ThoughtSpurs

The meaning of the term 'media' has changed dramatically. Where it once meant the physical vehicle, the medium, by which information was conveyed - it now represents mediation between people and the world. How we view and understand the world is mediated by the media. It might seem like a convoluted semantic argument but, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me and suggests some strategies for the future. One of the fundamental planks of media has always been that of access. I can't know what is happening in the halls of power, because I am but a plebeian schlub. But Woodward and Bernstein do have access and they become my avatars under the great domes of democracy. Now that media has become social and we plebs now have direct access to audiences, unmediated, disintermediated, wholus bolus and it means a tectonic shift in power has taken place. We the peeps… Or has it? Here's the thing. I may be a blogger…here, on Posterous, on Twitter, Idea...

One of the most difficult tasks in marketing communications is developing promotional messages for your own company. Perhaps the most obvious reason is that we lack objectivity - the very objectivity that makes us valuable to our clients. One of the temptations is to describe our business as something more complex or grandiose than it actually is. In conversations with the principals terms like 'paradigm shifting' seem to erupt with a curious regularity. Other buzzwords include 'engagement' slide in with the greasy ease of jargon du jour . I'm inclined to think in terms of outcomes. Rather than waffle on about ourselves, doesn't it make sense to think in terms of what our customers want? Things that have real value - even if they are real simple? The process of identifying the correct messages - how we meet underserved needs -has the secondary effect of forcing us to think about the kinds of product innovations are worth developing for our clients and pros...

A group of my colleagues attended the Clemenger Group's digital training academy last week. They returned to the agency abuzz with a 'noobs' appreciation of 'digital'. They've had their epiphany, their road to Damascus moment. Finally. No-one preaches like the converted. Most of the work our firm has done over the years has been concentrated on developing properties that make highly efficient use of television. Most of the products we promote (last year 150 campaigns for some of the 90 of the world's biggest brands) respond well to promotion in our media properties (such as Family Health Diary, Eating Well and Discover . If you live in New Zealand and have never seen at least one of these I'll wager you don't watch very much television). A 20% lift in sales is a modest result for our clients in most cases. The market is beginning to shift though, and online video in particular is becoming an important tool that will be used by marketers to reach mo...

Air New Zealand has just launched new seating concepts, to be introduced on long-haul flights in November of this year. The significance of the press event seemed to me to be less about the actual design of the seats—handsome and innovative as they are (and I think they will certainly impress the travelling public)—and more of a reinforcement of the significance of Air New Zealand itself to the New Zealand economy and our national identity. Seats symbolise the airline business more so than wings or smiling cabin crew. Seats are the carrier’s inventory. An empty chair on an aircraft can’t be stored, repriced and sold at a later date. The complex inter-relationships of, not only seats sold, but also at what price margin is as significant as the variable cost of fuel and the cost of the funds (paid in US dollars). There are other factors, but these will determine how much profit or loss the business makes. There are also functional requirements for convenient timetables, attractive ...

I participate in a new blog about social media . One of my fellow contributors (and the founder of the project) Justin Flitter left a video post which demanded a reply. I have concerns that the novelty of 'social media' is overwhelming common sense and experience? I hope the last thing you take out of my reply to Justin's post is any sort of Luddite view. It's just that I feel the discovery of access to media isn't such a novelty really for people who have had something to say and which they can articulate with at least a modicum of skill - mass media has to be fueled with content. In a way it is like a teenager discovering The Beatles today. New - but old. I have to confess that I didn't really understand the central thesis of Justin's video. But some of his points stimulated the following thoughts of my own: I have worked in social media all of my working life, since 1983 anyway. That may sound paradoxical but assuming broadcast or mass media isn't so...

How do you build a chocolate brand? from edenspiekermann_ on Vimeo . Building brands takes time. Nice designs and packaging don't automatically constitute a brand. It really does depend on people forming a relationship with the product that, ultimately, they feel somewhat proprietary about. Great design ideas and implementation are far more likely to provoke that sort of response. In the chocolate market TCHO is really distinctive. The associations with chocolate seem to hark backwards. This brand is decidedly contemporary. The care and attention lavished on the presentation supports the idea of a premium experience with none the usual cliches. If the opposite of love isn't hate, it is indifference. I imagine that people will have fallen in love with TCHO and the equity in their brand is building. I can't believe that indifference is a possibility. TCHO website Video via Idealog magazine

Love this video on a subject near and dear to my heart.Meant to post it earlier, but I just never got around to it. I wonder what strategies you employ to break out of inertia like writer's block? I have always found that, sometimes, just starting to write and not worrying about the content is the solution. First map out the terrain, then make sense of the words. Likewise staring at a blank page without a single idea can be overcome by making a mark on the page. A border sometimes helps me in the way that marking lines on the floor of a corridor can help a person with Parkinson's avoid freezing - rather than making it to the end of the hall they can then simply make it to the next mark. Here's an interesting blog post about overcoming creative block by photographer Paul Indigo.