As a one-time political student, I have to admit I’m still a bit of a political junkie. But I love election campaigns because they give a real insight into what’s happening in the world of marketing. If world wars force technology to grow faster, then election campaigns are the atomic bomb of the advertising world. The biggest guns are brought out. And very quickly, it can lead to total annihilation.
Remember this blast from the past?
Well, a good campaign does stick in the mind. You have to look at the Tories’ latest offering and wonder what they’re thinking……
Call me crazy, but I just don’t get the Tiger Woods thing. The Guardian is already saying it’s a scandal that spells the death-knell for celebrity sponsorship. Personally, I can’t see it.
Of course, the jokes are already all over the place. Nike are changing their slogan to “Just Screw It” — and Durex are going to release a new range of condoms that “bring out the tiger in you!” — but jokes like this actually make a good point. Why the hell should this so-called scandal really affect Woods’ ability to to sell?
Frankly, “rich man has…
Snooker has a bit of an image problem. To overseas visitors who don’t know the game, it’a cue sport that’s played on a much bigger table than, say, eight ball pool. It’s also a lot more complex. Snooker is to pool as chess is to chequers. It’s a tough but rewarding game.
Bill Werbeniuk, a legend from the 80s
It’s also seen better days. The 1980s are regarded as the heyday of snooker, with the world championship final in 1985 being watched by 18.5 million people. Despite being more of a minority pastime here these…
So, after nearly six months, over 16,000 unique visitors and a fair few new clients, I decided to change the look of the site a little. Again, my friend Spencer at youlove.us, who designed the site, was responsible for the new shoot.
There were a couple of reasons for the change. Mostly, if I’m honest with you, it’s because I’ve noticed that while clients seem to prefer the image of the chain-smoking, three-day-stubble sporting writer on the page, when you show up at a 9am meeting looking like you’ve been on a week long bender and reach for…
I haven’t blogged for a while. When I don’t blog for a while, it usually means one of two things — I’ve been to busy with paid work, or I’ve nothing useful to say. There’s nothing worse than mindless posts.
In actual fact, it’s been a mixture of both this time. I’ve been doing a lot of copywriting, but I’ve not felt as if I have a lot to add in terms of sharing my thoughts with the world. There’s my random musings on Tumblr, of course… but I’ll spare you those here.
The most interesting thing that’s…
The BBC is institutionally biased. What can we as advertisers learn from it?
I’ve been so busy this week I’ve barely had time update my blog. Since being featured on Smashing Magazine, I’ve been responding to a lot of new enquiries and taking on almost as much new business. It’s hard work. Rewarding work. Work that makes me glad I struck out on my own.
I think Smashing Magazine think I’m a little bit arrogant. I suppose my face is plastered all over this site. But as regular readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of the personal touch — adding that extra endorsement works, whether you’re a one-man…
It says something that I wasn’t even surprised when I read this tidbit of news: iTunes blocks rival smartphones. Essentially someone’s come along with a third party product that rivals the iPhone, that has plug-and-play capacity with iTunes. And Apple have blocked it.
“Oh, we don’t test third party applications or hardware, so if they stop working, that’s not our problem,” Apple cry. It strikes me as pretty obvious that this is deliberate.
As a Mac user for almost all of this decade, I’ll just come right out and say this. Apple have been in a steady…
Confidence speaks volumes, doesn’t it? Despite being totally out of the blog’s target demographic, I’ve been reading
The story of a successful product launch…
I hate paying for razor blades. But beards are for students and hippies, and I’m neither — any more. So when my old Wilkinson Sword broke, I nearly cried. ‘Another expense,’ I muttered, cursing the fact I’d have to fork out for a new razor on top of the usual mountain of blades it takes to trim my thick-and-fast stubble every month.
Hurrying through the toiletries aisle, my eyes were drawn straight to the King of Shaves, a relative newcomer to the market. I picked one up because of the price. They’re…