advertising

Content & Amplification – The New Brand Brief

Sometimes it’s still hard to talk to ‘traditional ad guys’ and get them to understand how the business of communications has changed, how the web has exploded the number of channels through which we can deliver messages and also empowered the consumer to respond, turning a monologue into dialogue and thereby giving them a voice.…… Continue reading Content & Amplification – The New Brand Brief

Can agencies really play nicely together?

I’ve had a few conversations recently about the changing remit of the advertising agency and the growing inter-relationships between different agencies, be they pure event/activation groups, web development or even media agencies. The question that always comes up (on both sides of the table) is whether the agencies will be able to get along. The…… Continue reading Can agencies really play nicely together?

The contradiction of agency recruitment

There is a growing contradiction in recruitment for the agency business, one that is potentially driving us faster into the chasm that I described last week rather than across it to the safety of the other side. The advertising industry through the 80s and 90s (and even early 2000) was seen as a very glamorous…… Continue reading The contradiction of agency recruitment

The Chasm in Advertising

Advertising is dying, but this time from the inside. We’ve seen many of the recent articles in FastCompany (The Future of Advertising, 17 November 2010) and Business Week (Don Draper’s Revenge, 24 November 2010) talking about the future of the industry and although many would argue that the same story has been rolled out annually…… Continue reading The Chasm in Advertising

Learnings from Making Digital Work NY

The end of BDW’s Making Digital Work in New York and a chance to look back over the last couple of days and our take aways from the workshop. An amazing collection of speakers and great insights. So what have we learnt that we can take home to our agencies? The model for integration seems…… Continue reading Learnings from Making Digital Work NY

When clients ask for bread, give them cake

Too often I hear account directors and those in client service complain that their clients are not ready, not mature enough or not open minded enough for us to deliver true integrated, multi-channel thinking against their briefs; and for this reason the briefs that are delivered to creative tend to be driven towards more traditional…… Continue reading When clients ask for bread, give them cake

Getting ready to ‘Make Digital Work’

In a couple of days I’m taking the 14 hour flight to head to New York for Colorado University’s, Boulder Digital Works Executive Workshop – Making Digital Work. This is the first time the programme has been run outside of Boulder and promises to be a hotbed of ideas and learning. The programme ran first…… Continue reading Getting ready to ‘Make Digital Work’

Digital is not a medium

‘Digital is not a medium’ is a post that I have wanted to write for a long time – but that I have repeatedly stopped myself doing because it simply feels too obvious; but obvious as it might seem there are still too many occasions where I am forced to re-explain. So this article should…… Continue reading Digital is not a medium

Treating creatives like adults

For far too long this industry has treated creatives like the goose that lays the golden egg – a mysterious creature that must be locked away, waited on hand and foot, and generally treated like a jewel that must pandered to and protected. But times are changing. Times are changing both for the industry as…… Continue reading Treating creatives like adults