Esquire’s May issue will have three perforated covers that can be separated into horizontal strips; when flipped over, they create different images. Esquire editor David Granger (shown), who caused a flap with the February issue that hid an ad on its cover, is getting ready for his next act.
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source: adweek
Linda McCartney Foods launches updated branding and packaging this week, designed by Irving, with direction from former Beatles band-member Sir Paul McCartney.
The new packaging features the tagline “Food to come home to,” created by Paul McCartney, and photography by the McCartneys‚ daughter Mary. The redesign comes just two years after a full revamp by Made Thought.
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source: mad uk
BONUS! Learn the bass guitar from Paul McCartney!
thoughts on advertising during a recession
When times get tough, budgets get slashed. And the first thing to go is the advertising and marketing budgets. Makes sense. You’re not having to cut people. It seems like an easy line item to slash. No muss. No fuss. Return-on-investment analysis for marketing dollars spent is so doggone hard to measure, anyway. So, heck, why not? Makes the profit picture look a little rosier
But, for our clients that want to build a brand, that strategy is the exact opposite of what they should do. Studies suggest – strongly suggest – they should, in fact, increase, their advertising budgets.
A downturn is no time to stop spending on marketing, says Harvard professor John Quelch in the Harvard Business Review, “Brands that increase advertising during a downturn can improve market share and return on investment,” he says.
John Zhang, a Wharton marketing professor says, “If companies cut deeply into advertising in a down period, the cost to regain share of voice in the market once the economy turns around may cost four or five times as much as the cuts saved, as the downturn is not going to be forever.”
Studies of the last 6 recessions have demonstrated that companies which do not cut back their advertising budgets achieve greater increases in profit than companies which do cut back.
Metallic and Jewel Tone Dresses, Carolina Herrera Cuts, Bold Jewels and Old Hollywood Hair
The Oscars’ red carpet is the ultimate showcase for Hollywood’s hottest trends.
It’s a high stakes time for every star to look their best and shine. Getting their appearance just right, with the perfect glitzy gown, glowing skin and sparkly jewels, takes hours and hours of professionals’ time.
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source: abc news
For tech titans, it’s a time-honored ritual in the hi-tech business; Use your market “influence” to drive acceptance of your proprietary technology for as long as possible, until you have no other choice but to lift the proprietary veil (if only just a bit). By then, momentum is driving your success anyway. Such has been the path of Goliaths Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Apple. But it remains to be seen if Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN)-the-book-Goliath can repeat industry tradition with its strategy for Kindle, or, if a tiny 3-person self-funded “David” known as Lexcycle could spoil the party (podcast included).
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source: information week
It looks like the old axiom “fame is fleeting” rings true. Just ask JD Fortune, the egotistical singer who replaced original INXS frontman Michael Hutchence. Fortune told “Entertainment Tonight Canada” that he’s currently living in his car after the band unceremoniously dumped him.
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source: poll star
The Brickyard Crossing Inn is the old motel on the grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In a December it was announced that the inn would close and be demolished. The Beatles took quiet refuge there one weekend in September 1964 when they played two shows at the Indiana State Fair.
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source: indy star
In an article about Silicon Valley on Forbes.com, founder and chief executive of Apple, Steve Jobs, said that early on, the mission of the company could be narrowed down to two words: The Beatles.
“When the team working on the Mac asked Jobs in 1983 for a standard they should shoot for, Jobs’ answer was simple: the Beatles. And not just the Beatles - the early Beatles.”
How great is that!
No pie charts or bar graphs or percentages. No tired phrases like “build partnerships” or “paradigm shifts” or “foster innovation” or any of the other blah-blah.
Nope.
Jobs wanted to create products that had a youthful spirit, an unerring sense of style, playfulness, joyfulness and the potential to change the world. Like the early Beatles.
That’s how he wanted to define the soul of his company.
You can’t capture that in corporate speak. You can’t build that sort of culture with a meaningless barrage of verbiage.
You can’t motivate yourself or others by stringing together a bunch of the same words you see in every annual report ever written.
You make it simple, motivating and use a cultural icon to make it easily understandable.
Yea, yea, yea.
About the author: Pat Fagan is a 35 year advertising veteran. He has worked at some of the biggest advertising agencies in New York and has decided to make Keller Crescent his home.
I never blogged before – blogged, I assume, being the appropriate verb form for blog (n). Having been an ad writer for nearly 40 years – long-hand to typewriter (manual/electric) to PC to Apple (desktop to laptop) – with technology evolving more rapidly than my attempts to master it.
So forgive me for taking baby steps into this thing called blogging, but it’s a privilege to use this space to credit Keller Crescent for all the good, rewarding years (24) I’ve worked here. It’s also an invitation for you to familiarize yourself with an insider’s view of what makes KC unique by anyone’s standards.
