Mad Men, Mad Women, Personal Commercial Branding

As with all good advertising headlines, ´I Need Mad Men! Publicity & Branding´ stopped me in my tracks – before following the path to Andalucía Lab, Marbella, to hear Personal vs. Commercial Branding techniques and opportunities for merging the two.

Many will have watched title series ´Mad Men´ with its portrayal of Madison Avenue ad agency Sterling Cooper, set in 60s New York.

The lecture was right up my street after working at ad agencies in 80s London, account exec at Francis Killingbeck Bain (L’Oréal, Durex), The Marketing Triangle (Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Schweppes) and Ingram Group Promotions (British Airports Authority, Sealink Ferries).

In an interactive four-hour talk by Ida Fernández – with a stream of questions from the 28 participants forming on-the-spot case studies – key sections included:

Personal brand

• Website, blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…
• Ref TIME front cover http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20061225,00.html

Commercial brand

• Kotler´s 4Ps of Marketing
• Cases: Honda, BMW, VW

Elements of the brand

• Image
• Personality/Style
• Values
• Positioning

Mad Men era

• The Agency
• The Client
• The Studio

Social Media era

Prosumers: Producer/consumer e.g. grow/make your own, multifaceted roles divided among:

• The Consultant
• The Planner
• The Thinker
• Human Resources
• The Freelancer
• The Developer
• The User (User Experience)
• The SEO
• The Storyteller
• The Producer
• Communications Manager
• Public Relations

Publicity today

• Fragmentation
• Digitization
• New habits
• New supports
• Twitterization
• Dynamism

Season´s Greetings from a copywriter, not a designer!