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Insights

Notes on brand, communications, reputation, and regional market decisions.

A place for practical perspectives, opinion pieces, case studies, and short notes on the decisions that shape how businesses are positioned, understood, trusted, and organised. New notes are added over time.

Opinion Case studies Frameworks Market notes Agency & team effectiveness Reputation & crisis Market entry
Pencil illustration of an AI robot taking money from an advertising executive while an old agency rate card lies on the floor.
LatestOpinion5 min read

When AI Cuts the Hours, Agencies Need a New Way to Get Paid

AI is reducing the hours agencies need to deliver the work. If time is no longer a good measure of value, the commercial model needs to change too.

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Pencil illustration of a factory conveyor belt mass-producing colourful social media content.
Opinion4 min read

What Would the Industrial Revolution Think of Us?

AI gave marketing back time. The bigger opportunity is not more content, but better work.

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Hand-drawn pencil illustration of Omnicom and Publicis colliding from opposite sides as the Pepsi logo breaks through the centre.
Opinion5 min read

PepsiCo Crosses the Line to Publicis

PepsiCo moved its global media business to Publicis. The account can move. The people can move. The line around what moves with them is much harder to draw.

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Pencil design studies of a red Ferrari Testarossa and a blue Hyundai Matrix, both designed by Pininfarina, on one studio sheet.
Opinion5 min read

Why Can the Same Studio Design One of the Most Beautiful Cars in the World and One of the Ugliest?

Pininfarina designed the Ferrari Testarossa. It also designed the Hyundai Matrix. What that contradiction says about the client’s role in creative work.

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One fictional brand reflected in three mirrors as three different brand personalities.
Opinion5 min read

What Does AI Think of Your Brand?

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the same question about your brand, then compare the answers with what your team believes it stands for.

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Storyboard showing how a marketing campaign evolves through multiple rounds of feedback before approval.
Opinion5 min read

The Cost of Consensus

Why organisations often approve exactly the kind of work they set out to avoid, one reasonable change at a time.

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Empty glass walled boardroom with leather chairs and a blank whiteboard, seen through rain streaked windows.
Opinion4 min read

The Integrated Agency Failed Because the Money Was Never Integrated

Agencies have promised integration for a decade. Why the model underneath the promise, not the intention, is what kept it from working.

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Printed advertising concept marked up with handwritten client feedback, including a circled logo and the note make it 15 percent bigger.
Opinion3 min read

What “Make the Logo Bigger” Really Hides

A familiar client comment, and the unspoken psychology of risk, recognition, and boardroom protection behind it.

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Three agency teams standing on a winners' podium, symbolising the limits of score-based agency selection.
Opinion5 min read

Choosing an Agency: The Scorecard Is Not the Decision

Why the final agency decision should never be left to numbers alone, and why judgment, chemistry, and leadership matter.

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