The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) has made influencer marketing compliance one of its clearest enforcement priorities in recent years. If a post is paid for, gifted, or incentivised in any way, it must be labelled as an ad, without exception, without ambiguity, and without burying the disclosure in a wall of hashtags. That sounds simple….
McDonald’s is one of the most advertised brands on the planet, and it has been for decades. The question worth asking is not how much they spend, but why the advertising keeps working when so many brands with comparable budgets produce so little. The answer sits in a set of strategic decisions that most marketing…
When someone searches for brand strategy, they are rarely looking for a definition. They are looking for a solution to a business problem they cannot quite name yet. Understanding the specific searches people make around brand strategy in 2025 tells you something important: most brands are not being found at the moment their buyers are…
A checkers strategy is a competitive approach where a brand makes reactive, incremental moves in response to what competitors are doing, rather than setting its own direction based on customer insight and market opportunity. It looks like strategy. It rarely is. Most marketing teams play checkers without realising it. They match a competitor’s price, copy…
A checkers strategy is a go-to-market approach built on occupying more squares than the competition, expanding coverage systematically across channels, segments, or geographies rather than betting everything on a single decisive move. It is less about genius positioning and more about disciplined presence. Most brands that struggle with growth are not losing on strategy. They…
Technology and B2B B2B influencer marketing is the fastest-growing segment of the discipline, and it looks almost nothing like its consumer counterpart. In B2B, the most effective “influencers” are often industry practitioners with relatively modest social followings but significant professional credibility. A CTO with 15,000 LinkedIn followers who is genuinely respected in their field will…
The leader advertiser Polson model describes a go-to-market dynamic where the dominant brand in a category sets the rules, and everyone else either follows or finds a smarter way to compete. In markets with an entrenched leader, the strategic question is not how to outspend them. It is how to win despite them. Most challenger…
Self branding is the deliberate, consistent way you present your professional identity to the people who can hire you, refer you, or buy from you. The best examples of self branding share one quality: they make a specific promise to a specific audience, and then they keep it, repeatedly, across every channel and interaction. What…
Self branding is the deliberate shaping of how other people perceive your professional identity. The strongest examples share a common trait: they are built on a specific, defensible point of view rather than a polished surface. Consultants, executives, and founders who do this well become easier to refer, easier to hire, and easier to trust…
The Tootsie Pop advertisement that launched in 1970 asked a simple question: “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” Mr. Owl answered three, bit the pop, and never gave a real answer. That was the point. The ad created a mystery that kept people talking,…
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