Posts

Four things marketers can do to make their lives easier

Ever heard of Hutchison Whampoa? It’s not the catchiest name for a brand. Especially for one that arrived late in the UK mobile phone market. So when the Hutchison Whampoa company launched a new mobile brand here, they had the good sense not to use their name. They knew they needed to stand out from […]

Could a copywriter have saved HMV, Blockbuster and other high street chains from bankruptcy?

Creatives don’t think like chartered accountants. Most of us don’t know how to run a big organisation. We don’t know what management consultants know. Even so, we can and do see things that so-called business experts don’t. Coming from outside a client’s business, we have a fresh perspective. We get to know their business and […]

What challenger brands could learn from the London Olympics opening ceremony

Wasn’t that a brilliant, inventive show Danny Boyle put on for the Olympics? Beijing’s opening ceremony was a tough act to follow in terms of spectacle. And Boyle had a relatively modest budget of £27 million. So he needed to make his money work hard to create a memorable show. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Unless […]

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. […]

Improve your marketing in 60 seconds

Imagine you have to stand up in front of a crowd and tell them about your business. You have 60 seconds to explain what you do. And why people should buy your product or use your service. You need to be persuasive. And make your audience remember you. So what are you going to say? […]

Why are some marketing directors like Stalin?

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 […]

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. […]