Writing

RACIs aren't the key to project success. But they’re not a useless relic either.

On Benoît Piéron - an artist who finds subversive inspiration in illness.

That one time I got to ditch Jira for a few days.

The little I know about one of the best bloggers to have ever blogged.

An A-Z of Agile frameworks, concepts and buzzwords.

The how and the why of my eco-friendly cleaning journey.

The whole Waterfall vs Agile comparison is a sham. Here's why.

I got certified as a Scrum Master, and I have some thoughts on how I got there.

Being in lockdown made me miss travelling, and reminisce about intimidating entrances to commercial galleries in Paris. So I ranked them.

Agile documentation needs to do the minimum viable job. Docs shouldn’t be comprehensive, but they should still exist. Here's an example.

I stumbled on today’s People’s Vote march by accident - and experienced some mixed feelings.

Here’s a far from exhaustive list of all the times this sweat-drenched, leather-clad, budgie-frying 80s shocker proved its status as a beyond-camp classic.

I hadn’t swum for 20 years before joining the club a few months back. Now, I leave a brightly-lit council-run pool in Elephant and Castle each Wednesday night with a definite spring in my step.

It’s always a pain when an ad isn’t worthy of what’s being advertised. Which is why seeing this spot from Monzo the other day felt like a particularly hard kick to the stomach.

Here are some tips from the documentary movie I Hate New York, and via trans icon Amanda Lepore, that you might or might not want to try at home.

What’s the value exchange between me and Google? Not a question I gave a second thought to... until I noticed a few disappearing yellow stars.

I spend around 10 minutes a day on Duolingo and I’m not convinced it’s worth it. It took a 100+ day streak before the doubts crept in.

Agency/client relationships are getting ever more fraught these days. Anselmo Ramos is here to help.

Being a product manager means that you have a lot of responsibility, but no authority.

I went to a lot of art shows in 2017. I don’t really know why this obsession took hold.

Alistair Darling on why the 2007 financial crisis led to Brexit and Trump.

On visiting Giorgio Morandi's studio, and viewing his most famous artistic subject.

Recapping on the launch of a passion project - a global report on the strategic function in advertising.

With so many heart-warming, CSR-led ads winning awards these days, setting a purpose seems to have become almost a prerequisite for launching a big brand campaign.

As London’s super-rich make the city their playground, it’s becoming more and more important to remember stories like Miss Naysmith’s.

The standout for me was a problem that’s always bedevilled advertisers with a message to get across: once you get people’s attention, how do you keep it?

I’d arrived in Trieste on a Friday evening, and, having dropped my backpack off, I needed to walk. So I set off, towards the sea.

The beginning of the end of my 2016 came when I spent three days in Athens, alone.

It’s a question we’ve all asked ourselves as we scroll - is all this digital distraction actually good for us?

On two women I met on a journey back home - whatever that is.

A common urban conflict - between a black lycra-clad cyclist and a driver of a white BMW - that's illustrative of something more.

Every day in London, thousands of fingers tap a cute Kangaroo logo on their smartphone screens. As a result, every lunchtime and supper time, thousands of young men have a job to do.

We must have gone through most of the rooms each time, as the Gallery isn’t that big, but I remember one room more than the others. Because it made me think about another, warmer, sunnier place.

The city at its grimiest (and emptiest). Note the wonky railings and hump in the pavement on the near side, and the pedestrian crossing to nowhere on the other side.

My mum’s finally finished clearing out my grandparents’ house, and she’s brought back a few boxes of things: books, pieces of jewellery, notes. Nothing valuable, just mementoes.

I read less than I used to, and I forget most of what I read. But here's my list for the past 12 months.

Kanban is one of the most talked-about, but least-understood, ways we have of managing digital product development.

It’s hard to work back from Apple to give brand advice to Kleenex… so said the man behind the Cadbury's gorilla.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

The John Lewis ads in particular point the way for Christmas creative approaches. Forget focusing on product benefits, it’s all about emotional branding.

I go to a lot of marketing conferences. But I don't often sit through a presentation that made me reassess how I live my life.

In which Rory Sutherland argues that ad people have been exploring System One and System Two thinking for years, before it got popular thanks to Daniel Kahneman.

Also known as ‘branded content’. You mean spots? Oh, sorry, long spots. No? Oh, music videos? No? Sorry, you meant online films, right? Actually, what are you talking about?

On the number one ad campaign in the world, based on performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions over the past year.

The big problem: how to get the kids to come and visit their parents more often. The solution: a great, funny, resonant campaign.

One very particular definition of the term.

There's been a hint of spring in the air. And the nicer weather's been matched by increased optimism among both British economic and advertising forecasters.

Getting pricing right is a pretty fraught issue for brand owners. But what should the responsible marketer be doing to make things easier?

There are many ways of defining advertising, but none of them really work on their own. That’s according to no less a source than planning legend Paul Feldwick.

Ever get suspicious that your Facebook friends are having too much fun? That the lives of people you follow on Instagram are too fabulous to be believed? It's all part of marketing's big lie.

Some opportunities and challenges facing global brands who want to advertise in China.

Some may deride this idea as corporate greenwashing, but the idea of brands 'doing good' as well as making a profit is becoming an increasingly hot topic.

Some compelling statistics and research to highlight the potential benefits of the channel to advertisers.

Is advertising success achieved through incremental research, careful checking of data and sound planning – or is it more to do with the creative eureka moment?

A rough IPO, followed by a bad case of stagefright, followed by some useful guidance on advertising with the world's largest social network.

The Olympics are a prime cause of the industry's quadrennial effect – the lift given to global adspend every four years.

In these times of economic volatility, rising unemployment and fears of a double-dip recession, gauging consumer attitudes towards financial matters has become ever more important.

Includes Robert Heath's Low Involvement Processing Theory, the professional competency of chicken sexers and the box office success of the Police Academy sequels.

Eurozone bailouts, signs of a slowdown in China and uncertainty over the raising of the US debt ceiling have all hit the headlines recently.

New research challenges the view that integrated campaigns, broadcast across multiple media, are more effective than non-integrated campaigns.

Some brands make it big; most do not. But why are certain brands successful in the first place? And why does a still-smaller group of brands remain popular over the long term?

It's official: shopping at Aldi is now cool. Cash-strapped Britons, faced with the economy's stuttering recovery from its worst recession in decades, are making changes to their lifestyle.

Savings rates have risen, debts are being paid down and the typical shopper is now more willing to compare prices to get the best deal and use discount vouchers.

Neuroscience is here to stay - and the insights it provides can be far more compelling than those from the traditional focus group.

Societies are always changing - and being able to predict accurately how societies will change in the years ahead is a matter of acute concern to advertisers.

In which John Grant discussed the concept of Co-opportunity - also the title of his latest book.

Online display ads don't tend to be a big part of the typical web user's browsing experience. However, they're now a lot more important for media buyers and publishers.