Practical thinking from the work: how to connect AI, expertise, platforms and evidence without adding another layer of complexity.
Planning, Activation, Measurement and Intelligence are not separate product claims. They are a continuous cycle: decide, act, learn and improve.
When I was working at MediaCom in the 2010s, something important was happening beyond the agency world. Large global clients were investing heavily in their own cloud data systems. These…
Read the perspectiveSeptember is upon us, bringing the all-too-familiar juggling act of Golden Quarter execution and budget planning for 2027. As budgets take shape, the conversations we’re having suggest that…
Read the perspectiveFrom today, Google is auto-upgrading Search campaigns to AI Max. Automatically created assets, or campaign-level broad match, and you convert. Only ticked auto headlines? You still get…
Read the perspectiveI spent a lot of my twenty-seven-year career inside the holding-company world, latterly running EssenceMediacom North, a WPP agency and the largest media operation outside London. I owe a…
Read the perspectiveFor most of my 25 years working in media, data, measurement and technology, I have believed that measurement is the most important thing in advertising. I still do. I have a phrase I use…
Read the perspectiveIt seems Everyone in marketing is talking about Sony and WPP. Richard Foster’s amended complaint claims that Sony launched its own investigation into WPP’s media practices after Chinese…
Read the perspectiveNo individual builds a jumbo jet. Boeing credits the first 747 to around 50,000 people, a group it called “The Incredibles”, who produced the first aircraft in about sixteen months by…
Read the perspectiveWhat’s the best thing about generative AI? You don’t know what it’s going to say.
Read the perspectiveArguably the most fun, and the most value, we have had this month came from working out what to do when you cannot use the models you want. Either because you ran out of access or your…
Read the perspectiveIn Cannes last week, Sir Martin Sorrell brilliantly captured how the current headwinds facing holding companies are creating huge opportunities for independent agencies. Here's a quick look…
Read the perspectiveTwo things can be true at once. Cannes is a glorious hot mess. It is sales pitches on the beaches, panels on the yachts, and honest conversations in the back streets. It is monstrous…
Read the perspectiveThe most crowded year we've seen at Cannes? What does that tells you about the state of marketing?
Read the perspectiveIt's been a fun last few weeks. Working with the team, clients, partners and more on new ways of working.
Read the perspectiveA few huge rumours doing the rounds at the moment with enough credibility we should be paying attention to them
Read the perspectiveGoogle just sent a cease-and-desist letter to BARB, the UK's independent TV measurement body, for doing something very straightforward: measuring YouTube the same way we measure television.
Read the perspectiveI had the pleasure of hearing Mark Ritson deliver his 2026 predictions recently. As always, he was provocative, grounded, and refreshingly immune to hype. His core thesis: 2026 will look…
Read the perspectiveWe're one month into 2026 and already we see a few changes that set up the year in AI.
Read the perspectiveDon Draper and Dr. House are likely my two favourite characters in television. Both represent the same archetype: imperfect genius. Flawed humans with an almost supernatural ability to see…
Read the perspectiveIlya Sutskever is one of the most important names in the AI world, someone who when he talks I always listen.
Read the perspectiveA year ago, I made eight predictions for marketing and media in 2025. I made them deliberately bold, against the consensus of the day.
Read the perspectiveI'm writing this from my sofa, buried under a frankly embarrassing number of tissues, having spent the week discovering that man flu is, in fact, a legitimate medical condition deserving of…
Read the perspectiveMost companies are installing AI like it's another SaaS platform. Centralized rollout, universal dashboard, training sessions, and hope for the best.
Read the perspectiveAI-led browsers are here. OpenAI's Atlas. Perplexity's Comet. Claude's browser extension. Google's Gemini in Chrome. Microsoft's Bing/Copilot integration. Everyone's building one, and it's…
Read the perspectiveThere’s certainly nothing new about the hype about “AI agents.” Everyone’s talking about them, but what was a refreshing change was a marketing conference that showed what they actually…
Read the perspectiveMy initial take on the Ad Context Protocol and why it might be the best hope yet for a sustainable open ad ecosystem
Read the perspectiveI flew from Adweek in New York to MAICON in Cleveland within days. Same country. Same industry. Two completely different universes.
Read the perspectiveA blueprint built on multiple conversations at Ad Week NYC. In detail with Scott Messer and Fern Potter . Data from a Jounce Media report.
Read the perspectiveAdWeek NYC started with a bang. Evene before landing listening to two essential podcasts on my flight over had my mind spinning: Marketecture ( Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi with Alan Chapell…
Read the perspectiveI always start my articles by thinking "What do I know that most don't but would be useful and interesting to them?" This story I think qualifies.
Read the perspective