Blog
May 4, 2013How to “Make it go viral”
“Make it go viral.” The brief that sends a chill down every creative’s spine. Next time you’re asked to make something go viral, explain that there’s only so much you can do. Good content goes viral. But if you’re lumbered with bad content, what can you do?
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April 21, 2013Is this the worst ad ever?
An ad doesn’t have to be cringeworthy to be bad, just banal. Ultimately, a good ad should make you desire the product. Here, I take a look at Sony’s latest smartphone campaign — and find it severely lacking.
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February 26, 2013“The experience” is essential when advertising luxury brands
As the creator of Apple’s “Think Different” campaign declares Apple’s new product-led campaigns are inferior to Samsung’s people oriented ones, I ask the question of whether experience should still be the focus of luxury brands.
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July 10, 2012Brand evangelism is dead
Rookie copywriters often make the mistake of praising the brand, when really it’s the customer who’s the star. Creating an effective tone of voice for a brand isn’t about emphasising the brand’s values, it’s about portraying them in ways people empathise with.
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June 7, 2012“Why the big face?” On choosing homepage images that resonate with your target market.
This isn’t a post about copywriting. It’s a post about seeing the big picture — the big picture on your homepage, to be precise. Sites that use portrait photography are increasingly important. But to get it right, choose an image that resonates with your audience.
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April 27, 2012Are ad men as bad as the Nazis?
Many people see advertising as a bad thing — as nothing more than propaganda written on behalf of evil corporations. But let’s look at that accusation objectively. Do ad men use the same techniques as totalitarian societies? And if so, are the effects the same?
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April 15, 2012How to make your customers an offer they can’t refuse
If your conversion rate is 2% but an alternate call to action increases it to 4%, don’t you owe it to yourself to test all possible variations? But conversion science isn’t simply about design, flow, and, text. It’s about getting your offer right.
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March 8, 2012What QR codes teach us about advertising
QR codes don’t work because they put a barrier between the customer and the call to action. In short, they’re bad conversion science. That doesn’t mean we can’t learn from them. We just have to find ways to maximise, not minimise, customer response rates.
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February 16, 2012How important is a personal recommendation?
When making a purchasing decision, people value a personal recommendation from a trusted source higher than any other factor – even to the point of trusting that recommendation over trusting their own opinion. How do we make use of that fact?
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January 27, 2012Snickers’ social media campaign is advertising genius at its best
Send a few fake tongue-in-cheek tweets. Then tell everyone it was a joke, associate the joke with the brand. A formula so simple a child could have created it. Yet they didn’t. It was the work of a fiendishly clever advertising brain. But why are ASA investigating it?
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