Influx

When Facebook becomes a public company-it’s obvious that it will be forced to generate ever increasing revenues from its user base. The only way the company can deliver these revenues is by selling more advertising and making more money through user transactions. The advertising issue is key-...

As the economy fluctuates and there’s no clear direction, US shoppers are now developing and enhancing their coping and survival strategies. IRI has done a tremendous amount of work to understand how consumers are adapting to the economic landscape and how their behavior is being transformed....

I’ve been a long-term admirer of GOOD- it’s one that has some people confused who want to put it into a nice little box. That’s GOOD’s beauty, it’s more than a magazine on a media schedule- it’s something bigger and stronger than that. I just got an email from...

There’s the whole idea of getting consumers to create content for your brand, which is pretty pervasive right now and it’s usually forced onto people by an agency or a crowd sourcing house. Most of the time it doesn’t really feel right- OK ideas emerge and you never really know...

Not everyone can afford to run or produce a TV ad, not everyone wants to feel forced or confined by the limitations of the 30 second spot, but why should that mean a brand can't access the use the most powerful medium of all time- film?Do away with the restrictions and challenges of 30 seconds and...

In 1995, there was real marketing mileage to be gained by having an environmental initiative, it meant you were progressive/caring and pretty unique. Now the world has changed and environmental initiatives are expected from the major brands, but is it right that they are still used as ammunition in...

John Naughton in Monday's Guardian wrote about the WikiLeaks saga and concluded his piece with a statement about the new reality. "But politicians now face an agonising dilemma. The old, mole-whacking approach won't work. WikiLeaks does not depend only on web technology. Thousands of copies of...

Innovation is often presented as a radical and demanding discipline that requires men in designer glasses to bring the required creativity.Everyone knows that change on a large scale is often incredibly complex and that the systems through which change happens, are often highly innovative. In the...

Graydon Carter's letter to Vanity Fair readers this month examines the notion of fallen brands."It is a fairly time-and-tabloid-tested theory that those at the pinnacle of their fields generally follow one of two distinct behavioral paths. Those in the first group think they operate in a success...

Social media is what many brands want a part of, but very few have made it.On the surface, it seems simple, but dig a little deeper and you come across a myriad of complex political and structural issues that are standing in the way of success. It seems there's probably a role for consulting...

Interesting to see The Atlantic write such a flattering article about The Economist and the current state of the newsweekly business. The discussion revolves around the recent changes and re-designs at Time and Newsweek, who are both hoping to drag their publications to new found success in an...

Playing around on the All Facebook site you can quickly discover the most popular celebrities, brands and products based on the size of their fan bases. One thing that's especially striking is the number of duplicate sites that exist for certain brands. Converse could have the most fans on...

Jon Canter writing in The Guardian gives a knock out blow to the fairly recent trend of giving corporations individual and very human personalities.."For some reason, we - and now I mean the human race, not just Bastable Advertising - want companies to be like individuals. We want them to have...

Shared Egg is an interesting project that attempts to visualize the connection points between friends. It maps the common areas that bring people together using a combination of interests and brands. It illustrates that brands can be the connective tissue between people; people share a love of...

The private label sales data from Nielsen shows an alarming trend if you happen to be work for a consumer packaged goods brand. The steep curve and rapid gain in share points illustrates just how prepared consumers are to trade away from brands for lower priced alternatives. The scary thing for...