Abercrombie & Fitch has never made me feel good. I've always left the store feeling a) robbed of money b) cold (the fabric is thin), fat (it's hard not to), and also angry in general that I'd succumbed to the societal pressures of attempting to prove I am living a certain lifestyle.

I remember my first proper sales job really well. I worked at a publishing company on various titles selling advertising space. The company was irreverent, creative, and professional and I absolutely loved going to work there.

This latest development hasn't made him any friends, but is this really a 'Big, Fat, Marketing mistake' (Fox News), or brand management in action?

Bang! Accenture goes and buys a design firm and suddenly there's Big Magma in the air. AdLand's cosy world has been seriously shaken this time. Boom! The venerable observer Ad Age warns AdLand: "Look Out: Accenture's Invading Your Turf in a Bigger Way Than Ever."

There are a plethora of lists citing the most innovative companies in the world published by some notable names in media. It does not matter that all differ in their membership; the debate of who is in and shouldn't be and who is missing but should be in is not important. What is important is that there are common principles of innovation to learn from and that can be drawn from the companies that are expertly surfing ahead on the wave of creativity.

Remember that blogging is just one instance in which you can create great content to achieve business goals. Whatever your platform or format, make sure content is authoritative, written by the best people and original.

In this sense, within the space of my career, marketing has gone from nothing to everything. That's some journey.

So how can consumers be persuaded to act? The first option is to explore generic insight into behaviour change. Unilever, for example, has defined five levers for sustainable living or tips to persuade consumers to act. Make it: understood; easy to act; desirable; rewarding; and habitual.

It's certainly not going to be easy for Nike to distance themselves from Pistorius. And they won't be helped by having Nike adverts appear next to editorial stories of brand ambassadors caught up in all sorts of trouble. But this is going on every single day in markets across the world. Due to the nature of online advertising, once an advert is sent out from the original advertiser, they basically give up their control of where the content lands.

Businesses that once believed in segmenting the value chain, are beginning to understand that consistency is key to building momentum. As such, to continue being relevant in this world, PR needs to not only be clearly integrated with all marketing disciplines but also with historically business functions such as sales.