Loud Thinking
When Influence Stops Selling and Starts Shaping the Economy.
We talk about the influencer economy as though influence is mainly about selling things. Reach. Engagement. Brand partnerships. Conversion. Someone wears a dress and it sells out. A creator recommends a beauty product on Instagram or Facebook and thousands of people add it to their shopping cart. We tend to accept, without much question, that someone with a large enough following can change our...
AI Won’t Replace Good Marketers. It Will Raise the Bar.
AI is already changing marketing, but the real shift is bigger than content generation. I believe the strongest opportunity is in how AI can support the whole marketing function: research, strategy, creative development, production, workflow, reporting, systems and...
The Next Big Retail Opportunity Might Be Selling Less Stuff
For decades, retail growth has been built around a pretty simple idea: make more, sell more, replace more. That model still dominates, but it is no longer the only way people think about value. Second-hand furniture, vintage clothing, refurbished electronics, restored...
Marketing a Service Is Different to Marketing a Product. Here’s Why
Marketing a service is quite different to marketing a product, mainly because you are often asking someone to buy something they cannot properly see, touch or test before they commit. If you sell a couch, a skincare product or a pair of shoes, customers can look at...
“The Cost of Living” Doesn’t Mean the Same Thing to Everyone
I have always struggled a little with the phrase “the cost of living”. It sounds strangely neat for something that bundles housing, food, energy, wages, debt and financial stress into one convenient phrase. The term itself is not new. Economists and governments were...
Not-for-Profit Marketing Has a Different Job to Do
There is something fundamentally different about marketing a not-for-profit service. In a commercial business, the relationship is usually fairly direct. Someone has a need, they see a product or service, they decide whether it is worth paying for and they buy it. In...
When the Global Economy Stops Feeling Fair, We Start Buying Local
There is something interesting happening to the way we spend money. The global economy is still growing. The IMF currently expects world economic growth of around 3% in 2026, so this is not a story about the global economy simply grinding to a halt. But growth is...
Marketing Shouldn’t Come Off the Shelf. Discovery Comes First.
Your website needs attention. Someone has told you to work on SEO. Social media keeps slipping down the list. Your email database is sitting there doing very little, and you're probably paying for a few platforms you're not entirely sure you need. Then there are...
Stop Marketing to Generations. Start Marketing to What People Care About.
Gen Z wants authenticity. Millennials want experiences. Gen X wants convenience. Baby Boomers want trust. Useful? Maybe. Enough to build a marketing strategy around? Not really. Generational labels can give us useful context, but they rarely tell us enough on their...
The Next Consumer Opportunities Aren’t Where Marketers Usually Look
Marketers spend a lot of time watching platforms. What is happening on TikTok and Insta? What is Google or Youtube changing? What can AI automate next? Those things matter, but some of the biggest opportunities in marketing are coming from much slower changes...
What Does a Digital Marketing Consultant Actually Do?
If you’re running a business, digital marketing can become complicated very quickly. Your website needs attention. Someone has told you to work on SEO. Social media keeps slipping down the list. Your email database is sitting there doing very little, and you may be...