Will enlightened consumers stop buying your brand promise?20211221184049
Will enlightened consumers stop buying your brand promise?
Consumers have relationships with brands. But if they stop buying into the brand promise, it’s bad news for the relationship. Brands were created to make us happy – for a fleeting moment, ...
Bootstrap Marketing and The Beautiful Idea20200511190339
Bootstrap Marketing and The Beautiful Idea
Bootstrap Marketing and the Beautiful Idea is one of the keynote addresses I give on a regular basis. It resonates particularly well with startup audiences – although I’ve seen a fair numb...
Doing a successful pandemic brand pivot20200430003144
Doing a successful pandemic brand pivot
How do you do a successful pandemic brand pivot? COVID has spawned a cottage industry of advice on shifting the tactics of your brand – amping up the education and free value to your followers,...
The innovation story every frustrated entrepreneur needs to hear20200315205631
The innovation story every frustrated entrepreneur needs to hear
We live in a time of innovation abundance, where our ability to explore and develop new ideas is exponentially greater than it was even 10 years ago. This can be both liberating, and disheartening ...
Using creative dissonance to build surprising brands20200109161024
Using creative dissonance to build surprising brands
When you’re building a brand, what makes it truly spectacular? A great brand can be the culmination of a single minded vision. But in my experience, the best, most surprising brands come from br...
How to hone your authentic brand20200103205107
How to hone your authentic brand
‘Authentic brand’ is the cliche du jour – everyone wants one, but few people understand what it really entails. Google ‘Create an authentic brand’, and you get plenty of ...
Solar lighting: unleashing the brand20190812192339
Solar lighting: unleashing the brand
Solar lighting as a brand is beset by misperceptions. People still overwhelmingly believe the lights break, the batteries don’t last, the whole category is a cheap, Home Depot novelty. Winning h...
Does your marketing need skunk works?20190704164614
Does your marketing need skunk works?
Every job becomes mundane and routine if you do it long enough – marketing is no exception. The problem is, marketing is about disruption. Standing out in a crowded field by zigging when everyon...
What’s in this coffee? The unlikely rise of McDonald’s brand brew.20190514230937
What’s in this coffee? The unlikely rise of McDonald’s brand brew.
The other day, I was strolling through Costco, and saw McDonald’s brand coffee pods on sale. I was amazed – not so long ago, I was working on the McDonald’s account as a creative dir...
Is your advertising newsworthy?20180926191708
Is your advertising newsworthy?
The problem with most advertising is that it’s done the same way doting parents describe their kids – with the mistaken belief that everyone cares how pretty / smart / really good at banal...
Is it time your brand reinvented the ordinary?20180919033035
Is it time your brand reinvented the ordinary?
Paul Lavoie, an old friend of mine, built an incredibly successful ad agency brand. Lavoie is a brand unto himself, as anyone who has ever seen him or heard him speak will attest. But when he retired ...
Marketing new ideas: how to do it right20180709041050
Marketing new ideas: how to do it right
Marketing new ideas is tough. After all, new ideas are hard to absorb. Especially today, when we feel besieged by a barrage of new. Our reaction, increasingly, is to duck and cover, hoping the storm w...
How to brand in the gig economy20180528045157
How to brand in the gig economy
A brand is, by definition, the equivalent of reputation – and in today’s gig economy, reputation is what enables solopreneurs and entrepreneurs to survive and thrive. But there’s a f...
How to craft a compelling 3 minute pitch20180313005038
How to craft a compelling 3 minute pitch
Got 3 minutes? Sometimes, brevity is the best medicine. Or, in the words of Churchill, “If you want me to speak for two minutes, it will take me three weeks of preparation. If you want me to speak for...
Building an effective cannabis brand20180220013206
Building an effective cannabis brand
I just finished my second stint building a cannabis brand. As luck would have it, this coincided with my regular slot chatting with Mark Brennae of CFAX radio. So Mark and I had a great conversation o...
Brand shorthand: the power of brand templates20180104001405
Brand shorthand: the power of brand templates
Say you’ve just created a powerful campaign to market a complex product (a car, for example, or a real estate development). Then, a couple of key people on the business are transferred onto anot...
Building the solopreneur brand20180102001209
Building the solopreneur brand
Building a solopreneur brand is as tough as being a solopreneur. As a solopreneur myself, I know it’s difficult to choose a tight niche, and build my brand around it – it’s simply to...
Which brand platform is best? (Spoiler alert: any of them)20171221001046
Which brand platform is best? (Spoiler alert: any of them)
Today, choosing how to effectively communicate can feel like drinking from a firehose. There are simply too many platforms for marketing your message. More often than not, the overabundance of choice ...
From Unique Selling Proposition to Unique Ownable Speciality20171121000830
From Unique Selling Proposition to Unique Ownable Speciality
Over the course of the last three BrandDIY posts (you can check them out here, here and here) we’ve done some heavy lifting. Specifically, we’ve figured out what you think your brand does ...
What Bill Bernbach would say about data driven marketing.20170829005842
What Bill Bernbach would say about data driven marketing.
I love tech. Most of my clients are launching or growing the next generation of wizardry that will make the world a better, more facile, happier place. My job is to tell audiences exactly what it is m...
Instead of selling cereal, OWN cereal.20161207231925
Instead of selling cereal, OWN cereal.
Yesterday, I had a terrific conversation with Spring Advertising founder and Creative Director Rob Schlyecher. Like myself, Rob believes the classic ad agency model is flawed. His ‘a-ha’ m...
The Matchmaker for Better Brand Agency Relationships20161206004612
The Matchmaker for Better Brand Agency Relationships
The world of brands – like the world in general – is becoming more complex. Where the rule was once to find an ‘integrated’ agency capable of handling all your brand needs, the...
Has advertising lost its focus on innovation?20160718184312
Has advertising lost its focus on innovation?
Leading North American advertising agencies used to be headed by creatives and innovators. Today, managers and accountants hold the reins. The result? Less focus on innovation, and more on efficiency ...
Want a brand that thrives into the future? Learn to decode happiness today.20160601014001
Want a brand that thrives into the future? Learn to decode happiness today.
Brands sell happiness. And, of course, brands sell perennial unhappiness. They’re two sides of the same coin – on the one hand, we promise consumers that their next purchase will make them...
Culture and the Futureproof Brand20160520153951
Culture and the Futureproof Brand
Culture is a word everyone in the corporate world uses, but few understand. What we do know is that companies with strong cultures outperform their rivals in everything from customer engagement to emp...
Cleantech marketers, simplify your pitch!20160405045948
Cleantech marketers, simplify your pitch!
Cleantech Canada asked me to write a series of op-ed pieces on effectively branding technology. This story describes how to make your pitch simpler, and more compelling. Enjoy!...
Are you a digital slave?20160405044940
Are you a digital slave?
In this podcast, I brainstorm with behavioral psychologist John Marshall Roberts on the causes of our dependence on our digital devices, what that means for brands, and how we can break free. Enjoy!...
Futureproof brand predictions for 201620151220173239
Futureproof brand predictions for 2016
In my final episode of the Ian Jessop show for 2015, Ian and I explore which brands will thrive, and which will dive in 2016. Enjoy the fun!...