John Oliver’s slamming of native advertising took the already heated debate to a new level. If you have not seen it you really should – it’s hilarious and he makes some very good points. But sadly most of his conclusions are wrong. Read more
John Oliver’s slamming of native advertising took the already heated debate to a new level. If you have not seen it you really should – it’s hilarious and he makes some very good points. But sadly most of his conclusions are wrong. Read more
“The best place to hide a dead body is on page two of a Google search” Remember that one? Well, there seems to be another way of making your content disappear from the world – use a PDF. Read more
Having a documented strategy not only helps you work more efficiently, it can also help you avoid costly and unnecessary mistakes. The story of the drug-promoting pencils distributed to school kids is a good example of that. Read more
You’ve probably seen it in your feed on LinkedIn, the image from a lecture somewhere saying “There is no more B2B or B2C. It’s H2H: Human to Human”. Maybe you’ve even shared it. I applaud the sentiment, but let’s be clear: it is flawed logic, and for a very simple reason: B2B and B2C tells us what we’re doing, H2H how we’re doing it. Read more
According to a 2014 report by Content Marketing Institute and the UK Direct Marketing Association on Content Marketing in the UK, lack of a documented content marketing strategy is one of the biggest threats to successful content marketing. We can all agree that a strategy is vital, but an interesting question is, why do so many companies not have one? Read more
Storytelling is a very powerful tool, and when we use films and images even more so. Here are three examples of companies that have been very successful at telling stories about themselves – for different reasons and in different ways: Ericsson, LEGO and F-Secure. Read more
In a classic Simpson episode Homer gets an opportunity to design a car (called the Homer of course). His brother hires him to create a car that will appeal to the “average” American, thinking that Homer must be in tune with that broad demographic. It ends in disaster, of course. Homer adds everything he can think about to the design – like two bubble domes, three horns (“you can never find the horn when you’re mad”) that plays “La Cucaracha”, gigantic cupholders and tailfins. In addition, the engine sound is supposed to make people feel “that the world is coming to an end”. Read more
Back in 1992, when Bill Clinton was running against Bush the Elder in the US Presidential elections, his campaign strategist James Carville coined a phrase – “It’s the economy, stupid” – to help the Clinton team focus on their message. Carville had spotted that President, George H.W. Bush, had lost touch with the voters. He didn’t understand that their biggest concern was the economy. Clinton’s team got this, shaped their messaging accordingly and won the election. Read more