tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62691392012-01-03T16:40:56.415Z108th StreetIn 1968, David Ogilvy wrote a letter that was distributed at New York's Grand Central Station to help raise money for an African-American college fund. The opening line asked readers to look out of the train window when they reached 108th Street. Seeing with their own eyes the homes of the impoverished black students, they donated $26,000 in one evening. A simple idea that proved incredibly powerful. And an inspiration for this blog on advertising creativity around the world.PWnoreply@blogger.comBlogger661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-83140682540616961622012-01-03T16:34:00.005Z2012-01-03T16:40:56.421ZJoin me in AmsterdamI'm planning a copywriting workshop at Schiphol in Amsterdam on 2nd March 2012. It's a practical, hands-on workshop for anyone in the field of marketing communications and you'll find full details of the programme at herecomesthecavalry.co.uk. Hope to see you there!PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-88210350285505255622011-11-29T15:21:00.001Z2011-11-29T15:22:28.196ZAdvertisers follow the money. But at what cost?I've lectured a fair bit on the growth of the advertising markets in the so-called BRIC economies. One thing I'm always keen to impress on students is that there are potential brakes on development in the emerging giants, despite the massive investment major advertising groups have made in recent years.
Some of the obstacles are structural - the shockingly low literacy rate in India, for PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-15104292292126471242011-11-26T20:10:00.007Z2011-11-26T22:01:57.206ZHow to take the plunge with social mediaOne of the advantages of running workshops in marketing communications is that I get to meet a very wide range of interesting people from a diverse range of sectors. There's no doubt that the sessions are always a learning curve for me, as well as for the people who sign up.Earlier this week, I met a representative of the British Heart Foundation - a PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-85296956682141612042011-11-18T16:07:00.003Z2011-11-18T16:11:58.137ZThe death of the QR codeWho needs QR codes when augmented reality is advancing like this?PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-5128161779476129852011-09-12T22:54:00.003+01:002011-09-12T23:58:20.239+01:00With friends like this...Businesses are usually delighted when we endorse their products and only too happy if we provide them with free publicity via our social networks. It seems somewhat strange, therefore, that French fashion brand Lacoste and the iconic American brand Abercrombie & Fitch have both recently been in the news for trying to stop people wearing their clothes.The problem for PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-19195750808473362252011-07-02T23:22:00.003+01:002011-07-02T23:26:48.003+01:00Lovely ambient ad for BlackBerry PlayBook captured in Manchester, UK, last month.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-56423942323955931442011-05-31T22:49:00.004+01:002011-05-31T22:57:15.595+01:00Tweet, watch TV and play your Xbox. While you read this blog.The future of advertising in a morning. It’s a big ask, but I guess time is money for a lot of the leading executives who attended the seminar organised by the Westminster Media Forum on 31st May 2011 in London. We had a good mix of broadcasters and media representatives at the Royal Society in Carlton House Terrace, as well as people PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-7319600513188319482011-05-25T09:55:00.003+01:002011-05-25T09:58:02.181+01:00Watch out for commentary on 108th Street from the Westminster Media Forum's seminar on The Future of Advertising. I'll be attending the meeting next week in central London, which will bring together speakers and commentators from leading brands and agencies with key policy makers.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-5058342040184103102011-03-07T10:01:00.002Z2011-03-07T10:04:47.851ZGreat piece of ambient advertising for a company which doesn't allow its chicken to arrive on people's doorsteps cold. Simple, visually striking and effective. McCann Erickson, New Delhi.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-19269353740681732132011-02-13T23:43:00.004Z2011-07-02T23:16:45.817+01:00Props to the old skool guerrillasI'm looking forward to giving a couple of evening lectures this week at Chelsea College of Art & Design to students from University of the Arts London and French advertising school Sup de Pub. The topic is guerrilla and ambient advertising and I'll be making the point that we're actually standing on the shoulders of giants.As well as talking about the adventurous PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-34895863522836609102011-01-31T20:05:00.003Z2011-01-31T20:09:03.784ZChinese trainers sold to a suspicious American market. Nice creative work and an interesting commentary on the shifting balance of power between the US and a nascent superpower.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-52650095690760281212011-01-24T22:08:00.000Z2011-01-24T22:09:36.066ZPWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-6005170219950129342011-01-24T22:04:00.002Z2011-01-24T22:08:52.768ZInteresting approach to financial services marketing from British high street retailer, M&S. The overtly feminised creative is designed to demystify insurance, credit and investment products for the typical shopper. But when does cleverly targeted and imaginative communication become patronising?PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-81762693022514523162010-11-12T22:19:00.000Z2010-11-12T22:20:15.312ZInteresting ideas from Dentsu and design gurus, Berg.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-69713584813672052732010-05-05T07:36:00.003+01:002010-05-05T07:51:28.157+01:00How would the French save Gordon Brown?I'm a great believer in giving my students some difficult tasks. It helps to separate the men from the boys or, very often, the women from the girls. Or, in this particular instance, les dames from les filles, as the class in question came from Sup de Pub - the leading advertising school in Paris.The brief I gave yesterday morning to a group of would-be PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-12354118503284740022010-01-13T00:15:00.002Z2010-01-13T00:22:55.114ZVery much liking the current LG campaign in the US which is built around those text messages we ought to think twice before sending. I was discussing it this week in London with students from Maryland's Towson University and making the point that it's beautifully integrated across a number of different media. Traditional TV commercials and posters are linked to the web, Flickr and Twitter. I've PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-11184934968995129272009-12-28T14:30:00.003Z2009-12-28T21:31:20.674ZA great deal has been written about the way in which charities, campaigns and political movements have borrowed the techniques of commercial marketers and advertisers. Very often, however, the marketing profession would do well to look at the ideas that evolve spontaneously as part of political protests. Many are simple, but ingenious.Mass movements - particularly those which are denied the rightPWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-45022986528226617832009-11-19T22:05:00.004Z2009-12-09T09:20:11.551ZIn the past, we'd distinguish between traditional forms of advertising aimed at mass audiences and direct marketing techniques which targeted groups or individuals directly. One of the interesting things about the brave new world of Web 2.0 is that these distinctions are becoming blurred. It's no longer TV campaigns, billboards and press advertising versus direct mail, e-shots and targeted web PWnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-14647017471428406802009-11-17T15:45:00.003Z2009-11-19T22:04:57.705ZA number of my clients and delegates on training courses often wonder whether Twitter can truly be used as an effective marketing platform. Too often, we think of it as a vehicle for conveying a message, whereas actually it's an instantaneous method of anyone conveying a message on our behalf.US space agency NASA recently invited 100 of its followers to Cape Canaveral for the launch of the Space PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-3216968017936559452009-11-09T10:56:00.001Z2009-11-09T10:58:03.980ZA fine example of German-style 'buzz' marketing. I wonder what viral messages these flies could carry in the future?PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-39956289204833517302009-07-18T22:12:00.001+01:002009-07-18T22:14:03.180+01:00Everything's 4-star, except the hotel...Earlier this year, budget hotel chain Premier Inn claimed in its UK newspaper advertisements that it offered "everything you'd expect from a 4* hotel". Having worked in the ad industry, I know there's inevitably a certain amount of poetic licence in the promotion of products and services. Sometimes, however, boundaries get crossed. I protested to the PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-77712406404244467992009-07-13T00:16:00.003+01:002009-07-13T00:18:44.269+01:00Driving Fatigue advert from Driving Fatigue on Vimeo.This film has been put together by two recent graduates of Kingston University. Works very well, I think, at a conceptual level. Also has high production values for a portfolio piece. Hope these guys get some agency work.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-5300729091160924532009-07-07T20:23:00.004+01:002009-07-07T20:51:11.383+01:00Can we turn back the tide of greenwash?Advertisers have long been accused of brainwashing the public. Over fifty years ago, when Vance Packard published his famous book The Hidden Persuaders, people were already worried about the extent to which we're manipulated by subliminal messages. Today, the worry is that we're peddled a load of soft soap on the environment by a bunch of skilled PR PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-22070475622674727342009-03-16T09:19:00.002Z2009-03-16T10:12:03.015ZYou don't have to be mad to use Twitter, but it helps...On the courses I run for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and University of the Arts London, there's inevitably more and more discussion of so-called 'social' media such as networking and microblogging sites. Twitter has grown hugely in recent months thanks to high-profile endorsements by celebrities. These range from American PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-21945356422659326092009-02-21T19:43:00.002Z2009-02-21T19:46:08.731ZAlthough this is a blog about advertising creativity, the world of marketing communications has been moving at a phenomenal speed in the past few years. If you're interested in exploring some of the newer forms of social and viral marketing, why not sign up for my new online forum?PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-76844841277160311702009-02-06T19:58:00.002Z2009-02-06T20:00:11.546ZFollow me on Twitter......where I'm posting a selection of corporate taglines and slogans from around the English-speaking world. Some well known, others less so. Every tweat's a treat: http://twitter.com/TagspotterPWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-12316478907198508912009-01-19T00:07:00.003Z2009-01-19T00:14:59.225Z On the 'ead, son: a simple, but striking poster execution for ITV1. A belated mention for the ITV1 campaign which broke at Christmas, in advance of the new year FA Cup fixtures. The Cup, of course, is where the part-time, non-league Davids can take on the superannuated Goliaths of the Premiership. It's "where all men are equal". A strong idea, delivered without any fuss.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-18515846346507395122009-01-13T22:43:00.001Z2009-01-13T22:44:28.659ZProof that TV commercials haven't lost their sparkle. The 25th anniversary of Virgin Atlantic.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1615904744888561062008-12-24T11:18:00.002Z2008-12-24T11:21:42.247ZWake me in 100 years: the English National Ballet proves that the best ideas are often the simplest. The flier promoting their Sleeping Beauty tour comes in the form of a do-not-disturb sign. Click to enlarge.PWnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-88650204194143427012008-11-21T00:31:00.002Z2008-11-21T00:38:36.284ZTrouble in the Balkans needn't be painfulSpreadbetting company Capital Spreads provides some evidence that the age of intelligent and witty copywriting isn’t necessarily over. In the company’s current campaign on the London Underground, they pose a series of questions to readers. “The Chinese wrap up mineral rights throughout West Africa,” reads one ad. “Do you (a) Get on the blower and order aPWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-63598551951171743602008-11-16T15:41:00.002Z2008-11-16T15:43:14.074ZWinging it with the creativeI’m not sure I can make head or tail of the current British Airways advertising campaign. One poster shows a street vendor rustling up some food on hot plates and runs with the headline “You can’t smell a city from a coach”. Quite why this is an argument in favour of plane travel in general – or using BA in particular – is beyond me. You can’t smell a city from a PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-54100492890491110012008-10-25T00:02:00.003+01:002008-11-12T13:43:00.725ZSometimes it pays to keep your creative ideas under wrapsI recently spent two days with a group of design students at a London university and set them a challenging brief. Could they come up with an advertising campaign that would reverse the fortunes of US Presidential candidate, John McCain? I asked them to set aside any preconceptions, as if they held opinions about the US elections, I judged PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-11621708942484836122008-10-24T23:20:00.003+01:002008-10-24T23:49:20.059+01:00The credit crunch needn't be a creative crunchNot a lot of blog activity this year, I’m afraid, due to pressure of work. Exactly how long the work will keep flowing though is something that’s quite difficult to predict. We’re clearly entering a significant period of recession and one of the first industries to feel the pinch is always advertising. In fact, advertising spend is usually a very goodPWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-76847148994927848902008-01-16T00:52:00.001Z2008-01-16T00:53:50.799ZWhy social advertising may not be good for your social lifeOne of my best friends at the age of about ten was a guy called Tom Hodgkinson. We lost touch sometime in our teens, but I kept track of his career from afar. Not only did Hodgkinson follow in his parents’ footsteps and become a top-notch journalist, but he also launched a magazine called The Idler, which celebrates laziness in all its PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-4655430578503164732008-01-15T00:25:00.000Z2008-01-15T00:30:29.186ZCreative with real biteLove the posters announcing the new season of ITV1's wacky, time-travelling dinosaur drama Primeval. We simply see a picture of a nasty looking critter with big teeth and a three-word headline that says it all: "Back for seconds."PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-13170908699974530432008-01-07T22:55:00.000Z2008-01-07T23:55:09.152ZThe challenge of selling death and serious injuryHaving spent a good chunk of my career in the niche area of recruitment marketing and employee communication - and still often working for agencies in this market place - I read with interest the recent press commentary regarding David Gee's report on British army recruitment for the Joseph Rowntree Trust. Gee accuses the army of underplaying the PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-81780540849839382882007-11-27T23:26:00.000Z2007-11-27T23:42:06.085ZWhen it all goes badly wrongSome campaigns will always be stronger than others, but I think we still ought to highlight the true pups. Two concepts currently running on the London Underground have particularly caught my eye.The first is for a product that fights fungal toe infections, called Curanail. In a wordplay car crash, the copywriter has decided that leaving your malady untreated would be PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-32895673086853698152007-09-19T11:59:00.000+01:002007-09-19T12:11:16.103+01:00 A lovely piece of creative for The History Channel, executed here in a platform poster on the London Underground. It's promoting a new show called "Just Another Day", in which presenter Adam Hart-Davis investigates the history of everyday objects. The copy - which parodies a long-running Gillette campaign - is as sharp as a razor. And the art direction is a joy too.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-11054516197016744322007-08-31T00:08:00.000+01:002007-08-31T00:21:26.810+01:00 Smashing read: Sam Delaney captures the spirit of London's adworld in the 60s, 70s and 80s.Back to the 70s for Life on Mars If you’d arrived from another planet and were hovering above London’s Soho sometime during the mid 1970s, you might have been surprised to see a group of young, drunken and immensely wealthy humans having the time of their lives. These Bacchanalian admen had forged a PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-28416339110118053422007-05-28T22:46:00.000+01:002007-05-28T23:00:23.134+01:00Word upWho’s the daddy? The copywriter or the art director? It’s a battle familiar to anyone who’s worked in an agency environment. Designers are notoriously frustrated by the inability of their writing partners to contain their purple prose and horrified when 50 words of lorem ipsum in a dummy press ad become 150 a week later. The scribes, on the other hand, want as much freedom to express PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-52402571729732124342007-02-25T20:37:00.000Z2007-02-25T20:41:42.027ZIf your brand were a person, what would the upshot be?Later this week, I’ll be hosting a workshop for the Chartered Institute of Marketing in London on the ways in which marketing communication is changing. It’s a chance to give professionals in the field an overview of new media and techniques. Everything, in fact, from blogging and podcasting through to guerrilla advertising and alternate PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1162679527410358692006-11-04T22:24:00.000Z2006-11-04T22:33:03.070ZManx marketing: Phil Woodford speaks at a meeting in Douglas, Isle of Man last month. The theme was the promotion of the island to investors.How Sir Geoff Hurst scores for Germany in the world of location brandingDavid Ogilvy once observed that “people don’t go half way round the world to see things they can equally well see at home.” I was reminded of this pithy observation when I travelled to PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1149461464803750442006-06-04T23:47:00.000+01:002006-06-05T00:07:13.716+01:00Don't panic! Don't panic! Unless you're a creative who's run out of steam...PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1149461187379869222006-06-04T23:43:00.000+01:002006-06-05T00:06:48.410+01:00 Leesten vay carefully, I shall say zees only wurnce: your World War II gags are becoming tired.PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1149460818827283132006-06-04T22:57:00.000+01:002006-06-04T23:43:30.530+01:00They do mention the war. And I don't think they get away with it.The latest campaign from brewer Shepherd Neame for Spitfire Beer continues the well-worked Second World War theme. There is, however, now a topical twist. A relatively low-key sporting competition - which I believe the Americans describe as "The Soccer World Cup" - is about to get under way in Germany. To the creative teams on the PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1138575060545716732006-01-29T22:48:00.000Z2006-01-29T23:09:38.570ZMore power to you: 4-wd dm letta from BT is lolThe first sentence in a sales letter is important. Especially when it’s the only one.I’m launching a brand new course tomorrow at the London College of Communication that focuses on the mysterious world of direct mail. I cut my copywriting teeth creating direct-response ads and sales letters, so it’s a subject close to my heart. As a result, I’m PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1138494215735482132006-01-29T00:17:00.000Z2006-01-29T00:23:35.746ZWhy Bodyform's advertising strategy isn't working.I obviously wasn’t the only person to notice this poster opposite Kingston train station in the suburbs of London. It’s a bizarre execution for Bodyform, which parodies a Conservative Party election poster from 1979.Think about it for a moment. The 2006 ad is pretty lame if you don’t have a fix on the original reference. (To be honest, it’s PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1137455588227586052006-01-16T23:51:00.000Z2006-01-30T22:39:55.286ZThe hired gun can't fire blanksOnce in a while, I’m going to use these pages for a little reflection on the whole process of creativity. Perhaps it’s a little self-indulgent, but the more that I teach copywriting and creative writing, the more I find myself pondering some of the fundamentals. My recent move into self-employment has focused my mind even more.Although I’ve undertaken a range of PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1134254756147619032005-12-10T22:36:00.000Z2005-12-10T22:57:30.983Z Breaking the language barrier: Alex Woodruff and Vanessa Cisz in englishtalk's Stuttgart offices.Interesting discussions in the land of wild boarWhat separates true entrepreneurs from the wannabes? I suspect it’s an uncanny ability to spot an opportunity or niche in the market and act quickly to fill it. That’s exactly what marketing consultant Alex Woodruff did when he founded englishtalk (PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1131235791537549652005-11-06T00:06:00.000Z2005-11-06T00:09:51.540ZWhere's the proposition? How cars, fries and bras have been defying conventionI was preparing a lecture recently on the theme of propaganda and advertising for the University of Westminster in London and it got me thinking about the way in which major corporations have become wary of traditional approaches to ad campaigns. I’ve blogged before about Volvo’s “Mystery of Dalaro” mockumentary and PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1125788694101434892005-09-04T00:04:00.000+01:002005-09-04T00:08:10.130+01:00Phil WoodfordPhil WoodfordOriginally uploaded by sdwpw. Ideas for this site? E-mail me at 108th@philwoodford.com PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1125608871254905782005-09-01T22:01:00.000+01:002005-09-01T22:10:52.786+01:00Trained by Jerry. Banned by train bosses.Advertising creatives usually love to shock. And there’s no better way to prove you’ve shocked people than to have one of your ads banned. That’s why I was a little surprised that one of the younger members of our agency creative team seemed to endorse the censorship of a provocative poster from TV music channel VH1. The ad in question is promoting a show PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1118012608033213162005-06-05T23:56:00.000+01:002005-06-06T00:03:28.040+01:00Go MK? I'd rather go to L.Can cities become brands? It’s a question a colleague placed in my mind recently when she told me about the efforts of Milton Keynes to promote itself as a “thriving, cosmopolitan city”. For those of you who’ve never had the pleasure, Milton Keynes is a British ‘new town’ created after the aerial bombardment of World War II. Uncharacteristically for the UK, its PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1107477381514276352005-02-04T01:33:00.000Z2005-02-04T00:36:21.516ZChannel 4’s Nathan Barley Campaign: it’s well weapon
If you’re a regular user of the London Underground, you will probably have seen the recent poster campaign for an unlikely mobile device called the Wasp T12. I was particularly intrigued by the headline. Apparently, the phone or gaming machine or whatever the hell is featured in the ad is ‘well weapon’.
The heart of this 36-year-old PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1099077356784996282004-10-29T20:13:00.000+01:002005-11-06T00:06:18.496ZSuits you, Sir: the wonderful world of Mr Raja DaswaniHong Kong tailor, Raja Daswani, always makes for an interesting discussion point at my copywriting seminars. I treasure an advertisement I found a year or two ago, in which he announces a visit to the UK and reassures lady readers that the men in their lives can be transformed through the purchase of bespoke suit. The language is curiously PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1095010048717395662004-09-12T18:25:00.000+01:002004-09-12T18:27:28.716+01:00Advertising creativity and the things that happen in supermarket aisles
"What if...?"
It's the question that all good advertising creatives have to be able to answer. When confronted with a selling proposition for a product or service, they ask themselves what would happen if they took the idea to extremes. It's in this zone that agency copywriters and art directors are at their most deadly andPWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1089409999002883362004-07-09T22:52:00.000+01:002004-07-09T22:53:19.003+01:00Corporate giant kicks ass
Any good salesman knows that the trick to securing a purchase is the small talk. I've been out on the road with reps in my time and it's the idle chit-chat with the customer that often makes all the difference. When the sales pitch isn't obvious, we tend to be at our ease. And before we know it, we're parting with our money.
Marketing people can be just as clever asPWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1087733374085416932004-06-20T13:06:00.000+01:002004-06-20T13:09:34.086+01:00Look who's stalking: cheeky Jaguar campaign uses anonymous letters
According to the BBC last month, luxury car manufacturer Jaguar issued an apology for a direct mail campaign that provoked 37 complaints to the British Advertising Standards Authority. Anonymous letters - arriving in what appeared to be personal, stamped envelopes - contained suggestive messages and the promise of a photograph PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1086559729451404592004-06-06T23:04:00.000+01:002004-06-06T23:13:25.863+01:00Super Thursday looms. But how super are the ads?
Although London's forthcoming Mayoral election is no doubt a pushover for Ken Livingstone in political terms, the competition's a little more intense when it comes to presentation. I recently received a booklet from the Greater London Returning Officer containing the manifestos of all the ten competing candidates. What's interesting about the PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1077229880561366412004-02-19T22:29:00.000Z2004-02-19T22:37:13.640ZThe Mystery of Carlos Soto: how the Dutch put Dalarö on the map
At first it seemed like just another ordinary day on a small Scandinavian island. But something very strange was afoot. According to witnesses, no fewer than 32 residents of an otherwise normal Swedish town made their way to their nearest Volvo dealer and parted with good money for the new S40 model.
It may have been a freak PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1075653586836504022004-02-01T16:31:00.000Z2004-02-01T16:42:02.890ZNext time you visit the seaside, make it Koksijde
One of the hardest parts of writing a blog about advertising creativity is the fact that you have to take the rough with the smooth. Or, to put it another way, you can't always define creative excellence unless you're prepared to look at some examples of work that's fallen short of the mark.
Sometimes people have the very best of intentions, PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1074467265771052122004-01-18T22:58:00.000Z2004-01-18T23:13:26.936ZTime travel and TV sponsorship
A number of news sources reported this week the decision of the Omnicom Group to employ Robert Riesenberg as Chief Executive of 'Branded Entertainment'. In a nutshell, this business is all about media organisations and clients working with agencies to produce TV shows that promote a product or brand.
Worried that consumers are skipping 30-second commercials or PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1073947742818944522004-01-12T22:46:00.000Z2004-01-15T22:51:18.310ZLone Ranger leads fight against junk mail
Gerry Ranger has stacked up more direct mail than most people. According to the BBC, the pensioner from Gloucestershire, England collected over 700 mailshots in the course of a year in order to demonstrate the amount of resources that are wasted through this particular form of advertising.
If I had a penny for every time someone's told me they throw PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1073169802145736802004-01-03T22:34:00.000Z2004-01-15T22:52:20.170ZHere's your change, sir. And a free advertising message...
According to Newsstream, a highly innovative guerrilla campaign has been launched to promote the new American mini-series Traffic. The show, which is set to reach television screens at the end of January 2004, is concerned with the trafficking of drugs, guns and human beings. Reports say that agency GoGORILLA Media is placing stickersPWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-107291470508104242003-12-31T23:49:00.000Z2003-12-31T23:57:33.930ZWhy Bush is a bad man in 30 seconds or less
An American online advocacy group has invited members of the public to create their own home-made, 30-second commercials that put the boot into President George W Bush. The MoveOn.org Voter Fund wants to air anti-Bush commercials in swing states during 2004 and has assembled a heavy-weight group of judges to consider entries submitted via the web. PWnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269139.post-1072914344903660922003-12-31T23:44:00.000Z2003-12-31T23:54:04.370ZTomfoolery in the Netherlands
Should we feel sorry for Mr Johan de Boer? According to press reports in December 2003, the Dutch jeweller planned a highly innovative direct mail campaign, only to find that it had rather spectacularly backfired.
The story goes something like this. To mark the tenth anniversary of his business, the diamond geezer sent out 4,000 promotional envelopes to his PWnoreply@blogger.com0