Marketers primarily view communication as a tool to influence other people. But they rarely stop to consider how it influences themselves...
Curiosity Squared
Probing the patterns of brand and culture
Latest Articles
Marketers primarily view communication as a tool to influence other people. But they rarely stop to consider how it influences themselves...
Although marketing might not wield quite the same cultural influence as the beautiful game, the two phenomena share a surprising bond: they have both been revolutionised by data.
Creativity: the holy grail of every ad campaign. The esoteric fairy dust that all marketers long to sprinkle onto their work – if only they knew how to get hold of it...
What do the unlikely mix of brands, pets and hurricanes have in common? They’re all subjects of anthropomorphism: the attribution of human traits to non-human entities...
Today, companies invest lots of time and effort in complex marketing plans; understanding target audiences, defining values and designing visual identities...
Emotion in advertising: fact & fiction In 1961, legendary ad man Rosser Reeves established the era’s defining theory of effective advertising: the …
Why you should discard before you make things better In a recent tour of SpaceX, Elon Musk commented “possibly the most common …
The fallacy of models: from geography to marketing We tend to think Google Maps is an accurate representation of Earth. Without hesitation, …
The dark art of storytelling: what we can learn from con artists Note: please keep in mind that we do not condone …
Chefs, creativity & the power of constraints When we think of creative individuals, the names we cite often include the likes of …
Serendipity has been at the heart of some of the world's greatest inventions and ideas. But in a world that idolises efficiency and optimisation, are we shutting ourselves off to its potential?
The Fatal Attraction of Marketing Jargon The widespread shift to homeworking over the past 24 months has had many publicised effects, including …
Your immediate competitors are often the first place to look for innovation inspiration. It seems obvious that those with deep category experience are best suited to solve its problems. But actually do the best solutions come from looking beyond your category all together?
Covid-19 has accelerated our willingness to embrace invisible brands. We have been increasingly drawn to their digital first model, which promises to remove interactions while simplifying our experiences. Although the invisibility of these brands is the source of their allure, it also presents them with a fundamental challenge.
The obsession with logical and linear frameworks hides an inconvenient truth: much like the consumers they appeal to, brands are inconsistent and elusive entities whose existence is driven more by paradoxes and contradictions than any reliable measure.