All washed up on The Apprentice

In the triumph of arrogance and mediocrity over common sense and creativity that is The Apprentice, there really are only two words you need to know this week.
Cod shit.
That is the wonderfully descriptive way that everyone’s favourite village idiot James McQuillan chose to sum up his own team’s efforts to rebrand the faded seaside resort [...]

Trailer trash

It never ceases to amaze me how often film and broadcast companies get one of their prime marketing tools so badly wrong.
The trailer is a precious opportunity to capture the audience’s imagination, whether it is a 5-second blip or a 3-minute stand-alone showcase.
And yet our film and TV screens are littered with examples of where [...]

On reflection…

It was three years ago today that I waved bye-bye to full-time employment having decided to take voluntary redundancy.
Despite having the best job on The Birmingham Post – I was Chief Feature Writer for five years – the time felt right for a change.
I was about to get married, the paper itself was in a [...]

If at first you don’t succeed, essai, essai, essai again

So what did we learn from the two Friday night experiments after France defeated Wales in the third round of Six Nations matches?
Firstly, once the anthems are played it doesn’t really matter whether it is Friday night at 8pm or Saturday afternoon at 3pm. If you are treated to an enthralling game of rugby – even one [...]

The brains in the marketing department

For the last few years Welsh rugby’s main shirt sponsors has been Brains, Cardiff-based brewers of some damn fine beer.
It continues to be a happy marriage, good business for both the Welsh Rugby Union and Brains.

After all, it taps into two of the great Welsh love affairs – rugby union and beer.
Admittedly, as with most [...]

Chattering classes

I am looking forward to the next few weeks at work.
We’re shaking up the way certain things have been done and spreading the word about some different approaches.
One of the main themes will be social networking and how individual colleagues can make best use of various online tools for their own purposes and for the [...]

Little city, big plans

I like quiet.
The stillness of the early morning, the silence of snow in winter, no noise is good noise as far as I’m concerned.
But I am annoyed at myself for the quietness on this blog.
There are reasons (excuses?) aplenty. But, still, I should know better.
The main reason has been my new job - my new 9-5, [...]

My happy place, spamming, Dragons and Consumer 2.0

Some intriguing little stories around, including:
The Happy Map of the UK shows that Powys is the place with the most smiles, whilst Edinburgh is the capital of doom and gloom.
I’m usually cynical about such things (no, really), but reading a few more details of the story there seems a fair bit of substance to the research.
The [...]

The old, the new and the different

There’s appears to have been a flurry of blogging activity in recent weeks regarding the collision of three apparently different worlds – blogging, journalism and PR.
As I’m trying to inhabit all three worlds at the same time, it has proved an interesting and illuminating time.
I’ll admit my head has been sent spinning by some of [...]

Dress like a Mad Man

Apart from researching and writing a couple of newspaper features, my mind has been wandering to adverts over the last few days.
It started with me wondering what the latest was on the Heinz Deli-Mayo TV advert, pulled by the company after 200 people complained about two men kissing in this humorous take on family life.
Apparently, the Advertising [...]