My goodness, how I love a good argument……..
One of my favourite Monty Python sketches in the distant past was the one about the “Argument Clinic”. It was a great idea…the outlet that allowed disputation a place to play out….for money.
“Excuse me I’ve come in here for an argument.”
An argumentative proposition I heard recently was “no one gives a toss about brands any more”.
Well, true or false?
Actually, neither … how’s that. It’s clear enough isn’t it? No it’s not. Yes it is. No it isn’t…
The fact of the matter is that more rubbish is talked about brands than anything else. Linda Barker (God bless her, calls herself a brand – Linda? You know the Interior Designer and TV Presenter). Jordan née Katie Price probably thinks she’s one too.
This is brand Barker or barking…..
…
It’s the message not the medium, stupid!
Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian Philosopher of communication strategy, famously coined the expression “the medium is the message” which, whilst being right in suggesting context is important, managed to brainwash generations into thinking that the medium mattered more than the message...
Being on telly makes all the difference. True or False?
Increasingly, I hear people talking about the media strategy or about integrated marketing rather than what the campaign needs to achieve. One big FMCG company I know placed greater emphasis on their trade marketing than on anything else. The trade had to be convinced that the campaign was big and long-lasting. This gave social media an unusually important role in putting “x’s” on a media schedule.
There are pages and pages of stuff looking like lots of hits….of what?
Barking? Not really. Trade support is a key but please don’t argue that this was a decision based on…
The John Lewis #snowmanjourney integrated campaign
So the nights are drawing in and for the past few weeks we’ve been bombarded with the usual festive TV ads and cheesy Christmas jingles blasting out of our screens.
But this year, instead of targeting our wallets, some retailers have turned to emotional triggers when crafting their festive ad campaigns. Many of the ads we’ve seen are far less factual, price and/or product-led than previous years. The creative strategy and subsequent marketing messages they portray are less about saving customers money, and more keen to engage with the spirit of Christmas – to stir consumers’ emotions and bring back the tradition of the festive period.
I read an article claiming that retailers are likely to be more successful if they market and appeal to people’s emotions at Christmas, as potential consumers are more likely to be…
If we agree that engaging with brands in social media is a good thing, then how can we do it better? With participation in social media being a key area to in building brand reputation, Weber Shandwick offer their nine tips to build brand sociability. Anything that you would add?
…
5 contrarian Steve Jobs quotes all marketers can learn from
“Why join the navy when you can be a pirate?"
Just one of many great quotes from Steve Jobs and one that sets the scene for my post.
For me Steve Jobs is/was/always will be a marketing genius. His untimely death has got me thinking about what I have learned from his approach to marketing.
The growth of Apple and popularity of its brand has to make Steve Jobs one of the best, if not totally counter-intuitive, marketers that ever lived. After all, from a marketing perspective Apple goes against a lot of conventional marketing wisdom. So here's what I think we can
1) Be original, unconventional and unfashionable, even: Though the prolific buy-cycle of Apple products by its raving fans seem to reflect the worst element of the waste of the Western consumer, it…
6 key questions to ask about how a brand uses social media
I work in the travel industry which, most of the time, seems like a great place to be for a digital marketer. It lends itself to rich, original content and has allowed the pioneering (but not always dominant) brands to develop online in ways never before possible with traditional media (think of brands such as Travel Zoo and Trip Advisor).
On the other hand the travel industry is being squeezed from all sides, (costs are rising almost everywhere let alone in travel) whilst the industry becomes increasingly fragmented and even more competitive. It’s also an industry which has had the way it does business entirely turned on its head thanks to the wide scale adoption of the internet.
In this post, I share my experiences from our initial work with social…
