Entries by lifeofbrian
What on earth gives networking platforms in the internet their legitimacy? Quite simple: they are supposed to bring people together, for the growth of their networks and enterprises. Simple as that. Bamm. For this reason I am wondering where LinkedIn derives its legitimation from. Because, instead of bringing people together, it gets them lost in [...]
Generally, I bear no grudge against the Bionade brand and its products. On the contrary, their business case is one of those success stories we love hearing about. It tells the tale of a company set up from scratch with the only start up capital being a good and modern product idea – sustainable organic [...]
Looking back into the past 60 years or so, Austrians aren’t exactly known for an outstanding humour or making us laugh. Yesterday, however, I spotted this new print campaign by the Austrian airlines and had to smile. Good for them, because according to their claim, they “fly to make you smile”. Well, this one put [...]
Something is happening in the cigarette market. Maybe it has got to do with the dark market – the legal end of tobacco and cigarette advertising – which looms on the horizon. And then again, maybe the brands are just going bonkers. But, going hand in hand with a shift in images and positionings, there [...]
You might think this is a nice commercial. You might also think: wow, finally the ad biz big guns are reacting to their own downfall and the consumer’s growing immunity. Take a good peek at The last advertising agency in the world. Well, now think again. Because they – the dinosaurs – like heavyweights are [...]
For once, somebody has had the guts to speak out what so many of the people I know in the ad and marketing biz only dare think and tolerate on a daily basis. I must say, I was deeply touched and impressed when a colleague forwarded an article that was published on XING.com a couple [...]
What the fuck did Bifi’s product development unit have in mind when they thought of their new ‘guarana sausage snack’? I didn’t know that pot smoking and tripping was allowed in corporate research and development units. The first time their advertising attracted my attention, I was sure that this was some kind of hoax or [...]
Why is so much crummy advertising and marketing going around? Why are millions and millions more spent on irrelevant, meaningless and unsustainable brand communications? Why does so little the ad biz creates and produces appeal to those it is actually supposed to reach? Often enough, the process of developing ads and communications kicks off quite [...]
Some people have asked me why on earth I stick around the advertising and communiction biz when I oppose most of what it does and resembles while having so little influence on it as a whole. Isn’t it a bit like David against Goliath? Won’t the enemy retain the upper hand and crush any form [...]
The other day I attended a conference and one of the speakers articulated a cute sounding theory, that every company should see and structure itself, perform and interact with its audience like a „rock band“. I liked this approach very much, even though I thought the presentation could have made more sense and the “rockbandism” [...]
It's bad enough crime when people steal from others, but when multi-billion corporate brands do so and simply to mislead the public, then we've reached the top of the ladder and the highest category of embarrasment.
And what did my tired eyes spot yesterday on leaving my house? Yet another ‘street campaign’, this time one by a brand you would expect knows better about how street life works. I don’t know how many of these amber stick campaigns I have seen over the last 18 months but once the thrill of [...]
The advertising business in Europe has some renowned annual events looming on the horizon, such as the ADC in April or the Cannes festival in June. Little is known about them in public, yet an awful lot is made of these events and awards within the biz, not just because of a couple of days off work, parties, booze and casual sex.
In my everyday life at work, I frequently come across people in advertising agencies and client's companies in important positions not really up to the challenge of their jobs. I often wonder how they even got there without anyboday noticing their incapabilities. It makes you wonder...
10 rules for better advertising. I don’t know how you guys out there feel, but, to me most advertising has always resembled something irrelevant somehow trying to impose a threat on me. Because, although it mostly has nothing to offer, it seems to attack me from all angles. A bit like a bunch of children [...]
... or how a proposed consumer dialogue ended up in wicked consumer violation and a re-launch went really, really wrong.