as posted on brand republic

http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/bloggingforfood/default.aspx

Two commercials on the telly tonight made me think. And not in a good way. First was for Cadbury’s Twisted. Apparently it’s not a Crème Egg. It’s a “twisted” Crème Egg. This means that the Crème Egg is mashed up in a grater and turns into a chocolate caterpillar that grunts a lot and goes splat. Peperami did this years ago, only sooo much better. Gor’ bless ya Lever International Advertising Services, and Ade Edmonson. (And this is after Cadbury’s hired Dom Joly, as Peperami did a few football tournaments ago. See blogging for food passim.)

The second was for Abbey, converting a miniature Lewis Hamilton into some sort of corporate message about F1 and Abbey. Big change for the bank, building society, Banco Santader or whatever Abbey has become these days. The only problem is, the media placement, in a break before the clever but gruesome Criminal Minds show, makes me think of the miniature killer character from CSI. Not entirely the sort of association a brand like Abbey deserves.

Posted: July 3rd, 2008 by Alastair Duncan under Creative, General.
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Fashionable Shoreditch today hosted MPs, start ups, Nathan Barley agency types and all sorts interested in how technology is shaping the nation. As one of the all sorts I put a few questions to the house about the role of technology in everyday life. Online voting? Could happen soon. If you can vote by SMS in Latvia, I’m sure it can be arranged in Hackney. Poking MPs? Well, certain fifth columnists know this goes on all the time in a lobbying (and allegedly Ugandan) sort of way, but does crowdsourcing political opinion actually give voice to the extremists who have an agenda to poke the most? Yes, probably. Has the internet broken the commercial stranglehold traditional media has had on presenting messages to the public? Perhaps. Public opinion has become democratised, and this is a good thing. It has certainly made pretty much every brand owning organisation sit up and take note of publicly available opinion of brands. They have to be more ‘open’. And the politicians are saying this too. I love the concept of open brands. The issue is that the brand has to mean it, not just ’say it’. And how many of you believe the politicians mean it? For example, does a negative blog comment saying x brand is rubbish count as ‘branded content? If it’s honest and sustainable, then yes. The interesting thing is (as the guys from MySpace and Facebook will confirm) communities do defend their brands. For every detractor, you will find an enthusiast. The ultimate test is, as always, whether people continue to buy the product. Social change through technology advances won’t change that.

PS super seeing Dave B, the original blog poster child. Apologies for pun. Still love you though

Posted: July 2nd, 2008 by Alastair Duncan under Marketing.
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http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/bloggingforfood/archive/2008/07/01/the-future-of-newspapers.aspx

The future of newspapers discussed at a conference today. Good insight from the panel as usual, Ray Snoddy on form as the moderator. There is hope for the papers, as long as they continue to adapt.

Posted: July 1st, 2008 by Alastair Duncan under Marketing.
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The MRM Worldwide seminar film clip is now live on the Cannes Lions website. you can check it out here.

Posted: June 25th, 2008 by Alastair Duncan under Marketing.
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Wank word bingo 2.0 (oops sorry, 3.0) is ‘boss speak’. Lucy Kellaway, who writes an excellent column in the FT has been campaigning against the ridiculous language that has, for some time now, crept into the daily vernacular of business. We do go on about Plain English here at MRM Worldwide UK, as for so much of the international work we do it is essential to convert content we get into International English before translating into seventeen or so languages and publishing on websites around the world. Cultural neutrality is increasingly important in international business, rather more so, imho, than baseball analogies.

Posted: June 20th, 2008 by Alastair Duncan under International.
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Interesting piece from the FT about the increased influence technology has in the advertising market

http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2008/06/new-technology-challenges-business-models/

Posted: June 19th, 2008 by Alastair Duncan under Technology, Agencies.
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Having just set up an OpenID account at https://myvidoop.com/ I was impressed with the account authentication they are using called ImageShield™.

Check out a demo at https://myvidoop.com/sitetour/1 or opening an account at https://myvidoop.com/ just to experience it.

What struck me was how playful it is, how it must utilise good tagging (which is at the forefront of my mind at the moment because of how impressed I am with flickr - incredibly good hit rate for images corresponding to a city based search - a great example of how well user-based tagging can work) and what a good Turing test it is.

A serious purpose but well designed and fun.

Posted: June 17th, 2008 by Gavin Hardman under Technology, Creative.
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Fabulous discussion on the stage at Cannes today with a world class panel, consisting of Blake Chandlee (Facebook), Jay Stevens (MySpace), Alex Schlaubitz (Intel) Antti Ohrling (Blyk) and Michael McLaren (McCann Erickson).

I posed questions on a series of topics ranging from how brands should behave in the new world to new formats and attitudes.

In summary. Facebook is a utility, and needs to establish the right business model to connect brands to the 80 million frequent users. A dream for advertisers in potential efficiency, but a challenge for advertising, to develop the right formats and language that is effective in this space. MySpace connects communities, and is interested in helping brands recognise that if there is a value exchange with the community, brand credibility goes up. Both Blake and Jay commented on how brands actually get support from their communities when those brands are criticised. Intel definitely has taken a position of a brand that wants to be successful in the new space. It has already developed strong ’social media’ and ’social network’ presence that has established permission for the brand as a listener and active participant. Blyk (which has 100k members in the UK right now) sees itself as a business that has established a successful value exchange with its membership by remaining absolutely relevant and providing only relevant messages to members (who get free texts and calls in return.) It only targets 16-24 year olds who profile themselves deeply. Michael McLaren expressed the need for brands to ‘grow ears’ in order to succeed. By listening to customers, brands can develop better relationships based on the conversation, rather than the one way message.

Thanks also to Matt Mayes who presented his Seismic Shift in Advertising piece as as a thought starter for the session. We have moved from an old media dominance to the place (here right now by the way) where the internet is the medium consumers are paying most attention to. It’s a pretty exciting world.

Posted: June 17th, 2008 by Alastair Duncan under Creative, Marketing, Agencies, General, Web 2.0, UGC, Gaming, À Cannes, Mobile.
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You know the type.
“That’s a huge idea.” (If I blow it out of all proportion I shall buy myself time to get out of the room.)
“That’s a huge opportunity.” (This pitch is a hospital pass.)
“This is huge.” (I’d like you to work all night.)

So if I ever say huge, shoot me. (Metaphorical reference to honesty box.)

Posted: June 17th, 2008 by Alastair Duncan under Marketing.
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Big day today when our Cannes seminar plays host to Blake Chandlee from Facebook, Jay Stevens from MySpace, Alex Schlaubitz from Intel and Annti Ohrling from Blyk on the subject of whether brands can be friends. It’s a world class panel, and we will have a world class debate. Having looked at the subjects covered this year, I do think the industry needs a bit of focus, as the topics are far and wide. Nice article in Adweek about the role Cannes continues to play in the industry, and its relative importance. P&G have sent a large delegation, as have most of the agencies. Digital remains a very hot topic, and I think our view on creating platforms and seductive utility for consumers will, in the end, win over the window dressing of ideas from another age.

Posted: June 17th, 2008 by Alastair Duncan under Technology, General, Web 2.0, UGC, À Cannes.
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