A new life for old media: 10 examples of online brands using TV, print and DM

May 26, 2011

Some say traditional advertising is dead. Or dying pretty quickly. They say we’re living in a post-advertising age, where the “interruptive” ad no longer works. I say nonsense. Below are examples of companies using old media to grow their digital-age brands. Before jumping ahead though, allow me to indulge in a little rant. Not so [...]

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Do you really need an endline?

April 20, 2011

Whatever happened to the advertising slogan? It hasn’t disappeared; you still see endlines under quite a few logos. McDonalds still says “I’m lovin’ it”. Barack Obama used “Change you can believe in” to help him get elected. And a lot of local brands here in the UK continue to use endlines/straplines/slogans or whatever you want [...]

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Disposable freelancers

March 29, 2011

Are you letting your freelance creatives go too soon? Of course I’m going to encourage you to keep freelancers employed for longer. After all, I am one. But if you’ll indulge me a bit, you’ll see that I also have your interest at heart. You’ll often hear freelance copywriters and art directors complain they hardly [...]

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MINI – now that’s a desirable brand

February 1, 2011

I was walking down the street when I saw a little boy point excitedly. “Look Mum!” he shouted, “a MINI!” It made me think: Would a kid shout “Hey Mum – a Mondeo!” or “Wow – a Vauxhall!”? Not likely, I thought. Then last week, in Germany, there was a competition to win a MINI. [...]

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Is Groupon’s copy driving its multi-billion dollar success?

January 19, 2011

According to Mashable, Groupon are preparing for an initial public offering that would value the deal-of-the-day website at $15–$20 billion. It was only last December when Google tried to buy Groupon for $6 billion. So how did this company, just over two years old, become so successful so fast? Well I don’t know. If I [...]

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Best ads of the year?

December 22, 2010

Nine brilliant campaigns/ideas from 2010 that I wish I’d done Below is a collection of some of my favourite ads and marketing ideas, done by others, from the past 12 months. I’d have liked to include some long copy and a piece of offline DM, but I couldn’t recall any examples that had really wowed [...]

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Why are some marketing directors like Stalin?

December 8, 2010

Can you imagine what it must have been like working for Joseph Stalin? One foot wrong and you’d be heading off for porridge in Siberia. Or worse. So you can sympathise with Alexei Shchusev, a famous Russian architect who Stalin hired to design the original hotel Moskva. The communist leader wanted the hotel to be [...]

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Could your direct marketing be more personal?

November 24, 2010

A famous DM copywriter – I think it might have been Steve Harrison – once said that direct marketing isn’t sending customers a folded press advertisement. Nor, I would add, is it a press ad with an email address attached. When you communicate directly with an individual, it’s an opportunity to build a one-to-one relationship. [...]

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When copywriters are “too clever”

November 22, 2010

Have you ever experienced this: The other day I saw a very funny commercial.                                                                 It was well shot. The casting was excellent.                                                                  And the dialogue between the two, very antagonistic                                                    characters was worthy of Raymond Chandler. It had a simple, clever idea – usually the basis for an award-winning ad. The trouble [...]

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9 questions to ask about your agency’s creative work

November 17, 2010

Are you an agency person who presents creative work to your clients? Or are you a marketer who buys it? In either case you want to feel confident that what you’re offering or buying is of the highest quality. The following questions will help you decide the merits, or otherwise, of your agency’s creative proposal. [...]

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