The anatomy of an ad: Tube Chat

A few days ago on a tightly packed tube I witnessed something I thought never really happened in real life. An American man, perhaps in his mid-40s, struck up a conversation with a stranger. Not just any old stranger, but an attractive, suspicious, no-nonsense Londoner, who I think was too shocked by the random nature…

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The anatomy of an ad: CALM

This ad left a huge impact on me. The trickery of how it initially takes your breath away to make you conclude ‘surely not’…. I was filled with such overwhelming sadness to be complicit in reading the desperate last words of a vulnerable young man. I couldn’t help but feel betrayed on behalf of Jonathan….

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The anatomy of an ad: Jeep

For decades, the automotive industry has delivered some of the most creative, jaw-droppingly amazing, and memorable (sometimes for all the wrong reasons) advertising campaigns of our times. The ingenuity used to sell more hasn’t just been the domain of vehicle manufacturers. The automobile supply chain have also given it a valiant effort. No-one more so…

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A Lesson in Personal Branding

Arranged by a headhunter, I was having my first ‘getting to know you’ session with the CEO of a tech start-up. He was looking to appoint a marketing leader, and all the omens signaled them as the next big thing in the world of pre-IPO startups. To say I was interested would be an understatement….

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The Absurdity of a Superbrand

This weekend’s Guardian newspaper (a UK broadsheet) included the annual Superbrands 2016 supplement, which inevitably caught my interest. Billed as ‘independently commissioned research to identify the country’s leading brands’, the report reflects ‘the opinions of thousands of members of the British public and business professionals’. Hmmm…. fair enough. And then I got to the results page….

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What Brands Can Learn from RuPaul’s Drag Race

If a brand is the ultimate representation of the sum of all it’s parts, then RuPaul Andre Charles is nothing short of the ultimate personal brand. Emerging from the underground scene in the 80’s to become a mainstay of the LGBT cultural landscape, RuPaul is revered and respected for pioneering the crossover of illusion-based cabaret…

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