JWT animates 3,000 brands as virtual toys

JWT has developed a brand visualisation website, allowing brands to be shown as cuddly teddies or monsters, to compare brand characteristics.

Data used to develop the virtual mascots comes from Millward Brown's BrandZ data on the values of the world's leading brands, this year led by Apple.

The "character" and "personality" of more than 3,000 brands have been mapped. Users on the Brand Toys site can customise their own versions and share via social media.

Brand Toys aims to show at a glance how consumers understand and feel about brands, and quick comparisons can be made between brands, or about the same brand in different markets.

Guy Murphy, worldwide planning director at JWT, said brands were in danger of becoming uninteresting to consumers.

He said: "To ensure a rosy future for brands, it is crucial to consider marketing as a creative discipline. Brand Toys represents brands as consumers feel them—with personality and character, not as a series of numbers or complex mechanisms.

"The world’s growing experience with brands is leading to a global indifference to them. When brands are new to a country they are exciting, interesting, even symbols of economic prosperity. However, as brands mature in a market they can lose their shine and consumers wish to invest their time elsewhere."

This article first appeared on www.campaignlive.co.uk