David Coveney

The Easter bank holiday has put a much-needed spring in my step and I am very much looking forward to more of the same this weekend courtesy of Wills and Kate. Before the bank holiday, I managed to catch up on a backlog of industry reading. It appears that marketing has been rebranded as social […]

Rising VAT, fuel and all round deficit cuts misery have finally hit Joe Public in the pocket. This may seem a strange statement after what is now three or more years of so-called recession, but I genuinely believe that for some consumers the real recession is only just starting. Sorry to be the prophet of […]

As quantitative consumer research goes, the 2011 census is the biggest brief in town. This once-a-decade extravaganza collects statistics that are then used by central and local government to help with their planning. The first meaningful information gleaned from the exercise will not be made public until summer 2012 when statistic spinning will become an […]

I’m running hopelessly behind on my to-do list this week. My workload has been compounded by a conference-speaking commitment that I agreed to many months ago when my diary for March looked conspicuously empty. Sadly that conference now looks capable of tipping me completely out of control before the weekend. I am being chased by […]

This week for me is agency week. Agency meeting, agency lunch, agency awards, agency pitch, agency retainer discussion. All-out agency. I am a self-confessed fan of agencies. I love working with them and I believe in outsourcing work rather than attempting to bring it in-house (despite the best advice of the procurement police who appear […]

I spent much of last week catching up on admin after a week out of the office. Contrary to popular belief, marketing directors do not spend their entire life at advertising shoots or at lunch with the agency, but are often drowning in day-to-day marketing minutiae. Among the drudgery are monthly marketing spend reconciliations, purchase […]