I recently had a conversation with an old BBC contact which led me down a rabbit hole that resulted in watching this video on what it means to be a Planner at an ad agency. Buried in the conversation is an epic piece of wisdom that success in strategy is about the commitment to the plan. To use Russell’s example, you can decide whether the route to success is about marketing something as more rural or more urban. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is how well you commit to executing that vision. To put it another way, don’t half-ass it.
“If you choose a direction, commit to it and stick with it. It will probably work.”
Russell Davies
Fake news!
Two stories on fake advertising caught my eye this week. First-up news that ads booked to run on the Forbes site were found to have been run on a duplicate domain and reported as though they were running on the main site. Dodgy doesn’t cover it. More on this here. Then it’s over to all those big brand campaigns flying around LinkedIn but never in the wild, side-eye to that Burger King ad doing the rounds. There’s a question over whether they’re ever actually placed or only ever intended to reach a small audience to qualify for an awards entry. Usually risky, interesting and inspiring, but do they work at a consumer level? Whatever the intention, looking to these campaigns should come with a massive warning label. These guys have spent decades building up their brand before being able to mess with it. Have you?
Free sporty images
Get a wide selection of free-to-use sport and physical activity images from Sport England, including those from the This Girl Can campaign. To access them, you’ll need to set up an account. Get started here.
