Brand Finance has recently completed its annual study on the 50 Most Valuable Australian Brands. It is available for download here.

In launching the second study of Australia’s 50 most valuable brand portfolios, Tim Heberden, Managing Director of Brand Finance Australia says:

“Intangible assets represent more than half of the value of corporate Australia, and brands are a significant source of intangible value. Some companies have shrugged off the downturn and added value to their brand portfolios - Woolworths is a prime example and moves into top spot. Unfortunately there is plenty of red ink amongst the Top 50, signifying declines in value. Despite some stand-out performers, Australian brands contribute a lower percentage of enterprise value than top international benchmarks.”

The Winner and Losers?

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Millward Brown BrandZ brand valuation report is now a really neat iPhone application, which I first found out about in New York at a WPP presentation during the Adforum CEO Summit earlier this month.

If you have an iPhone (and there is more than 30 million of us in the world according to Apple) check it out here. It is free.

And have fun. Especially shaking it to get random word cloud results. Love it!

In the past six months many companies (marketers and agencies) have gone through the downsizing process in response to the GFC. This email has been floating around for a couple of years, but it is probably more relevant.

1. Never walk without a document in your hands
People with documents in their hands look like hardworking employees heading for important meetings. People with nothing in their hands look like they're heading for the canteen. People with a newspaper in their hand look like they're heading for the toilet. Above all, make sure you carry loads of stuff home with you at night, thus generating the false impression that you work longer hours than you do.

2. Use computers to look busy
Any time you use a computer, it looks like "work" to the casual observer. You can send and receive personal e-mail, chat and generally have a blast without doing anything remotely related to work. These aren't exactly the societal benefits that the proponents of the computer revolution would like to talk about but they're not bad either. When you get caught by your boss - and you *will* get caught -- your best defense is to claim you're teaching yourself to use new software, thus saving valuable training expenses.

3. Messy desk
Top management can get away with a clean desk. For the rest of us, it looks like we're not working hard enough. Build huge piles of documents around your workspace. To the observer, last year's work looks the same as today's work; it's volume that counts. Pile them high and wide. If you know somebody is coming to your desk, bury the document you'll need halfway down in an existing stack and rummage for it when he/she arrives.

Continue reading "Top 10 ways to avoid redundancy in marketing & advertising" »

I know this video has been around on the internet for a while, but I am always amazed that it was created by Microsoft. I have never really thought of Microsoft as a customer centric organisation considering how hard I have always found their operating systems and program interfaces to use.

Anyway, this is the consumer breaking up with the marketer, or probably more correctly it should be the brand, because consumers have relationships with brands. They only have relationships with marketers if they are dating, married or living with them.

Watching it again, I think it is really interesting at how many traditional agencies and their clients are still embracing the broadcasting approach to communications reflected in this video, rather than join the conversation that consumers are already having amongst themselves.

Is it because it is easier to simply keep talking at people rather than stop to listen and respond to what they are saying in a meaningful way? Clearly if marketers continue to talk at their consumers rather than with them, then perhaps the Microsoft view of the relationship between marketers and consumers will come true. Or is it true for some brands already?

One of the best films made on advertising is "Truth in Advertising" and available on DVD from Amazon.

In this satirical take on the advertising process, the agency and client personnel say what they are thinking. If you have not seen it, it is well worth taking the time.

But when we have played this video to an audience of advertising agency people and marketers, the agency people cringe and their clients laugh. Why?

Continue reading "Why do agencies cringe and marketers laugh when they are confronted with truth in advertising?" »

On July 1 this year we announced the change in name of the company I started eight and a half years ago from P3 to TrinityP3. The reaction and comments have been incredibly positive, but the number one question is "why?" Why did we feel compelled to change the brand name that we had spent eight years in time, effort and money developing?

The pragmatic answer is, "To avoid the confusion with our competitors in Asia who have a very similar name to ours".

The more significant answer is "Why not?"

P3 has developed significantly since its inception and grown in size, from a one person operation to now more than sixteen industry consultants in Australia and New Zealand and now five people in Asia.

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This morning I was talking to a group from the AMPA (Australian Promotional Marketing Association) about supplier selection, remuneration and collaboration. Being a smallish audience of 20 - 25 people it was a lively and interactive discussion.

These people represent the category of the marketing communications category that is often termed "below the line" and are often seen by "above the line" agencies as an after-thought.

Because of this they are mostly briefed secondary to the creative and media agency and often left to interpret the brand strategy through their discipline.

At one point in the discussion I asked the audience "What are the most important factors for creating a truly collaborative environment where the best of each participant is realised?"

Continue reading "Creating collaborative marketing environments" »

Mark Dapin, a regular contributor to the Good Weekend magazine in the SMH and The Age is launching a new book on October 1 through Harper Collins called "Fridge magnets are bastards".

To promote the book he has an article in todays Good Weekend where he describes "bastards I have known". It is full of the usual "weasle words" like "learning curve", "same page" and "magic bullet", but the one that caught my eye was "marketing guru".

Continue reading "Beware the marketing guru? Or is that the invisible elephant?" »