Jim Holbrook is CEO of EMAK Worldwide, a family of marketing agencies including Upshot, Equity Marketing, Logistix and Neighbor. He was formerly president of Zipatoni, an independent agency that was sold to IPG. Prior to Zipatoni, Jim served in management and marketing positions at Ralston Purina (now NestlePurina) and P&G. Jim graduated from Washington University and Vanderbilt University. More about Jim Holbrook.
Like the little kid’s question about babies, I often wonder where certain brands’ marketing comes from. Some marketing comes straight from the excel spreadsheet (discounts, coupons, price-offs, limited time onlys etc).
Some marketing comes from the brain – well thought out, clever, strategic.
Some comes from the heart or gut – full of passion, full of [...]
I hereby nominate Nicorette’s “makes quitting suck less” marketing campaign the absolute worst of the worst in 2009… give me a break… a suck-o-meter? Is this what giving up smoking is supposed to be like – sucks? That’s the insight? Come on!
You call it social media, and I call it personal media.
Sometimes the simplest ideas catch my eye. I was out with my daughter shopping for stuff for her dorm room, and I saw this clever device. It’s a bottle stopper and a candle holder all in one. What a really simple idea, and insightful.
On these warm summer nights, [...]
Yeah, no, that’s not a picture of me…. (thank you Google Images)
I left home this morning without my iPhone. This is the first time since August 2005 that I have been without mobile connectivity, seriously. I don’t really know what happened, how I could have had such a mental lapse. I recognized my mistake [...]
Plan the Work and Whack the Mole!
“I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
I am flummoxed at how businesses large and small do planning. I have seen everything from fire, fire, fire to the most rigorous matrixed multi-faceted linked excel workbooks with circles and arrows.
So, what constitutes [...]
