If you were to break down Marketing you would be able to break down into a simple list. For someone who has worked in Marketing for twenty years, Marketing has always had the same foundations. It has always had the same core pillars to succeed and can be broken down into just a handful of things. Marketing Is The action The problem The product The content The company The industry The vertical The opportunity The Read more…
Retention can be hard work and a lot of hand cranking, here are some of the most successful retention programmes used across my career.
In my work with Focus, I speak to a number of company leads, department heads and Heads of. I am asked a number of questions, I tend to bucket each question into a category or a theme. One recurring theme is “How do I get the most out of my team?”. The answer is not it depends, it is: How well do you know your team? What is your team members stage? How Well Do Read more…
I have been creating a lot of action plans and reviewing a number of pitches and ideas recently. One of the biggest forms of frustration in business is the brainwave to idea to validate concept, some people just don’t have the right opportunity to presents, others don’t have the right partner. I call this the great idea partner flow, finding the right idea partner or sparring partner makes all the difference. I have been lucky Read more…
Recently I have seen fear has taken over. Not for the obvious pandemic reason, but, from fear of…. Doing something wrong, Fear of not knowing what will work, The fear of not delivering against aggressive goals, The fear of not trying something, The fear of missing an important deadline or target, Or the fear of being seen to have made a mistake. There is also a fear of not performing, many Marketing and Growth teams Read more…
Recently Twitter co-founder and current CEO Jack Dorsey suggested that they would consider allowing users to bring your own algorithm to Twitter. On the surface this is not the worst idea, why? Users could decide what algorithm works for them (it should work more like filters) and what they would like to see. I imagine Twitter sees this like their previous ways of working with tool makers who would build onto the Twitter platform and Read more…
2020 has had a number of interesting trends that have leaped out. Here is a list of interesting trends that you, your growth and innovation teams can consider or Marketing teams should get involved with Fitness: Health and fitness app installs increase 37% in H1 of 2020 – will you be looking at physical or mental health in 2021. Mental health apps have rightly become mainstream, will Calm, Headspace and co make it into your org Read more…
Is it time you go on a content diet? We consume more content than ever before. I believe our daily scrolling now exceeds the height of the Eiffel Tower. We are bombarded with content, we cannot really get away from content of all shapes and sizes, quantity has overtaken quality, it’s a battleground; the good, bad and the ugly. We have TV, books, magazines, podcasts, newsletters, blogs, websites, online video (YouTube), apps, news, social media, Read more…
Virtual meetings are tricky. They create team fatigue, they create greater MRS (meeting recovery syndrome), and without proper guidance or agreed principles, they often lose the zip and the punch required. The silent people on your next video call meeting are likely more frustrated with the format as they are with the same people talking vs just being tired or annoyed another video meeting. Virtual Meetings cause numerous issues within teams and performance, there isn’t Read more…
Recently I have sat in a number of remote pitches for a few clients and advising brands. It’s been tricky for remote pitchers, especially with tech issues. Something I have noticed is how badly the remote video conferencing tools are for two or more pitching and hosting meetings with a Q&A element. I have been on Zoom, Google Meets, Microsoft Teams, Slack and on FaceTime for pitches, these all have been pretty bad for those who Read more…
2020 Has been a challenge for everyone, your career won’t slow down if you don’t let it, here are a few steps to taking ownership and control of your career for 2021.
Time management and getting everything done has always been difficult if we had the secret sauce we probably wouldn’t share it. Working agency side and looking after larger teams really did help to shape my priortisation, you often learn from mistakes but when you try and juggle numerous demands from mundane tasks, challenging people issues and delivering important large projects, you often need to list and order by priority. When I started out in my Read more…