Here’s 25 things I have learnt in 2025
1. Great leaders make other people feel special. This started as a quotation I read from the consultant and coach Mark Evans, but it evidence has been building through the year that proves it again and again.
2. Some CMOs are shifting power to influencers and fans. Evident in Cannes in speeches but also in the kind of work that is winning awards. If you can harness the truth that the community surrounding the brand knows about it, then you can use that power to grow.
3. Politics is the Achilles heel of business. Sir Martin Sorrell said that if he were ever to write a business book it would be on this topic, (although I think he is busy with other projects.) No matter how many transformation consultants surround an organisation, silos seem to be resilient and are always a barrier to growth.
4. If you want to captivate an audience, watch out for the “lean in moments”. This is how the producers of successful musicals, including Burlesque, spend their time. Watching for lean in moments and honing the production as a result. This is one reason that performance advertising can be successful: constant iteration.
5. If you want to succeed, try Chutzpah.
6. At a time when the industry can feel like it is collapsing around you, you need to take a moment to find the fun, the joy and the love of what you do.
7. Breaking patterns of thought is really important. We all have fixed channels of thinking. Breaking out of them, deliberately, will make you better at thinking through the new challenges facing you next year.
8. AI will not kill creativity, but you need to hone your creativity to survive it.
9. There has been a longterm trend towards regarding creativity as something to be feared or shunned. Just as educators now recognise “math-phobia” we must look out for creativity-phobia and ensure that it is not allowed to take hold in our businesses, in our enterprises, in our schools and colleges.
10. The reason that Christmas advertising works so well is that it leverages a relatively new “lean in” occasion. There’s no reason not to join the party, if you have a way to get talked about at Christmas. And there are other lean in comms moments to leverage – cinema and out of home in particular fit this opportunity.
11. Creative thinking is ageless. Bob Dylan at 84 is rewriting his own songs on stage with his band as well as writing brilliant new ones. Mike Yershon wrote his 20 year business plan at age 78.
12. How often to do you think about the Roman Empire? According to social media women rarely do, and men frequently do. In fact some men, perhaps most of all those in power, according to Dame Mary Beard are basing their entire personas on Roman emperors.
13. AI can be your friend. Ask it for help about a difficult conversation or event, and it will offer you sympathy as well as a solution. In dark times, it can feel like a friend.
14. AI is not your friend. Evidence is building, that it is perhaps unsurprising, that AI is shoring up the traditional and heritage patriarchy. Is it too late to stop it?
15. The first twenty years of this century were the golden age of OpCos. Everything is changing now, and the new winners will be from a different business model.
16. Having just made a forecast I would also say that I have learnt this year that forecasts really can be a waste of time, long term ones anyway. As far as the weather goes (and I have been spending quite a lot of time outside) you might as well just look at the sky. You don’t need a weatherman. All the 5 year business forecasts in 2015 that claimed to be getting ahead of the game named “20:20 vision” failed. And the same will have been true of long term advertising predictions for 2025.
17. The best story wins. True. A brilliant book by Mark Edwards. Storytelling is crucial.
18. LinkedIn is not Twitter, nor is it Facebook. Keep it business.
19. You can train for a lot of things, but you cannot train experience. If you throw away your senior team who have more experience, it is irreplaceable.
20. Strategy will die if it keeps being fragmented. Brands need one strategy to win, one strategy to rule them all.
21. Marketing that mainly focuses on what Pete Buckley, comms director at Meta, calls “the clicky people”, ie those that interact with advertising, will eat itself.
22. There are fewer women CEOs in the FTSE 100 today than there were ten years ago. An updated ‘The Glass Wall, success strategies for women at work and businesses that mean business’, with Kathryn Jacob, coming in 2026, needed more than ever.
23. More days in the office are not enough to build a sense of belonging. Thanks to Campaign for pointing this out. Only good leaders can bring people together, see point 1.
24. We are all creative – Jonathan Mildenhall pointed this out, amongst other people. Creativity is critical. A year of creativity will unleash your own and your team’s power to create and to win.
25. When you are out in the cold you find your true direction and your true friends.
Happy new year.