Dan Germain, Innocent Drinks: How Details Are The Key To Brand Story-Telling

At PSFK CONFERNCE LONDON 2012, Dan Germain from Innocent Drinks showed how important it is to tell human stories to shape and develop a brand. The Creative Director has helped Innocent go from a small, local brand, into a household name across Europe. Germain revealed that developing a strong brand isn’t just about being the loudest, brightest, or the biggest. It’s more about reaching out to your fans making meaningful interactions.

Innocent is a strong believer that small details can make a big impact, especially when it comes to user-generated content. For example, the knitted hats on top of the bottle caps, or the quirky and fun messages found at the bottom of each bottle, “Stop looking at my bottom” or “Trapped in a bottle factor, send help.”

Three key takeaways from the talk are:

• The more stuff you do, the more stories you’ll have. But no brand could nail it all the time, it’s about trial and error and learning from your mistakes. Just like like a Woody Allen film, sometimes it’s great, other times it’s just rubbish. However, Woody Allen just keep trying and producing.
• People who don’t like your brand, would be louder than those who do. It’s just as important to reach out to those who dislike your brand and understand where they’re coming from.
• Having editors in a company will be as important as having editors in news agencies.