Jono Wylie 🍴🦈

📰 The Future of News: A Two-Tier Media Landscape? A stark warning from parliament.uk: without action, we risk a fractured news ecosystem, with informed citizens on one side and disengaged communities on the other. 💡 “Having informed citizens with a shared understanding of facts isn’t guaranteed—and may not endure.” The UK’s media has defied the odds these past 15 years, with exciting new formats and diverse perspectives. But it’s not all good news… 📉💔 🔎 Trust in journalism is falling 🙈 News avoidance is rising 💸 Revenue streams are drying up 🤖 And AI? It’s shaking up EVERYTHING The risk? A “two-tier” system where some stay informed while others fall into news deserts or questionable online sources. So, what’s next? Tax breaks for local news 🏡, smarter AI policies 🤝, and more innovation💡 could help us steer away from the cliff edge. We are doing our bit at Contribly by trying to innovate the audience engagement side of the news, by getting real people’s voices included and heard in a safe way that social media doesn’t provide. The aim is to build trust and relevance! Let’s keep the news serving everyone, not just the privileged few. 🌍💪 What’s your take on this? Let’s chat! 👇🗣️ https://lnkd.in/enjesFrY

2

At AFFINITY Group, our new Growth Accelerator positioning isn’t just about driving business success — it’s about sparking a broader conversation at the highest levels. By aligning the vision of CEOs and CMOs, we’re empowering leaders to implement changes that deliver measurable impact and sustainable growth. Ready to see the difference this approach can make for your business? Let’s talk. Have a read of our chat with Mediaweek Australia:  https://lnkd.in/g4vT3Up3 #GrowthAccelerator #PotentialRealised #AFFINITY 

31

When your client drops you a line to say that your Meta Ads work has contributed to their brilliant sustainable British vodka achieving its highest ranking on Amazon since launch...cheers to that! 🍸 Me: celebrates, then immediately starts to think about how we can push this product even higher up the ranking and get it to No.1! Brands: keep telling your employees/freelancers/agencies they're doing a good job. Positive feedback keeps a workforce happy and boosts innovation and motivation. It's a win-win. #MetaAds #PaidSocial #PositiveFeedback

10

Something you might not know about Mischief: we have access to all of MHP Group's behavioural science insight and expertise. Our work may be a little bit naughty, but at least its backed by science 😈 #strategy #prstrategy #behaviouralscience

5

1 Comment

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.

56

7 Comments

This debate was a farcical exercise in avoiding the issue. Last Tuesday, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising organised a debate at the House of Commons: "The anti-woke agenda is fuelling creativity".  And what a wasted opportunity it was.  But then again, why was I surprised?  Adland's institutions (its associations, awards shows, trade papers, and big London-based network agencies) have, for 12 years, failed to critique the influence of the woke agenda (to use the language that framed the debate) on our industry. Instead, for years, they embraced Social Purpose as the go-to-market strategy and currently unquestioningly accept DEI as the organising principle for agency recruitment and internal affairs. In the "debate" itself, all four speakers - to varying degrees - were actually against the motion! As Nick Asbury has observed the "proposers and opposers were of one mind in defining ‘woke’ as standing for all good things (not racist, not sexist, not fascist) – a definition that pre-emptively casts any dissenting opinion as ‘anti-woke’ and therefore beyond the pale". There was no mention of the fact that woke has become synonymous with cancellation, de-platforming, trigger warnings and fear of misspeaking. Or that, in "unconscious bias", it asserts that all white people are inevitably racist whether they know it or not. Thus automatically calling into question any opinion they might be bold enough to proffer. Nope, no one referenced the above - or the fact such traits might just be inimical to the expression of alternate points of view, original thinking or creativity. On the contrary, the speakers inveighed against a diabolical "anti-woke movement". Nick Asbury and I tried our best to see our creative industry (advertising) in this context but eventually had to explain that, in our circumstances, the "anti-woke movement" essentially amounts to erm ... him and me. I also pointed out that in our world, woke (in the form of Social Purpose campaigns) has not been rejected by some fiendish cabal (aka Nick and me) but by a) our clients and b) the consuming general public. Aside from that, there was no mention (never mind critique) of woke censoriousness (and groupthink) and its baleful impact on creativity.  Which surely is what we should've been debating. But then again, it's a discussion that our industry panjandrums have been avoiding for years. And they probably went home on Thursday evening happy at another snow job well done.

26

15 Comments

Unpopular opinion 🚨 Everyone's loving the B-Corp and Havas bashing. But how many of those same people have: 1. Stopped working with Havas 2. Stopped buying anything from Shell 3. Stopped supporting the many brands who benefit from their CSR projects, or Universities and their R&D programmes, or the brands they sponsor in F1 etc etc I get why people are up in arms about Havas and B-Corp. But Havas not being B-Corp probably hasn't changed Havas. They still work with Shell and they'll probably post some great financial results. So what is everyone celebrating? That B-Corp has done what we were expecting? Feels like we're picking on B-Corp, when they are a relatively small business (6k customers), with a good heart, trying to make citizens of the world focus on People, Planet and Profit. It's easy to be a keyboard warrior (look at me). And vocal dissent is great. But I'd be interested to know how many of those vocal dissenters, actually have changed their lives to try and make the planet better? How many of those same people throwing stones at B-Corp (and Havas), work with Tobacco, Gambling, Legal Cannabis, Munitions companies (all sectors B-Corp refuses really to accept you can work for). The marketing world does a lot of good, but it also spouts a lot of 💩 about brand purpose and ethics, when fundamentally it really doesn't care and just wants to sell as much stuff as it can. “What difference can I make, said 8bn people” B Lab UK B Lab Rob Mayhew (one for you do something on I feel).

47

21 Comments

💥 We’re getting our sh*t together (pun fully intended!)💥 I am over the moon to share that we’ve WON the Innovate UK Creative Growth Grant! 🎉🥳 After 6 months of hearing "NO" on repeat: ❌ NO, we don’t fund consumer products. ❌ NO, it’s not “deep-tech” enough. ❌ NO, it’s not “life-science” enough. ❌ NO, you’re not Forbes Under Whatever and, oh yeah, you don’t have a p3nis. ❌ NO, you’re just a mum making products for other mums. ❌ NO, you don’t have enough traction. ❌ NO, you’re pre-sales, it’s too risky. ❌ NO, come back when you’ve got an MVP (spoiler alert: we will! 😉), and… ... 👻‘ghosted👻….. The good thing about rejection is it makes you better than ever before. Because of those “no’s”, we finally got the YES ✅ that matters. 🙌 And that's what counts! 💪 A MASSIVE shoutout to Asadullah Khan (more on him below) for his incredible work in helping us develop our Proof-of-Concept, which has been instrumental in securing funding 🎉 The grant will fund research that informs product development while proving that our game-changing, innovative product is exactly what parents need—and, crucially, something they’re willing to buy. 💥 🔍 We’re diving into some seriously cool stuff—working alongside the brilliant Isabel Lydall and Allyson Binnie from Curious to Clear Collective to kick-start ethnography studies. 👉 What’s that you ask? We’ll be listening to lots of parents (mums AND dads!) diverse in ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and with babies aged 3-30 months to understand their priorities on health, sustainability, convenience and affordability. We’ll be giving them an exclusive first look at our current design during focus groups and backing up insights with a significantly large quantitative study. We’ll learn exactly what functionality to prioritise in development, and—most importantly—why👏. Basically… we’re getting some SERIOUS traction🚀. And traction means more investment 💰. Stay tuned for what we’re working on because who doesn’t "love a good change®"? 😉 ===================================================== Before I wrap up: ✅ If you’re looking for a biomedical device design engineer with razor-sharp CAD skills and a can-do attitude, look this way. Asad interned with us over the last 6 months through our collaboration with the University of Southampton. His contributions have been nothing short of brilliant. Asad is a total gem 💎, and I highly recommend him. ✅ If you’re an expecting parent, or have a baby under 3 and want to be involved in the development of one of the most exciting products of our generation, DM me! ====================================================== Please like, comment, and share to celebrate this huge win with us AND boost visibility for Asad as he sets off on his next exciting adventure.🚀 #Onwards and #Upwards!!  🔥

309

140 Comments

Some relevant thinking here - although I have been speaking about diversity of thinking and talent for awhile. Whether they are younger or older is irrelevant. Its more about alternative thinking and questioning of the what we all perceive to be the norm.... #businessscaling #marketingservices #digitalstrategy #businessabnormal Detch S. Kristian Curcio Cheuk Chiang Robert Tadros Bryce Coombe

8

More thoughts for your mind from our minds: the effective magic of brand collabs, AKA "when will Flying Object stop talking about Greggs?"* *never https://lnkd.in/egVnjE2n

2

A very interesting wrap-up report from Andrew Bloch, AAR as always. Of course, I'm biased but my favourite takeaways: ▶ Social continues to outperform the market ▶ A significant expertise gap between single discipline agencies vs those with a wider suite of services (i.e, Social Agency vs Digital Agency) ▶ Social is still 17% up on growth, slightly down from last year which was 35% ▶ Digital, advertising & media all down YOY Long may it last ✌

14

3 Comments

The Telegraph really doesn’t like the RSPCA’s rebrand. This one-sided listicle is actually its more measured response. Elsewhere it announces: ‘The RSPCA’s new advert proudly shows off exactly who they are – bigoted Left-wing extremists’ Yeah. Wow. It’s not alone…. The Mail went with: “RSCPA's wildly woke rebrand: As charity infuriates farmers and slams Brits killing snails - how donors stopped giving after years of ludicrous rescues which have seen seagulls saved and mountain goats rescued...from mountains” The Sun declared: ‘Woke’ animal charity chiefs ridiculed for urging us not to squish spiders with newspapers like The Sun in bizarre ad. It’s a rabbit hole of bizarrely wild-eyed reporting (not myxomatosis I hope..). And generally it’s best left alone. I mean, if The Sun and Mail are calling you woke it's generally a sign you're doing something right. But what is bugging me is the insidious pseudo-reporting of this listicle from The Telegraph. Yes, you’ve found five charity rebrands that weren’t very successful. Well done. Any interest in balancing it with the hundreds that were successful? Yawn. But it's the way they do it. The language they use. Take the opening lines of the article: “Charities are set up to help those in need. That’s why so many of us donate after all.” Fair enough, you think. Unarguable point. This is clearly a writer who is not only reasonable and to the point but is also philanthropic. “But significant sums are also being spent on things other than frontline services, including rebrands dreamed up in boardrooms and overseen by PR companies.” It’s playing to a well established trope: pin-striped execs casually deciding people’s fates over cigars and Pol Roger, while a PR exec schemes in the fug. It’s pantomime rhetoric dressed up as impartial reporting. They know what they’re doing, and they do it well, but readers of The Telegraph’s business pages deserve better. This could have been an article about the issues charities currently face in raising funds from young people, or the specific challenge of being a brand that 93% recognise but far fewer like or plan to donate to, or whether abandoning the iconic octagon will work (I personally think Jones Knowles Ritchie have yet again done brilliantly here). If anyone from The Telegraph’s business pages would like any more of these ideas for genuinely insightful and useful articles around rebrands I, and my team, have plenty, and we can connect you to brilliant brand design teams who are doing remarkable work that positively transforms charities, businesses, lives and society. We’re not pantomime villains – please stop writing about us like we are. #prfordesignagencies #branding #businessjournalism 

403

58 Comments

Base Creative is now a B Corp™. That’s really exciting news, but you’d be right to ask… “so what?” B Corp™ isn’t just a stamp of approval. It reflects real actions we’ve taken, are taking, and our goals for the future. But it’s still vital to ask what it means for our clients, and why they should buy in to us setting high standards for sustainability, transparency and more. It’s their buy-in that’s going to allow us to have a real positive impact. So, what can our B Corp™ status do for you? I’ve written something up to explain just that: https://lnkd.in/eCN4kGuu

8

1 Comment

As someone who has advised agencies to try and move upstream by offering 'strategy' as a service, these words from Blair Enns stopped me in my tracks: 'If you have to preface your offering with the word “strategic,” if you include “strategy” in your list of services or if you define your firm by a broad discipline rather than a narrow problem statement then you’re almost certainly suffering today because your cost structure doesn’t allow you to compete with offshore and AI-enabled businesses that can do what you do faster, cheaper and often better.' Essential reading. #positioning #servicedesign #agencies https://lnkd.in/e9QE4UPh

5

2 Comments

“Zero-Based Budgeting is a bit like National Service, it’s loved the most by the people least likely to end up having to do it.” I had a lovely old natter with Matthew Valentine on the topic for Marketing Week TL:DR I actually don’t hate it, well not completely, but it’s frequently badly implemented resulting in a lot of organisational trauma for little upside. 😈 If implemented well it can make a lot of sense. But too often, as ever, the theory of zero-based budgeting is tainted by the reality of internal politics. 🤪 But if you end up with the fate of your business relying on people with no subject matter experience, ruling on the fate of recommendations from your company’s experts in business critical fields, it isn’t likely to end well….particularly if you divert those experts from business critical tasks, for weeks on end, to create ZBB submissions for activities that are no brainers. 📊 Zero-based budgeting suits some organisations better than others. E.g: Established consumer goods companies with marketing units, technology companies in fast moving categories and smaller high growth companies. ☯️ Generally it works best when a hybrid version is used, which focuses time decision making on the projects most likely to have a big impact on strategy, resource utilisation and results. Thanks to Sophie Devonshire⚡️ for the introduction.

13

2 Comments

Here's my April 2024 review of PR Pitches and mergers & acquisitions in the UK PR scene on the PRmoment Podcast, where Ben Smith and I discuss the biggest pitch wins and mergers and acquisitions that the PR sector has seen in the last month. April’s PR pitch update: - Hovis appoints Clarion. - Brixton Brewery (Heineken) appoints Fanclub. - Brompton Bikes appoints The Romans. - 19 Crimes - part of Treasury Wine Estates Portfolio appoints Manifest. - Scottish Widows Life Insurance and Pensions provider appoints Team Spirit and The Agency Partnership. - The Macallan appoints Havas Red. - William + Grant appoints Exposure. - HM Treasury appoints Teneo and Lexington. - Renault appoints Ready 10. - Motorway appoints Fight or Flight. - Shark Ninja appoints Burson. - Tinder appoints The Academy. - Carlsberg appoints Hope&Glory. - EA appoints Premier. - Hootsuite appoints Words + Pixels. - Cancer Research appoints Shook. April’s M&A update: - Accenture buys Unlimited. - WPP announced that leading global investment firm KKR has made a growth investment in FGS Global. - Together Group (owner of Purple) buys Frame Publicity. - Cavendish expand into NI and ROI with the acquisition of MCE. AAR, PCB Partners, Andrew Bloch & Associates https://lnkd.in/eWGK4dit

38

3 Comments

A recent survey by the CIM | The Chartered Institute of Marketing reveals a critical need for clear guidance on ESG communications, with 87% of marketers calling for global standards to help avoid greenwashing risks. Marketers face growing pressure from both colleagues and stakeholders to provide solid evidence for sustainability claims, underscoring the need for transparency and trust: https://lnkd.in/efukkf-k As CIM’s Chief Executive, Chris Daly, aptly puts it: “Marketing has a critical role to play in driving the sustainability agenda forward with marketers feeling increasing pressure to communicate and evidence their brand’s sustainability credentials. It’s vital that the conversation around environmental claims is professional.” The findings also highlight a concerning trend—'greensquashing,' where companies limit both their sustainability ambitions and communications due to fear of greenwashing. This cautious approach impacts companies’ ability to authentically engage with audiences on their sustainability progress. 📅 #edie25 on 26-27 March 2025 will dive deeper into these themes, featuring speakers like Alex Robinson (Hubbub), Charlotte Love (Standard Chartered), and Victoria Moorhouse (Kingfisher plc). Mentions: Sarah George, edie #AntiGreenwashCharter #Greenwashing #ESG #SustainableMarketing #CIM

7

We've taken our Carbon Literacy for Marketers course online so now you can learn in your own time and at a pace that suits you. Explore the climate science, the sustainability landscape and, its effect on people the planet and profitability. You'll take a deep dive into the critical role of organisations and the part Marketers and communication must play in responding to climate change. Becoming Carbon Literate myself really opened my eyes and my mind to what's possible and, the opportunities we have if we take the time to understand what's happening. Most importantly, we can do something about it. Carbon Literacy isn't just a professional must, it's personal! Find out more 🌎 https://lnkd.in/eXqdBczQ #carbonliteracy #marketing #communication #sustainablemarketing #onlinecourse #training #learning

86

14 Comments

It's wonderful to see our #trainstation #posters providing invaluable exposure for Cancer Research UK (CRUK) #charity #brandawareness at #penzance For help with your #marketingplans and exciting #media options to fit all budgets... Email- [email protected] #advertising #dooh #outdoormedia #print #promotionalmerchandise #creativedesign

1