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Kodak’s picture-slide wheel, the Carousel, is more than four decades old. It has nothing to do with our relatively young creative design and ad agency Odd. We didn’t design the product, nor the promotional campaign. That would have been difficult because most of us here - myself included - we weren’t even born when the product was launched.

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Interestingly for Wetherspoon, profits from food sales continue to grow, so clearly they’re doing something right. But is it through marginalisation of suppliers and improving economies of scale or by making the portfolio a destination for good old PubGrub. I imagine the former. 

Elsewhere, the familiar, multi-cuisine menus we see in Wetherspoon and the like are being replaced with higher quality, more interesting ingredients and the communication surrounding them oozing provenance. 

But pubs aren’t just about food. They’re also about the Craic; grabbing a coffee; getting drunk and catching up with old friends. They’re about all these things and perhaps that’s the problem facing Wetherspoon, who are the Primark of pubs, the volume seller, the high street superstore. I can do everything at a Wetherspoon pub - I can even download a screensaver from their site to remind me of the experience. But the experience isn’t a good one, not unless it’s based solely on value. 

Call me old-fashioned but maybe we’ll see a rejection of the Pub Organisation, only now going into decline since its rise to fame in the 1980’s. In the meantime, the challenge for any pub chain is replication of the original public house principals: a local, uber-personal, focal point of the community. Dare I say it, where everybody knows your name?

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Being asked to spend £10,000 on anything you want is a 20-year old’s dream, but seeing eth guys at Zoo do it is just as entertaining, as you’d expect them to share the same mischievous mentality.

And finally, it did something rare within the lads’-mag category by acting like a brand. The campaign avoids the formulaic product-driving tactic of promoting a front cover, and instead created some living editorial.

With such a concentrated top-shelf market, Zoo living’s attitude and humour differentiated the magazine by existing outside of being just a magazine. Given the increasing demand for 24/7 mobile interactivity, this has got to be the way forward for brands that survive on “of the moment” information and news. Zootube was a literal example of this and a great way of extending accessibility of the idea.

I was slightly surprised the stunts themselves weren’t a bit edgier. Given the target audience and available channels I expected some really risqué content that could be released virally. However, I’m sure the campaign will re-emerge, so there’s loads of scope for more.

In terms of accountability, it will be interesting to see how well the title performs versus Nuts and whether investing into brand differentiation pays off. However, if the ITV documentary of the making of the campaign happens, I’m sure accountability will be unquestioned.

So, in Summary, I think this was a great campaign and successfully created an opportunity for a very fickle audience to step inside Zoo and enjoy the personality of the brand beyond the staple flow of weekly titillation.

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I’m not a fanatical football supporter, but along with millions of other people, I love the World Cup. 

So while I’m possibly not the most qualified person to comment, the TV coverage of this year’s tournament was a bit rubbish, wasn’t it? I’m not going to go off on a tangent, but a lot of the commentary was bland and the distant angles made it look as if the cameramen were positioned outside of the stadium. 

Most frustratingly, they kept cutting away from the best shots-the on-field scraps. So I guess if there was a good time to promote an official alternative commentary, this was it, and talkSPORT was the best candidate. 

A great bit of business planning, impressive Fifa negotiation and a well-timed marketing campaign. But this is where the praise stops. It seems a preoccupation with the business opportunity and World Cup association overtook any consideration of imaginative media planning, creative flair or brand-building. 

If Stelios launched “easyMedia”, then this is what the output would be: a simple copy-only execution set within block-booked outdoor and print, accompanied by tactical radio, a short burst of pre tournament TV and only a sprinkling of PR. The World Cup is one of the most all-encompassing, exciting, vibrant and culturally diverse events on earth – if you’re going to go anywhere near it, surely you have to do something special? 

There are benefits to such a simple approach – a well timed business strategy with a conventional delivery of a simple proposition relies on word of mouth. And, to be fair, initial results suggest the campaign has generated interactivity among listeners and therefore may drive revenue and encourage new listeners. However, as there are no hard results until the next Rajar, I am basing my verdict on a very unimaginative media and creative strategy – a missed opportunity, given the effort of securing Fifa rights and association with one of the most powerful communication areas in marketing. 

I hope I haven’t offended any ITV/BBC presenters. However if its any consolation, I happened to watch England vs Ecuador in the US and listened to the ESPN commentator continually refer to Michael Beckham. Bring on South Africa.

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