My marketing thoughts, my marketing projects and anything in between. Since that £150 logo project to now, my journey in marketing, always learning. 20 years and counting in marketing working with small, medium and large businesses.

For football fans, the magic of the club is most alive on matchday. We dedicated significant effort to enhancing the matchday experience at Park Avenue to make every home game at ATFC special. This meant looking at all the little details that matter to supporters. We overhauled the matchday programme, turning The Seasider into a visually stunning, content-rich booklet that fans now eagerly collect each game (it even won awards, as mentioned). We also launched new initiatives

That headline is deliberately provocative, but the more I learn about marketing, the more I think there is something in it. Look inside a typical marketing department and you will find people working incredibly hard. Social media posts are being scheduled, videos are being edited, emails are being written, websites are being updated, events are being organised, agencies are being briefed and dashboards are being filled with numbers. There is certainly no shortage of marketing

I came across a local event recently that attracted more than 500 people. Entry was free, the event appeared to be well attended and, by any reasonable standard, persuading hundreds of people to give up part of their day and visit something locally is already an achievement. It also got me thinking about what happens after everyone goes home. This is not an argument that every community event needs to be aggressively commercialised. Some of the best local events work precisel

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved football, watching it, playing it, and since mid 2024 I was part of it with my work as Commercial Manger at Aberystwyth Town Football Club. Below is a case study on my work with the club and a pinch me moment when I was tasked with designing the entire new kit range, marketing the kit and launching it to fans. Enjoy the read. A Design Rooted in Local Identity In 2025, Aberystwyth Town Football Club (ATFC) embarked on a bold redesign of its

One of the projects I've been developing this month started with a simple yet profound question: How can attending an Aberystwyth Town match benefit the wider town too? This inquiry led to the creation of an innovative initiative called Matchday Teammates. The concept is straightforward yet impactful: it allows local businesses to offer benefits or discounts to supporters who purchase digital match tickets. This arrangement creates a win-win situation for everyone involved. F

Price is often treated as a finance decision that marketing is later asked to communicate. I think that's a mistake. Price communicates. It creates expectations, influences positioning, affects demand and helps customers understand what sort of product they are looking at. Change the price and you may change the market. Marketers therefore need to be comfortable discussing money. I have worked across environments where pricing decisions can completely alter the success of th

June has probably been one of my favourite months of the year so far because several ideas I've been working on have moved from documents and conversations into the real world. On 25 June, Park Avenue hosted the first Black & Green Business Club meeting. Later that same day, it became the start and finish line for the first AbeRAStwyth 5K Summer Series event. Further races are scheduled for July and August. In the realm of sports and entertainment, it's fascinating to observe

May has been a month of thinking more broadly about what a football club can actually be. It is not just about the matches played on the pitch or the scores that define each game. Rather, it is about the essence of community, identity, and belonging that a football club fosters within its locality. This reflection has led to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted role a club like Aberystwyth Town FC plays in the lives of its supporters and the wider community. Football wi

Not every marketing project is trying to sell something tomorrow; some initiatives are aimed at long-term growth and community engagement. April has been a good reminder of that, showcasing how strategic planning can lead to meaningful developments over time. At Aberystwyth Town FC, one of the significant developments this month has been the formal planning application for the proposed redevelopment of Aberystwyth University Park Avenue Stadium. This application was submitted

One of my frustrations with the word marketing is how often it is used as another word for communications. Someone needs a poster, so they go to marketing. A social media post needs publishing, so it goes to marketing. There is an event next week and someone suddenly realises it needs promoting, so marketing gets involved. Before long, the marketing function becomes an internal production studio servicing everybody else's requests. Communications are obviously part of marketi

One of my biggest marketing lessons over the years is that launches are exciting, but results are considerably more useful. While the thrill of unveiling a new product or service can create a buzz, it is the tangible outcomes that truly matter in the long run. A successful launch may attract attention, but if it does not lead to meaningful engagement, conversions, or customer retention, then its impact is limited. The real success of any marketing initiative lies in its abili

Marketing loves success stories. We write case studies about the campaigns that exceeded targets, websites that increased sales and creative ideas that generated enormous reach. What tends to receive considerably less attention is the campaign that underperformed, the email nobody opened or the idea customers simply did not care about. That is unfortunate because those failures often contain some of the most useful information available to us. Black Box Thinking by Matthew Sy

February marked a significant milestone for Aberystwyth Town FC, as the highly anticipated new website officially went live on the 1st of the month. This launch was the culmination of months of dedicated work, and pressing the publish button was both an incredibly satisfying achievement and a moment filled with a touch of apprehension. In many ways, a website launch can easily be perceived as the finish line of a long race. However, I increasingly view it as the starting line

January has been one of those months where a huge amount of work has been happening, but much of it has been behind the scenes. A major focus has been Aberystwyth Town Football Club and, in particular, building a much stronger digital and commercial platform for the club. When people talk about digital marketing, the conversation often jumps straight to social media. How many posts are we doing? What should we put on Instagram? Can we make a Reel? Those things matter, but inc

By February 2024 , the digital marketing rhythm set in January was in full swing. This month delivered a string of social media feature...

The dawn of 2024 brought a burst of digital marketing energy as businesses set resolutions to capitalize on emerging trends. January 2024...

In December 2023 , digital marketing was a mix of festive cheer and forward-looking innovation. Social media platforms rolled out...

As we hit mid-2023, June delivered an energizing mix of AI enhancements, social media shifts, and a few cautionary tales . It was a month...

As spring 2023 unfolded, April showered us with new developments in AI and search , stirring both excitement and debate across the...

March marched in with a focus on deepening engagement and squeezing more performance out of digital platforms. Social media trends this...