Freelance Brand and Creative Strategist / Strategic Planner and Fractional Strategy Director
What problem are we actually trying to solve here? Think about it, the ultimate role of marketing is to attempt to persuade people to Think, Feel or Do something as a result of our communications (in which I include branding). With the ultimate outcome being that people’s Thinking, Feeling, or Doing has a positive impact … Continue reading The one thing every client needs to share with their strategist
The Strategist-Creative relationship can be make or break for a creative project. Without mutual respect and excellent baton passing, followed by constructive feedback and supportive client sell-in, the resulting work is never going to be as good. And the client will wonder why they paid for strategy when they can’t see it in the final … Continue reading What I wish I’d known…about working with Creatives
So, you’re starting a new project, possibly even with a new client, and an email lands in your inbox marked ‘Kick Off meeting agenda’. Which is a bit of a surprise, seeing as half that meeting is supposed to be strategy-focused and led by you. Find out who booked the kick off meeting and extract … Continue reading What I wish I’d known…about kick off meetings
There are strategic brand or comms projects where you’re given weeks and a generous budget to find the insight you need, but let’s be honest, for many strategists they can be few and far between. Whether it’s a pitch with tight timings, a low-budget bodge, or a time-sensitive response to something affecting the brand, an … Continue reading Thinking Scrappy: Finding Strategic Gold on a Shoestring
I’ve been having a few conversations recently about the future of agencies, especially the small to mid-sized ones. For a number of reasons, including the rise of AI, the complexity of doing full service without serious scale and the decline in fee-based client contracts, the good old days for agency founders of starting up an … Continue reading Small and agile is beautiful – and necessary
The more experienced you get as a strategist, the more, well, strategic your projects tend to be and therefore the more senior your clients and other stakeholders get. I’ve worked with all sorts of big noises, from ex-FTSE 100 CEOs to venture capitalists, silicon valley tech bros and Global Heads of Everything and it doesn’t … Continue reading Working with really senior clients – what I wish I’d known
I’ve done an awful load of road trips for work over the years, whether that was for qual research, client meetings, pitches or site visits. During covid WFH, I got really itchy feet for those road trips and I realised that it wasn’t the destinations or work interactions I was missing, it was the serendipitous … Continue reading Why you need to build serendipity into work trips
I started qualitative research training very early in my career and I’ve moderated dozens of my own focus groups and hundreds of depth interviews since then. But the more experienced I’ve become as a strategist-who-researches, the more I’ve realised that there is qual…and then there is qual. Really, really good qualitative research, the kind that … Continue reading Working with Qual researchers – what I wish I’d known
When I’m training account handlers how to write better creative briefs, early on I cover how to start by getting a better client brief from the client. When I mention making the most of a site/factory/HQ visit I’m increasingly met with blank faces. For reasons of budget and efficiency a lot of client meetings are … Continue reading You can’t beat being there
I recently shared my experience on LinkedIn of being asked last year by an agency to upskill one of their Account Directors into a Strategist by simply ‘teaching them the frameworks’. No can do, obviously, as it displayed an astounding lack of understanding of what Strategists do and how and where they add value. But … Continue reading Are you speaking to a proper Strategist, or a Strateblagger?