Is the age of the copywriter over? The rise of Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is forcing marketers to confront an uncomfortable question: in a world where AI retrieves answers rather than ranking pages, does writing skill still matter – or has copywriting finally been replaced by content engineering? The short answer is no. But the […]

What is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)? Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring your content so that AI assistants, search overviews and answer engines can extract, trust and cite it as a direct response to user questions. Where traditional SEO aimed to rank pages, AEO aims to make your content the clearest, most […]

You are probably not reading this article. At least, not in the way it was written. There’s a reasonable chance you arrived here via a summary, a recommendation, or an AI-generated answer that pulled a thread from something longer. The full piece was somewhere in the background. This is increasingly how ideas travel. Which raises […]

And some of those gods are coming for your marketing job I have spent more than four decades in marketing. I started as a copywriter, became a Creative Director, co-founded an agency, trained over 50,000 marketing professionals across the world, and I now teach postgraduate and MBA students at the University of Law Business School. […]

Most organisations treat AI adoption as a tooling decision. They debate platforms, pilot copilots, automate workflows and announce transformation programmes. Then they wonder why the results underwhelm. The problem rarely sits in the visible layer. It sits underneath – in the architecture the AI was asked to accelerate. AI is not magic. It is an […]

Volatility is no longer episodic. It is structural. Economic shocks, supply disruption, geopolitical tension, algorithm shifts, regulatory change, AI acceleration. Each cycle is shorter than the last. Recovery periods overlap with new instability. Marketing planning built for predictable horizons struggles in this environment. The instinctive response is efficiency. Cut waste. Optimise harder. Focus on immediate […]

For two decades, search felt stable. A query box. A results page. A predictable hierarchy. Optimise for keywords, improve rankings, capture traffic. That model shaped entire teams, budgets and careers. In 2026, the interface has changed. The behaviour has not. Customers still ask questions. They simply no longer ask them in one place. The belief […]

For years, authenticity has been treated as a stylistic choice. A warmer caption. A looser visual system. A founder’s voice on LinkedIn. Behind-the-scenes footage. A carefully imperfect photograph. These gestures are not meaningless. But they are not authenticity. In 2026, the distinction matters more than ever. The conditions that once made tonal authenticity feel sufficient […]

When the numbers look right, but your leadership reputation is on the menu A premium beauty brand uses AI to personalise email content. Conversion improves 23%. Customer satisfaction scores hold steady. Production costs fall. The CMO is asked to present the success at board level. But she’s noticed something. The AI has learned to emphasise […]

The real question is not whether AI can execute marketing tasks. It is whether it can carry the full weight of marketing responsibility. Most of the debate about AI and marketing is happening at the wrong altitude. Commentators ask whether AI can write a brief, optimise a campaign, or generate hundreds of content variants overnight. […]

A Jam Partnership long readPart 1 of Marketing after certainty: Leading when AI, data and trust collide The marketing technology industry closed 2025 with a curious paradox. Investment in generative AI tools reached record levels. Marketing departments reported unprecedented capacity to produce content, variants, and campaigns. And yet, a growing number of CMOs admitted, quietly […]

On closer inspection, AI has solved the wrong problem first. For years, content teams struggled to generate enough ideas. Brainstorms ran dry. Calendars filled with compromise. Creativity became reactive. Now, AI can produce hundreds of content concepts in seconds. Prompts replace post-its. Volume is no longer scarce. Judgement is. The real bottleneck in modern content […]

Marketing did not break. It outgrew the way it has been planned. AI, automation and agentic systems have not replaced marketers. They have quietly changed what marketing is. Decisions now travel faster than people. Execution scales without permission. Optimisation happens inside platforms before teams can intervene. Responsibility remains human, even when action is not. This […]

You’re being asked when AI will be deployed. Not whether. Not what for. When. The pressure is real. Competitors are announcing AI initiatives. Consultants are pitching agentic systems. Board members are asking why you’re not moving faster. You know something they don’t: AI doesn’t create capability from nothing. It accelerates whatever already exists. When the […]

Every major shift in marketing has eventually demanded a shift in leadership. AI, automation and agents are forcing it again – only faster. This one is no different, but it is faster, less forgiving, and far more revealing. AI, automation and agentic systems do not just change how work gets done. They change who decides, […]

This is the introduction to a practical guide series for marketers navigating one connected change, not three separate problems Most marketers do not need more information about AI. They need less noise and more clarity. The current conversation about AI in marketing creates more confusion than confidence. It treats AI, automation, and agentic systems as […]

It began in a classroom. We were discussing how artificial intelligence was transforming marketing – and I asked, “If AI can think faster, what can humans do better?” After a moment’s pause, a student replied, “We can ask better questions?” That tentative insight stayed with me. Because in an age of infinite automation, the question […]

How marketers are selling the age of digital faith Neil Gaiman once imagined a world where the old gods were dying – their temples silent, their names fading from memory – while new deities of Media, Money and Technology rose in their place. They were fed not by prayer, but by attention. That world has […]

Outthink the competition you can’t outspend In marketing today, speed has become the ultimate virtue. Teams are told to move fast, post more, automate everything. Campaign cycles have compressed from quarters to days, and creative ideas are often judged by how quickly they can be executed rather than how deeply they’ve been thought through. Everyone […]

In a world of 24/7 content and algorithmic acceleration, the humble creative brief is evolving. No longer a static instruction sheet, it’s becoming a living system of purpose, data, and dialogue – one that connects human imagination with artificial intelligence. The future of creativity lies not in faster outputs, but in deeper whys.

We like to think technology drives progress. It doesn’t. People do. Adoption, not invention, decides the future. The last organic footnote in our evolutionary journey is not the birth of artificial super-intelligence, but the human choice to weave it into everyday life. And at the centre of that choice sits marketing. We are the bridge […]

Every age invents its own heroes. The industrial revolution had engineers. The digital age had coders. The AI era will have empath–imagineers. Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: artificial superintelligence doesn’t need us to think faster, compute harder, or optimise better. It already does all that. What it lacks – and will always lack – is […]

The ASI Messiahs meets the Network Effect in 2030. What then? By 2030, Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) won’t be a tool – it will be a partner species. These machines won’t just calculate faster; they’ll engage in recursive reasoning, stacking insights upon insights in ways that leave human cognition lagging. An ASI doesn’t just find patterns […]

Every revolution in marketing has been driven by tools. The printing press gave us newspapers. Television gave us mass advertising. The internet gave us digital campaigns. Yet. somehow, the sausage dog lives on as cool status symbol. Improbable as it is, this gives me hope that keeping our cool in the face of AI, will […]

15 years (to 2040): Reality today: Ethical debates about deepfakes, data privacy, and AI bias are already here. The EU is advancing strict regulation. Is it me or are marketers getting younger every year as UK brands face growing scrutiny over sustainability and transparency. Projection: By 2040, AI may redefine what marketing even means. That’s […]

10 years (to 2035): Reality today: AI is like a bright kid. The one heading to Cambridge at the age of six. Meanwhile, we are adults are moving from dashboards to decision engines. Welcoem to the hype-cycle hurt locker. Predictive models already guide budget allocation. Real-time optimisation is possible at campaign level. Projection: By the […]

Can AI ever understand our unique take on life? Reality today: AI is already embedded in the everyday tools of marketing. Tesco is trialling predictive AI for supply chains and personalised Clubcard challenges. Unilever has built an in-house “Beauty AI Studio” producing creative assets at scale, cutting production costs by 27%. WPP has invested £250m […]

Marketers face an uncomfortable truth. AI can already write our copy, design our ads, and optimise our campaigns. But if we let the technology define the work, we risk losing the one thing that makes marketing matter: us. Because marketing was never just about data, channels, or algorithms. It was – and always will be […]

Your AI marketing playbook for the next 12 months A quarter-by-quarter plan to move from pilots to profit. Q1 — Foundation and alignment Q2 — Customer and content intelligence Q3 — Channel expansion and measurement Q4 — Optimisation and cultural integration ICONIC® as the spine Investigate (insights) → Customers (personalisation) → Opportunities (where AI wins) […]

The AI creativity paradox – why human originality matters more than ever AI makes production fast and cheap – which increases the premium on distinctive human ideas. What AI nails – and where it slips Strengths: speed, scale, consistency.Gaps: original leaps, lived emotion, nuanced brand voice. Key takeaway: AI accelerates execution; humans drive differentiation. Case: […]

Beyond the dashboard — how AI is rewriting marketing metrics AI changes not just what we measure, but how fast we learn and act. From reporting to prediction Key takeaway: AI compresses the loop between signal and decision. KPI transformation (Forever 21 examples) Leading indicators for AI-driven growth Risk of legacy metrics: Slower reactions, incomplete […]

The ICONIC® AI marketing blueprint A structured way to integrate AI from investigation to long-term value — so AI becomes a system, not a sideshow. ICONIC® = Investigate | Customers | Opportunities | Numbers | Implementation | Contribution Why a blueprint? AI’s value compounds across stages. Without a framework, efforts fragment, learning stalls, and business […]

Decoding LLMO — search optimisation for the age of AI LLMO (Large Language Model Optimisation) is structuring your brand’s information so AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity) can find it, trust it, and use it in answers. Difference in one line: Why LLMO matters AI assistants synthesise answers, not just lists. That means: Four quick […]

The AI marketer’s mindset — from task tinkerer to strategic architect Mindset is using AI as a force multiplier embedded in objectives, journey design, and measurement — not a handy content toy. In Post 1, we unpacked Forever 21’s AI stack. Here, we use those same moves to show the shift from task tinkering to […]

Why most AI in marketing advice is missing the point AI in marketing isn’t “use ChatGPT” or “toggle Advantage+.” It’s the strategic application of machine intelligence to improve targeting, creative, measurement, and ROI -end to end. Brands that integrate AI into the marketing system -not as a bolt-on -gain speed, efficiency, and competitive advantage. In […]

How AI is letting boards trim headcount yet boost performance The corporate world has witnessed a dramatic shift from the pandemic hiring boom to the systematic workforce reductions that began in 2023 and continue into 2025. What started as belt-tightening in response to economic uncertainty has evolved into something more profound: a fundamental reimagining of […]