marcashwell
Why are we so scared of competing?
Imagine being a judge at the World Martial Arts Championship. Imagine walking into a massive arena where 50 of the best martial artists in the world are there in the hope of winning the title, and winning the crowd’s hearts. Now, imagine each one of these martial artists, alone, in their own designated space demonstrating … Read more
A trends “short”
Programmatic, Digital, Drones, AR, VR, Ai, Blockchain, Pepper the Robot, Influencers, Big Data and all the rest of the “trends” we see lately are not ideas. They are methods, resources, inputs and channels that form part of a larger strategy to reach audiences in a meaningful way. They do not solve for shitty products, bad messaging, … Read more
The space between
I’m not a huge fan of 1-stop-shops in advertising. When agencies promise to do everything well something invariably drops in quality. Focus makes sense to me, excellence in what you do, bearing in mind there’s a lot of grey in-between. The promise of a 1-stop-shop is often: efficiency, turnaround time, accountability and ultimately cost saving. … Read more
2017 is gonna suck too
Expect nothing if you give nothing. A number on a calendar is not something that can or will give you hope and success. Blaming 2016 for a bad year was a distraction that ironically helped make 2016 one of the worst years most of us have experienced because we blamed it on a number. 2017 was essentially … Read more
Organise your creative resources
Like me, you might have a world of creative resources floating around anywhere from your downloads folder to your desktop or in job folders. Here is my attempt to help organise your creative assets.Download the creative resources folder structure. Here’s what it’s made up of The root contains almost all types of files you would need or … Read more
Organise your client files
If you’re a designer, freelance or part of an agency, you’ll understand the frustration when your own filing system is so bad, you get lost in your own work. Although I am not a designer anymore, I was going through my old work and started the process of archiving properly. This led me to some articles … Read more
My opinion isn’t yours
Social media has allowed us to practise our freedom of speech, debate others and generally be more involved than we used to be in each others’ lives. But that doesn’t mean you have to. You’re not gonna jump up and disagree with a colleague in a meeting when they something wrong, or have an opinion different … Read more
5 Things Social Media Addiction
I’ve forgotten birthdays, missed out on events and missed the office party pics. But I haven’t missed the hours that have disappeared trawling the web depths. 1. The early signs It’s that you hardly speak at dinner anymore, or that all you can talk about is that post that Rob deleted (but not before you … Read more
The medium is not the idea
I have seen many media types pretend to be things they are not. Life saving billboards, career enhancing banner ads, you name it – don’t fall into the trap. The problem you face as a brand owner or an advertiser is that each time your agency comes to you with an idea that starts with “this … Read more