I fear for the third sector. Charities are among the organisations hardest hit by government cuts, and now the industry’s own watchdog has delivered some cautionary figures on how they target their marketing communications. According to the annual report of the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB), complaints have increased significantly in the past year. One-sixth of […]
One of my all-time favourite movies is the iconic Wall Street, so I enjoyed a bank holiday treat taking in the sequel. How times have changed. Mobiles are a whole lot smaller and I get to watch the movie on Blu-ray courtesy of Lovefilm rather than on dodgy VHS courtesy of Blockbuster. Wall Street: Money […]
Prime Minister David Cameron has announced he wants to measure the nation’s happiness levels, but what exactly is he going to do with this information? David Cameron’s announcement two weeks ago that the Office for National Statistics will launch a “happiness” index from next April has attracted a mix of positive feedback as well as […]
I am flat out at the moment and the last thing I need is a diary full of agency Christmas parties. Call me Scrooge, but gone are the days when I could pack in back-to-back festive fun while creating the illusion of staying on top of the day job. I must be getting old or […]
How brand bundling can help beat budget cuts and give you the competitive edge – click here to read the cover feature Five brand bundling campaigns – click here to see five brands doing it well What can go wrong – three top marketers tell you what to watch out for Marketing Week (MW): Why […]
I am looking forward to a full week in the office after the bank holiday recess. I am hopelessly behind on all things admin, not helped by spending most of last week out of the office as I presented at a series of regional sales meetings. My week on the road is an annual pilgrimage […]
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 […]
What a difference a week makes. Last week the talk was about the hole the government’s £81bn public sector cuts might leave in the economy. This week, however, it is all about positivity. The reason for such optimism? Robust results from WPP, the world’s biggest marketing services company and bellwether for marketers globally. The company […]
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 […]
WPP Group is set to move its tax base back to the UK following changes to the UK tax regime announced in yesterday’s (23 March) budget.
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 […]
Industry bodies are to adopt the DataSeal data security standard developed to raise consumer confidence in marketers’ use of customer data.
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 […]