Sometimes it seems I do little other than see, hear, plan or produce marketing. Whether it’s a flyer through my door, an email in my inbox, or a message via a social network, I’m receiving a huge amount – and there’s even more via snail mail, TV, radio etc.

But sometimes something simple stands out, and this one made me chuckle. Today at work, I decided to go out to the smoking area at the back of the building, and on a low wall outside was a pile of 20 or so lighters, all branded with the name of a local pub. Underneath was a sign saying ‘Please take one’.

Either someone just wanted rid of a pile of lighters, or it was a reasonably simple targeting of the people most likely to actually need a lighter – especially now that smoking is banned in pubs in the UK!

In the midst of sophisticated marketing and targeting techniques utilising databases, touch points and insight, sometimes doing some simple and old-fashioned actually stands out.