Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Alex Tew didn’t give a damn about paying his “dues.” At 21, he was about to start a three-year business management course at the University of Nottingham . . . but there was one significant problem: money. He didn’t want to be saddled with ridiculous student loan debt he would work years to pay off.

Most students his age just shrug and accept that society “requires” them to play by the rules. Tew’s mind was in a completely different place.

After brainstorming ideas to make some extra income to pay off the loans quickly he decided to launch a basic website that would sell one million pixels on the homepage to advertisers for $1 each. A truly strange idea in 2005 that has since been copied ad nauseam....

Creatives, despair! With just six weeks left in 2015, the most shared ad of the year contains nothing but found footage, according to new data from Unruly—hilarious and adorable found footage, but found footage nonetheless.

But maybe that's OK. The spot, "Friends Furever" for Google's Android, caused a bit of consternation at first over at Droga5—the agency that created it, and which is known for creating some of the industry's most original advertising, not just slapping together funny clips it finds on the Internet.

But as David Droga said during an Advertising Week panel in September, you can't be too proud when it comes to creating something compellingly shareable....