17 April 2012

Posted at 12:11h in build it and they will come, coke, digital strategy, intel, russel howcroft by

Last night I gave a group of Monash students a tour of our office. Funnily enough, exactly three years ago I was the student walking through George Patts hoping to one day get a job there.It reminded me of how after my tour as a student I bumped into Russel Howcroft shortly after and he told us during a presentation that sometimes marketers needed to "build things and they (the consumers) will come".I didn't quite understand it at the time. But today I can't help but think it's a completely underrated and underused digital strategy. This idea of building something rad that's relevant to your target audience and then using them to spread your idea.You don't need to stress about amplification strategies/sharing user journeys/going viral/influencer seeding and all that other nonsense. Instead you be awesome and the rest comes naturally.Intel did it here, and Coke are trying it out with things like this.And of course, it makes an amazing brief for the ad agency....

22 March 2010

Posted at 21:53h in advertising, henry ford, marketing, russel howcroft by

I got some feedback about my last post. And it reminded me of something my now boss Russel Howcroft once said at a student event he spoke at. On career advice he could give to young marketers he said, "Always listen to your advertising agency." As someone who now works in advertising, I couldn't agree more. ;] So while the client might be the one who pays for those expensive award applications, and has the ability to make your co workers redundant, sometimes they're wrong. I guess Henry Ford's quote, "If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse" applies to more than just the people buying your product of shelves. Sometimes I think I think about this stuff too much....

11 September 2009

Posted at 01:06h in definition, gruen transfer, marketing, russel howcroft by

[caption id="attachment_1043" align="aligncenter" width="374"] Zac and Russel. I'll probably photoshop Todd in later.[/caption]   I was at an event on Wednesday night where Russel Howcroft from GPYR, although perhaps more commonly known from The Gruen Transfer, spoke. Talking to a bunch of students about to graduate and looking for jobs, he made one particular point that I thought was quite interesting. Now I'm paraphrasing here but a small part of his speech went something like this...