In order to learn, you gotta learn from the best.. www.markpollard.net
Mark Pollard, the strategy director at McCann in Sydney keeps a fantastic blog and something he said in regards to strategic planning struck me and inspired me to start a blog "I’m also curious as to what actions your curiosity has led to. Do you make stuff – a blog, art, computers, cars? There’s no better way to learn about stuff than doing and tinkering. If you’re just curious, and only watch from the sidelines I’d be nervous that we’d talk only about theory. I want to know what you tried and failed at. There’s rich insight in those failures." And so I shall blog because blogs even though they are apparently evolving into microblogging, still form a large part of what makes the internet great. And the blogosphere can be where brands are either saluted or humbled for what they do on the net. A lot of bloggers consist of the innovators and early adopters that inspire the rest that adopt a brand. They also tend to be the Mavens that Malcolm Gladwell identifies in the Tipping Point.

What Pollard does in 10 words? "Find undiscovered human patterns and reveal them in compelling ways" He defines strategy work as "about understanding the cause of a business or brand problem – not simply solving a symptom – and digging for insights about people that are relevant to what the company has to offer… and linking them in a unique way." I think a lot of the moves to get into social media by brands is ignoring/skipping this step and trying to get out there as soon as possible without being particularly relevant. A good example is the Toyota fiasco with Satchi and Satchi. They didn't really utilise or push the social media and what happened was they ended up using their networking skills to convince their advertising peers to contribute. Not really a great idea but a useful lesson for everybody else. The social media has to be used as an ends to a means and not as an ends in itself. Presenting these facts to a client will always be difficult. A friend of mine did marketing consultancy for a small accountant. The accountant kept talking about facebook for his business. My friend sidestepped it nicely but what did the accountant expect? Kelvin became a fan of Yada Yada accounting, first post "Remember Keep your receipts until the end of the fiscal year"

So maybe I can find words of wisdom from other sources. While teaching I learned that the best way to re-enforce learning is through hitting different senses. Students learn better when they hear, speak, act, write and do rather than simply one of the above. The same applies to the current state of advertising, multiple platforms with an opportunity to respond. I can read all I want on digital marketing and I can write about it here on my blog, I can do it through apps and engaging with brands. Podcasts can form the basis of my listening experience. There's several podcasts related to advertising synching to my I-touch right now. Fingers crossed there'll be some gold and not a hodgepodge of marketing buzzwords delivered in a grating American accent. Teaching 101 says that teacher talk time should be 20% and student talk time should be the remaining 80%. Those principles are perfect for teaching but perhaps a step too far for advertising at this juncture. Nonetheless the onus on advertisers has to be to step up the student (consumer) talk time and create more and more engagement with the brand.

Best ads of the decade? http://www.bestofthe2000s.com/commercial-of-the-decade.html
Apparently the 30 second spot is dead but according to this list the 60 second spot is alive and kicking. Cool/entertaining/funny ads tend to go viral nowadays and 60 seconds allows much more entertainment to be worth a click. Maybe the whole idea should be to create a mini masterpiece and show it infrequently in peak TV spots, crossing your fingers that it also gets a Youtube run. It’s only really viable for the big brands with the big budget but done right it could prove to be an awesome boon to smaller brands taking a gamble. The winner was Honda’s syrupy cute animals and catchy jingle mishmash. Hmmm, doesn’t particularly endeavour me to Honda and I’m not quite sure that even the target market will be taken in either. Why go halfway towards saving the planet with your car when you can go hybrid or wait for the second coming of the electric car. The reader’s vote placed the ad at 23rd and maybe this is what should count. The readers selected the Bud Lite swear jar ad which made me smile and has 4.3 million views for the most popular clip of it on Youtube. Honda Grrr manages 150,000 views. So which is the better ad? And as for the Grrr ad beating Dove Evolution? You have to wonder what offbeat criteria the judges had. The Honda ‘Cogs’ ad was even far superior.
http://www.bestofthe2000s.com/videopopup9.html Honda Cog ad
http://www.bestofthe2000s.com/videopopup10.html Honda Grrr
http://www.bestofthe2000s.com/videopopup2.html Bud Lite f*%&#n awesome!!!