Far away in the Pacific island of Samoa a fascinating experiment in the nudge theory of behaviour change is unfolding. The national airline, Samoa Air, has decided to charge passengers by the kilo to fly. Continue reading “Pay by weight to fly: the thin edge of the wedge in behaviour change?”
This first ran here in the Huffington Post.
Not many industries can resist change for 50 years and still keep growing, so it is was a pleasant surprise recently that retail sales growth has returned.
Perhaps less surprising was last week’s news that only seven per cent of an innovation fund set up to help the high street modernise has been taken up. Continue reading “The High Street is looking over the wrong shoulder”
This first ran here in the Huffington Post.
The news broke this week that that water buffalo has been found in South African meat. It is pretty clear that what we think we are eating is never what it seems, and perhaps it never has been. Continue reading “Food contamination: why everyone will get away with it”
In December 2012, the question of what global businesses should pay in local tax burst onto our screens.
UK Uncut went on the offensive. Starbucks misread the public mood.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee sharpened its knives.
This is how the BBC News reported the stand off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAsXzMsa7YE
Research among heads of corporate communications shows that PR has overtaken advertising in delivering big ideas and creativity. Continue reading “Communications overtakes advertising in delivering creativity”
I recently looked through my Google+ account and suspect I wasn’t alone in finding that most of the people in most of my circles are listed as having “no posts yet”.
Like many people, I eagerly opened my Google+ account as soon as I got one of its so-called “exclusive” pre-launch invitations, then set off in search of friends and acquaintances to fill my circles.
Now, like many I also suspect, I’m wondering what it’s all about. Continue reading “No posts yet: time for Google+ to circle the wagons?”
Much in marketing is made of the brand truth, the customer benefit, essentially identifying the problem that any product or service is trying to solve.
Very often the really successful products are the ones which solve problems we didn’t even know we had. Continue reading “Regret: a difficult brand truth to deal with”
This week Lord Fowler bemoaned the lack of awareness around HIV as one of the reasons that new cases have trebled in the past decade.
Most of us (of a certain age) can vividly remember the heart-stopping shock of the original HIV ads, imploring us not to “die of ignorance”. Since then, though, the issue has faded from the foreground. Continue reading “Public health: no such thing as ‘job done’”
Last night we ran one of our regular Front Room focus groups to probe a little into what, if anything, people think about the Big Society. Continue reading “Semantic Society”
“We don’t always know how it ends” is a wonderful line in West Wing when chief of staff Leo McGarry argues with President Bartlett for a policy he believes is profoundly right even though the implications and risks were unclear. Continue reading “What is the Big Society?”
In January this year The Economist cover led with The Book of Jobs which confirmed that Apple had “blessed” the nascent tablet computing category.
The iPad was coming and so the world was about to change, again. It has. When the dust has settled its biggest impact won’t be on “people like us”. Continue reading “Tablets today. Tomorrow the world”
The cricket-loving world has been turned upside down since news of the spot-fixing scandal broke late last Saturday.
The police and customs are making their inquiries. Pakistan’s government and high commission are closely involved in the proceedings. Continue reading “Crisis comms: if cricket had a share price…”
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