Archive for December, 2007
New Year, same old issues?
It looks like the big issue of 2008 is going to be a variation on the age-old integration vs. specialism debate. Only this time round, my money is on both specialist and integrated agencies being forced to ramp up their Digital offering as it takes on an ever increasing share of marketing budgets and, in some cases the creative lead too.
This is obviously the direction that W+K have been heading in for some time and as Scamp wrote recently; ‘my guess is that Digital will not end up staying in separate agencies like DM has. We’ll all be doing it. I think this is going to start happening very very quickly and my advice is to get on board now.’
There’s another way of operating that has been around for a while that seems to be specific to big retail accounts – the TV goes to a high profile London ad agency, while the press work gets sent Up North to a largish integrated (we’re all integrated up here through necessity) agency. I’m sure the economics of this stack up nicely, but it does seem to devalue press as a medium and make the chances of a seamless campaign all the more remote.
I’ve blogged before about some medium sized clients that have neither the manpower, inclination (or in some cases ability) to co-ordinate their marketing efforts via a number of specialist agencies, making a one stop shop integrated agency their only option.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is that our industry is never going to move towards one single model, but that change and variation is inevitable. Both agencies and clients expand and contract. For all we know, internal comms could be the Next Big Thing in 2008, with agencies scrambling to set up their own operations. Nothing is certain. But I’m looking forward to taking part in whatever happens.
causes for celebration
1) I finish work today and don’t have to come back until the 2nd of January (so probably no more blogging ’till then)
2) I first started blogging on 21st December 2006, so its the blog’s first birthday about now
3) Its Christmas/New Year and therefore OK (to nick from Bridget Jones) to lie in bed as long as you want, put any food you fancy in your mouth and drink alcohol whenever it should chance to pass your way.
In celebration of these facts, I leave you with my favourite clip ever from youtube (and thanks to Beeker for pointing me in its direction) – The Muppets doing Mahna Mahna:
Merry Christmas.
a Festive Index
(concept admittedly stolen from indexed, but the observation is my own!)
stats and search terms
I’ve noticed a few unexpected search terms turning up in my blog stats recently, which left me wondering exactly how many pages of google you’d have to click through to find this blog if you’re interested in:
- how to bring the love of your life back
- what the human brain is always thinking
- trousers
- dead cupid
- children swimming in armbands flickr photo
- small-layout switcher roster
view from the middle
I’ve moved desks (again) this week. I was a tad miffed to discover that I now have an excellent view of the men’s facilities.
However, the Fairy Plant and Cupboard Godmother has visited this morning.
When you pause upon an ad
I was flicking through the Christmas Radio Times (a festive right of passage) and got quite engrossed in the ad below.
I was having lots of fun picking out all the Disney characters and showed it to someone else so they could join in the fun too – whereupon they innocently asked “so what’s the ad trying to tell me then?”. Um…let me have a proper look…it’s a car…and Disney…and…a Ford! and….
Great creative concept, but perhaps the message got a tad lost?
Recent discoveries:
This week’s itunes purchases have included ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ (M&S xmas ad) and ‘here come the girls’ (Boots xmas ad) – who says advertising isn’t effective?
The Buffy The Vampire Slayer box set is excellent for playing ‘spot the continuity error’. In particular the hair department deserve credit for their continual efforts to distract the viewer.
Zac Efron apparently didn’t take part in the High School Musical stadium tour “because if I had to hear the songs anymore I would have jumped off of something really tall”.
the notebook has landed
Courtesy of the lovely Staufenbergers, their limited-edition notebook landed on my desk this morning.
It was accompanied by a rather cryptic note, which has so far defeated the Planning, Proof Reading and Design departments at my place. Any suggestions welcome.
Meanwhile…
The ads below might not be the most obvious awards contenders, but they’re ones I’ve really enjoyed as a consumer in 2007:
Boots – ’tis the season to be gorgeous/here come the girls
Disney – year of a million dreams
Marmite – Paddington/you either love it or hate it
Apple – PC & Mac (USA version ONLY)
Planner’s ad of the year?
I’ve got an idea. All the blogosphere is busy deciding what their ad of the year is, which mainly seems to be judged on some kind of creativity/talkability scale. Why don’t we all have a good look round t’interweb and see if we can find an example of a really effective ad/integrated campaign that shows great consumer insight (OK, extra points for beautiful creative) - and hasn’t yet popped up at any awards event yet.
We’ll call it the ‘Planner’s ad of the year’.
