I have had the pleasure of having some great mentors over my marketing career: Nigel Coxhead - My first boss as a Saturday boy in the Loading Bay in Debenhams Reading, who taught me that management is sometimes about rolling ..read more

I have been teaching AI for Marketing for the Chartered Institute of Marketing since April 2023. It is the most in-demand course that CIM has ever had in terms of numbers. Most CIM courses run every 6-8 weeks. This course ..read more

I came across this old ad for 2012 for Staedtler pencils. Its simplicity is brilliant. Quite simply, even the greatest creations start with a simple sketch. Thanks to Jeff Bullas What is the best, beautifully simple ad that you can think of ..read more

Hashtags are crucial to social media success, whether you are using Twitter, Instagram, Linked In or any other social platform. So, how do you select a good # and why are they important? Let's start with some basics first (these tips come from Hootsuite): They always start with # but they won’t work if you use spaces, punctuation or symbols. Make sure your accounts are public. Otherwise the hashtagged content you write won’t be seen by any non-followers. Don’t string too many words together. The best hashtags tend to be relatively short and easy to remember. Use relevant and sp ..read more

I am delighted to have joined the wonderful team at Hult International Business School as a Professor for the Digital Media and Communications Masters module, as part of the Masters in International Marketing course. I recently completed teaching this module (10 x 3 hour classes) and I loved it. The students were excellent and I would highly recommend the School if anyone is considering a Masters.  I will also be delivering the Strategic Brand Management elective module in June and July. I cannot wait.    ..read more

Have you communicated differently since the onset of Corona Virus? Have you become more empathetic? more customer focused? More service focused? More willing to share your brand purpose? If you haven't changed, then why not? The world has changed, customer behaviours have changed, surely your customer insights must have changed too. Branded content must continually adapt to reflect the markets and people that we serve. If you haven't changed, then you are probably in the minority. But don't just take my word for it (although I feel I am in a good place to comment as a digital marketing consult ..read more

With the second wave of Covid about to hit Europe again, I thought it was a good time to reflect on the last 6 months and how training has been impacted and developed. Up until March 2020, I was delivering around 90% of my marketing training face to face in classroom or company office environments. Whether it was open public training, where delegates would pay per day and mix with others from different companies, or in-house deliveries of bespoke courses for marketing teams from within that country, face to face was the preferred medium of delivery. All that changed in early March. Suddenly, I ..read more

SEMrush have just posted this excellent quick SEO checklist on their Twitter account  There is also a link to an excellent and very detailed article, I have pasted the link at the end of this short post. When I am running digital marketing training courses that cover SEO as part of a wider range of topics, I tend to get clients to focus on selecting keywords (particularly long tail phrases), then focusing on their mobile optimisation, external link building and writing copy in an engaging way that will help with SEO. Don't forget, if you focus on creating great content, you are on the ri ..read more

Sorry for the lack of posts over the summer. I have taken some time out to recharge the batteries. Now the schools and colleges are going back to work, I shall be back too. I'll be posting here again very soon ..read more

Every January Hootsuiteproduces the most comprehensive and reliable study of digital marketing that is available. I use their studies regularly as reference materials for my training and consulting. In April, Hootsuite published an updated report, looking specifically at uses of digital channels during April of this year as the Pandemic took hold. The report is called "Digital 2020 - April Global Statshot Report" Here are some highlights:  Smart phone usage is up by 76% Laptop computer usage is up 45% Tablet usage is up 22% TV Streaming is up 34% Gaming is up 17% And the amount of time ..read more