Don’t Test Whispers

Key to marketing success is a disciplined approach to testing ideas and action. After all, marketing writing and consulting is filled with tremendously attractive and detailed theories about action “X”…
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Agencies Need to Be Good Stewards of Their Own Brand

I’m often amazed at how poorly agencies manage their own marketing – especially their own brand. Look across the ad biz and you’ll find a cacophony of agency names in…
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The Brand Building Power of Product Advertising

Funny how names are. A specific type of advertising was labeled “brand advertising”. So the myth developed that in order to build brand, you need to use brand advertising. Except,…
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Challenge the Myths of Internet TV with Reality

There’s huge money to be made, apparently, for consultants who project radical future change. In TV, that means suggesting TV becomes a variant of online video. (Really? We need better…
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Space Jump Gets Viewers. But Does Branded Content Really Fly?

Wave Goodbye to Branded Content MythsHumanity loves watching the truly daring. From NASA projects to high altitude ballooning and trips around the world, my adult life has been paced by…
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Apple & Application Software…iOS6 Maps Debacle Looks like Final Cut Fiasco

I wrote my letter today to Tim Cook (CEO, Apple) informing him that, as a result of the Final Cut Pro/FCP-X debacle, starting 11/1 my company will create no new…
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New Confirmation that Offline Advertising Drives Online Success

Just about 2 years ago I wrote a post looking at how online success required offline advertising. (Link here.)… But there is a lot of hype about the rate of
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Lets Hold the Panic About Retail Showrooming – It’s Driven by Research Errors

I discovered an excellent blog post (link here…) this week about marketers being mis-led by major research mistakes. One of his main examples? How “showrooming” fears have been
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Web Advertising and the Myth of “Lean Forward Media”

The companies promoting various forms of online advertising spend vast amounts of time pointing out well understood challenges with off-line advertising. But those very same companies are blind to the…
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Store Brand? Manufacturer Brand? The Real Issue is Telling Consumers Something Meaningful.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about store brands competing with manufacturer brands – mostly talking about how store brands are thriving. This is to be expected – both…
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Research Shows that Smart Phones HELP Retail

The tech theorizers have suckered us into a mythology – the one where the Four Virtual Horsemen of the Tech Apocalypse destroy whatever they touch. So, as soon as someone…
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The Power of Low & Consistent Mass Media Spending

Advertising is far too often driven by lore and anecdote – even when it comes to media spending. So it was refreshing to read Byron Sharp’s latest post “A Little…
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Cable Cutting? Census Suggests Just Sharing Households.

Much was made of Nielsen numbers released recently that suggested a small drop in homes with multi-channel TV (cable, satellite, etc.). Of course, those wishing to become rich in a…
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Future TV Skepticism: Why I Don’t Think Apple will Conquer TV

It’s been a crazy week of reports on TV. It started with the extremists predicting nothing less than complete destruction of TV. They report this, of course, with tremendous glee…
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Why Does JC Penney’s Struggle?

After all the hoopla of hiring an Apple magician (only magical, of course, because he was at Apple) and the hype surrounding some really odd advertising, why is it that…
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Social Media Research: Tunnel Vision on Steroids

Social media research is one more “fad” that’s sweeping the world. (I even read in Media Post recently that someone at Intel loves it. More on that in a minute.)…
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Neuroscience: The Hot New Advertising Research Myth

A new ad research messiah has appeared with claims that it answers all the most fundamental questions about advertising. (Meaning, mostly, that agencies are interpreting this research to tell them…
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BK Succeeds! …At Proving Bad Advertising CAN Hurt Business.

By now, you probably know that Burger King is no longer the #2 fast food chain in the US. Wendy’s has jumped ahead and taken over the second spot. In…
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Goldman Sachs Resignation Letter Could Have Come From an Ad Agency

Recently, a Goldman Sachs executive departing the company authored a letter that was republished by the New York times. If you haven’t read it, it’s worth a serious read. (Link …
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Ad Fail: Dramamine Ads Cause Air Sickness

The cacophony of new media now fully surrounds us. There is no longer an advertising free privacy. (Gosh I miss the good old days.) So we have to get used…
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