Posts

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 […]

The power of intelligent long copy

You’ve probably heard it a million times: “No one reads long copy.” But is it true? Copy is text. People read long text all the time, in the form of news articles and blog posts – like the one you’re reading now. And they read it because it’s interesting (to them at least). So maybe […]

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

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 […]

Time to rename the ad business?

Does the word advertising sound old fashioned to you? Sometimes it does to me. And I know other people in the so-called “advertising industry” who are uncomfortable about using the word to describe what they do. In these days of integration, we’re all doing a bit of advertising, some DM and an increasing amount of […]

Do Ideas Matter Any More?

Twitter, Facebook, mobile marketing – how the media landscape has changed since I started my advertising career as a junior copywriter at Saatchis’ London, 25 years ago. Back then, if you wanted a job in the creative department, you needed to be good at coming up with ideas – lots of them and good ones. […]