Powerful structures for product-driven organisations
I've been thinking about this topic - how the principles of lean manufacturing could teach us something interesting about marketing - for ages, but getting nowhere with writing about it. Little things keep reminding me I need to get on with it. Like Amelia's discussion about getting the most passionate customers involved in the… Continue reading Just in time
Someone at Fallon must have had a couple of difficult meetings to convince Cadbury's to do this. It's a nicely shot little film which is... a Gorilla playing the drums along to a Genesis song. Funny, surprising and certainly unusual. If there's an idea it is that drumming gorillas (skateboarding dogs?) make you smile, which is what Cadbury's… Continue reading Brave or stupid
There's a brilliant post here by George Parker. As per usual, no prisoners are taken as George savages advertising's attempt to shove their films into YouTube with the new "Overlay ads". George is a fan of dogs on skateboards. Personally I don't think you can beat a cat with attention deficit disorder operating a toilet… Continue reading Dogs on skateboards or cats with ADD
From the department of faster horses*, Robin's post about the new ad format from Yahoo! The Smart Ad reminds me of a few quotes: Firstly, when VCCP (where I worked) announced it was starting its own search specialist, Rob Forshaw of Grand Union was quoted as saying "The move is potentially very lucrative, although I'd have thought… Continue reading Grubby behavior
There are a few things in life that sound like they're going to be great but always seem to fail in practice: fondues, windows mobile devices, the conservative party. But surely king of the hill in terms of 'will never live up to expectations' is direct marketing. Advertising is so random, we hear. So what we… Continue reading Direct to Hell
When I read this post on Robin's blog, I had to check it wasn't April 1 and time for more 'Google buys France' and 'Apple's going to make a mobile phone' stories (oh hang on a second, one of those was true). So, courtesy of the New York Times, here is Publicis Group's strategy:… Continue reading Turn the machines back on
PSFK highlights once again that while the hype around Second Life is alive and well, the community itself certainly isn't. And in even worse health are the advertisers who are flailing away with their empty Second Life spaces. As Wired points out, users simply aren't finding the virtual reality world interesting enough: 85% of avatars… Continue reading More Second Life losers
Interesting to read Simon Gill over at LBi Framfab Wheel Icon gushing about the Goodby Silverstein-generated 'Get the Glass' campaign (which just won a Gold at Cannes CyberLions) in the same week that Planning for Fun remembers the genius of the classic 80s Ian Rush advert by the UK Milk Marketing Board. If I could post… Continue reading Milking it
In yet another fascinating TED talks presentation, Seth Godin talks about the end of the TV-industrial complex and the need for relevant interestingness (or interesting relevantness) in products. His argument is that in a world with not very much media, getting attention was a matter of marketing dollars. In a world with far too much media, it's about… Continue reading Out of interest
Robin reports today on the announcement of the Cannes Cyber Lions winners. In terms of the top "Grand Prix" category, Nike+ gets another mention (after it's D&AD black pencil success) as does the marvellous Dove Evolution viral film, and Diesel's underwear thing. But once we get past the top category, where I agree we're seeing some interesting thoughtful… Continue reading Lion’s share
Leading product 