Think pieces

If you want to make advertising great again, learn to Fink

Graham Fink
Graham Fink's TheArtSchool proves that brutal, honest feedback from experienced creatives is still the most powerful creative education available.

The One-Person Multinational Agency is Here and it’s Better for Marketers

Man juggling all kind of tech
This articles by Manesh Murthy explains how AI is triggering a shift in marketing, enabling smaller, smarter agencies to expand into full business impact while delivering faster, cheaper, and more integrated solutions.

Red pill or blue pill: the AI choice most marketing leaders aren’t seeing clearly

Red and blue pills over city lights
Joe Hildebrand from Humari explains that while most marketing leaders are investing in AI tools and automation but the real returns come from investing in people, culture, and human readiness.

AI is not creating your brand, it is interpreting what already exists

Futuristic landscape with AI interface
This article looks at how AI is a curator of existing brand reputation rather than a creator, meaning organisations must focus on strengthening their external signals and test at scale to understand how they're being represented in AI outputs.

Why AI in Customer Experience May Be Happening in the Wrong Place

Alt text Interacting with the digital future
AI in CX should focus on adapting experiences to individuals in real time, not just automating content at scale, according to Darius LaBelle in this article.

Stop guessing. Start growing. What marketers can do now to unlock digital growth

Alt Text Unlocking digital growth through A/B testing
Digital growth stalls not because marketers lack ideas but because too many decisions are driven by opinion rather than evidence. Daydot's Osh Rice makes the case for experimentation as a risk management tool rather than a tactical nicety in this think piece.

What Nobody Tells You About Building a Remarkable Career

Career growth to new heights
Ritchie Mehta and co-author Mark Evans draw on five years of research with 200+ global leaders to argue that career success in the age of AI requires a purposeful, adaptable approach they call the "conscious climb."

What Formula 1 in Las Vegas Taught Me About Social, Entertainment and the Future of Brand Growth

F1 Business Summit Las Vegas
The brands winning in sport today are those treating entertainment as strategy, showing up daily through authentic content, culturally resonant partnerships and experiences fans actually want - valuable lessons and insights from the F1 Business Summit in Las Vegas 2025

Explaining the bebot makeup trend

makeup trends
This article explores the viral TikTok "bebot makeup" trend is putting a spotlight on the Philippines' quietly booming beauty industry, which also signalling a broader shift in global beauty standards that brands should pay close attention to.

What CFOs Actually Want from Marketing Leaders

Modern office with creative contrast
A practical, first-hand guide to why marketing and finance misunderstand each other and how marketing leaders can reframe their language, thinking and approach to build genuine credibility with CFOs.

We Built the Most Human Brand in Brooklyn With AI Doing the Unglamorous Heavy Lifting

Ramblin Chicken posters
In this article Ramblin' Chick's Ebaid Albast argues that AI shouldn’t be used to generate content, it should be used to pressure-test thinking, so humans can build sharper, more distinctive brands instead of faster, more forgettable ones.

Everyone's Automating. Almost Nobody's Growing.

Collaborating with holographic intelligence
This piece from Tina Chu argues that AI's true value isn't cost-cutting efficiency it's unlocking previously unaffordable revenue strategies and a future of `bilingual' marketers who can orchestrate AI systems while retaining the human empathy and strategic direction.

A Different Question: Rethinking Trust For A New Era

Robot reading a newspaper
Authentitas' Michael Bayler on why trust is no longer a communications problem. In an age of disinformation and AI-generated reality, what audiences need isn't reassurance, it's proof.

Media Planning Under The Spotlight: Challenging Trends in an Uncomfortable Conversation

Media Plans event The Marketing Society Singapore
A review of the recent Uncomfortable Conversations event which debated the notion that all media plans now look the same which concluded that with measurement bias towards digital, commercial incentives and declining full-channel planning expertise, unless we challenge this system, effectiveness will continue to suffer.

Why Marketing Matters: The Campaigns That Changed Everything: Part 3

Marketing milestones of the 2010s and 2020s
To mark the 40th anniversary of The Marketing Society Global Awards, we created a Time Capsule in 2025. We asked the brightest minds in the industry gathered at our Awards Ceremony, one simple question: which campaigns prove that marketing truly matters? From Sport England's This Girl Can to Nike Dream Crazy, three iconic campaigns from the 2010s and 2020s prove that the greatest marketing doesn't sell products, it shapes culture, identity and behaviour change.

Why Marketing Matters: The Campaigns that Changed Everything: Part 2

Marketing campaigns of the 2000s and 2010s
To mark the 40th anniversary of The Marketing Society Global Awards, we created a Time Capsule in 2025. We asked the brightest minds in the industry gathered at our Awards Ceremony, one simple question: which campaigns prove that marketing truly matters? From Dove's Real Beauty Apple's iPod Silhouette, three iconic campaigns from the 2000s and 2010s prove that the greatest marketing doesn't sell products, it shapes culture, identity and drives the digital revolution.

Why Marketing Matters: The Campaigns That Changed Everything: Part 1

iconic brands of the 80s and 90s in marketing
To mark the 40th anniversary of The Marketing Society Global Awards, we created a Time Capsule in 2025. We asked the brightest minds in the industry gathered at our Awards Ceremony, one simple question: which campaigns prove that marketing truly matters? From Nike's Just Do It to British Airways' Face, three iconic campaigns from the 1980s and 90s prove that the greatest marketing doesn't sell products, it shapes culture and identity.

Culture is no longer a marketing input. It is the Operating System for Growth

collage of brand
With attention fragmented and trust in an increasingly fragile state, growth is harder to manufacture than ever. The brands pulling ahead are not spending more - they are embedded in culture. Attention no longer lives in ad breaks. It lives in fandom, memes, WhatsApp groups, music drops, social and feeds and communities where meaning is created and shaped in real time. Nicola Graham explores this topic.

If AI’s the baseline, what's your differentiator?

group of people in an office discussing marketing

Most marketing agencies have AI now, as well as every freelancer and every graduate. And that means AI capability is

Learn Like a Lobster with The Marketing Society

Helena Verellen and Helen Tupper
The Marketing Society Fellow Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis hosted an evening with The Marketing Society in New York, to celebrate the launch of their new book Learn Like a Lobster.

The brand-performance divide is a leadership problem, here’s how to fix it

Analyzing data in a modern office
In this piece, Alicia Coghlan argues that brand and performance marketing are complementary, not competing forces.