I was reading November's UK Marie Claire at the hairdressers last weekend and was struck by just how lazy their feature ‘What a turn on’ (featuring the stars of TV’s Autumn schedules) was. Its just disappointing. From the tired concepts (photographer’s studio with subjects sitting on camera cases, ladies in evening dress in grounds of … Continue reading What a turn off
Category: Life
Integration – your time has come (again)
I honestly think that big integrated agencies are coming round again (this obviously has absolutely nothing do with the fact that I work for one). Client's budgets and the size of their in-house teams are being squeezed and increasingly they're asking my lot to become an extension of the marketing team - even to the extent of … Continue reading Integration – your time has come (again)
Exactly what is ‘a fair days work’?
In an effort to clear my desk following a hectic week I was one of the last out of the office on Friday night - but that is quite unusual for me. There are always going to be the workaholics who are the first ones to arrive in the morning and the last to get kicked … Continue reading Exactly what is ‘a fair days work’?
toolbox – the gift that keeps on giving
One of the most valuable gifts I've ever been given at work was from the retiring planning guru, who bequeathed me a powerpoint document containing every chart he'd ever used. I don't think I realised at the time just how useful it would turn out to be, both for those 'how do I show this insight in … Continue reading toolbox – the gift that keeps on giving
paddling like mad to stay in the right direction
People are a bit like swans. However calm and organised we may appear to be on the surface, beneath the water we are paddling like mad to stay afloat and in the right direction as we lurch from crisis to crisis. Which is a bit like companies (and therefore their brands) really. Everything might seem ordered, … Continue reading paddling like mad to stay in the right direction
Marketing to women? Don’t just think pink.
Trendwatching.com has a female fever report on its August trend briefing – but the thing that most struck me was that the majority of the female-friendly products were pink. Personally, I don’t feel the need for a pink taxi, pair of trainers or pink gardening gloves as I’d much rather the key selling point was that … Continue reading Marketing to women? Don’t just think pink.
The perils of publishing
I’m working on a gardening project at the moment, so I popped down to the newsagents to get stocked up on the latest issues of the garden mags. It seems that Country Living (as a monthly title) is struggling to keep up with recent meteorological events: Whereas the weekly Amateur Gardening is dealing with up-to-the-minute … Continue reading The perils of publishing
hypertime and the physics of comics
If you weren’t at interesting2007, one of the most (surprisingly for me, given the topic) interesting talks was Jack Schulze’s entertaining presentation on hypertime and the general physics of comics. You can check out the slides and transcript here. Hypertime is explained as “a manifestation in the story of the comic which allows the writers … Continue reading hypertime and the physics of comics
slipstreaming into the plannersphere
Russell Davies has posted about social slipstreaming – essentially 'stalking' someone who is more into something than you (like music or gigs or politics) and using them as a guide to the subject. It struck me that this Planning web/blog/twitter/wiki/coffee morning/interesting conference malarkey is a kind of work slipstreaming. We Planners tend to plough a … Continue reading slipstreaming into the plannersphere
Here we go round the brandwagon again
photo by Bowbrick I was talking to a colleague about the whole trend for back-to-basics, good-clean-fun, simple, rural, old-fashioned-values entertainment and events that seems to have gained momentum recently – best embodied by the Innocent Village Fete. He made the very good point that its all very well for Urbanites to be thrilled to rediscover … Continue reading Here we go round the brandwagon again