The Strategy Blog.
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Don’t be an armchair general
The cost of safe decisions is often misunderstood. Ignore it at your peril. “One of the most important — and misunderstood — ideas in economics is that of opportunity cost. Everything we do is an implicit decision not to do something else” says Economist Tim Harford. As MediaCom’s worldwide cpg…
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Personalisation or Personal connection?
Two outlaws have been pursued by the law through the desert. They’re finally cornered on a cliff top. If they fight they’ll be killed. Suddenly one of them thinks of a way out. A huge leap down into a fast moving river. Butch: I’ll jump first. Sundance: Nope. Butch: Then…
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120 seconds… but I want it now
Remember the marshmallow test? Several small children were put in a viewing room by scientists at Stanford University in the 1960s. Presented with a plate with a single marshmallow on it, they were told that if they waited and didn’t eat it in the next fifteen minutes then they could…
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How to stop fighting fires and start building great work
Together we can do so much. Agencies and marketers need to be more careful than ever to get rid of silos in campaign development. Things go wrong when there are silos. Here’s two reasons why: First of all silos mean that the right people aren’t always in the decision making…
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A crucial call to action for every planner today
The medium is the message. This is the most famous quotation from 1960s philosopher Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan coined the term to explain how content is interpreted differently in different media. He argued that the context makes a difference. Many observers are currently rediscovering this. At its simplest we know that…
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Disruption is not driven by tech. Disruption is driven by dissatisfied customers.
New technologies come and go, and always have done. The ones that stick around and disrupt our businesses are the ones that consumers choose to adopt. As Harvard Business School Professor Thales S.Teixeira writes: “The most common and pervasive pattern of disruption is driven by customers.” When businesses focus on…
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Everyone seems to be raining on Cannes. Not me – an optimistic take on June 2019
Let’s be positive. Conrad Hilton said: “Travel bridges cultures and promotes peace in the world”. Some people are pointing to Cannes this year as a harbinger of doom. Actually, it was the very opposite. Whilst it would be oversimplistic to suggest that the ad festival promoted world peace, the general…
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Have you got a “Barney” ?
“Have you met Ted?” If you’re a fan of “How I met your mother”, you’ll recognise Barney’s catch phrase. As self-appointed wingman to friend Ted, he essentially chats up for him a series of women for dates. Have you got a Barney in your life? For Ted, characterised as more…
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Join the campaign against the squishies
“A widespread promiscuous devotion to the untrue” This is how best-selling writer Kurt Anderson describes post truth Trump’s America. In his recent best-selling book Fantasyland he argues that regarding facts as optional is deep rooted and centuries old in his homeland. His argument runs like this: The founding fathers fled…
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Brighton Rock: This year’s Media360 gave delegates plenty of ideas and arguments.
Lord Finklestein OBE, columnist at The Times, opened his diagnosis of Brexit at the Media360 conference which I co-chaired this May, with an old Jewish joke. A village matchmaker goes to a peasant family and says that she’s found a match for their son. “What about the daughter of the…
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Alexa, I don’t think we’re on the same page.
Alexa and I are not really getting on as well as I had hoped, or thought we would. First of all the rest of the family don’t like her listening in. Then quite often we don’t understand each other. When I asked about the forecast for rain the other day…
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“All my best decisions are made with heart, guts and taste”
“All my best decisions are made with heart, guts and taste” Instinct or algorithm? It’s a question that Karen Blackett OBE asked her three interviewees at her Chancellor’s Dinner at Portsmouth University last month. Kanya King OBE, supercool founder of the MOBOS said instinct. Sir Lenny Henry CBE fresh from…
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