Last week I was videoed answering a set of questions aimed at giving advice to this year’s delegates at The Media Business Course. Who know what will survive the edit? In case of harsh editing I will say here that I mentioned the need to follow the money through the planning process in answer to…

The new president of the British Science Association, Dame Athene Donald, has suggested that girls’ toys are reinforcing gender stereotypes.  Barbie leads to “passivity – combing the hair of Barbie for instance – not building, imagining or being creative with Lego or Meccano.” Gender stereotypes are very hard to shift. Every effort to do so…

Good leaders have good communication skills; that goes without saying.  Yet anyone can learn to repeat a well written speech or to spout positive management cliches.  Communication does not just lie in conscious verbal speech.  Truly great leaders have the skill to understand, interpret and communicate not just what they hear, but also what they…

A New York agency man writes here that “the very act of investing in TV, buying a premium billboard, taking an ad in Vogue, became brand building … because of the cost, not despite” and he regrets the “spiral of decline” that online investment represents. Expensive advertising versus cheap advertising? This is not of course…

What is the spirit of these times? Being able to pinpoint the emerging Zeitgeist can have a powerful impact on brands and media channels.  Current predictions include:  mobile is everything; the quantified self; transparency (as I pointed out in my book “Tell the Truth, Honesty is your most Powerful Marketing Tool”); personalisation (see recent blog);…

A client of my acquaintance once confided that when they were out visiting agencies they sometimes used a “Bullshit Bingo” card to pass the time in meetings.  “Programmatic” scores highly of course and I’d guess that “pace of change is breath taking” would be on there too. Change is now a constant.  Stuff doesn’t always…