marketing
10 Books I Heartily Recommend
Whilst trying to unblock blog block at the weekend I started thinking about the books that have been major influences in how I approach work stuff. And I was going to go back and start re-reading some of them to see if they’d kick-start…
Crisps and Conversations
I’ve been a bit of a sceptic about interactivity and FMCGs. Most of the time they just create digital litter. Maybe it’s just because I’m a big fan of crisps. But Walkers seem to be doing some peculiarly interesting things around…
Universities Are Hot On Google Adwords
I logged into my Gmail and picked up a message about a D&AD education thing I’m speaking at in September. And I suddenly noticed that I was surrounded by ads for clearing places at various Universities. I don’t know why I was surprised. Of…
What Advertising Can Learn From Radiohead
I wasn’t going to blog about the House of Cards video and it’s brilliant integration with Google and the geekosphere. I wasn’t going to blog it because everyone else has. It is bloody brilliant though. Yet another example of how Radiohead…
URLs Out – Searches In
I was watching TV last night and an ad came on for continuing education. It’s one with fingers walking around the place. The ad was OK. I didn’t really pay much attention. But at the end of the ad the call to action was – “search for EMA…
The Rise of The Ad Man 2.0
[I’ve written this post once already. I got to the end of it just as someone phoned me up. I picked up the phone. Fumbled it. And dropped it on my laptop which duly crashed in a spectacular fashion. The second revision is slightly shorter…
4×4 Meme: More About Me
I got tagged by blackbeltjones with the 4×4 meme. So I rolled over and became a part of it. Plus it gives me a chance for some totally self-absorbed and pointless blogging. It looks like this meme has mutated a bit over time, but I’m going…
Advertising Ads
In spite of the heinous typo I love this sign (from a little newsagents just off Brick Lane). I haven’t seen anything that encapsulates quite so wonderfully the problem with a lot of the online advertising that is floating around aimlessly…
How To Do Digital Planning
I’ve been trying to post something like this for a few months now. But it kept morphing into a badly researched history of planning mixed with a poor how-to guide. And of course I kept veering off into bloody flag-waving about how digital…
A TV Ad That Made Me Laugh
This new TV ad for Carling lager made me laugh out loud. Mr Cherkoff take note ;-) (from Twitter feed earlier today)…
Why Marketeers Are Too Excited About Facebook
I almost can’t bring myself to write about Facebook. Everywhere I go I overhear people talking about Facebook. From people in the street on their phones talking to people about how they’re going to Facebook them to arrange a night out, to…
JML on the Internet
I don’t know why I love JML, I just do. It’s something about their no-nonsense straightforward approach. As well as the fact that all their products are miracles of modern innovation! Next time I’m confronted with a bunch of people fawning…
My Favourite Post in Recent Memory
The Logic+Emotion blog is consistently good. This post about execs not getting ‘new media’ is so spot on it hits the middle of the spot in the middle of the spot at the centre of the bullseye. An extract: “The industry has brainwashed us…
Marc Ecko’s Latest ‘Stunt’
Marc Ecko, he of ‘Tagging Airforce One‘ fame, has come up with another big noisy stunt. He’s bought a baseball for 3/4 million dollars. It’s a controversial baseball. It’s the ball that was hit by some dude (Barry Bonds) who got 756 home…
Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics
So near yet so far… I was really getting on well with this Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics – Take 1 from Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence Blog. It seems to have some decent principles that make sense whether I’m wearing a blogger hat or a…
I’ve seen the future of Marketing 2.0 and it’s rubbish (but don’t worry, it’s in Beta)
[Please note: none of the brands mentioned here have ever done anything like this (as far as I know), it’s a purely fictional story of an imagined future from my slightly fuddled brain] Imagine if last night everyone who worked in the…
Brands, Bands, Fans
Music strategy and comms agency Frukt send me a lovely email every month called Brands | Bands | Fans which is a top snapshot of the way that brands are ruining music. Or in some rare occasions doing something that’s actually quite good…
Now That’s Segmentation…
Absolutely stunning. This leaked segmentation doc (allegedly from Phones4U) is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while. Certainly the funniest marketing segmentation anyway. Includes such highlights as: Flashing Blades: blokes…
Fancy Working For Orange?
Orange are on the lookout for a new Digital Manager. Obviously the best thing about the job is that you’ll get to work with Poke, and you’ll get to boss us around. And we have to be nice to you. But aside from that it’s a pretty cool role…
I Like MOMA
This is the second time I’ve said I don’t want to blog about what I had for breakfast. But in a roundabout way I’m doing it again… This morning I stopped at a little stand called MOMA at London Bridge (I have to admit the first time I saw…
Plundering UGC Cash, Who’s In?
I’ve just been flicking through New Media Age. And after my earlier comment about User Generated Content, I was dismayed to see how many column inches have been given over to terrible UGC ideas – but with MASSIVE cash prizes. I did a quick…
I Got My First Haters…
I knew it would happen someday. It was only a matter of time. But I’ve got my first haters! Sam and Highly Miffed are upset about the post and subsequent comments around on the Youth Marketing conference that I didn’t like. See their…
Semacode Update
Blogs are great. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I asked a question about semacodes on websites. Went to bed. Then I woke up and someone’s left me a great answer. It’s like a big huge collective brain that goes on thinking…
CMOs on Digital and Traditional
Following the BBH Lynx win post I thought this research into the attitude of CMOs(commissioned by Sapient) reported some interesting stuff. LIke the fact that 68% of CMOs prefer to work with multiple agencies, to derive the benefits of…
My Mini Adventure
I sort of wrote myself an unwritten rule that I wouldn’t blog this. But when I did a search for Mini Adventure London and nothing came up, I felt a bit bad. Mini have obviously spent a lot of money on an awesome piece of experiential…
Aaaargh!
Could this be the most pointless thing ever? Probably not. But it’s a massive folly of some description. Someone has spent a whole heap of money creating a video based ‘human face’ to a search engine. Type in your search and Ms Dewey makes…
Netflix Prize
This must be one of the most blogged about stories of the last week. But I’m going to do it anyway because I think it’s really interesting and it spans the worlds of geekery and marketing perfectly… Netflix are offering $1,000,000 to…
When good ads go bad…
I like the new advert for 3. The one for free Email and IM on your phone. If you’ve not seen it, here it is: I was really really disappointed when I opened up my weekly Zoo magazine (it’s a work thing, honest) to see this press version of…
Youth
Ooooh oooh yes please. I’d love to know how to grab youth attention using these new fangled new media channels and technologies. Sounds exciting. Damn! I should have guessed, breakdancing kids on mobile phones. The answer was staring me…
Dell Blog
I’m a bit behind on this one but Dell have started a corporate blog. It’s getting very mixed coverage: Good(ish): Scobleizer – Tech Geek Blogger » Four little links say volumes at Dell site Pretty bad: Micro Persuasion: Dell Starts…
Garfield (not the cat) on Cyber Lions
Although I would be interested to see what Garfield the cat would have to say about Cannes. Anyway. You’d expect a geek like me to talk about the web being a “transformational opportunity to engage the user”. But when someone from…
Blog Shares
Not quite sure how it all works, but it looked like a bit of fun and something I should at least know about. I’m preparing to have my ego crushed as this proves my blog is less useful than a blog about something really useless. Oh yeah, my…
Genuine Marketing Gimmicks – An Oxymoron?
Sorry few posts. Hectic week. Going holiday Friday. Lots to do… I’ve started to use Radio 4 as my alarm clock. I didn’t think it would work. But people talking, gently, as they do on R4, is quite a nice way to wake up. You get kind of…
Nobody Reads Ads
I just read this Guest Essay from the 2004 Gunn Report by Fred & Farid. There’s some really interesting stuff in there. I particularly like the way that they talk about consumers: The marketing strategy talks to the consumers; but we are…
RSS what?
According to a report from Marketing Sherpa: Currently at least 75 million consumers and businesspeople in the USA and UK use RSS on a regular basis. However, depending on which study’s stats you believe, only 17-32% of RSS users actually…
Mobile Marketing
Yesterday I spoke at the Mobile Marketing 2005 conference. I actually quite enjoyed it which surprised me. It was a tricky old thing. From speaking to lots of people later it’s obvious that there’s a lot of different levels of knowledge…
ConQwest
Levi’s Antidote
Levi’s Antidote is, in its own words: “…a living, growing snapshot of what people are thinking and doing across Europe.” Now, as the guys at SMLXL so rightly point out, this is theoretically a great idea. A campaign that supports…
iPod Nanos on Tokyo Metro
From Cult Of Mac Blog – iPod Nanos on Tokyo Metro – This is a great (if a little expensive) promotion. Having said that, this is one of those ads that creates so much residual ‘buzz’ around it that the initial investment is totally worth…