Damian Douglas

What role will events play in your marketing mix in 2025? How can you make you activations and sponsorships really pop to deliver ROI for your business next year? Marketers - take an hour away from your 2025 planning on 12th December to join me, Conrad Mills and Andrew Hill as we explore the trasnformative power of events for marketers in this FT Live webinar. Register below and let me know in the comments what questions or topics you'd like to see addressed. #events #marketing #eventprofs #communications #businessdevelopment #audienceengagement https://lnkd.in/e87_JVvc

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A brilliant talk by Mark Kirkham and Mauro Porcini of PepsiCo at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on 'The Human Side of Growth'. My key take-out? Human-centricity means we must widen the lens to see the whole human and then sharpen the lens to get granular. Both spoke passionately about how PepsiCo has embraced seeing people as humans - not just consumers. As we say at Brand Genetics, 'You're a consumer of a brand for a fleeting moment, but you're human 100% of your life'. Too many businesses zoom in on the so-called 'moment of truth' - purchase and consumption. However, true insight lies in understanding the human journey leading to that choice and the underlying goals. By uncovering human motivations and the human jobs-to-be-done, we can discover richer, deeper opportunities. Mark and Mauro both spoke to how how being truly human centric could unlock growth by helping brands become more creative, more innovative and more experiential. They made a compelling case. Mark and Mauro showed that being truly human-centric can unlock growth by making businesses more creative, more innovative and more experiential. They made a compelling case for the power of people in love with people. #HumanCentricity #CannesLions #BrandGenetics #Creativity #Innovation #Marketing

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A podcast about Pharma brands and effective Pharma marketing! If you work for a pharma company or you serve the needs of pharma marketing at an agency, publisher, creator or platform then there’s something here for you. Covering all the areas that Richard details below. He asked some good questions about the strategies pharma category brands specifically can take to improve the impact and effectiveness of their media and advertising. With so many restrictions and regulations, how can they stand out? Thanks to the Skittle Media team #MediaForGrowth ID Comms

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AAR 'S Burning Platforms Report is a great read and resonates with all of the conversations I am having with CMO's and other senior marketers. With growing concerns in the industry around proving ROI, talent and capabilities, maximising value, creativity, AI, speed of change and finding growth opportunities - marketing has got really really hard. Something that our teams at Inspired Thinking Group (ITG) are all too familiar with helping our clients overcome. One of the key takeaways for me is that 59% of marketing ecosystems aren't set up to deal with the speed of change the industry is seeing and only 26% of CMO's have introduced a marketing operations function to ensure everything is streamlined/effective. Benjamin Braun states in the report that "everything has got to be anchored in the P&L" yet the research findings state 52% of marketers have lots of data but don't know what to do with it. The second stat that really resonated is that 39% of marketers say current ways of working are not fit for purpose, or agile enough, to succeed in a changing world. This poses the question, how do brands know what the 'right' way of working is? Becky Moffat suggests "we're in danger of creating a generation of doers rather than leaders and thinkers" which for me, links back to the operational model not being agile enough, way of working being broken but marketers not having the time to recognise the change that needs to happen. Anyway, if my ramblings have inspired you in any way - I'd recommend reading the report in full, definitely provides food for thought. 😅

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Don't know where to start or what are the benefits of 'CTV' ... your not alone! Our latest report helps demystify and offers practical guidance. Please drop me or the team a line if you want to chat but definitely download the report! 👇

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I've read a lot of interesting takes on this social platform and others, regarding the demise of the Evening Standard (newspaper). I spent two spells at the Standard and, largely, have great memories of my time there, worked with some brilliant journalists and fulfilled a childhood dream of seeing my byline in the paper that my Dad brought home from his commute each day. My first spell (2005-2009) was working as a reporter for, primarily the newspaper, which published three editions each day. One person (!) was tasked with uploading our stories online which he dutifully did throughout the day. My second spell was as digital sports editor (2013-2016), as the organisation began to pivot more purposefully towards digital. The decline of print has been two decades in the making, at least. The fact is, we all have these incredibly powerful devices that access a whole host of news sources rapidly. Newspaper ad revenues have plummeted because, yes people do not want to pay for print products like they used to, but most significantly, the social platforms offer advertisers incredible data and targeting. It’s not a fair fight. Newspapers had needed to evolve into digital first news brands since the turn of the century - with purpose and a clear commercial strategy. The Standard was slower than others to realise this, partly because of its privileged and long established distribution network across London. It also leant to the right, supporting Tory mayoral candidates and preferring to concern itself more with London’s aspirational set rather than an increasingly diverse, economically-challenged city. That suited the commercial team which liked to position the paper as a harbinger of middle class trends, and go after the luxury brands. London is a lot of things to a lot of people, but 8 years under a Labour Mayor tells its own story. Nevertheless, the Standard always championed investigative journalism, proper news values, and often set the agenda for the dailies the following day. I hope it continues to do this via digital platforms and products because the name means something to a lot of people and there remains some really talented and committed journalists at the paper. For those mourning the paper’s demise, ask yourself: when was the last time I paid for a newspaper? We are all complicit in print’s decline because tech has changed the means with which we get our news. But with all the fake news out there, major news stories such as national elections in the UK and US and conflict raging in the Middle East and Europe, real, trusted journalism matters more than ever in 2024. The Standard's owners do not need to look far to see how newspapers have successfully pivoted to online, with The Independent (also owned by the Lebedevs) and Daily Mail both growing their audiences, revenues and improving their user experience in recent months.

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A few days ago, I published the post below here on LinkedIn and on other social networks about my blog being in Vuelio's listing of the Top 10 UK PR blogs 2024. Some nice reactions here (thanks!) and there. On LinkedIn, though, within a few hours, I'd received email pitches and DMs from people wanting me to publish guest posts, with the promise that they'd promote the posts and "amplify my SEO presence," to quote one. All in exchange for "just a few carefully selected links," to quote another. It’s clear that LinkedIn is fast becoming a breeding ground for inauthentic, spammy, approaches. But the real question is: How do we maintain trust and authenticity in a space that’s increasingly being exploited?

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Working with the success of our Brands brings success to your Businesses

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A fascinating read about a key moment in the history of advertising self-regulation, thanks to Sue Eustace and the team at History of Advertising Trust.

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Last week I had the pleasure of attending Grayling Media's launch in London. Grayling Media is a media relations and intelligence unit within Grayling and has just released a new report 'The New Media Age 2024' which I have linked to in the comments below. It's well worth a read. The launch event featured a power panel of media and PR experts, including Sky News’ Sophy Ridge, new media expert Jordan Schwarzenberger, Bauer Media's lucie cave and PR pro and Love is Blind's Tom Stroud, all expertly moderated by Grayling's Heather Blundell. The conversation focused on the evolving media landscape, especially how traditional journalism is converging with the digital world. Some stats that stood out to me included : Journalist trust remains strong: 64% of the UK public trust journalists, with higher trust among the 18-35 age group. Rise of media influencers: One in five consumers follow specific journalists, with 40% of 18-34-year-olds actively seeking their content. Generational shift: Younger audiences are connecting deeply with individual journalists, valuing their voices more than the platforms they work for. Social media struggles with impartiality: Only 40% of respondents view social media as impartial, compared to 63% for TV. A few standout themes then: The rise of individual journalists as influencers - with younger audiences often following the views of individuals over media outlets. As PR professionals, building relationships with individual journalists remains as important as ever. The blurring lines between traditional and new media—content creators and social media platforms are now integral to news consumption, especially for Gen Z. AI and disinformation—there’s both excitement and caution around AI's growing role in content creation. Trust and authenticity remain critical as we navigate this new era. I dind't count, but had I of done, that word 'trust' was almost certainly the most cited word in the day. It’s clear that the future of media is multi-platform, with a very strong focus on personalities and engaging content rather than media brands alone and it all needs to resonate with diverse audiences. A fascinating session and plenty of takeaways for PR and media professionals, thank you for a great afternoon. And a big shout out to David Gallagher and Leah Selouk too, great to natter afterwards. Don't forget to download the report - linked below. #PR #Media #SocialMedia #AI #Communications #Content #futureofmedia

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Really grateful to two market-leading Editors of subscription-led businesses and terrific ex-colleagues of mine, Catrin Griffiths and Alastair McLellan, for spending time with me last week on B2B content strategy. If you want to watch on-demand there is a link below. Highlights for me included: Impact on content strategy of the move to a paid subscription business model 17min46 Building a high value B2B content proposition 14min02, 23min05, & 31min29 How to motivate editors & editorial teams 29min42 & 50min47 Removing Print as a platform 45min02: https://lnkd.in/gbwftfwR

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Retail Media is one of the recruitment bright spots in the media world.  For years, agency people stayed in agency land - and brand marketers or retailers side did not cross over into the agency world. This should not be surprising as the skill sets are different. However, Retail Media is triggering a wholesale series of changes in how retailers can drive new revenues and how brands can acquire customers. The skill set required to set up and operate a retail media network is much more like a media agency than classic retailing.  Retailers are good at retailing, not necessarily selling media.  There will be a lot more of these sorts of "Adland Exec joins Grocer" 😁 announcements from retailers as they fill in gaps in their skill base. Of course, social networks, eg Pinterest are part of the offsite propositions that many retailers will offer as part of their onsite/offsite/in-store channels. And, of course, Amazon are the "OG" of retail media 😁 Good hires all round by Nick Ashley & the team at Tesco.

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Will the next government bring increased regulation for the UK advertising industry? The UK general election falls on the last day of MAD//FEST LONDON, so by the time Grace Carter gets on stage to start the party in E1, many of the votes for the political parties will have already been cast. One change that the new government could oversee is increased external regulation and governance of the advertising industry - would that be a good thing or a bad thing for you? Let's take AI for example. Katherine Viner, editor of the Guardian, recently called for AI regulation. She said, "Without quality journalism to train and ground large language models, these technologies would struggle to make sense of the world around them." Without quality, trusted data to train the AI models on, it is easy to see how we could get into a vicious circle of AI choking on its own exhaust fumes: 1 - Incorrect content published 2 - AI reads that incorrect content 3 - AI therefore writes incorrect content Crap in, crap out, as they say in the trade! ;-) I would also add that digital advertising relies on quality content that consumers spend time with, so that the advertising has a chance of having an impact. For example: The difference in dwell time on an MFA site, which uses GenAI to create the content and click-bait to get somebody there, to a page with 10 ads, is a world away from the experience of a subscriber to a premium publisher site, who logs on to consume the content they pay for and only sees a single ad next to that valued content. 💬 - What do you think - more government regulation or not? #ai #regulation #advertising

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With the disclaimer that I am very much still going through the full research in detail before voicing any definitive takeaways one way or the other regarding its findings and claims... The implications of this new research for Fortune 500 marketers, especially those in FMCG (and again with the caveat that this is all pending broader industry diligence and discourse) are no less than seismic in magnitude. I say this, without exaggeration, because the degree of influence and impact the "Laws of Growth" principles laid out in "How Brands Grow" have had on large incumbent "household name" brands and their media investment allocation strategies has been so enormous over the last ~10-15 years. Here is the link to a piece that was published today summarizing the main headlines from Felipe Thomaz's new research: https://lnkd.in/g4WBgwEm A "preview" of the longer read, pulled from the piece: "Associate Professor Felipe Thomaz, of University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, suggests Professor Byron Sharp’s best known book, 'How Brands Grow', is a misnomer – it’s actually about how big brands keep big marketshare, not how they got there. Thomaz suggests that’s why FMCG firms adhering to those rules were caught napping by more nimble differentiated start-ups. Optimizing media for reach alone no longer works, he suggests, because all reach is not equal – and used bluntly won't deliver business outcomes. 'There is a missing dimension,' per Thomaz. He’s out to prove it with a peer-reviewed paper that analyses 1,000 campaigns and a million customer journeys via Kantar and Wavemaker. The upshot? 'None of it holds … I'm seeing that 1 per cent of campaigns are actually getting exceptional money, while the vast majority are choosing to get some really mediocre outcomes.' But there's potential upside for marketers, media agencies – and media owners – that grasp the category-specific implications." #howbrandsgrow #lawsofgrowth #brandmarketing VaynerMedia Avery Akkineni Gary Vaynerchuk Nick Miaritis Benjamin Allison John Terrana Hailey Riggle Jason Loomis

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Not everyone likes to hear this I know but standardisation and getting the fundamentals right are key to the success of retail media. Let’s work together as an industry to make this happen

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Impact is our output. We talk about modern marketing being able to deliver two types of impact - cultural and commercial. How do we move beyond the brand purpose debate and into a more grown up and nuanced conversation about the different types of impact we all create as marketers every day? Come and join us to find out.

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Im excited to be speaking at the The AI Summit in London - please join me on June 12th at Tobacco dock. If your a business leader and there is anything in particular you want to hear about, let me know below and I will do my best to address it. My talk is called 'Navigating the New Frontiers: the transformative power of AI across industries'. I am aiming to give business leaders an overview of how AI is impacting across multiple industries, but also the expectations that consumers are going to have in the near future because of AI. More so than ever consumer experiences in products and services powered by AI will create significant expectation shifts in speed of delivery, personalisation and experience. Im going to go over this and lay out how to think about and plan what business can do to take advantage of these shifts. As always my aim is to speak with clarity, a lack of jargon and to give some confidence about what's happening and also what's going to happen so leaders can prepare with confidence. 12 Jun 2024 10:10 Industries Stage

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