Tom Robinson

Brand Marketers, not that I want to freak you out but.......it is time to start thinking about FY26 Brand Planning 😱   It seems surreal, but if you run to a UK or Aussie Financial Year calendar, next year's Brand Planning process should be appearing on your radar this month! You want to get your plans written before budgets are set, so here are some timeline guidelines for you. 💠 Budgeting usually happens between February and April 💠 A best practice brand plan process should take about 8 weeks 💠 We have the holiday season in the middle of this 💠 You want the right people involved and diaries are a nightmare with workload and annual leave at this time of year.   Therefore: 📅 October: Design and confirm your approach and timeline. Lock key briefing dates and workshops in peoples diaries 📅 November: Brief the team to Define the Brand Challenge and set the scope for the Situation Assessment. 📅 December: Situation Assessment 📅 January: Where to Play and How to Win workshops then plan development 📅 February: Present your plans for approval so they can inform the budgeting process + Comms Briefs for the best media buys   If your agenda is already heaving, I can help you   I can design a process that best suits your needs and then facilitate that process for you. So you are free to focus on strategic thinking and choice-making. You’ll have access to my full suite of tools and frameworks to take the team on a disciplined and logical journey and create direction for FY26. Plus a set of fresh but experienced eyes to push your thinking into new growth areas. So get in touch if you want to get moving #brandplanning #marketing #brand

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📰 Read an interesting Mi3Australia article this morning: "Why aren’t more women in adland lining up for the top jobs?". It got me thinking, especially since I believe it missed a crucial point about the reality of women in leadership. Why aren't there more women in top leadership roles? It's not just the journey there - it's the battle once you've arrived. For women at the top, proving their worth is a relentless test, far more demanding than for their male counterparts. It's downright exhausting! 😓 Here’s a startling stat: Globally, women make up nearly half the workforce yet hold only 19% of top executive positions (Grant Thornton LLP (US) 2024). Why such a gap? In an industry riddled with egos and outdated hierarchies, simply surviving at the top is as tough as climbing there. 🏔️ This relentless grind might be why many talented women hesitate at the base of the ladder, questioning if the climb is worth the sacrifice. 🧗‍♀️ We need more than a numbers game! How can we reshape the path to leadership to be less daunting and more nurturing for women? I think that's the question we need to address. Have a read here and let me know what you think: https://lnkd.in/gsVrw2_7 #Leadership #GenderEquality #FemaleLeadership #WorkplaceCulture

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The latest piece in my 'Cheat Codes for Challenger Brands' series with Mumbrella is all about the power of overcommitment. While market leaders optimise their businesses around 'just enough', Challenger Brands win by being unreasonably durable, insanely spicy or built around unprecedented levels of customer service. Check it here 👇👇👇

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Thanks Performance Marketing World for covering my snap thoughts on the proposed social media ban for U16s in Australia. “Has this really been thought through?” Only time will tell if this pay offs. The concerns are very real and action is merited, but my immediate feeling is that this is a blunt response to a complicated problem. It also completely ignores the community benefits of a better regulated social media. I hope I am wrong and the world will watch with interest as to how the legislation takes shape and is implemented, as its currently very light on detail. But as it stands i can only see more complexity, confusion and further consequences for a generation already struggling with them. You cant say it isn't bold though, which should I guess be applauded. Read my thoughts in full and also hear from: Quirine ter Poorten Modern Citizens, Tom Stone re:act & Marieke Dekker SUPERHEROES #socialmedia #advertising #australia #ausgov #ban #onlinesafety #legislation #influencermarketing THE FIFTH

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The only 3 minutes you need to watch to understand why you can't do your own #marketresearch or #brandstrategy. You can't get out of the way of your own biases. https://lnkd.in/ew9WJsFx

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Big news for AFFINITY Group— Carmen Campbell has joined us as our new Strategy Lead!  Carmen is a genuine triple threat. A gun strategist with more than 20 years’ experience, she’s worked at the highest levels in both media and creative to deliver growth for clients. Plus as a seasoned researcher, Carmen’s commitment to understanding consumer behaviour using a broad skill set of data analysis as well as more traditional research methods is icing on the cake. We’re lucky to have such talented and lovely human by our side. Welcome!   DM me or get in touch with Carmen directly if you’d like to talk about having such a wealth of talent focused on accelerating your business growth.    Find out more in the comments below.    #PotentialRealised #StrategicLeadership #TeamAffinity

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🤯My Pros & Cons lists (uncensored) from working for global advertising agencies in the early 2000s. I did 9 years in big agencies in London & Auckland. Sometimes I loved it. 💜 Sometimes I had to roll my eyes. 👀 PROS: 🧠 I worked with some uber-talented folk who were incredibly clever from creative to business minds. 😍 I found a tribe of good people where I felt I belonged. They were the quirky and clever outliers (my favourite kind of people). 🎓 Learned real-life lessons about business and marketing, that I still benefit from today. ☕️ There is ALWAYS a good espresso machine on hand. 🎤 Working on pitches - I used to love doing these. CONS: 🕰️ Brutally long hours. 😩 Arrogant people – they are in every industry, but I did work with my fair share. I learned the higher the level of arrogance, the lower emotional intelligence. 🍻Alcohol – how to get people to work night after night? Ply them with alcohol. Drinking culture was rife, it is hopefully different now because that sh*t breaks people in the end. 🌟 Every work experience there are pros and cons. It's how you decide to work inside of that industry that makes the difference. But for anyone interested in a career in marketing, doing the hard yards in a big advertising agency is the best training you can do. What are the pros and cons of your industry, I would love to compare? 🤔 #traininground #marketingcareers #workculture

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Partner Marketers shift your focus: from demand generation to brand-to-demand There has been a lot of talk this week about the new dentsu study that shows brand matters more than ever in B2B marketing. That buyers prioritise trust and are looking for brands that can demonstrate expertise and position themselves as genuine thought leaders in their field. Yet in Partner Marketing, "brand" often takes a backseat to demand generation. And I get it—brand budgets and campaigns typically sit with the individual companies, while Partner Marketers are measured on pipeline and deal progression. But here's the thing: brand awareness for individual companies is different from brand awareness for an alliance and its joint solutions. Does your target audience understand how your joint solution addresses their specific challenges? Do they see both you and your partner as trusted thought leaders? Here’s a stat that’s hard to ignore: IT decision-makers are already 75% through their buyer journey by the time they engage your sales team. So how do you ensure your alliance is visible early enough to influence and convert? Here are a few concepts that have worked for our clients: ✅ Brand-to-Demand Programs A content hub designed specifically for partners, housing a mix of content that spans the buyer’s journey, from awareness to demand. Embedding this hub in trusted environments (like tech new sites) helps establish thought leadership, build visibility, and, most importantly, generate leads. ✅ Thought Leadership Content Produce content that genuinely addresses your audience’s pain points—without being product-centric. Demonstrating expertise through educational content will position your alliance as a trusted advisor. ✅ ABM Display & Demand Gen Target key accounts with a mix of display advertising and gated content, surrounding decision-makers with messaging that resonates at every stage of the funnel. Want to learn more about Brand-to-Demand and how we can help your alliance to stand out? DM me or check out our website https://lnkd.in/ejFRBB4V #partnermarketing #brand #brandtodemand #b2bmarketing

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Last week was proof positive of the power of humans looking after humans. I don’t think we really understood how effective this was going to be. What blew me away was the profound impact the experience had on mentors as well as our mentees. Genuinely proud to be part of the IMAA - Independent Media Agencies Australia and making a real difference #IMAA #femaleleadership #mentoring #independent #thegrowthagency #growth https://lnkd.in/gBSZU94j

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“You don’t buy a smart fridge to only use the ice maker. Yet for a while, many brands were leaning into enterprise #martech and doing exactly that, paying exorbitant licensing costs to only scratch the surface of what the technology could do." - Mikaela Crimmins of advertising company Orchard. The dip in martech budgets is no secret, but Nadia Cameron and Andrew Birmingham's writeup on Gartner's annual CMO survey contains some invaluable insights into what's driving the trends. The whole thing is worth a read but there are a bunch of useful quotes from Ewan Mcintyre, who points out that some of this perceived change may actually a redefining of what constitutes 'marketing' budget, with IT teams now owning a lot of buying decisions. And, of course, there is the seemingly unstopppable rise of media budget. As martech and #ecommerce tools get smarter and more affordable, one would rationally expect costs to come down, and help brands achieve more with less. If that drives greater optimization of the stack, in the long run, that can only be a good thing for consumers - which should ultimately pay off for brands and technology companies.

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Thanks to the team at Econsulting for yesterday’s great Marketing Leaders Capability Forum, focussed on AI - and to 🚀Damian McAlonan for a warm welcome. One of the reasons that I have spent so much of my career in marketing is the pace of change - as consumer behaviours and media habits change, so marketing changes. Marketing is often the early adopter in a corporate environment: from building web surfaces, to adapting to mobile, and from leveraging big data to identifying the opportunities in AI, it is marketing teams that are there first* - pushing to go further, finding new, smarter ways to engage audiences and deliver business outcomes. So, it was brilliant to listen to leading marketers sharing how they are bringing AI into their businesses. Not only to hear about the opportunities for increased efficiency and effectiveness - language marketers are very comfortable with - but also to discuss the challenges around legality, IP, data privacy, open vs closed systems and many more emerging issues. The panel of fantastic marketers presented ways in which they have adopted AI - from insights and data mining, to content reviews and image creation. They also discussed the importance of building an AI-literate marketing org, the imperative to manage change well, and the cross-functional collaboration that’s essential to to mitigate risk. Marketers are change agents. Harbingers of opportunity. Evangelists for innovation. They are also creative, critical thinkers, communicators, collaborators (hat tip Stefan Tornquist for the alliteration!). AI is a powerful new tool in their armoury, but everything else remains the same. As leaders, our role is to:  👩‍🎓 Build a culture that prioritises growth and learning 🤓 Create frameworks for the adoption of new technology, ensuring that innovation is supported by good governance. 🪴 Support our teams and businesses through change. Set clear learning agendas, and scale insights across the organisation.  🔭 Bring humility and curiosity when discovering new skills beyond our own capabilities. 🪛 Define strategy and empower creative, innovative delivery - the tools are an enabler of strategy, not a substitute for it.  📈 Remain true to the essence of marketing; in the words of Philip Kotler: “The art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping and growing customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value.” * Okay, maybe the engineering teams got there before us with AI! Paul Davies, Kate Narbrough, Kay Etherington, Russell Parsons, Sophia Angelis #EconCapabilityForum #AI #MarketingLeadership

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So I suppose any prediction is a good prediction in todays fast paced environment of tech advances BUT what will remain for the short term at least, even with tech artificially aligning artificial segments with artificial MMM projections is the strategy behind the content with the strategy of how many ads in what 'environment' that best engages. Sure you can do AI models to develop strategy where it would be placed but it will need human oversite. Lets face it tech advances are there to assist with humans making better, faster and smarter strategic decisions..... #CMO #Digitalmedia #AI #Strategy #Media #Futureproof #MarketMixModelling

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I had a great conversation with my mate Amy Sutton at the amazing Australia-based B Corp agency weareanthologie.com about why there is so much skepticism around AI offerings like gotomarketmaven.com It's a mix of many things: hype. fear. resentment. denial. disbelief. not-invented-here. "I could do that myself." It's true that generative AI is an Ouroboros. It just regurgitates existing know-how rather than innovate. I don't care. It doesn't matter — at least in terms of the Go-to-Market Maven use cases. I can tap the AI assistants that leverage 30 years and literally 00s of brand, marketing, campaign, go-to-market and sales enablement projects. Because the background work for a good campaign / sales / marketing playbook isn't where the innovation happens. It's a cold, data-driven, pragmatic, analytical job and AI can do it faster and better than you or I can. Period. Market assessment, competitive positioning, segmentation and personas, messaging isn't a "creative" exercise. The playbook feeds the creative and makes it precise, focused, consistent, rooted in a core positioning idea for distinctiveness and differentiation. Sorry, not sorry: "AI with human-in-the-loop" beats "human at a desk", in this instance, every time. You either ride it or get trampled.

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🎯 Looking for a marketing partner who gets it? The Alexander Company has spent 20+ years helping businesses in NZ, Australia, America and Singapore nail their marketing game – without the fluff and fuss. We love nothing more than seeing our clients succeed, whether that's launching a product that flies off the shelves, watching their team crush their sales targets, or helping their brand become a household name. Want to know what makes us different? We actually listen. Then we roll up our sleeves and make things happen. No cookie-cutter strategies here – just real solutions that work for your business. Keen to chat about your next big move? Let's talk! www.sjmarketer.com #NZBusiness #Marketing #KiwiSuccess #BusinessGrowth #RetailSuccess

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Advertisers that prioritise short-term ROI may be overlooking half (50%) of media returns that can be generated by brand building. WARC and Google have teamed up to share insights and advice on the dangers of shorter return chasing and the importance of long-term brand-building activities. The topline is....  - Don’t just focus on short-term ROI.. this is at the expense of long-term growth - you are fishing the same pool and not expanding your brand or pool  - Investing in upper, mid and lower funnel marketing drives long-term growth - it will deliver returns!  - Put in place, invest in and leverage Marketing Mix Models (MMM) to understand and measure mixed media impact and maximise ROI across the funnel This is a fantastic report on short-termism in media investment - super relevant and very useful.

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Just listened to a great podcast discussion between experienced independent consultant Caroline Chappell and Danielle Rios (or DR to her friends!), which despite the inevitable pitch at the end, was informative, relevant and interesting. In essence the chat focused on the challenges and potential benefits of the TM Forum Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and open APIs initiatives, the importance of the data layer in enabling interoperability and AI applications, the reluctance of legacy vendors to fully embrace these changes, and the disruptive impact of combining open APIs and AI-powered solutions to drive innovation in the telecom industry. Coming from another DR... DigitalRoute, it was interesting to listen to the discussion around the data layer, which although it sketched quickly over the topic of data quality, made the following points:- - The data layer is even more critical than standardized APIs for enabling true interoperability and supporting the future of telecom operations. - Operators often have numerous data silos embedded in different vendor products, with no overall data modernization strategy. This makes it difficult to apply AI and leverage data effectively. - Extracting operational data from source applications and holding it centrally in a common data platform is essential for operators to become data and AI-driven. <True for AI-based operations but not for real-time monetization of services> - Data modernization is a long and challenging journey, but it's a necessary step for operators to take advantage of cloud-based technologies and AI. - The "garbage in, garbage out" principle is highlighted, emphasizing that if the data is not in the right shape, the results from AI applications will be poor. <Providing quality, corrected data into AI engines will evidently result in better results - DigitalRoute> - The data layer is a more fundamental challenge than the open APIs, as vendors need to open up their data models and architectures to enable true interoperability. So in essence, the conversation underscored the critical importance of the data layer in supporting the goals of the ODA and open APIs, and the significant challenges operators face in modernizing their data infrastructure. You can listen to the full 20 minute podcast here: http://spoti.fi/3J2UHuU #ODA #API #Telco #TMFORUM

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When times are tough, it's easy for CMOs to feel the pressures of your CFO, investors and shareholders and make cuts to your brand-marketing spend. Instead of cutting, begin with 'Re-thinking' 🧠 1. INVEST IN YOUR BRAND 📈 Cutting spend in a downturn causes long-term damage to your brand in many ways. Regaining lost market share requires a future investment of £1.85 for every £1.00 saved from near-term reductions in brand spending. 2. SEE IT AS AN OPPORTUNITY 👀 In a tough patch, 60% of marketers are looking to maintain or increase spend. If you're the other 40%, the cost to your brand's health to get it back to a competitive level will be more than triple the sacrifice of shoring things up in the short term. 3. BE MORE TARGETED 🎯 Figure out which customers you need to maintain to keep your core growth. Keep them sweet, and when things begin to pick up, invest in acquiring new customers. It costs more to gain than to maintain. 4. PLAY THE LONG GAME 🕑 If you don't have a set of long-term KIPs/targets in your strategic plan, you will find it harder to hold your nerve against market forces. The fastest brands to recover in a slump have a things mapped out and more ambitious long-term goals which helps them be more innovative and entrepreneurial with their thinking. 5. BE BRAVER WITH YOUR CREATIVE 💪 You don't have to spend a fortune to get a brilliant idea out there that gets your brand recognised. Customers still need to buy things in a downturn, they're just more hesitant and considered. So give them something to remember, talk about, and share that'll keep your brand front of mind. Braver creative ideas are built on trust with your agency partner, so give them permission to push and it'll pay back. Know a brand that's eccelled in a downturn, pop it in the comments below... 👇 #strategiccreative #businesssense #marketingstrategy

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A LinkedIn poll by Highbrook suggested that 55 per cent of content marketing people have worked on projects that involved more than 30 rounds of amends. A senior content executive says of a previous gig: “I once had the pleasure of a V21. There was a brief along the lines of needing ‘something modern, but with a classic twist’, and the feedback was to ‘make it, you know... pop’. Different people in different departments and all giving final feedback. And it was probably only for a single page.” Amends on creative work are nothing new. The King James bible was revised by 47 scholars and there exist manuscripts with amends in the margins. And this is the word of a deity. Moreover, there were still typos. One version omitted the word "not" in "Thou shalt not commit adultery", making it "Thou shalt commit adultery." Numerous rounds of feedback on less holy content can lead to unintended consequences, such as destroying the character of the piece, making it bland and uninteresting; missing deadlines; letting errors creep in; and generally sucking the life out of the project. This is not only a creative problem, but also a return on investment problem. Internally, if this many people are spending this much time making amends, they are not performing other tasks. Feedback is, of course, essential. Everything needs to be accurate; everyone needs to be happy. But 30 rounds is excessive. That means something has gone wrong. Let’s talk about ways to avoid a stakeholder version of Game of Thrones: 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦 Clear and consistent communication across the organisation (and with agencies) about the aims and desired outcomes of the project. That could (one day) include a face-to-face onboarding meeting. Meeting people helps. ⚠ A clear and simple brief, approved by all stakeholders. ✔ Prior agreement between stakeholders regarding implementation of the brief. 🦁 Permission to challenge assumptions about how the brief will be implemented. ♥ Prior agreement about tone of voice and style – preferably including a style guide. ⛔ Key stakeholders who agree to prioritise feedback and meet deadlines. ➡ Setting the expectation that stakeholders will supply clear, presecriptive and consolidated feedback. ✅ Hiring trusted creatives. 🐪 Limiting the number of stakeholders authorised to give feedback. At Highbrook, we try to get all amends done in two rounds. That’s not always possible, of course, but it concentrates the mind if a piece of writing or creative is not regarded as a perpetual work in progress.  And that’s it. Fewer amends? Amen to that. For more insights and lighter look at modern comms, sign up to our newsletter https://lnkd.in/dzerik3 #marketing #contentagency #clientfeedback #delay

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