Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Linear TV

Post from Jeff Jarvis quoting an Ad Age article. It seems that a single advertiser can significantly increase ad-recall when being the sole advertiser on an online streamed show. This is, of course, only useful if ad-recall is a relevant measure of advertising effectiveness. I doubt it made the advertising more relevant to the reader - link

Be A Child To Be A Genius

This post about a presentation from TED is about how children can solve tasks more efficiently than allegedly trained professionals. It reminded me of a quote from Charles Baudelaire - it's all about genius requiring the mind of a child:
"Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will, childhood equipped now with man's physical means to express itself, and with the analytical mind that enables it to bring order into the sum of experience, involuntarily amassed."
There are parallels here with Edward De Bono's work on lateral thinking - how our thinking as adults is so trained into logical, vertical thinking that we need to free up those constraints to be truly innovative. In other words you need to re-find the child's way of looking at things, free from hierarchy and procedure, to free your mind to being innovative.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Customer Generated - Nike Football

An attempt to create the world's longest soccer video from Nike (click on "the chain" in the navigation at the bottom - link

Objects of Sociability - Ooze

Post from Gaping Void discussing and voicing other bloggers' opinions on what I consider to be the key marketing change that will happen soon / is happening now. Stop trying to mind-control people, you won't succeed. Instead give people something to engage with and talk about. Give them a steer and see where it leads. Link

Getting Great Design

Advice from Seth Godin about how to get remarkable design work. Much of this is about resisting being mediocre - however if mediocre is what you want, say so, and it will save a lot of time! - Link

The Weiden & Kennedy Influence

Hot agency of the moment, W&K left a lasting impression on Russell Davies. Here's some of the key things he learned - link

Little Things & The Power of The Sign

Readers of Tipping Point will be familiar with how little things can have a huge impact. Presentation Zen takes a look at how some insignificant little signs can make a world of difference to the impression created in the reader. The little things all add up. Link

Here's To The End Of Advertising Spam

Poignant post from Pink Air about intrusive and interrupting as a strategy. "I still don't understand how people can use the word intrusive (that is, "disturbing another by one's uninvited or unwelcome presence") as if it's a good thing." The example quoted is advertising spam at it's most rediculous - laser etching onto eggs. Link

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Fear The Small

Being a man of small stature, I always enjoy Seth Godin's riffs on small being the new big - here's one of his latest posts on the subject talking about how fear of the small guy is spreading - link. It's well worth following the link to Jeff Jarvis's latest Dell conversations.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Bland Brand

A competition for an automotive information website highlights the lack of meaning in traditional brand values. The brands mentioned are quite distinct yet the values that describe them have a good deal of overlap and lack real meaning. The manufacturers are obviously using better brand descriptors elsewhere such as tone of voice, but what value is being added by values? - link

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Trendwatching - Youniversal Branding

Here's the latest trend briefing from Trendwatching - link

The Ad World Hasn't Aged Much

The link at the end of the post will download a PDF document written by Jeremy Bullmore in 1972. I found it via the Staufenberger Respository. It's frightening to see how things have hardly changed in the 34 years (34 years!) since then - how many advertisers still have not grasped that "consumers" are people who think, who make up their own minds. I was also surprise to find what I assume is the source of my favourite planning adage about comedians telling jokes not telling people that they're funny - link

Power Of Dreams

Here is a post from Russell Davies that links to APG (Advertising Planning Group) entries for Honda. One of those inspiring reads that comes round ever so often - link

Monday, July 03, 2006

Be Relevant Not Popular

This post from Grow Blog resonated with my current thought-train (more on this sometime soon). It comments on Long Tail type buying patterns that the internet has enabled - people being able to find what is really relevant to them, rather than what they are effectively forced to choose - link

Rule of Thirds

Slide design post from Presentation Zen about using the "rule of thirds" to create powerful slides - link