Topic
Marketing that works
Most marketing fails because someone built something for an audience they never talked to. These pieces take campaigns, brands and agency habits apart to see what actually drove the result, good or bad.
Less theory, more mechanics. What the money did, what the audience did, and why the two so rarely match.
Playbooks on this topic
- Black Friday 2026, decoded: what the UK's 2025 data tells youBlack Friday 2026 is Friday 27 November. What UK Black Friday 2025 statistics from 27 sources say, and 10 moves for retailers and brands this year.
- Reaching the unreachableAd platforms find people who were going to buy anyway. The 4-step method we used to fund and measure the customers they ignore, without missing a target.
- Paid media as a creative test labHow a luxury cycling brand kept its loyal performance audience and won a younger one, using paid campaigns to test creative and judging on resonance.
Articles
Google just admitted its AI answers are costing clicks
Alphabet stock had its worst day ever, losing $500bn, after Google said AI Mode shows fewer search ads. What it means for advertisers and SEO.Instagram's 90-minute videos are about ad space, not creators
Instagram is testing 90-minute videos called Features. It's pitched at creators, but the real reason is room for ads that short Reels can't hold.Canva's new image model is built for volume, not luxury
Canva has launched Craft, an AI image model trained on its templates. On-brand AI imagery is worth having, but premium brands need a tool built for fidelity.Let the agents in, but watch who sends them
Walmart now lets shoppers send their own AI agents to buy for them. Amazon blocks them. Premium brands should open the door, and watch who else walks through.ChatGPT ads will take your customer list
OpenAI lets advertisers upload 25,000 emails or phone numbers to reach matched ChatGPT users. The targeting is old. The context, a private conversation, is not.The checkout is leaving your website
TikTok has put an AI shopping assistant and one-click buying in the feed. Google has a cart that follows you round the web. Retailers are losing the customer.The ad slot that delivered spyware
Researchers found government spyware delivered through ordinary ads on the BBC and the New York Times. If you buy programmatic media, this is your supply chain.The brief nobody talked to a customer about
The most expensive marketing mistakes start in the brief, when a room of people describe an audience none of them have met. How to spot one early.Questions I get asked
- Why do most marketing campaigns fail?
- Because the brief described an audience nobody in the room had met. The creative is built for that imaginary person, who loves it, and the real ones scroll past. By the time the campaign is live the mistake is months old and the media budget takes the blame.
- Is programmatic advertising still worth it?
- Yes, if you shorten the chain. It is still the cheapest way to reach a specific audience at scale. The risk sits in the number of intermediaries between your money and the page, so buy through fewer exchanges, do direct deals with publishers you want, and insist on supply path reporting.
- What should a brand do about AI shopping agents and in-feed checkout?
- Decide on purpose what you are trading. Letting TikTok or Google complete the sale brings revenue and takes the customer relationship. For a brand with a strong email list that is a real cost and belongs in the forecast. For a brand that lives on paid acquisition it may be no worse than what Meta already takes.