This is the text of a letter I sent this morning to my Member of Parliament in London: UPDATE: Victoria Borwick, my MP, answered my letter within a week. I’ll append her response after my text. Victoria Borwick MP House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Dear Ms Borwick, I am one of your constituents, […]
Read more "Letter to my MP: Stand Up for Democracy and the Rule of Law"This year we’ve seen a huge decline in trust across the globe. Trust in government, in business, in NGOs and in the media has dropped to some of the lowest levels seen in 17 years, as reported in the Edelman Trust Barometer survey of 33,000 respondents across the globe. What lessons can communicators draw from […]
Read more "Individual influence and the collapse of trust"For a moment, all has been quiet on the beach of history. The last wave has receded, and with it the blood has almost drained, hissing, into the dark foaming sea; the blood of Ypres and of Gallipoli, the blood of Moscow and Stalingrad, the blood of Normandy and Berlin, the blood of Iwo […]
Read more "A Manifesto of Openness"Social validation, not reach, is the main advantage of an influencer marketing campaign. Influencers can give a marketing or communications campaign an advantage that nothing else can. What is it? A lot of people say “It’s reach! Influencers are a great way of reaching my millennial audience.” Yeah, maybe. But I’d argue that an influencer […]
Read more "The Reach Delusion"The wave has peaked, and we’re sliding down the frothy slope now: people have realized that most influencer marketing is bullshit. Thank God. It’s about time the industry saw some sense. A bit of context: this article appeared a couple of days ago in Digiday, featuring some revelations from an anonymous social media marketing exec. With nearly 37 […]
Read more "Why most influencer marketing fails"If you’re reading this, you probably got to it through an algorithm. That’s really common these days – and it’s a trend with a surprising dark side. Either you came here through a social media link, or you found it via a search engine. In either case, the algorithms that determine who sees what on those platforms […]
Read more "The Narrows – Four trends changing how information flows and news spreads"Thing 1: Customers aren’t looking for your sales materials any more. Strange as it may seem, there was a time when people reached for the yellow pages and contacted a company when they needed to solve a problem. Now people spend longer online, and get information from each other, before contacting vendors. A person with […]
Read more "Seven things you need to know about content marketing"Working on integrated content marketing strategy is a lot like building cruise missiles. It’s creative, of course, rather than destructive. Instead of trying to inject a hundred kilos of high explosive into a bunker protected by ferroconcrete, we’re in the business of propagating ideas into minds guarded by cynicism and limited attention. But aside from […]
Read more "Digital communications and smart munitions"You’ve probably never heard of the company I work for. But our product is all around you. In fact, it’s inside you. We make ideas, and we put them in people’s heads. Essentially, we create fame. What does that even mean? A company whose business is to create fame? Communications companies like the one I work […]
Read more "We create fame. We spread ideas. (Want to join us?)"“Where do you get your ideas from?” is a question I’ve been hearing a lot recently. That’s mostly with regard to 30 Second Sci Fi, a project of mine where I’m writing one short sci fi story every day. I’ve been writing for eight months now, so we’re 2/3 of the way done. Only another […]
Read more "Where the stories come from"
Philip Trippenbach 