Love this apprentice spoof done by cassetteboy on Youtube, thanks to http://adamlowecreative.blogspot.com/ for showing it to me ;)

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http://www.readitfor.me/

A billion brilliant business books (or so) pave the road to the cover of Fortune. But who has time to read and remember them all? ReadItFor.me does it for you. This idea packed, weekly podcast reveals the best takeaways and instantly applicable ideas from the world’s best business brains.

Its a pretty good site, check it out and learn quicker then you ever have before!!!

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This is going around twitter a lot at the moment, two planners are writing an APG paper in 24 hours and streaming their efforts live for all to see. If you haven't seen it yet:
1. where have you been for the last day?!

And 2. check it out now!!

http://www.twoplannersinaroom.com/

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Like thousands across the world, I have watched Susan Boyle on YouTube, probably more than once. An old spinster from Scotland has literally become a global phenomenon overnight. While watching the show on Monday night, it got me thinking...what can brands learn from Susan Boyle?

To find out we have to dig deeper then the champion of the Susan Boyle brand, yes her voice is amazing but what has really caught the public’s affection is the STORY behind Susan Boyle. This is idea is what brands have to take on board, simply the product will not sell itself, if we had simply heard Susan Boyle's voice and not seen the woman, been exposed to her life and bubbly personality we will not have been as affectionate towards her as we are.


If we had heard Susan’s voice over the radio, with no picture we may not have felt the same affection towards Susan as we do now. The reason? The back-story behind Susan Boyle. Without knowing that she had such a sad and hard life before coming onto Britain’s got Talent, the majority of her fans would be nonexistent. Although the selling point of her brand is her voice, without telling a story it wouldn’t differentiate her from a lot of the competition (well apart from DJ talent!).

The lesson we can learn is that a brand has many competitors, selling similar products, some may even be superior products but the brand that has the most compelling story, the one that connects with the consumer and creates an emotional response is the one that will prevail.

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I thought I would start posting my "video of the week", this being the first week I thought I'd start with a video that always keeps my attention throughout, one of my hero's and a legend in everyone's eyes, the greatest of all time....MUHAMMAD ALI!!!! enjoy :)

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The new Marks & Spencer's campaign went live recently, re-positioning themselves as the retailer that offers the best quality to its customer. I'm not too convinced though..after seeing the outdoor ads dotted around town it comes across as a weak attempt to regain the loyalty of customers who have long since jumped ship to a cheaper retailer. The ads consist of the strap line with a product shot in the back, it doesn't distinguish M&S in anyway, the same products can now be purchases at any retailer and most probably at a cheaper price!

Having done my dissertation on "consumer loyalty during the recession" I found that a lot of consumers don't see the quality differences between the supermarkets, it isn't a strong message to push forward. This campaign does little but to re-in force what the brand is already trying to say - we sell quality foods, however most consumers won't think they are worth every penny especially during such tough economic times.

The TV ad features a celebrity (twiggy) taking a trip down M&S memory lane, something that has been done to death (Hovis!!). Even though the 1p bazaar is going to pack M&S stores this won't bring back customers regularly, M&S needs a new strategy to push forward as a brand, not copy others and become a me to business and not get into a price war with the cheaper retailers. This definitely isn't the M&S of a few years ago and this definitely isn't the "my M&S" campaign.

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If you haven't seen this yet its definitely one to watch, the Japanese style adverts that appear now and again (most memorably the 3 adverts from years ago) always make and impression and you always want to watch it again. It works for me, its funny, its viral and above all I now know oasis is for people who don't like water and love great giant ducks, cant wait see the rest of the campaign, good work from Mother yet again!

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The last few ajustments were made today for the assessments tommorrow, marking the end of my uni career, Its been a good few years, learnt a lot, had a lot of laughs and made a lot of good freinds that i'm sure I will know for years to come! Just got graduation to come in July and then I am officialy a "graduate".


Here's a few shots of my work from the day, not very good shots but shots non the less. On another note, there was a reporter from the uni press, who took photos of me and the Sofa Design team and interviewed us about the project, we are going to feature in the uni newspaper and some local press publications....5 minutes of fame here we come!

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I have to say having a BlackBerry has changed my life, for the better in my opinion, however some tend to disagree as Im alwayyyys on it!

Anyway to hell with them! Heres a scamp that every BlackBerry owner will agree with :D

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I will be at the DNAD new blood exhibition this year, displaying some of my advertising work. Hopefully it will be a good event for all attending, plenty of young creative talent and plenty of industry people taking a look around!

If your going to be attending, I'd love to hear from you. DNAD are doing some crazy photo collage/image thing on their website, any who here's the link to mine: http://newblood.dandad.org/#538

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If anyone didn’t watch this week’s task it was to rebrand Margate as a holiday resort/destination for British people. The two teams both pitched different ideas, one aiming at the family market whilst the other aiming it at the gay market.

Ok, choosing the target market is all good and well but am I the only one who gets frustrated at watching the contestants lack of creative thinking? Creativity is a key skill anyone needs who wants to be successful, especially in these tough times; creativity solves problems, creates profit and engineers new companies. What’s even more frustrating is that I could do a better job than the candidates did and that is exactly what I am going to do....

New one day brief: rebrand Margate!

Watch this space!

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Riding the Twitter tidal wave, a Dutch marketing agency is asking job applicants to apply in 140 characters or less.

Utrecht-based Energize is looking to hire an account manager and a strategic planner, and has designed an application form that looks exactly like a page on Twitter, including an empty text field. Candidates enter a short message-their "twillicitatie", or twapplication-describing why they're the person for the job, plus their email address and Twitter username. Uploading a resume is optional. For privacy reasons, Energize won't publicly tweet the applicant's message.

While it might seem like a gimmicky way to recruit new staff members, the process highlights that Energize is looking for people who actively use social media. More importantly, by forcing them to be both engaging and succinct, it's the perfect way to test a candidate's writing skills. Quite the time-saver for the hiring manager, too ;-) (Related: Dating profiles in 140 characters or less.)

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My website is finally up! Its a bit basic as of yet but it has my work and contact details on there...which is always a plus! Please take a look if you get chance and let me know what you think. All feedback is welcome :)

www.shibplus.co.uk

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