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This is the second post looking back at the best and worst of branding in 2014.

5. The Chef award for re-connecting with you passion

This feel-good story of a chef falling out of love with his profession, getting fired and being forced to go on the road to re-dsicover his passion got my vote for movie of the year. Its a great reminder of the need to remember and refresh what made you famous, as a brand or as a person, to avoid getting stale. Recommeded viewing for a cold, wintery night during the Xmas holiday season!

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6. The Unilever award for social media common sense

Some much needed common sense on social media came from Unilever's VP of brand building for food and ice cream, Jon Goldstone, in this post. He explained how a period of experimentation had helped highlight the best approach by brand. For example, on Magnum mobile works well, as marketing can vary based on weather/temperature and vicinity to a store. He also confirmed that the demise of TV is still a way off, saying that "The continued strength of TV has been a bit of a surprise", pointing to "The interaction between TV and social media, with tweets and posts about TV content." 

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7. The John Lewis award for fresh consistency

Department store John Lewis showed the power of fresh consistency with the latest installment of its Xmas comms campaign in this post. The look and feel was fresh, with a boy and his imaginarty pet penguin replacing an animated hare and bear. But the story and narrative structure was consistent: "Give a little more love this Christmas, by shopping at John Lewis for your gifts". The film has been viewed so far 20 million times on YouTube, 50% more than last year's ad.

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8. The Fosters award for distinctive brand properties

Fosters lager won the Grand Prix at the IPA effectiveness awards for its "Good Call" campaign, as I posted here, helped by the power of a distinctive brand property in the form of Aussie agony uncles Brad and Dan. This brand property was used consistently over three years, with new commercials refrehshing the campaign. The results were refreshing as well,  wuth the highest estimated ROI of any beer campaign in the awards' 34-year history: every £1 of advertising drove a mind-boggling £32 in revenue.

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So, there you have it. 2014 is officially over. Thanks for reading and for your positive feedback. See you in 2015!