Craig Wood

🎮 How does a small city like Dundee go from industrial roots to being a global gaming hotspot…? Find out in our latest #PlayableFutures article - in partnership with Ukie GamesIndustry.Biz and Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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Retail media expected to overtake TV by the end of 2025 in the UK, behind only paid search and social media (The Grocer): By George Nott. Retail media’s extraordinary growth will – as Tesco told suppliers at a summer event – make the medium bigger in terms of ad spend than television by the end of 2025, behind only paid search and social media. “It is absolutely feasible that retail media will over-take TV in investment,” says Georgina […] #DOOH #digitalbillboards #digitalsignage

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✅ Transforming Events into Positive Impact Stories Ever wondered how an event can change the world? At MUT Agency we’re not just organising events; we're crafting experiences that leave a lasting positive impact on both people and the planet. 💡 The last 2 years I’ve had the privilege of witnessing firsthand how our creative endeavours are reshaping the landscape of brand experiences. Based in the vibrant city of Barcelona, our team specialises in #CorporateEvents such as #MICE and conventions. Also experiential events like brand experiences, product launches and celebrations. But what truly sets us apart is our commitment to Positive Creativity®. Our methodology is a #DATAcentric unique blend of strategic analysis, emotional ideas, and scientific rigor. This approach ensures that every project we undertake maximises business and #socialimpact while minimising #environmentalfootprint. And with our #MUTImpactDashboard, we measure both generated and saved impact, aligning with international standards. 🌍 Being a certified #BCorp we’re proud to stand as a beacon of #sustainability in the #marketing and #advertising sector. Yet, like any journey, ours is not without its challenges. From acquiring new partners to increasing our pull of #ESG metrics, very day is a learning curve. But with a dedicated team focused on such an innovative offering we’re poised for growth. Our ideal partners are those who share our vision. Together, we can create events that not only captivate but also contribute positively to society. In the ever-evolving world of events, staying ahead means being modern, cutting-edge, and always inspired by sustainability. Whether you find us on LinkedIn or TikTok, our story is one of innovation and impact. Looking to create an event that matters? Let’s make it happen. Connect with us, and let’s craft a narrative of change together. 🌟 #PositiveImpact #Sustainability #CreativeEvents #MUTAgency #Barcelona

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Sam Altman: “There is gonna be a premium on human in-person, fantastic experiences. (..) I can see that being a very huge category” Sam may not know the name for it, but what he is talking about is events and experiential marketing. The UK's IPA Bellwether report Q1 2024 has tracked the growth in this sector 'Events was the stand-out Bellwether category, recording a series-record expansion (net balance at +23.1%, from +15.9%) as companies continued to show a strong appetite for face-to-face engagement with customers.' This is a core belief of ours at Because Connected Experiences. The more digital the world becomes, the bigger the need we will have for human connection. Brands who prioritise this will cut through, and win. #experientialmarketing #events #digital #marketing

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Whatever your views are on the outcome of the US election, you should read this column by Carole Cadwalladr and especially if you care about the importance of advertising being a key source of funding for high quality, fact-based and impartial journalism. The idea that Social Media is now the most influential means of communication should concern us all, especially as it now generates much of the discourse in mainstream media. The 'eating dogs and cats' story originated in a Facebook post and then led to stories in hitherto respectable channels and was used as political argument. Advertisers should be aware that their spending patterns can and do enable this trend. https://lnkd.in/ekGi9Mrh

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At Principles Agency we recently landed on 4 things brands need to do to succeed. We call these the Principles of Unforgettable Brands. Rather than plucking a framework from thin air because the letters created a neat acronym (ours don’t, DEVC is really rubbish) we put the hard work in to create something useful and effective. Including... ▪️ Speaking to countless senior marketers at successful brands ▪️ Studying the leading, or fastest growing, brands in different categories ▪️ Stealing knowledge from all the conversations Douglas Burdett, Jon Evans and Fergus O'Carroll have had in recent years ▪️ Absorbing the learnings from the best books and brains in our industry (namely Orlando Wood, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, sarah carter & Les Binet, Mark Ritson et al) From all this work we landed on a very simple, but effective list - to make brands come to mind quicker, and stay there longer, we help them to be more distinctive, entertaining, visible and consistent. In celebration of this little feat, I’m going to share an unforgettable brand or campaign every week that I think best demonstrates these principles in action. Kicking off for week 1 is this belter from Peugeot back in 2003. It’s possibly my favourite ad, and reminds me of a time before car ads were just city montages and ethereal sunsets. It’s a perfect example of pure entertainment (Principle #2) and whilst there’s too much to say in here about the excellent storytelling craft in this ad, the main thing to note is that it has enough confidence in holding the viewer’s attention to build up to a satisfying reveal - something we’re seeing less and less of since the rise of skippable content. #Marketing #BuildingUnforgettableBrands

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The word 'innovation' is a loaded word. When you hear ‘innovation’, you probably think of brands like Tesla, Gucci, or challenger brands like Surreal and I think that makes a lot brands think they don’t have licence to be ‘innovative’ But I think that every brand is capable of innovation, and to give it a definition: 👉 Do something new to set yourself apart 👉 Change the rule books All with the aim to: 👉 Add value to your customers so that they choose you, and ultimately, your brand grows in return. Whatever your industry or brand size or aesthetic, we can hopefully all agree that we want to to grow our brands. And so to apply 'innovative thinking', I see it as going back to the fundamentals: What is your challenge or the problem you need to solve for your brand? What does success look like? And then for the fun part, is there an innovative way to make that happen? It was a pleasure to share the stage at Pion with these brain boxes Grace Miller James Wallis and shout out to panel host / my big scary boss (I kid) Oliver Yonchev for the great session 👏 Check their pages for some mad learnings and takeaways 🔥

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What is The FA Cup for? With news that replays are to be scrapped from the first round onwards (met with almost universal outrage), I've been trying to work out what the FA Cup stands for in today's football landscape. Go to the history page of the FA's website and it says, "More than simply the showpiece occasion to bring down the curtain on an English season, it became the world’s cup final, the best loved and most watched domestic game on earth, the fixture that people all over the planet would do anything they could to catch." Sadly, I don't think that's been true for about 25-30 years. It goes on to say that the FA Cup "...still reminds us that, be they ever so mighty, the biggest and the best in the world can still be brought down to earth by a committed bunch of journeymen, hurling themselves around on a mud heap on a bitingly cold January day." This, for me, is the essence of it. I don't really care who wins it (more often than not, one of the 'Big 6') but I do enjoy the chance to see if a small club can pull off a result against one of the bigger boys in the earlier rounds. It's essentially an "anything could happen" positioning. Does scrapping replays make the shock result more or less likely? Someone will probably do a statistical analysis, but if, say a League 2 team manages to scrape a draw at home to a Premier League team in Round 3, is it better for them to have a replay (where they will likely get tonked) or have the chance of penalties in front of their home crowd and progress to the next round? I get the financial argument about replays being good (often a lifeline) for the smaller clubs, but set against that is the increased chance of actually getting through to the next round? Like most things in football it comes down to romance vs. finance, and finance usually wins (with or without a replay). #FACup #Football #SportsMarketing

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Here's an extract of a thing I wrote in response to Omar Oakes The Media Leader column today: https://lnkd.in/e4xpFDZi "Advertisers, via their trade body, played little part in what is now BARB and was JICTAR. There were exceptions, like P&G and Mars, but the rest rarely showed up to any discussion. The agencies (I was an IPA representative on both the Technical Sub-Committee and the Management Committee) were also bit players. TV audience measurement was a matter for the broadcasters (including the BBC) who after all paid for the bulk of it. Advertisers' and agencies' needs were not the same as broadcasters' and yet when push came to shove the ones doing the shoving were the guys paying the bill. How times change. Having argued for decades that advertisers should play a more active part in audience research, and pay for the privilege, we now have Origin where they do just that. Unlike some, I'm a big fan of Origin, and more specifically its vision. Its ambition is huge - a system that lets agencies and their clients combine media forms; and apply judgements informed by and appropriate to the circumstances. Eventually I hope it will allow for combinations not just of video forms but of advertising and non-advertising forms too. Want to play around with what an influencer campaign will add to your social-media plan? Or what impact PR will have in extending your TV activity? Want to plan in a campaign specific level of attention as opposed to using averages and norms? Can Origin do any of this now? No. But as the old adage goes the best way to eat an elephant is one small bite at a time. I was on stage several years ago at the asi event when Phil Smith announced Origin. I was there again this month when he was asked about progress by a room of audience researchers frustrated at how long this is taking. To them, it's worth remembering that Origin isn't creating a project, of the sort they're familiar with but a product designed to help advertisers make smarter investment decisions - across video channels certainly but ultimately across multiple communication channels, both advertising and non-advertising. Further it's a planners' tool, not a currency. And planners consider a lot more than audience size. As to the attitude to date of broadcasters, I think they're misguided. Their world has always been the world of the buyer and the seller, not the planner and the strategist. Their medium is the most powerful and effective ad medium yet invented. Still. Far better to be on the inside making the point and ensuring aspects like the quality of the message are baked into the system, than sitting outside lobbing rocks. I hope that those in possession of a planning mindset - of which the broadcasters have many - win over their trading colleagues and join in making Origin the best aid to planning it can possibly be.”

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End of summer and back to 𝗌̶𝖼̶𝗁̶𝗈̶𝗈̶𝗅̶ work. What's going on in the world of growth? 5 key trends ... The macro environment is improving with the election over in the UK and Trump looking less likely he'll win. It's not all plain sailing, as the US stock markets are wobbling (peak AI), but economics are generally improving. VCs are getting their cheque books out and backing businesses with solid unit economics and a strong trajectory. Many of our clients have raised significant rounds more easily than they were expecting. This is translating into hiring with companies more bullish on the future. There has been very strong demand for Head of and Lead roles, with C-Level and VP/Director also picking up. The summer was very busy for us and we're expecting that to accelerate into Autumn. 5 key trends... 🚛 Demand > Supply for Heads of Growth. For key growth and performance roles, demand for strong candidates is outstripping supply. There are a lot of mediocre candidates in the market, with the strong ones getting multiple offers. Hiring these roles is very difficult. ⛰ Peak fractional CMO? The reality is worse than the LinkedIn curated hype, and many fractionals are actively looking for full time roles. There are a small group who are doing very well, but many are earning less than a full time role with more stress. 👋 Bye bye agencies. The direction of travel is firmly towards running performance in-house (esp Meta). Agencies can have their place, especially small ones, but as clients hit scale it's being handled in-house due to faster turnaround, a more integrated approach and cost. 📈 The rise of the Creative Strategist. As Meta automates, creative is King and Creative Strategists are feeding the King what he wants - large amounts of UGC performance video. Join us on 1st October for a webinar to dig deeper on this role and what it means for teams and individuals. Link below 🔝 Smaller, more elite teams. Marketing teams are increasingly top heavy as the tools and AI make many manual tasks quicker (ad buying, CRM, analytics..). This is great for senior people but bad for grads looking for their lucky break. If you want some help navigating the market, as a candidate or client, then do reach out. Sign up for the Creative Strategist Webinar -

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As Wimbledon kicks off this week, it's not just the tennis that's capturing attention. The tournament's out-of-home (OOH) and digital out-of-home (DOOH) campaigns are set to make an even bigger impact than last year, with 92% of ad inventory already sold, a 7% YoY increase according to ESPN. JCDecaux, a major OOH media owner, holds inventory near railway stations close to the venue and on roadside billboards, including digital screens with programmatic capabilities. This will allow brands to create timely, context-aware campaigns that resonate with tennis fans. Major sporting events like Wimbledon and the upcoming Summer Olympics should remind us of the unique advantages of being able to blend physical spaces and real-world interactions with digital innovation. I’m excited to see how brands leverage these opportunities to create immersive experiences that purely digital campaigns can’t match. But we should keep in mind that winning hearts and minds in advertising isn't just about being everywhere - it's about being memorable where it matters most. #Wimbledon2024 #DOOH #CreativeAdvertising https://hubs.li/Q02FnFy50

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Ok, now that everbody seems to be commenting on the new Jaguar campaign and logo - here's my two cents: First off, what most commentators seem to forget is the question: what seems to be the problem? Of course, I don't know any numbers but I would imagine that Jaguar sales are down significantly (despite pretty cool prducts by the looks of it). Also, I would venture a guess that the brand has lost relevance among their core target group (which btw is affluent young Chinese, not Barbour-wearing Brits). So a young, breakthrough approach may, indeed, just be what the doctor ordered ... However, the real question is: will the new campaign & logo be successful? Is it the right thing to do? I know a little bit about marketing in China and marketing to younger audiences and TBH honest, I don't think this'll do the trick. Younger audiences - especially in China - are not at all interested in "breaking molds" or "copy nothing". In fact, probably it's the opposite. To create a "fashion ad" for a car may seem like a good idea as Asian consumers love luxury fashion brands. But when it comes to luxury cars (or watches, for that matter) "craftsmanship" is the number one purchase driver. And I see nothing of the sort in this ad. Moreover, I wonder how truly distinctive this ad (and the new logo) really is. IMHO "killing the cat" was a terrible idea becuase the pouncing jaguar is one of the most iconic brand assets in the car industry. What do you think, Peter Kiefer, Johann Wachs, Joern Solfrian, Saskia Frauscher; Galina Helbling, Aaron Zhang, Alex Zhang?

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Britain's Innovators Need A Creative Boost Ask most people in the US or China, if they considered Britain to be a top 5 global innovator and they would likely say "no". Britain is certainly well respected for its creativity- think music, TV and film, but innovation probably not. However, according to the 2024 Global Innovation Index- Britain is ranked no 5- just behind the US, Singapore and a couple of countries who punch way above their weight class, in the form of Sweden and Switzerland. But, with Britain- uneasy and unsure of its place in the world in 2024 (long post-Brexit), surely the innovation ranking is not only a surprise, but an incredible story that needs to be told? It seems like Britain's innovators need to tap into the country's creative industry to get their story out into the world. John V Willshire

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N. 1 Marketing Hazard.    A couple of years ago, I took a small team  through a very involved brand planning process for a small (2% of market) brand.   Very different to what we’d done before. We did it alongside different brands for the first time.   Loads of people on Teams. Multiple agencies. Lots of market data. Lots of dissecting. Breakouts with people that didn’t know each other and not enough time to finish tasks we didn’t understand.   New words - ones you would NEVER use if a customer walked into your shop —> Leverage —> Anchor space —> Demand space —> Consumer recruitment   “In what particular part of the morning  was a particular type of consumer  who cares about one particular thing at a particular time in their life  going to drink one particular type of drink?”   Over Engineered.    I didn’t think that saying “I don’t know, they can drink it when they bloody want!” was allowed. So I tried to work it out.    You see, I’d been sucked in.  Maybe this was the grown-up way to do things. The ‘right’ way.   I questioned everything I thought I knew.  Moved all the thinking we’d done around  until I had some words on slides  that the people running the show started to nod at.   But when I presented the new strategy to the board  I had to keep looking at my slides to keep track. Because the words - were not mine.   And when I presented it back to my team, I felt myself sinking because I realised… and then a trusted peer confirmed it:   “You sound like you’ve disappeared up your own arse” 🎤 Words people don’t really say on a page in a format “everyone” puts it in does not a strategy make. The following year, we kept it simple.  Started from what we knew.  Reminded ourselves where we wanted to get to. Decided the most important things to do to get there. Wrote that down. Reviewed it monthly. 🚤 🚤 🚤 Small businesses are like speed boats, not ocean liners, or container ships, like the big ones. Do not look at them. You don’t need the kind of engineering that makes them move. I am not convinced they do but that's another story. Look at your boat. And what it needs to go faster. You know. It’s your boat.   * Do you have someone who will grab you if you start to disappear? * Day 11 of 30 days on #smallbusiness and #startups #challenger #founders #brandstrategy #freelance

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Some thoughts from our head of UK Russ Wilson on the use of AI in B2B (and other research). Would love to get other feedback including from Evidenza if you'd care to comment :) Thanks Russ. #mrx #insight

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Top 100 UK's Best Workplaces in Advertising, Media & Marketing (all sizes)🎉 Great Place To Work® describe the sector award winners as the following: "Advertising, media and marketing cover a dynamic sector heavily influenced by rapidly changing consumer behaviours and emerging tech. Employees in these fields must constantly keep up to speed with the latest trends and push new, innovative and creative ideas to keep ahead of their competitors. From mental health and psychological safety to job design and fulfilment at work – the UK's Best Workplaces in Advertising, Media & Marketing have implemented effective, holistic strategies able to target all dimensions of employees’ wellbeing, leading to a healthier, more engaged workforce." We can add this accolade to the Top 100 placing in the; Best Workplaces (Small)™, Best Workplaces for Women™ and Best Workplaces for Development™ 👏 We've always strived to create a remarkable, inspirational workplace where our team can grow, learn and develop at Genie Goals And we only became the business we are today with the personal impact of all Genies, past and present, in achieving this - so a big thank you and congratulations 🎉🎉🎉

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Are loyalty programmes killing brands? Too often the answer is yes. But they don't have to. In fact the best loyalty programmes are brand builders. Not killers. They tend to look a bit different. Less like an old fashioned, transactional loyalty scheme that you grudgingly join for a better deal. More like a membership programme you want to be a part of. Read our manifesto for modern membership here: https://lnkd.in/eDcdKxwr TL;DR 1. Beyond Promos and Points 2. Differentiating Experiences 3. From Personalised to Personal

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A quick favour…. SXSW London, the legendary, tech, music and film festival is coming to town in March 2025 - well worth attending if you can. There is a public vote for potential sessions and I would really love your help voting for the three I have proposed. All of them are about how we can use effective creativity and communications to save the planet. This isn’t just about brands and advertising - it is about planet health being a public health issue and how the power of creative communications can help change attitudes and behaviours. I really think it’s an important and timely topic, and would love the chance to really elevate it at the festival. I have managed to get some amazing speakers for the panels too. Details of how to vote are below. If you have that time and support the idea then I’d really appreciate a vote. The session names are below - just type them into the search list box once you're in. 1. Marketing the planet 2. Creativity will save us 3. Answering the Attenborough brief Thanks all. 🙏 #SXSWLondon2025 #Creativity #ClimateCommunications #Sustainability #Advertising #Marketing

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HFSS guidance update from the Committee of Advertising Practice this morning. 🗨️ "So, for advertisers, our revised guidance is likely to clarify that – even if your ad does not explicitly refer to or feature an LHF product – it may still be restricted under law, where persons in the UK could reasonably be expected to be able to identify your ad as being for an LHF product or LHF products." Thoughts? https://lnkd.in/dhPmbvRX #LHF #HFSS #Advertising #CAP

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