(No, not that kind of moonwalk…)

Here at TheFrameworks, we like to go the extra mile. Sometimes, though, you can take things a little too far.

Last November, when I decided to complete the London MoonWalk 2012, in aid of Walk the Walk, I was quite laid-back about the whole venture. Saturday 12 May 2012 was an age away, and training would be easy – it’s just walking right?

Wrong. As the big night approached, the task at hand slowly dawned on me. London MoonWalk is essentially a walking marathon, 26.2 miles around London at night. No easy feat, after all.

I began to drum up sponsorship around the start of the year, and am still honoured and touched by the support people have given me. Walk the Walk is a grant-making charity, raising money for breast cancer research and allocating funds where they know it will make the most difference. So far, the 2012 MoonWalk has raised over £2.5 million.

So back to Saturday evening. I was trussed up in walking gear with a twist – a neon necklace, decorated t-shirt and black tutu. And at 11:50pm, along with 17,000 other women and men, I began my challenge.

Although I did take training very seriously, unless you walk at night to train, you’re going to be somewhat unprepared for the journey. Because your body wants to be in bed, the pain sets in much quicker than it does in a daytime training session. By around 10 miles, the aches were beginning, and 3am was a dark time in more ways than one. My team of three close friends and I all powered through, though, and we were rewarded with something very few sober people see: sunrise over the streets of London. After that it all seemed a whole lot easier.

We crossed the finish line together at 7:35am, a walking time of around seven and a half hours. It was a euphoric moment. My aches and pains (and exhaustion) are still with me today, despite numerous hot baths, and I still cringe at the thought of my temporary “sausage hands” (you try walking for eight hours with your hands down by your side and you’ll find out all about that condition!) but it’s still that euphoria I remember the most.

All in all, a fantastic experience and an event I am honoured to have been a part of. Next year, though, perhaps one of my colleagues would like a go…

I’ve now seen two episodes of AMC’s new television series, “The Pitch,” in which each week two different advertising companies compete for a single client’s business. We get to see the whole process, from the client’s briefing meeting, through the agency’s development process, to the final pitch and agency selection.

The show’s editors do a service to their audience by presenting both the human element of the process, as well as the creative work. By the end of the show, my husband and I are rooting for one agency or another.

The sacrifices some of the agency people make are typical, but heartbreaking. Watching one agency’s creative director sneak out of the office to see his kids for the first time in five days demonstrates the toll the ad industry (like many others) can take from so many people.

It’s also fascinating to see the cutthroat nature of internal politics found at some agencies, which can hit employee moral and squash untapped potential. We’ve all heard about it, but “The Pitch” lets us see it happen. Kudos to the agencies for being bold enough to open themselves up to such scrutiny, no matter which clients might be watching.

At TheFrameworks we’ve had our share of frantic moments searching for that big idea that will blow the client away. But we’ve also enjoyed the exhilaration of that “Eureka!” moment when a great idea surfaces, as well as the excitement of seeing the team pull together to breathe life into it.

I’m just glad we don’t have to do it all on camera.

Today’s Detroit News discusses the possibility that “iPad” could become a generic term used for tablet computers in a way similar to how “Kleenex” and “Band-Aid” are used to generally refer to facial tissues and bandages.

I believe that in order for such widespread brand “genericization” to occur, either a product has to be completely unique in the early stages of the product market or the brand must be so powerful at that time that it overshadows all competing brands.

Considering the strength of the Kindle brand, the iPad certainly has strong brand competition in the e-reader market. The iPad is more than an e-reader, of course, but it was initially perceived as an e-reader on steroids. The Kindle, on the other hand, is positioning itself as more than an e-reader, with Amazon heavily marketing the Kindle as an app tablet with an extremely efficient browser.

The Android market also puts some heavy product competition in the face of the iPad’s genericization. With the Android platform now far surpassing the sales of the iPhone platform, Android users have a certain level of brand loyalty to the platform, regardless of the device they use. Samsung is heavily marketing its Galaxy brand as one delivering high-quality devices across the smartphone and tablet markets. If they continue to have success in this campaign, Galaxy could easily become the third power-brand in the tablet market.

Another big challenge to the genericization of the iPad brand is the growing backlash against the so-called “elitism” of Apple’s users. Similar to the well-known perception issues around people who drive a Prius vehicle, iPhone/iPad advocates have created a culture war by slamming Android users as being second-class. This was illustrated recently in the press when Instagram released its app for the Android platform, unleashing a heavy volume of criticism from Apple users claiming that Android users will muck up the app with low-class content. As CNN stated, the release saw a “number of tweets suggesting, or downright saying, that Android phone users are in some way inferior to iPhone owners.”

The class war around the Apple brand vs. Android brand smartphone market surely impacts the tablet market, as people tend to own a smartphone before a tablet. This heavy brand competition so early in the lifecycle of this market seems destined to prevent the widespread usage of the name “iPad” to encompass all tablet computers.

Brand genericization certainly has its good and bad points, as the Detroit News article illustrates. It can make your brand a ubiquitous name, but can also give a boost to your competitors — a customer may be initially drawn in to the purchasing cycle by what you’ve spent on marketing your brand, and end up purchasing a competitor’s product due to better quality, services, availability or pricing. Regardless of the product or service you sell, it’s important to carefully protect your brand’s name, reputation and usage by researching and addressing both positive and negative reaction to your brand.

De Gruchy, a prestigious department store on the island of Jersey, has selected Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust for its annual challenge to raise £10,000 for a local charity. Durrell asked TheFrameworks to design a prominent window display that would support Durrell’s work helping to save animals from extinction – and encourage people to buy a Durrell gift from inside the store.

And what better illustration of the failure to preserve endangered species than the plight of the dodo? Capitalising on Durrell’s influence and importance in the world of conservation, we designed a window display featuring one of only four dodo skeletons believed to have survived the 350 years since the dodo was lost to the world. With such a rare specimen at its heart, the striking Durrel display has already been pulling in the crowds – and drawing the attention of both local and national media.

If you’re in St Helier go and take a look: the skeleton will be on display until 16 April. And if you can’t make it in person you can learn more here.

Last Friday we joined our video production partner, Casual Films, at the prestigious IVCA Awards. And a fun evening it was too, despite an entertainment programme that jumped shark after shark after shark. In future, perhaps the organisers could cut down on the performance drumming and the opera-singers-dressed-as-waiters and give over the hour or two saved to – I don’t know – showing a few of the videos that were up for awards?

No matter. The glimpses we did see of this year’s winning entries gave us an intriguing insight into the many ways video is being used in modern marketing, education and fund-raising (there was a strong charity theme throughout the evening). There were entries at all levels of scale, ambition and budget using a rich variety of humour, music, innovation and special effects to get their message across. The tub-thumping opening address of the IVCA’s Marco Forgione was fully borne out by the quality and creativity on display throughout the evening.

In all, Casual picked up five awards – including two Golds – and a bunch of additional commendations. Well done to everyone there.

But what really made the evening for us was recognition for some of our own work: a Silver award for the video we made last year for ENOVIA, the core collaborative backbone of the Dassault Systèmes software platform. This film was one of the highlights of an intensive branding project that touched all aspects of the ENOVIA business and really helped an unsung brand find its voice.

It’s fantastic to be there when a concept you’ve seen through from start to finish receives this kind of accolade. It goes without saying that we couldn’t have done it without the help of the people behind the cameras (thanks chaps) but a big vote of thanks must also go to ENOVIA themselves for sharing the vision and passion that helped make this branding project such a success.