Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]

Articles - Alex Murrell

Sort By

Recent [alt+2]
Marketing’s misleading metric Perverse incentives, and the unintended consequences that flow from them, can be found on every...
14th Aug 2025
46

Marketing’s misleading metric

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
Thinking rationally about emotion In advertising, using emotion is entirely logical. Creative agencies have made this case...
20th Aug 2024
135

Thinking rationally about emotion

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
The age of average (encore) The shift to music streaming has led to songs getting shorter, music getting less melodically...
21st Mar 2024
129

The age of average (encore)

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
The age of average In the early 1990s, two Russian artists named Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid hired a market...
20th Mar 2023
73

The age of average

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
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
54

How to ride a recession

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
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
61

What’s the big idea?

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
The errors of efficiency We live in the era of efficiency. The advertising industry is infatuated with it. Intoxicated by...
4th Oct 2021
51

The errors of efficiency

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
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
44

Adland is an island

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
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
49

The forecasting fallacy

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
The pitfalls of purpose Purpose is polarising. There are those who promote it as a paragon of positioning and a...
19th May 2020
46

The pitfalls of purpose

from Articles - Alex Murrell [alt+shift+b] in startups

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...
📚 BoredReading

You seem to be enjoying this.

Join free to unlock everything.

Create free account

Already have an account? Sign in