One of the key decisions people who work in marketing must make is whether to work on the client or on the agency side of the business.  I've worked on both sides and wanted to share my perspective.

Working for a client offers the following key pluses: ownership and completion. You're exposed to all aspects of the business, you get the opportunity to genuinely nurture a brand and you deliver tangible results. There's also prestige that comes with working on a successful brand. Agencies are nice to you, your peers respect you, your cv looks impressive.

So far so good. So what are the downsides? In a word - politics. Long meetings, formality, layers of management. It's also easy to get stuck in a rut and feel you're not growing

So what about the agency side? Well, depending on what kind of agency you work at, you can focus in on the bit of the marketing function you really enjoy - often the more creative bits. You also work on a variety of different businesses and therefore learn a lot more. Typically work is more informal, you hang out with your peers and often in cool offices in nice locations.

On the downside - you ‘ve got to service your clients and respond to their sometimes unreasonable demands. You're also always in selling mode and have to become a skilled networker. You're also much more exposed. You stand or fall on the quality of your work. Unlike working in a large organisation there's no hiding place. The rewards can be greater...but the risks are higher

So...it's up to you.

There is of course a 3^rd option. Working for yourself. I'll talk about that in a separate post

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Yesterday was a big day for the book world. The Man Booker Prize Winner was announced - the Oscar /Bafta for books (which was Wolf Hall) and Jeff Bezos of Amazon announced the Global launch of the Kindle a ‘revolutionary wireless reading device'.

I've never tried the Kindle, but to find out more, click here. The 2 big benefits they talk about are

- The paper like quality of the screen

- The fact that its wireless, making it easy to download books, mags, etc

This is the second big entry into the e-book market, following on from the Sony Reader - which I've written out before - so competition's sure to hot up. I should be the prime target audience for this. I travel and read a lot. Market predictions are bullish. However, I'm still unconvinced. You just can't beat the simplicity and beauty of a real book.

A lot's going to come down to price. At the moment it costs $279 to buy and the books cost full price to download. There has to be more in for the consumer, particularly as the cost of electronic s  has come down so much in recent years. Also it's the kind of market where word of mouth is key. If enough people I trust start recommending it, then I may be persuaded.

So who's going to win in the battle between the Sony Reader and the Kindle? My money's on the Kindle. Amazon is so strongly associated with the book world that I think it'll have the edge. Will be really interesting to see.

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The Gillette ad featuring Federer, Henry and Woods was voted number 1 in Campaign Magazine's top ten turverys of 2008. I'm surprised that they're persisting with this campaign in 2009. I suspect its because they need to get maximum value out of the quillions they've paid these superstars. Having 1 superstar sponsor is fine. Having 3 is just showing off. I can imagine consumers thinking...'I wonder how much they paid them?'

I've also seen ads which explain why Fusion Power is better than Mach 3. I've never seen Gillette be as explicit as this in encouraging consumers to drop their old Gillette razor. I suspect that they've had to do this because  Fusion Power's  growth is not as rapid as they'd hoped and that consumers can't see the benefit of trading up.

I often wonder when razor blade innovation will come to a natural limit. I suspect we've now reached the ceiling, but no doubt the Gillette team will try and convince us otherwise.

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