Media Week

Anyone else catch “Ad Men” on Sky Atlantic?  Great to see our own legends of the small, and large screen, talking about how Ad Land developed, being influenced by the US industry, the creativity of the 70s through to the excesses of the 80s.  Favourite moment was Ridley Scott telling the story of when someone suggested as he was so great at making ads, he might consider making films.

And it was a great excuse to include many of our favourite ads pack into an hour.  From the BA “Face” ad to the Guinness Surfer, so many of the ads, did that very special thing of giving me a #Tingle.  You know that special feeling you get when something moves you and literally makes your hair stand up on end? Read more »

You are rarely lonely in a room of market researchers.  We are by nature I like to think a friendly and inquisitive bunch.  Plus you are very likely to know at least one, two (or ten!) people in the room, indeed one of our favourite industry sayings seems to be “it is such a small world”.

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I was lucky enough to attend a presentation by Paul Fisher, from the Bank of England on Monday night, hosted by my University Alumni association and Warwick Business School.

Paul talked very eloquently and with precision, about the policy controls and objectives that the Bank is implementing in the wake of the economic crisis.

There was much discussion in the room  about how to learn from lessons past.  And a feeling amongst some that can anyone ever be certain we could avoid a similar situation in the future.  Indeed, if we look back, we have encountered similar events.  And so it seems we re-learn old lessons. Read more »

Every week our team of up’n’comin’ grads nominate an “ad of the week”; it’s something they might have liked or loathed, but that they feel is particularly effective vs. the ad’s likely objectives.

A recent winner was the Plan UK interactive outdoor ad on Oxford Street.  This ad made headlines as it showed a different video to men and women, using facial recognition technology to identify gender.

Amongst our young stars it won plaudits for integrating facial recognition technology (it’s something that we use in our research business and exciting to see it being used in outdoor advertising). Read more »

“Just had a flashback – Caesar the Boogieman?”

A friend posted this on Facebook over the weekend.  Chances are if you didn’t grow up in Kent in the Eighties, you have no idea who we are talking about, (he was a “popular” radio personality, whose show on Invicta FM was required listening).

Thinking about this made me remember in particular, how I spent ages wondering what he looked like, and I remember finally seeing his picture in the local paper.

When I remembered this, I had to check myself.  “Really?” (I thought on the train with my laptop, Blackberry and iPhone laid out in front of me).  How did I not know what he looked like? Read more »

It’s that time of year, when the turkey leftovers finally get chucked in the bin, you regret visiting the sales as you have 25 days to payday, and you start to wonder when it all gets back to normal.

So over Christmas, addicted to Twitter as I’ve been, I’ve seen a lot of lists discussing “the biggest trends in 2011” and predictions for what will be big in 2012.

So as a special January treat here are my thoughts on the technology we will be using more of in 2012. Read more »

So a year ago if I’d have said McFly you’d have said… who?  Oh hang on Lou, doesn’t one of them go out with “a Saturday”.

So you wouldn’t have called the winner of “I’m a Celeb”, but you’d have probably bet on Iceland reprising their successful sponsorship, which ties in neatly with last year’s winner, Stacey Solomon, fronting their campaigns since March this year.
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I was reading excerpts from a Steve Jobs biography at the weekend, which included many examples of his attention to detail and need for control.

A few years ago a source revealed just how detailed focused Steve was – apparently he signed off on every single piece of creative.

Every. Single. Piece. Read more »