Welcome to the latest edition of my weekly Round Up!
Greetings from a Friday flight to NYC! It’s the first newsletter of the new year, and here are the five best Marketing-related nuggets that came across my desk this week:
ONE (if you like start-of-year predictions about the Marketing industry, read this one)
Emily Sundberg had a great list of what she’s seeing as we roll into 2025. To give you a flavour, some excerpts are below:
IN: Substack
Substack writers will be seen as legitimate, and will be sought after media targets for PR clients.
I think we'll continue to see brands investing in Substack and looking for other platforms. TikTok's future is so uncertain and the quality of content on there seems to have a taken a hit post-election as the trolls flee Twitter and start spreading conspiracy theories on TikTok. As a consumer/human being, I'm hoping we can distance ourselves from social media and our phones but that's probably wishful thinking.
OUT: Big agencies
I really think the era of the ad agency is over. The big shops are all struggling, and as a freelancer, I'm getting way more work from production houses, directly from brands, and from freelance consortiums. Nobody wants to work 90 hours a week anymore for middling pay on boring icky work, and the people I see hanging around at the agencies where I freelance are either super green junior people or a few oldsters collecting big paychecks but watching clients flee to specialist shops. The entire middle is hollowed out. It's a slow death, but you couldn't pay me to go back into agency world now.
Full stack six-figure project creative agencies.
The full piece is here, and she covers a whole load of other industries too.
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TWO (if you like motivational quotes about what it takes to grow a business, read this one)
Tim Ferriss is always dropping gems, and his letter from gymnastics Coach Chris Sommer is one of the best. As Coach Sommer puts it:
“The secret is to show up, do the work, and go home. A blue collar work ethic married to indomitable will. It is literally that simple. Nothing interferes. Nothing can sway you from your purpose. Once the decision is made, simply refuse to budge. Refuse to compromise.”
The whole letter is worth a read, if you want additional context.
THREE (if you want a great example of what hyper-local cultural Marketing means, watch this one)
As the YouTube video bio explains, check out the origin and cultural impact of Darude’s infamous dance track “Sandstorm” at South Carolina university and why the tradition has outlasted the test of time for Gamecocks' game day operations.
FOUR (if you’re still unpicking why the Democrats lost the election, read this one)
A brilliant interview with deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty which unpacks how they were ‘losing hold of culture’ — with special reference to gaming and sports podcasters who are increasingly holding the keys to the kingdom when it comes to distribution and public opinion.
FIVE (if you’re on the Wicked bandwagon, read this one)
One segment that rang true in particular was this:
“This isn’t a rejection of collaboration as much as its complete assimilation. It reflects a culture in which the savviest creators can’t help but see their efforts through the eyes of marketers. Social media requires that artists be at once promoters and entrepreneurs. Rather than making a cultural work and then marketing it, they are encouraged to bring their understanding of online virality, merchandising, and cross-promotion into the creative process.”
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