November 23, 2018

FORGET HUMAN TRUTH, BRANDS SHOULD BE TALKING HUMAN FICTION.

In an industry obsessed with human truth, surrounded by a world in love with fiction, does advertising need to leave the facts behind? Asks Mel Arrow, Strategy Director and Partner at BBH. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States of America. Meanwhile in England, poor old Lord Sugar is still...

advertising/culture/strategy Comments: 5

November 16, 2018

THE WORLD CUP OF ADS

It’s time to settle the big one: the greatest ad of all time. Not measured by effectiveness, efficiency or Lions, but rather by how beloved it is by both the public and the industry. To achieve this, we want to hold the largest, most comprehensive poll ever. In other words, we need your help, write Harry Guild , Data Strategist & Data...

advertising Comments: 2

October 25, 2018

STRATEGISTS KNOW NOTHING ABOUT PEOPLE

Earlier this month I went to the APG Strategy Conference: On the Contrary which sought to bring together speakers on ‘the power of contrarian thinking to challenge convention’. Rather surprisingly they all came with one very similar observation, writes Clémence Lépinard, Strategist at BBH London. That observation? If you think you know people, if you think you know your consumers,...

advertising/strategy Comments: 3

October 12, 2018

DOES YOUR STRATEGY EVEN LIFT BRO?

As well as winning Agency Of The Year, we were delighted to pick up the IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix last week writes Will Lion, Managing Partner, Strategy and author of the winning Audi paper as he explains how weights and sweat might have helped. When you win an IPA Grand Prix for Effectiveness you get a lot of messages asking...

advertising/Effectiveness Comment: 1

October 8, 2018

FAME FACTORY: STRATEGY IS TIMELESS BUT EXECUTION MUST BE TIMELY.

Earlier this year I went to Bucharest to attend the tech conference icee.fest. I saw some fairly breathtaking presentations from production companies Happy Finish and Hammerhead, on the capabilities of VR, AR and AI. If you want to see how this tech is impacting creativity (as opposed to just hear these buzzwords being thrown around the ad industry…) I’d recommend you go...

advertising/creativity/culture Comments: 0

September 28, 2018

UNLEARNING ‘ME.’ JAMES SOWDEN’S 10 YEARS AT BBH SINGAPORE.

Most Western thinking ignores the fact that 70% of the world’s population live in collective societies, writes James Sowden, reflecting on his tenure as Managing Partner at BBH Singapore. Last week was my ten year anniversary at BBH Singapore. I should write a book about what I’ve learned, but I probably won’t. Instead I’ve sketched out a few lessons that I’ve learned...

advertising/Asia/BBH/Singapore Comments: 0

July 12, 2018

THE WORLD CUP OF ADVERTISING BOOKS

There are so many must-read advertising books. The subjects range from creativity to behavioural economics, strategy, divergent thinking, problem solving, social anthropology, marketing science, customer insight… the list goes on and on. In fact there are even so many lists of must-read advertising books that the lists go on and on. Exhausted from these never-ending reading lists, Lucian, Harry and Tom decided...

advertising/Books Comments: 15

June 25, 2018

SELLING TO MACHINES, OUR NEXT CUSTOMER.

Will Artificial Intelligence take all the jobs in advertising? Not if we get better at what we do. We must use our creativity and open our hearts to understand the Machines, writes Pelle Sjoenell, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of BBH. Image from Blade Runner 2049 Today, if you need toilet paper quickly you can say, “Alexa I really need toilet...

advertising/AI Comments: 2

June 18, 2018

PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE. NICK KENDALL ON HOW TO LEAD.

‘As I get older, the more old cliches reveal their old truths. Sorry Ben, but my one piece of advice to you therefore, is a cliché – people, people, people’, writes Nick Kendall, former Head of Strategy at BBH, in our ongoing series where Ben Shaw asks for leadership advice. As the robots take over, as data becomes the new...

advertising/Leadership/Nick Kendall/strategy Comment: 1

June 4, 2018

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT needs THE WRONG AND THE SHIT OF IT

We’ve built a marketing culture that’s obsessed with aping winners and sweeps failure under the carpet. Our industry’s effectiveness bible, The Long And The Short Of It, is a huge compilation of lessons from winners, yet it’s in the losers that we can best understand success, writes Harry Guild, data strategist at BBH London If you judge life by longevity, Dorothy...

advertising/data Comments: 12

May 22, 2018

MAKING GREAT ADVERTISING IS REALLY SIMPLE. IT’S ALSO REALLY HARD.

by Lucian Trestler Before I worked in advertising I thought it’d be the easiest job in the world. I thought that because 99% of ads are shit, all you need to do to be successful is be like the not-shit 1%. That is to say be emotional, be punchy, be provocative, be…. anything, just be different to the boring boring...

advertising/BBH Labs/creativity/data/strategy/UX Comments: 8

May 9, 2018

MANAGING THE UNMANAGEABLES. TIPS FROM AG, HEAD OF STRATEGY AT BBH LA.

Leading a team of strategists is the ultimate torture test of your management skills. Imagine a gaggle of introverted, smart, and hyper-critical individuals whose default setting is to judge you unworthy of their time. I like to think that once you’ve managed strategists, you can manage anything, writes AG Head of Strategy at BBH LA. Picture from 2000 EDS commercial...

advertising/strategy Comments: 0