Colin Mangham and Daily associate Randy Smith joined colleague Dr. Christopher Smith, Director of the Johnson Center for Communication Leadership, and a select group of students and faculty members for a sneak peek at the positioning and plans for the new Annenberg Innovation Lab. The biggest intrigue, for us at least, is the opportunity to collaborate with a student-fueled think tank that develops and pressure-tests solutions to business and media challenges in an academic environment … then links up with companies big (Verizon) and small (Daily Brand Group) to launch and further develop them in the wild.

From the USC site, as part of the Dean’s Series on Sustainable Innovation:
Dean Ernest J. Wilson III welcomes Roberto Suro and Jonathan Taplin to speak about their plans for a new venture, the Annenberg Innovation Lab, that will serve as a place of experimentation and collaboration for students, faculty and staff from across USC Annenberg. The lab will create spaces, both virtual and physical, where USC Annenberg innovators can develop ideas and then eventually present them to the public.

The subject matter that falls under the Lab’s umbrella will be broadly and loosely defined as the digital media revolution and its impact on society. It can include technological innovations as well as analytical work on a variety of media topics related to innovation such as new business models or political mobilization via social networking. It will embrace gadgets and images as well as words and data. More than just an incubator, the lab will serve as a showcase and as a link between USC Annenberg and outside partners who can apply innovations developed at the school.

That walk past Orange Julius yesterday also reminded me of a little-known story I read recently regarding sight-sensory branding, and one that would surely make Bugs raise a brow. According to Martin Lindstrom, whose book Brand Sense is a favorite tome on the topic, “Carrots once came in every color but orange. There were red, black, green, white and purple varieties. Then sometime in the sixteenth century Dutch growers decided to give this root vegetable a patriotic edge,” breeders began developing an orange variety in honor of their monarch, William I, the Prince of Orange, “a country with an orange flag now had an orange carrot.”

And what a supremely missed brand opportunity this turned out to be – how many people who eat orange carrots today know that it all ties back to some genetic dice rolling in the Netherlands, let alone the Prince of Orange?

Posted by: Colin Mangham

Co-production agreement with Eckardt & Associates formed to develop TV shows targeting acculturated Latinas in primarily an 18-34 demographic. Initial focus will be on magazine-style reality and comedy series centered upon family, style, beauty, home-making and relationships.

Social Venture Network has published some spot-on business philosophy books, and this one, co-written with Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s, is a tight read on harnessing employee and brand values to effect change and bring success, even with the Triple Bottom Line.

Posted by: Colin Mangham

Just read this. Love it. One of those books that sounds like I’m reading my own words. Totally agree with most everything in here. Part philosophical handbook and part how-to. But mainly quick bursts on short subjects ranging from reasons “not” to have meetings, to the benefits of team members in different cities (I’m a big fan, that’s part of our model at Daily Brand, not localized to just the talent down the street, but wherever they may reside), to all the reasons that lighter, nimbler, more innovative black-box-thinking companies are, collectively, the entrepreneurial engine to refuel the Economy. ~ Colin Mangham