Simon Mainwaring

We First provides consulting and training to help companies tell the story of their good work in ways that build their business

Advertising

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This week Skechers copied the concept behind for TOMS shoes by launching BOBS (link no longer available). Just like TOMS, when you buy a pair of BOBS, Skechers would donate another pair to a child in need. Even the shoes were the same. And their name had a similar short, familiar feel. In doing so they set […]

This week Skechers copied the concept behind for TOMS shoes by launching BOBS (link no longer available). Just like TOMS, when you buy a pair of BOBS, Skechers would donate another pair to a child in need. Even the shoes were the same. And their name had a similar short, familiar feel. In doing so they set …

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There must be something about advertising to guys that makes top brands do strange things. Less than a year ago Pepsi was royally and rightly reprimanded for its AMP Cola iPhone app that told men to “AMP up before they score”, Coca-Cola is making an equally tasteless appeal on behalf of Coke Zero. Their site invites …

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There’s been much discussion about what Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook employees thought of ‘The Social Network’. The picture it paints of their CEO isn’t pretty, and while its writer Aaron Sorkin admits its “total fiction”, the filmamkers know only too well how powerful storytelling penetrates the mind of pop culture. That’s why Mark Zuckberg should …

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By now most of us are aware of various crowdsourcing campaigns being used to generate ideas, funds or support for a brand or cause. Pepsi’s Refresh Project, Mystarbucksidea.com and Dell’s Social Innovation Competition are three well-known examples. We are now witnessing a second generation of crowdsourcing efforts in which social entrepreneurs are reinventing their industries …

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Pepsi makes brown sugar water that can contribute to obesity. Dove’s ‘Real beauty’ campaign was created by Unilever that also does the Axe campaign. Walmart has raised the bar on sustainability standards. In fact, almost every brand doing meaningful work can be accused of providing some product or service that can be harmful, and many so-called …

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Today I’m speaking at Images and Voices of Hope, a gathering at Peace Village in the Catskills. The mountains are breathtaking but so is the ambition of the conference. It’s true we live in challenging times. There are so many concurrent global crises, governments around the world riddled with debt and philanthropies are so stretched. …

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