What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
Why Mega Creators’ Personal Brands Are Failing As Media Empires
Mega creators like MrBeast and Alex Cooper are crashing into the harsh reality that their personalities alone don’t build scalable media companies. The creator economy grift is real.
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Marketers Are Throwing AI Tools at Teams Who Don’t Know How to Use Them — And It’s a Disaster
Marketers are rushing to adopt AI tools but are failing to train staff, turning AI investments into costly failures. The hype around AI adoption masks a critical skills gap.
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OpenAI’s ChatGPT Ads Rollout: A Clumsy Expansion into the U.K., Brazil, and Beyond
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is testing ads in new markets, but this expansion is less innovation and more a desperate ad play masquerading as thoughtful growth.
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Sainsbury’s Mark Given Takes Helm at ISBA, Promising to Shake Up UK Marketing Standards
Mark Given, Sainsbury’s marketing and tech chief, takes over as ISBA president promising to disrupt complacency and raise industry standards.
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Marketing’s Gender Pay Gap Is Backsliding — And No One’s Calling It Out Loud Enough
The marketing industry’s gender pay gap has surged to its highest point since 2021, exposing a stubborn regression in equity behind the glossy diversity rhetoric.
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Why BBC Studios’ Shelley Macintyre’s ‘Risk and Humility’ Mantra Is What Marketing’s Been Missing
BBC Studios’ Shelley Macintyre cuts through marketing noise with a brutal truth: lifelong learning, risk-taking, and humility are the real keys to success.
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Nomad Foods Dumps Complacency, Hires Justin Billingsley to Salvage Birds Eye Marketing
Nomad Foods taps Justin Billingsley, ex-Publicis CMO, to shake up Birds Eye’s tired marketing game. Legacy brands beware: incremental tweaks won’t cut it anymore.
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McDonald’s CEO Throws Shade at Marketing Slackers: ‘Buzz’ Isn’t Business, Value Is
McDonald’s CEO calls out the marketing industry’s obsession with buzz, insisting that real business growth demands value-driven campaigns—not just noise.
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Timothée Chalamet’s Adidas World Cup Ad Is a Star-Studded Fantasy Football Fumble
Adidas’ new World Cup ad starring Timothée Chalamet is less about soccer and more about celebrity spectacle, exposing the brand’s sponsorship as a vanity project rather than a genuine tribute to the sport.
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Amazon’s AI-Powered Upfront Playbook: Reinventing TV Deals or Just More Noise?
Amazon is using AI and live sports sponsorships to upend the TV upfront market, but beneath the shiny pitch lies a self-serving grab for control that advertisers should be wary of.
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Permutive’s Boardroom Power Move: Bringing in IPG Mediabrands’ Ex-CEO to Crack Buy-Side Code
Permutive just shook up the adtech chessboard by recruiting Eileen Kiernan, ex-IPG Mediabrands CEO, aiming to crack the buy-side market’s toughest nuts.
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OpenAI's Ad Blitz: ChatGPT Monetization Hits Global Overdrive, Igniting Privacy and Trust Alarms
OpenAI’s rapid global rollout of ChatGPT ads signals a jarring pivot from innovation to aggressive monetization, raising serious privacy and trust issues.
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CNN’s ‘This Land’ Docuseries: A Polished Patriotic Parade That Skims the Surface of America’s 250 Years
CNN’s new docuseries This Land marks America’s 250th birthday with polished patriotism but skirts the tough truths about the nation’s history. Expect safe narratives over real reckoning.
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Applebot-Extended Visibility: The Invisible Signal Google Doesn't Want You to Use
Applebot's extended crawling capabilities launched quietly in 2023, yet Google pretends it doesn't exist in SEO conversations.
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Rank Math’s AI Features Are a Crutch, Not a Game-Changer for SEO Pros
Rank Math launched AI content tools in 2023 claiming to change SEO workflows—yet its impact is mainly padding lazy agencies’ workflows.
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Schema.org Markup: SEO’s Biggest Cargo Cult Nobody Wants to Admit
Despite 80% of Fortune 500 sites having Schema.org markup, organic rankings have barely budged since 2020.
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The Media Planning Survey Scam: £250 Amazon Voucher as Bait for Yet Another Pointless Data Grab
Marketing Week’s latest “Planning Media 2026” survey offers a £250 Amazon voucher to share your insights — but it’s just another pointless industry data grab dressed up as research.
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Diageo’s CEO Calls Out Industry Complacency, Demands Radical Rethink on Competitiveness
Diageo CEO Sir Dave Lewis admits the company must overhaul its approach to brand competitiveness and affordability, signaling a rare break from corporate complacency.
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