I’ve spent the past half decade working with marketing organisations trying to do the same two things: deliver omnichannel and work according to agile practices.
In almost all cases, the desire to do these things has been brought about by changes in consumer behaviour, fragmentation of media channels and a scattering of consumer attention. Omnichannel is needed because there are no longer a handful of straightforward channel combinations that deliver the desired results; but also because decision-making is now influenced by what happens in channels that had, in the past, not even made it to the initial short list. And…
A few weeks ago I had a lengthy exchange with a gentleman on Twitter about whether his phone was listening to his conversations, and feeding that information back to advertisers who were then targeting him with ads. He was pretty sure this was happening, and quoted as an example a recent ad from a utility company that he had not searched or engaged with, but had had a conversation about with a close friend. The same company, he said, had then immediately started targeting him with ads.
This chat followed a longer thread I had been involved in on why…
I’ve never done a book review on my Medium feed and this piece today is hopefully not going to read like a review. But it is about a book I finished reading yesterday and which many people have called “not sci-fi”, and I would call “near future sci-fi” for reasons which will become apparent in this short post.
“Little Eyes” by Samanta Schweblin, a Spanish-language Argentinian author, tells the story of a world taken over by small, man-made toy pets called kentukis. Kentukis are operated remotely by a person who chooses to connect to the kentuki and see the world…
If you’ve ever wanted to learn about user experience, you need to look no further than the tens of images of snow covered parks in December. As soon as people start walking through the park, the white spaces begin to be criss-crossed by “informal” pathways which go in different directions and of which, two or three become dominant and deep enough to start looking like proper “official” walkways . These organically-trodden ways are known as “desire paths” and, in areas of extreme city planning, you will see them beaten down into the greenery between sidewalks with untold stubbornness.
“Desire paths”…
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Coffee Morning this week, Friday 21st of May, is at 8 am. Join using this Zoom.
________________________
Every other Friday, myself and russell davies open a Zoom chat and sit down in our respective homes for a cuppa, a chat and to see who else turns up. Any and all plannery types are welcome. This is a tradition that Russell started years ago and we’re trying to re-ignite remotely. Below are occasional write ups of what we talk about.
________________________
Coffee Morning S2 E7 / May 8th
I’ve been in a bit of a funk these past few…
A few years into my planning career, I came across Russell Davies and nothing was ever the same after that.
First some history. I started doing planning in Bucharest, Romania in early 2000. There was just a handful of us planners back then, and I believe I was among the first “girl planners” (I used to love calling myself a “girl planner”) in Bucharest. We were all in different agencies and the biggest group was in Leo Burnett at the time, and all of the rest of us admired and hated them because they had a Department and they could…
When I had my namesake blog, I used to write a post every December 31st and look back on the year, then set a number of resolutions for the year to come. I did this for about 6 years just before I moved to the UK, and then gave it up, not least because I never actually did anything about my resolutions. The posts were mostly a reflection, a melancholy one, on the time passed and it did me good to think there was a plan.
A few weeks ago I wrote this. It’s a post about what happens when…
A while back I heard someone (can’t remember who) say something to the effect of “Seth Godin also had this framework, permission marketing, but that didn’t really amount to much”. That statement combined with the onslaught of newsletters I have been receiving lately has made me think about how much, if at all, relationship marketing has evolved past the initial shock of GDPR and in-built Unsubscribe buttons.
____________________________
First, let me say this, I am not a specialist in relationship marketing. Just the fact that I use “relationship marketing” as a stand-in for CRM should tell you something. I have…
I have gone through writing blocks before. They come and go and in the past used to be triggered by life either being too exciting or being too predictable. If I scroll through my Twitter feed there will be the occasional moans about not being able to write and not finding inspiration, asking for advice and then realising everybody goes through this and the advice is always the same.
This time it’s different.
I cannot write because it feels there’s nobody to bounce ideas off of.
When I wrote in the past, although I try not to write with the…
Not sure why I called this “junior edition”. It’s meant to reflect the fact that while you’re encouraged to ask for advice at any point in your career, the thoughts below reflect my findings around getting asked for advice by people looking to start with something or enter a new/different line of work or industry.
This post is mostly a child of my frustration with how I am approached these days with requests for advice. I would also hope that this serves not as a deterrent from people who want to ask me for things/advice but as a guide for…
