Book Review : Building a StoryBrand 2.0 by Donald Miller. There’s a particular kind of confidence that creeps into marketing after a few strategy sessions, the belief that if we just explain things thoroughly enough, people will understand. Add a bit more context. Refine the messaging. Maybe a diagram. Building a StoryBrand 2.0 arrives as…
How to avoid spending money on something no one understands. There is a moment, just before launching an advertising campaign, when everything feels impressively official. There are slides. There are budgets. At least one person is saying, “This will perform well,” and yet, somewhere in the background, a small voice whispers: “Are we absolutely sure…
In this episode of The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing podcast, Sean Makin unpacks a deceptively simple idea: a brand isn’t what people see, it’s what they experience. Moving beyond logos and visual identity, this episode explores how real brands are built from the inside out, shaped by culture, everyday conversations, and the language people…
There is a widely held belief in marketing that if only one had a slightly larger budget, say, another few thousand pounds, a better camera, or a suspiciously expensive brand activation experience, then everything would work beautifully. Campaigns would perform. Leads would flow, and somewhere, deep within the algorithm, a small green light would blink…
Ah yes. The ancient and deeply confusing question: Should your marketing be digital-first or print-backed? A question which, much like “tea or coffee?” or “is this meeting necessary?”, appears simple but quickly spirals into philosophical chaos. Let’s fix that by overthinking it completely, which is really the only sensible response. After all, no simple question…
There comes a moment in every marketer’s life when they stare into the abyss of “brand visibility”, and the abyss stares back… before asking if you’ve tried posting more on LinkedIn. This is deeply unhelpful. Because modern marketing, much like assembling flat-pack furniture or understanding cryptocurrency, is theoretically simple and practically absurd. Everyone agrees you…
Book Review : The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert W. Bly. The Copywriter’s Handbook has long been considered one of the foundational texts of modern copywriting. First published decades before the rise of social media marketing, programmatic advertising, or AI-driven content tools, the book might easily be mistaken for a relic of another marketing era. But…
At some point in the last decade, marketing quietly wandered off, got distracted by a glowing dashboard full of analytics, and forgot that humans exist. Not entirely. Humans are still mentioned, of course, usually in phrases like “target demographic clusters” or “engagement segments.” Somewhere between the fourth marketing automation platform and the seventeenth social media…
Book Review : Atomic Habits by James Clear. At first glance, Atomic Habits by James Clear doesn’t appear to belong on a marketing reading list. It’s not a book about brand strategy, customer journeys, or campaign performance. Yet that’s precisely why it deserves a place on the modern marketer’s bookshelf. Marketing is a profession built…
In this episode of The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing Podcast, Sean Makin explores a question many marketers are quietly asking: what exactly is the role of a marketer in the age of artificial intelligence? While AI is rapidly transforming marketing by analysing data, automating campaigns, and eliminating much of the spreadsheet-heavy busywork, it hasn’t…