Our humble columnist spent Christmas in his underpants watching Netflix, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t thinking about brands. This week, the fascinating whodunnit centres on the last-minute renaming of one of the holiday season’s most successful films.
Rebrands are usually a bad move, but despite the ridicule for Accenture Interactive becoming Accenture Song, there is just as much upside.
Our marketing columnist stayed up late in Tasmania and put his headset on for the Facebook Connect VR conference. But he came away unimpressed with the branding revelations that followed.
Reebok hasn’t reached the heights of the 1980s and 90s since Adidas bought it in 2006, and its sale means Adidas can focus on its ‘branded house’ while new owner ABG has the skills to bring Reebok into its ‘house of brands’.
Critics might scorn the fit but consumers care little about corporate ownership, and acquiring the Debenhams brand at a knockdown price helps Boohoo target more profitable customers.
BT marketing director David Stratton says Plusnet has ‘done a Mark Ritson’ by simplifying its brand codes to differentiate from sister brands EE and BT – a no-nonsense approach our columnist is proud to associate with his name.
Adam&eveDDB deserves recognition for its outstanding creative work but with its creative nous it should know it’s time to drop the adam&eve name for the good of the wider DDB brand.
Can veteran marketer Miguel Patricio use his expert eye to turn a dusty and confused portfolio around or has he got himself into a giant box of shit?
No company before Facebook has had so many users while being so disliked, but the risk of moving Instagram to the same platform is one Mark Zuckerberg seems willing to take to keep control and integrate the brands’ data.
The merger of Wunderman and JWT into Wunderman Thompson shows the key challenge of consolidating agencies: while necessary, it’s complicated by their commoditisation and lack of differentiation.
The way companies structure their brands gets little attention but is of huge importance, as three high-profile stories have reminded us this week.
To maximise both revenues and savings, Sainsbury’s and Asda’s merger must get brand architecture right, unifying operations while keeping the brands distinct.
Coca-Cola has abandoned its One Brand strategy and opted for an expensive Diet Coke relaunch that will do nothing to protect profits and, worst of all, targets millennials.
Most marketers at big corporations don’t have to worry about the credibility of their owner, but craft beer drinkers are a rare breed and AB InBev could easily destroy the brands it has acquired.
If I aspired to a career in agency-land, would I join Ogilvy & Mather’s branded house or Publicis’s house of brands? An excellent question, and here’s why I don’t have an answer.