Freelance Brand and Creative Strategist / Strategic Planner and Fractional Strategy Director
Today I went to have a look at the new Netto store in North Leeds, Netto's first foray back into the UK market. Sited at the far end of Sainsbury's car park on Leeds' outer ring road its an ideal spot within five minutes of some really diverse residential areas and with substantial passing … Continue reading a visit to the new Netto
Every possible media outlet has run some kind of piece recently about how the big supermarkets are dinosaurs and, basically, deserve every bit of ill fortune they might experience. But I've yet to read a piece which compares the speed at which shopping habits are changing (i.e. very quickly) with how much time it takes … Continue reading shoppers are changing faster than the shops are
I get the impression that the marketing community are currently somehow under the impression that the only UK cities producing decent work are London and Manchester. And that really winds me up. Not only because as a Leeds-based planner there's an implication that I'm coasting along in the second division, but because I know for a … Continue reading home is where the stealthily good work is
I went to a talk recently about Behavioural Economics, it’s a topic that fascinates me and since the session was being hosted by a legal firm I was hoping for a different slant on the subject. What I got was a classic example of how easy it is for marketing activity to negatively impact on … Continue reading when poor presentation skills impact brand perceptions
I stood in the ironmongers (yes, they still exist) alongside my Dad the other week and he announced that they must have run out of his preferred brand of floor polish, Klear. In fact, it was there on the shelf, but in the space of twelve months they'd gone from this: to this to this And since … Continue reading when a re-brand just isn’t Klear
There are a heck of a lot of How To videos on youtube, many of them now effectively branded content piggybacking a youtuber vlogger’s audience a la Asda’s Mum’s Eye View. Mum’s Eye View is rather a success story, gaining over 56,000 subscribers and over two million views in the six months since launch. Although … Continue reading Asda eyes up branded content
I don't know what it's like Inside London, but Outside London the Planning scene seems to me to have changed quite dramatically in the last 18 months. After agencies limped through the recession on a minimal headcount they've now staffed up again. And Planning/Strategy is one of the specialisms that is in growth. But in many … Continue reading Planner or Strategist?
I read this great post from Ben Kay over the weekend about the awesome documentary about backing singers 20 Feet from Stardom (which if you haven’t seen yet, you should). His agency-relevant take on it was that like many backing or background singers never becoming famous in their own right because they have the voice … Continue reading why Planners are the backing not the star
My elderly Dad has been in hospital this week for some major surgery so my thoughts in recent days have inevitably been focused on how bad the NHS is at patient/relative communication. But getting specific here wouldn’t win me any friends in the High Dependency Unit so the obvious connected topic is the human side … Continue reading why overlooking the human side of CRM can end up in a Comcast
1) We’re in the business of communication and persuasion, not putting-cool-stuff-on-screens (be they tv, pc or mobile). Making sure that the right message reaches the right people is what matters. Deciding which media is right for the job is vital – but the answer might just as easily be ‘supermarket car park experiential sampling’ as … Continue reading ten things everyone under 25 who works in agencies needs to know