My first cat video
I’ve always been a fan of the phenomenon of marketing tourism. Back in the day – 1997, since you ask – I did my bit to irritate Naomi Klein and put a little bit of Salford on the global map. It was November, and to celebrate Barbie’s 40th birthday, the publicity agency I was part […]
What’s new and next in social media #SMWWhatsNext
Like the first cuckoo of Spring, @Battenhall’s Future Trends in Social Media for The Year Ahead event kicked off @smwldn this morning in the sub-basement of the sumptuous and glamorous Ham Yard Hotel. It feels like an established part of the calendar, and this was my third. So it came as something of a surprise […]
Like Dracula running the blood transfusion service
In the mid-1990s, I was the subject of sustained abuse in the media and public eye, usually in the form of analogy. “Like asking Al Capone to run the Chicago police department” “Like leaving your cat to look after the goldfish and budgie when you go away on holiday” “Like Dracula running the blood transfusion […]
Why yes/no questions can yield surprising answers
Was the Iraq war caused by the West’s desire to control access to Middle Eastern oil? Do you want this man or that woman as your leader for the next four to eight years? Should we stay or should we go? There’s been a lot of soul searching in the past month about the wisdom […]
12 things we learned @APGLondon’s #StrategyVsRobots conference
Earlier today, the excellent Account Planning Group held its annual conference. Dubbed #StrategyVsRobots, the event brought together a typically eclectic blend and roast of some of the best thinkers around. Not just in marketing and planning and digital. But also neuroscience, design thinking and thinking per se. It was an afternoon of light yet profound […]
3 clues that Big Data might be Old News #SmallDataForum
I had the very great pleasure of co-hosting a roundtable on data and insight for LexisNexis yesterday with one of pioneers of podcasting and all things digital, Neville Hobson, @jangles, now an integral part of IBM’s social consulting team. Refreshingly in a world where we’re routinely made to feel insignificant and overwhelmed by the very […]
Timeout: the key to killer ideas
I was impressed to read last week of a bold initiative from ad agency Wieden + Kennedy. The agency – or at least the London office of W+K – has banned email in the evenings and weekends, and meetings can only be booked between 10am and 4pm. They’re doing this because – in the words […]
Why storytelling matters to business more than ever
The maxim ‘content is king’ has been so overused by the marketing and communications community since it was coined 20 years back that it has attained cliché status. Everyone parrots it, it’s accepted as a truism, and as such it doesn’t trigger urgency or action in those who say or hear it. Like a children’s playground […]
The art of marketing has a scientific chip on its shoulder
Modern marketers are increasingly turning to science to give their art the legitimacy they clearly believe it’s lacking. It’s a rare client briefing these days that doesn’t include a perspective from a behavioural economist, an econometrician or a cognitive neuroscientist. To make evidence-based decisions, brands need to wrangle data into insights that can inspire fact-driven […]
Why brands need to #standforsomething
Purpose is the new vision, mission, CSR and employee engagement strategy all rolled into one. Companies and brands that define and articulate their purpose – their why – are more successful than those that don’t. Who says so? Jim Stengel, the former CMO of P&G no less. Brands like Apple, with its products designed to […]