Brand Republic Blogs

Shouting loud in a hoarse category External website

by Jonathan Weeks, 24/05/2012

Throat lozenges have been traditional for far too long, and Japanese brand E-ma has the answer, writes Jon Weeks, Director, Ipsos Marketing

Some things in life are only there when you really need them, otherwise you walk on by. So creating excitement in a category that can have limited touchpoints with each consumer can be difficult. But it becomes all the more important to get the consumers attention when they do come looking for a solution.

by Polly Becker, 24/05/2012

The 2012 UEFA Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich at the weekend racked up more than 7.5m social interactions including 2.5 million Facebook likes.

The social media success, which comes in addition to the projected audience of over 150 million with a global live reach of over 300 million watching, is the first time UEFA or any football body for that matter has launched such an all encompassing digital campaign.

by Andrew Dean, 24/05/2012

As I peer over my partner’s shoulder to see why I still can’t use the iPad, I see that she’s utterly engrossed by a game: Coin Dozer.

It’s a tablet version of the old seaside arcade game where you drop coins through a slot onto a series of moving shelves in the vain hope that they will shove their fruitless brothers and sisters onto the next shelf and, eventually, into your desperate hands.

by Polly Becker, 24/05/2012

As YouTube celebrates it’s seventh birthday there are lots of facts and figures flowing out of Google Towers about its mammoth video sharing service.

Not least the fact that four billion videos are watched everyday and a staggering seventy-two hours of video are uploaded to the the site every minute.

by @gordonmacmillan, 24/05/2012

The recent showdown between Argentina and the UK over WPP’s Olympic ad that saw Fernando Zylberberg, a member of the Argentine Olympic hockey team , training in the Falklands Islands, has received a spoof response.

by @gordonmacmillan, 24/05/2012

Interesting project here from Adam Chadwick, a filmmaker and former staffer at The New York Times (laid-off in 2009), who is making a feature-length documentary on the US newspaper industry crisis and the changing dynamics of investigative reporting.

by Ben Fox, 24/05/2012

Neuro-marketing is a concept that’s been flying around in social media for a while now, but very few people understand what it is, how it works and what the benefits are to marketers and organisations.

by @gordonmacmillan, 24/05/2012

The FT reports that Facebook is launching a new system for measuring the impact of advertising on the social network as well as giving agencies the chance to buy premium ad slots in the news feed section for the first time.

by Greg Taylor, 24/05/2012

Motomethod is a new kind of motorcycle repair shop in Vancouver, Canada, where riders come to work on their own bikes while receiving expert staff supervision. You rent out service bays fully equipped with tools, and there’s a parts ordering service plus on-call mechanics to help you repair and customise your ride. The shop’s approach redefines the repair shop model, creating a more interactive, educational customer experience.

by Hugh Salmon, 24/05/2012

The word ‘whistleblower’ has re-entered my life. I hate this word with a passion.

In the school playground, whistleblowing is called ‘sneaking’. As a sneak, you are the person who has reported the misbehaviour of your schoolmates to the teachers. You cannot be trusted. You have behaved in a furtive, underhand way. You are left isolated, alone and friendless (every child’s worst nightmare). You are contemptible.

by Chris J Reed, 24/05/2012

Rarely has a book –to-TV series been as highly acclaimed and brought such excitement as George R.R. Martin’s “Songs of Ice and Fire” that HBO created into “The Game of Thrones”.

by Rachel Brushfield, 24/05/2012

Train driver? Ski instructor?

One of our clients has landed their dream job! Like many people, they fell into their career by accident. Most people never do anything about it.

Career change is not always radical. Finding a new boss or company that matches your values can make a BIG difference.

by Francesca Chang, 24/05/2012

You’re building a bank so big in size that it takes up an entire city block, which, during construction will have an ugly green metal hoarding wrapped around it. What do you do to make the entire monstrosity more palatable to the locals?

by Ivan Clark, 23/05/2012

I have been thinking about Facebook, mainly because of last week’s public share sale (IPO).

Much noise has been made by the media about whether the share price was fair, the fact it didn’t “pop”, its subsequent drop and then today, scapegoat hunting and threats of legals.

by Sue Unerman, 23/05/2012

Picture source : cafepress.com

This is not a blog about greeting Stevie Gladdis, our well known joint head of Challenge and Innovation. Instead a welcome to Stevie, the start up that turns your social network feeds into “beautiful television experience”. Or in other words flipboard for telly.

by Greg Taylor, 23/05/2012

The flattop steel beer can returns, thanks to the Churchkey Can Company in Seattle (cheers, Elliot). Before the pull-tab arrived, a bottle opener or ‘churchkey’ was needed to crack into a brew (old bottle openers resembled old-fashioned church keys). And if you pick up some at the store but forgot the opener, fear not, as a churchkey is included with each six-pack.

by Brand Learning, 23/05/2012

This post is provided by Martin Borrett, Group Client Director at Brand Learning, global experts in transforming Marketing Capabilities.

Making connections plays a critical role in creating value. Not only in the broadest sense – identifying and connecting a customer need with a solution that a business can offer – but across many other aspects of what marketers need to excel at to drive growth.

by @gordonmacmillan, 23/05/2012

Award-winning writer and journalist Heather Brooke, who recently published the book ‘The Revolution will be Digitised’, was a fan of the Guardian’s ‘open journalism’ philosophy, but she has had a change of heart and recently labelled it “a failed business model”.

by Gemma Charles, 23/05/2012

Monday’s Agile Government Communications Conference, held to let agencies know how they can contribute to Whitehall campaigns post-COI, was at times revealing but wholly predictable for large sections as well.

It all kicked off in a strange fashion. A lady from the QEII centre, which is where the event was hosted, gave a big sell to the audience on why her employer was the best conference venue that money can buy. One can only assume that she was allowed to do this as some kind of in-kind deal with the government. At the end of the ‘speech’, people weren’t even sure whether to clap. Alongside the fact that coffees were £2.50 (and tasted horrible), this certainly was ‘austerity’ in action.

by Neil Mortensen, 23/05/2012

Would you trust research that ignored the views of a third of a country? If we had a general election and prevented 34% of the country from voting would that be fair and representative?