W+K and Tag Tesco deal will open the door for smaller agencies to work with...
The new model Tesco has chosen for its £110m advertising account has provoked a great deal of interest; not least due to it being made public which really is new news. The combo of Wieden & Kennedy...
View ArticleThe march of the production specialists through ‘de-coupling’ threatens key...
The news about Tesco’s appointment of production company TagWorldwide alongside agency Wieden+Kennedy seems to have opened a window on a quiet revolution taking place behind the scenes in adland. The...
View ArticleBT and AMV warm up broadband ads with ‘hotspots’
Over the years I’ve learned how to opt out of AMV/BBDO’s never-ending soap operas for BT broadband; however cleverly they’re done the notion of otherwise fairly human people devoting family/social time...
View ArticleWhy TBWA London needs some AMV-style stability from new boss Peter Souter
The news that Peter Souter (left) has been appointed to the top slot at TBWA London opens up a lesson in agency management worthy of a case study on what not to do. Not about Peter, by the way, nice...
View ArticleWhy muddled agency mergers like TBWA UK’s can create orphan agency networks
My previous piece on the TBWA news of the appointment of Peter Souter as the new Chairman and ECD of the London office has provoked a reaction, in particular one from Neil Christie, the managing...
View ArticleWhat do fashionable Milan and ‘live well for less’ Sainsburys have in common?
Travel broadens the mind, as they say, and I certainly benefited from this mind-developing effect after a trip that included a few days in Milan. The broadening of the mind was nothing to do with the...
View ArticleWhy the time to worry in business is when your research says you’re doing...
With all of the worrying news on the UK retail scene (Comet, Jessops, now HMV) it makes me wonder to what extent management of these companies genuinely listen to what the great unwashed actually...
View ArticleHurrell and Dawson becomes Enter – a step on the rocky road of starting your...
Why do some start-up agencies make it while others fall on their noses? Is it genius, grabbiing the zeitgeist or just luck? My friend Paul Simons would say it’s about good planning and the right...
View ArticleThe times are against agency start-ups but here’s how you win: first find a...
Talking to people in the advertising world, there seems to be a feeling that start-ups face a far greater uphill struggle now than in the past. There is a conspiracy of factors that make the jump to...
View ArticlePaul Simons picks his Desert Island Ads
The influences that began to shape my thinking started in university days with TV programmes such as Monty Python. New ideas were slowly creeping out and the migration to advertising didn’t take long....
View ArticleEven after 25 years the people legacy of our upstart agency Simons Palmer...
25 years ago today five of us announced the start of a new advertising agency with a front page splash in Campaign magazine. We all met up for lunch that day trying to figure what would happen next. We...
View ArticlePaul Simons: long adland lunches weren’t always a bad thing – despite the odd...
I’ve just read a story written by a female journalist about the new Bridget Jones book where she reminisces about life as a scribbler back in the days when Bridget was a singleton. It got me thinking...
View ArticlePaul Simons: where would I work now?
In the first of a new series in which we invite adland luminaries to tell us where they would work now if they had the choice, Paul Simons, one of the founders of leading UK creative agency of the...
View ArticleScam ads are becoming a global business say critics
This business of ‘scam’ ads; doctored versions of bona fide ads or ads specially made to enter awards, seems to be a rather bigger and more widespread affair than we thought. We all know the case of...
View ArticlePaul Simons: Omnicom/Publicis shows us that mergers are really takeovers by...
John Wren, CEO of Omnicom, has sworn never again to attempt a merger of equal partners in the wake of the collapsed deal with Publicis. As the wisdom of M&A specialists would say: “there is not...
View ArticleNew everreach film shows how Mark Denton made it
Well this is an intriguing film, ‘The Big Call,’ from Spanish phone giant Telefonica’s everreach answering service. Showing how important not missing a phone call can be in business. Telefonica claims...
View ArticleHow TBWA failed as an agency in London – but its managers took over the world
Ad Age has a piece today on Robert Senior, the new global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi. Senior (left) takes over from Kevin Roberts next January. Which prompted the thought: how come so many alumni of...
View ArticlePaul Simons: how agency fees work – if you’re good enough and talk the...
There’s lots of debate about how creative businesses get paid for their work. Those of us who have been around for a while will know this isn’t a new debate. A quick history lesson is helpful....
View ArticlePaul Simons: how Jeff Quilter helped to change adland
Jeff Quilter died this week after a short fight with pancreatic cancer. Jeff was an early mover in the separation of creative from implementation, that today has led to the likes of Hogarth, Zone, Tag...
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Even after 25 years the people legacy of our upstart agency Simons Palmer...
25 years ago today five of us announced the start of a new advertising agency with a front page splash in Campaign magazine. We all met up for lunch that day trying to figure what would happen next. We...
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