Inside Out

A Compelling Story all Brands can learn from.

They captured our memory with a forgetful fish in Finding Nemo. They
brought us sadness with the tragic love story from Up. And they
captured our hearts with the adventures of Woody and Buzz. For the
past 25 years, Pixar has created an imaginative wonder that has
astonished audiences of all ages.
This past weekend, Pixar released their new animated movie Inside
Out, which banked over $91 million opening weekend, coming in
second behind Jurassic World. What is really unbelievable: Inside Out
beat 2009s Avatar by over $14 million for largest opening weekend of
an original property film.
Pixar continuously affirms their outstanding brand with movies like Toy
Story, Up, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and now, Inside Out. Its clear
Pixar has grabbed the hearts of many with creativity and admiration,
but how did they do it?
With every great brand is a story that can be remembered for decades
and eventually becomes a classic. There are plenty of tips, a company
can learn from Pixar about creating a brand (that will be brought up in
further posts) but we will just focus on the story of Inside Out today.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
1. Bringing Maturity to Neverland
When creating a brand, its pertinent to be relatable.
Pixar has always been known to attract not only the attention of
children, but also of adults. Scenes like the first 10 minutes of Up
made us cry at the thought of loosing our best friend. When WallE gave Eve the one thing that would send her into hibernation,
our hearts broke as he protected her from anything that would
bring harm.
What Pixar has done with every one of their films is give a childlike awe to maturity. Its the part of Neverland that makes you
never want to grow up, to stay in a childs mind. Simple, yet
complex, emotions can be understood and are relatable to all
ages.
Inside Out has presented this type of reliability in every aspect of
the film. From puns like Train of Thought to mixing up opinions
and facts, Pixar has leveled the playing field with emotions.
When creating a brand, its pertinent to be relatable. Lets take
Starbucks.
Their social media flows with personalization, their

drinks are customizable and their brand is relatable. Now lets

take a look at their mission: To inspire and nurture the human
spirit- one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. A
mission must relate back to core values and practices. Starbucks
became relatable by offering a pleasant, personalized, and
customizable experience.
Its hard to make one experience relate to all individuals.
However, when you start off large and broad, everyone is able to
relate. From there, take an individual standpoint and customize it
to each person- group, each community and each neighborhood.
2. Take the Step Beyond Common
Follow the instinct to try something new.
ScreenRant, a news medium for everything about movies, had a
lot to say about the huge comeback of Pixar with their new
release. Inside Out is something of a rarity among summer
blockbusters, since its an entirely original story that isnt a
sequel, a remake, a reboot, an adaptation or a new iteration of
an established franchise.
Beyond a few mentions in shows like Fairy Odd Parents or
Hermans Head, the concept of personifying emotions is a
relatively new concept on the big screen. This idea is unlike any
other Pixar movie, so much so, that it almost doesnt feel like a
Pixar movie at all. They stepped beyond the norm and took a
chance on an idea that had the potential to either make or break
the company based upon the standard Pixar movies of the past.
Pixar embraced the thought of trying something new and put all
their effort into making it ground breaking.
We see it all the time, brands get entangled in each other and
after a few years, consumers become bored with all the brands
that just look similar. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, try
something new.
In 2004, Lego faced bankruptcy after loosing over 300 million
dollars at the cost of new innovations for the company like the
release of their amusement parks. The company became
desperate to save their brand and was longing for something
new. In 2006, Lego sold the majority of their amusement parks
and brought on new directors to save the company from
extinction. After nearly going bankrupt, Lego decided to hire
some hard-core fans to design the next line of Lego toys instead
of hiring the professional designers that may not know Legos
history. From there, Lego began to grow their brand and
rebranded themselves as not just a toy but a tool for creation.
The Lego Movie was the next unusual idea for Lego in 2014 and
marked the official turnaround of Lego.

What Lego did was take the step beyond the common, and
redefined themselves as a toy for both children and adults with
their new designers and the Lego Movie. Legos rebrand is
exactly what made the, the company how they are today.
3. Simple Complexity
Design something simple yet practical
Joy and Sadness unite with Headquarters in one last attempt to
stop Riley from running away. The entire audience was
astounded to see a mixed emotion of a single memory form and
roll into the inventory for the day. Its a moment that was sad,
yet compelling, as we watch a little girl start to mature within
seconds.
Its that simple yet complex emotion that drives memories to be
sad and happy. Its the going away to college emotion that is sad
to leave yet happy to start a new adventure; its maturity.
When designing a logo for a new brand or product, always go for
simple complexity. Design with creativity but never forget the
functionality of being concise; design something simple yet
practical. Weve all seen those logos that dont make sense or
the website that is so cluttered with information that no
information is taken out.
Some brands can get taken away with either or. Either the
website is too simple and has little to no information, or it has
paragraphs describing each one of their employees to just find
their contact information.
Coca-cola has made their way into culture with their Share a
Coke campaign in 2014. One of their newer campaigns involved
an algorithm that replaced the need for a graphic designer. This
algorithm took colors and shapes and transformed the ordinary
bottle of Coca-Cola into a masterpiece worth sharing. This
campaign wouldnt be that impressive if the algorithm only made
one of each design. Every single bottle of Coca-Cola that came
out of that machine was different.
It seems like such a simple idea with both their Share the
happiness campaign and the algorithm: be unique. However,
the production of all the materials, all the technology, and all the
people involved made these two campaigns complex. Their logo
has even been engraved in everyones subconscious that
whenever the complex font or the two, simple colors are seen, it
immediately triggers the thought of Coca-Cola.
4. Convey an emotion
Which emotion is in charge?

At the center seat of Rileys mind is Joy. She is in charge of

headquarters in the 11 year-old mind of Riley. Joy is what makes
all of the islands in Rileys head run, without Joy, well thats
kind of the point of the film. At the center seat of her mothers
mind is Sadness, which has become much more mature and
regulated. At the center seat of her fathers mind is Anger, which,
just like the mother, is much more regulated and mature than
Rileys. And at the center seat of a cats mind is fear because,
why not?
Throughout the entire movie, we switch back and forth between
the minds of everyone Riley interacts with and in every situation
we see a different emotion is in charge.
When branding, its all about the connection with the target
audience and conveying an emotion that everyone
understands. Brilliant brands like Nike have been using this
emotional appeal for years. In every one of Nikes commercials is
a sense of empowerment and of belonging. With the introduction
of devices like the Fuelband and the Fitbit, pages like Nikes
Running Community have emerged creating a rewarding
environment worldwide between runners and those who want to
get in shape.
Nike wants to empower, Coca-cola wants to bring happiness and
Apple wants to inspire. Presenting an emotion makes it easier to
connect with an audience and gain a loyalty.
5. Move on
Dont let an old idea deter from growth
An imaginary friend kept Rileys Joy at 100% throughout her
childhood but has she grew older, Bing Bong started to fall into
her subconscious. Halfway through Inside Out, we are introduced
to the creative character Bing Bong and immediately fall in love
with his child-like mannerisms. Once Joy makes the promise that
Bing Bong will return to Rileys mind, the list of ways he would
show up in a memory filtered through our minds. It wasnt until
he said, Lets give it one more try while in the memory dump
where that hearts broke all across the theatre as he said his last
goodbye to Riley.
Although sad, sometimes a memory that is being held onto can
actually be holding back growth. In every struggling company is
someone who doesnt like change and instead will say, Its what
weve always done. As culture changes, so should a brand
change to stay relevant.
The ones who think they are crazy enough to change the world
are the ones that do. Steve Jobs

Countless times has Apple astounded consumers with their

innovation and motivation to inspire. From its beginning in 1976,
Apple has taken several steps as a company to grow along with
culture and let go of past ideas. Now being worth more than
$733 billion, Apple has had their failures in the past that has
made them the company that we know today. Innovation like
Apple Pippin, a game console was predicted to sell over 300,000
units but actually sold around 12,000 units instead, was a failure
that needed to be let go.
Apple never stuck with an idea that proved fruitless nor did they
stick with any idea beyond their mission for technology.
They are continuously changing the way that the company
works, what products come out of it, and how culture forms
around the company. With things like the Apple Watch and now
Apple Music, Apple is not only changing the products but also
how people view technology.

Pixar has undoubtedly created a world of wonder with the release of

Inside Out that brings the adult back to an 11 year-old mind. Its
created a world that children and adults can learn from and has many
more lessons than just branding. In the wise words of several critic
reviews on IMDb, Just go see it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMwpP0yeu4#t=117

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4072&p=.htm
http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/mission-statement
http://screenrant.com/inside-out-box-office-opening-record-original/
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-lego-made-a-huge-turnaround-2014-2
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/diet-coke-prints-2-million-unique-labels-latest-strokepackaging-genius-161042