I've just been looking through two sets of brand guidelines, both for household-name b2b brands. They are nice, shiny, well produced documents. Look great in print. But I'm looking for guidance on how we use the brands for online projects we're planning. What we need to know - and I think should reasonably expect of proper, complete, fully-rounded brand guidelines - is how the brands should live in the online environment. And nope, there's nothing there. It's completely absent. It doesn't appear seem to have been considered at all. They aren't even that old - the last one was produced in 2008. MORE >>

It's thought-provoking. It's insensitive. It's powerful. It's shocking. And that it has created a tidal wave of protest is an irony that's not lost on us. If you haven't seen the WWF (wildlife, not wrestling) ad that was created by DDB Brazil, see it below (quickly, before they take the link down). WWF 911 commercial by dalagelli. For the record, everyone responsible has been quick to apologise for it. And of course, a good piece of creative is one that's gets people talking, isn't it? What do you think? MORE >>

When the penalty kick rule was first introduced to English football in the late 1880s, it was greeted with horror by the Corinthians, the dominant team of the day. So engrained were principles of honour and decency in these ex-public schoolboys that they would not accept that an opponent might deliberately break the rules to gain an advantage. Their response was to refuse to score from a penalty on the grounds that it was ungentlemanly. Disadvantaged in this way, Corinthians began a decline as they struggled to compete against the more ruthless professional clubs that were emerging. MORE >>

If we stop and think about the trends we have seen, and continue to see, in how buyers find, investigate and choose potential suppliers the future isn't too bright for any of us. Marketing agencies and marketing professionals in general could well become extinct unless we adapt and evolve. The death of marketing communications as we know it may well be a pessimistic view of the future, or there again it could be the beginning of something new and exciting. But where could it all lead? MORE >>

As you know, good examples of B2B social media marketing are thin on the ground at the moment. And they are all the harder to find when many B2B companies seem to confuse social media with multimedia. You know the kind of thing: people who believe that posting a few corporate videos to YouTube counts as 'social media marketing'. Now don't get me wrong - using video is not to be discouraged as a medium, but unless you have true interaction you still have one-way communication. It's really little more than advertising messages delivered by a new and funky channel. MORE >>