A Happy New Year to you, and your family.

Our Monthly Round-up of the key pieces in Marketing for December – we’ve chosen a webinar, a podcast and four key articles, curated for the marketing ecosystem. If you missed any of them – have some time, they are all worth a catchup. http://haiconsulting.com/category/views/

As we move into 2023, we look forward to catching up, to see how we may assist you and your teams.

Our December Highlights:

1. Our Top Pick this month is the Les Binet webinar produced by adam&eveDDB with the IPA in December – The World turned upside down. With a recession looming on the horizon and consumers facing increasing hardship, it’s safe to say the economic outlook is less than positive. From seizing market share from your competitors to driving marketing effectiveness when consumer spending plummets, globally revered econometrician and marketing effectiveness guru Les Binet shares his lessons on how brands can thrive in such a crisis. It’s in two parts – and it’s superb.

Here is the link: https://ipa.co.uk/knowledge/videos-podcasts/the-world-turned-upside-down/

2. Secondly, we pick an excellent podcast by On-Strategy Showcase by Fergus O’Caroll with Mark Ritson. This is an hour long podcast – via Spotify – which outlines the 10 Trends of Marketing in 2022, and the implications for 2023. From brand building, to the obsession of purpose, brand activists, Brewdog, Patagonia, Russia, Unilever, and how brands noted the funeral of HM the Queen, it concludes with the topic of Stagflation Marketing and pricing – it’s an inspiring piece.

Here is the link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5TBHdGmhgjy7PMlZ2xpKPj?si=D0tFAuTQQlGGfnT9y9DMSg

3. Thirdly, we’ve gone for a Mckinsey piece on AI (sent to us by Isabel Perry of Byte/Dept) The results of this year’s McKinsey Global Survey on AI show the expansion of the technology’s use since they began tracking it five years ago, but with a nuanced picture underneath.

Here is the link: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-in-2022-and-a-half-decade-in-review  – and because this month ChatGPT was the big thing that needs to be spoken about – it’s so powerful. Why not give it a go here: https://chat.openai.com/

4. Fourthly, we picked a piece on messaging on Marketing Week, where Mark Ritson so aptly demonstrates the ability to be single minded v total recall in communications. You might increase total message recall by adding more of them, but you’ll lose credibility, as shown by the World Cup protestor who couldn’t pick one cause.

Here is the link: https://www.marketingweek.com/more-messages-more-effectiveness/

5. Fifthly, we’ve chosen the AdAge Best 30 Ads of 2022, which was published in mid-December and caused a flurry of Agency CEO’s to debate where they sit in the Top 30 pecking order. These are the 30 commercials and brand moves that stood out from the pack in a tumultuous year.

Here is the link: https://adage.com/article/year-review/2022-review-best-ads-marketing-ideas/2458361

6. Sixthly, we pick a piece that appeared in the Entrepreneur on leadership, four ways to harness a growth mindset and set yourself up for success in 2023. It raises some good points

Here is the link: https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/4-ways-to-harness-a-growth-mindset-to-set-yourself-up-for/440692

Time for the Work: Whilst many of the Christmas ads were good, we’ve actually picked one this month that we first saw when we were at the Adforum Amsterdam. It’s DHL taking Coldplay on tour, congrats go to 180 Amsterdam for delivering a truly global number – namecheck – check out the height of that bridge in the ad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqHb69aPbCI

Media: Want to know more about Gen Z? – The Digital Native substack has a ton of content, written by Trends Reporter Shaurya, it takes a deep dive into niche internet micro-trends and subcultures, and analyzes them so you don’t have to. https://thedigitalnative.substack.com/

Back to Henley: Now that we are past the shortest day in the year, the days get longer and we can begin to look forward to Spring. Our weekly column 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 Adam Toop who was previously CEO of Adam Phones and is just launching Code International. Definitely one to watch! https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/business/176849/let-s-get-down-to-business-adam-toop-code-technology.html

Feedback: Thank you to all those that email us feedback. We curate these reviews individually for you, do continue to share the key links with your teams. We were chuffed to have received this feedback from Michael Lee – CSO at VCCP Partnership: “Of all the newsletters and flotsam I receive, this monthly curation of articles is the one email where I always read the featured articles and get something useful or useable from them. Thanks for doing this, it reflects extremely well on you!” 

We’re here to help you review your marketing ecosystem and to improve marketing performance, so do contact us, for anything we can help you with.

Kind regards,

Will