February 2012
1 post
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January 2012
2 posts
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Death of the January sales
Consumers demand more bargains, but apparently the all year round sales have left us disenchanted with discounts. Marketing Magazine has reported that almost two-thirds of UK consumers have lost interest in the January sales – the traditional season for a bargain. The economic climate and growth of online sales demands more competition on the high street but with prices being dropped all year...
December 2011
1 post
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Hyped-up hyperlink
Hyperlink: A link from one electronic location or file to another, typically activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image on the screen.
Originally used to reference, it seems we’ve got carried away with hyperlinks. Just because you could link every word to another article or its meaning in Wikipedia, doesn’t mean you should. When the purpose is to create a piece of copy or a page that...
October 2011
3 posts
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In tents protest
How serious and committed to the cause are the protesters at St Paul’s? If press reports are to be believed then I suspect not that committed at all. It seems that thermal imaging cameras used by the police and Daily Telegraph show that very few of the tents pitched outside St Paul’s are actually occupied at night. So rather than a full time occupation this is no more than just a day job for most...
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Competition's healthy
We live in a competitive environment whether it is at play or at work. People need to know how to cope with disappointment gracefully and in a measured manner. How often have you heard the expression ‘he is a bad loser’? Censoring the scores of junior football team matches to protect the players from the possible embarrassment of defeat is a defeatist attitude and will do nothing to prepare them...
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September 2011
7 posts
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Government Confusion
The proposal to raise the speed limit to 80 mph is being explained as an initiative to boost the economy. But I’m not convinced that economic benefit is the real reason and nor it seems is Phillip Hammond, the Transport Minister, judging by his comments during a radio interview yesterday evening. He claimed the limit was to be raised for the benefit of the economy, because modern cars are capable...
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Animal Magic
It seems that if you’re naming and branding a travel payment card system, it has to be a random aquatic animal name. The latest system introduced in Merseyside for local transport has been named Walrus! They say it’s a Beatles reference but how is that related to transport? Probably just a random animal picked out of a hat. We’ve had Oyster, so next thing you know we’ll see the...
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Trans-Atlantic tourette’s syndrome
The behaviour of David Cameron and President Sarkozy in Libya yesterday was embarrassing.
It seems that our increasing obsession with all things American has resulted in our politicians being infected by ‘trans-Atlantic tourette’s syndrome’ - tendency of premature and uncontrolled celebration (for example the George Bush claim of victory in Iraq).
I still believe that traditional British...
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Local goes global
Local papers might be scaling back but their counterpart websites are thriving. The Guardian reports that the three top regional newspaper publishers have seen website traffic grow over 30% year on year in the first six months of 2011. This is great for the majority, with local news able to reach a much wider audience, but what about the 9 million people recently identified by the UK’s...
July 2011
8 posts
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It's not just handbags →
How someone duped staff into thinking they actually worked for Apple in an Apple store must have taken a lot of planning – either that or the workers are genuinely stupid.
Plus they must have genuinely thought they could get away with it, for long enough to make their investment back anyway – the store looks like it had a fair bit spent on making it look legit. Perhaps it’s indicative of...
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Product Placement ‘P’ Puzzles Population
“I was wondering what that ‘P’ symbol was for?”
Well if you had the same confusion don’t worry, you’re not alone. According to a Populus research survey, it seems 90% of British adults don’t recognise what it is either.
Turns out that the product placement P logo should go before and after every TV show that involves any form of promoted product placement. Back in February, a Nescafe coffee...
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Brands Boycott News of the World
As public anger builds over new phone hacking allegations at the News of the World, what’s to become of the popular tabloid? It seems no one really minded when it was only celebrities or politicians being hacked, but when it comes to victims of crime and very high profile, headline hitting crime, the public outcry has been huge.
So much so that motor giant Ford has pulled its advertising...
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Don't Mess With Darth Vader →
We all loved the VW Star Wars ad and included it on an earlier Tumblr post. And last week we watched with interest the Greenpeace spoof, complete with Stormtroopers. VW: The Dark Side is a global campaign against the car manufacture and its stance on C02 emissions.
But it seems Greenpeace failed to get the correct permissions from LucasFilm, which owns the Star Wars franchise, to use the Darth...
June 2011
4 posts
6 tags
Pleasure Hunt →
Magnum recently released an advergame called ‘Pleasure Hunt’ as part of its new global campaign to launch the new Magnum Temptation Hazelnut ice cream.
In the game the player is a a beautiful woman hunting for bonbons (the key ingredient in the new ice cream). The aim of the game is to collect as many bonbons as you can whilst running, jumping, flying and driving through 20 well known websites. ...
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What's in a web domain? →
We’re familiar with websites ending with .com, .co.uk, .org or .net but from January 2012, brands and companies can apply to ICANN to register its own domain name.
What does it mean for the way we use the internet?
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Sony: Another bad day for electronics giant
Once again, Sony has hit the news with another security breach. Hackers have stolen the private details of more than a million users of Sony’s online movie and gaming site, calling their reputation into question.
But will the latest security fail stop you from using and trusting Sony?
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Living Legend →
As Prince Philip prepares to celebrate his 90th birthday on 10th June, the Independent has put together a list of his all time best gaffs.
It raised a smile in the #JJMarketing office.
May 2011
7 posts
5 tags
When is a crisis not a crisis? When you are on...
In the real world most rationale people would consider a crisis to be a situation or set of circumstances that affects the credibility and/or reputation of an individual or organisation. However on ‘Planet Blatter’, where denial is the default setting for any criticism, a crisis cannot possibly exist. Crisis or no crisis ‘Planet Blatter’ is under threat. Not because of any accusations of...
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#Superinjunction
It’s trending all over Twitter, and until recently was a word none of us had heard of. Now we all understand the difference between an injunction and super-injunction, and how both impact the media. But the legal technicalities, including revealing identities and details on social media sites are being discussed thanks to a Twitter user outing the celebrities who are suspected of having a...
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Myspace is the thang, innit? Yes, if you want to... →
The latest edition of the official Collins Scrabble Words launches today, packed with nearly 3,000 new words. As wordsmiths and Scrabble stalwarts throughout the land grimace at the thought of ‘INNIT’ and ‘THANG’ gracing the hallowed board, surely the additions to the Scrabble bible reflect our changing use of language, making the game more accessible to younger...
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What a weekend, what a wedding! →
And how nice to see so many people supporting the happy couple throughout the country and around the world. But as the nation was gripped by wedding fever, did marketers make the most of opportunity? T-Mobile clearly did, with its own Royal wedding viral achieving almost 19 million hits on You Tube alone, but who else jumped on the opportunity?
March 2011
4 posts
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Blogging: What do you think?
If you’ve received our latest e-shot and you’re interested in contributing to the blogging debate, here’s your chance. If not, you can still join in and if you’d like to be added to our database to receive future musings from JJ let us know.
Q. What are the barriers stopping companies blogging and how can they be encouraged?
This question was posed by digital marketing...
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February 2011
3 posts
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http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7165-14-brilliant-e... →
This caught my eye - some interesting concepts of interactive offline advertising, exploring the extension and connectivity between the online virtual space and the physical one.
G
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You're Hired!
Picture the scene. You’re driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus: 1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die. 2. A very old friend who once saved your life. 3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about. Which one would you choose to offer a lift to, knowing that there could only be...
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January 2011
6 posts
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"Segmenting the godless: an unbelievably brilliant...
It’s the time of year when marketing experts set out their predictions for the year ahead and this one, taken from Helen Edwards on Branding: Snakes and Ladders, caused a wry smile.
Atheist
Former DDB planner David Bonney believes that millions feel oppressed by religion and would like to express their dissent. So he’s created a street fashion brand called Atheist, to launch in...
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“Digital media allows for much more precise targeting. This creates value for...”
– Rory Sutherland
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Wishes Come True
Christmas may seem like a distant memory but before the festivities started we told you about Thomas from Warrington, who has cerebral palsy and suffers from recurrent chest infections and epilepsy. JJ’s Christmas gift to our clients was to give Thomas and his family an unforgettable memory and make his greatest wish, to meet Father Christmas, come true.
Thanks to our donation, Make-A-Wish...
Formspring: Do you ever get creative blocks? if...
subcreation:
Yeah, creative block is very frustrating. I wrote this post on the subject a while back:
8 Ways to Beat Creative Block
Thanks for the excellent question! It is worthy of further thought and a more in depth post one of these days. Lately, I struggle more with finding motivation than coming up with ideas of what to do. I have long lists of ideas I want to get to, but scoping...
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The end of the Starbucks mug? →
Surely this is just a PR stunt, they’d never really get rid of the mugs?
December 2010
5 posts
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Merry Christmas from JJ
JJ has supported Make-A-Wish foundation for many years and you may have seen the pictures from the Winter Ball. This amazing charity grants magical wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses.
This Christmas, instead of sending festive cards to our clients, we’ve chosen to give one of these incredibly special children an unforgettable memory for them and their...
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The Influence of Fleeting Attraction →
How do you get customers to like your brand then? It’s easy enough when you have one customer – you can spend time with them and get to know them, but how do you get thousands of different people to like your brand? You can’t be everything to everyone. True one-to-one communications are still in their infancy and very fragmented - email was supposed to solve it all, but the prophets of eDM...
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A Christmas Rant
Many argue that the commercialisation of Christmas has diluted its real meaning. However as we live in a growing secular society I believe Christmas is still a special time of the year for many, whether it represents a religious festival or a special time for family.
Now that we’re well and truly into December I’m embracing the festivities; decorations are up, Christmas cards have been written...
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