As we PR consultancy folk continue to fret over the minimal number of PR agency-originted campaigns that either made the short-list or won a PR Lion, let’s not forget that it was our first year in the fray. And that practised ad agencies have had 55 years to perfect an approach to winning Lions. Having [...]
Category Archive for ‘Advertising Industry’ 
Contagious @ Cannes
So the folks from Contagious and Leo Burnett had a session today on “wildfire stories” - the art of creating immersive narratives with a “pass on” factor. Who knew it was as simple as just choosing from seven basic plots which are common themes in literature?! That the advertising world is as simple as seven basic ad [...]
Day 1 @ the Festival
On a day when the last thing anyone wanted to do was sit in an auditorium – with sunny skies and beach beckoning – the opening sessions largely reflected the day and condition of most delegates – many who were either jet lagged or in Saturday night recovery mode. And yet, while not all sessions [...]
Can brands (re)gain the high ground?
Much like Dell on the day it launched its first corporate blog to a cacophony of the ‘righeous’, Skittles faced off against the wrath of the (m)asses and (barely) endured. Trent Reznor, on the other hand, is calling it quits. And can you blame him?
I will be tuning out of the social networking sites because at the end of [...]
Going beyond "awareness"
The always thought-provoking Karen McGrane argued recently why “Web ads suck”, She cites a litany of usual suspects: lack of investment compared to other channels, questionable measurement, size and technical constraints and, most interestingly from my perspective, the fact that advertising should be “about more than awareness”. As a career PR professional, this last point caught my attention – [...]
Advertising and PR - "Play the music, not the instrument"
In this blog’s inaugural post, my colleague Tony asks the question ”Does the involvement of PR signal a fundamental shift away from ad agencies?” It’s a question that has been debated ad nauseum throughout the blogosphere for years with no clear resolution and with responses, for the most part, clouded by obvious self-interest. But it’s an important question – albeit [...]