Nowadays, innovative thinking rarely comes from the lightbulb moment in the bath. In today’s over-commoditised world, innovation is less about invention and more about finding a better way to do something than it was done before. For years brainstorm facilitators have used techniques to encourage participants...
Whilst ad-blocking is getting all the headlines at the moment, it is really just a symptom underlying a much bigger problem; people are telling companies they’ve had enough of their marketing. Not just a few people either, but the large majority of people. A recent study...
All of these are real. Some good. Some bad. But all communicate. So all of them matter. An airline whose receptionist has a welcoming smile on her face A gym with a deflated balloon hanging off their sign-up sign A design business with an interesting font on their business card A technology...
It used to be that in order to make as many people as possible aware of your message you would hit them over the head enough times via ‘mass reach’ channels with annoyingly high ‘frequency’. However, for an increasing number of marketers this ‘exposure’ model...
In the connection economy, having an audience that values your voice; your content; and your opinion is crucial to achieving relevance. Progressive brands recognise that owning the dialogue with their customers is far more powerful than paying to be a bystander to someone else’s conversation. Brands...
The marketing industry has finally accepted that what we have been experiencing as customers all our lives, is now one of this year’s ‘things’ to talk about. The expectation gap refers to the moment when you realise that what you were promised in advertising, isn't...
There is a dark side to cults. One that might involve standing buck naked deep in a forest around a raging fire at midnight, eyes closed, chanting, whilst sacrificing a chicken. But there is much that can be learnt from them too. The characteristics of...
The ultimate determinant of engagement is the creative execution. Media of course plays a role, but in a world where people are actively rejecting paid media advertising, true engagement in paid media is becoming elusive. The problem is not with the intent of creating engagement. The problem...
The concept of ‘positioning’ a brand for an external market seems so alien in today’s world of brand transparency. It smacks of the days when advertisers would hoodwink people into believing their product or service was something they couldn’t live without. Not a world where...
This article first appeared in Marketing Magazine on 21 January 2016. The recently released Economist Intelligence Report surveyed 62 Australian CMO’s and had two predictions for the marketing function of the future: It will assume complete responsibility for end-to-end customer experiences, and Marketing’s role as a revenue driver...
