Warren Douglas website

Advertising

Dude, Where’s the Love?

I’m tired. Of life?
No … I’m tired of marketers’ and researchers’ ploys to convince me and my clients that Social Media only applies to white female moms with HHI of $75K+. This may sound like a ridiculous thing to be fed up with, but hear me out.

While the fact that here 300 million users on [...]

Advertising

Premium Tools vs. Social Media

In case you’ve missed it, we at the WD tout our specialization in premium brands as our differentiator among other full-service advertising agencies. In our endeavor to be the experts on premium brands, we’ve developed some proprietary Premium Tools—one of which being our Premium Brand Index ™. Basically, we take up to ten brands within [...]

Advertising

The Facts About Food and Other Life Lessons

So, I’m writing on location at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. Though it sounds glamorous and exciting, it is a rat race and just plain full of people. Plus, I’ve never seen so many varieties of cheeses, olive oils, crackers, salad dressings, and salsas.
One interesting seminar I attended features the NASFT 2009 Specialty [...]

Advertising

New Year Makes for New Marketing Opportunities

Happy New Year and welcome back from our holiday siesta!
This year is sure to bring lots of fun and innovative things in the marketing and advertising world. As in 2009, the technology and gadgets out there will surely drive the marketing dollars and efforts toward new and unique ways of reaching the masses with our [...]

retail

Where’s the Innovative Sparkle This Christmas?

I have been trying to get into the Christmas spirit for weeks now but just haven’t been feeling that special something—that little flutter in my stomach that’s excited to spend money on those I love. This year it feels like it’s all the usual suspects and there’s nothing new to give—sweaters, DVDs, candy, same old [...]

Advertising

Why It’s Hard to Be Premium

We all know how hard it is to turn a profit in today’s economy. What’s even more difficult is sustaining the value of a premium brand, what with brand names shelling out coupons, cutting all marketing and even changing their product ingredients to become the “chipper chicken” of their category. (Thank you, Steve Martin.)
The video [...]

Advertising

Pepsi: Showing Brands How Not to Behave One Misstep At a Time

Pepsi has gone and done it again. If their AMP iPhone App catastrophe wasn’t bad enough–where they completely alienated their entire female consumer population–they’ve gone and offended the public in yet another colossal blunder.
Last Saturday, Pepsi sponsored a concert in Uganda featuring controversial murder performer Beenie Man. An account of just some of the contention [...]

Advertising

The Legion of Extraordinary Things

Extraordinary: going beyond what is usual, regular, or customary. — Merriam-Webster
Last night, while watching my recording of Wednesday’s So You Think You Can Dance (yes, I’m one of those people), the show’s host introduced me to a group called “The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.” While this seems like a fun name, I was hardly going [...]

Advertising

Premium Brand Communication 101

Premium brands distinguish themselves from the competition not only in their products, but also in the way they communicate with their customers. One good example of this is in e-mail marketing. Although e-mail is growing and consumers are likely to opt-out if they feel the messages to be irrelevant or impersonal. There are more than 200 billion email messages sent each day, and of the 91% of consumers who opt out or unsubscribe to emails, 46% are driven to brand defection because the messages are simply not relevant.

Public Relations

Does Macy’s Really Bring the Magic?

Until recently I had never shopped at Macy’s, but I always knew it was a place I wanted to be—kind of like Disney World. I credit the beloved holiday film Miracle on 34th Street for creating in me a loyalty to a place and brand I had never actually experienced—they did have the real Santa [...]