Articles - Alex...
Marketing’s misleading metric
Perverse incentives, and the unintended consequences that flow from them,
can be found on every...
14th Aug 2025
Perverse incentives, and the unintended consequences that flow from them,
can be found on every continent, in every time, and in every industry. And
marketing is no different. This article argues that a malevolent metric
sits at the heart of many marketing discussions and...
Articles - Alex...
Thinking rationally about emotion
In advertising, using emotion is entirely logical. Creative agencies have
made this case...
20th Aug 2024
In advertising, using emotion is entirely logical. Creative agencies have
made this case consistently. But in 2013 Les Binet and Peter Field bought
some much-needed data to the discussion. In their seminal report, The Long
and The Short of It, the duo analysed 30 years of...
Articles - Alex...
The age of average (encore)
The shift to music streaming has led to songs getting shorter, music
getting less melodically...
21st Mar 2024
The shift to music streaming has led to songs getting shorter, music
getting less melodically diverse and lyrics getting more repetitive. Or to
put it another way, just as our visual culture has become more homogeneous,
so too has the music that accompanies it. Let’s run...
Articles - Alex...
The age of average
In the early 1990s, two Russian artists named Vitaly Komar and Alexander
Melamid hired a market...
20th Mar 2023
In the early 1990s, two Russian artists named Vitaly Komar and Alexander
Melamid hired a market research firm to survey the public on what they
wanted in a work of art. Across 11 countries they then set about painting a
piece that reflected the results. Each piece was...
Articles - Alex...
How to ride a recession
A storm is coming. In 2020 Britain suffered its deepest recession in over
300 years. Two years...
2nd Aug 2022
A storm is coming. In 2020 Britain suffered its deepest recession in over
300 years. Two years later and the UK’s economic picture is not much
prettier. This article argues that whilst recessions are a threat to some
businesses, they are an opportunity for others. It argues...
Articles - Alex...
What’s the big idea?
To make a big impact, we need a big idea. In brand communications, coveting
the ‘big idea’ is...
12th Apr 2022
To make a big impact, we need a big idea. In brand communications, coveting
the ‘big idea’ is commonplace. We look for them. Long for them. Laud them
and lionise them. And yet, despite its ubiquitous use, the ‘big idea’
remains incredibly ill-defined. This article is an...
Articles - Alex...
The errors of efficiency
We live in the era of efficiency. The advertising industry is infatuated
with it. Intoxicated by...
4th Oct 2021
We live in the era of efficiency. The advertising industry is infatuated
with it. Intoxicated by it. Enamoured and enthralled by it. We want our
teams to be lean. Our processes to be agile. And our output to be
optimised. Instead of focussing on making our work bigger, we...
Articles - Alex...
Adland is an island
We spend eight hours a day thinking about the brands we build. Many of us
more. We consider our...
24th Feb 2021
We spend eight hours a day thinking about the brands we build. Many of us
more. We consider our clients’ companies and the categories in which they
compete. We visit the sites in which our products are produced and the
stores in which they are sold. We analyse their adverts...
Articles - Alex...
The forecasting fallacy
Marketers are prone to a prediction. You’ll find them in the annual tirade
of trend decks. In the...
14th Sep 2020
Marketers are prone to a prediction. You’ll find them in the annual tirade
of trend decks. In the PowerPoint projections of self-proclaimed prophets.
In the feeds of forecasters and futurists. To understand the extent of our
forecasting fascination, I analysed the websites...
Articles - Alex...
The pitfalls of purpose
Purpose is polarising. There are those who promote it as a paragon of
positioning and a...
19th May 2020
Purpose is polarising. There are those who promote it as a paragon of
positioning and a silver-bullet strategy for success. Then there are those
who refute purpose’s power and dispute its capacity to connect with
consumers. It is clearly a debate that divides. For every...
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