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What If You’re Not That Hot?

In nearly every marketing speech or column, examples from the likes of Apple, Virgin, MINI or Google are thrown at you. And yes, it is inspiring – great brand philosophies, remarkable heritage, impressive campaigns and ditto results. But not only have we seen them before, they’re also out of reach for most brands. I mean, they are extraordinary brands, which is what makes them interesting examples. But let’s face it, most brands are not. Like in school, there are only a few cool kids. That’s the whole idea of popularity – they are cool because the rest are not.

Spread A Little Happiness

In the run up to Christmas I had an invitation from Uniqlo – to climb aboard the Happy Machine, which offered online discounts every lunchtime for a week. It didn’t quite leave me with a warm glow, but did almost make me buy a sweater.

I also had a festive invitation from Coca Cola, to ‘open happiness,’ in the latest incarnation of their longstanding brand campaign. If only it were that easy, I thought. Which also made me think a bit deeper about happiness generally, and how brands and we as advertisers contribute to it. Or – according The Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC) in the UK – don’t.

What Is The Future of Retail?

As advertisers, we have to study human behavior, and it’s a fascinating thing: we all act differently depending on age, gender, location and many more variables. So, the challenge to advertisers is “How do we manage to get all these different types of people to shop at your store?” Retail services and products have innovated immensely in the past decade, and consumers have had no choice but to adapt.

Why Marketers Can’t Deliver R.O.I.

“R.O.I. Return-on-investment.”

A dirty, dirty word for many marketers, who have been coerced into including this measure into pitches, tracking it during campaigns, then merging it with Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to wrap things up and report. Yet many clients, accountants and CFO’s remain unconvinced. There is a very simple explanation for this.

From Product Placement to Product Displacement

Everybody knows how valuable screen time in popular movies and TV shows can be for brands. Remember the Junior Mints episode of Seinfeld? Harold and Kumar go to White Castle? To see their brand front and center in a popular film or TV series is the dream of every manufacturer.

Today there’s hardly a major television series that doesn’t have the fingerprints of some – or several – brands all over it. American Idol got into bed with Coke very early on ensuring that each of its celebrity judges drank from clearly branded Coke containers.

Chris Barbour, Head of Digital Marketing, Adidas

Over the years, ihaveanidea has been able to put together a rather impressive [if we say so ourselves] interview vault featuring the very best Creative Directors from around the world. However, the nature of this industry dictates that to make truly great work happen, you need a client who knows creativity’s value to their business, and that’s willing to let you venture out of advertising’s traditional comfort zone.

What Can Scotch Teach You About Branding??

Hilton Barbour
Marketing Provocateur
hiltonbarbour.com
When your mother’s maiden name is Anderson, you grow up with some very clear opinions on Scotland and all things Scottish. Scottish rain isn’t as ferocious as people say. Scots are genuinely friendly to outsiders – you just have to get past that gruff exterior. Hadrian’s Wall [...]

The Evolution of Evolution

As the final weeks of winter draw to a close, the annual advertising award show season will soon be upon us. There are the Marketing Awards – perhaps the biggest award show here in Canada – at the end of the month, followed by the One Show, the Bessies and the Clio Awards in May, [...]

IDEA In Spanish Is Still Spelled IDEA

So, a Puertorican, a Cuban, a Colombian, and an Argentine walk into a bar.
Nope, this isn’t some cheap, tasteless joke about our newfound multiculturalism. It’s everyday at one of the top Hispanic agencies in the US.
Once we get to the bar, the scene’s pretty familiar. We all have high expectations, and we’re pretty hard on [...]

Marketing In Accelerated Culture

The Changing Of The Guard?
The 21st Century economy, it seems, has a strange sense of irony. The former dot-com miscreants are now the darlings of Wall Street, while the corporate establishment has weathered everything from accounting scandals to bankruptcy. The Economist recently reported that Google “is now equal to the combined worth of [...]

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