The advertising industry last week joined the #TimesUp movement with #TimesUpAdvertising. I'd respectfully suggest that it should read #TimesUpMarketingAgenciesAndTheirClients. Over the last 19 years (!) I've worked for four different marketing agencies and freelanced for many more and I've ended up with a love-hate relationship with the marketing industry. I love the speed at which … Continue reading Marketing, your #TimesUp
I work for an agency that is very, very excited about the way that data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence are going to significantly change marketing, not least because all of the above will free us to spend less time knee deep in spreadsheets and Google Analytics and more time thinking (and in the … Continue reading Planning is changing, fast
This week’s Election Buildup Big Idea from Labour is their ‘Woman to Woman’ campaign/tour where Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman MP and other Labour Party female big cheeses will tour the country, reaching out to the 9M women who didn't vote at the last election to discuss ‘what they want from Government … Continue reading marketing to women is still 50 Shades of Pink
I went to a talk recently about Behavioural Economics, it’s a topic that fascinates me and since the session was being hosted by a legal firm I was hoping for a different slant on the subject. What I got was a classic example of how easy it is for marketing activity to negatively impact on … Continue reading when poor presentation skills impact brand perceptions
My elderly Dad has been in hospital this week for some major surgery so my thoughts in recent days have inevitably been focused on how bad the NHS is at patient/relative communication. But getting specific here wouldn’t win me any friends in the High Dependency Unit so the obvious connected topic is the human side … Continue reading why overlooking the human side of CRM can end up in a Comcast
I've always struggled to understand why business owners feel that their reputation will be somehow enhanced by becoming the focus of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. BBC2's Life in the Freezer Cabinet did nothing for Iceland's positioning and made CEO Malcolm Walker look like an idiot. Which according to a mutual friend is a misrepresentation. the Chief … Continue reading documentaries – is all publicity really good publicity?
I popped into M&S the other day and noticed a piece of POS encouraging women to ‘Drop a Dress Size’ in their new range. The body copy explained that you should buy the dress in your usual size and its cut and support would make you appear a dress size smaller. M&S have quite clearly … Continue reading when size itself becomes a fashion marketing tool
In the first half of my Planning career I worked on a number of drinks brands and became a bit of an authority on stuff like maximising back bar selling hotspots. As a result, I ended up writing lots of features for drinks trade mag The Publican and still provide expert comment for the odd … Continue reading why brewers have yet to learn what women want
The main topic of conversation yesterday morning at the agency I was working in was, perhaps inevitably, X Factor. As we merrily critiqued last weekend's performances I remembered that at the end of every act a message appeared on screen directing you to the X Factor website (and then iTunes) to download the track you … Continue reading X Factor finds a whole new use for iTunes
There are an awful lot of businesses and brands out there doing the whole Social Media thing rather badly. Getting Marketing Wrong isn’t a new phenomenon, I only have to look at the dross which drops though my letterbox from Indian takeaways, landscape gardeners and cleaning services to see that there are a lot of … Continue reading with social media lowering the bar, are some businesses doing themselves more harm than good?
