A few weeks ago I spent two days with an inspiring group of people discussing thoughts on branding, identitity, the use of social media in the Middle East, city planning and branding challenges in China. I was invited by Nicholas Ind to meet the group in Paris and give a brief talk on organizational authenticity. I really enjoyed the diverse group consisting of branding experts from the US, Europe (UK, Sweden, Holland, France and Spain), Russia and UAE. Everyone joined in a series of small lectures and discussions with a plethora of views and opinions. How do you meet the challenges of working with the Chinese? What role did Facebook and social media play in the revolution for democracy in the Middle East? How will new typologies for fast and efficient architecture that meet the new demand for housing in Dubai and Africa develop?



I was later invited to join The Medinge Group as a permanent member, which I was pleased to accept. I'm already looking forward to our next convention in August.

The Medinge Group has such distinguished members as consultant and writer Nicholas Ind, who wrote numerous books on branding, the latest of which is called Meaning at Work (check out earlier post), consultant and cofounder Ian Ryder of BCS, CEO Stanley Moss who has been a succesful designer and brand consultant for decades and now travels the World, dean Pierre d'Huy of La Sorbonne/CELSA and Management Institute Paris, consultant Simon Paterson, Ava Maria Hakim, executive at IBM and CEO Erika Uffindell of UffindellWest. The group was founded in Sweden by Thomas Gad, brand consultant and author of 4D Branding which has been published in 12 languages. During the past decade the members have met biannually in Paris, France, and Medinge in Sweden to share and develop thoughts on branding.

The philosophy of The Medinge Group is: "We believe that change can happen at a business and societal level simply by pursuing the principles of compassionate branding. Each of our members has particular expertise which enables them to make a unique contribution to the Group and to clients throughout the world." Every year the group awards brands for their humanistic, compassionate, sustainable and socially responsible behaviour. This year the Brands with a Conscience award was given to Aquamarine Power (UK), BBC World News - Newsweek for World Challenge (UK), Caja Navarra (ES) and Masdar City (UAE).

Besides being a think-tank, The Medinge Group is complemented by for-profit activities called the Medinge Consulting Group, which puts together brand development teams to help international clients.

Update: A few more images on our moblog.

Erfaren kommunikationsrådgiver med partner-potentiale søges
Vil du være med til at undersøge virksomheders styrker og give dem liv gennem udvikling af organisationskultur, design og innovative kommunikationsløsninger? Vi rådgiver store virksomheder, offentlige institutioner og byer på strategisk niveau. Lige nu søger vi en erfaren kommunikationsrådgiver til at udtænke og gennemføre kommunikationsprojekter, som udvikler kundernes autentiske identitet og styrker deres markedsposition.

Du får til opgave at rådgive om strategisk kommunikation og gennemføre branding- og kommunikationsprojekter med udgangspunkt i din kommunikationsfaglighed. Du kan både levere et solidt praktisk kommunikationshåndværk og har gode relationelle evner og projektleder-kundskaber, så du kan samarbejde tværfagligt om forretningsstrategi, udvikling 
af organisationskultur, corporate design og kommunikation.

Matcher dine ambitioner jobbet?
Du har allerede erfaring med rådgivning om corporate communication, du har udviklet kampagner og PR-projekter, produceret artikler og plantet masser af historier i de danske medier. Nu er du klar til at udvide din rolle og præge vores udvikling og vækst. I Stagis får du både ansvar for at drive og udføre projekter for eksisterende kunder og proaktivt skabe ny forretning med udgangspunkt i dit faglige område og Stagis’ koncept om autenticitet. Det bliver også dit ansvar løbende at håndtere den eksterne kommunikation for Stagis, om vores projekter, metoder, Nikolaj Stagis’ nye bog og de begivenheder der følger.

Vi er fortsat på jagt efter en erfaren kommunikationsrådgiver. Læs mere om jobbet på stagis.dk

Every year at Christmas time a Danish hit from 1988 by rappers MC Einar is played on Danish radio. ”Jul, det’ cool” it’s called, meaning ”Christmas, it’s cool”. The rappers talk about an angry bus driver. Last week the ”Bus drivers with character” faced the old hit with their own rap about how they see themselves. They don’t recognize being as angry as the old 80s rap hit claims. As part of the identity project “Bus drivers with character” that we created for the public transportation industry two years ago, we did a study on people’s perception of the bus trip and the bus driver. Some people used the old rap as a quote: “Get back, goddammit!” (“Gå så tilbage for helvede”) referring to an angry bus driver forcing passengers to the back of the bus. Fortunately, that sort of bus driver is hard to find these days. Several songs from the same rappers give this image of the bus drivers. And neither the drivers or the companies they work for have been successful at answering back. This time, we wanted to help the bus drivers go against the prejudice and create new words for what they want everyone to think of them. Some would say it’s too late after 22 years. I said they should shout right back.



We invited the Denmark’s best freestyle rapper Pede B and five bus drivers to join forces in creating their own rap. They came to the Stagis office and talked energetically of busses and passengers. A few days later they went to a recording studio to record their Christmas rap with a producer and coaching from Pede B. Danish radio produced a feature on the subject, interviewing the bus drivers in the recording studio. Last Wednesday the five courageous bus drivers Hamide, Ib, Rene, Torben and Harris performed on stage in front of Copenhagen Town Hall before appearing live on the popular talk show ”Aftenshowet” on DR TV (go to 21:33 to see the clip). They talked about who they want to be and did a live rap performance.

That same evening 10 Stagis colleagues were gathered for a dinner at our office, celebrating not only Christmas but the success of an intense process delivering a fun and meaningful project.If your Copenhagen bus driver rhymes along the lines of ”My sleigh is quite cool, quite cool” (“Min slæde den er ret fed, ret fed!” in Danish) you’ll know he’s trying to create a new reputation for himself and all of the bus industry. Meanwhile, we’re creating new events that will help the bus industry shed light on their authentic strengths and abilities as a public service provider, more than transportation provider. The Danish Ministry of Transport is supporting the project during the next full year and the goal is to improve the image of the bus drivers and the bus experience in order to increase the use of public transportation. Look forward to the end of february where the next big thing is going on for the bus drivers and the bus passengers!

See the music video with the rapping bus drivers on YouTube or see pictures on our photoblog.

Last week I signed a contract with the public transportation organization Movia who represents the public bus industry in Copenhagen and Sealand. In July, the Danish Transportation Agency decided to allocate a little less than 10 mio. Danish kroner (about 1.3 mio Euro) to giving the bus drivers a better image in the general public. The project covers training of the bus drivers, better internal communication in the industry and numerous activities and communication that will change the public perception of the bus drivers. Most of the activities will be happening over the next 15 months.

Bus drivers thrive after pilot project
During 2008 and 2009 Stagis developed the strategy as well as the project in details, gathered the parties involved and gave the project the it's name and visual identity. From March to October 2009 we orchestrated the pilot project called 'Chauffører med karaktér' (Bus drivers with character), testing some of the ideas in order to prove the effects of the strategy. As you can imagine, the results were overwhelmingly positive. As mentioned in the casestudy on www.stagis.com and a May blog post, 90 percent of the bus drivers claimed to thrive at work in October of 2009. Six months earlier, only 68 percent agreed. Generally, the bus drivers know that people don't have glorious thoughts about them. In the same survey, only 13 percent of the bus drivers thought that their job had a good image in the public. When the pilot project ended, that had increased to 24 percent. Partly due to the positive media appearances that we spun off. Partly because the passengers had sent hundreds of text messages with their stories about good experiences in the busses. The strategic goal behind that change is simple: If the bus drivers are happy about the work, they will treat their passengers better and hence the perception of the bus ride will change for the better.

So what's next?
There are already several courses going on at 'Movia Akademi' this month and next week I'm meeting with a group of bus drivers who was attending the Academy last year. They created such a strong relationships with each other that they still want to meet and bond now, a year later. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again!

In a couple of weeks we will start to announce more about the specific plans and the ideas will start to materialize. For now, I'm really pleased that the ideas we developed will continue to live and that the bus drivers will continue to make positive changes. For themselves and for all of us in the back of the bus.

Check out four bus drivers 'with character' on the Danish website we created at the end of 2008 on buschauffor.dk. I love all of them but my favourite is Sezgin who was the youngest bus driver in Copenhagen at the time.