I want to ask you… why do we want branded sunglasses? This is my daughter. She is wearing kids-sized Ray-Ban Wayfearers, and for me – this is one of the best examples of how quickly the world, our world in Fashion brands and retailing, is being disrupted like never before. So, why do we want sunglasses – well, because Chameleons are cool! Now while Chameleons ARE cool, my daughter is obsessed with them and seeks videos of them out on Youtube. Some of you will know who Super

I’ve been asked to write an article on what inspires my creative output. It’s a hard question to answer in totality, however a large part of my inspiration comes from the creative output of others. I’m currently re-reading (for at least the third time) Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity and inspired by the book’s lists of “Top 5s” I thought, for my own point of reference for the article, I’d write my own. Over the past few weeks, I’ve written, remembered, re-written, revisited, d

About a year ago, I wrote an article based on my observation that we are fast approaching a level of total technical availability, deep digital integration, anywhere internet connectivity and connected everyday objects. As a result of this digital ubiquity the idea of smart-things and non-smart-things will become irrelevant. Everything will be smart. Every aspect of our lives will be connected to a system of some form and in turn brands and marketers will need to understan

As Jeff Bercovici (San Francisco bureau chief of Inc.) noted in his article a couple of weeks ago Facebook has quietly shifted into crisis mode with users sharing less--way less. One of the measures Facebook has taken to increase value (and so engagement) for its users has been with the introduction of Facebook Reactions. My initial reaction to Reactions was that Facebook had played with the one thing everyone knew them for and a swift retraction of the new functionality w

Revolution not evolution Customer experience today is largely conceived, managed and optimized within a set of channels. In-store, at home, out of home, wired, mobile, at work, commuting, watching, listening, researching and everything in between. As marketers developing strategies to change behaviors we generally rely on understanding these channels; how customers use them and the opportunities open to us through them to drive the change needed. As a wise man once said,

We’re not in the business of changing human behavior – we can’t change the fundamental human motivations – physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, discovery and aesthetics. What we can do is understand these motivations and the behaviors they drive to enable brands to connect with their audience. Through this understanding we can give consumers what they want (even if they don’t know what that is yet), when and where they want it. Modern manufacturing methods and developm

It is time to practice what we’ve been preaching about using data to drive digital change: A CMO I previously worked with used to ask for his weekly digital report consisting only two things; total unique visits to his site and the total number of registrants in his database. Cross-referenced with his media spend report he was proud as Punch that he had 200k visits per week and a database of over 3m users. He was confused however, as to why this had no impact on his sales o

When everything is digital, what next? Well, we’re already here. Everything is digital and the way to ensure your brand can survive/stay alive is to understand that you are no longer in a product/service business, but in an experience business, no matter what business you are. Think of your favorite activity, today a large part of the experience will be digital – watching TV (Netflix), movies (trailers on Youtube), restaurants (reviews, pics on Instagram), even something ph

Your brief is like your life - you get out of it what you put into it! This week I've been working hard on a tough brief for a client. I've gone to lengths to explain the concept of spending the time up front to save at the end. They've been great allowing the time. In fact they've been complimentary about the process and have just approved the final document. As a little thanks I shared with them my favorite ever brief just to show it doesn't always need to be a time co

In my last article I set out what I hoped to achieve from being a start-up founder at this year’s Cannes Festival of Creativity and specifically from the first ever InnovationLions awards. In my mind I wanted to talk and ideate with the great and the good of the communications industry who I’d loosely grouped into 4 categories: Marketers – what cash-flow-conscious start-up founder wouldn’t want free advice from the very best? Investors – I won’t lie, we’re always chasing inve