International Women’s Day today.  Where to start?  Anyone who's been watching Mad Men knows women in our industry have come a long way (as Peggy Olson is learning).  When I trained the mantra of (male) creatives was 'The consumer is not an idiot.  She is your wife."  It was meant to be complimentary but seems, in retrospect, somewhat insulting.   Despite that only 1 in 4 FTSE board directors are female, which is leading the Government to talk about legislation to force big business to hire more women.  But I wonder if the problem is not so much that there is...

At the beginning of the 'recession' I was interviewed by Radio 4's World This Weekend about what we wanted the Chancellor to do in his first recession budget.  I said nothing.  I don't mean that I didn't say anything, I mean that I said could he please leave us alone.  Instead they increased NI to a laughable amount which penalises anyone like us who wants to hire people and put up taxes for high earners (great, thanks for that).  Have just asked local MP (Jonathan Djanogly, Conservative) what they will be doing for business if we all vote for them....

YES - Focus on consolidation and you could emerge stronger as a result Nick Washbourne, business development manager, Market Location The last two years have been difficult for the majority of businesses, and there are challenging times ahead. Good business sense points towards a proactive approach to shoring up an organisation, so it can not only weather a still turbulent market, but also be best placed to capitalise on a return to more buoyant times. With budgets tight, and little room for error, I'd suggest that consolidation is a more worthwhile approach than excessive innovation. However, the term 'consolidation' tends...

I actually wrote this blog last year but was persuaded by my business partner, to just leave it. Now we are having exactly the same conversations, internally as well as with clients and I cannot be silenced anymore.   What is wrong with Happy Christmas?   My business partner says, “No, it’s Season’s Greetings, we don’t want to offend anyone.”   Who are we going to offend?   So the question is - would anyone be offended if a company card said “Have a Merry Christmas”? We are wishing good will to all. Every shop we walk past from as...

I was just on our B2B Marketing LinkedIn Group (a plug already!) and I read a response to a question I have heard a lot lately. “Where do I put my marketing spend in 2010?” Do I keep a good mix or bin traditional marketing in favour of digital, as it’s cheaper. The thing is, in today’s market I think this general talk of shifting away from traditional spend to digital is already outdated. “Digital” is not new anymore, I know we’re not yet hanging out with Star Trek's Captain Picard but come on; we’re online most of the day...

Occasionally someone reports a problem with the office loo. I grab my Fisher Price tools and wiggle a few nuts and washers, call in other directors to look at the problem and give their opinion, maybe even get someone to Google it. The time these clever people at Concep spend trying to solve the problem costs the company more in time and salary than if I had picked up the phone and called my brother in law, a plumber.  George would have charged me by the hour, fixed it and then left but I would never consider bringing him on...

I was thinking about writing my next blog for the boys at B2B.  Looking through the various blogs, I suddenly realized that it is just that - “The Boys”. So, is it just that the voices and faces of B2B agencies tend to be men? Are the women of the industry the quiet unsung heroes? The only tool I could find to measure this (and prove me right or wrong) was the Forrester Groundswell http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html  which profiles Social Media contributors. (Although the data is consumer) it does seem that, in the UK, men contribute more than women. In the US, women contribute more. A...

Will email remain an effective way to market to Generation Y’s B2B marketers, who have grown up with comparably faster instant messaging and more engaging social media?...

UK Mail's recently launched i-Mail service is just the latest version of so-called hybrid mail to be launched in the UK. Hybrid mail allows DM pieces to be created digitally, cutting time, costs, carbon and speed to market - or so it is claimed.But does this constitute a meaningful innovation for business-to-business marketers, or is this just a quick and dirty approach to marketing which should really be done via another channel?...

Are business customers interested in the green credentials of a product or service in the current economic climate?...