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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


A Year of Marketing Growth and the Start of Something New
2025 has probably been one of the most important years of my marketing career. This year stands out not merely due to a newfound discovery of marketing principles or practices. At the Aber Football 7s event I helped bring back to Aber In fact, I've been immersed in the world of marketing for a considerable amount of time, honing my skills and understanding the nuances of the industry. However, what makes this year particularly significant is the shift in how I perceive and ap

Damian Burgess
Dec 17, 20253 min read


What If a Football Stadium Worked Seven Days a Week?
Football stadiums are unusual business assets because huge parts of them can be extremely valuable for a few hours and almost redundant for the rest of the week. a 3D render of what could have been at ATFC That always fascinated me at Aberystwyth Town. Park Avenue obviously existed primarily as a football ground, but once you start thinking commercially, the fact that something was built for one purpose does not mean it can only ever serve that purpose. One particular idea I

Damian Burgess
Dec 14, 20252 min read


Why I Wanted a Football Club to Host a Business Conference
Some of my favourite business ideas are the ones that never actually happened. During my time at Aberystwyth Town, one of the projects I began exploring was the idea of developing a larger business conference as an extension of the Black & Green Business Club. We had already started thinking differently about the relationship between the football club and local companies, and a conference felt like a logical next step. The traditional commercial relationship between a footbal

Damian Burgess
Dec 10, 20252 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


The Value of Stopping, Looking Back and Understanding What You Actually Built
I've spent years moving rapidly from one marketing project to another. This fast-paced environment has often left little room for reflection or in-depth analysis of the outcomes of my efforts. Each project seemed to demand immediate attention, requiring me to finish the website, launch the campaign, send the email, design the next thing, fix the problem, and then move on to the next task without taking a moment to pause and consider the overall impact of my work. However, Nov

Damian Burgess
Nov 29, 20253 min read


A Football Ground Is Not Just a Football Ground
One of the things I became increasingly interested in during my year at Aberystwyth Town was how many different things could happen at Park Avenue that had very little to do with eleven players trying to put a football into a goal. We hosted business networking. The ground became connected with running events. We explored wider commercial ideas, workspace concepts and ways of bringing new people into the stadium. The more projects I worked on, the less I saw Park Avenue simpl

Damian Burgess
Nov 19, 20252 min read


Make It Easy to Buy
Marketers spend enormous amounts of time trying to make people want things. We should probably spend more time making those things easy to buy. This sounds almost too basic to deserve an article, but I have repeatedly seen organisations create unnecessary friction between customer interest and customer action. Complicated forms, unclear prices, missing links, confusing websites, difficult booking processes and the requirement to contact somebody during office hours can destro

Damian Burgess
Nov 12, 20252 min read


Some of My Favourite Marketing Ideas Never Happened
Most portfolios are naturally full of finished work. We show the website that launched, the campaign that performed well, the event that sold tickets and the product that generated PR because completed projects provide visible evidence of what somebody can deliver. What those portfolios rarely show, however, is the large amount of thinking that happens around ideas that never reach the market. For every project that launches, there are usually several others that stop somewhe

Damian Burgess
Nov 5, 20254 min read


Twelve Months at Aber Town: What Building a Marketing System Taught Me
October brings a significant chapter of my marketing career to a close. As the leaves begin to change and the air turns crisp, I find myself reflecting on the past year and the experiences that have shaped my professional journey. This month marks the end of my 12-month role with Aberystwyth Town Football Club, a position that has been both challenging and rewarding. Looking back, it's difficult to choose one project that defines the year, as each experience has contributed t

Damian Burgess
Oct 30, 20253 min read


Start With the Market, Not the Message
Marketers naturally like messages. We enjoy naming things, creating campaigns, finding a headline, designing the visual identity and deciding how something should appear on social media. I have certainly spent plenty of my career doing exactly that. But there is a question that needs to come first. Does anybody actually want this? It sounds painfully obvious, yet organisations regularly develop products, services, events and initiatives internally before turning to marketing

Damian Burgess
Oct 15, 20252 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
6 days ago2 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


Consistency Is More Powerful Than Marketers Think
Marketing people naturally enjoy new things. A new campaign gives us something different to create, a new visual identity is exciting to design and a new strapline gives everyone something fresh to discuss. There are absolutely times when brands need to evolve, but I think the industry can sometimes underestimate how valuable consistency is precisely because marketers become bored with their own work much faster than customers do. Someone working inside an organisation might

Damian Burgess
Aug 12 min read


When Marketing Targets Become Detached From Marketing Reality
One of the easiest mistakes a business can make is to confuse an ambitious target with a marketing strategy. Targets are useful because they create focus and accountability, but they become dangerous when they are detached from historical performance, available resources, market conditions and the mechanics required to achieve them. I once worked within a marketing team where success was heavily judged by the number of marketing-qualified leads generated. There was nothing un

Damian Burgess
Jul 214 min read


Destination Marketing Is Not Just Making Instagram Look Better
Why rural destinations need to think beyond social media, and start treating tourism marketing as economic development. There is a common misunderstanding about destination marketing. People often reduce it to social media. Post more reels. Make the Instagram grid look cleaner. Use better photography. Capture sunsets, food, coast, mountains, families and local businesses, then call it a strategy. Social media matters, of course. A destination that looks inactive online is mak

Damian Burgess
Jul 136 min read
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