Only Dead Fish

Post of the Month - January 2021 - The Vote

Thank you for the nominations. So this month's vote is between:

Chemistry Lesson by Dave Dye

Simplify, Then Exaggerate by Jim Carroll

Design deserves the same status as advertising in marketer's plans by Helen Edwards

Why amateurs sometimes beat experts by Andy Nairn

Our year in responsible tech by Sarah Drinkwater

What would Bowie do? Advice from a Starman by Mark Edwards

Not home in Connecticut by George Tannenbaum

And you can vote below:

Post of the Month - January 2021 - Nominations

Well, it's time for the first Post of the Month vote of 2021 which means that it's time to open nominations. If there's something that you've read and would like to put forward please do let me have the link direct or leave it in the comments below, and once I have a good number of posts I'll put them all up for a vote. As usual I have a short starting list below but please do add to these - so my starters this month are:

Chemistry Lesson by Dave Dye

Simplify, Then Exaggerate by Jim Carroll

Design deserves the same status as advertising in marketer's plans by Helen Edwards

Why amateurs sometimes beat experts by Andy Nairn

Please do add to these nominations with your own.

Google Firestarters Episode 4: Gareth Kay

We just released a brand new episode of Google Firestarters and this one is with the brilliant Gareth Kay, co-founder at Chapter San Francisco, and a long-time planning and advertising provocateur. 

There were some excellent challenges in Gareth's answers to my questions, and some wonderful points, notably around the importance of creative density in agencies and business, and the risk of planning and agencies specialising themselves into irrelevance. A couple of my favourite quotes:

'Stop obsessing about the agency or brands you'll be working for and start focusing on the individuals you'll be working with.'

and:

'You create value through your curiousity and that value gets realised by your ability to influence people.'

There was also a really interesting discussion around the opportunities emerging from the increasingly blurred lines between product and marketing (which seems to have garnered quite a bit of feedback and discussion when I shared the video on Twitter). It's full of wisdom so do watch, like and share.

Note:- I've created a Google Firestarters page where I'll be posting all the videos up as they are released so do bookmark that.

Post of the Month - December 2020 - The Winner

I seem to have been chasing my tail on this month's vote and am a bit later than intended with this but I'm happy to announce that Colin Lewis's excellent post on the ways that marketers delude themselves has won this month's vote. There was also a strong showing for Tom Roach's brilliant post on scaling up without screwing up which if by some fluke you haven't read yet - do so now. Well done to Colin who enters our hall of fame, and my thanks to everyone that took part. 

Post of the Month - November 2020 - The Winner

Well there was a strong showing for Harriet Kindleysides' Questioning Things, and for Zoe Scaman's From Frameworks to Flywheels but in the end it was John Willshire's excellent talk on Zenko Mapping that just won this month's vote. So well done to John who has featured in the Post of the Month hall of fame before but a few years ago now, so good to see him make a return. My thanks to all that took part in the vote.