Orange Amps. These beauties look just as brilliant as they sound.

Ok…so…the brand name is “orange”  it’s only expected that you’d make your amplifier Orange…And they did.   But the quality and the image that these amps portray is rather crazy!  You can instantly spot one of these amplifiers from a concert.  For some crazy reason,  no other amplifier maker has ever made a coloured amp.  Everyone else goes Black.  I’m at a loss for why …Anyone else know? To only “amplify” this quality brand,  they’ve got this iconic logo on each amp.  Distinctively British.  This single brand, while only delving into 1 product …amplifiers for guitars and basses,  is highly regarded in the world of music, and can instantly be recognized and that to me,  makes them ace, in the world of branding.

I was surprised to see such incredible numbers from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games…It’s incredible how we’ve all interacted with both the actual Vanoc Branding, but also, as the first highlight depicts, how we’ve interacted with the Hudson Bay “Canada” Brand…

The Highlights Are:

More than 3.3 million pairs of Vancouver 2010 Red Mittens sold

$500-million target for gross retail sales of Vancouver 2010 branded merchandise met by end of Games

275 million visitors in total to www.vancouver2010.com, shattering the previous record of 105 million set during the Beijing 2008 Games

78 million total unique visitors to the site

A record of 9,185,306 unique visits in a single day – set on February 24. The previous record set during the 2008 Summer Games was 8,797,614 on August 11, 2008

Below is the Full List…

• 17 days of thrilling competition and athletic accomplishments
• 15 sport disciplines
• 86 medal competitions
• 615 medals awarded
• 1,055 athlete bouquets presented
• 2,632 registered athletes
• 50,000 workforce members for the Games, including paid, contractor and volunteers
• Of that total, 18,500 were volunteers; 6,500 volunteers will also work during the Paralympic Winter Games
• 25,000 workforce uniforms distributed
• 96,409 people accredited for the Games
• 10,800 media representatives: 7,000 rights holding broadcasters, 2,800 press reporters and photographers and non-rights holding broadcasters, as well as 1,000 host Olympic Broadcast Service (OBSV) personnel
• 3.5 billion worldwide television viewers are estimated to have tuned into the Games
• Olympic rights holding broadcasters have offered Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games coverage on more than 300 TV stations and on more than 100 websites worldwide
• 47 per cent more global television coverage of the Games than for the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games
• This represents approximately 24,000 hours of coverage
• 50,000 hours of total broadcast hours of the Games across all media platforms around the world
• 6,000 hours of coverage worldwide on mobile platforms
• As of Day 15, 33.1 million Canadians (99 per cent) have watched coverage
• 27.7 million cumulative audience or CUME (meaning 82.7 per cent of Canadians) experienced the Games on February 27 through the platforms of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.
• 1,500 appearances by the Vancouver 2010 mascots: Quatchi, Miga and Sumi by the end of the Games
• 20,567 deliveries made to Olympic venues
• 1.6 million tickets available for the 2010 Winter Games
• More than 3.3 million pairs of Vancouver 2010 Red Mittens sold
• $500-million target for gross retail sales of Vancouver 2010 branded merchandise met by end of Games
• 2.2 million people engaged to date by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Oympiad, which will continue for three more weeks
• More than 4,000 artists at 600 events, over 60 days in 60 venues are taking part in the Cultural Olympiad
• More than 12,500 volunteer hours clocked for Olympic Closing Ceremony. The thousands of volunteer performers range in age from 10 to 68
• More than 450 racks of costumes, 3,600 metres of elastic, 4,100 pairs of shoes, 18 kilograms of glitter, 10,000 green sequins, 200 giant spheres and balloons, as well as 20 zygote balls were used in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies
• 275 million visitors in total to www.vancouver2010.com, shattering the previous record of 105 million set during the Beijing 2008 Games
• 78 million total unique visitors to the site
• A record of 9,185,306 unique visits in a single day ? set on February 24. The previous record set during the 2008 Summer Games was 8,797,614 on August 11, 2008
• Vancouver2010.com was visited 85 million times this month from within Canada and reached more than 70 per cent of Canadians with Internet access and over 50 per cent of the total Canadian population
• 19.1 per cent of North Americans with Internet access visited the website this month
• 4.6 per cent of people worldwide with Internet access visited the site this month
• 14,000 followers on Twitter.com/2010Tweets
• More than 1.25 million downloads recorded for the official mobile spectator guide, which for 10 days of the Games was the No. 1 free app in Canada
• 1.1 million Facebook fans, nearly four times the total amount for Beijing at the conclusion of the 2008 Games

Source: Official Vancouver 2010 Olympics iPhone App News Section

Have you Ever flown on Porter Airlines?  If you haven’t,  but you’re about to fly to one of the destinations they serve…I highly recommend it.  The experience of travelling with Porter is something I’ve never really experienced on an airline…From the waiting lounge in Toronto (with real cups for coffee!) ,  their custom water bottles,  (each with custom labels), The advertising, the website and even the uniforms,  you get a distinct feeling that you’re flying with a top-notch, classy airline.

My hat’s off to this brand team!

If you live in Canada…and have watched any of the olympics on CTV…I know you’ve heard this song….The song has been written for CTV and while having had a music video created (below), has also been transformed to the melody on all CTV olympic commercial spots, their sportscasts of the events, and within ceremony presentations (Was part of the opening ceremony…maybe also part of the closing ceremony in a few weeks?)  … Its interesting because having only heard the song since Friday evening, As soon as I hear the melody on any of these spots…I’m instantly associating it with the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics on CTV…Neat example how powerful even audio can be with your brand…

I find what Richard Branson has done with Virgin to be quite remarkable.  It’s an incredible company with fantastic values & corporate culture.

Virgin’s next move is in regards to a survey they’ve done in Canada and found a surprising amount of Canadians aren’t celebrating Valentines day,  so they’re going out in full force to spread the love.   Looks like if we follow their social feeds like twitter and facebook,  anyone (customer or not) … can try and catch up with the Virgin Angels for some lovin’ …

View A Press Release

Being a big fan of Oasis, I was quite intrigued to hear that Liam Gallagher was starting his own clothing line.   Every piece of clothing would have to be approved by him, as something he’d be proud to wear, before hitting the shelves. Quite a clever idea for the scores of Oasis fans.

Needless to say, I was keen to open my wallet for a few pieces myself.

What’s interesting however, is that while this line is mostly just for Men (some pieces could be considered unisex), the Pretty Green branding is quite interesting.   On arrival, each order arrives in a plain unmarked cardboard box, evidently with shipping labels and whatever stickers FedEx has slapped on it…but the entire box is sealed and taped with custom “PrettyGreen” packaging tape.  (Quite Cool!)

Also,  Each Piece of clothing arrives in the box, it it’s own zip up cloth bag. Each bag, ordoning the large Pretty Green emblem.  And once you’ve unzipped this bag, and revealed the beautiful garment inside,  each item has a custom tag attached to its label,  with a large Pretty Green Emblem which can easily be removed and hung around your place as you wish.  As there are 2 Clothing lines,  one for more casual, and one for more formal,  the tags differ to the clothing line.  (The more formal line,  has a larger, more formal looking tag)

Quite interesting how from the website, to the item arriving in your hands,  the brand experience speaks volumes.  Certainly don’t mind shelling out a few extra bucks to see this all come together.