Archive for March, 2007
Get out there and do something interesting
I’m off on tour round the UK next week to cover off half a dozen meetings. I’m hoping to manage to fit in some other stuff too, like a trip to the theatre, some serious people watching and photos-to-post-to-flickr taking.
Jon Steel in Perfect Pitch
How can we possibly be expected to understand the world around us and other people’s point of view from a desk in an office with a fascinating view of the photocopier?
Russell Davies has a great post here from last November about how to be interesting. I managed 6 out of 10. What about you?
(picture courtesy of the streetsign generator)
Should you be zigging if your customers want to keep zagging?
I’ve been thinking alot about brand repositioning recently.
Its all very well deciding that from now on your brand is going to be aimed at Audience X, but what about all the Audience Ys that have been faithfully interacting with your brand? They might not be the most profitable or have the best long term prospects, but the old saying ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’ springs to mind.
I keep seeing brands repositioning, retargeting and rebranding, without much thought towards how their existing customer base might react – or (worse) trying to get those existing customers to start using the brand for a different occasion or in a different way without really communciating the reasons behind the change to them - ‘if we change it, they will still come’.
Sometimes maybe its better to create a new brand than to force an old brand and its customers into a new business model.
This pic (from howstrange) doesn’t have that much to do with repositioning, but I love it too much not to share…
Its a nasty (virtual) world out there
Two of my favourite bloggers have recently been subjected to unprovoked attacks online. I’m not going to link to them because a) that would fan the flames and b) some of the material intended to upset these bloggers is not nice to put it mildly.
Perhaps its naive of me to assume that the internet is any safer or better than the big, bad real-life world out there, but in the normal course of events I’ve been struck by the spirit of support and co-operation that exists online. Thanks to the net, I’ve made Planning friends that I would otherwise never had met and rekindled some old friendships too.
I suppose that to enjoy the highs, you’ve got to cope with the lows too, but today I’m deeply depressed by the state of the online community. What makes it worse is that both of these bloggers had really embraced connecting with their readers and bringing people together via the web, but the high profile that their openness created seemed to make them a target at the same time.
we went to the seaside for a meeting today…
…and had a quick stop to buy a stick of rock and look at the view on the way home. I’m getting very keen on making the most of trips like this and fitting in a little treat (like last month’s visit to the Kylie Exhibition). The pic is of the lovely Sam, comms development research queen.
Challenger brands have to think smarter
I’ve just come out of a meeting with a challenger brand who are launching into a market where their competitors spend at least £1M on media alone every year. Our launch budget isn’t anything like that, so we’re going to have to think a lot smarter. Which is actually more fun.
The easy way (chuck lots at above the line, spend where your competition is spending) doesn’t give you much room to try new, exciting things and to be a bit braver. “We’ve always done it like that” or “we tried that and it didn’t work” don’t crop up with a hungry young brand.
OK, I generalise (and who wouldn’t want to work on a leading brand), but challenger brands give you a lot more room for manoeuvre.
Interesting2007
Russell Davies has come up trumps again with a fab idea for a kind of user generated festival conference thingy for Planning types in London on 16th June 2007.
The plan is to have all sorts of speakers speak about all sorts of stuff. Not brands, advertising, blogging and twitter but interesting, unexpected, original things. I’m hoping to find fascinating people and to just ask them to speak about something they care about. I want to replicate the experience of clicking from one really good blog to another, ranging across sciences, arts, musics, jokes and whatever. There will be 20 minute slots and 3 minute slots. Some people will play music or sing. And some people who can’t be there will be asked to send three minute videos. Perhaps. I reckon we can squeeze a lot of interestingness into a day. And then have a party afterwards.
I can’t wait.
website: www.interesting2007.com
Observations from last weekend
1) Never, ever go to M&S the Saturday before Mother’s Day as it makes the Christmas Eve rush look like a quiet Tuesday in February.
2) It turns out that horses really like grapes (and its safe for them to eat them)
3) Eurovision used to be about launching careers, now its about salvaging them – this year’s shortlist included the-very-thin-one-off-Atomic-Kitten, him-off-East17-who-ran-over-himself-with-his-own-car and Justin-who-used-to-front-The-Darkness. However, it appears that a low-rent version of Steps called Scooch will actually be representing us. Sigh.
Northern Planning Summit hits Manchester
Northern Planners last night in Manchester was fun. Lots of new faces from LOVE and Feather Brooksbank (I think, it was very noisy, must pay more attention next time) and the usual suspects out in force too at trendy new bar Trof.
Really interesting conversation with digital planner James B about how mobiles will be used in the future and the implications for content providers. Equally absorbing rants with Rob about Morrisons’ imminent logo redesign and Andrew on…lots of things I won’t mention for fear of dropping him in it.
Top night, lets do it again soon.
Misunderstood Planner
One of my lovely colleagues (knowing how keen I am on charts) hypothesised that this might be the kind of birthday card I’d send:
Why I don’t want to move to London, reason #157
The view as I arrived at work this morning…
