Investigating social media’s spam-bot problem
Building your brand via social media? Using spam and bots to do it isn’t worth the cost to your reputation or ROI.

How can marketers cope with trans-fat fright?

Can Canadians make a Super Bowl ad? Please?
The reason you don’t see good ads North.

Customer service that doesn’t suck
Apple is good—even great—to its customers, but is it going overboard?

How important is creativity in direct?
Who knew something as innocuous as “list strategy” could ignite heated contests of will among direct marketers and the agencies they employ? Wars have been fought for greater. But today’s marketers are demanding more than a letter, a call-to-action and a 1-800 number. With the demand for integration, the rise of the Internet and market fragmentation, direct agencies are being challenged to try whole new approaches to reach consumers who are increasingly distracted and less inclined to listen. What’s the right mix of strategy and creative? Strategy brought together four creatives and one brave client to find out.

How should agencies respond to the federal sponsorship scandal?
Some say the ICA and AAPQ should take an immediate stand – others say let’s wait and see

Behind the scenes with a brand: Cirque du soleil plays the Vegas slots, comes up straight cherries with Kà
Ever wonder how many late nights and how much haggling between client and agency it took to get a campaign to market? We’re betting you have. So we asked a couple of agency/marketer teams to give us a step-by-step “fly-on-the-wall” peek into the launch of their brands.

Kiehl’s comes to Canada
‘Pharmacy-as-fashion’ cosmetics retailer markets the time-honoured way: to one person at a time

Battling for dollars
Everyone agrees the direct spend is increasing – but which agencies are getting the bucks?

Who’s afraid of the big bad Internet?
It took a while, but our panel of experts finally figured out what it will take to get more ad dollars spent online