The Tiger Economies and the Creative Industries

After changing the topic of my dissertation a couple of times, I think I found one that I will stick to (hopefully): 'The Tiger Economies and the Creative Industries'. Since I'm fascinated by East Asian cultures and countries and have tried to connect most of my research to the creative industries, that topic fits quite well. To make the head of the my programme at college happy as well, it is also a very interesting field regarding economic development.

The Four Tigers is a term used to describe 4 economies in East Asia, which have seen rapid economic growth in the last decades and which have served as role models for other developing economies. The 4 economies are South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The growth in the 60s - 90s was dominantly triggered by export-led manufacturing, very successfully. Furthermore, in all those countries (let's just call Taiwan a country as well..., sorry China!), the government played a very important role and supported the economy heavily with subsidies and development policies.

In recent years another development can be observed. All four Tigers, especially Hong Kong and South Korea, invested significantly in the knowledge based economy, in particular the creative industries. The Hong Kong films became very popular in China and other South East Asian countries and with the 'Korean Wave', we have seen an immense popularity of Korean music, films and TV series in Japan, China and Taiwan.

The Four Tigers could serve again as examples of how they made the next step from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy and to show how important the creative industries are not only for a rich culture, but also for economic growth and development. The cases might inspire governments around the world, in developing and developed economies and hopefully lead to more policies supporting the creative industries.

In my research I will also find out how important the role of the government was and which part it played in the rise of East Asian creativity.

Universal Studios unveils a new logo for its 100th Birthday

It's not a rebrand. The new logo of Universal, which will be used this spring, the year of the studio's 100th birthday, is similar to the old version and very recognisable.

When I saw it for the first time I was quite surprised and thought that they use now a 3D font for their logo. However, when I checked out older logo versions I saw that this is actually not new, but that already older logos had "UNIVERSAL" written in 3D. The new logo somehow makes it more distinct, or maybe it was just me, who only noticed it now.

I could very well imagine that the logo will be really in 3D when shown in front of 3D movies.

Another change is the text below the logo, which says now "a Comcast Company" and not "An NBCUniversal Company" anymore, after Comcast purchased 51% of NBCU in 2010.

Red Bull Canimation

When I saw this video in the cinema, I had to cry. Not even the most dramatic movie can trigger these emotions in me, but that short "behind the sciences" film just hit me. I know that clever marketing guys are behind this film and I know that it is built up to get to the heart of the people, but I still just could not help it. Red Bull is usually rather known to support extreme sports and crazy athletes, but Canimation is a different kind of sponsoring. I just love when enthusiastic and motivated young people get a chance to show their creativity and get the recognition for it. 

Red Bull somehow found a way to support people who are dedicated in what they're doing and at the same time profit from it also commercially. This is pure brand building and Red Bull managed to turn these millions of marketing spend into profit and into a brand, which is so valuable.

Canimation was a competition and Red Bull welcomed all creative people to enter with an animation, which used the blue and silver can as inspiration. The results of the winners can be viewed on http://canimation.redbull.co.uk/