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…

“Blue like my boyfriend’s eyes or golden like my personality?” Jen is choosing her new car specifications.  Most of it has been simple: of course she needs heated seats and black leather interior trim; fancy wheels and the best possible sound system.  All of that took just moments.  The tough question is the exterior colour. …

Rain, rain go away.   The last couple of weeks of July felt like a very British summer, especially Friday 24th when an Ark would have been appropriate as a way of navigating Soho. Adlanders could have boarded two by two!   The unseasonable, or perhaps merely typically unpredictable, weather reminded of a story that…

“Right”, said Mark Earls, “Everyone in the second row and the fourth row come up to the stage, we’re going to play a game that illustrates what happens when humans copy each other.” Fearful of being made to participate in a conga, or maybe mass karaoke, the nervous participants shuffle up to the front. They…

Nature Valley is creating a YouTube stir with its film asking 3 generations what they did as kids to amuse themselves. The older generations speak of “growing watermelons and plantains”.  Younger adults talk of building forts and outdoor games.  Kids today? Take a wild guess: Tablets and gaming. Of course our take out is to…

The average British southerner moves no more than 6 miles from their birthplace.  (I’ve currently managed 6.4). The average northerner no more than 3 (they’re firmly attached to their roots in the North). Of course that doesn’t stop you being a global citizen and in our trade we all work with global media these days. …

Boy George was amazing at MediaCom’s Cannes event.  Talking profoundly to Steve Allan he talked what goes around, comes around. “I say to my niece, we had selfies in my day.  It’s just that you had to get dressed up, get on the bus (in fear of being beaten up if you were dressed like…