AI won’t save ad industry but it can redefine marketing
If you believe the headlines, AI may just be the answer to improving most sectors. From an artificial intelligence tool…
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Spooner on…this year’s Klorinated Kristmas Krackers
Ah! Xmas! The filthy, numbed, cracked and swollen fingers from harvesting hundreds of thousands of sprouts in the frosty fields…
Marketers must ditch ego to connect with customers
Today’s consumer is both hyper-connected and increasingly wary of sharing their data with brands. Indeed, a recent YouGov survey found that most UK…
Black Friday frenzy puts customer loyalty in jeopardy
That’s right, it’s Black Friday once again, meaning retailers up and down the country are attempting to serve the mobs…
Why the John Lewis campaign marks a turning point
Advertising, like everything else in popular culture, works in cycles, and we’re witnessing a very interesting shift in tone and…
How brands can achieve a 720° view of their customers
How times have changed for marketing. Marketing to groups of similar people – the technique of yesteryear – has now…
How direct mail can cut through the digital deluge
When email first became a widespread communication tool, its immediacy and targetability convinced many industry experts that it would become…
How building a tech stack turns advertising into CRM
Today, no brand is immune from being disrupted by digital start-ups. Some question this logic, but when you consider the…
Why confidence scores are essential for modelled data
How confident are you really about your modelled data? If you asked yourself honestly, the answer to this question is…
Why brands must tackle the ‘infobesity’ challenge
While most businesses now understand how data can deliver a better, more personalised, customer experience, many also express angst about…
Time for the DM industry to address the plastics issue
In January, Theresa May’s government declared a war on plastic as part of a 25-year plan intended to eliminate all…
Why finance firms must fall back in love with direct mail
For financial services companies, cold direct mail has always been a major source for finding new customers, yet in my…
Why is big data never there when you actually need it?
Earlier this summer I cycled from London to Paris to raise money for charity. Sadly, one of my dearest friends…
Are you lagging behind with legitimate interests?
If you are old enough to remember the UK’s only 100-metre Olympic gold medallist, Linford Christie, his mantra was to…
Why GDPR is best thing since slice bread – and email
GDPR is quite likely the best thing to happen to the relationship between brands and customers since the invention of…
Impactful CX can only be achieved through sound data
Customers want a connected experience. Right from the marketing messages they receive, through to interactions with a brand’s assets. While…
GDPR two months on: Are you on road to compliance?
Two months have now passed since the marketing industry should have been GDPR-ready. Although the ICO didn’t set a hard…
CRM systems no longer just exclusively for rich brands
At a time when customers are more empowered, businesses are under ever increasing pressure to deliver a consistent and seamless…
Boring data? Forget it, it’s even driving Cannes’ agenda
On the surface, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and GDPR may not be natural bedfellows but there was…
Time for a joint approach to promote charity legacies
Legacy donations – bequests left in a will – are often a sizeable chunk of a charity’s revenue but aren’t…
GDPR forces marketers to go back to drawing board
New research from NTT Security predicts that it will take up to five years until there are high levels of…
Spooner on…so farewell then Tod Norman, one of a kind
“Change has never in history happened as fast as it is happening today; and it will never happen this slowly…
New order: clients are changing, now it’s agencies’ turn
It’s nearly H2 already. Is everyone on-plan? 2018 always promised change, challenge and opportunity. VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity)…
How to build up consumer trust in the age of GDPR
Data-driven marketing has always required a level of responsibility when it comes to handling consumer data, but GDPR has now…
Loyalty schemes can exploit GDPR to remain relevant
The past few months have been a turbulent time for the UK retail sector. Tesco defied the retail gloom by…
Busting Daily Mail myth of door drop apocalypse now
Far be it from me to act as a spokesperson for the door drop industry, but I do feel we…
For once, the Daily Mail is actually right about junk mail
I can’t quite believe I am going to write this, but for once I find myself agreeing with the Daily…
Spooner on…the early retirement of Sir Martin Sorrell
It is with great trepidation, a fluttering heart and trembling knees that I mount the huge curving staircase that leads…
Changing marketing landscape needs an agile approach
Marc Pritchard recently announced some interesting changes over at P&G. Moving marketers from “project” managers to “brand” managers, cutting the…
Modern-day classification: Who do you think you are?
In the days when I promoted Mosaic, our team used to share what we thought was an amusing anecdote. Marketers…
Segmentation techniques have changed, how about you?
The major changes in consumer behaviour, driven by the increasing influence of new technology, continue to precipitate a massive shift…
Cambridge Analytica: A question of ethics not legality
The news surrounding Cambridge Analytica and its apparent “data breach” has dominated the headlines for days. It’s a story that…
How to stop your company being the next data scandal
Data is under the spotlight yet again as the ICO ramps up its investigation into Cambridge Analytica, the UK firm…
GDPR: Making the case for using legitimate interests
With the exception of wilful cowboys, most organisations – whether they are a charity or a commercial business – probably…
Spooner on…where have all the old creatives gone?
Onward I trudge this bitter morning, knee-deep in the thick snow, stumbling, flailing, striving onward onward towards the cruelly-early-morning locomotive…
Use GDPR to reshape your customer engagement efforts
When GDPR comes into effect in May, data accuracy will certainly be crucial, but the ways in which the new…
We all have a legitimate interest in sound GDPR advice
So, at last a bit of welcome news from the ICO. Here it is in black and white in new…
Cut clutter before GDPR to build lasting relationships
Ask most people who’ve been with their partners for many years about the secret of their romantic success, and the…
Year Ahead: Technologies to drive human engagement
2017 was the year that personalisation, big data, IoT and the use of chatbots really came to the fore in…
Year Ahead: How life under GDPR will benefit us all
2018 promises to be the year when consumers will finally take control of how brands communicate with them. Remember, data…
Year Ahead: Why the data industry needs less and more
I’ve been working in data for over 30 years now, and I’ve seen so much change. The current rapidity of…
When will firms finally recognise truth about women?
One of the key takeaways from this year’s Women in Data conference was that, although the use of artificial intelligence…
Year Ahead: Time to put consumers in the driving seat
I recently logged on to Facebook and amended my settings. A few weeks ago I signed up to a school…
Year Ahead: Can you afford to ignore rise of blockchain?
Bitcoin has hit a new record high after passing the five-figure mark and investors in the cryptocurrency continue to shrug…
Year Ahead: Time to protect your brand from ID fraud
These days no one is safe from fraud. Even charities are a target with the third sector losing an estimated…
Year Ahead: Judith Donovan on the opportunity for mail
Debate has been raging for years over whether direct mail can really stand the test of time, especially in an…
Why GDPR could finally make online ads accountable
Almost daily, out comes a new GDPR nightmare, from the recent World Federation of Advertisers survey which revealed 70% of…
Bah humbug Spooner on… this year’s Christmas ads
The rain is lashing against the windows like a punishment here at Montpelier Heights, the classy, new, cosmopolitan nerve-centre of…
Programmatic turns snail mail to smart mail in a shot
History has taught us that one medium never replaces another. The advent of television didn’t spell the end of radio…
Time to smash through the toxic alpha masculine ‘norm’
“I find it astonishing that there’s already a profound gender imbalance, at every level, in an industry that didn’t even…