More forwards

Readers of The Guardian last Thursday might have noticed this article on page three about a robot conducting a symphony orchestra. The headline's a bit misleading; One of the quotes from a musician criticises ASIMO, 'Advance Step in Innovative MOvement', for not acknowledging a rallentando (or a 'retard' as he called it - I thought he was just talking about the percussionists! sorry bad joke. Percussioning is pretty hard, I know).

Bit misleading aside, it's a full page article on how the robot has been being developed since 1986 by a group of engineers and programmers, and how it's the first time a robot has conducted a human orchestra. I say conduct, but everyone in the picture is heads down in their music. It's a pretty sympathetic article with quotes from luminaries and a lot of time for the creators of the robot, who hope to one day use them to assist in homes of people with mobility impairments.

Who are the creators? Honda.

I already love the UK work for Honda, which is put out by Wieden + Kennedy, and in fact they have used ASIMO in a TV ad before now. But I'm assuming that this event wasn't done by W+K, probably some PR agency somewhere, or maybe a genuine experiment by the scientists. The fact that they performed 'The Impossible Dream' suggests not.

What this firms up for me though, is 'the importance of story'. Honda's ad work is brilliant and it gives a distinguishable identity and mantra to the brand: The power of dreams. Honda is pushing boundaries. Innovation, and so on. But unlike a lot of this kind of thing (step forward Ford), it's actually genuine. Honda have been working on ASIMO since 1986. It's taken them 22 years to really start to promote that work to the general public, but now it's paying off. I'm guessing It's a PR dream - a genuine piece of news that seamlessly fits with established advertising campaigns in international territories and helps consumers really understand the brand a bit more.

I'm pretty sure a lot of what makes brands like Howies and Innocent such liberal favourites is their stories; the tone of their voice that makes you feel a part of them, that they are a company you can relate with. But they are pretty small fish when you compare with a global manufacturer like Honda. Levi's have a story too, but I don't see many people relating to them. Adidas recently reminded people of Adi Dassler, but personally I don't feel any warmth to them other than 'nice shoes'.

So the message I'm taking away is that organisations (and I guess it applies to us future graduates) need to be true to their stories, even if they're not working out in the short term. Change up, fine, but be sure why you're doing it, and that it's for the same reasons that you started out in the first place, maybe in 22 years time, you'll be able to get where you want to be and keep growing, by sharing that story again.