Why Ad Agencies Should Act More Like Tech Startups. Recently, I tweeted: @reiinamoto: "In order for agencies to stay relevant, they must embrace the Culture of Code.” This topic came out of a conversation I was having with a friend at another agency (a traditional one, that is). The tweet got more passionate responses than any other thoughts I’ve tweeted of late. One said that I should replace “code” with “technical know-how.” Another one rather defensively tweeted back “code without ideas is just ones and zeros.” We live in a time when the future is more unpredictable than ever.
It started with Yahoo’s and Netscape’s more than a decade ago. Not only are these technological advances making a massive and fundamental impact on how we as human beings live, but also how those of us in this small industry of advertising work. To the point where the world’s biggest advertising festival dropped the word "advertising" from its name this year. The work that validates a festival without the word "advertising" in its name. [Image: Flickr user mcwont] The Idea Guru, Leading Your Company Article - Inc. Article. Doug Hall has been helping companies like Chrysler and Coca-Cola develop hot new products for years.
Now he's reinventing himself -- with a new venture that will bring the secrets of new-product creation to small companies everywhere By many measures, Doug Hall was the spitting image of the triumphant entrepreneur. There he was, in May 1997, if not bigger than life then at least eerily omnipresent on every airport newsstand he ran past. The cover of this very magazine trumpeted him as America's top new-product idea man. His "idea factory" near Cincinnati, then known as the Eureka Mansion, was booked practically every week with Fortune 500 clients paying as much as $150,000 for innovative, fun-filled three-day creativity sessions. Hall was also in demand on the conference and trade-show circuit, pulling down $10,000 to $20,000 for each hourlong speech. Had he reached entrepreneurial nirvana? Of course, it took him a while to figure that out. Hall looked at his watch and did the math. The Credit Card Is The New App Platform. If Social Media Sites Were Superheroes.
It seems like a lot of designers are having fun creating infographics these days, and when they are fun like this one is, I can’t get enough. Have you ever played the card game called Top Trumps? It’s a game where each card has a character and a group of numbers on it. The numbers rank the characters on the cards for different attributes. The goal is to trump your opponent by having a better (higher ranking) card to win that turn.
There have been tons of different Top Trump card decks released over the years. Most recently, I heard about a Royal Wedding Top Trump card deck in which Kate Middleton is the highest-ranking card. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play a game of social media Top Trumps? Facebook is really like the Hulk, big and powerful. Author: Diana Adams Diana has a passion for blogging and has written over 4,000 articles on Bit Rebels. Is Advertising Better Today Than During The 'Mad Men' Era? 25 Things You Should Know About Word Choice. 1. A Series Of Word Choices Here’s why this matters: because both writing and storytelling comprise, at the most basic level, a series of word choices.
Words are the building blocks of what we do. They are the atoms of our elements. They are the eggs in our omelets. They are the shots of liquor in our cocktails. Get it right? 2. Words are like LEGO bricks: the more we add, the more we define the reality of our playset. 3. You know that game — “Oh, you’re cold, colder, colder — oh! 4. Think of it like a different game, perhaps: you’re trying to say as much as possible with as few words as you can muster. 5.
Finding the perfect word is as likely as finding a downy-soft unicorn with a pearlescent horn riding a skateboard made from the bones of your many enemies. 6. For every right word, you have an infinity of wrong ones. 7. You might use a word that either oversteps or fails to meet the idea you hope to present. 8. 9. Incorrect word choice means you’re using the wrong damn word. 10. 11. 6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers. In the beginning, there was just you and your partners. You did every job. You coded, you met with investors, you emptied the trash and phoned in the midnight pizza. Now you have others to do all that and it's time for you to "be strategic. " Whatever that means. If you find yourself resisting "being strategic," because it sounds like a fast track to irrelevance, or vaguely like an excuse to slack off, you're not alone. This is a tough job, make no mistake. After two decades of advising organizations large and small, my colleagues and I have formed a clear idea of what's required of you in this role.
Anticipate Most of the focus at most companies is on what’s directly ahead. Look for game-changing information at the periphery of your industrySearch beyond the current boundaries of your businessBuild wide external networks to help you scan the horizon better Think Critically “Conventional wisdom” opens you to fewer raised eyebrows and second guessing. Interpret Ambiguity is unsettling. Decide. 4 Secrets of Great Critical Thinkers. In 2009, J D Wetherspoon, a chain of more than 800 pubs in the UK, was facing declining sales. Demand for beer had been down for five years.
In addition, pricing pressure from super market chains was intense, and higher alcohol taxes further squeezed its already tight margins. What would you say is the company's real business problem? Most people see it as a sales problem and recommend better marketing and promotion. But this reflex may be wrong. In Wetherspoon’s case, the company examined the problem more deeply, looked at data, and framed the situation from multiple angles. The strategy worked. If you fail to do this, you risk solving the wrong problem.
Ironically, the more experience you have, the harder it will to break from conventional mindsets. In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman attributes shallow framing to people substituting easy questions for hard ones. 1. 2. 3. 4. The best problem solvers see a complex problem through multiple lenses. The Rise and Fall of Advertising Media. Of all the venues marketers are using to get their message across, mobile marketing is the area that is experiencing an overwhelming increase. The infographic below tells the complete story of the importance of mobile. Don’t believe it? Chew on this: users are spending about a minute on their average Internet session, but more than half that time on mobile sites—4.3 minutes in total!
Take a look below. 10 David Ogilvy Quotes that Could Revolutionize Your Blogging.