Can artificial intelligence improve actual intelligence? This the first in a series of articles that aims to investigate if AI can improve the performance of professional marketers. I am not a scientist, but I have been lecturing about the growth of automation, marketing technology and the potential of AI for the past 5 years. My […]
Author Archives: Mike O'Brien
April
12
Writer throws the book at AI
posted by Mike O'Brien
Back on GPT again and this time focusing on some big questions, based on books that question our relationship with AI: Do androids dream of electric sheep? GPT “Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is a science fiction novel written by Philip K. Dick. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where most animals have […]
March
31
Is there life after AI?
posted by Mike O'Brien
I used to be a futurologist for the Institute of Digital Marketing and enjoyed speculating about what was coming down the pipeline for us marketing professionals. Most so called big ideas came and went as soon as the hype budget ran out of steam, but a few have come into reality and one looks like […]
March
18
Writer runs into ChatGPT
posted by Mike O'Brien
Writer: Will AI replace writers? ChatGPT : While AI has made significant advances in generating written content, it is unlikely that it will replace writers entirely. AI-generated content can be useful for certain tasks such as generating reports or summaries, but it is still limited in its ability to create unique and creative content that […]
February
28
Put your marketing on a low carbon diet
posted by Mike O'Brien
I’ve just completed a Carbon Literacy Course and was blown away by the thought that it’s not up to someone else to save the world from carbon emissions. The science that explains the need to reduce carbon emissions on an individual, community and global basis is irrefutable. Since the industrial revolution, the world has begun […]
June
17
Digital Marketing Skills – back to the 60s
posted by Mike O'Brien
To quote the excellent and useful Econsultancy publication (2019), Skills of the Modern Marketer, the pre-digital models we have been using since the 60s are no longer viable in the 168 hours-a-week consumer landscape. That’s why they developed the Modern Marketing Model which they claim “Fuses digital and classic marketing into one future-facing framework.” It’s […]
June
01
It’s always time for a new old school marketing model
posted by Mike O'Brien
As a marketing practitioner, I owe a great deal to all those who went before me and nailed their thoughts to the flagpole (cliche by design) at risk of getting shot down by the trolls. Those brave souls who made it through the process, end up with their name attached to a marketing model that […]
August
18
Will tech companies eventually do right by consumers?
posted by Mike O'Brien
Regulation be damned Despite the introduction of regulation in the form of The GDPR and The EU and ICO flexing their punitive muscles by handing out record fines for data protection infractions, the conduct of companies such as Cambridge Analytica, Facebook and Google has raised doubts in the minds of consumers regarding the importance product […]
July
12
The quantum marketing skills challenge.
posted by Mike O'Brien
Most of the marketing tasks that once took highly-skilled teams weeks to accomplished can now be actioned in minutes by an individual with a smartphone. Even the most complex programmatic campaigns are triggered, delivered and dynamically optimised in milliseconds. But speed isn’t everything. While marketers make every effort to optimise business and human productivity, […]
June
12
The creative brief has lost too much mojo
posted by Mike O'Brien
99 times out of 100, the creative brief isn’t really creative enough to inform and inspire great thinking.
December
13
All we want for Christmas is an IoT party
posted by Mike O'Brien
The Internet of Things has a long way to go before it makes most people’s Christmas stocking
October
31
Most office workers unafraid of AI – lol
posted by Mike O'Brien
What could possibly go wrong? According to the World Economic Forum, an estimated five million jobs across 15 developed countries will be taken by robots by 2020. And yet, according to an article by Adobe’s Mark Greenaway (Head of Emerging Businesses, EMEA): “Most office workers view it (AI) as a positive force, with the majority […]
February
06
Client-Agency Wars – the end is nigh
posted by Mike O'Brien
As if brexit wasn’t trouble enough If client agency relationships are to survive the coming of Brexit and Automation (One will reduce budgets. The other will eliminate jobs) we need to develop empathic work practices. It will take more than profoundly considered but ponderously produced creative alchemy to keep the outsourced agency of the future […]
August
22
Un-automated marketers – clearly a primitive people
posted by Mike O'Brien
Will there be life after marketing automation? Way back in 1974, Cadbury’s Smash ran an an ad campaign featuring a group of mechanical Martian Explorers laughing their heads off at the way humans prepare potatoes for consumption. In March 2016, The Drum invited a panel of ten marketers to reimagine the campaign in a contemporary context. […]
April
13
How I long to be more like you Marketing Automation bot – I think
posted by Mike O'Brien
is your boss a bit botty? In my early career the thought of coming to work to knock out yet another knockout brand ad campaign for a client… made sleeping over in the agency seem worth it. Now, at the age of 59, hardly a day goes by when I feel there is more to working […]
March
19
In love with Customer Experience
posted by Mike O'Brien
Is there more to life than sales? The following is an extended response to an article I published as part of the TFM&A Board of Experts. The article has some excellent contributions from leaders in the digital marketing field. This update, provides a more complete response to questions posed than is possible in the article. 1: […]
December
03
The 12 A’s of Christmas
posted by Mike O'Brien
Santa has been busy thinking about what you want for Christmas My early Christmas gift to one and all readers is my definitive A-Z list (with a twist ) of marketing in the digital age… the twist is that they all begin with the letter A. There’s optimisation for you. Analysis Keeping in touch with the […]
November
03
Winter is coming Don Draper
posted by Mike O'Brien
Are clients cooling their interest in agencies? In July 2006, Unilever started giving the cold shoulder (sorry) to the agency world when it cut its UK marketing and digital agency roster from 20 to 7 shops. At the same time, Unilver quietly announced a review of its global digital roster. Among those agencies who survived the cull were: Agency […]
October
03
The ABC of OVP (Online Value Proposition)
posted by Mike O'Brien
As Leonardo DaVinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” So my as-simple-as-it-gets take on developing a powerful OVP (Online Value Proposition) is… “Be more useful than useless.” The process is as follows: A. Assess what customers find most useful B. Be especially mindful of things that remain useful over time C. Commit to remaining demonstrably more useful than […]
May
23
The agency model is breaking bad
posted by Mike O'Brien
All good things come to an end Advertising, direct marketing and digital agencies have played a pivotal role in turning marketing into a $600 billion a year industry. The memorable ads, mailshots and digital campaigns have done more than simply help advertisers to create brands, sell products and develop ongoing relationships with customers, they have […]
May
13
To err is human, ergo marketing automation
posted by Mike O'Brien
Is human frailty costing business business? As carbon-based life forms, we are prone to making small mistakes which can have big consequences for our businesses. According to a report referenced by Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health, the NHS could afford to hire 60,000 more nurses if staff cut out basic mistakes which are costing £2.5bn a year. It […]
April
16
Get agile or get left behind
posted by Mike O'Brien
On February 11-13, 2001, at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch mountains of Utah, seventeen software developers got together to, as they put it: “Talk, ski, relax, and try to find common ground.” What they produced and signed up to was The Agile Manifesto: a 12-point commitment to optimising the development of software […]
March
27
Marketing automation prepare to be out-thought
posted by Mike O'Brien
Tempus fugit for the mortal marketer Time, the most precious commodity ever conceived by man, marches relentlessly towards the future without so much as a passing thought for marketer or consumer. It is an unavoidably finite resource that needs to become the central focal point for every product or service hoping to survive in an age of […]
March
07
Let’s humanise marketing automation
posted by Mike O'Brien
Marketing Automation is not an extinction level event for marketers There is a growing belief among computer scientists that machines will soon reach the condition of “artificial general intelligence” and match humans in their intellectual capacity. The Future of Life Institute in the US and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge university, among other […]
February
03
The RISE of the micro marketing machine
posted by Mike O'Brien
The past makes me confused about the future of marketing The Bellwether report for January 2015, found that the “fragile nature of the economy has knocked the confidence of marketers and forced many to adopt “cost-efficient” online strategies to reign in their advertising spend.” It then went on to state that, “Despite the slowdown in advertising spend in […]
December
21
Zen and the art of motivation maintenance
posted by Mike O'Brien
Your feet are up but the mind is still at work. If like me you are looking forward to the Christmas Break but have been insanely busy and a have a head so full of ideas about the next evolution in digital marketing that you have no idea how we got here, this is my Christmas present for you. […]
December
16
Customer-Centricity – are you listening Tesco?
posted by Mike O'Brien
Time to get back to basics. Phase 1: Get management off their arses. Welcome to the world of Dangerous Dave Lewis, the new CEO of Tesco. A boss who must put the wind up managers by making them get back to the shop floor on a regular basis. Change Management in the real world is much […]
December
16
Laughing time is almost over for the agency as we know it
posted by Mike O'Brien
In two minds about the future of advertising and marketing Sir Martin Sorrel himself admits if he was starting out again he wouldn’t build the kind of mega agency he runs today. He is busy looking towards China, digital and customer insight to maintain momentum while wondering, like the rest of us, is there a better […]
December
06
Failure must always be an option
posted by Mike O'Brien
Amazon’s A to Z of successful failure. Unlike most business leaders, Jeff Bezos has no problem admitting that he has lost billions of dollars on failed experiments. As anyone involved in innovation knows, thinking up new ideas is easy. Sorting out the good from the bad is the difficult bit. Bezos claims that embracing failure is an important part of […]
November
22
Tsar Wars – the Empire fights back
posted by Mike O'Brien
I wrote a detailed article back in March of this year that followed up on a lecture I delivered to a mix of very senior directors and relatively new digital recruits at one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. My theme was the future of digital marketing. The learning outcome was that clients will soon be […]
October
26
Ganging up on gangs in the coffee business
posted by Mike O'Brien
Go ahead make my day Kenco I’ve been looking for a campaign to support last November’s post; The World belongs to Creative Thinkers: an article inspired by Philip Kotler’s book, Marketing 3.0 in which he urges us to make marketing a force for long-term good and not just short-term sales. For me, the approach that […]
July
18
Oculus Rift my online experience
posted by Mike O'Brien
Mark Zuckerberg made a very interesting statement about the company Facebook has recently acquired for $2 billion. “They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about […]
July
17
Nest on its way to your home and beyond
posted by Mike O'Brien
Big Brother’s toe in the door or the start of bringing Amazon-style customer service into our everyday lives? I am firmly in Nest’s corner on this one. The idea of my home and many of the objects in it anticipating my every need, want and desire is going to be good for our lives and […]
July
15
Time for direct marketing to get in touch with reality
posted by Mike O'Brien
Sensory marketing makes sense There is one thing that direct mail can do that no other channel can: activate all five of your senses. Touch. Taste. Smell. Vision. Hearing. All can be stimulated at the same time. Clients with the right kinds of products (exotic perfumes, confections and holidays for example), need to invest more in creating greater […]
July
14
Wherever you go, there you are – together with contextual marketing.
posted by Mike O'Brien
Time for marketing to stop living in the past… and the future for that matter. Living in the present moment is essential to a happy life according to Buddhist practitioners of mindfulness. It helps us to eliminate ego-centric concerns about the past and speculative fretting about the future from our lives. In the present moment, we can create […]
June
25
Security Researchers Uncover The Tools Governments Use To Spy On Our Phones
posted by Mike O'Brien
Don’t say I didn’t warn you… banking on your mobile phone, not for me
March
14
Optimise every moment – shedding light on the customer journey
posted by Mike O'Brien
It’s getting more difficult to defend yourself form the competition As we move deeper into the age of the constantly connected customer, mapping the customer journey against the tried and tested buyer behaviour model has become increasingly desirable and difficult in equal measure. As the number of touchpoints expands, so too does the degree of […]
March
09
Shift attacks Salesforce, Adobe with ‘open marketing cloud,’ an app store for digital marketing tools
posted by Mike O'Brien
If this works, it is going to be huge
March
08
Tsar Wars – big agency v plucky client
posted by Mike O'Brien
The battle for control between agencies and clients draws near In a galaxy not far, far away: Brand Activation, Content Marketing, Automation, Accountability and Client Training are about to do battle on an epic scale for control of the marketing and communication industry. The shape of the relationship between clients and agencies is about to undergo […]
February
10
A viral campaign that really pushes my button
posted by Mike O'Brien
You are walking down the street when you spot a big red button sitting in the middle of the square where nothing ever happens. You walk over and in a fit of idle curiosity you push the button. What follows is nothing short of mind-blowing… What this viral ad proves is that the TV station […]
February
10
Angry Birds meets Mad Men – in a polymathic nutshell of useful agile responsivness
posted by Mike O'Brien
Angry Birds meets Mad Men – it’s the new me but a lot more useful than I used to be. After 34 years in brand, direct and digital marketing I am unashamedly addicted to all things digital, demonstrably media-neutral, obsessively customer-centric, passionate about lecturing and ready with a collection of brand agency stories that would […]
February
07
Remote Controlled Robots To Roam Tate Britain Gallery After Hours So Web Users Can Peek At The Art
posted by Mike O'Brien
Can they do it in the National Portrait Gallery – seeing the faces in a new light will be amazing
February
07
Why did Google dig deep into its pockets to buy DeepMind?
posted by Mike O'Brien
Will DeepMind terminate poor display advertising? The merger of digital and physical worlds appears to have drawn a little closer when Google bought into the the UK start-up DeepMind, a cutting-edge artificial intelligence company founded by 37-year-old neuroscientist Demis Hassabis and fellow scientists, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman. DeepMind was founded to combine the best techniques from machine […]
February
06
Hands up all those who think the age of crowdsourcing is at hand?
posted by Mike O'Brien
Tapping up the endless funding resource E pluribus Unum (from the many, one) is the motto of the United States of America. How appropriate then that a couple of American editors for Wired Magazine, Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, should be the first to conjure up the now familiar phrase ‘crowdsourcing’ way back in 2005. […]
February
03
Rightware delivers benchmark tool to identify the fastest smartphones and tablets
posted by Mike O'Brien
Like all good ideas – Basemark X is focused on being useful to customers
January
29
It’s time to take sides in the fight against wasted digital spend.
posted by Mike O'Brien
It’s hard to be confident when you are not sure what you are doing A recent survey by Adobe highlighted the fact that only 48% of the professionals working in marketing had any confidence in their ability to: A. Reach the right audience – too many options? B. Reach the audience efficiently – too much […]
January
22
Hi my name is Mike and I am an insight infoholic.
posted by Mike O'Brien
How well do you know your customers? Developing deep, actionable insight into the world of customers is fraught with difficulty for small businesses. Those huge databases chock full of accurate, well classified and richly segmented collations of relevant data sets will forever be in our hearts but not within reach of our budgets. So do […]
January
17
Great creative meets customer service meets content meets shock and awesome
posted by Mike O'Brien
It’s a minor miracle. Mind blowing creativity that took the whole business and a plane load of customers to deliver the big idea. Right up there with Avis We try Harder in my books. I read a covering article in which the marketing pundit asked, “It’s all very well, but will it sell seats?” You […]
