Gone are the days where you can get consumers to buy into your brand long-term just by showing them a funny ad, pulling a great PR stunt, or having your tweet go viral. People are fast becoming more self-aware: they look after themselves better, eat clean, train dirty, prioritise, sacrifice, budget, experience, live, travel, learn... they want a full, meaningful existence. They know what's important to them, so it's easy to block out the constant noise of brands who aren't relevant to their lifestyle. Too many brands complicate our lives and it can cause people to "shut down" in the face of too many options. "Brits would not care if 94% of brands disappeared... and people believe only 3% of brands improve their quality of life." - Havas Media: Meaningful Brands Index So your brand jumps on relevant events - great! But is your brand actually relevant to consumers' lives? No? Then who gives a shit. You've risen awareness, but h...

I first saw this ad on Wednesday. My initial thought process went like: ' Oooh honest... Mildly amusing... Doesn't make me thirsty...Lazy... Annoying... Who is that even aimed at? Would that sell Oasis?' , I immediately sent it to marketing colleagues and ad friends to get their opinions.  The general consensus from marketers was, ' Is that funny for the consumer? Who is the consumer? Why would they buy Oasis from that? Seems lazy.' My ad friends were slightly more accepting; '' Honesty is a refreshing concept...it's got us talking about it so job done in terms of awareness... love it, it's different. " Typical - marketers think consumer first, advertisers think attention-grabbing first. My main bugbear with this ad is the visual. You're trying to trigger thirst for consumers, so why would you go for a cartoon image over something like this? Regardless of whether you would drink any of the above, you...

Sometimes I catch the reflection of my fat face in the TV screen during a Jeremy Kyle ad break and wonder what the fuck I'm doing with my life. Today has not been one of those days for several reasons, and I'll tell you why. Today was my two year work-nniversary at Lucozade. This made me realise and remember how far I have come, not just in my career, but how I have grown as a person. Also, I had a good chuckle at how I used to link out videos from YouTube instead of embedding directly to Facebook (LOL. Was I ever that young?) I voted today. This may surprise people seeing as I never talk about politics or ram my views down other people's throats. I feel maybe I have made a change, however small. I have also done something to hopefully make a change in someone else's life. My dear friend's dad has been sadly diagnosed with Lymphoma, and only a bone marrow transplant can save his life. Due to him having very rare tissue type which isn't matched in the U...

This post can go one of two ways. 1. I can delve into the complexities of targeted ads; educating you all on the history of how marketers used to target their audiences, and then blowing your mind with some impressive, yet scary, facts about how advanced and "Big Brother" it's all become. How we can now target by age, gender, ethnicity, location, job, interests, hobbies, relationship status, political views, income, mobile behaviours, shopping habits, words you hashtag, etc.... 2. Or I can just tell you about the new Spotify targeting feature. Well seeing as yesterday's gin is still sloshing around inside my suffering body, slowly being absorbed by the remnants of a McDonalds Big Tasty, I'll go with the latter. Not sure why I used cutlery. We all enjoy a good Spotify playlist until those annoying, repetitive ads come on. Someone shouting at you to buy something shit. Who cares? So now Spotify have created a new feature for all the savvy marketers ou...

In 1991, Sealand whale trainer Keltie Byrne, fell into a pool with 3 of her killer whales and they attacked her, dragging her down under the water and killing her. After that, one of the more aggressive whales in the attack, Tilikum, who had been kept in abusive captivity since 1983, was shipped off to Seaworld. In 1999, a Seaworld trespasser was found dead, draped over Tilikum's back, covered in wounds and abrasions. In 2010, during a live show with his long-term trainer, Dawn Brancheau, Tilikum leapt out of the pool and grabbed her hair with his teeth, pulling her underwater and holding her under until she died. This was the most aggressive attack given that he had completely scalped her and ate her arm. Dawn with Tilikum Unfortunately for SeaWorld, the story and background into Tilikum and how killer whales were treated in captivity by them, was made into a documentary and in 2013, 'Blackfish' was released at the Sundance Festival, quickly picked up by Magno...

Funny how back when the internet took off, digital futurists all panicked and said that technology would take over and require less use for humans. When actually, thanks to the above info, it's been proven that that's far from the case. Many people worry now that the younger generation, or 'digital natives' as they are better known, will grow up anti-social and too reliant on technology having been brought up to swipe before they can write, Technology gives us the chance to be even more connected, social and informed than ever before. Many people assume and fear it will stunt our growth in the future and make us detached from the "real world", but in reality we should have more faith in the human race. We've clearly managed to advance dramatically in technology, yet as we can see, the most successful tools are still driven by basic human ethics: showing a passion for community, breeding creativity and supporting others.

Never before have people cared so much about what they eat, where it's come from, and who they are helping by eating it. Top chefs campaign for us to not waste food, to buy locally, support your farmers, go free range... which all sounds like a bit too much effort and probably quite pricey. Shoppers are constantly looking to chow down on the cheap, and it's obvious that it's affecting the grocery market because out of the top UK supermarkets: Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's, Morrisons was the only one to achieve sales growth in January. In fact, discounter retailers, such as Aldi and Lidl, are fast becoming the supermarkets of choice and, instead of being seen as 'classless', it's now something to be proud of thanks to their low cost and high quality produce. Just today I saw Lidl's new 'Little Pub' advert by TBWA, as part of their on going Lidl Surprises campaign. Take a look... (Click to watch) Personally I think this ...

I am not a negative person, but when a bunch of really annoying things happen, I sometimes have to use this as a therapeutic venting platform. So here it goes. 50 Shades of Grey Imagine the following. You pay £15 to sit closely next to a middle aged couple who are holding hands, whilst you all awkwardly watch a film that very much resembles the painful, dragging feeling of waiting ages for a porn video to buffer, only to learn that when it finally plays, it's a shit porno. seconds before we're subjected to full bush 70's Fashion The early 2000's were very bad times for the world of fashion; footless tights, corset tops, satin halternecks, things with rhinestones, boho skirts, fur gillets and more. I remember back in 2003 when peasant tops were all the rage. Sorry Clare, banging bod but that top is horrendous For some really strange reason, these are back in fashion, and you can't move for seeing gypsy tops and flowery kaftans in every high ...

Another year, another half time performance, another winner, another bunch of British people staying up til 4am pretending to care about American Football. Gooooo Patriots! I'm here for one thing and one thing only - to tell you my Top 3 Superbowl 2015 ads (and one awful one). They've paid $4.5 million for the pleasure of 30 seconds airtime, so it's only fair I blog ya know. Ad that SUCKED So, there was a shit fast food one with Snoop Dogg, (I mean.. moneysupermarket, happy socks.... by God man, have some PRIDE.), then there was a depressing one from Nationwide Life Insurance about dead children, and there was one for some burger company with lots of hot naked women rolling around, but I will pick one I think was a genuine waste of air time. Geico is a car insurance company, so what better way to spend £4.5million than getting a decrepit Salt'N'Pepa to mime 'Push It' whilst people push things.   (click to watch ad) Like why...