grahamdaldry

How did we make funny ads?

There is only one way to sustain humour over any period of time. With brands, as with people, the consistently funny ones are those that can laugh at themselves. This is what we did. Opticians are serious people in a serious business. They help people see. They stop people going blind. They don’t save dogs fromContinue reading “How did we make funny ads?”

Writing ratings

Writing does not get a lot of attention. In some work, writing seems to have been barely thought about. But words, whether spoken or written, are the parts of communication we remember longest. I thought it would be a useful bit of fun, therefore, to give a words-eye view of recents ads. The ads consideredContinue reading “Writing ratings”

Gravy Songs

As we head unsteadily towards the ending of the pandemic and the coming of Brexit, bringing back both social freedom and the reality of our long-term economic difficulties, it has never been more important to talk about racism. As advertisers, this most sensitive and urgent of subjects brings with it some new responsibilities. There isContinue reading “Gravy Songs”

Recent posts

HOW DID WE MAKE FUNNY ADS? The secrets behind successful use of humour https://grahamdaldry.com/2021/03/19/how-did-we-make-funny-ads/ MEASUREMENT – why data doesn’t behave the way we think https://grahamdaldry.com/2020/05/26/measurement/ DRIVING BACKWARDS – How the briefing process works backwards https://grahamdaldry.com/2020/05/26/drivingbackwards/ WAVEY ECONOMICS – Behavioural economics has a wobble https://grahamdaldry.com/2020/05/26/waveyeconomics/ GRAVY SONGS – These songs of freedom. Thoughts on racism inContinue reading “Recent posts”

Measurement

I sat in a meeting, around five years ago, that changed my views about research entirely. Of course, I’m a creative, so my relationship with research has always been love-hate, but I’d always reluctantly assumed that data must be right. The meeting was a briefing for our biggest research company (one of the world’s biggest).Continue reading “Measurement”

Driving Backwards

It’s a truism that great advertising always starts with a great brief, but in practice I often wonder how true this really is. Great advertising actually almost always starts when the creative team understand the product and critically its audience, preferably by talking to them directly (or by being one of them). How often doesContinue reading “Driving Backwards”

Wavey Economics

Behavioural economics is a brave attempt to fill a gaping hole in our knowledge by providing a science of human behaviour. It is brilliant at post rationalising the things people actually do, and of course it is supported by credible research. So it must be true. What has always fascinated me about it, therefore, isContinue reading “Wavey Economics”