December 19, 2013,  Events, Guru in a Bottle, High Impact Marketing that Gets Results, Marketing practice, News, Social marketing practice  2 comments

Wherever you happen to live and work in the world, one thing is clear.

The outlook for 2014 is uncertain. But that shouldn’t dampen any attempt to see what the future holds for most of us next year, which is now only a few weeks’ away.

It’s easy to spot the negatives for our working future: technology has led to a world of ever-growing fragmentation where billions of people connected across the world are continuously bombarded with requests; a future where the virtual nature of nascent technology will leave many deeply isolated and craving physical relationships; a future where globalisation has created a dividing line between winners and losers; a world where the undercl...

December 18, 2013,  News, Public Relations practice  No comments

There can be few ironies in life compared with the following story.

As a film maker in my spare time, I realise that the best laid plans can often go awry thanks to the tendency of real life events to play out in unpredictable and surprising ways.

This is exactly what happened to Oscar-winning film maker Alex Gibney when earlier this year it looked as if his world had fallen apart.

You see, Gibney was in the middle of making a documentary film, narrated by Hollywood ‘A-list’ Matt Damon, about the seven- times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and his triumphant battle against cancer to reach the pinnacle of his sport.

Except of course it was all a big lie as Armstrong...

December 14, 2013,  Essential Law for Marketers, Legal update, News  3 comments

Many marketers are ill-prepared for the impact of a raft of new regulations that will severely curtail their direct marketing (DM) activities in 2014.

Recently, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office signalled changes that marketers must implement NOW within business to consumer (B2C) marketing in order to stay within the law and these include:

• where consent is obtained from the customer to receive DM, separate opt-in consent must also be gathered in order to send DM messages on each and every other marketing channel;
• a higher burden of proof of customer consent is now required to be shown by marketers, irrespective of whether the marketing channel is telephone, mo...

December 13, 2013,  News, Social marketing practice, The Art of Influencing and Selling  No comments

According to a new report by regulator Ofcom, UK shoppers topped the list of those that spend comparatively more money shopping online compared with consumers in other countries.

The International Communications Market Report compared the availability, take-up and use of services in the UK and 16 other countries and analysed the responses of over 9,000 consumers across nine countries.

Researchers found that the UK had the highest per capita spend online in 2012, at £1,175, which was up 16% year on year. It was also 35% more than Australia, the second highest country of the eight considered on this metric, and 77% more than the US in third place.

UK consumers were spending ...

December 13, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

You may not realise it but marketing had its roots when we were starting to emerge from the caves! In fact, there have been seven distinct phases of marketing since those times.

Here’s a quick tour of where we’ve come from and also what’s around the corner in 2014.

Simple trade era

This was when everything available was made or harvested by hand and was in limited supply. Here, the main activity was ‘hunter/gatherer’ and basic commodities ruled the day. Nothing really changed from the time homo sapiens first came out of their caves until the early nineteenth century (‘pre-industrial revolution phase’)...

December 7, 2013,  News  No comments

A new report by global accountants Ernst & Young (E&Y) shows India as the most attractive investment destination ahead of China. Researchers point to a number of factors including the recent slew of reforms that resulted in the relaxation of foreign direct investment (FDI) rules that has contributed to a boost in global investor sentiment.

“With sharp currency depreciation and opening up of FDI in various sectors, India has become an attractive destination for foreign investors,” say the report’s authors.

As a result of macro-economic pressures and heavy debt pile, several Indian companies are looking to divest non-core businesses and this has created a large opportunity ...

December 6, 2013,  News  No comments

Hard on the heels of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement comes some welcome news!

Brand Britain is now worth USD 2.3 trillion (GBP 1.4 trillion) to become the world’s fourth most-valuable nation brand, having pushed Japan into fifth place according to new research by Brand Finance, a leading brand valuation consultancy that’s just published the 2013 edition of its Nation Brands report.

Using an analysis more usually applied to companies, the report provides a comprehensive look at the world’s leading nation brands and the impact that a country’s reputation and image has on governments, investors, students and consumers.

The top 10 most valuable nation brands in the world (2...

December 6, 2013,  News  No comments

The European Commission has launched a public consultation as part of its ongoing efforts to review and modernise EU copyright rules.

The consultation invites stakeholders to share their views on areas including:

• territoriality in the Single Market
• harmonisation
• limitations and exceptions to copyright in the digital age
• fragmentation of the EU copyright market
• how to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of enforcement while underpinning its legitimacy in the wider context of copyright reform.

Contributions are sought from consumers, users, authors, performers, publishers, producers, broadcasters, intermediaries, distributors and other service providers, collective mana...

December 5, 2013,  News  No comments

Twenty-four million account holders of the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank (RBS) who tried to complete everyday transactions like paying for groceries at the check-out got a nasty surprise in the UK earlier this week.

Their credit and debit cards were rejected as a result of a technology glitch.

The error is understood to have occurred after a software update froze part of the banks’ computer systems and although this had been fixed, it created a backlog of more than 100 million transactions that were not paid in or out of bank accounts as they should’ve been...

November 29, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle, News  No comments

A new taskforce has just published Beyond Retail 2013, a new report that suggests the UK’s town centres need reshaping and rebuilding on an unprecedented scale not seen since the end of the Second World War.

But is it realistic to believe traditional town centres can be saved or are they in terminal decline?

The Distressed Town Centre Property Taskforce, set up in the wake of the review by retail marketing consultant Mary Portas believes that town centres should be re-designated as a key Government planning and investment priority.

For the past 13 months, senior retailers, property investors, landlords and financiers have been reviewing the prospects of their high street prop...