Category: Advertising

Why advertising needs entrepreneurs

Regardless of whether you are part of a hot-shop 17-man creative boutique, or one of a 450-man flagship office of a global agency network, the advertising business still needs more than a healthy dose of entrepreneurs – and I think the industry is forgetting that. The challenge with this business, however large the brand name…… Continue reading Why advertising needs entrepreneurs

Tomorrow’s creative team

Back when Bill Bernbach changed the landscape of agencies by partnering art directors and copywriters we thought that this was a major revolution in agency team structure – finally the art department which had up until then really only been thought of as production took its merited role alongside the copywriters to come up with…… Continue reading Tomorrow’s creative team

Disruption for mind and body

I went last night for my first training sesssion at Concept 10 10 here in Dubai, this is a very different approach to the gym that uses very heavy weight against isolated muscle groups, doing very slow repetitions until you reach muscle failure point – and if you can hold out for too long (2.5…… Continue reading Disruption for mind and body

Has ‘integration’ become a dirty word?

In the rush to evolve the skills of the advertising industry to keep up with an ever changing number of new media channels the buzzword for the last few years has been integration, bringing other skillsets and sometimes other agencies into the fold to deliver an integrated product – whether this was branding, digital or…… Continue reading Has ‘integration’ become a dirty word?

The war for digital talent in advertising

Is there enough 360 experience to go around? Are tighter criteria making the talent pool smaller for recruitment today? It seems like everyone is chasing after the golden goose right now – the speed at which digital is invading our industry means that suddenly there is a major need for people that not only understand…… Continue reading The war for digital talent in advertising

Elephant in the room syndrome for agencies

The more I search for information about agency structures and models, the less of it I seem to find, not only are there very few descriptions of the traditional agency structure, how planning, creative and client service work together, but there is even less information about how these models are evolving and what might be…… Continue reading Elephant in the room syndrome for agencies

A fork in the road for advertising

I often find myself wondering how far the advertising invasion will go; dissatisfied with the shrinkage of traditional channels and the still unconfirmed power of the internet, we find that new ideas for advertising are popping up all over the place. Last week I found myself in a meeting with a new media company offering…… Continue reading A fork in the road for advertising

Reinventing marketing strategy, plans and thinking

As I read the pipeline article on ‘learning to unlearn’ it occurred to me how key this idea is when applied directly to the way we plan marketing and communications campaigns today. The last few years have seen the arrival of new channels, the prevalence of content as key to engagement and have put the…… Continue reading Reinventing marketing strategy, plans and thinking

How do we build knowledge in the agency business?

The question of building knowledge in this industry has arisen more frequently recently, mainly as a result of expanding markets in particular areas such as digital and interactive and also as a result of the economic downturn when many people are let go or changing positions and organisations must fight hard to transfer and retain…… Continue reading How do we build knowledge in the agency business?