Is Magnum the new Flake?

Spoiler alert: this blog gives everything away about the new Magnum ad, so if you want to see it ‘au naturel’ and experience it as its writers and directors intended, you might want to watch it first. Here’s a link, with thanks to @Campaignmag. There are so many things to like about the new Magnum […]

Marc Pritchard: metaphorically speaking

Marc Pritchard is the chief brand officer of the world’s biggest advertiser, P&G. He – and his company – need little introduction. I singled him out in a blog last Friday for the genuine impact he is having in the digital advertising market. If only the PR measurement industry had such a potent force to shake […]

5 brilliant reasons why #ThisGirlCan

On Saturday, my gorgeous, gutsy, sassy wife took her Lewes Ladies veterans football team to Southampton to play in the first round of the FA People’s Cup. They played six, won four, drew one, lost one. Runners up on the day, and through to the next round in March. I couldn’t be more proud. Lewes […]

Keep it simple

This is the second in a series of blogs to mark National Storytelling Week 2017, focused on the words companies and brands use to tell their stories. When physicist Richard Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, he was asked if he could explain in just three minutes why he’d won the prize. In […]

Why companies need to get their story straight

Digital and social media have transformed communications. This is especially true for corporations and brands. Companies can no longer dictate what’s said about their products and services. Today, many more voices matter. Anyone with a social media profile and a WiFi connection can influence what people think about organisations. We’ve moved from unshakeable, unquestioned brand […]

Timeout: the key to killer ideas

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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 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 […]

Why brands need to be authentic in their storytelling

To celebrate National Storytelling Week, corporate and brand storytellers Insight Agents commissioned Sussex University’s Innovation Centre to interview senior marketers in the UK retail sector to talk to us about the challenges they face in telling their brand’s stories. In this week-long series of blogs, we’ve been exploring the major themes from this research, as […]

How your words shape what people think about you

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Words are powerful things, and it’s in your gift to use them to shape what others think about you. More than that. It’s your responsibility to do so. This is true of companies, of brands and of organisations, every bit as much as it’s true of people. Because what are these institutions if not collectives […]

Why good writing matters

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Founder & MD of Insight Agents, Sam Knowles, pens a personal paean to Steve Pinker, Harvard psychology professor, one of the most accessible serious scientists to have crossed over into the mainstream without compromising his academic integrity. In the process, readers lucky enough still to take their summer vacation get a top tip for holiday […]