Making sense of life, & communications, online & offline
Archive for January, 2011
Overcome the fear
January 30, 2011
I answered a question the other day on Quora: How can you change the culture of an advertising agency? And this has developed into a discussion about some simple things that agencies can start to do to set them on the path of cultural change.
My original answer was as follows:
The culture of an agency is about the people and how engaged they are in what they do – I think the reason we see this sort of question, and all the talk about agencies in general transforming is a fear among those who are getting left behind. We hear very little from agencies who are performing in the market today More >
Can agencies really play nicely together?
January 20, 2011
I’ve had a few conversations recently about the changing remit of the advertising agency and the growing inter-relationships between different agencies, be they pure event/activation groups, web development or even media agencies. The question that always comes up (on both sides of the table) is whether the agencies will be able to get along.
The fact of the matter is that an agency is always looking to increase its bottom line – after all this is the business that they are in, and we know that the big holding companies are driving each of their business units hard with absolute revenue More >
Social Dynamics 102: Klout & Quora
January 8, 2011
As we enter 2011, there are two new brands on the social scene who are starting to have major impact – these are Klout and Quora. The first of these is a measure of our social influence, there are many such sites out there who have developed their own proprietary algorithm to monitor your presence and rank you, but Klout seems to be coming out on top (at least for the moment) as the industry standard; the second of these is Quora who on a more qualitative level are giving people the real opportunity to share their knowledge and allowing the social graph to comment, interact and rank the More >
The end of ATL/BTL, the birth of Paid, Owned, Earned
January 6, 2011
by LexBZ
in Traditional vs. Digital
For the better part of 2010 and as both agency structures and the work we are doing becomes less TV and press centric and more about humans and ideas, we have been searching for the right terminology to break down the different parts of our work. The traditional ATL/BTL terminology is still very much prevalent and as such a little confusing since we no longer apply these in the original form they were meant:
Above the line (ATL), below the line (BTL), and through the Line (TTL), in organizational business and marketing communications, are advertising techniques. In a nutshell, while ATL More >
The contradiction of agency recruitment
January 4, 2011
by LexBZ
in Advertising
There is a growing contradiction in recruitment for the agency business, one that is potentially driving us faster into the chasm that I described last week rather than across it to the safety of the other side.
The advertising industry through the 80s and 90s (and even early 2000) was seen as a very glamorous business, the high margins and the shiny-cool products made it have a very polished exterior and the complexities of production made it very opaque in terms of actual workings that the majority of opinion was based on output. As a result there was always a line at the door for bright More >
Top 3 of Top Trends for 2011
January 3, 2011
Too many articles about trends for 2011 to read and digest – the top 3 in my opinion:
JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2011 View more presentations from JWTIntelligence.2. ClickHere
10 Digital Trends for 2011 from ClickHere
- Anytime, Anyplace – Digital Is Everywhere in 2011
- Is Social Media Killing the Brand Website?
- HTML5 vs. Flash: Who Wins?
- Mobile Advertising
- Micro UGC: The Emerging Power of the Status Update
- More than Fun & Games The Constant Evolution ofSearch Engine Marketing
- The Future of Shopping Is Social
- The Rise of the Demand-Side Platform
- The Year of the Mobile More >
New Year’s Eve Fireworks – A safe choice
After much debate we decided to take the safe option and watch the fireworks on the Umm Suqeim public beach, in front of Burj Al Arab, rather than battle against the crowds at Burj Khalifa – as it turns out we made a good choice. See my film of the fireworks below and check out this review of the chaos downtown: New Year Chaos at Burj Khalifa.