Brand Architect tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-185901 2013-04-16T10:05:15+02:00 thinking and observations of patrick collings TypePad Dove Back on Track with Real Beauty Sketches tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017d42d5eff2970c 2013-04-16T10:05:15+02:00 2013-04-16T10:05:15+02:00 Brilliantly conceived and executed campaign for Dove. Dove describe the campaign as “Women are their own worst beauty critics. Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. At Dove, we are committed to creating a world where beauty... pjcollings Designing Responsive Strategy for Creative Agencies tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017d420e5472970c 2013-03-18T23:46:35+02:00 2013-03-18T23:46:35+02:00 Strategy Playbook from Ana Andjelic I like this presentation by digital strategy director Ana Andjelic. In her notes, she says “Strategy in creative agencies often isn’t taken seriously - and deservedly so. We aren’t doing it right. In a world... pjcollings When Brands Don’t Innovate, They Die tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017c37905798970b 2013-03-12T02:05:58+02:00 2013-03-12T02:05:58+02:00 The above cartoon by the always brilliant Tom Fishburne drives home the point that brands that fail to innovate will end up in the graveyard with tombstones recording how they stagnated or failed to adapt to changing markets. Managing innovation... pjcollings Why Newsrooms are an Agile | Adaptive Answer for Agencies tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017c3743d4ca970b 2013-03-03T20:53:41+02:00 2013-03-03T20:53:41+02:00 Several months ago I wrote that agile | adaptive strategies are well suited for marketing departments as they face increasingly volatile socio-economic environments. Agile | adaptive strategies also offer advertising and communication agencies a future business model. The traditional campaign... pjcollings The Fickleness of Brand Loyalty tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017c36e4290d970b 2013-02-15T14:26:33+02:00 2013-02-15T14:26:33+02:00 Tom Fishburne’s cartoon on brand loyalty is very accurate. In his notes, Tom states “Brand loyalty can be pretty fickle. Marketers often overestimate the motivations of their brand loyalists and how prominent their brands are in their consumers' lives. This... pjcollings Content is Blurring the Lines tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017c35b1ac89970b 2013-01-13T21:43:33+02:00 2013-01-13T21:43:33+02:00 The above quote comes from a company that “powers the intersection of marketing, social media and journalism”, so one can expected it to be biased towards the business offering of /newsrooms. The quote is, however, also accurate and identifies the... pjcollings Digital and Social Marketing Outlook for 2013 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017ee6f8a69e970d 2013-01-05T14:37:44+02:00 2013-01-05T14:37:44+02:00 DeepFocus_2013Outlook This time of the year is flush with predictions for the coming months. Some are insightful, more are not. I liked this list of 15 developments to watch for in the digital, social and mobile media arenas. The list... pjcollings The Implications of Not Knowing the Future, and Thinking You Do tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017d3f622452970c 2013-01-01T18:28:40+02:00 2013-01-01T18:48:43+02:00 The first 2013 edition of The New York Times carried two articles that dealt with a key aspect of agile | adaptive strategies: how to incorporate what you know or don’t know about the future into your business strategy. The... pjcollings From Creation to Listening to Engagement tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017c350ba9a5970b 2012-12-27T12:17:43+02:00 2012-12-27T12:17:43+02:00 Far too many South African brands still don’t get social media and use it as a one-to-many loudhailer, little different from broadcast and print marketing in the last century. The key aspect of social media today is engagement and that... pjcollings Weak Signals are More Important Than Blatant Trends tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017c34f9ee20970b 2012-12-26T12:05:00+02:00 2012-12-26T12:05:00+02:00 Not too long ago, one of my business associates declined a project brief by the marketing director of a large FMCG retailer to produce an image board of trends identified by popular consumer magazines. He declined it because the brief... pjcollings Why Skills Transfer | Consulting is the Future tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017c34774530970b 2012-12-10T08:36:29+02:00 2012-12-10T08:36:29+02:00 Strategy is a hard sell. It is also a tough buy. Common to both is that strategy remains an underestimated skill with many executives believing they and their team should be able guide their company to growth and prosperity; and,... pjcollings When Strategy is Left to Post-Production tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d55ee53ef017d3e242617970c 2012-11-25T13:29:03+02:00 2012-11-25T13:29:03+02:00 The above cartoon from the always-brilliant Tom Fishburne is, unfortunately, too often, true. As Tom writes in the notes that accompany the cartoon that “a marketing campaign is only as strong as the strategy that drives it. Yet sometimes we... pjcollings