Back in November I attended the NatMag 100 conference at the Saatchi Gallery in London. One of the many interesting talks on the day was by the Future Foundation, who highlighted a few emerging audiences such as Media Madonnas and Digital Divas… audiences who are becoming increasingly hard to sell to thanks to the way they consume their media… essentially these people are disengaged.

It can’t have failed to escape you that over the last few years more and more consumers are becoming disengaged. Many of them sit at home watching the TV with their Smartphone by their side or their laptop or iPad on their knee surfing the web as they catch up on their favourite soaps! In fact it is common knowledge that as a result of this, these consumers are no longer saying, “persuade me and I’ll buy from you” they are saying, “entertain me and I’ll engage with you”.

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A recent Facebook update by a good friend of mine got me thinking a great deal about the creative mind. His update simply said that he was looking forward to reading his son’s story entitled ‘The Adventures of Captain Potato and the Bin of Time’.

I also had with my 11-year-old son stay over this weekend, and again was amazed at how his mind works, how he is intrigued about everything, and is capable of such bizarre trains of thought that lead to some incredibly daft conversations.

With both my son and my friend’s son there will no doubt come a time when the most common phrase they hear will be ‘grow-up!’ They’ll hear it from their teachers, fellow classmates, other adults and as they get older, their colleagues…. Which if they are not careful, could hinder the creative sides of their brains.

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Hi, I am a Corby Classic.

I was won in a raffle, but my owner prefers skirts to trousers. I have been used a little experimentally and I can certainly press a trouser. I’m just not very good at anything else.

I have a little timer thing, rather like an egg timer, so you can leave me to happily press a trouser for up to 45 minutes without burning anything. Something my archrival ‘The Iron’ can’t claim to be able to do. Unlike an egg timer, though, I don’t click seconds or go ‘ping!’ when the trousers are ready. My little red light goes off and that’s it.

I suppose you could press other things in me… flowers… tea towels… crumpled newspapers.  So perhaps a hippy with an obsessive-compulsive disorder would be interested.  You will need a car to carry me, though, as I’m pick-up only.

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Back when I was a student, there were a couple of songs that everybody seemed to go gaga over. The first was by a band called Stiltskin entitled ‘Inside’ and the other was by an act called Babylon Zoo whose song was called ‘Spaceman’.

Both of these songs are notable for the fact that they became so well known in the UK because they were first aired to the British public via Levi adverts. In the case of Spaceman, the interest in the track resulted in it going straight to number one, where it stayed for five weeks. The track also went to Number 1 in the single charts in twenty-three countries and at the time Babylon Zoo held the record for the fastest selling single for a UK debut artist.

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Imagine it’s a Monday night and you’re sat on the sofa watching Coronation Street. Roy Cropper is cooking up 2 Walls sausages on Warburton’s bread with a dollop of Heinz ketchup for Steve McDonald. Normally we wouldn’t know which brands Roy uses in his cafe, nor see any brands at all on the street – except for fake ones like Newton & Ridley ale in the Rovers Returns! But this could soon be the future of your favourite soap thanks to the new ruling by the Government to allow product placement on UK television.

Product placement is a form of advertising that uses branded products or services placed in a context devoid of adverts – like a TV programme or a film. Previously the government had always denied commercial broadcasters the ability to take payment in return for placing products on screen; however earlier this year Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw announced that the Government would be allowing it for the first time in television programmes.

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I love billboards. It’s the huge format that captivates me. They’re like giant canvasses placed in the city or at the side of a busy road that scream ‘look at me!’ but only for a few seconds otherwise you may walk into a lamppost or drive into the back of someone else’s car.

Over the years I’ve seen some stunning billboards that have had me turning green with envy. The best ones are those that have words and pictures that work together in such a clever way that they catch the viewer’s attention, communicate quickly, and stay with them for a few miles down the road… and ultimately stick in the back of their mind for a lot longer.

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As we all know, in any relationship, it’s the small things that matter. Yet what many people don’t realise is that it’s not only in our personal relationships that small things can have a big effect… they can also have a similar result in the relationships marketers, brands and companies have with their customers or business partners.

And why do small things matter? Well, as anyone who has ever bought a girl flowers knows; something small but effective can have a kind of result that is absolutely out of proportion to the cost.

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Over the past few years we’ve all had to tighten our belts. People want more for less and supermarkets have reacted to this by focussing their marketing on pushing cheap, value products. In contrast to this being a ‘foodie’ has become more fashionable than ever. From our love of TV programs like Come Dine With Me to the adverts made sexy by that highly annoying M&S lady, everyone is wanting a piece of this pie.

Granted, there have always been fads but now food has a cultural significance of its own. We’d love to be known for being an amazing cook and throwing the best dinner parties around. We feel the need to buy organic products rather than bog-standard own brands and if like me when you get to the counter at the supermarket you probably find yourself checking out the neighbours trolley in a keeping up with the Jones’ style.

The brands that have picked up on this trend have done it with gusto. By making a stylish alliance with their brand they are appealing to women like me who love both fashion and food.

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When I was a kid I had a friend who lived next door whose dad was in the Territorial Army. The best thing, as far as I could see, about having a dad in the Territorial Army was that he would come home on a weekend in an old Army Land Rover… an Army Land Rover that was perfect for firing-up our boyhood imaginations.

You see, this was not just any Land Rover in our eyes… it was a Nazi Land Rover! A Nazi Land Rover carrying the Ark of the Covenant to a secret lair where it would be opened in some bizarre ritual. Cue then lots of walking down the side, sliding underneath and jumping on top of this battered old vehicle as my friend and I took it in turns to be in intrepid archaeologist… Indiana Jones!

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There has been a scandal at the World Cup and no it doesn’t involve a dodgy penalty decision or some kind of WAG swapping saga. Instead it centres on a group of around 30 scantily clad Dutch ladies who were removed from a game and arrested. Yet it wasn’t their lack of attire that got them into trouble… the crime was them taking part in the dark arts of “ambush marketing”. So what exactly is ambush marketing? Basically, it’s a marketing campaign that takes place around an event but does not involve payment of a sponsorship fee to that event. That means companies taking part in such sneaky tactics benefit from free association while also reducing the effectiveness of any rival brand’s connection to the event.

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