Comments on: Do ad agencies have a future? The What, How and Why.

By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:46:06 +0000

Thanks Zack. Great stuff. I'll pass it on. Best, Simon

By: Zack

Zack — Sat, 15 May 2010 06:40:06 +0000

Nice post. Here is a presentation on Modern Agencies and how they might start behaving. http://isaque.posterous.com/

By: #140conf LA meet-up: Social media inspiring social change

#140conf LA meet-up: Social media inspiring social change — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:50:51 +0000

[...] i) Definition [...]

By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:45:37 +0000

Thanks, Bryce. I agree its difficult to generalize about brands. There's large and small for profit companies, all types of non-profits and individuals brands built around personalities. I'll write a post soon about what i actually mean by brands and thanks for pointing that out. As for who runs them, in my experience they are typically smart, creative and really engaged about surviving and getting ahead. Understandably they also suffer from fear of change, inertia because they're so invested in the past and market forces – like all of us. What distinguishes the best ones is their ability to take educated risks and an acceptance of the odd failure or three. That's why brand regeneration must start with the people behind them. Thanks, Simon

By: Bryce

Bryce — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:43:00 +0000

As an art director in the ad industry for several years, your article is interesting but with one fundamental flaw, as I see it: you're treating 'brands' as some sort of omniscient entities. They're created and run by people – and quite often in my experience, lazy, ignorant, petty, narrow-minded, old-fashioned, and incompetent people. There are many exceptions of course but I'd say brands run by cutting-edge-thinking passionate people are still in a minority.

By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:46:29 +0000

No problem. Glad you enjoyed it and hopefully it nudges a few agencies further forward in the right direction. Nice to be in contact, Simon

By: Alterpreneur

Alterpreneur — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:38:21 +0000

Simon, this is a really insightful article.Thank you for sharing your knowledge about brands, and particularly about brand management online.

By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:19:23 +0000

Totally agree, Kathy. Sadly they must change from within if they want to be effective in the social space. Your internal brand always affects how consumers perceive you due to systems, service and values exchanges. In fact, the first place brands should look is internally. You're right. it will be difficult. But not as difficult as catching up to competitors who did it and are stealing your market share. Many thanks, Simon

By: kathy

kathy — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:23:58 +0000

One problem I see, Simon, is that sometimes the feedback to the big corporations is that they need to substantially change their product/service. And though many corporations embrace social media, it seems to me that less of them embrace the idea of changing themselves from within.

By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:49:14 +0000

Thanks so much Umberto. Great reference and I'll share it with others. Thanks.