In part 2 of this series, I listed a number of common reasons why bad ads happen, the biggest one being when the creative team lacks a solid set of principles to judge the quality of their work. This post will outline a set of such principles termed “Advertising’s 10 Commandments”, passed on to me earlier in my career by a former San Francisco advertising veteran, Allan Hayes of The Hayes Company…

In this second installment of a 10-part series on advertising, I discuss some of the reasons why bad ads happen. From lack of experience, to bad execution, coming up with a great ad ain’t an easy task.

First in the part of a 10-part series, this post explores creative opportunities for digital advertising and how these opportunities compare to more traditional means of advertising.

That’s right, it’s all about location nowadays but hasn’t it always been? The rapid rise of proximity-based marketing or location-based marketing (take your pick) is validating the old axiom of location, location, location.

Twitter is now conducting trials with advertisers for placement of new ads in their “Trending Topics” section, rumored to sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Trending Topics, located on the Home page of Twitter, is an area that highlights real-time topics that are most chatted about within the social network. This new advertising [...]

”Stop! Collaborate and LISTEN!” Let’s apply Vanilla Ice’s song lyric to social media. Your customers are talking, are you listening? Whether it be around your product specifically, your competitor, or the industry as a whole, people are engaging in conversations online through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, forums, product reviews, etc. as an outlet to recommend, [...]

More often that not, when you hear the word “viral,”you may think of contagious viruses either attacking your computer or your immune system. However, when it comes to marketing, going “viral” is often the goal brands intend to achieve when they push marketing messages out through video, websites, social media, email, word-of-mouth, etc.
Unfortunately, many companies [...]

The battle lines have been drawn. The super powers have been amassing their arsenal of resources. Now, the front lines are engaging. The battle for ultimate control of a brand has begun between the 20th century traditional agency and the 21st century interactive agency.

The $100 million advertising campaign for Microsoft’s new search engine Bing tells me that it is something special. According to Microsoft, “Bing will help you make smarter, faster decisions. We included features that deliver the best results, presented in a more organized way to simplify key tasks and help you make important decisions faster.”
I bing-ed [...]

In the past, shopping for a Mother’s Day gift involved calling a florist or going into a store and buying flowers, as well as a card. Now we have the Internet – which boasts free e-cards and websites solely dedicated to flowers, gifts, apparel, poems…and the list goes on. Since the economy is still looking [...]