I love the new ad from Hostelworld. It features Mariah Carey in full diva mode being shocked at being booked into a hostel but gradually warming to the better-than-expected facilities and [...]

“Too often, investors, entrepreneurs and established companies ignore old brands capable of being reborn,” rightly points out Luke Johnson in one of his excellent Sunday Times columns (1). As he [...]

Brands invested over $3billion on YouTube ads in the US alone in 2017, double the 2014 spend (1), with a lot of this spent on ‘pre-roll’ ads that appear before you watch a YouTube video. But do [...]

I read about the updating of Santander’s visual identity today with mixed emotions (1). On the one hand, the company has remembered and refreshed what made the brand famous, avoiding the mistake [...]

The story of Mr Kipling has some great learning about the dangers of ditching distinctive assets. Back in 2014 in a post on the cake brand I warned about “the risk of forgetting what made you [...]

I read over breakfast today how giant retailer Toys R Us will will close or sell all 885 US stores in the coming months, putting 33,000 jobs at risk (1). All the UK stores will close in the next [...]

“Emotion is everything” for effective communication according to many experts. The IPA prominently promote “the power of emotion in ad campaigns”, for example (1). However, this view [...]

Can a 418 year old play about a story that happened over 2,000 years ago provide any inspiration for your brand? The answer is a resounding “Yes”, based on my recent night out with the Taylor [...]

“Digital marketing has unleashed an obsession with efficiency, trading long-term brand-building for short-term ROI. We’ve put the golden goose in a battery farm of scientific [...]

The re-launch of Triumph motorcycles is a great example of brand rejuvenation. A surge in bike sales boosted 2016/17 revenues +22% to £499 million, with pre-tax profits growing by almost 50% [...]