Honda – Difficult is Worth Doing

As everyone is now aware, Honda successfully ran its 3 minute live advert – the first UK advert to be completely live, rather than broadcast as live (EDIT: In recent years) – during Come Dine With Me on Channel 4 last Thursday I have mixed feelings over this campaign. Successes of the ad: It continued [...]

Extraordinary, eyecatching titles: How to make your blog stand out

My previous post, notes on Jon Steel’s book The Perfect Pitch, garnered a personal best for syndicated views. Rather than ascribe this to a sudden surge in my popularity, I believe it is due to the eye-catching title. “The Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas & Winning New Business” is intriguing, seemingly useful and [...]

Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business

I’ve recently been re-reading my notes from Jon Steel’s book Perfect Pitch and am reminded of what a great resource it is (incidentally, Seth Godin has some typically insightful tips on getting the most out of business books). The central argument of the book is an obvious but often overlooked one – using your content [...]

How representative are Online surveys?

To answer the above question in three words: I don’t know. Generally, I have been sceptical about the relative veracity of Online surveys. Working for a media owner, there is a general concern that moving surveys online may reduce the strength of TV and increase that of the Internet. But I am being won around. [...]

Three lessons from ATP: Explosions in the Sky

Lesson #1: Pick the right environment The environment is a hugely important factor in consumer enjoyment. Design, location, time and atmosphere all affect our consumption and they should be managed as closely as possible to maximise the experience.  Good practice: Scheduling Jens Lekman‘s sunny, infectious indie-pop to open the afternoon on a glorious day (admittedly, the weather can’t be [...]

Classic blog posts #2

Seth Godin on really bad PowerPoint. sk

Ubiquity is not a strategy

Ubiquity is not a strategy. A great quote from a talk I saw earlier by Martin Thomas from Snapper Communications at an MRG/IPA event, the originator of whom I missed. Brands like Crazy Frog, PC World and Cillit Bang may bludgeon us into submission with a massive, ongoing campaign, but something has got to give. [...]

Los Campesinos! show they care

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomvu/ ATP vs Pitchfork was predictably awesome. One of my highlights of the weekend was the Los Campesinos! set on Saturday evening. The reasoning for this is a pertinent topic for this blog. This set was the 5th or 6th time I’ve seen them, and it was easily the best. Their proficiency has [...]

Housekeeping – 8th May 2008

Due to various commitments this week, I haven’t managed to collate my weekly links updates. There won’t be an update for a while either as I will be spending 8 of the next 11 days at or travelling to/from All Tomorrow’s Parties, and so my presence here over the next couple of weeks will be quite [...]

Giving it away for free to earn your keep

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessao/ Brian at Copyblogger rhetorically asked if one could make a living from publishing white papers for free, mass consumption online. His answer was (of course) yes, and he made reference to a former colleague who makes $300,000 a year from doing so. As one would expect, his tips for success are freely [...]