The value of entering marketing awards

Marketing awards. Image is a collage of photos from an awards ceremony.

Having judged the Professional Services Management Excellence Awards and the Marketing Society Scotland Star Awards for years, and worked with many award-winning businesses, I’ve seen how just entering reputable awards programmes – let alone being short-listed or winning – can be a positive, beneficial experience for businesses. Professional Services Management Excellence Awards Established in 2002, the Professional Services Management Excellence … Read More

Legal use of images – how compliant are you?

Legal use of images – how compliant are you? Image is of Shard building in London.

When visiting a friend in London who is a pictures editor recently she mentioned that she has been spending more and more time working with clients on copyright and legal issues relating to photographs, and in particular training staff who work on online projects on the legal use of images. I first worked with Alyson Whalley many moons ago when … Read More

Marketing philosophy vs bumper sticker

Bumper sticker vs marketing philosophy. Image is of car bumper stickers.

“There’s a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker”, as the late US cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, of Peanuts (Snoopy, Charlie Brown and co) fame, once commented. No matter which shiny bumper sticker featuring a slick slogan is stuck onto a business to attempt to position it in the marketplace and differentiate it from its competitors, it is the underlying … Read More

Mind the brand gap

Mind the brand gap. Image is of London Underground platform edge with the words Mind the Gap.

These days the term brand is possibly even more misunderstood and misused than the word marketing. For many, it simply means logo. If you’re lucky, they might even think it’s about colour palette and fonts. As Rita Clifton, the doyenne of branding, has said: “to equate brand with such superficial cosmetics is the equivalent of saying that people are really … Read More

Is print dead in the digital age?

Is print dead in the digital age? Image is of a post box.

Is print dead in the digital age, or are printed materials still relevant in today’s marketing. Print is able to meet some of our senses that online can’t Too often these days people go for digital automatically because it’s ‘cool’ (and cheaper, and easier to measure) rather than because it’s the best channel to achieve their objectives.  But marketers should … Read More