David Pugh-Jones

The new UK government must prioritise AI and integration of the advertising industry with the tech sector to maintain the country's position as a global leader in advertising. Embracing technological transformation and empowering pioneering companies will be crucial for driving growth and innovation in the advertising landscape. Partnering with industry leaders and understanding how AI can enhance creativity and efficiency will position the UK's ad land for continued success in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Hypothesis: if the new UK government prioritises investment in AI and fosters deeper integration between the advertising and technology sectors, then the UK's advertising industry will be able to maintain its status as a world leader by leveraging technological advancements to enhance creativity, productivity and growth. Agree or disagree? Explain why. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/enq8T4f9 #TheDrum #AI #WorldLeader #MarketingInvestments

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Want to be the AI voice of your organisation? We've pulled together the biggest surprises and insights from the State of AI Report 2024 - hundreds of pages diving deep into the century's most disruptive technology. It's the biggest episode ever of AI Today. So buckle up, and get ready for a half-hour journey to the very heart of AI. Want your whistle whetted? Open AI's dominance may be waning. AI is being used to predict mental health challenges. China is closing the gap in AI development - despite GPU restrictions. Also - did you know researchers are developing AI models that can run on your smartphone? No more reliance on the cloud for AI processing! This is just one of the many exciting developments we're discussing on the latest episode of AI Today. Tune in to learn more about the future of AI and how it will revolutionise your business. #AI #Innovation #FutureOfWork https://lnkd.in/dSqdxWHh

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Celebrating the Women of Data Democratisation  In honour of Women in Tech Week, we’re proud to highlight the incredible contributions of the women leading the charge in our Data Democratisation journey at Virgin Media O2.  In this video, some of our inspiring female pioneers share their stories: why they chose a career in data, their top advice for women aspiring to enter the field, and what they love most about their roles [spoiler alert: it’s all about empowering our stakeholders and driving business outcomes].  From a passion for numbers to a desire to challenge the status quo, these women are united in their mission to put high-quality data and tools into the hands of every colleague at VMO2. Their work is transforming how we make smarter, data-driven decisions to shape the future of our business.  Victoria Sinfield Liberty Wilson Seffana Mohamed - Ajaz Sarah Burns #WomenInData #DataDemocratisation #DataEmpowerment #WomenInTech #WomenInSTEM #DiversityInTech #TechDiversity

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Focusing solely on the present can quickly render you a relic of the past. Engaging with new consumer generations is essential. If your brand isn’t present where these younger demographics spend their time, you risk becoming invisible. Moreover, without creating compelling and relevant experiences, you risk being tuned out. Consider this: Are traditional marketing tools like static photos, social media videos, or search engine highlights sufficient to engage the younger generation? The answer might be found in innovative approaches like the BBC’s strategy of integrating their content on interactive platforms such as Roblox to connect with younger audiences. #DigitalMarketing #BrandEngagement #ConsumerBehavior #GenZ #Roblox 👇

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Interesting webinar around having a data driven approach to measuring your brand and performance. - Explore the very latest thinking in cross-media measurement - Understand how to use predictive analytics for live marketing optimisation - Learn how to develop a measurement strategy across both brand and performance and enable budget optimisation in the short- and long-term Sign up using the link below 🙂 https://lnkd.in/epWQC6wc #mmm #marketing #measurement

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Director Gary Hustwit spoke to 'The Verge' about his ever-changing documentary, the bespoke patent-pending technology that fueled its creation, and how the movie inadvertently met this AI moment and did something more ambitious by thinking smaller about generative art. #generativeart #artandscience #visualai #movies #filmindustry #movieindustry #filmmaking #ai #creative #videoediting #postproduction #generativevideo #texttovideo #artificialgeneralintelligence #aibusiness #humanemotions #humanexpression #neuromorphic #aivideo #videoproduction #technologyadvancements #cinema #artificialintelligencetechnology #ai4good #aifuture #futuretrends #futuretechnology #futureofai #technologytrends #aiguided #aiadoption #aiapplications #animation #technologyinnovation #breakthrough #aievolution #aidriven #neuralnetworks #machinelearning #aitrends #aiforall #aidevelopment #airace #airesearch #genai #generativeai #llms #agi #llm #aiagents #futuretechnology #superintelligence #humantouch #humanbehaviour #expressivebehaviors #neuromorphicapps #aiinnovation #videocreation #Hollywood #humancommunication #texttovideo #expressiveai #syntheticactors #humanlike #multimodalAI #motionpictures #digitalcontent #airevolution #digitalmedia

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What's the difference between content generation and content creation? Can creatives be truly original using Generative AI? Such intriguing questions occurred to me when we announced this interesting partnership with National Youth Theatre. Generative AI is a tool to benefit us, whether increasing productivity, summarising meetings and long documents, or prioritising actions. But how can it help in the creative process across film, theatre, visual arts, music? This is what Microsoft's Digital Accelerator programme will explore and I'm fascinated to see how young creatives will use AI to bring their ideas to life. #GenerativeAI #Creativity #Arts

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I have spent some time formulating carefully my thoughts on this report. TLDR; A massively biased report that because of the bias misses critical issues that make its entire focus invalid. 1. The point made by the OFCOM Future of TV report is that the change is driven by consumer choice - which is not 'controllable', the decisions need to be managed. 2. The issue to be addressed is how to deal with the inevitability that the cost of providing a completely separate infrastructure to support linear consumers will mean that Broadcast is not financially viable at a point in time that is in our immediate future. 3. The report was targeted at driving responses from the industry on exactly HOW to manage the sunsetting of broadcast infrastructure in a controlled way, including an option that kept a cost (not profit) driven base minimum service to cover those who are slowest to make the transition, and to ensure minimum service to those who are left out of the IP transition. The option is not mandated as the number of those left out may be so small, that to run this minimum service may not actually make any sense. 4. The issue of cost is how to deal with the ADDITIONAL COST of running two separate infrastructures, where one is only for delivery of linear TV, and the other (WHICH WILL HAPPEN ANYWAY) covers all services, including ALL telephony from January 2027 (i.e. if you want a phone, you have to have broadband anyway by then). 5. Many of the arguments in the report are not expected to be an issue - e..g no one is suggesting that consumers will pay extra for IP delivered TV. In fact many of those arguments are based on an interesting problem that the largest cost of TV is the TV licence fee, that can be avoided if you do not consumer linearly delivered services, which is actually what is happening (currently I understand TV licence payment is at 81% of households and falling). 6. There is also a fallacy here that DTT has better coverage than broadband, driven by using an invalid broadband speed figure as the required speed to be able to stream HD video. Current USO figures of 10Mbps is sufficient for HD video streaming today, and the figures used assume the consumer is going to be streaming 4K or multiple HD services. A 10Mbps streaming service can provide you with single stream access in HD to all services, not just one Multiplex which is what is defined by the DTT 99% coverage figure. 7. Current USO is 99.26% of the country. 8. This is a discussion of how much more does the UK want to pay to run a dedicated infrastructure for only linear (which will only be 11% of viewing across both IP and Broadcast), and 20% more is too much in cost and energy terms for this. There are more points, particularly about the somewhat unbelievably (made up) numbers and invalid assumptions. This is a report targeted at finding an answer the customer wanted rather than a real assessment, even though the answer achieved is not valid. Discuss.

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"30% of people in the UK say they have not heard of any of the most prominent products, including ChatGPT." (BBC) Lucky them? Unlucky them? I've heard lots of anecdotes about AI fatigue recently. Has the hype cycle already turned towards the trough of disillusionment as the reality of hasty investments, regulatory oversight, and poorly prepared people starts to sink in? #AIHype #GenerativeAI #ArtificialIntelligence #DataEthics #DataLiteracy

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▪️ How confident are you with Digital-First business practices❓ ▪️ Have you transformed or adapted your services to appeal to Digital-Native clients❓ 🔗If this sounds like alien territory to you, please have a read through my new insights piece for some context: https://lnkd.in/dfcy2kpS If you need any further information, please DM me and I'd love to chat. #DigitalNative #DigitalFirst #UnderstandingConsumerBehaviour #LegalMarketing #MLTDigital

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5 Podcasts to level up your business, starting today - 1. The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett Dive deep into the minds of industry leaders and discover their secret playbooks. I heard Steven speak live at Jon Penberthy's #AdCon 2024, and it was a real eye-opener. 2. The Game with Alex Hormozi Alex breaks down complex growth strategies into digestible, actionable insights. 3. My First Million with Sam Parr and Shaan Puri Get inspired by the entrepreneurial journeys and bold moves that made their first million. 4. The Long Game Where long-term thinking is celebrated. Learn frameworks that prioritise sustainability over quick wins. 5. 10 Minute Entrepreneur with Sean Castrina Perfect for those short on time but big on ambition. Powerful lessons in bite-sized episodes. Which podcasts would you add to this list?

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As a former albeit very brief Physics major, I sometimes struggled with the equations that explain our world (hence my switch to Business). This week in London though, there was one in particular that I couldn't get out of my head: Momentum = Mass x Velocity. At Contentstack, we're experiencing a force of momentum unlike anything I've seen in my career. With our growing team, expanding product, and accelerating revenue, we're gaining mass. And our velocity - the speed at which we innovate, execute, and deliver exceptional customer experiences - is truly setting us apart. Our first ever ContentCon Europe was a testament to this momentum. What started as a small dinner concept quickly grew beyond our wildest expectations, forcing us to change venues to accommodate the overwhelming demand from our prospects, customers, and partners. During my keynote, I addressed the Brand Relevancy Crisis and emphasized the need for dynamic, personalized experiences in today's noisy, digital-first (and sometimes only) world. The question I left the crowd with was: Can legacy technology, developed 30 years ago for the internet age, deliver the digital experiences needed to win in the AI age? We all know that what got us here is NOT going to get us where we need to go. Marketing leaders, I invite you to take a demo of Contentstack. If you're not blown away, I'll buy you lunch. And if/when you are blown away, I'll buy you a really nice lunch 😀 Let's harness the power of momentum together and reimagine possible. LFG!

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🪜🪜🪜 | Know your place; the power of an emoji. Afew years ago, in an all staff meeting, our Chief Commercial Officer, Clare Jones, compared business development to a game of Snakes and Ladders. 🐍 | There are plenty of snakes in business — blockers, commercial negotiations, stacked roadmap, legacy technical issues… 🪜 | But there are also ladders — having what3words in the customers local language, being responsive to legal queries, finding a tweet asking a customer to integrate, having coffee in the coffee machine... Clare told us that the whole company can be a ladder and that, in particular, marketing was a key enabler for business development. It resonated deeply. 🙏 | We are a Slack business, with hundreds of channels and thousands of messages flying around daily. We also give each other kudos and thanks for helping each other out. So I started using the ladder emoji on Slack posts whenever the marketing team or individual got a call out. A simple reminder not only to BD but also to the marketing team that we understood our role and ultimately what we are all doing it for. 🦜| Initially is was a single ladder in a sea of thumbs up, dancing parrots and explosions. But over the years more and more people from the team used it to acknowledge the thanks and show appreciation but also understanding. There was another thanks post last week and I went to post the 🪜 emoji only to discover that 20 other people from the marketing had beaten me to it. ⚔️ | There's a tired old narrative about the battle between sales and marketing. But let’s be clear—there is no battle. Sales win every time. Marketing is crucial for BD, whether it's the perfect sales brochure, in app push notification, newsletter, event booth, social meme, TV ad, sizzle film or PR announcing a new partnership. Sure, there are still skirmishes over strategy and priorities. BD doesn't always know best, marketing mostly does 😂, but rest assured, in the pecking order, revenue wins. The ladder emoji is a simple reminder that every effort counts, what’s important in the business and our collective roles to make that happen. Tiny actions, repeated, can lead to significant changes. 🎲🎲

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Went harder than normal this month. Highlights: - “eSafety Commisions” should only exist in dystopian, cautionary tales, yet that is unfortunately not the case - is Solana due for a comeback? - SEC busy firing off Wells Notices, right as one of its targets crossed $2 trillion in traded volume in less than 5 yrs - Token discussion - newly launched Layer 1 gaming protocol Saga ($SAGA) Dig in. It’s worth the read. #crypto #digitalassets #solana #saga #vikara

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Startups and Crypto sound like a marriage made in heaven - low-cost transactions, new markets, lower-risk payments. But how do Founders get started? Read this piece in Startups Magazine to determine if crypto is right for your business.

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Good assessment of the upcoming service with notable things: 1. Clearly an MVP (although some question about the M bit and the V bit) 2. Freely is inward thinking, not platform thinking - content or even channels from 3rd parties are not part of the solution from day one. 3. It has promise but needs to add competitive features such as integrated apps from 3rd parties, universal search, universal content discovery, less of the inhouse content...

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AI - everything changed but nothing changed.. 64 per cent of UK businesses are not confident today about how to deploy AI and do not have the right skills according to a recent The Open University study. We’ve seen paranoia around new technology many times before tracing back to the Industrial Revolution and more recently the www. Fear and avoidance (of AI this time) has never been a good strategy for any company. Martha Lane Fox who has always been a voice of reason around new technology speaks out quite rightly on the importance of firms embracing “play” and “experimentation” around AI or risk facing being left behind… https://lnkd.in/e6jJFSDf On the same day, Derya Matras of Meta encourages agencies to see AI as an opportunity rather than a threat. We’ve seen this story before and those that are curious and are prepared to lean in early and create their own narrative are the ones that will win. Like all technology, AI will be an enabler and a powerful new intelligence but also just a more advanced set of tools to help humans create better and spend less time on the mundane and menial.. All those at the C Level MUST become more confident and literate with technology and AI to be able to converse strategically with the CIO. AI is every leader’s job, not just for the IT department.. Brent Hoberman Hoberman Founders Factory London Tech Week #AI #GenAi #innovation

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Last night I was delighted to come away with the win in the Scale-up Entrepreneur of the Year category at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards & Community Awards! It was a great testament to all of the amazing work we’ve done with Anything is Possible and Jagged Edge AI. This recognition means a lot because it celebrates the heart of what we’ve always believed in: Unlimiting beliefs. Starting this journey, I knew that the biggest barriers aren’t out there in the world — they’re the ones we create for ourselves. We’ve built the AIP brand around the idea that anything is possible. The clue is in the name… This award validates all the work we’ve done to help ourselves and our clients overcome those limits - through bold ideas, creative problem-solving, and a relentless belief in the power of the possible. A massive thank you to my indefatigable co-founder Mark Raymond, all the clients who trust us to push boundaries with them, and the judges who saw something special in our story. When you start to break down your limiting beliefs, you realise something that is always true: This is only the beginning. We’re ready to keep proving that when you truly believe Anything is Possible, extraordinary things happen. #GBEA #Entrepreneurship

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