Kitcatt Nohr - Features (3)

Pricking the Big Data bubble

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:00:00 +0000

I wish I’d been at the Advertising Week event that Sir John Hegarty spoke at last month. The topic was Big Data, and the celebrated elder statesman of advertising creativity didn’t hold back in his attack on the industry’s latest technological wonder weapon.

Remote Control

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 23:00:00 +0000

Smart wearable technologies have the potential to change the way we look at the world, but will they have a positive effect on consumers' lives or simply increase alienation, Dhrubo Paul asks.

The ‘tablet explosion’ of 2013 will make us all second screeners

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:04:13 +0000

The ‘tablet explosion’ of 2013 will make us all second screeners. Tablet computers and hot cakes may not have much in common, but they certainly both sell at an alarming rate. According to YouGov, one tablet was sold every second in the UK last Christmas, and by August this year the number on the market is expected to more than double, from 5.87 million to 10 million. All of this means the much-discussed trend of ‘second screen’ TV viewing is fast becoming a mass-market reality. It also means now is the time to be developing applications and platforms that tap into second screen behaviours.

Understanding the why behind the want

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Another month, another book about behavioural economics. In this case, Decoded by Phil Barden, formerly a top marketer at Unilever, Diageo and T-Mobile. For the two or three of you who haven’t yet come across behavioural economics, a quick update may be in order.

Social CRM doesn't exist

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:12:29 +0000

Social CRM doesn't exist Social CRM is seen as the new discipline du jour. But this label is creating widespread confusion, both among agencies and their clients at a time when we need clarity.

Is your brand living in a parallel universe?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:06:24 +0000

Is your brand living in a parallel universe? From enhanced reality apps to 3D printing, technology is providing marketers with a baffling universe of opportunities to create new and engaging customer experiences. But how can you make sense of the rich possibilities which these innovations open up?

The commoditisation of technology can boost innovation

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:18:18 +0000

Ideas are fascinating. All human innovation starts with an idea, but ideas don’t come from thin air. We’re intelligent creatures with an incredible capacity for learning and improving things. We are armed with an instinct to see something, evaluate it, and see how it might be improved. We don’t even have to try very hard to do it. But this instinct is fed by several factors—even eureka moments don’t come about in complete isolation. Such ideas are quietly influenced by our previous experiences and learnings—sometimes our own, and more often other people’s.

See it new

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:34:42 +0000

On Christmas Eve, 1968, three men saw something no-one had ever seen before. Earthrise. Our planet, coming up over the horizon, seen from Apollo 8.

Love 8 Relationship

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:29:53 +0000

Microsoft designed Windows 8 to be the first cross-product OS (Operating System), unifying a wide range of devices – ranging from phones to tablets, PCs and televisions – and suitable for both work and play.

From insights beyond the obvious come results beyond the ordinary

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:03:04 +0000

In my last column, I took a self-critical look at the discipline of Planning. I asked some pretty hard questions about its role in the business of marketing communications. This time I feel compelled to issue something of a corrective: an unapologetic celebration of the role of the strategic planner in the communication process.

Creativity Count

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 13:28:57 +0000

Paul Kitcatt, Chief Creative Officer at Kitcatt Nohr Digitas, explains why agencies need to combine technical innovation with creative inspiration and asks whether brands have fully grasped the implications of the social media revolution.

A brave new world? What Windows 8 means for brands

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:56:33 +0000

Microsoft claims it will give marketers the chance to communicate with their customers "in a whole new way" - but what does Windows 8 really mean for brands? Warren Midgley from Kitcatt Nohr Digitas takes a look...

Goodbye Keyboard, Goodbye Remote Control

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:36:25 +0000

At the end of this month Microsoft will release Windows 8, a new operating system with a new user interface which will run across all platforms from phone to TV, quietly, behind this big launch two ways of interacting have been released to developers and designers, after two decades we are finally moving away from Keyboards, Mice and TV remote controls with Kinect and SmartGlass.

Windows 8, The Shock of the New

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:26:33 +0000

People hate change, but they love what’s new Every few weeks a new digital product is released and people flock to buy or upgrade, the latest iPhone suddenly making our old iPhone redundant overnight or a whole new product category such as the tablet computer which we did not need last year is now an essential tool or should I say toy.

Is this the return of USP in marketing?

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:54:18 +0000

Marketing is searching for its soul again. It used to be rich in the beginning. Marketing was the first planning. It was lauded as the voice of the consumer in what rapidly had become one of the most successful ways to create a successful company: management theory and practice.

Time to unleash the tiger within?

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:08:29 +0000

Tough times call for tough measures. So rather than gold-plating your marketing planning process with elaborate problem-solving methodologies, now may be the time to experiment with a little constructive conflict in the workplace.

What’s the big idea behind the your brand's story?

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:16:49 +0000

Social media has brought the concept of brand story-telling into the limelight once again. But are the stories you’re telling big enough to capture your audience’s imagination?

How to avoid the Social Media Ambush

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:50:47 +0000

In the immortal words of Richard Saul Wurman, creator of TED conferences, we are currently living in the ‘age of also’. Just one of the signs of this age is the pre-occupation with facebook that is rife at the moment amongst brands. However, the ‘age of also’ is at the same time the 'age of also-ran’. With this in mind there are dangers involved with implementing a facebook page. If you’re not careful, it can be an ambush. An ambush into which so many have already walked, leaving a myriad of brands languishing with a few thousand fans and a handful of comments.

QR Here To Stay?

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:47:11 +0000

QR codes are turning up everywhere. The premise is simple: these two-dimensional barcodes offer a way to transfer data directly from print media to a device as a smartphone. The design of such devices is a ceaseless battle between size, performance and usability, so it’d be reasonable to assume that anything easing the input of data must be a good thing. But QR codes also have their detractors who state, or perhaps plea, that they’re a marketing fad. So are QR codes here to stay, or are they soon to be superseded?

What if consumers stop giving their personal information away and start selling it instead?

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:29:03 +0000

We live in a so-called information economy. But evidence suggests that contrary to received wisdom, consumers aren’t getting any more willing to share their personal data. Last week’s LinkedIn password scare can only accelerate the trend. The solution for marketers may be a radical one.

How can UK agencies rediscover winning ways at Cannes?

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:57:23 +0000

In spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Cannes. And with the annual creative carnival on the Cote d’Azur only a couple of weeks away, this seems a perfect time to muse on what we might see there.

In praise of the peripheral visionary

Tue, 08 May 2012 11:44:00 +0000

The work of a long-dead ad genius is a reminder that radical innovation rarely comes from workshops and away-days.

Spare a thought for thought

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:45:39 +0000

A new book on how we think offers fresh insight into the way consumers process marketing messages.

How many brands are on Facebook?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:56:10 +0000

How many brands are on Facebook? One.

Putting the industry into the creative industries

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:42:45 +0000

Britain is seeking to re-balance its economy in the wake of the financial crash, and the creative industries are seen as a key part of the solution. But is the prognosis for the creative industries as rosy as some would have us believe? And if not, what can be done about it?

Stop squeezing the middle

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:16:04 +0000

All too often it’s middle managers who are the first victims of marketing department cost-cutting. But according to recent evidence, thinning-out your middle management layer can be a dangerously short-sighted move.

So why is everyone talking about HTML5?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:34:19 +0000

Ask a Flash Designer what they do for a living and there’s a good chance they will no longer say Flash Designer. They are more likely to reel off a range of different skills, most of which have probably been acquired over the past two years. Because even Adobe now acknowledges that the future is not really about Flash.

What can we learn from Silicon Valley and Hollywood?

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:24:32 +0000

Let me start by getting something straight. One of my colleagues put it to me that this IPA trip was arguably “a jolly” for agency leaders in California. I refuted the accusation then and I will again today. There was nothing arguable about it. It was a jolly. In fact jolly was not the word, it was incredible.

Brand Miliband

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:15:49 +0000

In November 2011, Marc Nohr was invited to appear on the BBC Two show Daily Politics.

Fun, attractive, and best of all, available

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:28:16 +0000

What do this year’s IPA Effectiveness Awards finalists tell us about what advertising can do for brands?

The three bitter pills we must take to regain trust

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

There’s probably no greater issue in marketing right now than the phenomenon of ‘the trust deficit’. It crops up in every client meeting I attend, and every focus group I listen to.

The hunt for the red herring

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:15:01 +0000

Attempts to prove the effectiveness of social media are focusing on creating new metrics and evaluation frameworks. The answer lies elsewhere: in tracking the activity between platforms better.

Real brands need real customers

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Have we once again entered a period of collective madness?

If you can’t be handsome, be handy

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0000

I’ve just returned from a short fact-finding trip to New York. As the plane climbed out of JFK, I sank back into the shareholder-friendly luxury of my Premium Economy seat and mulled over what I’d seen, heard and learnt.

Beware the sausage man

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Something strange has been happening this summer. And I don’t just mean with the weather. Or last week’s spontaneous street parties.

Time to ditch the matching luggage?

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:46:36 +0000

In the marketing village, the thing we call ‘integration’ has been a hot topic of debate for at least a decade now. Despite this, there still seems little agreement over how best to plan campaigns across the multitude of marketing disciplines at our disposal.

Is research stuck in a rut?

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0000

As time goes by, and my nasal hair proliferates, the more disenchanted I become with the way in which marketers are using focus groups.

Keep on trucking

Thu, 05 May 2011 10:30:04 +0000

Two events have given me particular pause for thought in the last month. The first was tragic. The second was rather more welcome. Both have prompted me to think further about the nature of innovation.

Busting the Boomer myth

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:25:00 +0000

The Boomers are coming. Millions of them are reaching retirement age. And they’re not like the docile cardigan-wearing geriatrics of yesteryear. They’re radicalised. Suspicious of authority. And as consumers, they’re more demanding than any generation before or since.

The perfect (brain)storm?

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:11:19 +0000

Take a quick poll around your office: Who is more creative, a group working together or people working separately? The vast majority will say, “The group, of course!”

The future of Ethiopia

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:58:29 +0000

Ethiopia. The mention of it conjures up images of drought and famine. Distended bellies and wide-eyed children. Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. A quarter-century since two billion people watched Live Aid, two creatives from Kitcatt Nohr Digitas set off to Ethiopia. We went in search of new images and new stories, for a new fundraising campaign for Age UK and HelpAge International.

Evolution and revolution: two sides of the same coin

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:58:23 +0000

If there’s one phrase planners hear most often, it’s probably the six words ‘We’re looking for evolution, not revolution’. Fair enough, different businesses move at different speeds. However, the more I understand about the way the world works, the more I realise that you can’t have evolution without the occasional revolution.

Mail's role in the digital landscape

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:26:03 +0000

Do you remember the first email you received? I do. It was like getting a letter from the future. Of course, I’m a lot older now, and my short-term memory isn’t what it was. But I’m not sure I could tell you much about the contents of the last email I received. Or, indeed, who sent it to me. If the sender is reading this and still waiting for a reply, I apologise.

What charities can teach the rest of us

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:20:51 +0000

Like an old Harry Enfield character, I do a lot of work for charity, but I don’t like talking about it. I worry that my commercial clients will somehow see it as evidence that I’m going soft in my old age.

When a little Chutzpah goes a long, long way

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:46:03 +0000

Innovation is this season’s must-have. The economy may have avoided a double dip. But consumer demand is taking longer to lift. The patient has lost his appetite. Fresh, tasty morsels are what’s needed, not yesterday’s re-heated leftovers.

Junk mail and junk advertising - should we ban it?

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:58:25 +0000

Junk mail and junk advertising - should we ban it? Every few years the media jump on this bandwagon.

Consumer confidence: sunrise or sunset?

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:01:46 +0000

They say it’s always darkest before the dawn. As an inveterate late riser, I have little insight to contribute here. However, if I were to apply the analogy to consumers’ economic behaviour, I’d say it’s as black as your hat out there. And yet the post-recessionary sun is taking an unconscionable amount of time to creep above the horizon.

Mind the creativity gap

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 11:47:47 +0000

Few would doubt that creativity is one of the most important raw human ingredients of marketing. Which makes some recent news from the US more than a little disturbing.

Palm trees

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:21:46 +0000

It started when I was at art college - Norwich School of Art. Everyone collected something.

Some prisons have lace curtains

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:47:35 +0000

Have you noticed that house on your street? The one no one ever visits? Ellie lives there.

Bill Bruford on listening and creativity

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:06:35 +0000

What does a drummer know about advertising? A lot, it seems.

Use marketing to your advantage

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:19:00 +0000

Marketing can be used to gain better business advantage.

CRM and the rise of the spimes

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:13:11 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about the afterlife recently. Not mine, you understand. This strategy lark is tough, but not that tough. Yet.

Cross about cross-selling

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:45:36 +0000

If I’ve heard it once this week I’ve heard it a thousand times. ‘I don’t need an iPad. But I don’t half want one.’ Apple remains a shiningly positive example of a marketing practice which so few brands seem able to master. Namely, cross-selling more products to people who already have a plentiful sufficiency of goods in their homes which bear the same logo.

Obliquity and the power of testing

Sun, 23 May 2010 16:45:28 +0000

We’re living in testing times. Or at least we should be. The speed and flexibility of interactive marketing means this should be a golden age of direct response testing. However, time after time I come across marketers who are averse to the very mention of the word.

A word to the wise

Tue, 11 May 2010 12:30:36 +0000

When my father was in his 60s, he was able, for the first time in his life, to afford a new car. Up to then, he had always bought used.

Offline interactive: the strange rebirth of direct mail

Tue, 11 May 2010 12:25:00 +0000

I’m writing this on the way back from a meeting with a prospective client. They are a pioneering online business. They have invested heavily in all today’s cutting edge marketing techniques, from segment-of-one eCRM to social media. Today’s meeting was about exploring an exciting new medium which the brand has never tested before. Its name? Direct mail.

Will swing or nudge win the general election?

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:16:12 +0000

Journalistically speaking, attack is always more interesting than defence. Just ask the Belgians or the French. They should know by now.

Why fly-by-wire is better than haywire

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:28:49 +0000

Marketing is a heroic profession. Or so we like to think. Compared with our colleagues in finance, say, or IT, or manufacturing, we have an image of ourselves as courageous change-makers.

In the republic of social media, content remains king

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:34:43 +0000

I have a bit of a bone to pick with social media.

The calculus of guilt: How being bad can help us be good

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:59:51 +0000

January is a month of sack cloth and ashes, a time of painful recommitment to the ideals of health and the body beautiful.

Lies, damn lies and advertising

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

‘In advertising there’s no such thing as a lie. Merely expedient exaggeration.’ So says Roger O. Thornhill, Cary Grant’s original Mad Man in North by Northwest. If one school of thought is to be believed, our industry’s capacity for playing fast and loose with the truth pales into insignificance beside that of another group: the innocent consumer.

Journeying along the mobile marketing continuum

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:29:16 +0000

Here's what may be a likely scenario for any advanced marketer lately: saw the newest mobile augmented reality application; salivated; read about more than 65,000 applications in Apple's app store; despaired; read about competitor's new mobile idea; panicked; got an urge to do something in this space himself, as soon as possible; started looking around.

Blue Ocean or Simply Better?

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0000

For well over a year now, we marketers have been busy just surviving. But soon, the first round of recovery strategy workshops will be upon us. Which academic marketing theory will frame the debate in those stuffy rooms along the M4 corridor? Which thinker’s model will soon fill every flipchart in the land?

Can the banks ever regain our trust?

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:28:54 +0000

If you think this is a problem caused entirely by the recent collapse of the world’s financial system, you’d be wrong. The problem goes back much further. Research in the mid 90s – during a period of strong economic growth – showed up to 85% of all bank customers said they did not trust their banks. Among the major banks, only First Direct scored well for trust, and they were spectacularly better than all others.

What the Cyber Lions winners can teach us this year

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:55:45 +0000

A strange thing happened the other day, when I sent the news of the recent Cannes Cyber Lions winners to my agency colleagues. It was an innocuous email, the kind of an email mosquito that swarms our offices every day. No big deal. Just a small act of sharing the news and, hopefully, some learning.

Marketing conversations in the web 2.0 world

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:55:32 +0000

In April 2008, Tesco had that sobering experience of social media gone wrong: in its blog, the marketing director of the chain’s US operations, Simon Uwins, unwittingly (or honestly, depending on the point of view) revealed that the roll out of their Fresh & Easy stores would slow down. It turned out to be a trigger call for nervous City traders and about £900 million was temporarily sliced off Tesco’s market value.

Best ideas shouldn't be given for free

Mon, 12 May 2008 16:46:53 +0000

I don't often receive delightful mail at work, but I did recently. It was from a client asking me to send her an invoice for our agency's participation in a pitch. It was the second such letter I'd received in three months.

Choice is often a double-edged sword

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Go into a coffee shop and ask the baseball capped teenager behind the counter for a coffee. Not so easy.

Who says that consumers know best?

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

You can't come across a marketing magazine or agency pitch these days without talk of "co-creation". Though the term has its roots in Alvin Tofler's idea in 1979 of the Prosumer (a contraction of Producer and Consumer), it has become achingly hip in recent months. And as direct marketers it's right up our street - redolent as it is of the concepts of customer-centricity, interactivity and dialogue that lie at the heart of DM.

Testing, testing

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 12:56:19 +0000

They say we live in testing times but I'm not so sure.