The newspapers drive me mad sometimes. We are all pretty well aware that the world’s economy has some major problems to sort out at the moment. The press however seem to delight in making matters worse, and enjoy nothing more than the current ‘bad news’ feeding frenzy. When times get tough one of the areas that often suffers is marketing. This is almost entirely driven by the thought that marketing is a ‘cost’ and as such can be pruned or even deleted in tough times. With the rise of digital media we have never been in a stronger position to truly measure the value in what marketeers get back for their marketing investment. Which leads me nicely to my subject of this particular entry – effective marketing advertising that really pays off. Last week I attended, as one of the judges, the 100 Watt Advertising effectiveness awards in Stockholm, Sweden. The award is sponsored by the Swedish Advertising Association and Dagens Industri – the Swedish equivalent of the Financial Times. During September and October we sifted through the best of Swedish advertising for 2008. The work we were reviewing was to be judged firstly upon the works effectiveness at achieving the clients business targets and secondly at the ‘creativity’ employed to do this. It was very revealing to be a judge of such an event – and convinced me even more so that advertising and marketing first and foremost should deliver a greater payback than the cost. If your agency isn’t comfortable with that concept fire them. So, don’t give up investing in marketing or advertising – just demand a decent return for it. The winners details for the 100 Watt Awards can be found on the site listed below. http://www.annons.se Cheap Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Sale Windows 7 Ultimate Cheap Windows 7 Ultimate Cheap Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Order Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Discount Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Cheap Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus