Why nobody ever bought anything because of a seven-layer messaging framework. Marketing has a curious relationship with complexity. If you give a marketer a simple idea, enough meetings and presentation slides can turn it into something so complicated that you’d need a glossary, and maybe even an archaeological dig, to make sense of it. That’s…
Why do humans continue trusting other humans despite decades of corporate effort to prevent this? There was a time when companies went out of their way to hide the people in charge. Companies wanted to look polished, professional, and neutral enough to pass any legal review. Founders were supposed to stay in the background, doing…
If your idea of a perfect June involves sunshine, inspiration, typography debates that somehow become emotional, and at least one person wearing a tote bag ironically… then good news: Birmingham Design Festival is back from 10-12 June 2026. And honestly? We’re very into it. This year’s theme is “Change” which feels appropriate considering most creatives…
The slightly disturbing realisation that every marketing presentation contains arrows. There comes a moment in almost every marketing meeting where reality quietly leaves the room. It usually happens around slide fourteen. Someone shares a strategy that sounds convincing. The slides show diagrams, arrows pointing in all directions, and maybe a triangle in the corner. Suddenly,…
Book Review : Storytelling Exhibitions by Philip Hughes. Many people assume exhibitions are just quiet rooms filled with objects, while visitors stroll through and try to make sense of them. Philip Hughes’s book, Storytelling Exhibitions, shows that today’s exhibitions aim for much more than that. Exhibitions now try to create real feelings for visitors, and…
The curious case of humans preferring other humans. Many people in business assume that bigger always means better. Bigger budget. Bigger audience. Bigger marketing teams, huge slide decks, and lots of buzzwords like “omnichannel ecosystem.” Still, even with all this size and sophistication, small brands keep doing something inconvenient for big companies: They keep building…
In Episode 11 of The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing Podcast, Sean Makin explores one of the biggest challenges in modern digital marketing: why businesses can attract thousands of website visitors and still struggle to generate leads, enquiries, or sales. This episode breaks down the critical difference between website traffic and conversion-focused marketing, explaining why…
Book Review : Human First Marketing by Phil Treagus-Evans. There’s a strange trend in modern marketing where brands spend enormous amounts of time trying to sound human while simultaneously removing every actual human element from the process. More automation. More AI-generated content. More so-called personalised experiences, but no real person behind the words. Phil Treagus-Evans’s…
Why the robots may accidentally force us all to become interesting again. For years, the future of marketing has been described using words that sound faintly like instructions printed on the side of expensive kitchen appliances. Words like: automation, optimisation, personalisation, scalability, and “leveraging AI-powered synergy,” which sounds less like marketing and more like a…
The surprising strategic advantages of mild existential panic. Overthinking gets a terrible reputation. People say things like: “You’re thinking too much.” “Stop overanalysing it.” “Just post the content.” Which is all wonderfully easy advice to give when you are not the person responsible for accidentally publishing something catastrophic to the internet at 9:14 on a…