Why can't some marketeers grasp that they need a business strategy in place before they start worrying about a marketing plan, or a comms plan, or an ad campaign? I keep coming across marketeers who will quite happily let you present insight driven concepts for creative work (as per their brief), before suddenly admitting that they … Continue reading putting the advertising cart before the business strategy horse
Author: Gemma T
Brand and Creative Strategist
Let’s stick together
Great post from The Adlads suggesting that the old art director / copywriter team should be replaced by creative / planner teams. Its a really interesting idea, I'm just not sure where AdLand is going to find an extra few thousand Planners from, or what all the left over Creatives are supposed to do (retrain … Continue reading Let’s stick together
Quant is dead, long live Insight?
Interesting client feedback via a Research buddy today – one of their clients had apologised for not putting quantitative work their way recently. He explained that his role was now more about analysing his own customer data and buying in qualitaitive insight than farming out huge ‘how many and how much’ surveys. If we accept … Continue reading Quant is dead, long live Insight?
Trust me, I’m a Planner
I’ve been thinking a lot about Trust recently. In an planning/agency context, there’s a lot of Trust needed, between Planners and their Account Directors (please involve me but don’t try and micro manage my relationship with your client) and between Planners and their key client contacts (I really do have the best interests of your … Continue reading Trust me, I’m a Planner
the weather is springing another one on us
I know everyone thinks we Brits are obsessed with the weather, but we do have good reason. First there was last Summer's wash out, when an umbrella and wellies became essential fashion accessories. Then last weekend Spring arrived. On the 9th of February to be exact (the middle of our winter for you Antipodeans). It was about … Continue reading the weather is springing another one on us
blurring boundaries
I just read a great post from Drew McLellan on the blurring of boundaries between our home and work lives. Its not exactly a hot new trend, but an incredibly important one. To my mind, its not just that our personal lives are being invaded by work - in return our working lives are having … Continue reading blurring boundaries
A few pointers for workshop participants
Reflecting on workshops I’ve run or attended in the last few months, it appears that as well as the usual ‘mobiles off’ and ‘green light thinking’ reminders, we need to add some more pointers for workshop participants: No Crackberrying during workshops. Ever. Its is not OK to sit quietly all day and only pipe up … Continue reading A few pointers for workshop participants
Stuff Matters
Having been reminded via Russell Davies how much I enjoyed taking part in the printing/DM test for Interesting 2007, I signed up for Matter ('an experiment in communicating with stuff') last week. It seems to be all about how we like to get stuff in our hands, a bit like a magazine full of content and ads, … Continue reading Stuff Matters
returning to the Age of Conversation
Work on the follow-up to The Age of Conversation has kicked off over at Drew's Marketing Minute. You can even vote on which topic it should cover here. All proceeds from both books go to Variety, the children's charity. Definitely one to watch over the coming months.
Know Your Client
A bit of a work in progress this one, but here’s the beginnings of a handy guide to sussing out your client’s management team based on their choice of offices: Cavernous statement building with glass lifts and human size models of brand mascots in reception We are actually run by head office in the States … Continue reading Know Your Client