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My Toolset & Tech Stack

My Toolset & Tech Stack

As a CMO a day and half a week and company culture and strategy consultancy leader, I use a number of different tools to help keep on top of my work and help me to stay productive and on top of upcoming meetings and coaching sessions.

I am often asked about what tools I use and if I have any recommendations. I thought it would be useful to share in a dedicated blog post.

Here is my tech-stack, I am a mac user and iPhone user so the majority of these are available for Windows and Android phones.

📲 Video Calls

Meeter

Deeplink for video calls, it can be a nightmare to manage all the different calendars and quickly grab the right URL for video calls. Meeter helps to centralise, remind and deep link straight into the right software or URL. Pricesless when you have back to backs or different clients on different software.

FaceTime

I like to centralise all activity onto my MacBook, this is a personal preference so I have attempted to shift as many calls, mentoring sessions and coaching calls onto FaceTime over Zoom, this helps clients go for walk and talks and allows flexibility with making notes when required.

FaceTime Audio

FaceTime audio also helps me use my MacBook and keep my headphones in so no need to keep searching around for my phone or the right headphones. FWIW I strongly recommend using headphones with all phone calls, video calls etc, the echo and background noise without headphones is a nightmare for both parties.

Circles

Zoom is something we will live in, some see it as CCTV but others see it as the only way they can keep in touch with their colleagues by seeing their faces and their reactions.
Circles is a great tool that sit on top of Zoom and opens as your default app on Zoom meetings. It enables the attendees as bubbles (floating heads on the top of your screen) and allows you to see everyone speaking and see the presentation or continue with reading documents and finding answers vs the default Zoom view which is controlled by others not you. I highly recommend Circle with agency meetings, with larger internal meetings and a way to concentrate and amend the size of the attendees head etc.

Whereby

As a solo business consultancy owner and CMO/CGO, I don’t always have a need for large video calls. Free zoom, meet and FaceTime are all good options but I have been using whereby in recent weeks and it’s a great alternative. Great quality for up to 4 people for free, I have not had an issue with the video or audio. There are two other options for premium services but if you have had enough of other alternatives or have a need for a high-quality product Whereby is well worth a signup.

Logitech Streamcam

Two things that we have all realised, cameras on laptops are poor quality, fuzzy and frustrating, seeing your colleagues clearly is essential and good audio makes and breaks meeting attention.
Thankfully my girlfriend brought me a dedicated USBC webcam the Logitech streamcam, it is crystal clear HD, has a good mic inbuilt and streams by default in HD. It works well with FaceTime, with Google Meets, Zoom, Whereby and Zoom. There are not many other good webcams available, and I have found it really helps me and was a talking point for many people who said how clear my video is.
Always remember: headphones make and break remote and hybrid meetings.

📆 Calendar Management

iCal

centralise calendars – I have four different email and calendar providers, if it wasn’t for Meeter and iCal it would be impossible to keep on top of everything in one place. I am unique that I deliberately break out my email clients, as you will see below.

🎧 Headphones & Mics

AirPods Pro

I cannot say how much the AirPods Pro are a step up from the AirPods, the pro’s are great and last hours, especially when you are like me and have to listen to music, mixes and podcasts while working, AirPods Pro are great on video calls and webinars. I tend to use wired headphones so they never run out on webinars, panels or remote presentations but AirPods Pro has not failed me yet.

Wired Apple headphones

I might be one of the ten per cent who has no problem with the classic and wired Apple headphones, they are durable, reliable and the mic is perfectly placed for calls, webinars, panels and when you present on remote conferences.

Samson QU2 Mic

In the recent isolated talks I wanted to ensure I had the best audio possible, after quite a lot of research the Samson QU2 was the bundle every podcaster suggests and mic expert recommends for podcasts and easy plug and play. It’s great even in larger rooms and the sound quality and settings are easy to tweak. I have used on a number of calls and panels and works really well.

🗣Presentations

Apple Keynote

I personally prefer keynote to all other presentation options out there. It has many more customisations and allows better presenting options especially remotely vs PowerPoint or browser-based apps. It has its flaws has it is not as easy to share and collaborate however for the style, the ease and the ability to export in multiple formats you cannot go wrong.

Google Slides

Startup clients love slides, if I have to collaborate or co-create slides tends to be easier than shared PowerPoints. Slides is a good option if you need multiple people working on the same presentation. Be wary like I said in remote pitching advice, as it is still designed for solo demos, not multiple pitches and demos.

📧 Desktop Email

Spark

Email can be distracting and misleading of importance, Spark is a great tool if you like an intelligent mailbox that uses smart tech to notify you of important emails vs just emails. Once you use it for a couple of days, you will become an expert in shortcuts and being able to schedule emails and send quick responses. Well worth getting used to and if you prefer having all emails in one inbox, the multiple inbox mode also works well in handling notifications vs Outlook which still wants you to spend your day living inside it.

Web – Gmail

Gmail has improved recently, it is Google’s obvious play to be the centre point / the canonical option to work from. Gmail is getting smarter at filtering emails and allowing you to quickly read attachments and quick response, especially with AMP-based emails. I use different browsers for different clients, so Gmail tends to work best outside of Safari as like all Google products it resources heavy. Firefox and Chrome (or Brave) work best.

📧 Mobile Email

Outlook Mobile

Outlook is by far the best mobile email app available. The customise settings are great, especially when training the app who is important and who is not. Outlook syncs very well and is my go-to app for my Focus consultancy.

Spark

Like the desktop version, I cannot sing Sparks praises enough, the multiple inbox management is definitely one of the standout features as is the integration with so many other tools, if you are out on a walk the cloud attachment options are invaluable and the makers have clearly thought of the important use cases. If you like to schedule emails Spark will be a great addition to your toolkit.
Spark is great for business or personal email management.

Mac Mail (iPhone default)

Often overlooked but a great canonical mail client, the clarity of the app is brilliant, the ability to quickly manage important emails makes it a must-have app. I personally keep for my personal emails.

🎙 Podcasts

Mobile: PocketCasts

I am a huge Podcast fan (podcasts vs vodcasts), I am a ‘super listener’ which means I listen to way too many. It is therefore important I use an app that helps to cut out white noise and removes the frustrating blank spots. Pocketcast is simple to use, free and manages notifications well. I love pocketcasts because of how you can share podcasts as URL’s and embed them. There are hundreds of good options but for me, Pocketcasts is the best player on the market.

Desktop: Podcasts

I never used to listen to pods on the laptop however I have found whilst working from home I have fewer interruptions and whilst cooking etc I can play from the MacBook and take my headphones in and out, alongside if there are calls etc it will pause etc. The podcast app has improved and if you use shortcuts, and (dock menu) control + right-click you can rewind, pause and forward. The related podcasts and host information has improved this year so if you love an episode or enjoy the host it is a good tool to explore and discover other podcasts.
If you love podcasts, here is my updated podcasts I recommend and update weekly

📝 Notes Taking

Notion

I am a huge believer in note-taking, having your own knowledge centre and keeping an internal personal wiki, note-taking is an art form that many people need just do not realise how important a note, a log or history of ideas and thoughts can benefit them personally and professionally. Having any structure in notes is invaluable, being able to link the notes together and have hierarchies is going to level up your operational skills and your professional career.
Notion is your one-stop-shop for notes and organised notes. I am a huge fan of what Notion has done and how they have made a tool that answers so many problems alongside helps you take quick or detailed notes in seconds. I tend to use Notion for more detailed and structured notes, especially around clients, the CEO or CMO mentorship clients I have and the ability share these notes as documents, PDF’s or a client area.
It can be free but the small business option provides great storage. Their YouTube channel and templates will become invaluable if you dedicated some time to Notion. Notion is what every good product should be:
easy to learn, easy to use, easy to share.
Their iPhone widget is brilliant and if you have a team or department and struggle with knowledge centres before, Notion is the tool to roll out, train very briefly and see knowledge become more accessible, searchable and less hidden or hoarded.

Apple Notes

I love apple notes simplicity and the ability to share quick and snappy notes. I personally use Apple Notes for quick ideas, concepts, to do and a listen of information I need to do or share. One feature that many overlooks is the scanning feature and ability to save PDF’s centrally from downloading on your mobile. Then iCloud will give you a log of important files and PDF’s vs trying to find them in numerous different devices and folders.
Apple notes are definitely one of my most-used apps and something I couldn’t live without. I will often start in Apple Notes and move to Notion when needs more thought or more connection. Even with the other more detailed notes products available,
Apple Notes has always won over others for me, especially paired with Notion.

If you have any great tools or something I missed in my tech stack, happily let me know by clicking the button below

Email Me

An important related read is remote meeting rules & remote pitching tips.

Categories
Blog marketing

Building Internal Relationships Advice & Tips

Building Internal Relationships For Marketing & Business Success - Deepcrawl

Following on from the recent Deepcrawl The New Era of SEO Automation Event, here are a number of pieces of advice to build relationships and ensure you and your business have cross functional success and improve your business performance.

General Advice

SEO is not new – so most developers are aware of the importance.
Recommended Action: Make SEO relevant to the developer and Product Manager (Or Project Manager).

If you experience big shifts or important updates, have open dashboards or reports where developers can see this easily.
Recommended Action: Let people develop their own understanding, their version of what’s happened and help them understand it from a revenue and then from an SEO POV. Search first can mislead others from how important it is to them, their team, the business.

Revenue Discussions

By knowing what % of the company revenue comes through SEO, you can easily be able to show the benefits of your required work.
Recommended Action: If SEO is low % it will be treated as such unless you have a relationship and prove growth. If mid to high % it will be taken extremely importantly with a good relationship.

Relationship is key to gain buy in.

C-Suite titles rarely want to get into long debates, especially when it comes to dark arts and unscientific like disciplines like SEO.
Recommended Action: Use exec summaries and highlight revenue impact and then ask for longer debate when they can make the time. Forcing time upon c-suite instantly creates a more difficult conversation.

Build relationships

SEO is often a team that is not always connected closely enough to the Marketing Department.
Recommended Action: You will need their support and buy-in – help to build relationships, help social teams understand the algorithmic shifts from search as a lot of these applies to social media and social teams see this happening every day.

Build relationships with Product Teams and Data teams. These will be really important partners moving forward and will be important gatekeepers in important business decisions made.
Recommended Action: Help to share knowledge and insights with these departments and collaborate moving forward.

Build relationships with development team or agencies, the more they see you and hear from you – the more affinity and trust they will have for you.

Decision Makers

Know who makes the decisions internally and the frameworks they use.
Recommended Action: Build and apply to their frameworks. Without this, you will be seen as taking their time or wasting the company budget.

Product teams are often the gatekeepers for decisions and speak on behalf of many teams
Recommended Action: Collaborate, develop their knowledge, share their language and fit into their goals. Making others internally famous is often the quickest way for buy in.

Clearest Communications

Speak without jargon
Recommended Action: Be with clarity and sanity, remove SEO jargon, the less many senior people will keep on track or support with a quick discussion.

If you are technical, never get into a coding debate with developers.

Documentation helps almost 95% of the time
Recommended Action: Share documentation – development teams are used to github and other platforms where documentation is standard

The way you communicate will make or break relationships early.

Coach & Develop

Offer lunch and learns or morning coffee sessions to help to offer teachings to those who are interested.

Looking for a help developing your company or internal teams? Get in contact below for advisory & interim coaching for CMO’s and CGO’s.

Email Me
Categories
Blog

Five Communication Tips For Leaders

Five Communication Tips For Leaders & leadership teams

Communication is always the hardest element of any job. Especially when you are a manager or a leader of a business.
Being able to: talk simply, write important updates, to cut through the noise on instant messages, to explain hard decisions, explaining the next action plan or importantly asking for help are all essential elements of leadership communication.

Here are five tips for leaders to take on and improve communication for you and those you work with closely and influence those around you.

Post-It Note Comms – Clear communication comes from understanding the subject matter simply if you cannot explain it simply, you likely do not understand it simply enough. Take the time to understand and explain it as simply as possible. If you cannot explain it by writing on one post-it note you likely need to try and explain it again.

Small Notepad & Pen – always have a tiny notepad where you can write the points you have to get across. Write in forms of bullet points and have trigger words that help you explain your point clearly and concisely.
Military leaders to astronauts to elite sports coaches (including Jose Mourinho in the Amazon all or nothing series) all carry around notepads and pens and use this technique.

One Channel For Essential Communications – we all struggle to get a message to cut through as we are overloaded with communication channels. Agree with your teams and or department which channel is for essential news. There should then be no excuse for missing important comms updates.

Decision Document – Create one home for all decisions that are essential and important for everyone to know and understand. Unknown knowns kill companies inside out. Ensure you have a decision document or hub where all important decisions are marked out and a record is kept. Always assign a date and a follow up where possible.
Notion, Google Docs or Confluence are all popular choices.

20 Minute Planning – Each week block out twenty minutes planning sessions where you plan out your week, the priorities and how you are going to discuss and communicate all actions. This twenty minutes will help you centralise your thoughts, prioritise what to communicate. A twenty-minute wrap-up block is also something I recommend when coaching or mentoring leadership teams.

Bonus: A sitdown session as leadership teams are some of the most interesting and useful 10 – 30 minutes of any week. Have one person who takes more informal notes of wins and upcoming challenges and shares these, the two little ways to get strides forward for the week ahead.

If you are a leader or enjoy leadership posts like this, go and sign up for my weekly leaders letters below, you will join super smart leaders from Amazon, Google, Facebook & Venture Capital firms:

Categories
Blog marketing

Marketing Is

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 next step

Marketers have struggled to communicate their action plans and the why they are recommending their list of tactics and actions.

Many Marketing Leaders have stepped too far away or are too close to management teams to really break down Marketing into it’s simplest form and then struggled to communicate why they are going to take specific actions. This erodes trust quickly.
As I mentioned in RIP to the CMO role (deck embedded below), this has to change.

The next time you look to explain and demonstrate what Marketing is and what you (and your team) are looking to achieve, this is a list you can run through and explain and build-out underneath these headings.

This might seem simple however by having these as sub category headings you will enable the whole organisation to understand and get behind your Marketing streams.

Next time you want to build out your quarterly plan or annual action plan consider how you integrate this with my 9p’s process: Problem, Pick, Plan, Prepare, Predict, Present, Preview, Prove, Proof

Categories
Blog growth

Retention Test Ideas

Retention is often one of the more difficult elements of Marketing, Growth or Product.

Typically you are reliant on extra work or building bespoke tools or flows.

Growth loops are more common now and with the recent lockdown, retention is going to be essential for all existing businesses. I’ve said on recent panels and livestreamed events, retention will be the new growth for many companies.

Retention can be broken down into the traditional
(1) repeat usage,
(2) repeat purchases.

Or into the more modern approach


(1) re-engage (when the user has gone quiet, consider comparing against their L (usage plotted over time) or apply on a smile graph)
(2) reactivation (reactivating the user when gone inactive)
(3) reacquire which is the hardest as the user has decided not to use you and you will have to pay another fee to bring them back to you.

Retention used to be the overlooked part of Marketing teams, many Marketing and Product Departments rely on the email (CRM) teams taking the lead in the lifecycle emails. 

Repeat users would either use the brand or received enough comms (email, social media, SMS you name the channel) until they brought and used you again. 

In the over-communicated world we live in, there just are too many channels, this blast (or spray and pray) approach just won’t work.

Ideas To Consider 

Having a look back through more recent retention work and the best performing retention programmes, here are the best from my twenty years across Marketing, Product and Growth. 

A word to the wise, the majority of these were hand-cranked, yes there is very rarely the silver bullet. So roll up the selves. 

Personal Concierge Service 

Personal doesn’t mean edit the name and URL it means getting to understand the user, their objective and crafting outreach to let the customer know you are wanting to help their cause, you want to speak to them personally and you will be available to them when it is convenient to them. 

The personal concierge service is time-consuming but you are not looking to roll this out to 100% of users, you are looking at a quality cohort of 5 – 10% of users. This can be earlier in their journey or when their usage (or spending) spike drops. A red rope service is always an option if you have the staff who are great at what they do and can speak and create action plans for users. It is important to note in 2020 and beyond many people actively dislike the phone call or look to have live chat or even look to turn it into the dreaded zoom call, if your staff are comfortable these are all options.

If you are lean with staff or cannot leverage customer support or customer service, have one dedicated day you can assign for member(s) of the team to offer this. 

If you know how to spot early usage patterns and quality signals vs quantity signals you will really easily be able to identify the people to reach out to first. 

Bespoke Personal Tips

Everyone loves a nudge, behavioural science and economics have always said how important personal tips, nudges and recommendations are. When you are close to the product, it is easy to think the product is simple to use. In fact, as I have said previously, products have to be easy to learn, easy to use, easy to share, if your users are not all technology advanced or are time-limited it is important you make the product as easy to learn and as personal to their use case so they can use it more or use the product more effectively. 

Something that many teams won’t consider is looking at the users, how many other users or their network they have brought with them and helping users to understand their network makeup and recommending to bring them specifically to the product. Close friends, close family, colleagues, promoting in groups/promoting on social media and then broadening to friends of friends are all ways you can help shape and guide users 

A Thank You

Trivialization Effect is one of the more under-used behavioural economics out there, a thank you is something we as humans are primed for and look for validation or verification from external sources, brands and products can also leverage this if you have a connection with the brand. 

A thank you has taken many shapes in recent years (from an emoji reaction on Slack or Microsoft Teams, to a gif in email or a thumbs up in response to an email) but sending a thank you great examples include email, a handwritten card or letter or a personal push / SMS can do wonders for your product and WOM recommendation. 

These thank-yous have to be more than a generic thank you or a gif, it has to show you understand them individually and appreciate their efforts. Take it out of the CRM flow and look to review their actions or purchases. 

Gifs can now be edited to scale, personalised designs have never been easier or creating video has never been as cheap or editable at scale. 

Looking at users product usage or purchase habits does not have to be creepy, it can be something like picking out a review they have previously written, some feedback they have offered or a recurring gift they send. 

Be mindful of sending a good time and encourage them to have a conversation with you one to one (over that communication channel) vs taking it to social media. 

Leaderboard (Competition)

Leaderboards are like polls they are great for engagement and great for passive for use. Using the product or connected product is the goal however passively caring about how they are doing and being able to benchmark against someone they didn’t know they could be competing with is a sure-fire away to receive an increase in usage and interaction. Being top of the leaderboard or top x % always leads to social sharing or private sharing across chat apps like iMessage and WhatsApp, look to understand what makes everyone win vs attempting to make it number 1 spot is the only winner. 

Encourage lighter competition and fun. Don’t always force competition if you are asking the user to spend more, push more or take a big action.

The leaderboard email trigger hooked in users and became the most opened email we sent out, your logic has to be smart and knowing when not to send an email.

Something to keep in mind for leaderboards is to ensure if you drive to a landing page you should prompt the user to know they can take their next action in the header or show notifications otherwise you are will a passive user or forget the purpose of why you would like the user to come back to your site.

Remind Me

Very rarely is it convenient for both parties online, what I mean by this is if someone contacts you it is rarely convenient for you to stop what you are doing and take that action they require.

One of my favourite tests was rolling out a remind me feature, it was a calendar based remind me service. A little detail, the calendar is still the best way to nudge someone and remind them of the action they need to take, why you might ask… gmail (50%+ of my email users) nudges users by sending a push into your calendar, sends you one to two emails before the event and stays sticker than any other notification. It can also nudge more than one person at once. Simple, straight forward and is very low cost and low friction and is normal behaviour. Getting the right time will be a test but something you will help you.

Categories
Blog

The Future State Podcast

The future state of podcast logo

Over the last month a friend Nick Walter and I have been recording a new podcast.

The Future State podcast is 50 to 65 minutes of us talking about the future state of specific industries.

We research each area, we discuss and debate the vertical and the key players and then we break down the history, the current situation and then where we predict that industry will go to with our c-suite hat on.

The first four episodes have been well received and cover:

  • The future state of work (link to full the future state of work transcript)
  • The future state of conferences
  • The future state of football
  • The future state of brand partnerships and endorsements

Here is a sneak peek of this week’s episode, including my rant about how important the culture community manager will be for designing the hybrid office

Sign Up To The Podcast Newsletter

We have a dedicated newsletter accompanying the podcast that goes straight into your email inbox once the episodes go live with our research, our breakdowns and our future states aka hot takes on the industry.

So sign up below:

So, Listen to the podcasts below or subscribe in your favourite app:

The Future State Of The High Street Podcast – The Future State Podcast

The Future State Of The High Street 🛍  Nick and I to discuss the important elements of the high street and answer the important questions:The challenge of the high streetThe history of the high street was to address the needWhy the evolution of butchers and grocers were so important in shaping today’s landscapeThe community and local aspect of the high street and the importance of retailIs the Poundlound IPO a sign of potential promising times?The question that we should consider: Did fast fashion outlets kill the high street or was it online marketplaces? Thinking more than just eBay, Amazon, the newer marketplaces like Onbuy.com, notonthehighstreet & EtsyAre high streets, shopping centres, retail parks considered the same thing or are they all competing?Why immersive experiences are the way to goWhy Google, Amazon and Apple have stores as essential brand extensionsWhat’s coming next… a brighter more integrated high street?
  1. The Future State Of The High Street Podcast
  2. The Future State of VR
  3. The Future State Of Voice
  4. The Future State Of Work
  5. The Future State Of Conferences
  6. The Future State Of Football – The European Super League

Subscribe On Your Favourite Podcast App: 

Apple // Spotify // Google Podcast // Audible // Amazon Music // Deezer // Listen Notes //  Mixcloud // PocketCasts // Simplecast // Breaker //
Or copy and paste this RSS into your podcast player.

Categories
Blog marketing

Anonymous Textline Failure?

📱 Anonymous Textline Failure? 😞 .001

Last year I set up Focus, which is a dedicated company culture and company strategy consultant. 

My mission is to: fix the broken world of work. 

Why?

Many people have had negative experiences in business and they typically come down to two key elements, the workplace and the people. Unfortunately, businesses just don’t have the time or right management in place to address these issues.

I have worked in:

  • The best environments where you feel empowered and you win every day.
  • The worst toxic cultures and you feel helpless and no one should feel like that at work.

In most businesses, the more senior you become, the more disconnected you tend to become from the day-to-day. 

What people are feeling, what they are doing and what hurdles they are facing. 

In some instances, I was lucky to be close enough to colleagues to hear what the issues were, what problems they were encountering and how the team were feeling. 

No one is ever trained or prepared to be a business leader and fix every problem.

It is important to call out I love coaching and mentoring and part of the deal when you continue to help ex colleagues after leaving is you become known to provide “therapy” to colleagues years after leaving. 

🧠 Brainwave 🚀 or Brain Fart 💨 ?

In a brainwave, during the first lockdown, I mapped out issues people faced, from the most junior to the most senior members of companies. 

The most common issue that kept coming back in my spider diagram was the leadership and important decision-makers were “too busy”, too unapproachable or disconnected from the day to day to understand that the strategy was broken or the culture was failing. 

The business person in me knew there was an opportunity to help junior to senior members of companies with an anonymous way of getting in touch with me.
No one junior to mid-levels wants to email from their work email address that their company has issues and could be traced back. 

Often senior leaders do not want to be the first person to speak up or speak out against the consensus, sad but true. 

More than an unanswered agenda item

Even more common, sadly, company culture and strategy are agenda items on the ELT agenda or the MT agenda, they are often nudged down or deprioritised while firefighting other issues.

The Marketer in my head kept suggesting that people will want to contact the right person or people to help, particularly with company culture, so I created the anonymous textline, (a simple process really I brought a new virtual number, added to my mobile), where I do not use the name or number of the person who has reached out but some unique identifier and enough background to highlight the issue and the company would benefit from listening and creating conversation around the issues they were facing. 

I promoted out as a content marketing rather than advertising, I promoted via my newsletters, I tweeted, I shared on LinkedIn, I shared to industry leaders and waited for the flood of texts to come in. 

The flood never came. 

The honest truth, I have received 3 text messages in nine months:

  • One was too early for the company to tackle
  • Another was an agency that needs help but cannot sign off the budget due to corona
  • And the other wanted me to cold call without any information as they were in a unique place at the company. 

Why this story?

Some times the best idea even with decent distribution can be too early especially in a pandemic while everyone is just keeping their heads above the (troubled business) water, it can be too subtle, it can be mistimed or misplaced or it can be too easy for people to reach out for help.
Sometimes friction does help.

Or potentially a good idea needs to be made great by investing huge amount of paid advertising behind it to make it hit the critical mass. 

In life you can hit home runs, more regularly you have to stop, review, tweak and go again. 

In marketing and growth being prepared to go a few more rounds helps you standout and win vs other competitors who are short term thinkers, so the lesson is to deliver a great product offering or feature, be prepared to tweak, test and iterate and iterate again. 

So yes, the above actions is what I am going to do. 

I live, learn and hopefully going to liberate a number of company’s struggling.

FWIW: The anonymous textline number is +447480064060

Categories
Blog growth

X of Y

are you the x of y?

Back in 2014, I was helping brands with their Marketing, typically either auditing existing teams and activities or helped to build our their department and work with teams on workshops and developing long term campaigns.

In a recent googlemail search, I came across a deck I ran through and worked with a large travel company.

The sign that it was a good deck, you could still reuse the majority of the slides.

A go to popular slide that really stood the test of time was:

FWIW: The content matters – my slides are much better designed today 😉

You Have To Be

  • “Kings of content”
  • “Queens of data” 
  • “Chiefs of engagement” 
  • “Leaders of common sense” 
  • “Presidents of user signals”
  • “CEO of Personalised Marketing” 

It dawned on me that these are still true, over the last two years we have slowly seen every brand become a media company, some are media first others are product first with (content) media building trust and audience.

I thought it would be an interesting exercise to review these statements and tweak for 2021.

“Kings of Content” – still true, could be improved with rich media.

“Queens of data” – still true and going to continue to be. The question of needing more internal data vs using external data will be the debate for many businesses moving forward.

“Chiefs of engagement” – still true and requires more handholding and more great content and one to one engagement versus one to many as it was back in 2014.

“Leaders of common sense” – still true and actually should be doubled down on much more now than before. Particularly with the rise of personal brands and multiple brands within businesses.

“Presidents of user signals” – “Presidents Of User Intent” still true however could be improved to user intent. User signals were more specific to the requirement to SEO first businesses in 2014, today intent is a much better metric, signals are still a vital part of the funnel or loop.

“CEO of Personalised Marketing” – still true, however, in today’s world we are now living in an over personalised marketing landscape, this could be improved and optimised to CEO of marketing personally.

NEW: Masters of Distribution – By far the area of marketing and growth that is grossly misunderstood and still too spray and pray versus being more intentional and deliberate in tracking and optimising for the user and each user. This is not easy but the data and tools are available to make the best distribution action plan at a personal level.

Any new product or a product that is winning in 2021 has three components:
1/ User brings their network and creates a must use narrative,
2/ We serve you great & right content – you will share this to your closest friends and family (one to one or one to few) not blast (vs one to everyone) which brings a recommendation referral to the product or service
3/ This product is going to replace one very clear activity or action – we know our audience doesn’t need millions of tools, or one master tool we need one tool that does something brilliantly and bundles or unbundles current below par products.

NEW: Customer Champion – We live in a time of customer power and empowerment. Are we doing enough to market to our customer at the right time for them, on the best channel for them when it is convenient for them? This is the question to answer in 2021 as reducing churn and driving repeat usage, repeat purchases (retention) as we come out of this cycle.

This all means there is a lot of work to do but core principles you can follow and the problems you can answer for you and your customers.

On your next campaign or pitch, consider these statements and build towards making you the Kings of content, Queens of data, Chiefs of engagement, Leaders of common sense, Presidents of user signals, CEO of Personalised Marketing, master of distribution and customer champion.

Important Related Reads To Improve Your Marketing & Growth

In “marketing is” I break down the 9 actions you have to think about to deliver a great campaign.

In the 9p’s Problem, Pick, Plan, Prepare, Predict, Present, Preview, Prove, Proof I offer the steps you need to go through to build out the right process to help internal stakeholders buy into your marketing efforts and succeed as a marketing and growth leader.

If you would like to understand where you are in the brand hierarchy or brand class system read the 7 brand classes.

Categories
Blog Business

The Invite Only Podcast

Demand Over Convenience

Over the past couple of weeks, a friend of mine Nick Walter (CEO of a Mixed Reality Company) and I have been recording a pilot podcast.

This is an invite-only episode – we are not pushing out via the usual channels, we are looking for podcast fans to listen and feedback.

FYI: The sound is not perfect & we are working on the flow, however, we debate the food delivery world.

Important Talking Points

  • The evolution of food delivery
  • The impact of food delivery
  • The cost and business impact
  • How habits have shifted
  • Why you probably will want to be tactical on ordering
  • Food box churn issues
  • And importantly, Why I believe dark stores and dark kitchens are the future for so many QSR businesses and new brands

Listen Here:

The Food Delivery Debate Markers

  • 1:10 – Drive thru’s
  • 3:17 – Habits & habitual
  • 3:25 – Resurgence of the milkman
  • 4:25 – Delivery matrix explained
  • 8:03 – Ordering in is the new going out
  • 10:10 – Cultural shift
  • 10:40 – Professional complainer
  • 14:34 – It is still not fixed
  • 14:48 – Leeds takeaway kings (North Vs South)
  • 15:21 – Could surge pricing be introduced?
  • 16:33 – Dark kitchen and dark stores to win?
  • 19:07 – Getting an Uber – a local sign of trust?
  • 20:44 – Churn issues for food boxes
  • 22:10 – Path to least resistance
  • 25:02 – Milkman issues – dairy vs allergies
  • 26:38 – Nutrition opportunities
  • 27:00 – Service x local data = win
  • 28:56 – Nick’s hot take
  • 29:55 – Opportunity vs barrier
  • 36:03 – Health space improvements
  • 37:05 – Stopping the churn
  • 40:25 – Sainsbury’s chance to win

Happily let me know what you think of our second podcast run, the pod is still in beta so we will be improving our set up and attempting to reduce down the length.

Email With Feedback

The Food Delivery Matrix

Categories
Blog growth

5 Timeless Growth Videos

I am often asked for timeless videos to share with Growth advisory clients or their teams.

So here are five I commonly share that doesn’t dive into tactics but will help open up different conversations and think a level up before diving into the tactical side of Growth:

How to start a movement

Why herding and 25% effect turns into a movement

1% Better Every Day

This is important viewing as 1% improvements are often disregarded

The Story Behind Musically (TikTok)

Why culture and thinking differently really matters

Focus On Your Northstar

Why having one north star metric is essential in growing to huge audiences. Chamath speaks so much sense and truth here, you will learn many lessons in many different situations after watching this.

How to explain your product

Snap’s always been difficult to understand for non core users, if you cannot explain your product this simply, you will have issues

Categories
Blog

The 5 per cent – Vision

Vision - the 5 per cent

Vision is something that few people have the older they become.

Vision is like being arty and being creative, I believe vision is often undone from you around the early teen years and the older you become the less you get chance to really use or exercise it – depending on home and work life.

The closer to delivering every day, the more tactical you are, the less likely you are to be able to see differently, take a step back and see a bigger picture, a bigger trend.

People & Products

Many people will be seen as a data first person, show me the data and I will make something fit.

Or here is problem I need you to solve and more people can go away and solve a problem posed to them.

This is not right or wrong however it is what makes us all different and unique.

Unique To Humans

This is how us as humans are unique, we are led into different paths and forget we can make the change to see or think differently.

Humans are easily conditioned by their surroundings, this often leads to we then do not challenge ourselves to make the change or self improve to get this muscle back.

It is also fine not to want vision.
Or not to always see it.

Vision To Me

This is how I see vision, I am often asked about the difference between tactics and strategy, I actually think the other layer is vision, vision to see more broadly for a strategy to fit into with a number of tactics to roll up into it.

Vision is something maybe 5% of people have and actively work on and through. 

Vision really to me, is to see differently, vision to think differently, vision to act and create differently. 

This is often the difference between:

  • Short term do-ers – 65% of people
  • Midterm thinkers – 30% of people
  • Long term changemakers – 5% of people, people likely with vision

For me this is why many people see things overly binary (black and white, 1’s and 0’s), because the vision or idea does not fit in their own set of boxes, they have to try and place into a box they have or they dismiss.

Vision Is Everywhere

Vision is often what separates the good and the great sportspeople.
Some players are two or three plays ahead or two or three passes ahead.
Sometimes it is the intangible, the unexplainable.

Excitement Vs Dread

Vision unlocks excitement in a tiny few, others feel scared or get anxious from something new or big.

Having vision is about seeing things differently, being able to understand it and see opportunity where 95-99% of others just don’t.

Vision is often what enables business people to act differently, challenge the status quo and the norm with new and fresh takes.

Vision is often extremely complex to articulate and the key part of enabling others to see your vision is to breakdown into the smallest chunks and compare to something else that is available or an updated version.
Think why we often have to compare a service to something else, examples like: The Google of X, the Uber of Y, the new Z.

Where Do You Land?

So what per cent are you? The 5% or the 95%?
Do you have vision?
Can you develop it?

Categories
Blog marketing The Future Of Marketing

🤯 Everything As Experiences

everything as experiences

Everything As Experiences 🤯 is the third theme in the future of marketing blog series. Everything as experiences is a way to think about the next move in Marketing and giving your customers real experiences they want to talk about, share and re-experience.

There has been many things written about the third space, right now we have two clear spaces, home and work.

The third and important space is the experience space. The 10% space where we will crave to have more experiences, enjoy more stimulation and look to escape.

With the number of varying lockdowns and quarantines, we have experienced many fewer experiences, some crave the theatre, some immersive movies, or like me art and zoo’s.

Like with everything as a billboard and everything as contactless, here are five ways for your business to leverage from a Marketing, a Growth and a Product department perspective.

Simple Experiences

We have craved experiences with lockdowns and quarantines, we have had our homes become work and our work defaults to being at home.
Humans are craving experiences, we are looking for immersive experiences, can you add something to the mundane or what has become boring?

Can you add to it by creating trails, walking adventures, walking tours, running playlists etc? 
Simple experiences that you can do solo or in a pair alongside pairing with a leaderboard or leaving notes or tips for others looking to experience this will be great ways to engage this audience.

Safe, Intimate, Personalised

Cinema / Theatre – Smaller more intimate experiences are what we will crave and feel safe with, can you offer an exclusive first look, a slightly more luxurious experience, or consider how you can spread people and colleagues out and build out deeper immersive experiences with brilliant visuals, brilliant surround sound or spaces where you do not want to use your mobile? 

Yes, this does mean scaling down or scaling up experiences with smells, different sounds and more tailored experiences, this also comes with better margins and people talking about the experience vs just the film or performance.

Rethinking Retail

Retail has been one of the hardest hit industries, huge brands have collapsed, many have been sold and brought by younger, online only brands.

Something that has been missed from retail is the touchpoints and the experience of good retailers.

There are many elements that have been missed and are actively being craved and this won’t change:

  • The visuals
  • The inspiration (and the aspirations)
  • The aural experience
  • Hearing the sounds, the music, people around you – many miss being around strangers
  • The touch of something on your skin, the feel of the item of clothing, the varying quality between two items
  • And then the taste, treating yourself to a coffee, a snack from your favourite treat spot and being able to have one day full of experiences.

There are many areas we look for, here are the areas you will want to include when creating your experience, visuals, audio, text (seeing and engaging with text), the touch / feel of something and adding taste into the experience.

I truly believe retail as the biggest opportunity with the right positioning and training can kickstart revenue spending and win over online for many people.

Peloton and connected fitness have really owned many of these areas and re-built to own their category.

Dark Stores & Experience Stores

Dark kitchens aka ghost kitchens have grown exponentially in recent years, not just because of restaurants shutting but down to being able to scale, offer your food to many dinners at completely new and different locations and branch out your offerings in a repeatable way, alongside ensuring you can keep your margins down.

Many dark kitchens operate on the well-known food delivery apps, some are available directly and although the cost and logistics are higher the ownership is higher.

What if in the future, these dark kitchens become hubs of experiences, blended with many of the other options and inspirations offered above but combined with retail, combined with personalised days organised for you.

Partnerships will be essential to win this space, this is how many local highstreets and stores have stayed alive and competed against much larger businesses. Local communities tend to step up and support each other in times of need. If you remove friction points and enable quick, convenient and reliable experiences you have a chance to win the even increasing bagel economies.

The High Street is struggling, many will be ghost towns when they re-open, there will be real estate that goes unopened, unused for many months at a time, what if we rethought this and applied a dark store approach.

In September 2020 I recommended in my 2021 predictions local would be essential as would the opportunity around dark stores.
Some ideas:

  • Being able to offer fewer people (not cramming) into the store,
  • Offering invite-only in-store experiences you make the experience far more compelling. In-person, red rope treatment has been lost in recent years – leverage this.
  • Personalisation: you can offer personalised experiences with personalised pricing
  • You can connect online and offline together, gaining a better idea of ROI and CAC, alongside connecting LTV.

If this location was dark and invite only this would mean customers could book and you can build scarcity around the store, you could offer stock levels and instant picks ups – which many will look to, click and collect is still a huge influence on purchasing.

This truly can improve bad trips and turn into true experiences.

3D / 4D Experiences 

Experiences require more than one layer, experiences are more than two dimensions they are 3d or 4d. Remember going to your favourite galleries, your favourite sporting events, they include the visual, they include a sound (even silence) they include the arena, they include people around you (a small number to a group or crowd) and they typically involve the smell and a feeling.

Taking inspiration from your favourite theme park, the theme part craft experiences:

  • The story is vitally important
  • The way your emotions follow the three-story arch
  • The way you feel and the ways you connect and then interact with the story
  • Most recently they added smell and liquid, typically water to add another layer of connection and experience and leaves you walking away thinking about the experience and wearing it (wet clothes or smelling od something) for the rest of the day.

Is this format something you could leverage, could you create or curate experiences using all of these senses?

Win the future of marketing and growth by creating experiences, where you can consider leveraging contactless tech, leverage billboarding and improving experiences connected to you and your brand.

Read The Other The Future Of Marketing Articles

✋ Everything As Contactless
The Future Of Marketing – Peloton & Inspired Connected Fitness
The Future: Everything As A Billboard
Categories
Blog marketing The Future Of Marketing

✋ Everything As Contactless

everything as contactless

As part of The Future of Marketing series, I took a dive into why billboards is a huge opportunity, the near future of marketing again.

In this post, I dive into ✋ Everything As Contactless and the huge opportunity there is in contactless and innovating.

✋ Everything As Contactless 

1/ Entertaining Experiences

We will need to consider how we market and connect safely for a number of years to come. Contactless evolved massively in the last fifteen months, QR codes were used more than basic uses, contactless payments become default experiences.
How can you make the contactless experience more entertaining, more rewarding, can you offer perks and rewards on receipts etc?
Be inspired by offering experiences with contactless, rewards are great to create habits and make connections to products, people and brands.

2/ Developing QR Codes

QR codes to make payments is commonplace in Asia, it has been for a number of years, it has not been commonplace in the west.

This is now about to change, how do you consider QR code design, how do you make this experience smart, seamless, safe and entertaining.
All area’s to consider, develop out and build experiences.

3/ Online To Offline To Online aka O2O2O

QR codes were designed to connect – we have spent years attempting to connect offline and online together, we are going to see this flow add another loop, offline to online to offline or online to offline to online, this is how to close the loop and build deeper experiences.

Driving footfall was somewhat hard to prove but driving offline online become more important and more interactive.

The question to answer with this is: How do you add a frictionless extra experience to improve marketing opportunities, more growth opportunities and add true value and convenience to the user.

4/ AR (& Mixed Reality) Becoming A Reality

AR (Augmented reality) experiences will be key, something that gaming has led the way with is offering AR and developing their games when it was not as safe to be outside, Pokemon Go won by tweaking their game and introducing indoor experiences versus having to go outside, this led to a record year for the game.
Snapchat has really developed out their toolkits to incorporate AR.

How would you build in an AR experience with mobile phones? Apps, browsers etc. All important and lower cost now than ever before.

How can you drive an extra element of experience with shopping? With pickups? With curbside?
These are all exciting opportunities for Marketing, Product & Growth teams. AR doesn’t have to be expensive but done right is imperative. Can you introduce AR or MR into your roadmap and connect with your customers?

5/ Physical Product Enhancements

Consider how you can tweak your physical product to incorporate different elements of contactless, can you add a QR code to add to the experience like Coke and many other brands have done recently?
Can you add an SMS number or WhatsApp number to contact for quick feedback or help those who could be struggling to download the manual or gain support?
These are not new concepts however these are all areas which contactless can reduce friction and increase loyalty?

So, can you use these five points?

Can you build contactless experiences?

Are you and your business up for the challenge?

If you would a Marketing Advisor reach out below:

Marketing Advisory

Recommend Follow Up Reading:

The Future Of Marketing – Peloton & Inspired Connected Fitness
Categories
Blog marketing The Future Of Marketing

The Future Of Marketing – Peloton & Inspired Connected Fitness

Fitness was first mover in affluent communities

As part of the Future Of Marketing series, I took a closer look at Peloton and how they built and developed much more than a product or a series of products, they recreate the brand, the luxury fitness at home category.

Here are the slides from the broader presentation:

  • Fitness was first mover in affluent communities

Connected High End Fitness Trend

Fitness has always had connotations to more affluent communities, fitness is expensive, gyms membership, personal trainers, work at home equipment are all expensive options.

Peloton – Leader of the Pack

Peloton has been clear from the moment they launched they were for the high-end fitness fan.

So, here are the learnings you can apply from connected fitness and more specifically.

Community Member Living, Breathing, Touching & Sweating Peloton

I created Jess as a persona you can connect with:

Peloton community member "Jess"
  • Jess Loves connecting with people safely and as an introvert, she can work out from her comfort area
  • Jess loves her Peloton, in her space
  • Working out in groups and working out realtime feels like something that keeps her going
  • Jess loves her instructors and connects with them on personal levels not just as her instructor – affinity is key
  • Jess is powered by beating her personal bests and sharing these achievements on her social media
  • Jess was convinced by her friends in their friend’s group chat to buy her bike and subscription – Peloton best growth tactic is friend gets friend, this is a considerable benefit Peloton gains from their business and performance model. Joining an active network or growing one makes a product experience far more
  • Jess is a huge advocate and convinced her friends to invest in Peloton, this is herding her friends not just referring them.

Instructors Are Celebrities

  • Peloton was deliberate with their instructors and turned them from instructors to influencers and celebrities.
  • Emma Lovewell is the original instructor and was part of the original Kickstarter campaign.
  • Instructors connect with millions of Peloton community by training them regularly, engaging with them in real-time (& on-demand) and working out in their homes, seeing their home, seeing them sweat with you are all levels of connection you wouldn’t get with other products.
  • Emma is also attempting to grow her own audience on YouTube, offering insights into her life away from fitness.
Emma Lovewell - Peloton Instructor Celebrity
Source of Info

Addictive Peloton

  • The Peloton community were looking for Pelotons in hotels to book and continue their fitness ritual their streak their status their Instagram update finding their place on the road.
  • When something is engineered to keep you as active and engaged as Peloton, Peloton lovers will do everything they can to continue their workouts (streaks) to stay involved and connected to the brand. Many search and seek out the physical Peloton product vs use the app.
    This is very smart and engineered.
  • Peloton also has app options so you can work out if you don’t have access to your equipment or are looking to work out and cannot afford their specific equipment.

Peloton & Connected Fitness

  • Peloton might not be the first or last but combining with the connected fitness space there are many more reasons to work out and expand the Peloton model
  • Boxing and combat-based fitness has grown exponentially and will continue to do so, Hykso and Fight Camp are just a few in this space that is doing well and connecting equipment tracking fitness
  • With the recent expansion from Zoom with onzoom their marketplace offering for PTs etc and Apple’s move with Fitness+ we will see an unbundling of fitness and see masterclasses from huge pro athletes and ex-pro’s who will love to connect and train with their audiences with inspirational brands.
Connected Fitness Options

The Future Of Fitness Is Shaping Hotels

Hotels will be the first to think about how to become more connected to their customers.

Prediction to leverage becoming:

  • Low-cost gyms
  • Flexible Gyms
  • Pop up venues
  • Flexible offices
  • Room-based restaurants
  • Hybrid conference venues etc

Inconvenient Truth

The truth be told the gym 🏋️‍♂️ was inconvenient like many other offline activities. 

We have however just moved our exercise & sharing habits online too. 

Peloton, Mirror etc are just the tip of the iceberg for offline moving online & having a celebrity instructor train you will be almost normal but only accessible for those who invest. 

Peloton have grown tribes and moved tribal habits into herding, herds of people bring others along with them on their fitness drive.
Why? Price, increased status, feels bigger & more important than a product

Apple fitness+ will be biggest & best athletes training you. Do not discount Apple coming into the space more aggressively and making their brand presence felt, especially with the first non apple produced product that aligns so well with Apple quality and branding.

Lessons To Learn From Peloton & Connected Fitness

1️⃣ Question to answer every year but essential in today’s market? 

  • Am I part of a habit 
  • Can we be part of a ritual 
  • Can we make it onto their lists 

Tribes & Herding

2️⃣ Tribes…

How people think of Tribes: The bond over common enemies.  

But Tribe typically means: 

  • Empathy
  • Meaning
  • Connection
  • Safety
  • Friendship

Tribal Nature 

  • Do I belong? – Yes and with the instructor, we get to know 
  • How can I belong to this? – With exercise & in their groups & leaderboard, it’s being a better you
  • Where do I go for this feeling? – And how do I continue with this feeling?

Why is this the future of marketing?

  • Affluent community = high spend, high renewal, will make their money work for the high priced fitness equipment
  • This is your equipment, it is worth over £3000 – it will take prime real estate in your house. Potentially the only item that will challenge the television for prime real estate in your house
  • The quality product works – a quality product is your best marketing and cheapest marketing campaign
  • The rider gets rider loop = referral loop of friend convinces friend to invest in to the Peloton ecosystem.
  • Social Gold – every ride is posted online and maximises the reach of the brand and leverages vanity as the sharing mechanism
  • Social media groups have really connected members and created a deeper community layer
  • The different option of classes makes it flexible and connective.
    Live classes – connection to the instructor and the other riders
    On-demand – makes the class flexible for you and enables you to connect to the instructor when you cannot be live
  • The instructors form connections with the riders, their backgrounds
  • The leaderboards feature is not unique but allows you to compete or compare yourself on your latest ride. It can be something you choose to review or choose to ignore.
  • Tribal communities connect at a deeper level, herding also happens with friends bringing friends to the product and then friends of friends joining and being able to compete
  • In the future when we return to travelling or having to visit other offices, Peloton and connected fitness members will seek out these devices to continue their streaks and fitness workouts.

Despite the recent issues with stock levels and keeping up with demand, Peloton have built a model many brands can replicate moving forward. Marketing, Growth and Product leads should use Peloton as a guide to affluent communities and addictive products and services.

Learn from their ads and the spoof ads

Original Ad

The Peloton Partnership with Beyoncé is genius

Brilliant Spoof Ad

Categories
Blog marketing The Future Of Marketing

The Future: Everything As A Billboard

The Future Of Marketing Everything as a

In the recent The Future Of Marketing webinar I hosted, I recommended that we would see the future recycle a number of features and tactics we have experienced previously.

I made a number of recommendations where I broke down the future and how to capitalise on it. In The Future Of Marketing blog series, I will include blog posts, decks and rich media-based content to help inspire you and help shape your thoughts moving forward.

The wider larger concepts we will see are:

  • The shift towards interacting with items, objects and people differently
  • How there are going to be thousands of opportunities with objects becoming billboards
  • A new demand for how we see and interact with entertainment,
  • How we view and interact with “live as on-demand”
  • How we will see a huge shift and a new demand towards the third space – the experience space.

The everything as a theme came from how we will be inspired by reliving and re-introducing ourselves to experiences, to objects and

everything as a billboard

Here were the ways I suggested the attendees think and consider with build the future not reacting to it and being too late.

Everything As A…

  • 🤳 Everything as a billboard 
  • ✋ Everything as contactless 
  • 🤯 Everything as experiences
  • 🤩 Everything as entertainment 
  • 👁 Everything on demand  

In the coming posts, I will share five ways to think about these concepts and how to consider using these in the future.

In this post, we will tackle 🤳 Everything As A Billboard and how to think around billboarding and refreshing the concept in the transitional period we will be experiencing until midway through 2022.

Here are five ways to look at opportunities in forms of billboards.

🤳 Everything As A Billboard 

1/ Walking Billboards

With limited activities, we are seeing a lot less stimulus in person, tote bags, clothes, food and drink packaging are all billboards.
Many brands lost Marketing opportunities when they removed free bags and were charging for brands, this was right for the environment, many brands missed out the second-order effect of this and did not see the risk and missed marketing opportunity.
Starbucks is still incredibly lucky they are open and have the ability to turn any walk into a billboard moment, consider how you leverage this with your brand and brand packaging in the near term future.

2/ Wearable Billboards

While everyone is using video screens to communicate and host events, an opportunity is to leverage what is in view… an example is what people wear, what their backgrounds are, what you make appear as a prop or how your logo appears. There are great opportunities in this, especially with QR codes etc.

3/ Leveraging View, Touch, Sharing Experiences

In the near future, we will see more shops, galleries and ‘normal everyday life happenings’ open up, these are huge potential moments for Marketing, Product and Growth teams.
Consider how your brand can stand out and can create touchpoints back in normalising times.
Bags were and are great adverts, viewing items, touching, feeling, eating all great opportunities and experiences to connect and leverage packaging as actionable and shareable billboards.

4/ Locational Billboards

Consider how you think about key locations where people will be walking, running and when possible eating outside, these are all opportunities to leverage billboard moments or create billboard moments. Leveraging locations will be smart but competitive, see how you can leverage this early and beat your competitors to the punch.

When we are comfortable to eat outside, there will be a number of opportunities to leverage billboards, think of outdoor spaces like sponsoring benches, communal areas, food packaging and working with local councils to offer sponsorship or development of local area’s. Local has been hyper-relevant to everyone, especially those who proactively decided to move out of cities or move further out of busy cities. Shop local will continue but convenience is always the factor that wins.

5/ Micro Moments

Can you offer something more compelling, more engaging, more rewarding with these micro-moments?
Leverage the mobile phone and AR to truly build connections and shareable billboards.

Billboards are not just static and basic adverts anymore, billboards are what you make of them…

More Inspiration Here