This Video of a Do Lectures talk is well worth your attention. Basically, it's about the merits of building a company you don't want to sell. It's obviously worth it if you are thinking of starting an agency, from those 'what if' conversations you have with people you trust and like, to getting serious and…

I saw a workshop structure recently from a creative agency. It was nice and simple which was a good start. The premise was based on the accepted wisdom that people don’t respond to advertising anymore. Let’s gloss over that shall we? On one hand, the argument went, we’re seeing brands grandstanding – you know, big…

Don't you just love it when clever people come up with new buzz words. Like 'post-truth'. Facts in politics and wider life matter less and less. Trump lied, Farage lied, Boris lied. But the think is, George Osborne lied with his 'emergency budget', or at best, over-claimed. As did most economists who predicted an immediate,…

I'll never forget a comment from former boss in 2008. "I like recessions, it means you can squeeze more out your people". I'll let you decide on the moral implications of that comment. But from a more practical perspective, while young people feel they have a strong work ethic, the pay and predictability of working…

You may have heard the phrase 'marginal gains'. It's something folks in cycling use a lot, where you micro manage the detail, so lots of little changes add up to a whole lot of difference. It's kind of like Pointillism of you like your metaphors – where the school of painting led by Pisarro etc…

My little children are getting into Star Wars. For someone who was brought up in the 70s and 80s this is an intense joy. To misquote a couple of lines from Fever Pitch, there isn't anything that many people have loved for over thirty years as consistently as some people my age have loved Star…

If you haven't read John Steele's Perfect Pitch yet, you should. It's really good and there is something to learn for everyone. But it has a fatal flaw, as do most marketing type books, it exists in the land of perfect.Or at least the land where you have three months and unlimited research budget. He's…

Let's face it, communications briefs are very brand biased. I like this questioning I saw: "The brand will be a very small part of the target customers' lives. What's the rest of it like?" "Where does the brand fit in? Where could the brand fit in?" At least it's realistic about the role of brands.…

What you put is directly related to what you put out. If you're reading the same stuff as everyone else, you'll do the same stuff as everyone else. Cultivate interesting aquaintances. The more you hang out with people who do different stuff to you, the better.  There's nothing more dull than talking about brand models…