citizenbay

Brave Media Brands

Liz Jones, VP European Sales Director of CNBC Europe provided the delegates at the IMM07 with some helpful thoughts on the role of the media owner. She rightly highlighted that the switch to considering Media Brands, not media owners, is overdue. In such a relationship-based business, she stressed that media brands can provide an immense part in assisting the media agencies in their client service role.

For me though the most refreshing part of her presentation was the complete lack of self-promotion. This was not a PR puff for CNBC Europe in any way. It made the presentation the stronger for it. She highlighted examples of agency/client/media brand partnership from other TV channels, as well as some print examples too. If only more media brands took such a magnanimous approach to conferences...

Such an open and honest approach is a sign of a Brave Brand that has such confidence in themselves that they are willing to promote others. More please...

70's plundered for brand revival

I read the article on the revival of Smash, the 70s freeze-dried potato product. This, plus the return of other rubbish (Angel Delight for goodness sakes), all clearly is aimed at those misty-eyed 40 somethings who hark back to their childhood.

Some of the coverage points to the old advertising being crucial to the memory. You have to hope it is the advertising, as the product itself deserves to sit on a plate with nothing more than turkey twizzlers. Looking forward to what Premier Foods and their agencies come up with...they really are taking on a huge challenge here. Odds on the little martians make a comeback.

And if it flies off the shelf, then Jamie Oliver really has a mountain to climb. Off now to the Farmer's Market.

Pssst... Anyone know where I can find Cough Sweets and Cola Cubes?

M&M Europe Awards night

Great night had by most at the 2006 Media and Marketing Europe Awards night. Good to see non-UK based international agencies collecting awards. Congratulations to OMD as media agency of the year and Fallon as Creative Agency of the Year. Some might feel that Fallon won the award on the basis of one ad - the Sony Bravia Bouncing Balls ad. Not sure of that myself.

One thing is for sure. Making a simple ad is becoming as cool as Cliff Richard and Johnny Halliday. The Sony Bravia ad has managed to prove that there is life in the old dog yet. First we have the memorable visual elements, then the strong sonic branding which has taken a life of it's own (and shifted lots of units for Jose Gonzalez), add to that the contribution of word of mouth to it's status as a great ad and of course the little matter of it's contribution to helping Sony sell lots of tellies.

This ad has done more than just shift tellies and CDs though. It has highlighted the overall contribution that great creative work still makes to the success of the clients business. In a world of growing focus on procurement, numbers and ROI, we should celebrate such stunning work that proves epic ads can help shift units. We should fight any move towards mediocrity, which inevitably comes with shifts towards marketing by spreadsheet.

So if Fallon won the award for only this one piece of work, well frankly good on them.

And good on M&M Europe for ensuring that these awards are given out for campaigns judged equally on communications insights, media brilliance, creative excellence and business results. Looking forward to seeing even more great work next year.

Off to the Media & Marketing Awards tonight

Helped on the judging again this year.
Will be interesting to see which campaign wins the top award this year.

Will it be one that is packed full of ROI success measures?

Will it be one with the Branded Content Idea?

Will be one that demonstrates brilliance in understanding how communities filter out or allow brands in to their world?

Or will it be one with a bit of telly, a smattering of print and a 'funky' outdoor poster?

We shall see...

I will also be looking out for how the media brands will be marketing themselves at the event. I presume EPSN will be bringing the red balloons...

From Advertising to Content Creation...er again

Anheuser-Busch U.S. is launching its own in-house film and TV production company, says Ad Age The content, based around comedy, will be sent out via the net and mobile channels. It's all about

looking for new ways to reach beer drinkers through innovative means of communications.

.

Advertising Agencies and production companies inevitably don't like to see such client moves as it undermines their ability to deliver great content for the brands. Clients will always have a go at doing things in-house though, whether it is making their own ads or buying their own media. They are either not getting the brilliant work they hear about, or just think they can do it better and cheaper.

However, most brands will not bring content creation in-house for some time yet, and will continue to look to expert advisors to help them. Partnerships between agencies and production companies will inevitably grow to offer a fused service. Until then, citizenbay has been helping production companies get their heads around dealing with clients, and helping clients get their heads around content creation...

From Advertising to Content Creation...er again

Anheuser-Busch U.S. is launching its own in-house film and TV production company, says Ad Age The content, based around comedy, will be sent out via the net and mobile channels. It's all about

looking for new ways to reach beer drinkers through innovative means of communications.

.

Advertising Agencies and production companies inevitably don't like to see such client moves as it undermines their ability to deliver great content for the brands. Clients will always have a go at doing thing in-house though, whether it is making their own ads or buying their own media. They are either not getting the brilliant work they hear about, or just think they can do it better and cheaper.

The reality however, is that most brands will not bring content creation in-house, but look to expert advisors to help them. Partnerships between agencies and production companies will inevitably grow to offer a fused service. Which is why the fact that media agencieshave been connecting with production companies for some time now means they are a step ahead of their 'creative' agency cousins...