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“Which Boris quote should we animate, because it might be out of date tomorrow?”

Everyone in our industry knows what it’s like; months, even years, spent slaving away on a deeply honed strategy, conceiving and selling your most cherished idea and then crafting an execution to within an inch of its life. Then wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am, a quick three week burst of fevered media activity and whoosh your precious campaign is gone, never to be seen again.

The first unwritten rule of blogging etiquette for a creative agency is to mention your own work only in passing, or not at all.  But on this occasion I’m going to indulge in a post that’s wholly focused on a new campaign that we have had the privilege of contributing to, not to brag about the work itself but to promote the importance of the cause.

It appears that a team of marketing geniuses have just cooked up the most hyperbolic fight in the history of combat sports.

There's been a lot of talk about how Cannes has changed and how tech companies have taken over the Croisette: as if they are trespassing on someone else's territory. But what I noticed this year wasn't just that digital power brands dominated the bars and cabanas, but that my friends are now working for them too.

Inspiration from last week’s PromaxBDA North America conference.

Published by The Drum Network

In the olden days you used to go to an actual travel agent, sit down on a plastic padded chair and chat to a total stranger in a branded polyester uniform for maybe an hour.

Inspiration from last week’s PromaxBDA Europe conference.

On Sunday Night the acclaimed Netflix series, The Crown, won three royally deserved Golden Globes (best TV drama series, best actress and best supporting actor). In her acceptance speech, Claire Foy said that the Queen has been ‘at the centre of the world for the past 63 years’. Quite a claim, and not one you could easily insert many other names into. Sir David Attenborough maybe, the King of the BBC’s natural history offering at 90, and soon to reassert his reign in America with Planet Earth II? Sir Alex Ferguson in football – based in Manchester – until a couple of years ago? No.

We’re still buzzing and slightly bemused after the launch of our global campaign for Fox TV’s new show Outcast at Comic Con London last weekend.

Overwhelmed by customer data? Not sure how to use it? Michael Reeves, Business Development Director of Red Bee, has a tried-and-tested method that involves two buckets and gets results.

Originally published as part of the Content Marketing Association Industry Report. Download the full report here.

The best, worst and most controversial video initiatives of the year.

For content marketing to become the mainstream medium it deserves to be, the industry needs to get its act together on measurement.

At the recent PromaxBDA Europe conference, an audience of around 700 TV marketers and creatives was challenged by the legendary designer and typographer Neville Brody.  In his keynote address, Brody said that we are all being too “calm and polite” in the face of technology-driven seismic shifts in our industry.  However, a few hours earlier in that same conference room I had presented some brilliant examples from across Europe and the US of the diverse ways in which TV marketers are harnessing technology and social platforms in building transmedia “storyworlds”.

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the RSC’s latest production of Richard 2nd. A couple of things struck me when watching the performance (beyond how far up did David Tennant’s hair extensions start). They were both to do with dramatic structure, and how modern television still couldn’t teach the master of storytelling anything new.

The turkeys might be thinner this Christmas, but the ads are definitely fatter.

Rightly or wrongly, participation is often the solution to many a brief. Because, we’re told,  "We all do it. The behaviour is growing. It’s mainstream. It’s easy. All demographics are at it. It’s the rule, not the exception".

Let’s face it; there is now a grey area in online environments between marketing and editorial. Some people call this stuff ‘transmedia’, some call it coverage, and some call it advertorial. It’s actually all of these things.

Recently on a long haul flight I decided to watch Jack Reacher, the Tom Cruise thriller based on novels by Lee Child.

In the next two blog posts, I'm going to try and explore two cultural trends that are informing big strategic shifts in the way TV is produced, distributed, navigated and found.

The world is becoming increasingly more televisual.

I refuse point blank to get excited about Christmas until I have heard the tune of 'Holidays are Coming' from the iconic Coke advert chugging out of my television set.

Following an over-inflated IPO pricing, revelations about fake accounts and a firmly downwards trend in its share price, Facebook is a dirty word at the moment.

Like everyone else, I've been blown away by Channel 4's campaign for the Paralympics.