Empower

When times are hard you need great stories

stories

Those of a certain age will recall the line from an old Monty Python sketch (a parody of events in Rhodesia at that time):

Addressing the crisis in trust: why PR is not the answer

President

A new crisis hits the news daily and CEOs beg for forgiveness...

The unacceptable face of capitalism

car

In 1973 the British Prime Minister Edward Heath, in a statement in the House of Commons on the Lonrho affair, said...

Switch 'nice to have' for 'unthinkable not to have'

NHS

“The fox he knows many things, but the hedgehog he knows one big thing.”

Beware of treating clouds like clocks

class

The growing use of cheap computational power encourages us to pretend that wide, complex problems are narrow, simple ones.

A good relationship boosts the balance sheet

fish

For years, there has been a recurring topic in agency remuneration...

Imperfectly appealing: the self-ironising brand

imperfect

Lifting a spoon of yoghurt to her lips with pleasure, Nicole Scherzinger tumbles from a picnic table, an ordered chaos of picnicware around her. 

A man having trouble with an umbrella

grand father

My grandfather was a retired policeman with a warm heart and authoritative manner...

How the latest technology can render the news incomprehensible

news

So little has been said and written about Outside Source that I can only assume that few people watch it...

Success story that could use a shot of creativity

Happy

Singapore lives in a constant state of self-analysis. It’s part of what has made it what it is.

How your sense of fairness influences what you spend

beach

You are on a deserted beach on a hot day. You’ve been there a while and you are thirsty. A

You may not know where you’re going until you’ve got there

bulb

Here’s a story that may or may not be true. But even if it isn’t, it contains an important truth

Lessons from the world’s ‘mobile only’ continent

mobile

As the planet’s fastest-growing mobile market, with 700 million SIM cards registered

Score to date: people 3, rationalists 0

Brands

In an August article headlined 'What are Brands For?', The Economist struggled to answer its own question. While accepting

Digital must die

Tech

Marc Pritchard, Procter & Gamble’s global brand building officer, recently proclaimed that digital was dead and urged marketers to look

Tomorrow's pensioners

money

By 2050 one in three of the UK population will be over 65 – an age cohort that will have grown by almost 20% since 2022.

Avoiding a promotions catastrophe

The world of price and promotions within UK retailers is at a tipping point, with a potential crisis looming.

Loyalty

The secret of big strategy today lies in clever tactics

chess

In the US in the 1980s, an ad run on three television networks would reach 80% of consumers. Today some

Researchers must coax out the elephant in the room

family

'How did the Le Shuttle research go?' 'First was okay. But the second group was a bit of a write-off

Why it’s time to say goodbye to IKTHTMISOAIW*

money

Stop believing that old chestnut that half your ad spend is wasted. One of the world’s most widely held beliefs about advertising...

A lot of customer knowledge may be a dangerous thing

parking

I went to see Rossini’s La Donna del Lago a few weeks ago. It cost £12.50. The reason it only