Matthew Fenton

Helping good people build great brands.

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Six Important Questions for This Year’s Super Bowl Advertisers

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Quick show of hands: Do you have a marketing budget of five million dollars?

And if you did, how would you feel about spending it in 30 seconds?  Because that’s exactly what last night’s Super Bowl advertisers did.  Repeatedly.

That’s nearly $167,000 per second – more than most Americans earn in an entire year.

So I trust you’ll forgive me if I approach the Super Bowl ads, and the surrounding fanfare, with a healthy degree of scrutiny.  I’m a brand guy – always have been – but I also know this:  If it doesn’t sell, it’s bad branding.

And, based on history, most of last night’s ads did not sell. [Read more…]

8 Lessons for Challenger Brands From the Top 100 Global Brands

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Earlier this week, WPP and Millward Brown released the annual “BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Brands Ranking.” The news this year is that Apple jumped Google for the #1 spot; the top ten is rounded out by Microsoft, IBM, Visa, AT&T, Verizon, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Marlboro. (The press release, with links to more information, can be found here.)

The Top Ten – according to Millward Brown.

Such lists can serve merely as conversation-starters, like discussing with your friends the top five live albums of all time.*** But for those of us who didn’t make this ranking, there’s much to be learned. Below, I offer eight lessons, inspired by this list, that challenger brands can apply. [Read more…]