take a break of everything. It's the moment when I relax and all my attention goes to the story I’m reading. I get involved into the character’s life, I laugh, I cry… I transport myself to a different world. And you can call me old fashion ;-)

Reading an e-book it’s, for me, a 'paragraph experience'. Believe me, I tried. Several times. It’s just that there is too many things around competing for my attention! It’s an alert that I got a new email… And I will not wait to see it, it can be very important. Then I decide to check Twitter, just in case. OK, back to the story. One paragraph more… Oh! I haven’t checked Facebook! Lets take a look. And after a whole afternoon, I haven’t finished the first chapter yet.

Maybe it’s just me, (or an attention disorder!) but I believe there is more people like me out there. People that enjoy the reading experience exactly the way it is: one sheet of paper at a time.

As a Brazilian girl, I always get excited with the first snow. And snow pictures are pure poetry for me. In this one, I can see the corpse bride walking... looking for Victor :-)

Let the winter begin!

In Brazil, the Brastemp brand is the No.1 home appliance brand in consumer awareness, consideration, preference and loyalty.
Following its new concept “an inspiration changes everything”, Brastemp created an interesting initiative: make people smile.
This is the register of Brastemp helping people get inspired to make their routines lighter. How? Using simultaneously 11 radio stations in São Paulo with one single simple message: asking people to look at the driver on the other car and smile.

Don’t know about you, but for me it seems like a good way to start the day. Surely I’ll smile again when I think about Brastemp :-)

What do you think it should be a good academic base for a branding professional?

There are so many sides that matters that, on my point of view, it depends on you. Truth is: is impossible to have just ONE recommendation.

I see a good brand planner as a patchwork quilt: made with loads of different references, theories, practices and experiences.

I’ve been thinking about it for a while, since I read a book called “We Think”. It’s being almost one year and since then and I got this feeling that things are getting obsolete so fast that we might not follow it in time.

Nowadays, brands are almost being ‘built’ 50/50. One half ‘official’ information, directly from the source and the other half ‘real’ information, posted online by real users of the products and services.

Being in charge of brands means handling this information and making it part of the brand history and image, even when, sometimes, it doesn’t fit with what is on the ‘brand manual’.

Handling ongoing ‘manifestations’ about brands is the task these days and being prepared for that… well, this is another story.

So, what is your patchwork quilt made of? :-)

But as a normal person, I agree that this ‘always connected’ stuff is going a bit to far… and then, as a planner/ad person, I know that we’re always trying to find ways to engage with ‘normal people’. After all, this is the ‘thing’ now, isn’t? Brands looking for ways to engage with consumers. And then it comes all the digital and mobile paraphernalia that make it (even more) possible.

Keep thinking: have you already thought about how many brands do you get in touch every day, since the moment you wake up until the time you go to bed? Make a simple exercise: open your eyes and then… Apple, Colgate, Nescafe, Dove, Diesel, Zara, Converse… and you haven’t left home yet!

And remember, all this brands are trying to find ways to engage with you!! To stay with you 24/7, involving you in mechanics, asking for your feedback, maybe your help to create products or evaluate the existing ones… Is a never-ending demand!! Some kind of full time job!

Are we (ad people) creating a ‘brand fatigue’ where soon people will need a ‘brand vacation’? When is it too much? And what comes next?

"Is it time for a Social Media Vacation" here: http://www.anthropologyinpractice.com/2010/10/is-it-time-for-social-media-vac...

For a Brazilian girl, snow was always related with travel, vacation or something like that. I think you can have an idea about how difficult it is to connect this image with everyday work :-S

via @brainpicker