From the category archives:

Consumers

Brands, if you really want to make money look to your motives

by Simon on July 28, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Brands, Consumers, Social media, Values

Everywhere you look these days there’s another instance of a brand being caught out for disingenuous, duplicitous or unconscionable behavior. It’s almost as if they can’t believe either a) this Internet thing is here to stay, or b) that it requires transparency. So in an effort to shunt to process forward, let’s look at two [...]

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Attention please: How you help brands change our world

by Simon on July 14, 2010 · View Comments

in Brands, Causes, Consumers, Social media

Emily Chang kindly pointed out this new Foursquare ad. As the copy explains, when you check-in on Foursquare at the “Earthjustice ad”, one of their donors will donate $10 to stop unsafe oil drilling.
This is a very interesting and powerful new way to leverage location based services for change, but more than that, it highlights [...]

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Social Media as an Instrument of Change: Cannes seminar slides

by Simon on July 12, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Consumers, Facebook, Future, Social media, Technology

Cannes Keynote Speech
View more presentations from Simon Mainwaring.

I’ve had some requests for the slides from my seminar at the Cannes International Advertising Festival so here they are. Plus below is a short synopsis and a link to footage from the speech itself. If you haven’t used slideshare before, you can view and download the presentation. [...]

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Why customers, and not social media, are your key to brand success

by Simon on July 6, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Community, Consumers, Social media

Large and small brands are now embracing social media as a means to reach their customers but many still make easily avoidable mistakes. For instance, many persist in seeing these tools as an end in themselves rather than an extension of traditional media that has always been social in nature (whether it’s television, print or radio). [...]

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Social media explained by a 9-year-old in one sentence

by Simon on July 4, 2010 · View Comments

in Consumers, Social media

Not long ago I took my daughters to the Portland Children’s Museum – wonderful place – and I couldn’t help but notice this quote written on the wall above the clay making room. To me it so effectively distilled the essence of social media that so I wanted to share it.
The quote reads:

When I make [...]

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Top ten reasons social media should not (and will not) kill traditional advertising

by Simon on June 30, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Brands, Consumers, Creativity, Future, Social media

I spent the week at the Cannes International Advertising Festival and came away greatly encouraged. Not only did the Festival team (led by Terry Savage and Philip Thomas) do an amazing job but I was impressed by how well the event captured the latest expression of the marketing world. With all the excitement (and, yes, [...]

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Cannes International Advertising Festival Round-up: Social media’s impact on advertising

by Simon on June 23, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Brands, Causes, Community, Consumers, Non Profit, Social media

There’s no simple way to characterize the Cannes Advertising Festival so far this year, but there are a few phrases that keep coming up that are a guide. One is brand purpose (which I spoke about in my social media seminar with Alec Ross), another is ‘doing good’ and a third is ‘community’. These three concepts [...]

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Cannes Advertising Festival Seminar: Social media as an instrument of change

by Simon on June 20, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Brands, Capitalism, Consumers, Globalization, MEDIA, Social media, Values

For those at the seminar who want further information, or for those who couldn’t make it, here are a synopsis, a list of key points and links to the case studies that I mentioned in my seminar at Cannes today.
SYNOPSIS: The advertising world is reeling from change – and it’s not just because they have [...]

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