Need to Know #32 IKEA’s Big Blue Pillow, putting the Brand in B2B, taking the X out of Brazil and why you can’t quote AI on its quotes.

IKEA’s Big Blue (Sleeping) Bag 

Hermès, Chanel, Louis Vuitton. All pale in comparison to the bag based-brand brawn of IKEA’s big blue-bag, which is why it’s exciting to see a new twist on its classic design. 

IKEA Singapore has introduced the Resten bag, a creative spin on the iconic Frakta bag now reimagined as a portable pillow. Maintaining the familiar shape and colour, the Resten doubles as both an orthopaedic aid and a carry-all tote. Perfect for on-the-go naps, it’s designed to meet the needs of Singapore’s busy citizens. Simply unzip, unfold, and snooze, then fold it back to carry your shopping, pets or children

It would be a nice creative idea on its own, but it does tie into a real issue- Singapore’s reputation for overworked employees. With the entire country running on overtime, rest is often sought in unconventional places, and IKEA’s team has jumped on the opportunity to bring comfort to Singaporeans with a “rest-able” bag for one of the world’s most rest-less countries.

Business-to-Business or Business-to-Brand?

In business-to-business sales, “brand” frequently takes a back seat to cold hard data or performance marketing. But the importance of brand in B2B is finally gaining the long-overdue recognition it deserves following a recent Dentsu study highlighting a shift in priorities. While lead generation was once a key focus, it has dipped in importance with brand awareness taking centre stage. 

In 2021, raising “brand awareness” ranked sixth in strategic importance, but in 2024 it is the top priority. This shift reflects recognition that strong brand identity is crucial in B2B as much as B2C. However, there’s a disconnect between marketers and buyers. While most B2B marketers believe they effectively communicate a unique brand position, buyers disagree, often finding brands indistinguishable from one another. 

This reflects an acute need for a laser-like proposition, engaging messaging delivered through creative campaigns and thought leadership, but few brands excell in this area. With brand perception as a good employer also rising in importance, there’s a clear opportunity for B2B brands to stand out by strengthening their identity efforts. The occasional blog or written whitepaper just doesn’t cut it anymore. 

X Goes Offline in Brazil after Elon Musk’s Refusal to Comply With aws

For those not keeping up on the clown-car-crash that is Elon Musk’s leadership of the website formerly known as Twitter, the country with the fifth largest digital population in the world has banned access to the social media app. 

The dispute has been running since April of 2024 over X’s inability to address misinformation and tacit support for anti-democratic, far-right voices. The final straw came on Thursday, when Musk ignored a 24-hour deadline to name a new legal representative after the social media platform closed its local office in mid-August. 

With the ban in place, Brazilian users have flocked to X’s competitors: Bluesky and Threads. Bluesky alone added over 2.6 million Brazilian users over a few days, a massive accomplishment for a platform that only has around 8.8 million users overall. It is worth underlining just how significant a movement of users this is in the age of the social media entrenched social media platforms. 

The shift massively weakens X’s claim to be a global town square, and teaches a valuable lesson for any social media platform – ignore the law at your peril. It is one thing to take a stand, but your competitors will eat you alive, and the effectiveness of the ban will certainly be noticed by other governments looking to bring X to heel. 

Beware the AI Film Critic. 

Recently the marketing team for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” came under fire for using fake film-critic quotes in its trailer. This week we saw the first head roll as a result of the debacle with Variety reporting that Lionsgate has cut ties with Eddie Egan, a veteran communications consultant with over 19 years in the industry. 

The obvious question is why you would need to make up negative quotes from film critics about the work of Francis Ford Coppola. There are plenty of legitimate negative quotes out there, they are very easy to find, and could easily be used to establish the narrative that Coppola’s films have been misunderstood and “ahead of their time”.

This kind of unforced error contributes to the now widespread assumption that the made-up quotes were likely created by an AI chatbot like ChatGPT, an idea reinforced by statements that Egan and Lionsgate didn’t intend to make up quotes, but the source material of the quotes was not properly fact checked or vetted.

Variety even prompted ChatGPT to give them negative review quotes of Coppola’s films “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now”, with the results turning out strikingly similar to the fake quotes seen in the trailer. 

Whatever the truth, the obvious lessons for marketers is to always check the veracity of your source material. And if you do happen to use AI to support your content writing, check it thrice. 

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