Posts

Would this creative idea have happened in London?

For its size New Zealand has produced a lot of excellent creative work over the years. I asked a Kiwi art director why this was so. He said agencies there work closely with client decision makers. Does that happen in London? Maybe it did a few decades ago, but in my experience, it’s increasingly rare […]

How to ruin your new campaign without realising it

An error marketers sometimes make when judging creative work. The other day an agency asked me to do something odd. They wanted me to rewrite the endline of a new campaign that was at concept stage. It was strange because I reckoned the existing one was very good. So did they. Unfortunately their client didn’t. […]

Best ads of the year?

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 […]

9 questions to ask about your agency’s creative work

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. […]

Invisible copy, Mexican style

This Hot Wheels poster, by Ogilvy Mexico, won a Silver Lion at the 2010 Cannes Advertising Festival. Isn’t it terrible? I mean, where’s the headline? And just look at all that printed space without any copy whatsoever. What was the copywriter doing? I’m kidding – I think this poster’s great. But I can recall a […]