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£150 logo to now.
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. Get in touch today - info@nutsaboutmarketing.com


People Can Spot AI Slop. That’s Actually a Good Thing
I saw a brilliant little example of the AI debate playing out locally this week. Llandeilo Service Station posted four potential new logos and asked people which one they preferred. The problem was that the designs had clearly been generated using AI, and the comments section spotted it almost immediately. People called them “AI slop”, questioned why a local designer had not been used and, perhaps most importantly, recognised that the designs did not really represent the busi

Damian Burgess
Aug 302 min read


What a £528m Visitor Economy Teaches Us About Place Marketing
Why tourism marketing should be treated as economic infrastructure, not just promotion. When a visitor economy is worth hundreds of millions of pounds to a local area, marketing should not be treated as decoration. It should be treated as economic infrastructure. Roads help people move through a place. Broadband helps businesses operate. Events bring people together. Marketing does something similar. It creates demand, shapes perception, directs attention and influences where

Damian Burgess
Jun 24 min read


Marketing Is Not Your Instagram Account
There is a conversation I have had with business owners countless times. I ask what they are doing with their marketing and the answer is usually something like, “We post on Facebook a few times a week, we’ve started doing more Reels and we probably need to get onto TikTok.” None of those things are necessarily wrong, but they do not really answer the question. They describe channels and activity rather than marketing itself. If I ask what your marketing looks like and you te

Damian Burgess
Apr 226 min read


If Everyone Is Your Customer, Nobody Is
One of the easiest sentences to write in a marketing plan is: “Our target audience is everyone.” It is also one of the least useful. There are products with enormous potential markets, of course, and broad reach is incredibly important for growing brands. But that does not mean every person has the same needs, motivations or value to a business. Segmentation is not about making your market artificially tiny. It is about recognising meaningful differences within it. I think th

Damian Burgess
Feb 62 min read


Posting on Social Media Is Not Marketing
One of the things that frustrates me most about marketing (i think it pisses me off more because it's my job) is how often it gets reduced to social media. (oh aks Damian he's into marketing and soicla media stuff, rolls eyes) A business says it needs to do more marketing, and within minutes the conversation becomes about posting more regularly on Instagram, making a Reel, designing a graphic or finding something to put on Facebook. Those things can all be useful, but none of

Damian Burgess
Dec 29, 20257 min read


Growth Usually Requires More Buyers
One of the most useful marketing ideas I have encountered is also one of the most uncomfortable for businesses. Your most loyal customers are probably not enough to deliver the growth you want. Organisations understandably love loyal customers. They buy more often, understand the product, require less explanation and may become advocates. Loyalty matters enormously to customer experience and commercial performance. But brands generally grow by increasing penetration: getting

Damian Burgess
Dec 3, 20252 min read


ATFC Branding & Kit Design
A strong brand identity is crucial for any club that wants to stand out. At Aberystwyth Town, I spearheaded a comprehensive branding overhaul. This began with creating the club’s first-ever brand guidelines, a unified set of standards for logos, colours, fonts, and tone of voice. With a consistent brand in place across digital, print, and matchday materials, ATFC started to present a professional and cohesive image to fans and partners alike. One of the most visible expressio

Damian Burgess
Sep 19, 20252 min read


ATFC Awards & Publicity
Great work gets noticed. The innovative initiatives and improvements at Aberystwyth Town FC didn’t just win over fans and sponsors, they also earned public recognition and media coverage. Our efforts culminated in the club becoming a finalist for two categories in the 2025 Menter Aberystwyth Business Awards. Competing for the Aberystwyth Ambassador Award and Welsh Language Champion Award highlighted how far the club’s community impact and inclusivity had come. It was an honou

Damian Burgess
Sep 2, 20252 min read


Matchday Experience Enhancements
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

Damian Burgess
Aug 27, 20252 min read


500 People Came to Your Event. Do You Know Who Any of Them Were?
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

Damian Burgess
Aug 24, 20256 min read


Football Kit Design for ATFC
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

Damian Burgess
Aug 21, 20257 min read


Social Media Shake-Ups and Marketing Evolutions
By February 2024 , the digital marketing rhythm set in January was in full swing. This month delivered a string of social media feature...

Damian Burgess
Feb 13, 20249 min read


New Year, New Digital Marketing Trends
The dawn of 2024 brought a burst of digital marketing energy as businesses set resolutions to capitalize on emerging trends. January 2024...

Damian Burgess
Jan 12, 202410 min read


Holiday Marketing Magic & Tech Trends to Watch
In December 2023 , digital marketing was a mix of festive cheer and forward-looking innovation. Social media platforms rolled out...

Damian Burgess
Dec 13, 20237 min read


AI Enhancements and Social Shifts
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...

Damian Burgess
Jun 9, 20235 min read


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

Damian Burgess
Apr 21, 20235 min read


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

Damian Burgess
Mar 10, 20234 min read


The Rise of AI and Refocus on Engagement
February brought a wave of innovation that had everyone in marketing buzzing – especially with big tech’s moves in AI. This month, it...

Damian Burgess
Feb 9, 20234 min read


Top 5 tips for keeping your marketing strategy future proof
Keep your marketing effective with these need to know tips.

Damian Burgess
Mar 15, 20202 min read


What is SEO SEM SMO?
Social media marketing should not be confused with social media optimisation, which like SEO utilises specific techniques, methods and...

Damian Burgess
May 29, 20171 min read


Going Back to Marketing School After 15 Years
This week I started the Mini MBA in Marketing with Mark Ritson, and it feels slightly strange writing that after working in marketing for more than 15 years. Notepad out, headphones in, I have taken to my home office in the evenings and tried to make sense of it all. I've run my own marketing business since 2015, worked in-house at small and large businesses, worked with football clubs, created websites, events, sponsorship, digital campaigns and worked with plenty of busines

Damian Burgess
7 days ago3 min read


Does Paid Parking Really Drive People Away from Aberystwyth?
A recent story about the amount Ceredigion County Council is taking from parking charges on Aberystwyth promenade sparked the sort of reaction you would probably expect. People argued that charging for parking would push tourists away, reduce footfall and ultimately cost local businesses money. Maybe it does. But I am not convinced we should simply accept that as fact without asking a few more questions. I live locally, I shop in Aberystwyth and I know the town well. I also u

Damian Burgess
7 days ago3 min read


Are You Doing Research, or Just Looking for Confirmation?
One of the easiest traps in marketing is deciding what we think the answer is, then going looking for research to prove us right. It happens all the time. A new product idea gets everyone excited, a campaign concept gets senior approval, or a customer journey is redesigned because internally it feels cleaner and more logical. The problem is that customers do not see the internal logic. They do not care that your new system brings three databases together, makes reporting easi

Damian Burgess
Sep 42 min read


People Can Spot AI Slop. That’s Actually a Good Thing
I saw a brilliant little example of the AI debate playing out locally this week. Llandeilo Service Station posted four potential new logos and asked people which one they preferred. The problem was that the designs had clearly been generated using AI, and the comments section spotted it almost immediately. People called them “AI slop”, questioned why a local designer had not been used and, perhaps most importantly, recognised that the designs did not really represent the busi

Damian Burgess
Aug 302 min read


What the Eiffel Tower Can Teach Us About Branding
Think of Paris and there is a good chance you picture the Eiffel Tower. Think of London and Big Ben might appear in your mind, while Sydney can immediately bring up the distinctive sails of the Sydney Opera House. You do not need to see the name of the city alongside them because the image itself is enough to trigger the association. These landmarks are not distinctive brand assets in the traditional marketing sense, but they behave remarkably like them. They have become powe

Damian Burgess
Aug 134 min read


If Your AI Advert Looks Like Everyone Else’s, What’s the Point?
There is a particular type of social media graphic that I am starting to recognise before I have even read it. It has too much text, an odd mixture of fonts, a slightly over-designed background, colours that do not quite belong to the business and a layout that somehow feels familiar even though I have never seen the advert before. Then I look a little closer and realise why. It is another AI-generated social media poster. The strange thing is that the businesses using these

Damian Burgess
Aug 69 min read
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