Reflecting on marketing in 2024 - podcast episode cover

Reflecting on marketing in 2024

Dec 31, 202439 minSeason 1Ep. 28
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Episode description

Surprise, we have a bonus episode of Marketers of the Universe for you! It's the late Christmas present you didn't know you wanted, but secretly needed. 

This time we are mixing up the formula by going (small m) meta, taking a retrospective stroll through 12 months of podcasting to reflect on the past year of marketing as told by our intrepid marketers. 

Taking clips from through the year, Brew Digital's Tom Inniss and Haydn Woods-Williams talk about the insights the team shared, the predictions they got right, what they got wrong, and what they think will change in 2025. 

Marketers of the Universe is brought to you by the clever folks at Brew Digital. We’re not your typical digital marketing agency; using an innovative approach to decision-making and collaboration, we help you create an impactful digital strategy that actually delivers results for your business.

See what we can do for you at brewdigital.com


Transcript

Tom Inniss

Hello and welcome to the Marketers of the Universe podcast . I'm Tom Inniss , the copywriter at Brew Digital , here today with an extra episode of your favorite marketing show . Now , we've already released our bumper end of year podcast , but we really love creating this content for you , so here's a bonus episode . That's as much about us as it is about marketing .

I'm joined by Hayden Woods-Williams , Digital Marketing Team Lead at Brew Digital and your regular host of the podcast , and together we're going to embark on a sort of self-indulgent romp , I guess , through the past year of episodes .

We're going to be playing clips from the different shows we've released this year , reflecting on the sage advice our marketers offered at the time . We'll discuss what we got right , what we got wrong and how the marketing environment has evolved since we first hit the record button . Now I think that's enough of a prelude , so shall we just dive straight in ?

So for this first clip , it sort of earmarks the year that we've had in marketing , because so much of the conversation and so much of the hype has been around AI and search , and way back in January , Rich Harper , head of digital marketing , had this to say looking forward on technology advances but there's lots of new technologies .

Rich Harper

We probably don't have enough time right now to go into all of them . You're going to have the rise of AI search . You've got investment in new AI search engines . Jeff Bezos has just invested in things Perplexityai . Google's investing heavily in AI as well the way that people search now , things like voice search and stuff like that .

So there's lots of things that we need to be optimizing for . But just a few months later he had this to say but the fact that AI is trending and is becoming very popular is essentially flooding an already overflowing pot of crap content that's being generated online . Stop focusing on volume and pushing stuff out and start focusing on quality .

Tom Inniss

90% of web pages indexed on google receive zero traffic from google so , hayden , how do you think attitudes towards ai in the search and marketing industry has changed over the last year ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

which made a really good point . There's so much talk about ai and ai has has been the number one topic for literally everything marketing and digital . Over the last 12 months .

We have seen Google introduce Gemini AIs , so we're seeing overviews of the topics we're searching for in in our Google searches , but often that's coming from places like Reddit , where actually I don't think you can fully trust what's coming through there . So there is a big pot of crap . I think that was still true prior to AI .

I think AI has just made it quicker for people to get things out . Spam is spam , crap . Content is crap , content , content . So , while you know , ai is driving that quicker , actually , if you're using ai in a positive way , then it's really effective and hopefully .

Tom Inniss

Well , we're starting to see that google is taking the reins a little bit on all of that crap , but it definitely took them a long time . I think , on the whole , it's been a really challenging year for google and the parent company alphabet . I mean . This year they've been found to be a monopoly in the US . They've got another court case .

I think they're about to lose as well . The DOJ is threatening to take Google Chrome off of them altogether or splitting Android out , so it's been a really difficult year for them .

But additionally , like from a marketing perspective , they've also attempted to depreciate cookies and sequester user data into their own platform , version three , manifest , and , on the whole . You mentioned Gemini AI , but they had to rush that out . They were really caught flat footed in the AI race .

Chatgpt , which is built on technology that Google made , really caught them by surprise , and throughout the year we've really held the company under a microscope . So I'm going to play three clips now where we have spoken a little bit about all of the things that Google have been up to .

Mark Bundle

Very much . The sun setting is a ploy to sell new technology that people don't need . But ad networks wanting to maintain market share by doing a new thing . Who would have thought ? It's not like they inflate and bloat their metrics and lie to their users at all ?

But yeah , as you said , they've already not existed on mobile browsers and the more niche desktop browsers for years ? Um , it really is . Although google has that massive market share , it's still not the be all and end all , and there's been solutions on the other networks for years , so those solutions are still applying

Saufi Mohd Nor

Google is kind of lacking now when it comes to like innovation , you know , because they are so big that it takes time for them , especially , for example , like their AI development and all . They're kind of behind because , like you know , they're not gonna like lose all their customer with the next week for sure , because they are so big .

But no company is really too big to fail , and that's . We remember Yahoo , like what happened , like you know , like I can't even remember when was the last time I even opened Yahoo , you know . So , yeah , I would say , if they don't do anything significant in the next like five years , maybe they will enter their flop era .

Jason Morris

What Google have stated as well is focus on EAT as a recommendation for any business or marketing agency , which is express your expertise , your authoritativeness , long word and trustworthiness . If you do that in a way that's positive and natural and organic , that's the way to go .

Tom Inniss

So , for context , that first clip was Mark talking about the depreciation of cookies . That eventually never happened . The second clip was Salvi talking about the depreciation of cookies that eventually never happened .

The second clip was Salfie talking about companies that are too big to fail , those iconic brands that have fallen from grace , and he speculated that Google may well be one of them in the future .

And then the third clip was Jason , our SEO manager , talking about one of the leaks that came out this year around how Google prioritizes search and all of the different signals that they use to rank search results . So , hayden , how do you view Google's position going into 2025 ?

And do you think marketers need to be worried or start looking elsewhere for paid search or other search engines that they should be ranking in ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

paid search or other search engines that they should be ranking in . I mean , google's been such a mainstay in digital marketing . You know you talk to any SEO and 90% of the conversation is going to be around Google . But ironically , looking at their EEAT this year has just eroded the trust in Google . There's just been far too many controversies .

As we mentioned a minute ago , gemini AI was a bit sketchy when it first came out . So I think , are they going to not be the top dog ? They'll still be the top dog , but it's going to just push a few more companies to disrupt .

You know people like TikTok coming in and taking that market share already but then targeting the generations that are maybe not using Google . From a marketer's point of view , it's the same as we should always be doing . You know Google is a mainstay . We know they're trying to make things more of a black box process when it comes to things like paid media .

You need to make sure you are diversifying into other channels and understanding what other channels are around there , because Google is not going to be a top dog for ever .

Tom Inniss

I'm not going to put a timeline on that . Well , it's interesting you say that , because Shinru actually did . Well , it's interesting you say that because Shinru actually did .

ShinRoo Chao

Maybe in the next decade or two decades we never know . Because , for example , just imagine 25 years ago what search engine we use to search things . For me it's Yahoo and then Google . So we never know . Maybe one of the search engines and small search engines at the moment will kind of overtake Google's smart share image .

Haydn Woods-Williams

When you mention search engine , you just think of Google , but I think people's search behaviors are changing . They want more curation , they want more authenticity , and on places like TikTok you get content from creators , rather than on Google , where the majority of the content you're seeing is from brands .

Tom Inniss

That's an awesome segue to our conversation around TikTok . It's featured plenty in the news this year , so President Biden signed a bill that could even ban the video platform . Australia , as we're recording this , has just banned social media accounts for the under-16s .

So there is starting to be a little bit of a siege on social media platforms , and TikTok is generally in the sights of most of the legislators . But the app is also loved by many demographics and is now the place for finding the latest trends . But should you really chase the latest hot thing and our marketers actually say no ?

Ross Stratton

because of tiktok's unique features . I think there's an easy trap to fall into to just kind of make content off the back of trending topics . I think a smarter strategy we kind of develop content that aligns with with popular searches and queries , trending topics , things like how to guide , tutorials and educational content that address kind of common user queries .

Just kind of making sure that your content provides value and solves problems for your target audience .

Rich Harper

Just because one company or one brand has done something and it's successful , it's almost an indicator for every other brand and company to go that works for them . Let's copy it and do the same thing , but guess what ? It doesn't work for everybody .

Tom Inniss

How do you think we should balance originality and joining in the latest craze , especially when so much of our time is now spent on platforms like TikTok and we want to be involved ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

This is such a good question because you've got to look at yourself as a company and understand are you a first mover and are you bold ? So , if you're a first mover and you're bold , jump on those platforms .

I remember conversations from like 2016 , 2017 , talking about the opportunity in LinkedIn and the opportunity on Meta and where that's where there were cheap opportunities for for traffic and the other .

The other place that you can be is you can be one of those companies that's a little bit more hesitant and I think that's this is the dangerous place to be , because this is where you can potentially be that company that is just copying . And in a great world , you know you copy and it works okay , but you're doing the exact same thing as everyone else .

In a bad world , you're the brand that is talking about being demure in november 2024 and you're like two months out of date and that's just embarrassing and that's the problem .

Tom Inniss

like if your content pipeline is slow , you're never able to hit those trends before people have moved on . So it's about , as you said it's about what your brand actually stands for and what your personality is as well , and whether or not you are one of those people that can authentically jump into the latest trend and be demure or mindful .

Haydn Woods-Williams

It's funny , though , because we think about those trends that have come through . We think about the curry's campaign , where , or campaigns where they were one of the first people to jump on the whole talking like a gen z , and then they took it to the next step where it's talking like a millennial . Oh , didn't that age . Yeah , it was horrible .

It was horrible . It was even worse when I realized that I still didn't know some of those things Clearly not cool enough . But the issue is like , as you said , if you've got that slow pipeline by the time you're talking about the thing and especially right now with Gen Z , they move on so quickly . Something is not cool within hours .

You know , sometimes if you've got a content approval process that takes a week , you know everyone's moved on . No one cares about what you're talking about anymore .

Tom Inniss

That's a really great point , and that's actually something Debbie touched on when talking about TikTok .

Debbie Gacutan-Jardim De Oliveira

I think that if you are a company that is focusing on younger generations , what you need to prepare for is that eventually , because of their culture , because of the way that they consume content , the younger generations will also explore alternative platforms . I don't know if anyone is familiar , but there's also a new one called Triller .

It's the latest platform right now for consuming video content . It's something that is not snapshot outside of YouTube Shorts , outside of Instagram Reels . So , as you see , more and more things are popping up , so it really depends on how much just making sure that you don't rely heavily on TikTok .

Haydn Woods-Williams

When was that recorded ? Because I still don't know who Triller are .

Tom Inniss

I have no idea who Triller are . I went and Googled it again I was like nope , I still don't know them . Maybe 2025 will be the year of Triller .

Haydn Woods-Williams

Everyone's talking about Blue Sky at the minute , about doing a Twitter replacement , aren't they ?

Tom Inniss

And I think it could be . I think this is the wonderful thing . At the moment , we're starting to see the flourishing of different social media networks , which is what I predicted . What are we leaving in 2023 ? We are leaving X , formerly known as Twitter .

I think 2024 is the year that we say goodbye to Elon Musk and his hubristic attitude towards social media and the contempt that he generally has towards its users , and especially advertisers . I don't think you can stand on stage and tell advertisers to go fuck themselves and then be shocked when they stop putting money into your platform .

I've been railing on this elon musk thing for over a year now .

Haydn Woods-Williams

He , he has just risen to new heights , though he's nine .

Tom Inniss

Nines to your I know we all mocked him . We all mocked him when he bought twitter . Well , we started with like , oh , maybe he's going to be able to turn it around to a profitable platform .

And then he immediately gave into all of his worst impulses and we're like , oh , he's just burned however many billions of dollars and now actually , it seemed like a really good investment because he has ultimately just bought an election . Genius .

Haydn Woods-Williams

The hard thing like effectively , it's still a community . It's just a community of politically positioned people that are against what I stand nazis , you can say nazis , it's all right .

Tom Inniss

Anyway , we're gonna move . Well , maybe this is actually an awesome segue as well , moving on from nazis to talk about , uh , customer experience . So at brew digital , we're pretty focused on the customer experience and michele , who is our paid media manager , certainly has some strong feelings about it if you don't have competitors , ignore your clients .

Michele Rafaelli

Don't care what they say , you're the only one out there , so just ignore them . The first case I'm thinking is Ryanair . They are the worst . They've got everyone complaining . They do nothing about it , they don't need it .

If you have competitors where people can say , okay , if you don't listen to me , you know what , I go somewhere else , then you have to do like Mark said listen to them . You have all these social media platforms where you can actually read what they say , what they think , and you can learn a lot just spending 10 minutes reading comments .

Tom Inniss

So , hayden , if you are a big enough company , can you just ignore your clients like Ryanair ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

I feel like this is the point where we now have to bring up Jaguar , because , firstly , there is magic in how Ryanair treats its customers . It's terrible , but brilliant in other ways . And you look at this Jaguar rebrand as well , where they've effectively gone our core audience screw them , screw them . They're all buying Mercedes now anyway .

And they've gone this is our new audience and gone really full in with a rebrand that is memorable and it's got a conversation rolling . Like when was the last time anyone has been excited about a car being released ? Excited about a car being released ?

They , they have done so well from a PR point of view with regards to building a conversation , and actually I know some people say there's no such thing as bad publicity . Um , there , obviously is , but I just think then we might look back on this and go . That was an amazing marketing move it's certainly possible .

Tom Inniss

I mean , I own a Jag and I'm probably not their target audience in the fact that it's not a particularly new Jag , but when I bought it and this makes me sound really old and it is kind of an old man car but I wanted to own a pair of driving gloves , you know , and I was like this car now is going to be like it's part of my identity .

I am like I'm ready for a comfortable lifestyle now and this new brand has completely torched that . Simultaneously , I don't know whether or not the young people that they're actually trying to appeal to are going to be buying cars , let alone Jaguars , because who can afford them ?

Like the concept car that they've just released , they've already said it's going to be over £100,000 .

Haydn Woods-Williams

We'll buy one from Future Thumb Like it'll be secondhand £1,000 .

Tom Inniss

That'd be great . I look forward to it . So , moving on , this year we also introduced our first guest , and it's really hard to imagine somebody better than Alice from Adaptivist , who spoke to us about accessibility .

Alice from Adaptavist

But yeah , from a marketing point of view , I think those are things that hopefully are fairly easy for people to implement . Make content accessible from the start , build it into your design and your content creation process and , you know , something that everyone can do really easily is test things as well . I really try and stress this to people . You know .

If you're producing a video , watch it with your screen turned off . Can you still understand what's happening ? Have you got all the key information ? Watch it with the sound turned off . Can you still understand what's happening ? And you got all the key information ? Watch it with the sound turned off . Ask yourself the same thing are the captions good enough ?

Read your alt text to a colleague who hasn't ever seen the image you're describing before . Things like that are things that absolutely everyone can do and they will improve the quality and the accessibility of your content so , hayden , I believe you were the one to invite alice onto the podcast , and she was just an absolutely amazing find .

Tom Inniss

Could you tell us a little bit about why you invited her and what you got out of that conversation ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

Absolutely . Now . I think one of the main reasons I invited her is because we got talking about accessibility during an event we attended .

Attended and I realized that , despite working in marketing for you know , eight , nine years , at that point I had never properly looked to ensure that all the marketing that I did was accessible , and I can guarantee that that probably rolls across 90% of marketers .

That might even be a conservative amount and I think this this talk from Alice if I had to pick out one talk from the entire year , is the one that stands out for me , because there's so many simple things that , if you start building into your process , mean that you can reach more customers , and accessibility is one of those things .

That is just better for the world . It's better for people , and there are so many people I can't remember statistics off the top of my head who are impacted by lack of accessibility , and you will be reaching more people by being accessible absolutely .

Tom Inniss

It's like that phrase um , rising tides lift all boats and just by putting in a little bit more effort , you are just making such a difference to the world . You're being more inclusive , you're reaching a larger audience and you're just generally being a decent human being .

Building on that , mental health came up a couple of times this year as well , and I mean we can all advocate about the importance of mental health and looking after your team and yourself , but our podcast sort of pushed the boat forward a little bit and spoke instead about the responsibility that marketers have for the mental health of their audiences , and this is

mark talking about that yes , ultimately businesses need to make profit to survive , but more and more the drive is on doing that ethically and morally .

Mark Bundle

So I think there is a responsibility to consider potential recipients mental health . If you're creating content which is is going to affect people in a negative way , chances are that's going to spread and it's going to affect your reputation .

Purely on a pragmatic basis , I think you have to acknowledge what your content is doing now and making sure that you're on the right side of that ethical line .

Tom Inniss

So a lot has happened since we recorded that episode , most notably an election in the United States which has sort of opened our eyes to people's perceptions of ethics and morality . Do you think that that sense of social responsibility still rings true for marketers ? Do we need to prioritize customers' thoughts and feelings ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

customers thoughts and feelings ? Yes , but I feel like , with the economic position of the world at the moment , it has been dropped a little bit since we started this conversation . I don't think there is as much happening to think about the mental impacts that boxing has on people , particularly with relation to x and the election . I think it's .

It's so interesting because there was so much content in the world and now so much of it has been created by ai , as we mentioned already that how do you police that ?

Tom Inniss

I think for brands , they should be taking a more ethical and a more responsible view , but I don't think they are at the moment , and do you think a company that chooses to have that more ethical stance is giving themselves an advantage or a disadvantage by positioning themselves in that way ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

I think , think ultimately , they're going to in the long run . In this world , good , there's always light after darkness isn't there . That's the eternal optimist inside me . So , yes , I think we talk about authenticity and if you truly are a brand that wants to do good for your customers , then you need to take social responsibility seriously .

And , yes , there are budget cuts and , yes , taxes are rising , but ultimately , without a customer , or with a customer that is not in the right frame of mind or who has been damaged by something that you've done , you're not going to improve those budgets and and those profits and and revenue .

There was a recent study by mind and and nabs of that said that 62 percent of marketers are considering leaving the industry because their mental well-being has been affected by work .

Like we not only have a social responsibility to to the customers , but also to ourselves as well , and I think we just have to think about I don't have , I don't know how we do it in this current ecosystem , but we just have to well , I think one of the ways that we do that is by looking out for one another within your team .

Tom Inniss

and on the subject of teams , our parent company , adaptivist , released the Digital Ethnic Report this year that looked at how different generations perceive each other in the workplace , and we're moving on from that doom and gloom and potential optimism of team relationships and our responsibility to each other .

But I found this one clip and I thought it was really enlightening and encapsulates all of those generational issues , and I just wanted to play it for you and get your reaction .

Freya Willcocks

A bizarre fact that has come out of this report is that 50% of workers feel annoyed when their younger colleagues don't have a pen . I know it doesn't really apply to us because we work from home the majority of the time , but quick fire , yes or no in an office situation with someone not having a pen annoy you , mark .

Mark Bundle

Yes , and that's why I bring smears . Okay , Kieran .

Ciaran O'Neill

No , I can type on my phone , on my Mac , far quicker than I can write , so I don't care . Hayden , do you have a pen ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

I don't right now , but I was in a situation recently where I did have a pen when I needed a pen and I don't know why I had that pen , but I feel like that's more because I have recently become a dad .

Tom Inniss

Why does being a dad mean ? You have a pen now I don't know what are you doing with it Just writing your name on the child so you can find them .

Haydn Woods-Williams

Yeah , yeah , exactly that . Like when you take them into nursery , you need to make sure you're picking up the right one . This is just such a ridiculous conversation . I just don't think you can get annoyed with someone for not having a pen . It is interesting , though , because it does also seem rude sometimes to be typing on a phone .

So you know , I don't have an answer to this one , but I don't have a bet .

Tom Inniss

But , like on a serious note , employees can make or break a work environment to bring it back to our previous conversation and they are a company's best asset , both internally and externally , and in one podcast this year we did speak about the power of personal branding in B2B .

Rich Harper

Steph , what advice would you give ? How do you get employees to share common values with the corporate brand ?

Steph Smith

I mean that all kind of comes down to hiring right . It's not really about ensuring that your employees share your corporate values . It's about hiring the right people . You hire people that you know will not only like it at your company but thrive and be a champion of your brand and your values , just naturally .

Tom Inniss

So I think you're part of the Brew Advocates group here at Brew Digital , so I just wanted to quickly get some insights around how we are starting to lean on personal brands at the company .

Haydn Woods-Williams

We've been to quite a few conferences the back end of this year where personal brand has been one of the biggest talking points , and you look at LinkedIn rolling out thought leader ads , where ads come from a person rather than a company .

I also spoke on a podcast for the Drum talking about Spotify and podfluencers or podcast hosts who are influencers , and I think the ultimate part of that is people trust people more than people trust brands , which we mentioned earlier with TikTok anyway , and creators versus brands .

All we're trying to do is authentically empower the team to be more open on social media and talk more and share their expertise more . The podcast is a great platform for that anyway , but sometimes all the team needs and the reason we have brew advocates is they just need a little push to do it .

We interestingly sat in on a conference session by Stephen Bartlett . One of the best things he said was there were two things actually . First one was fuck it .

Everyone is shit when they start , which is amazing advice , because the judgment is one of the big things that you have to get over and the second one is and this is almost a building on it the first bit is just start posting . That's the kind of thing we're telling our team at the moment .

The second bit is how is your content valuable to someone who doesn't know who you are ? And that was the one that's currently what we're trying to shape the personal branding for people .

Because it's easy to put a post out and everyone from brew likes it and your dad likes it , and then your dad starts a conversation telling you how much he likes listening to your podcast . Quick message to my dad stop listening to the podcast . You are skewing our stats .

But it's starts to move to being impactful to businesses when you can actually influence people who don't know you . And that doesn't mean , oh , I've got to go viral and on linkedin and get a thousand likes . It's consistency . And getting two people who aren't part of your company to like something , three people , four people it's those little ones .

Tom Inniss

Going back to that sort of network effect . One of the ways that you can do that is by inviting more people onto your podcast , who can then promote it as digital marketers .

We are very strong advocates for interdepartmental cooperation , and that is why we have absolutely loved having Danica , who is the or a sorry senior full stack developer at RooDigital , to talk about the dev experience . Not only is she exceptionally insightful , but she does also then share it on her socials .

Danica Walpole

From a developer perspective , we crave that communication early on , that communication early on . One of the challenges we have is that we have these great ideas from the marketers which are in the back of our minds and there are considerations that we want to make .

But we also have to balance design choices and stuff that maybe have also been made by marketers .

But if you communicate those things early on with us , we can make sure that that's informing every choice we make in terms of our build , in terms of even the CMS we pick and things like cookie banners , cookie policies and overall just creating a greater experience , not for our end user only , but also marketers that may occasionally be using our CMS or they want

to add new things into there , whereas you could have something , you know , maybe a month down the line , where you're like , oh , our performance is tanked . And we're like , yeah , that's because you wanted this really image heavy graphic on your site that loads in X amount of times and blah blah .

There are things that we can do to improve the performance of that code wise , but it's those choices and the reasoning why we're saying no and trusting that we're not just being grumbly little gremlins .

Tom Inniss

Grumbly little gremlins . Would you describe the dev department as grumbly little gremlins , Hayden ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

No , I love having Danica on and I love my conversations with the dev team . I think what a question that throws you off , that I'm having to think about internal politics now , as well as the answer to the the questions you're giving me okay , let me read .

Tom Inniss

I love that for you . Well , do you look at the relationship with the dev team ? Why is it so important from a marketing perspective ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

yeah , I mean , ultimately the most important thing is that things happen and with any relationship , if you're working from a single perspective , aka a marketer , you're always going to miss things because of your tunnel vision .

So incorporating the thoughts of design , dev , any kind of team , sales , is also another one that's really important to talk about or talk with . Having that just fills those gaps of knowledge and visibility in your own experience , and I think that is one of the most important things .

Also , like , everyone has great ideas and the , the idea that great ideas are only for the marketing team and design ideas are only for the design team and and website development is only for the dev team are archaic . People have so many cross specialism skills that by not including them , you're only doing yourself a disservice absolutely couldn't agree more .

Tom Inniss

I think the idea or the days of having this department does this and exclusively looks at that , and here's another one like those siloed approaches to running a business .

Haydn Woods-Williams

They have to and you have to pull those balls down to um quote reagan I love the idea and I've actually not been in the company where this is , this happens , but where I am managed by someone who has no idea what my job is and I manage people that have no idea what my job is .

I love that because it it forces you to think about people rather than the job , because you know , you know you're good at that , you can network and you're forced to network with , with other people in that specialism , but those personal kind of line management responsibilities suddenly fully become all about relationships and building improving mental health and that kind

of thing so , just wrapping up , I wanted to , um , just play a selection of clips where we've given our signature sage advice and at the end get your thoughts on whether you think that's evolved throughout the year and if there's anything you would add Plan .

Ciaran O'Neill

If you have a plan , you can get that perfect balance . Because you're prepared , you're already working at things , You're already building your Christmas strategy or campaigns in summer , for instance , because you're working ahead so much . The last minute stuff is your cookie cutter . That is the stuff that you just go ahead so much .

The last minute stuff is your cookie cutter . That is the stuff that you just go ahead and do . But you need to have a process that works . You need to have a great relationship with the team and , for the love of God , you need to properly bloody brief the damn stuff . Plan .

Michele Rafaelli

B is a measure of preparing you to fail , that you don't put all your effort and energies to do something properly . The first time in marketing , everything can happen . You can prepare this great campaign and then you realize actually no , I can't run it because something has happened .

Ciaran O'Neill

Those are very limited situation , listen to your customers , review your engagement , always be prepared to adjust your spend on a daily basis and ask for help from anyone , including us .

Haydn Woods-Williams

Did you purposely make that finish with a clip that upsells that we are a full service digital agency .

I think planning is so important , but also one of the things that I've been talking to a couple of clients about recently , and we have a way of working where when we're on a sales call or a pitch talking to potential new clients , we refuse to deliver them a digital strategy or a digital plan as part of the pitch Because ultimately , that plan or framework is

just cookie cutter bollocks right . Plan or framework is it's just cookie cutter bollocks right . The only way to really understand your brand and to plan for success is by doing the research , and that research is into your product . That research is into your service . That research is into your customer .

It's into everything that you can do competitors , and only when you have that knowledge can you then choose whether to deliver what your audience wants or ignore what your audience wants . So I think a good example of this is Pablo Picasso and Pablo Picasso's kind of surrealism and cubism . It's weird and it's different .

And there are some Picasso pictures you look at and go an idiot could have done that . But you go back and you look to what Picasso was delivering at 15 years old and they're these absolutely perfect portraits , absolutely perfect landscapes . He learned all the rules , decided that that's not enough and then chose to break them so long-windedly .

Turning that back to marketing is make sure that you understand everything about your customer , about what their wants are , what their needs are , and then make the choice whether to deliver things that they want and solve their problems or go the complete other way and mark brought this up earlier actually .

Um , he spoke about kfc and how last christmas they ran an ad campaign around their Christmas burger . Everyone said we want to include turkey , we want you to do this , kft , kentucky Fried Turkey , but their whole campaign this year is saying no , we're not doing it .

Tom Inniss

I was really intrigued to see how you were going to land that plane , and I think you did it successfully . I don't think there's anywhere we can go though from that . From Pablo Picasso to Ryanair to KFC . I think we have pretty much ticked all of the boxes in terms of marketing discussion .

Before I wrap this conversation up , is there any other insights you want to offer ? Have you got some sort of art nouveau hidden interest that you want to share with the world , some sort of art nouveau hidden interest that you want to share with the world ?

Haydn Woods-Williams

Just look after yourself .

Tom Inniss

I love that . That's perfect . That's perfect . Look after yourself and then , once you put your oxygen mask on , look after each other . Great , thank you very much , hayden . Yes , thank you so much , hayden , and thank you , dear listener , for joining us on this very meta episode of Marketers of the Universe . We hope that you've enjoyed listening to today's episode .

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Haydn Woods-Williams

Awkward silence for Tom to edit . Oh shit , she's still got headphones on . You can probably hear me .

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