The other week I moderated a panel for ‘Media Post’ at one of their OMMA events. Our excellent panel discussed the implications of the fact that digital advertisers are interested less in buying sites, and more in buying audiences. As indeed has been the case for decades in all those backward, old-fashioned legacy media forms.
Winning Without Crowing
23 October 2014
Sometimes you just have to accept that despite all the planning tools, the volume and scale arguments, the digital bullshit and the rest, business is won or lost on a word from someone far further up the food chain.
The Superpowers of Sir Martin Sorrell versus the UK Government
21 October 2014
Anyone who works for or has ever worked for Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP will know the email story. Basically, if you send Sir Martin an email you will get a personal response within around 30 minutes. I can vouch for this being the case. I even tried the theory out after I had left WPP; and can report that it still holds.
David Abbott and the Giant Ad Factory
17 October 2014
About 10 years ago, the late David Abbott wrote a memo (remember them?) to his colleagues at Abbott Mead Vickers. The memo is well worth a read. It started: “It’s very hard to become a good advertising agency – it’s perhaps even harder to remain one.”
Old World Courtesies
07 October 2014
A weird and atypical sense of calm and well-being has descended on the Cog Blog. As an avid reader of the trade press in all its forms I often come across pieces I wish I had written (or indeed even thought of). Last week’s ‘Campaign’ contained a column from Nick Emery, Global Chief Executive at Mindshare on the importance of politeness and courtesy. Not only did I wish I had written this, for once I actually had already done so exactly a year ago (even if not as elegantly as Nick).
The IPA and Ad Effectiveness
01 October 2014
This post was commissioned by the IPA, the UK ad agency trade body, and first appeared (in a marginally different form), on the IPA blog and newsletter. For more information on the IPA Ad Effectiveness programme, see: http://www.ipa.co.uk/effectiveness
Earlier this year I was asked to be one of the judges of the IPA Ad Effectiveness Awards. The papers were long (they averaged around 4,000 words) but the 35 I read were almost all strong on narrative, and beautifully written. They genuinely were a pleasure to read.