Q&A Danny Denhard Q&A Danny Denhard

Q&A With Beth Gladstone - Social Media State Of Play Masterclass

Beth and I have known each other for many years, we connected after I spoke at a conference in the early 2010’s, to appearing on her podcast in 2019 and it was great collaborating on a project in recent years.

Beth is one of those people who is brilliant and understands SEO strategy and social media like very few others. I wanted to have a quick-fire interview with Beth as I greatly respect her and also to shine a light on her masterclasses and how to think about the future of Social Media.


Q1/ Social media is evolving and the channels we love are changing quicker than ever, from Instagram to TikTok, what are the most important changes for in-house marketers to know and leverage? 

Absolutely, social media looks very different now to even what it was a year ago. As an in-house marketer I’d be thinking of not just a channel strategy, but also a sub-channel strategy for example how are you using reels vs explore vs stories within Instagram, or your YouTube channel videos and playlists vs Shorts. Secondly, marketers need to think about what Adam Mosseri (Head of Product at Instagram) describes as “connected vs unconnected” reach, which basically means creating content for those who already know you and buy from you vs those who are coming across your brand for the first time. Which is something we naturally do for our website or email campaigns, but that’s new for social media.


Q2/ You are running a brilliant masterclass at the end of September on the state of play, what are some of the most important reasons why social media managers and marketing leaders should take the masterclass? 

As marketers it can be really tempting to begin social media creation by asking “what do we want to share?” This often leads to brand messages the company is happy with, but that don’t inspire sharing or engagement. To be truly effective on social media today I believe we need to ask: who is my audience, what matters to them and how can I create that in a way that the channels will want to share? The masterclass is a deep-dive into how to do those two things based on where the algorithms on channels such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are today.


Q3/ User behaviour is changing on each channel, Instagram is slowly becoming more private for consumers and then shifting brands to broadcast running channels, whereas TikTok wants to own QVC-style sales and be the live streaming platform, do you have any thoughts on where these shifts in user behaviour might be taking brands and creators? 

TikTok Shop is extremely lucrative for those who are adopting it early, but like all social media strategies, the benefit of early adoption is likely to fade over time. We also have to remember that what’s best for the channels (in Instagram’s case, very short-form video under 9 seconds, shared person-to-person) usually isn’t best for brands or creators. Which is why I’d also be looking outside of short-term tactics on these channels, to longer-term strategies on more evergreen channels like YouTube, or even decentralised platforms such as Threads or Mastodon.


Q4/ You have a unique knack (many don’t) in clearly explaining big shifts on social media platforms (via your Instagram stories and main feed), what should brands do next when reacting to the recent big shifts? Can you share 3-5 recommendations for adapting their social media plans to drive success in Q4? 

For the upcoming quarters, I’d be thinking about:

  1. Experimenting with how to “package” your content on social i.e. video vs text-on-screen vs carousel statics to see what’s most effective

  2. Repurposing previous content that performed well, with something as simple as a different audio track or different type of packaging (something I see the biggest creators doing often)

  3. Using keyword research on social media channels to find what phrases and entries users are searching and then using this to create content that answers those queries - social SEO is only going to become more important as users begin their discovery with a search



If you would like to see Beth on my previous podcast on the future state of content together listen below ↓


Read the other quick-fire Q&A

  • With Paddy Moogan highlighting the issues with management roles and promotions agency side and how to improve your management skills

  • With Carl Hendy highlighting why SEO has to tie back to business goals and lead revenue conversations

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Q&A Danny Denhard Q&A Danny Denhard

Q&A With Carl Hendy From audits.com

Carl is one of my go to SEO resources, he is one of the very few who truly understands organic search and how SEO connects to the wider business and more importantly how it connects to the long-term goals of the company.

Having known each other for well over a decade and collaborated on a project or two, here are a handful of quick-fire questions Carl offers considered answers (I bet you will learn a thing or two below) and highlights why he has had successful exits as a business owner and is trusted by many of the largest businesses with their most important revenue-driving channels.


Q1/ You recently launched audits.com, apart from how did you get the domain, what are the most frequently asked questions about audits and your services?

I’m quite a private person therefore I won’t share the cost, I might want to sell it one day 😃.
I played the long game and spent quite a bit of time tracking down the owner. Once a price was agreed the handover of the domain name was done pretty quickly. I acquired the domain name directly from the previous owner and no third parties were involved other than using Escrow to handle payment and exchange of goods. Outside of my SEO work I felt the domain name was a safe long term purchase as can be applied to many different markets, I wouldn’t have been that interested if it seoaudits.com etc

Rightly or wrongly, the first question I’m often asked is, "How much traffic do you think you can drive to the website?" This is a question that cannot be answered without conducting thorough discovery work and competitor analysis, both of which are time-consuming and require investment. The clients I work with typically have multiple products or services spread across various languages, with differing competition for each product or service in each language. It’s a significant undertaking. Be cautious of anyone or any agency that provides such a number with a quick turnaround. Many of the forecasts I’ve seen in proposals fail to filter out brand demand, meaning that like-for-like visibility comparisons often offer little genuine value.

In the last 12 months, I’ve noticed a definite increase in brands wanting to cap their PPC budgets or reallocate existing spend, while pushing their organic channels to work harder. Brands are finding PPC more expensive and, like SEO, increasingly difficult to quantify. PPC now faces a similar issue where spend is often funnelled into a 'black box' at Google. Additionally, there has been considerable frustration across teams with the introduction of Google Analytics 4, leading many to seek alternative analytics solutions or recreate their previous dashboards.

A lot of my work involves websites that have been affected, rightly or wrongly, by Google algorithm updates. Common questions include: “How long will it take to recover?”, “How much internal resource will we need?”, and “Can we regain what we've lost?” which doesn’t seem to be a problem for Reddit at the moment. 

An interesting observation I’ve made is that while many brands are aware they may have been impacted by the recent Google Helpful Content Update or a Core Update and are keen to address it, they’re often unaware that their website has been struggling with algorithm updates going back over 5 years. There does appear to be a more widespread, public understanding of how Google algorithm updates impact businesses now than in the past, and some of the recent media coverage of the Google updates has been quite scathing.

Click here to audits.com and see Carl's brilliant offering and great branding 


Q2/ What is unique about audits.com offering to ecom teams, SEOs and CMOs that others don’t? 

Most brands or business owners I speak with are backed by either private equity or VC funding. Having recently built and sold a highly regarded SEO agency to private equity, I understand the process, accountability, and sometimes the pressures that come with those responsibilities of financial investment. Additionally, I am well-versed in concepts such as team structures, resource allocation, financial budgeting, and employee management. This is not usually the case for SEO teams.

My career spans across cybersecurity, IT support, financial services, web development, and marketing; therefore, I have a good understanding of how an ‘internet business’ operates at many levels.

A full discovery and opportunity assessment must take place before diving into traditional SEO recommendations. This approach typically differs from how a traditional SEO project might begin. Therefore, I rarely rush into new business opportunities with just my ‘SEO hat’ on. In fact, it’s often quite the opposite. I tend to evaluate feedback from clients and data to determine whether the ‘organic’ channel presents a realistic opportunity to drive acquisition and revenue. It’s easy to look at any website and identify traditional ‘SEO issues’; the real question is whether those opportunities translate into a financial return within the expected timeframe. 

The reality is that many brands have an unrealistic expectation of how quickly SEO can generate returns. Many older websites, which have grown organically, undergone multiple revisions, and been modified by various stakeholders, are often affected by one of the many Google algorithm updates. As a result, significant change and patience are required before the benefits of those changes are realised. There will always be some quick wins, but for a long-term, successful SEO campaign, it requires a more all-encompassing brand, product, and channel strategy.

When auditing and reviewing a website's performance, I focus on recommending actions that will have a compounding effect on long-term performance improvement. For most websites, only a small percentage of recommendations will yield noticeable results. For a well-established brand in their industry, they may only require a few strategic changes or a clean-up of search signals to drive a significant increase in visibility and financial gain. You don’t need to implement every piece of SEO fluff out there. It really is about understanding which levers to pull, and in most cases, it's a compounding effect of many small ones.

I aim to work with clients in a way that simplifies their understanding of SEO, connecting it directly to their customers and products. This might involve improving existing processes, eliminating unnecessary activities, and, where possible, automating SEO housekeeping tasks. When you strip away the SEO jargon and focus on recommendations that relate directly to the client and their products, it’s much easier to gain stakeholder buy-in. Some of the SEO terminology can be off-putting and means very little to most clients-avoid using it, as they might just tune out. Most established brands need to return to SEO basics that align with their customers, brand and products-keep it simple. 

I love working directly with business owners and stakeholders, and I often function as an internal stakeholder. This gives me a greater understanding of a client's business and customers than an external third-party agency might achieve. My experience with large, complex corporate structures within companies such as BlackRock, Aviva, O2, and Groupon has allowed me to understand and overcome the challenges in achieving SEO change and success within a corporate environment. 


Q3/ We have spoken about the issues most in-house teams have with limited dev resources to be able to complete recommendations made from audits and make the number of optimisations required to improve search performance, what are the 3-5 work streams Marketing teams can do to help themselves most? 

  • Simplify - SEO really isn’t that confusing if you always factor in your customers and provide content that matches the intent of the query. Keep your website clean and declutter every few months. Make sure you have Google Search Console setup so you can get some top level insights and recommendations.  

  • Integrate - Historically, the SEO channel has been quite isolated from existing marketing channels, development teams, and product. For the SEO channel to succeed, the team needs to be integrated within marketing and product channels. Although SEO is given more consideration within large corporations, there is still a lack of additional resources allocated to the channel, as it will struggle to succeed on its own. Greater integration of the channel will help demonstrate its value and how SEO complements all channels. It is the responsibility of the SEO team to educate and demonstrate the monetary value of the channel. The SEO channel overlaps with almost all elements of a website and can help support growth for those channels.

  • Tooling - Depending on the size and complexity of your website, there are many tools and services available that can perform basic SEO housekeeping and offer recommendations for content improvements. While AI content writers can suggest frameworks, it’s important to use these tools with caution. Any recommendations made should always be aligned with overall company goals and customer requirements.

  • Expectations - If you don’t invest in the organic channel, don’t expect consistent growth. When reporting to the business, avoid setting unrealistic expectations that the channel will grow without any investment or additional resource support.

  • Resource Allocation - Allocate the appropriate resources to high-priority requests and ensure all teams remain informed. When budgeting for the organic/SEO channel, consider including developer, content, UX, product, and SEO expertise within your plans.


Q4/ The organic search landscape has changed massively over the last 2 years, many are overlooking the tried and tested methods of improving performance, what is still critical for SEO and improving organic performance? 

Correct internal resource allocation from the client / brand at project start or correct budget allocation if they need support in providing that resource. A realistic expectation of what is required by the client for a successful SEO project. 

Budget allocation to match required ROI from the organic channel. Most brands I have worked with over the last 20+ years may receive anywhere between 30%-70% of their traffic from ‘organic’ yet a fraction (and I mean tiny) of their marketing budget goes to this channel and almost zero allocation of resource internally with development teams or interconnected channels to fulfil an SEO teams requirements.

SEO tends to become a priority for a business only when traffic is declining or revenue has experienced several months of consistent decline. By this point, it is likely that Google has been negatively impacting the website for many months, if not years, and it will require a shift in SEO strategy, budget, and resource allocation to turn the fortunes of the SEO channel around. Consistent, compounding positive changes are what is required in search.

I generally try to avoid discussing traditional SEO techniques, as nearly all websites have unique requirements to succeed in their respective markets. One area that has been around for a long time, but where Google has tightened its focus in recent years, is user experience. It’s about giving users what they want - removing clutter, noise, and years of over-optimisation. Keep it simple. Fortunately for myself and other SEO practitioners, websites are rarely lean or efficient, and years of bloat are often in play.

Other key signals, such as links, brand demand, website experience, and having content that aligns with user intent and expectations, are essential. What's crucial is knowing which elements need to be compounded for long-term, sustainable SEO success. Picking and choosing your battles versus throwing mud at walls wins in the longer term. Historically (many years ago), throwing mud at the wall would have no negative effect; however, that is not the case now, and this approach can have a long-term negative effect on organic visibility and revenue.

Equally important is understanding when and when not to rely on SEO tools or third-party SEO data. This helps avoid wasting resources, both on your side and the client’s. Far too many SEO recommendations are presented to clients that ultimately deliver little to no real value. SEO teams need to spend more time with clients, gaining a deep understanding of their business and customers. Tools should then be used to complement first-party data and the internal experience of the client. Clients, in turn, need to work harder to integrate their SEO teams across the business for a more aligned strategy.


Q5/ You share some incredible insights and data on LinkedIn around keyword rankings across key search markets, are there any common patterns you spot or come up while working with brands in organic search? 

When onboarding with clients, one of my requests is often to review their existing keyword ranking data. Typically, they present a small number of top-tier (often vanity) keywords. Often brands are placing all their eggs in one basket when it comes to driving traffic from search engines. It doesn’t take much to lose those positions, which can result in a significant drop in acquisition and revenue. By understanding your Share of Search (or Share of Voice) across topics and entities, you can address content gaps across the website and reduce your exposure to search position volatility, reducing risk to website revenue. 

Top-performing websites often provide users with exactly what they need to answer their query immediately upon page load. The user is presented with a solution straight away. The experience is further enhanced by catering to how users might interact differently, for example, travel or ecommerce websites that have extensive UI features around filtering and sorting, allowing users to efficiently find what they want.

For highly competitive queries, these websites are typically supported by strong (and sometimes manipulated) backlink profiles. The main landing pages are further strengthened by related supporting content. These websites ensure their landing pages are aligned with user intent and often benefit from a combination of brand and service/product search demand.

For larger global brands, or multi-brand and multi-product websites, an often overlooked opportunity is to saturate the search results and dominate a significant share of Google’s real estate. This can be achieved by understanding where each brand is winning or losing from a Share of Search perspective and leveraging each website to align with the type of content and search intent presented. 

Google doesn’t want to show the same type of content across the entire first page and that provides opportunity. There are many large publishing groups that do this activity pretty well. 


Connect With Carl


Read the other quick fire Q&A

  • With Beth Gladstone providing several instant and actionable social media recommendations and talking through her social media masterclass

  • With Paddy Moogan talking about improving management & his new leadership course

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Q&A Danny Denhard Q&A Danny Denhard

Q&A With Paddy Moogan - The New Leader Course

Paddy is on a journey to help improve the world of management. Having been an agency co-owner, a top tier SEO expert and an all round great person, Paddy is uniquely placed to help managers across their management journey to find and develop their management style and improve their leadership.

I consider myself lucky to have had Paddy as a friend for easily 15 years (when we were both coming up & often competing in the agency world) and it’s been a pleasure seeing him build his own agency and then help other agencies develop their offering and improving their management.

If I were running a team or back agency side I would firstly recommend signing up to his newsletter and asking to joining his new leadership course that you will learn all about below.


Q1. You have been on a mission to help managers especially managers early on their management journey to get the right level of support and training for a long time, what are the key recommendations you make to managers?  

I think that the first core thing for managers to understand is that the job of being a manager is very different from the job that they’ve done up until this point. Someone can be the best person in the world at their particular job, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll automatically become a great manager. So an awareness of the need to learn new things and embrace change is the first thing that I try to help new managers understand. 

Beyond this, I recommend that new managers focus on the fundamentals of management and block out most other stuff. To me, the fundamentals lie in being an effective communicator via one-on-one meetings, giving (and receiving) feedback, creating good personal development plans and having difficult conversations.

Underlying all of these is a need to balance the person’s “new” job with their old one. Most people, particularly at digital agencies, still have their previous clients to manage and work on - they don’t suddenly disappear! So there is a need to balance priorities and learn to do two jobs at the same time.


Q2/ You have shared your recent journey leaving the agency you co-founded openly (across LinkedIn (X) and more recently threads), could you share any essential lessons for managers and business leaders from your recent experiences that will help them on their journeys? 

My exit from Aira wasn’t the one I dreamt of! It came from a place of looking after my mental and physical health and the challenges that I faced can apply to pretty much anyone. My lessons really revolve around self-care and recognising as soon as possible when things are getting too much. For me, there wasn’t a particular moment or incident that caused me to break down, it was the compounding effect of a few years of challenges which ultimately led to a mental breakdown. I’d encourage others to not ignore these “small” things which can build and to regularly get support when things aren’t always going as you’d like.


Q3/ You have been guiding managers and agency leaders through your new leader newsletter since early 2023, what are the biggest learnings or lessons you have picked up from your newsletter audience over the last 18 months? 

Mostly that many people experience very similar problems! I encourage newsletter subscribers to reply to me and share their current challenges and more often than not, the challenges have been shared before. Most of these challenges connect to a core skill which is effective communication. This could be delivering feedback or having a hard conversation or just listening to someone - communication is so often the common thread between lots of challenges that managers face.

Sign up to Paddy's Monday morning leadership below ↓


Q4/ Most managers are promoted to progress their career or keep them with the company, what are the 3 recommendations you make most to help first-time managers or managers starting out in their career?

  1. When you start a role, whether it’s a brand new company or a promotion, get very clear on what your manager (and the wider company) expect from you in your role and what success looks like.

  2. Be prepared to own your own journey and where it takes you. If you want to move towards a certain role or certain discipline, then you need to make that clear to your manager. Of course, they also have a duty to help craft a path for you to take, but it’s important to communicate what you want as well - they may not always be able to give it to you, but at least be clear on where you’d like to go.

  3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. First time managers get put under pressure to perform immediately because they are managing others. So don’t make this pressure worse by worrying out asking your own manager or peers for support on challenging situations or processes that you’re learning for the first time.


Q5/ Your new training course went live recently and “its the training every new manager should get” If a manager wanted to ask their boss for your course, how should they pitch it to them? 

Thankfully, I’ve written a template email for this exact purpose! But essentially, it’s about getting training that otherwise isn’t given to managers. 82% of people are given no training at all before becoming a manager, so chances are that most people fall into this. Asking their boss to provide training (at a decent price point) for something so important is very fair and reasonable - so try not to think that you’re being cheeky by doing so!

Here’s Paddy breaking down his course

Links To Connect With Paddy


Read the other quick-fire Q&A

With Beth Gladstone on knowing what social media demands are now

With Carl Hendy on SEO and the importance of connecting SEO to business revenues

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Danny Denhard Danny Denhard

Why Telegram Encryption Is Different

I am a big believer that where there is a network or a platform there are hundreds of people trying to work out if it will fit their use case, how they hack it for their use case or how to leverage it for their own gain.

Chat apps are no different. WhatsApp dominates Europe, WeChat dominates China, smaller iMessage groups still dominate the US, and Telegram is an essential resource in Russia and Ukraine.
Importantly, Telegram has captured several organisers, online personalities, and celebrities for its rich media and broadcast use case, and many movement leaders have leveraged its scale to have huge groups. FWIW If you have ever seen a t.me link that is a link created via Telegram.

In the video below, Ben Thompson goes into great detail on why some chat apps are more secure than others and why Telegram’s USP of allowing groups to be huge (into the tens of thousands) impacts their ability to be more secure and encrypted.

On the whole, Telegram is a very strong product, has many better features than the likes of iMessage and WhatsApp and despite what you think happens on platforms like Telegram, for a lot of the bad, there is a lot of knowledge sharing and groups for good on platforms like Telegram.

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Marketing Danny Denhard Marketing Danny Denhard

The Truth Behind Huge Celebrity Podcast Deals

Podcasts are what I call a 1-1-98 platform — 1% make good money, 1% make great money, and 98% don’t.

Podcasts are incredibly hard to:

  • Build an audience (listenership is hard to build and harder to keep listening)

    • And keep that audience engaged - it’s a huge time commitment

  • Find guests

  • Organise and edit

  • Make money from

    • Finding sponsors

    • Find partners who are willing to be placed against content they can’t control

These are just a few reasons why podcasts have been flooded with celebrities and influencers creating podcasts and joining ad and media networks. They have the audience already built in (the superfans will go anywhere they go), they have a phone book full of friends for guests, they have an inbuilt team creating, editing and helping with distribution and ad deals are factored in upfront.

So let’s dive deeper into these major deals and why brands compete on huge deals for “podcasts”.

The Mega Deals

There have been 4 huge deals worth over $100m this year for popular podcasts: 

  1. This week; The Kelce brothers (NFL players) have signed a 3-year $100m deal with Wondery (part of Amazon). 

  2. Last month; Call Her Daddy co-creator Alex Cooper signed a new 3-year deal worth $125 million with SiriusXM (for her podcast and her new network of podcasts) leaving Spotify. 

  3. In February; Joe Rogan renewed his Spotify contract for another 4 years for $250 million.

  4. In January; SmartLess (with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett) left Wondery for a 3-year deal worth $100 million with SiriusXM (Warren Buffet famously invested heavily earlier this summer in SiriusXM). 

This is (US) Podtrac data from July with the podcast publishers and the size of their audience with downloads. Many have huge networks of shows that enable a bigger deeper ad offering.
Wondery which is part of Amazon signed The Kelce brothers podcast and joins their 625 roster of podcasts.

US Podcast rankings August 30th - Apple podcasts & Spotify

Above data and screenshot via Chartable - The majority of the top ranked podcasts are celebrity fronted and are on media or ad networks -- independents really struggle to rank and then monetise outside of the top 250 podcasts. 

So What? Why Is This important? 

  • Costs: There are now millions of podcasts but very few are independent and few make money if anything they lose money with the cost of tools and time

  • Fees First: Celebrity fronted Podcasts (in-built audience and superfans) have become incredibly popular, especially a-list podcasts, celebrity pods dominate the podcast rankings and hold typically huge bi-weekly audiences, so much so these podcasts charge 5 to high 6-digit rates for ads, some smartly charge huge figures to advertise on the back catalogue. 

    • These stars have the option to go out and create a podcast with a team and a network behind them or go and join YouTube like Ronaldo and Tom Brady have in the last few weeks 

  • Reach - Audience - Spread: The influence celebrity podcasts have is far-reaching, especially what is being shared and the stories being told (untold elsewhere), these are then flipped into news stories and create headline stories in mainstream media who struggle to build relationships with stars like they used to. Podcasters and their teams know this and play to this with deliberate clips that are seeded or “leaked” from their teams  

    • Pay To Play: Many smart PR firms are pushing their clients to host and cohost and paying large sums of money to appear on tier 1 podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts)

  • Deeper Connection - Owning The Narrative(s): Podcasts are the new way to build audiences, host & control debates and are being used to rebuild careers, recent examples include: the 2 hours of Candace Owens interviewing Andrew Tate, President Trump on Theo Von podcast was something else, Peter Thiel on Joe Rogan was painful to watch — all leading to huge listenership/views and driving huge awareness to brands sponsoring 

  • Ranking Dominance: (Shown above) Big ad & media networks back the majority of the top 200 podcasts and have big talent fronting the pod - stars come with an existing audience and advertisers will invest massively into these pods

    • Sponsors demand ad reads by the hosts and are charged a premium for doing so as it feels less like an ad and more like an endorsement

    • Product Placement Becomes Product Play: Some are now negotiating with hosts and guests to show, drink/eat the products and discuss within the podcast

  • Big Bucks: Acquired a popular long-form podcast on how companies were built and the strategy behind them charges $500k for 4-episode midroll sponsorship or $750k for presenting sponsor

  • Ads! This is why SiriusXM, Spotify and Amazon are investing millions in 3-year+ deals on these podcast advertising deals and actively negotiating against each other for these huge podcasts

  • New Ad Networks: Tech giants like Amazon & Spotify and Podcast networks are moving away from exclusive shows only on their platforms and moving towards owning the ads inside the pods (and connected to the pods) and inserting ads across the feeds onto Apple, Spotify and YouTube. 

  • Ads = Paid Brand Moments Brands are looking for the best possible advertising options, whether that is brand-side to find a new audience or creators looking for ad partners to monetise their latest moves.

    • Brands are looking for reach, celebrities have reach & superfans are willing to support, ad networks can insert more ads (ad load aka the number of ads is up and increasing)

    • Existing sponsors of the athletes or celebrities will feature and become marketing moments for these brands

  • The Vodcast Evolution: The recent move to video-first podcasts allows their audiences to select the platform they prefer, however, importantly enabling different ad offerings from audio (podcasts) to video (vodcasts) and video can earn from views via AdSense.

    • The vodcast format lends itself to celebrities and influencers, seeing the celebrity (or hate watching which is common) and will lead to more ad slots inside

    • Over the last six months: Joe Rogan has published 1,998 videos (with his move back to YouTube he has uploaded old content onto YouTube from Spotify), with 400k subscribers racking up 1,857,540,158 views (via VidIQ). Joe Rogan has a total of 17.2M subscribers and a back catalogue of 3.2K videos.

The TLDR

  • Like all other platforms and channels - Brands will open up their budgets for popular podcasts and be associated with their huge reach.

  • Celebrities love the new format as do their PR firms and the ad-exclusive deals are huge and will continue to be while celebrity podcasters attract their celeb friends and major names to tell stories while brands can piggyback from an ad inserted into it

  • Media will continue to write about their pods, and their appearances and drive listeners and viewers

  • Fans will give them a listen and superfans will love, promote and even pay a subscription if there are PPV podcasts

  • Expect video to become a key part of the celebrity podcast industry and be able to charge an additional premium to be a sponsor or featured within the vodcast and then ads being inserted in to the back catalogue

FYI A more condensed version of this article was a dedicated segment from the August drop of my Must Reads newsletter.

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Coaching Danny Denhard Coaching Danny Denhard

My Podcast Recommendations For Marketing & Growth Leaders

Here are my most recommended podcasts for Marketing leaders, as you will see the majority aren’t marketing-specific podcasts, they are importantly more business-related, with that said they will help with honing your skills and improve how you communicate to business leaders and consider how you approach Marketing and pitching across the business.

Decoder

Good for company breakdowns, deep questions and CEO profiles

Rapid Response

Good for business responses and how they’ve reacted 

Work Life

Good for exploring interesting topics and deeper conversation 

Marketing Against The Grain

Good for marketing chatter. I am not always a big fan of all of their recommendations (as for very specific types of early-stage companies) but good for food for thought and opportunities to see if the ideas would fit for your business

Business Untitled

Good for understanding the people behind the business and great for ideas

Definitely check out the genius behind MSCHF and the art of going viral podcast

Masters Of Scale

Good breaking down companies or themes and considering how to apply to your own situation. 

Land Of The Giants

Good for the inside look of companies and breaking down business and business leaders.

The latest series on Disney is brilliant 

Marketing Freaks

Good for getting under the skin of the companies, the how and why behind campaigns and channels. As a past guest I can tell you how much effort they put into sourcing their guests and setting up their vodcast and podcasts.
Here is my cheatsheet from my appearance on Marketing Freaks

Or watch the short version ↓

The Uncensored CMO

Good for understanding the varying worlds of CMOs, their day to day and their journey to the leadership team

Discover Daily

If you are a brand lead and want to understand how you can create a highly-produced daily podcast Perplexity is a great example of how to do it and bring the brand to the front of the project.

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Coaching Danny Denhard Coaching Danny Denhard

Mentoring In The Hybrid & Remote Era

I am a huge advocate of mentoring and coaching. I don’t say this as a coach, I say this as something who learnt a lot from mentors, especially unofficial mentoring, importantly reverse mentoring and silent mentors.

(Remember a coach is someone who has hard goals with deadlines to improve a core set of skills. A mentor is someone who helps to guide you over a longer period often without setting goals but to help you navigate difficult situations and build towards the future. You can have multiple mentors and likely have one coach who will help specialist skills develop and then change, coaches and mentors can overlap)

Having spoken to several businesses over the last year and the majority are worried about their move to hybrid and remote and how it will impact their staff.

Something most overlooked is the coaching element of in-person work and the indirect mentoring many get from spending time face-to-face, in meetings and bumping into each other in the office, going for lunch or grabbing a coffee together.

These are situations that can be re-engineered but have to be engineered as many do not seek out their own internal development and will let these moments not happen because of a screen or poor nudging from leadership.

How to think about improving mentorship moments:

  • Organise time slots for mentorship (leadership teams shouldn’t have to do this but if they don’t it won’t be something that naturally occurs throughout the org)

  • Set up fika - A Swedish traditional for friends or colleagues to grab a pastry and a coffee together

  • Create moments to share learnings and a mentor manual that people can access and learn from

  • Create reserve mentorship - match younger team members with more senior members (especially good for those on the leadership team) to understand what the teams feels, see's and the latest changes in their area of expertise

  • Create internal mentorship programmes and see if you can invest time into sourcing and matching in external mentors, external mentors are often taken more seriously as they do not have a status or stake in the internal game being played.

All of these will help you improve mentors, amentorship and endorse a mentor programme that likely needs the most senior support in pushing forward.

>> If you are worried about your wider subculture (what I suggest is your department’s culture), I wrote about it in my leadership newsletter leaders letter last year.

Want to go deeper into different types of mentors?

  • Internal mentors are usually paired or seeked out, less experienced staff are matched with more experienced members to help navigate the business and have a support network

  • External mentors are usually seeked out by the employee or their manager - they can be in a related field or have a lot of similar experiences to help the mentee forward

  • Silent mentors are those you learn from, their emails, and the way they handle themselves in meetings, but also are those who have direct impact on you, likely through the content they put out, the podcasts they host or appear on etc.

  • Reverse mentorship is critical for great managers and generalists and those who are serious about their career and improving their career internally.

And if you are not taken by what I have said here’s the all in podcast discussing mentorship from 11:18

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Marketing Danny Denhard Marketing Danny Denhard

Why Love Hate Anger LOL & Vanity Are The Key To Shareable Content

For years smart people have reverse-engineered how and why things are shared on the internet.

A handful of years ago people even got it to a point they could make something go viral…

In recent years with the shift away from a monoculture to many algorithmically driven subcultures, we have seen the way we share go from public by default to semi-private (in chat app groups) to one-to-one sharing.

From my background in crowdfunding and fundraising, there were always 4 main reasons why people share, it was simple,

  • Love 💜 - for the love of something or someone

  • Hate 🤛 - for the hate of something

  • Anger 😡 - something that causes anger

  • Vanity 💅 - something that made you look great aka vanity.

The one element we missed was LOL (😂), we have always shared laughable moments, whether that is by storytelling together, sharing a joke on email (yes this used to be a thing as did chain emails), share a clip of your favourite comedian before they were all close to being cancelled to someone banging their head or slipping over.

We have gone from sharing moments we saw → to moments others captured and then — sharing on group chats.

All of these parts of the formula are driven by you, your points of connection (nodes) and the connection and emotion it triggers. If it were a movie it would be inside out.

  • Love - I love this, you will love this, I love you (made me think of you), ‘this is love’ always works as it drives a deep feeling and connection.

  • Hate - I hate this, you will hate this, this will make you hate me, this is hatred always works as it drives a negative feeling and connects you both around something (for good and for bad)

  • Anger - this makes me angry, this will make you angry, look at this angry mob etc picks on what we can be driven by or are looking for

  • LOL - this is funny, this will make you laugh, this is funny do you remember this - all are centre points based on laughing together or sparking a memory

  • Vanity - look at what I did, look at what this person said about me, look at your post doing well - all is about making you or your friend/colleague feel good.

If you are building a Product or looking to build out product features, definitely consider how you leverage these 5 emotions to help make your product sticky and truly build features that gain shares with these 5 emotions front of your mind and the users mind.

I’ll leave you with the Pixar storytelling video that will help you understand storytelling and how to apply these to your work.

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Growth Danny Denhard Growth Danny Denhard

The Business Of Duolingo

Duolingo is that app that is given as case studies, its seen as the leading light in Growth, app growth and AB testing.

Duolingo did incredibly well on TikTok and is often the go-to example of how to leverage brand in the Marketing landscape.

They were deliberately random and arguably smart, however, don’t expect it this to be your copy-paste winning formula for your brand.

Many do not realise the business model and the economics behind the language app, with over 80% of users not or never paying for any features of the app and an ad model that only contributes to -10% of its revenues.

Here is a quick video with the Duolingo team talking about their app, their smart approach to push notifications (think mum guilt), its economics and how AI is going to be powering many tests and many more to come.

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Leadership Danny Denhard Leadership Danny Denhard

Interview Question: Have You Worked In A Service Job?

One of my go-to interview questions is have you ever worked in a service job?

I worked weekends at KFC and Wendy’s, when going through my A-Levels I used to sneak off and work 3-4 hour shifts to make money and move away from education which I was ultimately done with.

I actually really enjoyed the job and met some of my closest friends 25 years later, why?

You learn a lot skills, interpersonal skills, the importance of teamwork and comradery, how to read people’s body language & micro expressions, you learnt multi-tasking, how to handle busy periods and how to deal with “mistakes” (yours or the customers - they aren’t always right!), I learnt how to cook, prep and importantly clean and follow the high standards set by successful chains.
I went on to work in and run bars and put on club nights and all this has set me up in my career and is important muscle memory for me.

In almost every management role I have held, those who can handle pressure and excel in the quiet periods/poor performance periods and asked to step up are those from backgrounds in cafes, baristas, fast food (QSR) and bars.

Thinking about it, some of the best Brand & Product Marketers and Product leads I have had the pleasure of working with have also had strong backgrounds in QSR’s.

I was recommended this video this morning (thanks YouTube) and it reminded me of why so many great employees worked service jobs and if I had the choice I would always look to hire the right candidate with this style of background.

Watch out for how the English gentleman calls out that it is an experience from Arnaldo & at Grumpy Coffee and he leaves happy, although most do it organically the best Marketing team members provide brilliant experiences and are deliberate in doing so as they know it sticks in peoples mind and creates a long-standing relationship.

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Leadership Danny Denhard Leadership Danny Denhard

Practise With The Best

Talent density is massively underrated. It is something we don’t hear enough about within businesses.

If you ever see two high performing colleagues there can be healthy competition, I have a strong belief where possible you should ensure there are more practise periods and projects where you can manufacture practise time and collaborative projects.

In my career there have been a handful of colleagues and team members who positively pushed me, they instantly increased the talent density and would increase the quality of the project or campaign by raising the status quo, having higher standards and having fun sparring with each other and pushing the projects forward.

This Instagram reel of two of the best tennis players on the planet reminded me that you rarely get chance to practise or test yourself against with a world class competitor/colleague/industry rival/foe.

This reminded me of a Simon Sinek and Adam Grant podcast and quote that rings true with me often.

Whenever I heard the name “Adam Grant”, it made me uncomfortable. If I heard someone sing his praises, a wave of envy washed over me. I knew him to be a good person and a nice guy. I respected his work a great deal, and he was always nice to me when we’ve met. We do the same kind of work — write books and give talks about our views of the world.

Although there are many others who do similar work, for some reason I was obsessed with him. I wanted to outdo him. I’d regularly check the online rankings to see how my books were selling and compare them to his. Not anyone else’s rankings — just his. If mine were ranked higher, I would smile a gloaty smile and feel superior. If his were higher, I would scowl and feel annoyed. He was my main competitor and I wanted to win.

Then something happened. We were invited to share a stage at the same event, and the interviewer thought it would be “fun” if we introduced each other. I went first. I looked at Adam, looked at the audience, and said, “You make me unbelievably insecure because all of your strengths are all my weaknesses. You can do so well the things that I really struggle to do.” The audience laughed.

Adam looked at me and responded, “The insecurity is mutual.” He went on to identify some of my strengths as areas in which he wished he could improve.

The question might be do you have a rival that will help you improve? And if yes - you do, do you practise or challenge each other enough?


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Marketing Danny Denhard Marketing Danny Denhard

The Disney Dilemma Podcast - Land of the Giants

Its rare that I recommend more than one business podcast from one podcaster or network, with many being hit and miss or often they turn into case studies repackaged.

However, Land Of The Giants is one of the series of podcasts that is always worth listening to.

If you are a leader of a business, into the ops sides of companies or enjoy listening to how businesses have to balance cycles of hardship The Disney Dilemma is a brilliant listen.

It highlights why generational brands are important to us, passed down from parents and grandparents, recommended by our friends and why our kids and future generations love and will continue to love Disney. But behind the scenes it’s never easy, especially for the brand managers and highlighting why do the internal business leads have to tread so carefully and nurture the brand and not overly police it in today’s world.

I also highly recommend Ride of a lifetime by Bob Iger as a must read/listen for business leads.

Enjoy!

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Marketing Danny Denhard Marketing Danny Denhard

The Issue With Webinars & Potential Fixes

Webinars have a bad rep. Whenever I consult or coach CMOs, VPs and CPOs I always tell them to rebrand the webinar, don’t call it a webinar as they are mostly broken.

I bet you joined a webinar (most likely live) and you waited 5 minutes for it to start, and then for the first ten minutes it is intro, intro, intro, promote product, intro.

If you were to watch a YouTube video and it offered nothing for the first 5 minutes you would leave, let alone the first 15 minutes.
Likewise in a podcast you wouldn’t waste ten minutes with ads and promotion…

Webinars were designed for the viewer, give value as quickly as possible. Most people attending aren’t there for the logos, they want to know something they didn’t already, they want to understand if they are on the right track or want a nugget to implement in their own work to make them feel like they are the hero in their own story.

So rather than bash webinars too much, here are ways to improve them:

  1. Short Sharp Intros: Most attendees will look up the speakers/hosts/guest, give the audience something not everything - use ice breakers if need be

  2. Ask Hard Questions: Unless it is a presentation give a hard-hitting question early, grab the attendee’s attention, and make them want to share the answer early

  3. Give Value ASAP: Say what it is, give a few takeaways in the first few minutes and link to the takeaways ideally the cheatsheet

  4. Engage The Audience: The webinar needs engagement, it needs Q&A, if you are running a webinar ask questions, prep questions just in case of low engagement or low attendance and help create a safe space for questions

  5. Expert Recap: The host’s job is like an expert panel moderator, offering expert recaps and reminding the audience of key takeaways, don’t be afraid to use notes and share nuggets as you go

  6. Remove The Panel Problem: Some professionals don’t prep, even with a prep call they don’t feel like they need to prep or have anything ready, if a panel member is struggling to offer something, ease them towards an answer or ask them to tell a quick story

  7. Better Landing Pages: Offer something post-event, ideally a landing page not just an email to be filtered with takeaways, links mentioned, links to LinkedIn and interactive content - so many webinars don’t think about how to engage post-event and allow the landing page to gain shares (sharing your content and your brand/platform is key)

  8. Do Post Edit: If you have a team definitely do a few quick edits, remove long pauses, and remove the 5 minutes of set at the beginning, the post-experience is key to attendees sharing and wanting to attend another event or use your product

  9. Reward Audience Participation: Simple and low cost, reward those who offered a question, a different point of view or shared an experience, this is easy, low cost and scalable.

And remember, yes you have a number of goals associated to your event/webinar, however, if your live audience and post viewership experience is poor you will lose any chance of building an engaged audience of potential customers or potential repeat customers.

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Coaching Danny Denhard Coaching Danny Denhard

Free Power Hour

For the past ten years, I have offered power hours, which is an hour with a person (usually a business leader or senior c-suiter), a company or an institution where I help and support.

I have ran power hours for:

  • Creators

  • CEOs and founders

  • Startups

  • Known Marketplaces

  • For SMBs

  • For leadership teams at a school

  • & for large businesses

Sometimes it is a sanity check, other times the time is used as a lunch and learn for their teams, others use it an AMA and then for some, it becomes a coaching session. It is more clinic (clinics are similar to office hours at a VC firm with their portfolio companies) than therapy but I’m always happy to support.

I am opening this up a little further to readers and visitors of my site and wider than I have before, so if you would like a power hour with me, please complete the form below or DM me on LinkedIn.

So get in touch and let me know how you’d like to collaborate and where you might need help, a sanity check or an AMA with your team/department.

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Marketing Danny Denhard Marketing Danny Denhard

How You Launch A Product

Adidas has shown how to launch new kits and integrate top talent with their third kit launches in their top-tier clubs.

How?

  • Adidas has brought back its iconic Trefoil logo and connected it to the different generations of fans and players

  • Adidas brought back their legendary players from each club they are promoting (two famously wearing rival brands boots in their prime)

    • Arsenal - Patrick Vieira (even integrating his famous vapour rub on his shirt in the promo video)

    • Man Utd - Rio Ferdinand

    • Bayern Munich - Bastian Schweinsteiger

    • Juventus - Alessandro Del Piero

    • Real Madrid - Zizu aka Zinedine Zidane

  • Adidas has integrated legend ex-players across their launch and teased through social media updates across all club updates

    • Each athlete is connected to each other in each ad (Patrick Vieira rejecting Del Piero’s call etc)

  • Each launch references something cultural and historical to each club (and including famous fans)

  • Each player used in their official promo are adidas athletes (in Arsenal’s case using Alessia Russo (Arsenal women’s player), Jurrien Timber and record signing Declan Rice)

  • Each update across the social media channels has been smart, leveraging different ways of using each platform, from WhatsApp Channels, Instagram to YouTube To Twitter and TikTok.

The Instagram Promo

The Promo Video Will Land With Arsenal Fans (note the video clicks through to arsenals website , please watch on Twitter or YouTube)

Here’s a smart behind the scenes look at the adidas kit launch filming ↓

Well played adidas and well co-orientated by the clubs.

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Marketing Danny Denhard Marketing Danny Denhard

Instagram Views Metrics

Social media metrics change, constantly, it can be the most hotly contested subject by creators, influencers and brands.

Instagram updated “creators” yesterday that they were shifting to views as their primary aka most important metric (the video below explains this).

Adam Mossari the Head of Instagram shared - ““Views” the primary metric for Reels, Stories, photos and carousels.”

He also clearly references the top new important metrics

  • Views (Adam Mossari rightly points out there can be multiple views per piece of content, so keep this top of mind)

  • Sends per reach (how many people are sending your content via DM)

  • Reach

Core Takeaways To Consider As A Creator, Influencer Or Brand:

  • Views as standardised metrics are smart for Instagram but may be a little misleading for creators, it will be moving creators and brands to create more compelling (most likely video) content that is built less for public engagement but created for “sends”

  • Views (count) are a critical metric on Threads too - highly engaged views will likely come next, and high-value views will also be considered by Instagram in the near future (who viewed, from where, how long or how many times)

  • Engagement will always be important, however, engagement is lowering across the board, reactions have dropped because we live in a constant flow of content (which is too much for most of us) - engagement in public and private via sends will be critical in working out away from watch time what is

  • Finsta’s (private friend accounts) and sinsta’s (meme-created accounts) have sent content via DM for a long time, this will likely see many more of these accounts created - a core internal Instagram metric

  • Instagram have openly talked about its creation problem, but many aren’t creating (pareto law aka the 80/20 law is likely at play here - 80% viewers, 20% creators) this is a way to see curation and potentially create playlists

  • Brands and creators - When creating content what you are creating, why you are creating this piece of content, who will be consuming and how it will prompt a share (in DM) - this will lead to smaller accounts with more influence and reach

  • Follower counts will likely drop, many don’t need to follow creators and brands anymore and rely on other signals to power your FYP. Inbox shares and any comments connected to shares will enable Instagram to add more juice into certain videos, creators and the content they create

  • Context of the share will be important, understanding why the content was shared, how it was viewed, the reaction and interaction around that content will be critical for Instagram to improve their product and beat out competitors like TikTok.

    • With an unique ability to improve Threads and potentially improve WhatsApp products from this learning.

My long-term view is Instagram is pushing users to create private groups (as this was naturally happening by users, even before the purchase of WhatsApp and Instagram - these are core reasons why Meta invested so heavily) and networks of sends.
Private becomes the default and the culture of these apps, an important however here is - Instagram can build their new private graph (working out who and how people are connected) to change content consumption habits away from one feed into an inbox of content curated by friends, family and creators (sorry brands it will be highly unlikely you are included in this).

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Marketing Danny Denhard Marketing Danny Denhard

Could 100 Gigs Be The Future For Artists?

Drake dropped 100 gigs late on Tuesday, dropping 100gb of content including three unreleased tracks and tens of videos and pictures.

Many artists are becoming disillusioned with the algorithmic filtering from social networks and a shift to entertainment-based feeds (thanks to TikTok’s re-engineering of the web).

This approach does not engage the causal followers and unless you are constantly following or have alerts switched on fans will miss any update from their artist of choice.

From an artist's POV: Why amass millions of followers and be restricted by the platform?

Go back straight to the fans…especially the superfans…

Superfan flywheel improving reach and sales for artists and brands

The Superfan Flywheel How the superfans increase reach and sales for their favourite influencers, celebrities and creators

What Drake (& his team) have done is smart, by offering a glimpse beyond the Instagram feed, releasing songs directly for free downloads is removing the friction of these platforms enabling to see where fans are based, what songs are downloaded and streamed, which videos and images are downloaded (for free) and what platforms are driving traffic and engagement with fans.

Although the popular platforms (Spotify, Instagram etc) offer a limited number of these features, it disconnects them from the fans and limits their chances to connect.

In the near future I suspect many artists with large teams will take an approach to this, likely pushing for mobile numbers to send important updates to (like a 1-2-1 service) and looking to sign up superfans with emails (to send newsletters, exclusives and website updates to).

Is this the future not exactly industry-wide but it does offer an opportunity for artists to move away from social platforms and reward their fans with great behind the scenes view and bonus tracks that could be working harder for them.

This is how the superfan ecosystem works and how smart artists like Drake can leverage this new model to make money and connect with their fans at a much deeper level

Update 10/08/2024: The delayed release of the tracks onto Soundcloud and other streaming sites also shows how smart they have been looking at the data and then releasing to make money via streaming. Well played Drake and the OVO team.

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Leadership Danny Denhard Leadership Danny Denhard

Does Your Business Need A Refresh, Reset, Reboot or Restart

Throughout my career I have found most businesses get to the point where they are in need of external help and cannot decide what their companies requires, I have broken them down into 4 areas:


1. A Refresh - this is what most businesses want but not what most need, a refresh can include a hiring (or a firing) or a change in a way they work cross-functionally. A refresh often works best within teams or departments where there has been no change or mass change. Many teams work best after a refresh as this creates more focus and less distractions.


2. A Reset - this is what most companies need, they require a fresh set of eyes and a driving force behind resetting the way the teams work together, how they approach their department plan or reset their company strategy. Resets help cross-functional teams to understand each other and the way they work differently.


3. A Reboot - a more deliberate look at the business and departments often leads to difficult conversations and assessing how the teams and their department leads perform and operate. A detailed audit will be needed to identify issues and then guide the internal leadership in improving and rebooting the business performance.


4. A Restart - the view seen as the most harsh but often is needed and needs to be driven by an independent consultant and advisor. What a restart takes a 6-8 week period of investigation, observation and honest feedback. Restarts take a number of bed in and then a quarter to two quarters to influence wider change. Restarts need to be fully brought in by the exec team, by department leads and senior members of the team to create a better, higher-performing environment.

The question to ask yourself now: What does your team, department and business need?
In H2 it is the time to take action and set yourselves up for success in late Q3 into Q4.

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Marketing Danny Denhard Marketing Danny Denhard

The State Of Apps H1 2024

I found this an interesting deep dive into the most important apps and app markets, from downloads to revenue the whole industry has continued to move and shift to the Markets.

Gaming is critically important to app stores while social media and dating gains a lot of attention, this deep look emphasises how usage doesn’t always translate into revenue.

Dating Is Social?

The area that might be of most interest is the social space and revenue.

It is pretty obvious dating is an incredibly powerful market but with Match Group owning the top-grossing apps Hinge & Tinder how small the ecosystem is despite its competition.

Have a look through the gallery of images below (or flip to slides 35+ above) in and see how many apps don’t make money (especially chat apps) and how dating isn’t in the top number of downloads but commands much of the revenue.

It is important to note services such Telegram offers its own bitcoin offering (TON) and have been incredibly successful which might not be tracked. in these states, as has many developing nations have the option to natively transfer money (via WhatsApp’s native service).

Facebook’s dominance on Android is not be overlooked especially with its DAU numbers on image 5 - Meta’s ownership of conversation and shift into Groups and WhatsApp Channels might well be their next revenue play.

Social media, dating and gaming often go hand in hand, however, these show how difficult it can be to monetise or how important advertisers are within these spaces. We are likely to see more investment in H2 and see if social media apps can monetise more effectively.

Lets see how iOS18 launch impacts the space and how it could upend a number of services.

This is a fascinating interview clip from Polina Marinova Pompliano and grind CEO,

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Marketing Danny Denhard Marketing Danny Denhard

Premier League Shirt Sponsorship Problem?

This season’s sponsors are a telling state of the sponsorship market and who can afford to invest millions into sponsorship.

I am a big football fan (arsenal fan) and a student of business - the two worlds collated when looking through the premier league fantasy football app and then spotting the shirt sponsors… it was a little troubling. (Take a look through this season’s kits here)

We have moved away from the domination of crypto brands in the last few seasons and moved towards international gambling.
It’s a powerful trend as many of these sponsors have limited presence in England and are looking to leverage the reported global viewership of ~3.2bn.

Here are some of the main takeaways taking a look through:

  • 11 (of 20) of the main sponsors of the premier league clubs are gambling sponsors (this is agreed to stop from the 2026/2027 season)

  • Crystal Palance’s sponsor Net88 is not active in the UK (is regulated) and their site doesn’t work

  • The price of these sponsorships every season is not cheap, the lowest is believed to be north £4m per year, whereas Snapdragon's sponsorship of Man Utd is reported to be £60m per year

  • Notts Forest's main sponsor is the sleeve of Crystal Palace and is an official brand partner of Chelsea - it also has received warnings from the UK Gambling Commission.

  • Everton's main sponsor stake also owns its sleeve sponsor kick (twitch’s rival)

  • Shirt manufacturers is an interesting story

    • Adidas x7 (11 in total in English pro football)

    • Umbro x4 (10 in total in English pro football)

    • Castore x1 *but has the sub-licence to Umbro UK (6 in total in English pro football)

    • Nike x4 (6 in total in English pro football)

    • Puma x2 (17 in total in English pro football)

    • Macron x1 (17 in total in English pro football)

    • Sudu x 1 (a brand new manufacturer - a company of ex-designers from many of the largest manufacturers)

So does this mean we have an issue with sponsorship in English pro football with large gambling issues across Britain? To me, yes, but would many other industries could afford to cover these costs?

£5m per year in sponsorship is a huge investment (ask struggling car brand Cazoo and other businesses what happened with their huge investment into sponsorship) and the ROI is often questioned at the sponsor’s brand level - the next industry might have to be equally questionable or we may have to see the costs be put back on the fan… and from my experience overseeing hundreds of professional and semi-professional teams needing bailing out by fans crowdfunding, football clubs will need to be saved by their superfans again.


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