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Paul Simons
Paul joined Cadbury-Schweppes in brand management and then moved to United Biscuits. He switched to advertising in his late 20s, at Cogent Elliott and then Gold Greenlees Trott. He founded Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow & Johnson in the late 80s, one of the leading creative agencies of the 90s. Simons Palmer then merged with TBWA to create a top ten agency. Paul then joined O&M as chairman & CEO of the UK group. After three years he left to create a new AIM-quoted advertising group Cagney Plc. He is now a consultant to a number of client companies.
Paul also shares his thoughts on his blog. Visit Paul Simons Blog.
By Paul Simons on March 6, 2013
WPP recently made a brief announcement about the merging of two of their ‘production’ businesses, Hogarth and Deliver. It’s not clear from WPP’s website yet if this will become one brand under the Deliver name which was reported, but it is early days. The merger on the face of it appears to make a lot [...]
Posted in Agencies, Analysis, Clients, Creative, Media, News | Tagged deliver, hogarth, Paul Simons, production, production departments, Sir Martin Sorrell, tag, traditional agencies, williams lea, WPP
By Paul Simons on February 25, 2013
The influences that began to shape my thinking started in university days with TV programmes such as Monty Python. New ideas were slowly creeping out and the migration to advertising didn’t take long. It was a period when the creative juices were like the sap rising in spring across various pursuits such as music, photography, [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged bbh, bmp, bouncing balls, cadburys, desert island ads, fallon, gorilla, JWT, Paul Simons, simons palmer, smash martians, Sony
By Paul Simons on February 25, 2013
There must be times when a client is sitting in their ad agency meeting room having just seen creative proposals, wondering what to say next. This must have been the position the team from BetVictor were in at VCCP when they saw the suggested idea for their brand – Paul Kaye in a variety of [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News, PR | Tagged Alan Sugar, betting site, betvictor, Clients, comedian, Jack Whitehall, Paul Kaye, Paul Simons, taste elasticity, vccp, Victor Chandler
By Paul Simons on February 15, 2013
The word ‘consumer’ is an irritating misuse of language. This short piece is a soap box moment that’s been waiting to get out for some time. I have a massively irritating issue with the word ‘consumer’. I hear more and more commentators talking about ‘consumers’ out of context. It is turning in to one of [...]
Posted in Analysis, Clients, Media, News | Tagged banks, BBC, consumers, customers, John Billett, Paul Simons, use of language
By Paul Simons on February 15, 2013
Recently I’ve self-diagnosed Jones’ Syndrome – as in ‘keeping up with the J…’. It’s based on my anxiety about becoming an old fart due to my broad lack of interest in the finer detail of the digital world. I’ve heard myself saying ‘cool’ to anything whether it is good, bad or indifferent. I kick myself [...]
Posted in Agencies, Analysis, Clients, News | Tagged apple, brands, brandz, communication, digital, Giles Keeble, jargon, jones syndrome, marketing, Paul Simons, technology
By Paul Simons on February 11, 2013
An issue a lot of advertising people confront today is that of monetising experience and expertise. If we have a heart problem and need surgery our instinct is to opt for the best man in the land and pay him whatever he asks for. Not so in the advertising world. I trot out the following [...]
Posted in Agencies, Analysis, Clients, Creative, Finance, News | Tagged avis, Bill Bernbach, consultants, Dave Trott, gold greenlees trott, london doclkands, Mike Greenlees, paying for ideas, pitches, reassuring expensive, stella artois, we try harder
By Paul Simons on February 5, 2013
Trust seems to be a growing issue for brand owners. The latest scandal has been the horsemeat saga in burgers. Tesco (left) acted instantly with full page ads in the national press apologising followed up by a further full page ad informing the public what they have discovered and what they are doing about it. [...]
Posted in Analysis, Clients, Finance, News, Politics, Research | Tagged banks, brands, brandz survey, cadbury, horsemeat, Kraft, millward brown, society, Tesco, trust
By Paul Simons on February 3, 2013
Talking to people in the advertising world, there seems to be a feeling that start-ups face a far greater uphill struggle now than in the past. There is a conspiracy of factors that make the jump to independence a bigger gamble than say ten years ago; recession, mega-groups, fragmentation, procurement, finance, etc. The barriers are [...]
Posted in Agencies, Analysis, Clients, News | Tagged 18 feet and rising, adam & eve, bbh, Finance, hhcl, John Lewis, levis, nationwide, new agencies, nike, pink underpants, simons palmer, start-ups, wrangler
By Paul Simons on January 25, 2013
Lord Leverhulme of Lever Brothers fame is credited with saying “Half of my advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don’t know which half.’” Applied to car advertising I would venture it is more like 70/30. Jerry Judge has written an interesting piece here regarding the approach most car manufacturers take advertising their products. Jerry’s [...]
Posted in Agencies, Analysis, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged audi, bmw, brand management, car advertising, comfort zone, Jerry Judge, Lord Leverhulme, sales management, volkswagen, vorsprung durch technik
By Paul Simons on January 25, 2013
I was glancing through a few year end results and spotted WH Smith, a retailer I have a grudge with. The bottom line is sales down, margins up. Sounds like a miracle in retail at the moment. So how do they manage to pull off this elusive trick? I try to avoid ranting as it [...]
Posted in Analysis, Clients, Finance, News | Tagged airports, bad service, high prices, high street, Kate Swann, monopoly, retail, wh smith
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