The F1 season begins with the Melbourne Grand Prix on March 17th. Like all season starts, the preamble and build-up contains huge excitement to pique a fan’s interest in the foreplay of this spectacular international road show. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will, of course, finish victorious with both the drivers’ and the constructors’ titles returning to […]
I’m no Tom Hanks or Usain Bolt, but I’ve received my fair share of sales calls. Most appear to know that success doesn’t happen on the first attempt so they get their kicks of rejection hoping it to be the road to a sale. Maybe there’s some groupthink going on, “I wont get a sale […]
So, David Beckham played his final game for LA Galaxy last weekend and lifted the MLS Cup to close their season on a high. Mr Beckham has decided not to take the easy road and continue with the status quo of life with LA Galaxy. I would’ve thought it’d be incredibly easy for him to […]
Amazon has shown itself as the first true competitor to Apple in the tablet war. The launch of the Kindle Fire this week is an audacious move to out-price the iPad with a dumbed-down system costing just $199. Tablets are a future cornerstone for the world’s data consumption. As ever, Jobs lifted the curtain on […]
I was asked to call out some examples of those using digital innovation well. It’s very easy to say Dell are making money via Twitter and the new Old Spice videos are viral winners but here’s half a dozen less-heralded examples that might tickle your marketing fancy: Company: Disney Category: Social Media promotions What: Toy […]
I attended Doug Richard’s School for Startups recently. The title is a bit of a misnomer as the day had nothing specifically to do with starting a business, but it did have plenty of action points for marketing. The day was fast-paced with lecture-style talks from Mr Richard and three colleagues. Let’s be honest, you […]
Do you like business books that inspire you to move into action, or books that break down what someone did in their business? If it’s the former then this month has seen a couple of excellent releases for you: Gary Vaynerchuk is a hustler. His second book, The Thank You Economy is out this week. […]
Some business leaders say they can’t change because their demographic is 55 year olds and changing would jeopardize their custom. Changing would mean devaluing the offering. Changing would be a risk we don’t want to take. I’ve even heard, “We know our customer base is dying, but the boss wont change anything we’re doing.” We’ve […]
The Internet has only really been around for the masses since Microsoft brought us Windows 95 and the ever-present Internet Explorer. But over 15 years on, digital and digital marketing still remains a bolt on for many businesses that should really know better. I’m always amazed when strong marketers tell me their marketing director (not […]
A website isn’t a necessity for every single business in existence but few would argue it’s a massive opportunity. When business people ask my opinion about website designers or what type of site they should employ, I say 90% should use a blog. This will usually cause a lifted eyebrow or two as the word […]
It’s rare that I’m in front of the TV as much as I have been this evening and I don’t mean to be a humbug but a couple of things have struck me under the bombardment of advertising: – Many would argue the marketers have appropriated Christmas. On the face of tonight’s TV advertising they’d […]
Seth would say there’s a dilemma when wanting to grow your customer base of going deeper or wider with your product offering. Victor Churchill in Melbourne is a fabulously extravagant example of going deeper. They’re in the meat business but they’re anything other than a simple a butcher’s shop. This store takes things to an […]
TED is one of my favourite sites on the Internet. The talks are simply magnificent. Watch this one from John Gerzema (photo) of Brand Asset Consulting. He hits us with as many salient blows as is possible in 20 minutes, but one that particularly stood out for me was of values. Our mindless consumerism is […]
Modern marketers (whatever they are) might well say TV advertising is dead, that it’s a bygone era. I’m not sure I agree. The communications group and advertising giant, WPP sells more than its fair share of TV ads and they’ve just had their best quarter for ten years. According to chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, […]
Robert Tyler started the blog ‘I hate Ryanair’ back in February 2007. It really does what it says on the tin by publicising any and all grievances with Ryanair, ‘the World’s most hated airline’ according to Tyler and plenty of his readers. The comment section of his blog extends the frustration and anger further still […]
GAP changed their logo recently. And promptly changed it back. Writing about the flip, GAP president, Marka Hansen said in the Huffington Post, “given the passionate outpouring from customers that followed, we’ve decided to engage in the dialogue, take their feedback on board and work together as we move ahead and evolve to the next […]
Social networking is all the rage with web and mobile usage catching business’s eye with the Web 3.0. Sony launched their cloud-based content service, Qriocity, recently. With their product range and reach, they should get some traction for their downloads. IBM is set to, according to Jeffrey Schick, IBM’s VP of Social Software, “better connect […]
Should every penny SMEs spend on marketing go on traffic initiatives that directly affect turnover? I know plenty of small business owners who’d say that branding is just for the big guys. They’re enraged with the anecdote that says, “half of all marketing is junk, and half of it works, but you never know which […]
Detractors would say it’s childish to email your customers reminding them of such menial tasks as cleaning a vacuum filter, but I really like this email from Dyson. No selling, no offers, no coupons, no upgrades, no end of season bumf… just service. No, it doesn’t help the till ring today, but it’s a great […]
A product, service or brand that’s being raved about is all well and good until you try it out for the first time. With mountains of people talking so wildly about something, you’ve naturally put it in the remarkable box. But what happens when it’s not remarkable; when it’s only OK; when it doesn’t blow […]
I met someone this week that thinks they were burgled because they tweeted that they were away from home (i.e. London, when their location says Brighton). Such scare stories are only more likely as location-based services begin to make traction. Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Loopt, Yelp etc are still in their relevant infancies but with Facebook […]
‘Follow us’ and ‘Stay Connected’ buttons are now as commonplace on websites as the word ‘like’ is ever-present in a teenager’s vocabulary. I’m seeing it in the most unlikely of businesses this year. This photo was taken at a country park. Do you really want to follow and interact with the tweets of a park […]
Rebranding is an ugly word. All too often it’s a euphemism for ‘we were rubbish but a cleaner logo and new strapline means you should forgive our history and buy into this new stuff.’ Perversely, not rebranding is one of the reasons Mr Brown is going to be punished so badly on Thursday. But I […]
Nestle are used to their fair share of bad press; students the world over have seen to that. But March 2010 is when they will go into social media case study history. For anyone who’s not read the full saga, here’s the short version: a video was staged which drew a play on eating Kit-Kat […]