I ran across Aviva, a global insurance company, through this ad at a U.S. airport. I was immediately intrigued by their customer-centered mission: YOU. While arguably not a formal mission statement (most aren't very good anyway), it makes manifestly clear where they want us to think their focus lies.

And Aviva is consistent with this message throughout their communications. For example, their brand promise explanation is all about a distinctive customer experience that recognizes the value of each one of us:

Aviva has committed to deliver one distinctive experience for our customers, wherever we are in the world - we want them each to feel that "no one recognises me like Aviva".

And they nicely tie this intention to their cause marketing efforts. In fact, their brand is the centerpiece of all their communications. Check it out here.

Aviva (which means "Spring" in Hebrew) gets that branding is a core and essential business discipline. They are a good example of a company in which marketing and customer research have seats at the decision-making table.

Now, having generated such high expectations, it's especially critical that they deliver on their promise.

I just saw (again) the happy UPS song-ad targeting international business, which reminded me how much I admire their We Love Logistics campaign (Ogilvy). Check it out! (And don't blame me if the song gets stuck in your head!).

After almost a decade of What Can Brown Do For You (Martin Agency), last fall UPS launched their new campaign, which is squarely aligned with their global growth strategy. Here's how UPS explains it:

Everybody loves something. We love logistics. We love its precision, its epic scale, its ability to make life better for billions of people. Each day, our customers count on us to choreograph a ballet of infinite complexity played across skies, oceans and borders. And we do. What's not to love?

Here are six key branding and identity-building lessons from this highly successful and viral campaign:

1. Creating a new category: By branding logistics as "The New Logistics," UPS is creating a new and much broader category, one which compels us (as "new" often does!) to want to know more, and one which they aim to own!

2. Think/Feel/Do: They are changing what people think about logistics, then associating those thoughts with good feelings, and then connecting those good feelings with UPS. The classic hierarchy of effects.

3. Capturing emotion: There aren't many business topics that are more left-brain sounding - and potentially boring - than logistics. Yet, UPS takes a lighthearted, fun, and strategic approach to bring feeling and life to logistics. (Even my teenager said "I love that ad!" and starting singing the song. He even knew lots of the words!). UPS doesn't just do logistics, they love logistics. (In all your spare time, count all the hearts in their cross-platform communications).

4. Focus on benefits: It's not really about logistics, it's about the benefits their global logistics network enables for small and medium size businesses. Check out their time and money savings calculator here.

5. Brand identity: And it's not just a branding campaign. It's recrafting their identity - their organizational soul - by expanding from shipping to logistics (more here in this Supply Chain Digital article). They manage to memorably convey everything they do, which is - dare I say "logistically!" - pretty complex, in a 30 second ad.

6. Operations-communications-sales alignment: Over the last several years, UPS has acquired dozens of companies to create their worldwide logistics network. They focus more on supply chain execs and CAOs, rather than just on shipping managers (more here). And their campaign brings it all to life in a personally relevant and highly engaging way!

Well done UPS (again)!

Public Health has struggled for years to tell its story- ironically a very worthy story- in a powerful and compelling way. We worked with CDC 10 years ago to help them tackle being misunderstood and to create and communicate their brand identity - with what we called Putting Science into Action for a Safer and Healthier America. Then Washington State's Department of Health (WDOH) engaged us to hep them overcome being "underknown and undervalued" - and therefore underfunded. The WDOH central idea? Always Working for A Safer & Healthier Washington, coupled with three identity themes. In both cases, our research showed it was not just about health, but the more emotional issue of keeping people safer, that resonated across the board. Plus action - public health is about taking action that makes a difference. Here's a one pager I wrote in Government Executive on Building a Brand Identity.

And here are three examples of relatively low budget, high production value videos that do a good job at making public health come to life and personally relevant. They all capture the "safer" aspect of public health and show the value of public health action across its many "touch points." Most importantly, they all convey a message that hits home.

The first one, from American Public Health Association's (APHA) Healthiest Nation in One Generation campaign, shows through sophisticatedly simple word graphics, one person's interactions from birth through adulthood with Public Health (including 4 mentions of Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention, but who's counting!).

This second one, is from the This is Public Health campaign of the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH). Along with student voices and simple red stickers, it powerfully SHOWS in fast MTV-like style, the numerous touch points of public health. 

And to tie it all together, this video by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), which is the national organization representing local health departments, goes from showing (again with sophisticated graphics and word art) what a world without Public Health would be, to the good we have here in America, thanks to our everyday heroes (truly!) in our local Public Health Departments. It ends by showcasing a Public Health logo, given that when public health is working best, it's mostly invisible.

Together, these videos shine a light on what may be the most important and valuable (and often invisible!) service our country provides to us: Public Health. And a professional community I am so proud to be a part of.