It was Punctuation Day on 24^th September which, I’m sure, was observed respectfully by you all.  No doubt you spent the day taking extra special care to ensure all your apostrophes’ were correctly placed… and tempered your use of ellipsis and exclamation marks!!!

This weekend also saw a surprise appearance from the interrobang on Q.I., and, believe it or not, I actually knew both the name and purpose of this peculiar punctuation mark – probably the first and last time I’ll ever know a Q.I. question outright. So after gaining my massive chufty badge, I began digging around the weird and wonderful world of obscure punctuation and uncovered some bizarre characters indeed.

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Writing a radio ad is one of the few opportunities a copywriter has to work in a completely unique medium, and I love it. Radio ads can be really effective too, if you get it right. And really annoying, if you get it wrong. So when we were briefed to create an attention-grabbing radio ad to entice tall or large fellas into High and Mighty stores we knew there’d be some big challenges… excuse the pun.

The problem is, the kind of chap that needs extra long trousers or XXXL size t-shirts can be a little bit coy about his ample dimensions. This initially came as a surprise to me, but then I am the daughter of a 6ft 7 scouser with hands like bunches of bananas who’s very proud of his stature… and his ability to reach things on the highest of shelves. I suppose their self-consciousness can be likened to the way that long tall sallies like me shy away from describing themselves as having a ‘boyish’ figure because of its unfeminine and unflattering connotations.

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Last night I was looking forward to settling down in front of the TV to watch a rather interesting debate on the subject of direct mail.  I was expecting a well balanced argument from respected Panorama reporter Tom Heap looking at the pros and cons of the industry.  What I got was anything but balanced.  I haven’t seen such a one-sided fight since, well it was Saturday night actually….  broken toe?  Come off it David Haye, you can do better than that.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised given the title “Why hate junk mail?” but Mr Heap’s argument was not only unbalanced but incredibly naive, not to mention inaccurate.  I also found it incredibly distasteful and dis-respectful to the direct mail industry to tackle the subject of ‘Scam mail’ in the same programme.

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Every now and then you come across something so brilliant that it jumps out and demands your attention. When I was recently introduced to the concept of ‘cinemagraphs’, I had one of those moments. Read more…

50+ women would like to have fun with fashion again. That’s what JD Williams discovered when they conducted a research panel with prospects and customers of their That’s My Style brand. So when it came to creating the DRTV ad for the Spring/Summer 2011 collection, making customers feel confident with fashion again was something they were keen to push.

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Quite. And life is better with beautiful design.

I rarely get really excited about packaging these days. In fact, apart from Apple, Boden, Innocent and Jane’s Addiction’s Cabinet of Curiosities I can’t really think of much that has grabbed my attention in the last few years.

And that’s why when I received my vinyl wall graphics from Blik through the post I almost jumped for joy. Gorgeous package design fizzing with witty copy and a fab product to boot… pure joy from start to finish. Read more…

When Build Center (one of our clients at Wolseley) called us with an urgent brief to spread the word about their £3 loft insulation plus free delivery promotion, we knew we had a real challenge on our hands. Not only did we have just over a week to develop the campaign and roll it out… they wanted us to deliver something a little out of the ordinary to maximise the impact. Cue one Mini, one woman, 17 rolls of loft insulation, a 56-link chainsaw and a 2 minute viral ad. Read more…

Manchester based full service agency, Red C has created a new 30 second commercial for Hoseasons, starring model, actress and TV presenter Denise Van Outen.  The ad, which airs on Boxing Day is the first time back on our screens for Hoseasons since 2007.

Created by Red C’s Creative Director, Julian Gratton and Copywriter, Stuart Clark, and directed by Chris Gaffey from Mob Films.  The ad sees the Legally Blonde star walk, cycle and dance her way through a variety of different Hoseason holiday properties.

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I was watching Harry Hill’s TV Burp on Sunday afternoon and it was whilst he was refereeing a fight between a “commercially available instant noodle product and River Cottage’s immediate noodle pot based item” that a rather random thought occurred to me.

What would happen if online marketing was to have a fight with offline marketing? Which one would win? Which one is more effective? Well for me it’s easy. Though I love the more traditional offline forms of marketing I think there is only one winner… and it’s online all the way.

So what am I basing this view on?  Why do I think online marketing is the heavyweight powerhouse of the marketing mix?  Well, my view is very much dictated by four key factors.

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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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