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

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

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

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

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

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

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