Only Dead Fish

Google Firestarters 21 - Re-imagining Digital Advertising

We've done a few Firestarters events around agency futures and innovation, and a number focusing on the craft of planning and advertising, but up to now we've not focused specifically on where digital advertising is going. So we're taking that as our theme for our next event, on 13th Sept, 6.00pm, Google HQ London.

With ad blocking, an ever-shifting dynamic between branding and performance, data and creative, and advertising and content there's plenty to talk about. Do we, in fact, need to re-imagine digital advertising? We've lined up perspectives from three of the smartest and most opinionated provocateurs I know on the subject: 

Tom Goodwin, SVP Strategy & Innovation at Havas, who we're flying in from New York especially for the event

Tracey Follows, CSO at The Future Laboratory and author 

Ian Leslie, who wrote one of the most shared op-eds on the theme in the FT last year, How The Mad Men Lost The Plot. 

It should be brilliant. As always, I have a few guest passes to give away to readers so if you'd like one contact me direct or leave a comment below.

Technology vs Humanity

My good friend the Futurist Gerd Leonhard has a new book out on technology and humanity which, knowing Gerd, should be a great read. More recently, he's been focused on all the myriad issues that surround our ever more complex relationship with technology, and this captures his argument for 'humanising the coming waves of technological disruption'. You can read a preview, see more about the book, and order it here. And this video also gives you a taster:

If you're interested, Gerd will be hosting a book launch in London on the evening of Sept 8th at which he'll be presenting some of his key thoughts from the book. The event, at the CASS Business School, is free to attend but places are limited so if you'd like to go along you can register for that here.

My Book - Building the Agile Business

I said a good while back that I intended to write a book, so what's happened since then? Well, after lots of to-ing and fro-ing with various publishers, we found one who really shared the vision for what we wanted to do. And so I'm delighted to announce that we have a publishing deal with the lovely people at Kogan Page and that our book, titled 'Building The Agile Business', will be published early in 2017.  

As I said before, this really is an itch that I need to scratch, having written, spoken and consulted on and about agility in business for over six years. It's my belief that we are in the midst of huge change that is impacting businesses not just in marketing but right across organisational functions. It's change that is far more fundamental than just being about technology, and so the way in which businesses need to respond should be just as comprehensive. That response runs across processes, resourcing, structures, thinking, approaches and the very fabric of the way in which a company operates. Digital transformation is already becoming a well-used phrase but it really is transformation from the top-down and ground up.

Our observation is that there is plenty of material out there that talks about why this change is necessary, but very little (as Tim also noted recently) that effectively captures what good looks like, and truly enables a better understanding of the how. So that's what we're going to write about. It's a big challenge, and a lot of thinking to process and distill into a defining text (I think it was Antony who said to me before I started that writing a book was like an intellectual marathon, and he's not wrong) but that's our ambition.

My companion on this journey is Peter Abraham, a long-time collaborator of mine and one of the smartest digital and business practitioners I know, who will be co-authoring the book with me. We'll be setting up on Medium to share some of our thinking as we go (more on that soon), and I'll also be posting related content here of-course. Watch this space.

Post of the Month - July 2016 - The Winner

Another close run vote this month but happy to say that the winner of Post of the Month for July is Graeme Douglas' brilliant post on Life Out of Balance. Well done Graeme - well deserved, and you're entered into the hall of fame. My thanks to everyone who took part.

Post of the Month - July 2016 - The Vote

Thanks for the nominations all. So our vote this month is between:

61 Glimpses of the Future from Jan Chipchase

Stop Problem Solving by Gareth Kay

Life Out of Balance by Graeme Douglas

The Attention Economy and the Demise of the Middle Ground by Patricia McDonald

You Can't Move Forward When You're Looking Through the Rear View Mirror by Rob Campbell

I'm Having a 'Digital Transformation' Right Now by Tim Malbon

And you can vote below: