Our Monthly Round-up of the key pieces in Marketing for May – we’ve chosen six key articles, and one podcast, which we hope helps ‘keeps your finger on the pulse’ of Marketing. All our monthly reviews are available on our website. www.haiconsulting.com
Our May highlights:
1. Our top pick this month has to be the ‘250th Edition by Rishad Tobaccowala’ of his series “The Future does not fit in the Containers of the past.” This is a must read edition, titled the Future Fits on One Page. This one includes the best 100 pieces of writing which has been going for five years, Ironically, we have also been sending out Our Monthly Review for the last five years, and Rishad has been most in our top picks. I love the line – Your time is rare and therefore your attention is a gift.
Here is the link: https://rishad.substack.com/p/the-future-fits-on-one-page?
2. Secondly, is a piece written by Stephen Lepitak for Creative Salon titled ‘Creative Risk Taking Is On The Wane – That Could Cost Brands Dear.’ The latest State of Creativity report from Cannes Lions raises concerns about the decline of risk taking among marketers. With Cannes just around the corner – what changes will we see.
Here is the link: https://creative.salon/articles/features/cannes-lions-state-of-creativity-report-2025-creative-confidence
3. Thirdly, with thanks to the Advertising Association for this one – we pick ‘The Advertising Pays’ series of reports from Credos studies the contribution that the ad industry makes to the UK’s economy and society.
Here is the link: https://adassoc.org.uk/advertising-pays/
4. Fourthly, we pick this piece from Alephic.com. Sent to us by Tom Morton in New York, this is a great read on writing the anatomy of a CEO AI mandate.
Here is the link: https://www.alephic.com/writing/the-anatomy-of-a-ceo-ai-mandate
5. Fifthly, we pick a piece sent to us by Grant Duncan at Korn Ferry on ‘Defining and Developing the AI-Augmented Leader’ – The launch of generative AI in late 2022 supercharged the AI revolution, and the emergence of agentic AI has added even greater urgency. But what does this evolution mean for organizations and their leaders? AI is demanding a new approach to leadership. As AI agents and advanced models gain traction, today’s leaders need to be skilled not just in managing people but also in leveraging machine intelligence. Below, Korn Ferry outlines a framework for identifying and developing a new kind of executive: the AI-Augmented Leader.
Here is the link: https://www.kornferry.com/institute/defining-and-developing-the-ai-augmented-leader
6. Sixthly, we have been following WPPs Satalia and Dr. Daniel Hulne in particular. Here the Satalia team outlines: What is the “AI singularity?” And what should businesses do now to prepare?
Here is the link: https://www.satalia.com/ai-singularity-business/ and Discover how they’re opening up a world of new opportunities for the world’s biggest brands: https://bit.ly/45tX07n
Adforum: With thanks to Carol Mason the latest from the Adforum Summit held in May in New York. https://www.adforum.com/tribune/shaping-the-future-of-brand-growth-highlights-from-the-2025-adforum-consultant-summit
Media: A bit of a focus on the media independents, some great agencies join the Alliance of Media Independents. https://uk.themedialeader.com/alliance-of-media-independents-adds-16-members-and-doubles-billings/
AI: A piece from the WSJ. AI Has Upended the Search Game. Marketers Are Scrambling to Catch Up. Websites will soon serve primarily as data sources for AI platforms, not destinations for humans, Mailchimp predicts.https://www.wsj.com/articles/ai-has-upended-the-search-game-marketers-are-scrambling-to-catch-up-84264b34?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Podcast: We’ve gone for Nada Arnot podcast from the Economist this month on scaling marketing. https://changemakers.jcdecaux.co.uk/content/podcasts/nada-arnot
Time for the Work: It’s congrats again to Cadbury and VCCP again this month. 4 D&AD Pencils at this year’s awards for the Cadbury ‘Made to share’ campaign, including the extremely coveted Yellow! There must be calls to build a bigger trophy cabinet in the new VCCP office with this haul. Well done Dave! https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidboscawen_dad-awards-activity-7333069506287697922-jOZi?
Back to Henley: The booms are back up on the river. Our fortnightly feature in the Henley Standard continues where we interview local entrepreneurs. It’s called Let’s Get Down to Business. We were delighted this month to interview Jaspinder Kaur who runs Naad Organics. https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/thought-for-the-week/196733/jaspinder-kaur-inventor-of-wellbeing-products.html
If you’d like to discuss how these insights can apply to your organisation, or have any questions, we’d love to connect. Feel free to get in touch.
Kind regards
Will