One of the writers that we work with has some great regular tips at The Oxford Word Barber. His observations are sublime, his content is funny as well as educational and he makes complete sense… sometimes!

Whilst sitting at the traffic lights on the busy Talgarth Road junction near Earls Court, my attention was drawn to a For Sale sign on one of the very attractive buildings fronting the carriageway. It reads ‘RememberTheWindow.com‘. 48 hours later I was sat at my desk and guess what popped into my head for no conscious reason?

Through a stroke of pure memorable relevance and then personal intrigue, I was drawn in to the Blog site of Christian Braun and his family who, having had no success through Estate Agents, are trying to sell their home privately online.

I’m not in the market to part with £1.395M for a slice of England’s not so green and pleasant juxtaposed A4 despite the buildings beauty, but you have to applaud this chaps strategy and passion for promoting this house. It’s certainly drawing a crowd. Good luck Christian.

Check out RememberTheWindow.com and also see the coverage he got in The Sunday Times.

As the cars pile up during this global recession, interesting to see Nissan’s strategy for encouragement and customer reassurance is blatant and bold within it’s latest communications -’Just in Case’ cover, which includes 12 months’ free unemployment cover with a new vehicle.

Things work best for me when they are simplified. Marketing and media in today’s world are a complex but essential component of any business and agencies have a duty to distill and simplify things for the client. When like minded professionals on both the client and agency side collaborate successfully the results can be very powerful and effective but things feel easy. However, a large percentage of SMEs, with limited resources and often limited expertise and knowledge, often struggle to understand and implement marketing strategies to lead their sales and business growth.

Thanks to the launch of a new Go To Market packaged marketing service, SMEs now have access to tried and tested, affordable marketing. Ideal for single or multiple campaigns, it could even act as an annual marketing strategy. It eliminates the need for the some of the traditional marketing campaign planning that determines the marketing strategy and deliverables, saving SME’s time and money.

If you were running a seasonal marketing campaign in summer for example, the package can be easily re-skinned for an autumn winter and spring offer to give you one campaign per quarter, all for

Similarly, it is ideal for event driven marketing campaigns such as promotional periods (Christmas, New year, Easter, Mothers Day etc.) or product promotions.

For more details, packages and prices go to www.go-to-market.uk.com.

On this day that has been gripped by the passing of two stars, namely Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, we are surrounded by a media explosion, mass public reaction – not to mention of course the loss that two families have to cope with.

But what we have to do is put all of this in perspective. Get a grip and learn from this – as so eloquently put in an e-newsletter today from the leading catering and hospitality publication, and I quote:-

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror; I’m asking him to change his ways; And no message could have been any clearer; If you wanna make the world a better place; Take a look at yourself and then make a change. As the world digests the passing of Michael Jackson, the restaurant industry is also being asked to look inwardly and make a change on the controversial issue of service charge…….” News Editor, 26 June 2009.

Phew..er, a joke, surely? Afraid not.

So, after the devastating Italian earthquake, did they make comparisons to the downfall in popularity of Italian restaurants and the need to up their game?

What utter guff.

The ASA recently confirmed that the atheist campaign, proclaiming “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” received complaints that it broke advertising code on the grounds of substantiation and truthfulness. With some of the complaints being that “It is given as a statement of fact and that means it must be capable of substantiation if it is not to break the rules.

So, although the ASA has not yet decided whether a formal investigation to see if the campaign has broken the ad code, we are left with a few morsels of food for thought:-

Firstly, substantiation and truthfulness. In the current economic dirge, we all, hopefully, appreciate the importance of brand and product differentiation to ensure we stand above the competition. With better service and better value being all too familiar claims. The heat of the spotlight is never as warm as it is now on brands to ensure they practice what they preach, if you’ll pardon the biblical reference.

Only last week, we heard Christopher Rodrigues of Visit Britain emphasising this point with the claim that the hotel sector could expect 50,000 job losses this year.

Raising service levels and quality of that service is the bed-rock for winning business in tourism. Not forgetting the current state of the sterling with its appeal to our Euro-hoppers, this is a time of great value that we need to embrace.

The outcome is quite simple – those who go the extra mile and get it right will reap the rewards. Ask and listen to what customer’s needs and motivations are and get a true understanding of the value they want and deliver some substantiation. Hang on, that sounds familiar….

And the second food morsel is whether the ASA take the plunge to cast judgement on the probability of God existing or not. Best of luck with that one.

I found this example of mobile marketing from Starbucks that doesn’t leave a bitter taste!

It works by keeping things direct and the offer is strong, Starbucks do coffee! Let’s give it away for free to drive footfall! Simple.

Imagine your delight to receive a text on a cold March morning informing you that you can claim a free coffee at Starbucks!  And how convenient because you’re always close to a Starbucks store!

Ever wanted to write your message in the sky so every one can see it?

Well now you can. A couple of Hollywood special effects guys have invented a machine that can pump out 4ft foam clouds in the shape of a company logo at the rate of one every 15 seconds.

Flogos (flying logos), are made up of helium filled soap bubbles that can travel 30 miles at up to 20,000ft before disappearing, according to the Flogo website.

Disney, Apple, Audi and Nike have already signed up and others have expressed interest. Looks like it’s only available in the US at the moment, but I’m sure it won’t be long until they take off here!