Cadbury – Trucks

The “difficult second advert”. And well, I don’t like it. The gorilla worked because it was so random, so unexpected. And that makes it a nightmare to follow up. Plus of course, it could be easily mimicked, repeat and spoofed. I’m not someone that thinks advertising needs clear branding messages, but [...]

Links – 28/03/08

Blog-related:

Is FriendFeed the Youtube/Facebook/Twitter of 2008?
How the design of top websites has changed over 10 years (Wake up later)
Social media starter guide (Chris Brogan)
Fallon social media presentation (Slideshare) via Lee
Rick Astley on the rickrolled meme (LA Times)
Anthropological argument for not having a boss (Paul Graham)
Youtube award winners
Computer games sold with t-shirts (Boingboing)
Google trying to host [...]

Why companies should advertise on TV during a recession

There is a depressing article on Brand Republic saying that total TV revenues for May could be down as much as 10%. It says that “the expected May fall comes as clients tighten advertising budgets amid worsening economic conditions”. In light of this, I offer an alternative opinion, and state six reasons why advertisers and [...]

Water and mobile phones

 For those that can’t read it, this grainy image says “No please, no thank you, no water”.  It is from a music venue/pub I visited in North London last night. Posting it has two purposes:

I mean, really? Manners are important, but I’m pretty sure they don’t form part of the legal requirement of providing water. And what a [...]

Research 2008: The Great Debate (Part 4 of 4)

Go to part 3 here
Part 4 contains (1) Web 2.0: Capitalising on communities, (2) Closing remarks and (3) My conclusions
Day 2 Session 3: Web2.0: Capitalising on Communities
The final formal session of the conference was also the most fun. There was little particularly relevant to my work, but it is a subject I am interested in [...]

Research 2008: The Great Debate (Part 3 of 4)

Go to part 2 here
Part 3 contains (1) The Big Planning Debate: Is research failing in the boardroom and (2) Guaranteeing a return on investment
Day 2 Session 1: The Big Planning Debate. Is research failing in the boardroom?
And so onto Day 2. To open the session, Vanella Jackson of Hall & Partners introduced a [...]

Research 2008: The Great Debate (Part 2 of 4)

Go to part 1 here
Part 2 contains (1) Web 2.0: Harnessing the Potential for Business, (2) Honing Business Skills and (3) Pecha Kucha… And that’s why I love market research
Day 1 Session 3: Web 2.0: Harnessing the Potential for Business
This session kicked things off after lunch. It was chaired by Richard Young, who was [...]

Research 2008: The Great Debate (Part 1 of 4)

Part 1 contains (1) Introduction, (2) Welcome to the Great Debate and (3) Ensuring Transformation
Introduction
The 2008 Market Research Society conference was the third year I have attended, and the one I took the most away from. Entitled Research 2008: The Great Debate, the event’s stated aim was to “change business through better customer understanding”, which [...]

Penguin – “We Tell Stories”

It’s great when companies experiment. It is even better when the company that does the experimentation is not one that you would have necessarily expected. After all, experiments don’t always succeed. Yet, you often neeed a failure to reach a success. And it looks like Penguin may have done that.
Fresh from their experiments with a [...]

Kinder Bueno

Example of good marketing: I signed up for a competition with Kinder Bueno last year that involved giving my contact details. Today, I got sent 2 little Bueno eggs in the post. A small gesture, and one that isn’t all that unusual. But one that was unexpected and appreciated.

Example of not-so-good marketing: While it is [...]