Marketing & Brand Archives - Page 2 of 6

From Cash Wallets to Digital Wallets

June 30, 2026April 3, 2021 by Cleve Gibbon

Digital wallets are on the rise. In year COVID – 2020 – digital wallets surpassed cash as the number one payment at all point-of-sales globally. That’s a big deal. But what are you and I using now instead of cash? Cash was King I’ve got a baby on the way. So my wife and I … Read more

It’s not just about the tech

June 30, 2026March 28, 2021 by Cleve Gibbon

Have you ever heard someone say, “it’s not just about the tech“? Yes, you have. In fact, it’s more like, how many times? Now think back to the context in which technology was presented in that way. This isn’t a magic trick, but I already know. Technology was put down to better position something else. … Read more

Technology Cost Declines

June 30, 2026March 17, 2021 by Cleve Gibbon

What is the best way to forecast technology cost declines? And why is that important? Well if you can accurately predict cost, you can better plot growth. Moreover, if that cost is technology – a massive engine for exponential growth – we can make smaller and smarter investments, earlier and more often, to maximise future … Read more

Luvvie Ajayi

June 30, 2026March 14, 2021 by Cleve Gibbon

Have you heard of Luvvie Ajayi Jones? I had the pleasure of joining a zoom call with her at a company summit. She was awesome. A comedian. Writer. Truth teller. So, that is Luvvie. Instead of me telling you about her, I highly recommend you watch her in action. She killed it in a ten … Read more

Separate Work from Home

June 30, 2026October 9, 2019 by Cleve Gibbon

I’m a big fan of productivity. There is always too much to do. That’s why I’m continually looking for ways to do more with less. Over the last twenty years I’ve adopted best practices (e.g. GTD – Getting Things Done), embraced planning methodologies (e.g. PPPs – Plan, Progress, Problems ), and picked up new habits … Read more

Towards a Marketing Content Hub

June 30, 2026April 9, 2019 by Cleve Gibbon

Last month industry experts met to discuss the state of content management. Janus Boye facilitated CEOs, CTOs, market analysts, and subject matter experts unpack the term content. What we discovered, with the help of Theresa Regli, was the undeniable rise of the marketing content hub. Content Content is communication. As an industry, we struggle to … Read more

Block Days for Getting Things Done

June 30, 2026May 15, 2018 by Cleve Gibbon

I’m always looking for ways to be more productive. Always. With so many things to get done, I’ve been a long time subscriber to the getting things done philosophy. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been toying with a block system to better structure my work day. Last week, I put block days to work.

The Block

A block is a period of time. Blocks come in various sizes. 30-minute blocks. 20-minute blocks. One hour blocks. You decide.

The goal is to break up your work day into blocks. Then decide what you want to do in each block. That’s it. The theory is simple, but the execution is a little harder.

Time for an example. When I get up and decide its a block day, the first I do is grab a sheet of paper and block out the day. At the top, you see it’s Wednesday and my day runs from 7am to 7pm. I tend to use 30-minute blocks giving me 24 blocks in total to play with.

I work at Cognifide. I’ve assigned 10 blocks (5 hours) to Cognifide, a paper I’m writing has 6 blocks (3 hours) and other stuff I need to do in the day makes up the remaining 8 blocks (4 hours). I capture high-level outputs/outcomes for each of these block areas. For example, I want to complete the research section of a paper I’m writing today using the allocated 6 blocks. When I’m planning the block day, I make I’ll be happy with the outcomes/outputs. Then the day is around doing the activities in the blocks to hit those goals.

When I first started blocking out my day I got too fine grained. I had lots of block areas on the left, typically 2-4 blocks, but that didn’t work. So I got more coarse-grained in my planning. I introduced the bottom section to illustrate the activities I’d perform within each block area. This worked well. I tend to add and remove actions in this bottom section as I progress through the day. Always use pencils, and have an eraser nearby.

Finally, as you progress through your block day, mark the blocks off. This is so important. You are rewarding the progress you’re making. Marking off blocks is a great feeling and pushes you towards the end.

Own Your Owned Media

June 30, 2026November 19, 2017 by Cleve Gibbon

Owned Media Media Types Succeeding online used to be about launching web sites. Dot com and done! Fast forward twenty years and web sites are just one of many touch points competing for consumer attention. In addition to web sites, newsletters, catalogs, blogs, kiosks are also important assets within a brand’s overall owned media portfolio. Why owned? Because owned media assets are things directly controlled by the brand. Nobody else. However, owned media remains unclear and misunderstood by many. That’s not surprising given the messy, complex and overlapping relationship owned media has with other types of media, namely paid and earned. But what is becoming increasingly clear is the need to own your owned media to succeed online today. Let’s get a little deeper into this.

WPP Sitecore Alliance

June 30, 2026October 24, 2017 by Cleve Gibbon

Last week was big week. It had nothing to do with hitting Vegas and everything to do with activating the WPP Sitecore Alliance. What is that?

Going Frictionless

June 30, 2026September 27, 2017 by Cleve Gibbon

I recently visited Six Flags in Illinois – a massive and totally awesome theme park. The purchase journey presented a number of options to buy the tickets: Mobile, Print, Collect and Post. Everyone one of them was a pain in the ass option with the exception of mobile. Who prints stuff when they’re on holiday? How many foreign travellers have a US address? Who wants to wait in line to collect tickets? However, I do have a mobile. To me, that was the only relevant option. Going frictionless means making it easy for me, the consumer, to engage with your business. What I’m seeing in the market is large scale failure in going frictionless by the majority and insane levels of success by those that are getting it right. And the gap between leaders and laggards is growing.

Going Frictionless: The Story

We are all consumers. You absolutely must create product and services that are simple, accessible and work to deliver frictionless consumer experiences. It’s the new norm. Consumers expect companies to have their house in order. Going frictionless is today’s brand challenge.

Know that there are two important audiences going frictionless needs to cater for:

The consumer; we must deliver seamless and consistent engagement across all touch points in the journey.
The enterprise; we must design systemic and sustainable business processes that craft consumer journeys from frictionless experiences at every touchpoint.

You need both. There is no point striving for frictionless consumer experiences if the enterprise cannot support them in a sustainable way at scale. Equally, the enterprise needs to craft connected experiences that consumers feel are frictionless. These two audiences are two sides of the same going frictionless coin where one informs and is informed by the other.