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Bright Objects
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Tim Sharp: is AI in marketing exciting or existential?
Slideshow with Dave Hayward podcast links: We appreciate you liking and subscribing on your favourite platform of choice, and even taking the time to give us a review! YouTube is above, or you can choose below. Apple Spotify Amazon Connect with us: Tim Sharp on...
Ed Ortega of Machine & Partners: Vibe coding, the AI continuum part 3 (Slideshow with Dave Hayward podcast episode 5)
Vibe coding: a profound shift, not just a cool name Slideshow with Dave Hayward ep05 se01 There is a continuum between consumer apps like ChatGPT and Claude and full AI customisation. In this episode of Slideshow with Dave Hayward, Ed Ortega, founder of Machine &...
ICP: finding your perfect match
Don’t get distracted from your ICP I had an epiphany in my late thirties, which transformed my life and changed how I saw the world. This epiphany is also vital for business and marketing: "I am not for everybody, and everybody is not for me." - Dave Hayward (way too...
Ed Ortega, Machine & Partners: AI workflow automation, the AI continuum, part 2 (Slideshow with Dave Hayward podcast)
AI Workflow Automation Slideshow with Dave Hayward, episode 4 In the fourth episode of Slideshow with Dave Hayward, Dave and Edmundo Ortega (founder of Machine & Partners and lecturer at Section) demo a live example of AI workflow automation and explore the...
Ed Ortega, Machine & Partners on the AI continuum, part 1: ChatGPT (Slideshow with Dave Hayward podcast)
The AI continuum part 1: ChatGPT Slideshow with Dave Hayward episode 3 There is a continuum between consumer apps like ChatGPT and Claude and full AI customisation. In this episode of Slideshow with Dave Hayward, Ed Ortega, founder of Machine & Partners (a client...
3 ideas to counter decision fatigue
On decision fatigue: "Good decision making is not a trait of the person, in the sense that it's always there. It's a state that fluctuates." Roy Baumeister One late Spring in the 90s, my cousin Trish and I had exams. We had plenty of time and a great space to study....
My customer was Lehman Brothers: 6 strategies for marketing your way through a downturn
There is no right time to be in business. I reactivated Europa Creative Partners about this time last year. For most of its existence, it was a side hustle, but it had been a full-time thing at one stage about four years ago. I loved it and wanted to do it again, but...
4 ways to get better customer intimacy when everything is noisy
It’s never been easier to reach your ideal customer. It’s also never been harder to actually connect with them. We’ve all felt it. A tidal wave of outreach tools, AI platforms, and enrichment databases. From Clay to Apollo, we’re awash in ways to find and message...
Slideshow Episode 2: Creativity, programmatic marketing, and the original personal brander — with Allie Lichtenberg
In this episode of Slideshow with Dave Hayward, Dave Hayward chats with Allie Lichtenberg — founder of Adlucem and programmatic media expert — about the surprising intersections between creativity, advertising, and the very first personal brands. We explore...
Late bloomers and decision-makers
How to make peace with arbitrary choices and create meaning anyway “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less travelled by,And that has made all the difference.” It’s hard to beat the final lines of Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken. It’s also, famously,...
AI agents demystified by Nadia Ellis of Curiosity
Time to stop worrying and start building your hive of AI agents When I first started thinking seriously about AI agents, I felt the same way I did when I first encountered AI. Too technical. Too complex. A little too much time upfront. I’m fortunate to be surrounded...
AI and marketing expert Nadia Ellis and her curiosity hive of AI agents (Slideshow podcast)
In this episode of Slideshow, host Dave Hayward speaks with marketing and AI expert Nadia Ellis from Curiosity about the transformative power of AI agents in business and personal productivity. Nadia shares her journey from a traditional marketing role to becoming an...
How persuasion works (and how it doesn’t)
Persuasion and perseverance One of the hardest jobs I ever had was selling coffee in London. In my twenties, I started at a brand new company with no established customer base. Armed with a London A to Z street map, a newly bought suit, and some business cards, I...
3 unglamorous ways AI can improve growth and efficiency
3 practical ways AI can improve growth and efficiency for SMEs Relatively low cost access to AI makes things easier for SME businesses, but for the ones benefiting the most, it’s not in the ways you might think. That's because the zone is being flooded by frothy...
Your problem might not be lead generation. It might be brand and trust.
The number one reason people reach out to us is to help them grow revenue through lead gen, not brand or trust. Most business leaders are astute problem solvers who usually come to us with diagnosis and (their own) solutions together. Instead of “we want a more...
Is our fractional CMO model for you? (We might be the perfect fit)
This is part 3 of a 3 part series about fractional CMOs and marketing-as-a-service models. Click here for part 1, which introduces the rise of the fractional CMO. Part 2 is about our processes, flexibility, and results. Traditional fractional CMO vs. how we do things...
How our fractional CMO model works: Process, flexibility, and results
This is part 2 of a three-part series about fractional CMOs and marketing-as-a-service models. Part 1, which introduces the rise of the fractional CMO, is here. Part 3 discusses how to decide if these models are right for you. How it works Most of our clients work...
Why fractional CMOs are on the rise (and why our model is different)
This is part 1 of 3 articles about our fractional CMO and marketing-as-a-service models. Part 2 is about process, flexibility, and results. Part 3 is about how to decide if these models are for you. Fractional or part-time CMOs are on the rise There are a lot of...
The origin story of Europa Creative Partners
A bright object. A mystery wrapped in an enigma. That’s what we’re looking for in marketing and brand. It just so happens that it also describes my favourite moon in the solar system…. And the name of Europa Creative Partners (and our newsletter, Bright Objects). The...
5 AI tools to make your SME a big deal
Like Festivus, it’s AI tools for the rest of us. Running an SME does not mean you have a shortage of decisions. Now, it turns out you've got to keep abreast of all the AI tools you must choose. We thought exploring five areas in which AI can help with off-the-shelf...
I was taught by a great painter. Here’s what I learned.
The tension between structure and magic makes successful creative You may not know this about me, but I trained as an artist and am a painter (although I don’t get to practice much these days). One of my sketches is the header image of this article (no AI here!)....
5 ways to accelerate your B2B content strategy
B2B content strategy is the key to successful, sustainable sales pipelines, but it can feel like a lot of hard work and a bit fruitless, especially at the beginning. There is no shortcut to the hard work aspect, but there are five concepts that, if implemented, will...
3 ideas (and 5 steps) to syncronise sales and marketing
Sales and marketing teams can be like the Lennon and McCartney of your business. When there is a healthy tension between them, magic happens. If they go in different directions, you can choose a best-forgotten solo Beatles album from the seventies to supply the...
Founder-led marketing is on the rise
Founder-led marketing is having a moment. Even at some of the world's largest brands, previously mousey principals have undergone sudden glow-ups (sometimes using AI to make themselves look swol), talked on podcasts, and been relatable on LinkedIn. While this isn't...
Top 5 articles of 2024
Our most popular reads from 2024 In 1849, French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose" – "the more things change, the more they stay the same”. When I reviewed our best work from 2024, I noticed an unintended underlying...
Merry Christmas
We did not want to miss our moment to say MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all. As we hurtle towards the year's end, I find myself caught between two competing impulses: desperately wanting an extra week to wrap up our work, and simultaneously, I can’t wait to get into the...
My tech stack in the age of martech, AI, and app proliferation
14,106 martech products (27.8% growth YoY) are on the market in 2024. To be a knowledge worker, and especially a marketer, it helps to be wired to be a novelty seeker. For marketers, when it comes to martech, let alone productivity apps, we’re faced with an...
3 AI personas to transform your workflow
Imagine producing work that is 40% higher quality. In his visit to New Zealand earlier in the year, Section's Greg Shove described the concept of "AI personas": a way of thinking about how AI works and what kind of use cases it can be applied to. Matt Martel of...
Vanity or valuable? Marketing metrics that matter
Which metrics matter? “What metrics do we measure? How do we measure ROI?” These are two of the most common questions in initial client engagements. I do not answer each question or client the same way, but every answer I give includes the word “depends.” It’s easy to...
Anyone who says they’re an AI expert is lying
Some of the brightest brains in tech are not AI experts yet. I left Spark Accelerate last week with my head hurting from trying to retain all the information generated by the incredible speakers and content. One of the standouts was Edmundo Ortega’s keynote, “An...
What we talk about when we talk about AI
Is it possible to write with AI and maintain an honest voice? Everywhere I look, I can see gluggy writing flooding every orifice of the internet. It’s instantly recognisable as produced and posted by unedited generative AI. Generative AI is amazingly good at writing,...
Older professionals have the edge with AI
“If I don’t get my arms around AI as a late 40s marketer, I am cooked.” Those words I said to a colleague when I understood the technology meaningfully. My view now is that there’s a hidden advantage for older professionals, particularly those who have honed our...
I hallucinate more than AI does
Hallucination is an old term for a new concept. I first heard the term “hallucination” used in connection with AI during a presentation we organised earlier this year with Greg Shove, CEO of Section, hosted by Journey. Greg explained it (and reiterated in Professor...
Is this the reason your customers are disastisfied?
Occam’s Razor is an excellent way of cutting through when you’re having trouble marketing a product or service to customers. Often, the simplest explanation is the right one. William of Okham, the friar associated with the...
Marketing: going on attack, even when conditions are tough
Marketing and cricket analogy klaxon "Doubt kills more ideas than failure ever did" Brendon "Baz" McCallum, former captain of the New Zealand Black Caps and current head coach of the England team, didn’t invent the phrase, but he lives by it. It underpins the...
AI and marketing: 3 ways it’s overhyped, and 4 ways it’s changing the game
AI is two things at once: overhyped and genuinely game-changing, especially for marketing. 66% of marketers believe AI could replace their jobs within five years, while 61% already use it daily. But what’s real, and what’s just noise? To help us on this journey, I...
On starting again
There’s a wonderful purity in starting again. "It's about letting things go so you can get what you want." Bert Cooper from Mad Men was talking about account management, but he could easily have been referring to that moment when you realise it’s time to return to the...
Digital Marketing Conference (DigiMarCon) – recap, Day 2
The final day of DigiMarCon was notable in its focus on actionable, technical, and platform-specific insights. Like Day 1, we were blessed with deep domain experts who matched strategic vision with actual how-tos. It was “inside baseball” for digital marketers, with...
Digital Marketing Conference (DigiMarCon) – recap, Day 1
In August, I spent two days with intensely bright people discussing digital marketing at DigiMarCon. COVID struck some key talent, so I became emcee at short notice. It was an honour to introduce so many great speakers. Here, in brief, is what was discussed on Day 1:...
Honest review of Motion – AI-driven workflow/calendar assistant app.
Ads for Motion - an AI-driven workflow, calendar, and scheduling assistant- deluged me, and I eventually caved in because I was curious. And I think it's pretty great. Here are my thoughts after about three months of using their product, deep at the core of my working...