If You Want Change Start At The Top

This is #MarketingMurmur 6 vodcast, Some views on the #Shesays event I attended at Karmarama the other night. Hearing the panels horror stories, it struck me how unbelievable rude some clients and agency people behave. Appalling in their demands and bullying emotionally and physically. It's rife in our industry and we do nothing, shame on the management within agencies who allow clients to treat agency staff in this way. Sadly ares holes are at the top regardless of their gender. Most agencies eventually fire clients only when the business is about to leave or they can't make anymore money from it, they then say we did it as they were treating our team badly. The sad truth is; talented people leave the business because of these attitudes. Interested to hear your thoughts and your horror stories and maybe some suggestions on how to change this behaviour.

Art from fabric - Just stunning.Truly.

Just look at this - no words needed apart from inspired fabric sculptor artist Benjamin Shine

The elephant in the room

Marketing Murmur on diversity in our industry and that comment from Justin Tidall

Fidget Phone.

Seen this, I really like it when you combine two things to create something completely new. Welcome to Fidget Phone - I love the fact it has a practical value too. From a marketing perspective I can also see branding and content creation with this. A new media channel. Very impressive and beautifully simple idea.

IKEA - Place Looking Nice Via AR

We have for a long time as agency folk sold in 'transformative' retail work for our clients and harnessing new tech and not so new tech such as AR. The trouble is; the idea is great in scamp form but sadly the end result always failed to impress mainly regarding the technology as it always to me fell short. Not a great experience if anything, it hindered it. The other problem many marketing and agency folk missed was how to push the app through marketing, a more joined approach, connected thinking was always a missing. Then I saw this from IKEA The hope is that Ikea can now inspire customers in new ways and make their lives so much easier. Now instead of going to the store maybe two or three times to look at a couch, feel it, sit on it, envision it within your own home, the customer might only have to make one trip to the store. The app now allows shoppers to actually see the product, in all its assembled glory, as it would really appear in your home. You can see what it looks like in different rooms, against a different wall, etc. IKEA is in a good place when it comes to creativity and innovation to the benefit of its customers. A good place to be for any brand.

Infographic on the importance of colour for brands

Let's Have A Beer #OpenYourWorld

I came across this piece from Heineken and when I started to read the idea I had a bit of a Coke Cola and Kendall Jenner moment. We are seeing more and more brands take this approach, take a topic and set up a social experiment and see it played out. The ad features people who disagree on issues like climate change, feminism, and transgender rights. But there's a catch: The two people don't know they disagree with each other when they first sit down. After a few minutes of getting to know each other, the pair is shown short videos that reveal their dissenting opinions on a particular topic. They're then given a choice: They can leave, or they can try and hash out their differences over a beer. I really like this idea - the actual build to the reveal was really clever and well thought out, by setting tasks you can see them bond, so when their conflicting views are revealed it adds tension and drama. I was transfixed to the end and I didn't feel the brand was forced, it dovetailed in nicely. Now there's a brand that's found its purpose, as we know and it has scientifically proven that most people can come to an agreement on most things over a beer. (As long as it's not too many beers and they are Millwall or West Ham fans:)