My mother is a very bright, competent, entrepreneurial woman. But, when I was younger, she used to embarrass me in shops by acting all helpless in order to get served more quickly. She’d stand in the middle of a department store holding the item that she wanted help with in …
As a ‘traditional’ television advertiser, faced with… Media fragmentation. Ad zapping technology. …you’d think that a logical response would be to… Explore alternative marketing communication models. Make ads that people actually want to watch. Well I tell you now, the latter of these two options just ain’t happening. Not based …
Fewer, bigger stepping stones. The secret of a good presentation. Each stone should be a big, significant, memorable point. And what carries the leap between each one is the personality, the enthusiasm, the storytelling ability, the belief, the intensity, the passion of the presenter. This way the audience has the …
Old advertising industry adage “Agencies are crap at advertising themselves.” Whilst there are a few notable exceptions, this remains pretty much a universal truth. And in its universality lies its protection. Because no ad agencies are any good at advertising themselves, they all get judged on the basis of the …
I did. By that I mean both that I did want to, and that I eventually did, manage a creative business. I was MD of an ad agency for over 6 years. What I didn’t realise then but do now is that it’s actually a pretty shit job for a …
Customer = organisation (e.g. Tesco) that buys from a manufacturer. Buy lots of product and have a direct impact on profitability. Think one to one, two-way conversations. Think capital C. consumer = person who buys from a Customer. Buy small amounts of product and have an indirect impact on profitability. …
The day that digital marketing for fmcg brands really takes off will be the day that supermarket buyers accept it as a powerful alternative to TV. One of the most significant effects of TV advertising is its effect on this small but incredibly powerful group of people. As long as …
This has long been true of service brands. But it is increasingly true of manufacturing brands too. Once upon a time a brand was a series of values attached to a product by way of design, advertising, user imagery etc But the logical conclusion of fmcg brands entering social spaces …
Advertising = pay for distribution + control message Social spaces = relinquish control of message + hope not to pay for distribution Recipe for disaster = control message + expect not to pay for distribution