Ratings seriously are off for NFL games this year and there are lots of theories why. The tumultuous US election is one reason being offered. That was a wilder reality show than the average NFL game. And people love the spontaneity of those reality shows. But could that be the only reason? One of the reasons… Read More »
Toronto should offer thanks, maybe a statue, to the one man who has made this city into the world class city it has become. When I was a kid, Toronto was a weak number two city in Canada. Montreal was the most important city with Vancouver a distant number three. Head offices were in Montreal. Everyone… Read More »
PART IV of V: 5 Advertising Mistakes Retailers Make Some ads from retailers, especially newspaper ads, make understanding the DaVinci code a simple thing. You need to call Tom Hanks to help you figure out what you need to know. They seem to think that if you throw an entire vegetable garden at the wall… Read More »
PART V of V: 5 Advertising Mistakes Retailers Make Ever go into a car dealership and ask the sales guy to tune your engine? You don’t really think that he/she would know how to do it, do you? Sales people sell cars they don’t provide highly technical engine adjustments. The dealership has trained mechanics for… Read More »
What are the secrets to assessing a creative presentation when your agency shows you the work? It is no secret. It is just a discipline to learn. I just got back from the presentation of a new ad. The client did very well. He knew how to evaluate the presented material and his questions and… Read More »
Everyone gets excited by a big retail contest: there are prizes to be won, discounts to be won, a game to be played. But while consumers consider this kind of promotion to be like a lottery with millions to win, marketers see the event as a massive coupon drop. When you consider that the majority… Read More »
Hello Berlitz! Hello Rosetta Stone! You think we want to speak Mandarin fluently in 30 days – HAH! What we really want to know is the difference between “hashi” and “gohan” in a Japanese restaurant. What is a glass of “palinka”? What the heck is “chupe de camarones”? Should I order the “murgh cholay” or… Read More »
Our brains really don’t understand math all that well. And I am not talking about the average person’s ability to solve quadratic equations. As mentioned in earlier blogs, our brains can be easily fooled. And advertising is there to make our clients look good, sometimes with shifty logic. As advertisers, for example, we can take… Read More »
Be careful with translations. Relying on Google or any other digital translation can bring you problems, Not just small mistakes; but mistakes where the meaning is jumbled up and confusing. Effectively using a language that you to communicate with customers requires understanding the cultural context that it comes in. The title of this blog is… Read More »
We have seen a lot of commercials that just don’t sell. One reason can be the context of the message. By context, I meant the executional elements that round out the message and provide a framework for it. The strategy might be “Tide cleans clothes better.” But there needs to be a commercial execution around… Read More »