Our Monthly Round-up of the key pieces in Marketing for March – we’ve chosen six key articles, a piece on Media, AI, and a Podcast, which we hope ‘keeps your finger on the pulse’ in Marketing terms. All our monthly reviews are available on our website. www.haiconsulting.com

Our March highlights:

1. Our top pick this month we pick a great piece from Karen Martin, the incoming IPA Chairman, reaffirming the power of creativity. It helps when you have the power of BBH behind you, but this is probably the best reaffirmation of creativity we have seen. Martin sets out the critical need to put creativity back at the core of business. Her manifesto also highlighted key challenges facing the ad industry today, including short-term thinking, over-reliance on AI, and a disconnect from the very thing that drives the industry forward: human creativity. Just keeping walking!

Here is the link: https://ipa.co.uk/news/karen-martin-reaffirming-the-power-of-creativity/

2. Secondly, we have picked this piece from Ivan Fernandes on who’s winning in 2025. Three players, three winning formulas. The three winners are all agile, tech-driven, and aligned with business outcomes.

Here is the link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-winning-2025-three-players-formulas-ivan-fernandes-vabnf?

3. Thirdly, Rex Woodbury has an excellent substack – called Digital Native. In this piece he captures in 10 charts how the world is changing. So here is his top 10 in one go: Revenue / Employee, Online vs. Offline Commerce, Market Update: Profitability vs. Growth, Secondaries and VC Distributions, New York’s Tech Hiring Spree, AI Web Traffic + Clickthrough, The Power Law of Spotify and YouTube, Guinness’s Viral Boost, DoorDash Dominance, Gen Z Homeownership Rates.

Here is the link: https://www.digitalnative.tech/p/10-charts-that-capture-how-the-world-c68?

4. Fourthly, we wanted to highlight this piece written by Les Binet, on marketing measurement and specifically how econometrics is shaping the future of marketing. Les has moved on from A&EDDB and now runs his own consultancy.

Here is the link: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-emea/marketing-strategies/data-and-measurement/les-binet-marketing-measurement/

5. Fifthly, we’ve picked a piece from Michael Farmer on what agencies must do to restore success. It isn’t about “winning new clients.” It isn’t about “being more creative” or “reducing costs.” It’s also about committing to help clients grow their brands — and helping CMOs become successful again.

Here is the link: https://michaelfarmer.substack.com/p/what-agencies-must-do-to-restore?r=abf7r&triedRedirect=true

6. Sixthly, we’ve become a bit of a fan of the Creative Salon. Here Stephen Lepitak looks at The M&A Surge Forcing Advertising’s Bold Future. How will the M&A deals shape the future agency landscape?

Here is the link: https://creative.salon/articles/features/what-m-a-trends-tell-us-about-ad-industry-2030

Media: Nick Manning gives his view on Media Agencies: the present and the future. The future swim upstream! https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/media-agencies-present-future-nick-manning-lz9ae/?

AI: We attended the Advertising Week Europe conference at 180 Studios this week in London – AI and Learning from the future, it was amazing to see how many companies are making tangible benefits in AI. Iconic brand leaders like Lego, McClaren, and Samsung discussed how they are using Ai to target different audiences. The conference showed the intersection of brands, technology, audiences and innovation.

Podcast: Our Podcast pick this month is an interview with Crispin Reed and it’s a really good listen – on adland and the perception of younger talent.  https://www.thedrum.com/podcast/does-adland-have-a-perception-problem-with-younger-talent-with-crispin-reed

Time for the Work: Well it’s our top pick this month for her manifesto in ‘Our Monthly Review’ – but it’s also our pick for the creative work – it’s congrats to Karen Martin & the IPA “The woman who walked around Soho” created by BBH London and Creators Inc. https://campaignbrief.co.nz/2025/04/01/bbh-london-creators-inc-recreates-iconic-johnnie-walker-ad-to-launch-ipa-president-karen-martins-manifesto-to-revitalise-uk-advertising/

Back to Henley: Spring in Henley – the view from Hambleden lock thanks to our hard-working lock-keeper Simon Shepherdson. 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 Kate Waddington, a farmer from Fawley. https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/business/195443/let-s-get-down-to-business-kate-waddington.html

If you’d like to discuss how these insights apply to your organisation, or have any questions, we’d love to connect.

Kind regards

Will