The Times have revealed that 105,000 people have subscribed to the online version of the paper. Despite their proclaimed joy at this figure, it in fact represents a fall of 90% in their online readership. It is also a cumulative figure across 4 months and may contain the same people subscribing more than once. Not [...]
The news that Unilever had crowdsourced its new Peperami TV advertisement should have sent shivers throughout the advertising world. The idea is that a client can post a brief on an opensource website and wait for the hungry creatives to respond. In the case of Peperami, this was 1800 people. The prize of writing the [...]
I was recently subjected to a spate of ads on my Facebook page crudely targeting me specifically by my age. I didn’t find this engaging, but rather intrusive and hectoring. It got me thinking about the dangers of media that knows too much about its viewers. I’m OK with the fact that when you view [...]
Today my 14 year old daughter, Emily, is shadowing me at work. I have shown her some of the websites we are working on, an SEO program we are using and a couple of advertising campaigns we are in the process of preparing. She has also seen me answer some emails from clients, chase up an [...]
One of the most famous marketing bon mots, usually attributed to Lord Leverhulme of Lever Brothers fame, is “Half of my advertising is wasted, but the trouble is, I don’t know which half”. In the digital age however it is much easier to see if your marketing is working effectively. If you create a banner [...]
Interesting to hear Martin Sorrell say that whilst social media is fine, you still need advertising to drive people to it. It’s certainly a powerful (and largely free) adjunct but people still need to know and care about your products in the first place before they follow them on Twitter. Sometimes the excitement of getting 100 Facebook [...]
Twenty 20 cricket bears the same relationship to Tests as a 30 second TV commercial does to a cinema epic. As a nation we’ve always led the world in the innovation of our TV spots now we look like being pretty innovative at T20 too.
Another beautifully crafted series of Mad Men comes to an end. The only series ever created to accurately capture the atmosphere of an agency, albeit one in the 1960s. (And what a stark contrast to the embarrassment of the recent BBC ‘comedy’ The Persuasionists which unbelievably was written by an adman. Do see Adam Buxton’s [...]