Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

On the last MBA course we discussed companies that expect you to go to great lengths just to take part in a promotion. A bit like the mineral company that expects you to drink huge amounts of water just to get a stuffed toy, here is another promotion that really does ask too much of [...]

“Call a spade a spade” we say in English. Obviously a bit of a problem for this American tyre seller… Think they need an advertising agency?

Just right for you, mishes. Inspired by a pleasant pint with the last MBA course (to mark the midway point of their degree, what the German students call a ‘Bergfest’), but also to mark St Patrick’s which is coming up on Monday, I thought I’d share a worrying example of copywriting skills from the emerald [...]

I remember as a teenager how much easier it was to swear in a foreign language. In your mother tongue swear words always shock. In other languages they sound harmless. Which is probably why I find this poster for a German employers’ liability insurance company shocking. I hear a lot of Germans saying “shit happens” [...]

Mercedes: conquering double deckers Mercedes have had some pretty awful PR recently in the UK. For the third time in only four months one of their bendy buses has caught fire.     Who would have thought that the iconic double decker would ever be replaced in London? But they were. By – of all [...]

Good for you, hopefully A report in today’s Telegraph has to be the nightmare of every product manager. It says… “Yoghurt health drinks are at the centre of safety fears after 24 patients died during clinical trials of probiotics, the dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria.” Now, if your product is designed to boost health [...]

Loyalty promotions are a great way to lock in customers and are common in habitual purchase markets where customers buy products time and again – without reconsidering why. Butter, milk, sugar, salt, water: just some of the often commodity style products that fall into this category. So when Eiszeit Quell, a regional German water brand [...]

Not a good name to English eyes, even though it is derived from the Latin word for art, culture, etc. But when I saw this at a Spanish airport, I could only think, “Well, the only English customers who’ll be going into this shop will be looking for arse.”

NO!!!!!!! If ever a slogan was designed to wind up a native speaker, it has to be this one. What are Fiat up to?! Well, it seems this is their launch slogan (in Germany – or do you know better) for the new Fiat 500. The sweet “Italian mini” may be pulling in the prizes, [...]

Poor media agencies. They get a specific brief – eg, target 25+ women, full-time housewives, working class – and can tell you exactly how to hit them on a given budget. But how often do you show them the advertising (the “execution”) and ask them then where to place the ad? Of course sometimes advertising [...]