Powerful structures for product-driven organisations
Another great Brexit thing (making 2): this ad for Marmite came out on the day we were originally meant to be leaving the EU. Although of course in the end we just had another vote and then went back to wondering what might happen next. I was stood on a tube heading through central London… Continue reading Independence Day
Found a ton of great Fishburne cartoons when writing a post over here. Here's a great one that didn't fit that theme: For me, it brings to life two great fallacies about brands: 1/ That customers want to have a relationship with their brands. There may be some very special brands that are like that… Continue reading How brands talk
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Well, we find out that either the force wasn't really unstoppable or the object wasn't really unmovable. And so, the News International empire is about to collide with the self-appointed monarchy of the internet, Google. It's tempting to paint this as a battle of good… Continue reading Here comes the Sun
Does anyone else think the following - one an honest-to-goodness advertising campaign (from Fallon no less) and one a piss-take of the world without computers - look suprisingly similar? (And yes, that is Rolf Harris). The entire cracked photoshop contest is a lot of fun, imagining what the world would be like if the internet… Continue reading Care less Wispa
I'm certainly not claiming to be any sort of advertising pundit. However, the recent advertising campaign for Dixons strikes me as quite remarkable, and not in a good way. It has already sparked a lively debate. I'm sure that was at least part of the intention. In fact, I can just imagine a bloke from… Continue reading Last acts
In the last post, I talked a bit about the new Skittles site. This post really comes by way of an apology for a small experiment I ran following that post, and a couple of unexpected observations that came out of it. The experiment was to try and take over the twitter search feed which… Continue reading A funny thing happened on the way to the forum
Listen, I'm not going to start believing my predictions. I promise. After all, one correct hit in all these years is not good odds. However, I do find it a bit spooky that I wrote this post last week talking about just how pointless FMCG-brand websites are, and how useless FMCG brands are therefore likely… Continue reading Chasing rainbows
So Ted McConnell, P&G's general manager for interactive marketing and innovation has just told a conference audience that he didn't want to buy any more ads on Facebook (thanks to Dan W for the link). He succinctly summarises his thinking: "What in heaven's name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking… Continue reading Soap operas
Seth Godin here, picks up on a subject which Russell Davies discussed in Campaign last year. The Uncanny Valley. That topic is actually about when robotics (and the like) become too believable, and people begin to respond less well to them. How does this work in marketing? For me, it's a bit like when you… Continue reading It’s uncanny
Today was interesting. It was Interesting 2008, the Russell Davies 'unconference'; in its second year and continuing rude health. The underlying thought appears to be the same: the first step in being interesting is being interested. Accordingly a very large bunch (maybe 400) cogniscati gathered in an incredible (and extremely well buntinged) hall – Conway… Continue reading A little bit (of) interesting
Leading product 