Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton are up to their old tricks again.

A new edition of the Age of Conversation is under construction and here is a few of the contributing authors already talking about the second edition courteous of Angela Maiers:

Drew McLellan, Luc Debaiseieux, Ryan Karpeles, Greg Verdino, Lori Magno, Gavin Heaton, Connie Reece, The Kaiser, Katie Chatfield, Tim Jackson, Doug Meacham, C.B. Whittemore, Becky Carroll, Gordon Whitehead, Daniel B. Honigman, Daria Rasmussen, Jay Ehret, Jasmin Tragas, Jamey Shiels, Organic Frog, Bill Gammell, Nathan Snell, Stephen Landau, Stephen Collins, Stephen Smith, Mark Earls, Steven Verbruggen, Neil Perkin, Brett Macfarlane, Dino Demopoulos, Chris Wilson, Asi Sharabi

Here are the authors of the first Age of Conversation:

Gavin Heaton, Drew McLellan, CK, Valeria Maltoni, Emily Reed, Katie Chatfield, Greg Verdino,Mack Collier, Lewis Green, Sacrum, Ann Handley, Paul McEnany, Roger von Oech, Anna Farmery, David Armano, Bob Glaza, Mark Goren, Matt Dickman, Scott Monty, Richard Huntington, Cam Beck, David Reich, Luc Debaisieux, Sean Howard, Tim Jackson, Patrick Schaber, Roberta Rosenberg, Uwe Hook, Tony D. Clark, Todd Andrlik, Toby Bloomberg, Steve Woodruff, Steve Bannister, Steve Roesler, Stanley Johnson, Spike Jones, Nathan Snell, Simon Payn, Ryan Rasmussen, Ron Shevlin, Roger Anderson, Robert Hruzek, Rishi Desai,Phil Gerbyshak, Peter Corbett, Pete Deutschman, Nick Rice, Nick Wright, Michael Morton
Mark Earls, Mark Blair, Mario Vellandi, Lori Magno, Kristin Gorski, Kris Hoet, G.Kofi Annan,Kimberly Dawn Wells, Karl Long, Julie Fleischer, Jordan Behan, John La Grou, Joe Raasch, Jim Kukral, Jessica Hagy, Janet Green, Jamey Shiels, Dr. Graham Hill, Gia Facchini, Geert Desager, Gaurav Mishra, Gary Schoeniger, Gareth Kay, Faris Yakob, Emily Clasper, Ed Cotton,Dustin Jacobsen, Tom Clifford, David Polinchock, David Koopmans, David Brazeal, David Berkowitz, Carolyn Manning, Craig Wilson, Cord Silverstein, Connie Reece, Colin McKay, Chris Newlan, Chris Corrigan, Cedric Giorgi, Brian Reich, Becky Carroll, Arun Rajagopal, Andy Nulman, Amy Jussel, AJ James, Kim Klaver, Sandy Renshaw, Susan Bird, Ryan Barrett,Troy Worman, S. Neil Vineberg,C.B. Whittemore, Mike Sansone

I don’t think the Commonwealth Bank of Australian made any friends when they engaged the services of Goodby, Silverstein and Partners (USA), to develop their new advertising campaign. 

In fact, you could say, the big Australian Advertising Agencies were really p*#sed-off.

But now the TV commercial has been launched, the buzz is: What the hell were they thinking?

I think their slogan "Determined to be different" doesn’t resonate with me – It’s a boring bank and it just does not fit with the current CBA image!

As marketers and advertisers, we should know that to reposition a large iconic brand such as the CBA is an expensive and time consuming project.

Just changing a tagline is not going to change consumers perception of the bank and using dated eighties Australian images such as Croc Dundee, Koalas and Mad Max may infact offend potential Comm Bank customers.

Now, if the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is really determined to be different, why didn’t they use a regional advertising agency. Now that would be bloody different…just image the CBA announcing the appointment of Sticky Advertising, a small advertising agency based in Newcastle to develop their next campaign. That’s different!

For a big ozzie corporate to look to the USA, is not being different – looking and trusting highly trained talent in Australia and especially regional Australia…IS!

TJAY00 posted the commercial on YouTube, so have a look and decide for yourself:)

Source: Media Hunter

With the announcement that McDonald’s is going to equip all it’s stores with new coffee bars and baristas. Has this iconic brand alienate its traditional Big Mac customers?

Also, this new marketing strategy appears to have stepped on a few toes with companies such as Starbucks and Gloria Jeans…this could mean WAR!

The first salvos of the coffee wars maybe happening already. According to The Wall Street Journal, Starbucks is already offering small cups of coffee for $1 with free refills in its hometown of Seattle. That’s about 50 cents less than the Seattle-based coffee retailer normally charges.

What is McDonald’s doing? Are they trying to reposition themselves or are they just losing focus?

In an article titled "Competition: How McDonald’s Will Kill Itself Killing Starbucks" by Chris Dannen, Chris talks about the possible negative effects persuing this strategy.

In Australia, where the McCafe’s have been running for a few years, its been a success with no real effect on their major competitors such as Starbucks and Gloria Jeans.

Is the McCafe Latte experiment…McWrong?

Check out the Wall Street Journal article below:)

Now that I’ve been working at an ad agency for nearly a year, I can now truly appreciate light bulb jokes by Dabitch:

Q. How many copywriters does it take to change a light bulb?
A. "NOBODY changes ANYTHING!!"

Q. How many art directors does it take to change a light bulb?
A. "Does it have to be a light bulb?"

Q. How many account executives does it take to change a light bulb?
A. How many would you like?

Q. How many creative directors does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Let me go to LA and find out.

Q. How many Mac Artists does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Did you book time for this work?