Is Diversity a novelty in advertising?

March was Women’s History Month, and we saw a host of articles and stories celebrating the countless accomplishments of women throughout history (well, the clue is in the name). Of course the advertising business jumped in feet first and came up with all kinds of creative and clever ways to mark the occasion. Major brands […]

Poor, misunderstood Marketing

There’s a scene in the film “Devil Wears Prada” where our plucky protagonist Andy is cut down to size by the head of Runway Magazine Amanda Priestly. The item in question is a hideous-looking bargain-store sweater, and the ribbing goes like this: “You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet […]

The secret to customer engagement

To engage is “to occupy, attract, or involve someone’s interest or attention.” First of all, I apologise for the cliché of starting a blog post with a definition. But in this case I wanted to set a level from which to begin my post; to define precisely what engagement means. In preparing a lunch & learn for […]

Why Apple’s branding has duped you (but you shouldn’t be so so mad)

People have been getting upset about Apple, their products, and their branding since the Steves started that little company. This time it revolves around the so-called Apple Watch (not intentionally a pun, BTW). Many of my timepiece-collecting friends are up-in-arms about the $10,000 price tag of the luxury model. “Seriously? Are you going to hand it down […]

New Media isn’t all that “new”

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Nothing in Marketing & Communications has changed in centuries and more. Back in January of 2013, the New York Times published an article by Stephen Baker on engaging Social Media for effective marketing and advertising. He used the image of Don Draper of Mad Men as the “old […]

Innovation vs Marketing

Charles Gaudet writes an excellent post on Forbes this morning about Innovation versus Marketing. That’s right: versus. Why does it seem that the two sides are in opposition all the time? It’s like the rift between advertising and PR – or the Hatfields and McCoys. What good is a marketing plan if you have nothing new to sell? And what good […]

Does innovation really matter?

I saw a commercial the other night for a car company. I’ve since forgotten what brand it was for (not strong on the messaging, then, eh), but the memorable scene was a person take a flame thrower to a wall filled with images of car interiors. The take-away: if you want a unique car interior, […]