Friday, November 21st 2008

I'm a PC...

...and my ads aren’t very good.

It’s a pretty cheap-shot these days to attack your competitor in your advertising; something the supermarkets do well, and that’s where it should end.

Microsoft’s I’m a PC commercials would like you to think it’s a counter-attack to Apple’s excellent adverts highlighting the differences of Operating System through human characters.

Unfortunately this counter-attack doesn’t hold up. With some humour (and with an Apple-shaped glint in my eye) it actually reinforces Apples message. Little clips of a plethora of cultures from around the globe all stating they’re a PC merely emphasises ‘PC’ as a generic and not as a brand. Which in-turn ultimately says ‘we’re not a brand’, unlike er, Apple.

I’m proud to say ‘I’m not a PC!’

Come on Microsoft, you can do better.

Friday, November 14th 2008

Creating the feel-bad factor...

It has become popular over the past few years for the red-tops to serialise and brand an ongoing news article. This current trend of branding a news story that appears in the paper seven days a week, such as the perpetual antics of Amy Winehouse, Shannon Matthews, X-Factor rejects and ailing D-list celebrities now seems to have made it’s way over to television news.

Not just any old television news, the BBC news. Their ‘Downturn’ brand is now plastered behind every newsreader waiting for the day they can officially call it a recession.

I feel the Beeb have lost a bit of direction with this one, taking cues from the tabloids, and concentrating on drama rather than information.

My gran used to say there’s never any good news on the news, unless it’s one of those and finally… pieces. She was right in a way. The way the media is concentrating on the downturn/credit crunch/recession, call-it-what-you-will bad news, isn’t really delivering quality news.

Ironically, we can all sleep easy with the knowledge that the BBC clearly didn’t spend much money on the ‘Downturn’ branding exercise.

Please BBC, sobriety rather than sensationalism.

Tuesday, November 4th 2008

I learn a little bit more everyday

Last week was Leeds Digital Week and I had the opportunity to meet and see speak to Stuart Bruce of Wolfstar, as well as attend his excellent seminar. Wolfstar are a unique PR company, in that they have a fantastic understanding of the web and how people interact with it.

What particularly impressed me was how they used bloggers and how they played to the strength of bloggers. A fantastic example of how they had done this was in the new Sony Ericsson Xperia. Traditionally Sony Ericsson phones have been at the bottom of the mobile pile and this is their first venture into the top end phones. Wolfstar created a forum/blog called inxperia, which would allow people to discuss the new phone and actively encourage comments. They also contacted some key technology bloggers and began to change the old perception of their client.

Following the build up to the launch they built a site www.bethefirstx1.com.

This is pure genius and so simple. The seminar was fascinating and really made me think about how brands can utilise the natural conversation that is happening online.

Check out this picture of the phone as well, very beautiful.

Wednesday, October 29th 2008

Technology... remembering the past

The videogame medium is, depending on when you start counting, roughly 46 years old this year. Still relatively young compared to other forms of media, but it’s now old enough to start preserving the industry’s rich and sometimes turbulent history.

Launched earlier this month, the UK’s first official National Videogame Archive will house a wealth of consoles and cartridges ranging from the simple beginnings of 1972’s Pong, to the blockbusters of the 21st Century.

The archive has been formed by academics at Nottingham Trent University, in cooperation with the National Media Museum in Bradford. The archive will be located at the National Media Museum, and managed by Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Contemporary Play.

Along with games and consoles, the archive will also include an array of game-related media, advertising campaigns and artwork.

The Archive’s official launch will take place tomorrow to coincide with Nottingham’s Game City festival.

So what games would you like to see preserved for all-time?

For me (yes, it’s another indication of my age) it would have to be some of the early Spectrum games, Commodore 64 games and, my all-time favorite, Marathon – a Mac-based first person shooter with a great storyline.

Monday, September 15th 2008

Do we only read bad news?

Following my blog post about the media coverage of the CERN experiment, I read an article on the BBC website today about the guy, Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web warning that “the web has been used to spread disinformation”.

The major way that most news sources reported the CERN experiment was that the world was going to end. This wasn’t actually possible, the part of the experiment in which the world may end won’t happen til October, but it did create a great deal of interest.

The way in which we are sold newspapers is by headlines proclaiming the worst. There are never headlines about when a doctor saved someone’s life by using the skills he had been taught in our mighty education system. The story is much more likely to be about how someone died horribly because the NHS is rubbish and the doctors aren’t trained properly.

This is all about the nature of people – we love to read about bad things, it seems to hold our attention more. Newspapers know that a headline full of doom is more likely to sell their newspaper than a headline full of joy. So they cater for what their readers want. Similarly, the web is simply catering for what people want, but on a larger scale. If CERN had just said, our experiment is brilliant, we might discover the origins of the Universe, fewer people would have cared. Instead, everyone wanted to know whether we would be swallowed up in a black hole and now more people know about CERN and are interested in the experiment, which is all round better for science.

Wednesday, June 25th 2008

The changing media landscape

As the internet is evolving it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with how these changes will effect us and our businesses. The earlier blog entry, How can we use the internet better?, spoke about a few examples of how the internet is being used well. The key question now is can we predict how the internet will change and how we can use it effectively, while planning for the future.

Epic 2015 is a short film explaining how the media landscape will change. It takes you on a journey from the beginning of the internet to where we will be in 2015. This will make you think about how much our lives are changing and how the information we access is on hand. The question is, how do we take full advantage of these changes in the world of design and marketing?

Wednesday, June 4th 2008

Leeds loses one of its finest

We were saddened and shocked to hear today that Poulters, one of the oldest agencies in Leeds, are to close. It is always sad to hear about people losing their jobs and the nature of Leeds means that some people within ICM will have had connections with the company.

Check out The Business Desk for more information.

Wednesday, May 28th 2008

Marketing's most powerful

It’s time again for someone to draw up a list of the most powerful people in marketing. Check out the list at Brand Republic.

I am very disappointed to see Peter Kenyon of Chelsea at 34. You can’t deny he’s done well but as an Arsenal fan I find this galling.

Maybe one day I can take Arsenal to the top of this chart if my future career plan works out…

Monday, March 3rd 2008

Life imitates art? Art *is* life!

So… Andrew Lloyd Webber placed his next Maria star in Hollyoaks months ago, and now ITV are planning to open a chain of Rovers Return pubs

Is it just me, or is real life getting just a little bit Truman Show?

Wednesday, January 9th 2008

Occupational Hazard #3

Reading Brand Republic obsessively.

This does however lead to some interesting discussions and today they are talking a lot about Kerry Katona. She has allegedly been dropped by Iceland’s ad agency, so the face of Iceland job is up for grabs. Any takers? I thought not but following a discussion last year on this blog about her effectiveness I thought I’d open up the debate again and ask, are we all just a bit stuck up about Iceland and forgetting our customer focus?

Monday, November 26th 2007

Occupational Hazard #2

Continuing the theme of advertising on TV and how we tend to analyse the effectiveness of every advert we ever watch, the next occupational hazard has to be knowing obscene amounts about the advertising industry and scaring normal people with your knowledge. When asked over the weekend what the advert with the drumming gorilla is advertising I was the only person who knew it was for Cadburys.

In terms of the effectiveness of the advert this was pretty damning, since only the person in the industry knew the answer. Surely, as a brand awareness ad it has completely failed. However, everyone now remembers the drumming gorilla. I reckon that the problem with the ad is that Cadburys is in no way related to drumming, gorillas or Phil Collins, so the connection between cool advert and brand isn’t made by the audience.

Wednesday, November 21st 2007

Occupational Hazard #1

Last night, whist watching the ad break in Corrie, one of my housemates (who works in PR) and I fell prey to that well known occupational hazard of all marketeers – dissecting the adverts.

Which made me wonder (for the umpteenth time) how far removed we in the marketing industry are from those who aren’t. She and I sat there discussing the merits (or otherwise) of Morrison’s apparent strategy to go head to head with M&S (the Twiggy/Lou Lou stand off is hilarious) then, realising what we were doing (again!) wondered how many ‘normal’ people sit there and dissect ads.

How can we really know how “the general public” will react to a campaign, if our first reaction is to pull it apart and look at it from lots of different angles?

I guess the answer is to know your target market and have a shed load of research on your side… What do you think?

Thursday, October 25th 2007

It's not all about blood and gore

Following the gaming Bafta awards earlier this week I was really chuffed that Wii Sports did so well. Winning six awards, I felt that not only did it get the recognition it deserved, but it also proved that, in today’s world of uber violent gameplay, there is still a place for fun, chilled out games.