Get your pin for bubbles here Cutting through the Hype, produced by the AAR, is a thorough investigation of the realities of a changing market as marketers go into 2024.  AI obviously features, but so does leveraging customer data, fluidity in marketing ecosystems, beyond purpose and connecting with Gen Z.  On AI, this quote from …

“Let your gut do what it was designed to do” There was some hullabaloo last week after Campaign Magazine anointed Amazon’s Christmas ad Turkey of the Week. Meanwhile, the good folk at System 1 said it was one of the most effective of all time. Cue the semantic trench warfare. Take it away, Lieutenant General …

Death by monetisation  The social internet is dead. “[…] the internet, as we have known it, has evolved from a quaint, quirky place to a social utopia, and then to an algorithmic reality. In this reality, the primary task of these platforms is not about idealism or even entertainment — it is about extracting as …

GLP-1 > GPT Everyone is talking non-stop about a tech that’s changing lives. No, not GPT, but GLP-1s (colloquially referred to as Ozempic). For those that don’t know, it’s a medication that was originally developed for diabetes, but is now also used for weight loss, making us feel fuller for longer. The big question is, …

Would you be up for this? I’m trying to gauge interest for an in-person event we’re planning in London on 16th May 2024 (mark it in your diaries).  It’s called ‘You are not your consumer’ and will explore perspective taking, echo chambers and stereotyping. Plus what the dangers they pose in commercial decision making and …

You don’t need empathy Apologies for any coffee splattering such a heading may have caused.  You see, Ian Murray has argued that marketers shouldn’t be doing empathy at all, that it’s the wrong model for understanding and engaging with the people we call consumers. Instead, he proposes ‘perspective taking’:  “terms like ‘empathy’ and ‘perspective taking’ …

The artificial intelligentsia Back in 1966, an MIT professor called Joseph Weizenbaum invented the first chatbot. Many of the alarm bells he subsequently rang in the 70s are still tolling today:  “By ceding so many decisions to computers, he thought, we had created a world that was more unequal and less rational, in which the …

Those 2 letters again… Unlike the metaverse (remember that?!) and NFTs, it feels like generative AI is here to stay *prays he doesn’t have to eat his hat*.  Companies can’t afford to ignore it, but as Mark Ritson argues, that shouldn’t come at the expense of brand or differentiation. By way of example, Ritson turned …

Listen to the consumer, or… not? First up, a clip of Steve Jobs explaining how Apple made a list of things they wanted to build for their customers. By asking them. And not focussing on their competitors. But we also have Adam Ferrier explaining why you shouldn’t talk to customers *gasps* and how research can …

Worshipping the wrong heroes Martin Weigel, CSO at AMV BDDO, says that strategy is in urgent need of reformation, that it has become obscured by myth, misinformation and process.  In noting that 40% of CEO’s think their company will not be economically viable a decade from now, he states: The inconvenient truth for those who …