Freelance Brand and Creative Strategist / Strategic Planner and Fractional Strategy Director
These days, I can't whiz round the shops in Leeds without maneuvering past a couple of experiential marking events / brand experiences. The stands/lorries/huts/inflatable domes are often full of shoppers happily enjoying free food/massages/entertainment or whatever but despite the amount of general Sales Promotion / Promotional Marketing / Shopper Marketing I've done for brands in the … Continue reading why spend on experiential when you’re so far removed from the purchase experience?
So pretty much every retailer has shown their hand now in The Great Christmas TV Ad Showdown. Judging by online views and my friends with kids, Sainsbury's Mog is by far the most popular. And the grocery gurus I follow on twitter say that cuddly Mogs are flying out of stores. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuRn2S7iPNU But it's actually not … Continue reading Sainsbury’s might win The Great Christmas Ad Showdown on views, but Lidl and Asda nailed it
Last week, Morrisons simplified their 'Match & More' loyalty scheme to focus on rewarding overall spend with points, completely dropping the Price Match element that sent cardholders vouchers if their shop on certain branded goods would have been cheaper elsewhere. To much less fanfare, last weekend Booths dropped Price Match out of their loyalty scheme too (but they … Continue reading is this the beginning of the end of Price Match?
To fanfare, a Leeds agency officially opened their Sydney office last week. Another Leeds agency has had an office in Sydney for a while and according to my sources a third is thinking about it. Meanwhile, nearly every agency bod I meet seems to know someone who has moved down under in the last 18 … Continue reading why is Northern AgencyLand flying Down Under?
Last Tuesday BBC2 aired their new feature-length drama The Gamechangers, about the 2003 legal feud between Rockstar who make Grand Theft Auto and an evangelical moralising lawyer who believed that violent games were poisoning a generation of teens. Writing in last weekend's Sunday Times, Matt Rudd gave the drama a pretty rubbish review, with what he called a hilariously … Continue reading deja vu watching The Gamechangers
Last week's piece about Shopper Marketing originally started life as a post about Windows (the glass fronted storefront space, not the operating system) and when I came across this great photo (from Wallpaper via @rbt74 on LinkedIn) of Selfridges' windows devoted to the Apple Watch I realised I still needed to shine a light on the under-appreciated Window. Apple have taken over … Continue reading in retail marketing, the window is back
There has been a lot of buzz recently about the resurgence of Shopper Marketing, a discipline focused on actually getting shoppers to buy product, versus the last decade's focus on getting people to love brands. Dilip Soman, author of new book The Last Mile said in a Campaign interview, "Most organisations tend to pay the least amounts of effort … Continue reading why Shopper Marketing is the logical starting point for integrated comms
I attended a great talk about making debriefs better by Andrew Vincent last night at an ICG / BIG event in Manchester. Whether you're a researcher, planner, account handler or client-side there was lots of food for thought. Andrew pointed out that we deliver reports and presentations to clients in a distracting environment with ever-shortening time … Continue reading delivering in a distraction environment
Good account planning is about helping to make The Work better / more effective and helping to make life easier for the account team, creatives and client. So I've started to wonder why the role of Planner is mostly limited to marketing agencies (with a few exceptions like the BBC). After all, these days agencies … Continue reading why do only agencies have Planners?
I spent last weekend with some uni mates, all now late-30's professionals. The hot topic of discussion at brunch was How Much I Hate Managing People. Which made this piece about keeping workers happy (via @tudehope1) particularly interesting because in it the CEO of training consultancy Happy points out that because not all people are good managers, there needs to … Continue reading since when were great specialists great managers?