Powerful structures for product-driven organisations
Quite suprised to read Robert Gray's article in Campaign about user-generated content and advertising. What starts well quickly becomes a bizarre instruction manual for loading your ads onto YouTube. Then we steer on to the concept of user-generated advertising. Steve Henry (of TBWA\London) has apparently taken to posting briefs in their Soho reception so that anyone can wander… Continue reading User-generated nonsense
I've been watching with interest the blog posts on Welcome to Optimism - Wieden + Kennedy's official blog out of London - about their progess on the Ikea pitch. They talked about the build up, the staff working the weekend to get it done, and now the fact that they've lost the pitch to BMB. What's the… Continue reading Being optimistic
There's another great Yes Priminister quote which has been brought to mind by this most enjoyable post in adliterate. In the show, Sir Humphrey is asked why he has described someone as 'a great man' when he clearly doesn't like him at all. He replies, You have to get behind someone before you can stab them… Continue reading Knives and ideas
Quite funny to see the polarity of views about digital at the Design and Art Direction (D&AD) awards - the most respected forum for rewards creativity and craft in the advertising industry. On the one hand, you got Jeremy Garner from LBi waxing lyrically about how exciting it is that both Nike+ and Leo Burnett… Continue reading D&AD in the water
Antony's Map, Monitor and Engage mantra was a great rule of thumb for brand marketers looking to take their first steps in social media. Unlike most 1-line solutions it has the benefit of being usable and meaningful; providing an actionable plan for sometimes very hesitant marketers. First of all work out who your community is,… Continue reading As seen on Web 2.0
If we got rid of blog postings about whether big ideas are essential to advertising, we could afford to make the whole internet 13.2% smaller (approximately). However you do that. It's like a compulsion in AdLand. On and on and on it goes. In conversations in RealLife(TM), I've been party, within advertising circles, to… Continue reading Hey, what’s the big idea?
There's an absolutely fantastic post from Richard at AdLiterate about the worthlessness of brainstorms. Richard points out that many years spent in his own career attending and facilitating brainstorms have simply failed to create good ideas - not a single commenter disagrees. (UPDATE: dissent has since erupted). Perhaps the most surprising thing is that… Continue reading Quantity over quality: weak thinking and disgusting coffee
The site that promised to measure the size of the internet has failed dismally. It failed for the same reason that "viral" campaigns fail on the internet and in the real world - because the message or motivation wasn't strong enough. But this shouldn't be suprising, messages that captivate everyone are incredibly rare. Advertising people… Continue reading Size matters
There's an excellent post on RMM about this video ad (I have very little doubt that the word 'viral' was harmed in its creation). The ad is a take off of the movie, "The Break Up" with the couple discussing divorce representing the egotistical advertising world and the meek engagement-seeking consumer. As Matt Morrison points out, while the… Continue reading If you can’t beat them
As we potentially watch Scotland sail away into the uncharted waters of the devolved EU nation state, there seems to be other traditionally tightly controlled territories being set adrift with little direction. Or rhyme or reason. One of the most impressive examples of straight-forward directionlessness must be this story about Visa which caught my eye… Continue reading Form an orderly queue
Leading product 