Sketch2Photo

Not sure I totally agree with Devin Coldewey’s albeit “tentative” comment that this new technology from students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore appears “to be the greatest thing of all time” but it is undoubtedly very cool.

Sketch2Photo: Internet Image Montage from Tao Chen on Vimeo.
It will be interesting to see how this technology develops [...]

Inspiring Books: The Business of Brands, Jon Miller & David Muir

This is one of the three books that I permanently have at grabbing distance on my desk (together with ‘How to Plan Advertising’ by Alan Cooper and  Buddy Rich’s ‘Modern Interpretation of Snare Drum Rudiments’).  Whilst I have to admit I am more often drawn to the latter, the Business of Brands has proven to [...]

Inspiring Books: On Brand - Wally Olins (2003)

Chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants and co-founder of brand consultancy Wolff Olins, Wally Olins is widely regarded as one of the most experienced practitioners of branding.
In his 2003 book On Brand, Olins explores the role that branding plays in business and in popular culture. It’s less a textbook than a personal commentary on “the cultural [...]

VW Channel 4 Documentary Bumpers

Here’s an excellent series of bumpers from VW to support the brand’s on-going sponsorship of Channel 4’s documentaries.

Can’t remember when I last laughed out loud at a sponsorship bumper. The TDI/rocket and TSI/football are personal favourites…
There’s a good write-up at David Reviews (also the original source of this video clip).

Jon Draper? Maybe not…

It didn’t take long for everyone in our office to get round to creating their own Mad Men avatar… great fun! Created to promote the launch of the third season in the States. Now where’s my martini…?

Inspiring Books: Building Strong Brands - Aaker (Simon & Schuster, 2002)

David Aaker is one of the most respected and widely cited authors in the field of marketing, so it’s with a small degree of trepidation that I’m writing this critique of his 1995 book ‘Building Strong Brands.’ I feel duty-bound to write one nonetheless, as my growing collection of reviews of books that inspire me wouldn’t [...]

Creating Value from Nothing: Diamond Shreddies

Here’s a nice example of the use of marketing to create value out of nothing:

A brilliant way to create reconsideration for a 68-year-old brand.  Apparently the ‘fake news’ idea of turning squares into diamonds was originally a response by an intern to a client brief to redesign the back of the cereal box. The agency and Kraft realised [...]

Mad Avenue Blues

An entertaining and well-crafted commentary on the evolving face of the advertising/media industry.

Cannes Lions 2009 - My Personal Top 5 Titanium & Integrated Picks

1. Obama/Biden 2008: Obama for America

This year’s Titanium Grand Prix winner was exemplary in its use of integrated and participatory multimedia to create a cultural movement for change - setting a new best practice benchmark for political campaigning.
2. Jewish Council for Education and Research: The Great Schlep - Droga5, New York, USA.

In an example of shrewd targeting, this campaign [...]