Influx

Edleman has just released its latest Trust Barometer and it makes for an interesting read as trust levels in business and government seem to be in decline worldwide. The only improving sector appears to be media. Looking forward to the future, Edelman’s report indicates that business needs to...

Listening to Terry Gross interview Trent Reznor, I was struck by the musician’s drive for constant experimentation. He explained in the interview that in the process of recording the soundtrack for the new movie, The Girl with Dragon Tattoo, Reznor and his creative partner Atticus Ross, purchased...

One thing Apple has taught us over the past decade is that there can be such a thing as “mass cool”. Originally, cool was found in niches and pockets and sub-cultures, cool was divisive and it sorted people out; there’s were cool things and then the stuff that everyone else had,...

Sometimes opportunities come along where you can do the predictable or you can take a radical approach and do something different and breakthrough. Black Squid Design in Australia faced this challenge when they were given a brief to design a package for pre-packed cauliflowers, surely one of the...

UK department store retailer John Lewis was crowned marketer of the year, for the second year running, by The Marketing Society. It’s just reward for the brand’s commitment to re-engineer itself to be relevant to today’s shopper. The brand has been determined to re-position itself in a...

Corporations are trying to work out their role in the world beyond revenues and profits. It’s a story that’s been repeating itself for the last few decades with corporations flirting with corporate social responsibility. In a world focused on short-term revenues and driving shareholder value,...

Watch Sheryl Sandeberg’s presentation at this year’s ANA Conference and you come away with the impression that Facebook believes its the leader in a communication revolution that’s transforming consumers from listeners into broadcasters. Consumer broadcasting manifests itself in...

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to see The Creators Project in all its glory in DUMBO, Brooklyn. It blended art, music and technology and cleverly used the unique C19th warehouse architecture around the area. With two music stages and numerous art installations in a half mile radius, it made...

Marketers are just getting to grips with the reality of Facebook’s power and are obviously eager to capitalize on it. However, the bigger it gets the harder it seems to go beyond eyeballs to develop something meaningful in terms of a deeper relationship with consumers. It’s very easy for...

IBM just published its latest global study on Chief Marketing Officers and the findings make for interesting reading. This is clearly a discipline that is under a lot of pressure and trying to cope with a ton of challenges that are being thrown its way. Here are some of the study’s most...

Piers and the folks at PSFK have assembled what looks like a veritable master-class from brilliant thinkers for its San Francisco event this coming Thursday. If you look for inspiration from the perspective of brilliant ideas, they’ve basically covered all of the bases. You can learn from...

On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to participate in the nycfaminehackathon for 5050good (50 projects in 50 days to raise funds for East Africa famine relief) which was brilliantly led by Farah Bostic and Stuart Eccles of Made by Many, at Grind, who generously donated their amazing co-working...

Much has been written in recent week’s about America’s shrinking middle class and it seems that there are fast becoming two target audiences; an affluent group and then those trying to make the most of the limited budgets they have. While it’s easy to imagine what the affluent...

Bain makes a great observation in its new report- The Great Eight- Trillion Dollar Growth Trends to 2020- that there’s an opportunity to make already good things, even better. It’s a reflection of the increasing wealth of the marketplace and the desire for these consumers to have fresh...

In-flight entertainment systems have been the main area of innovation for most airlines- the idea has been to provide travelers with an ever expanding array of options from the comfort of their seats. The Airbus A380 because of its size- gives airlines a lot of options when it comes to innovating...