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
Audits.com → https://audits.com/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlhendy/
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
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.
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:
This week; The Kelce brothers (NFL players) have signed a 3-year $100m deal with Wondery (part of Amazon).
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.
In February; Joe Rogan renewed his Spotify contract for another 4 years for $250 million.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ↓
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.
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.
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.
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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The Importance Of Audio In Your Marketing Mix
MSCHF CEO On How To Go Viral Podcast
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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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…
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.
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.
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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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Hype File, Swipe File, Hire File
You might have heard of different files, most commonly the swipe file, something you’re inspired by and will use as inspiration in work or play. Think of a private board for things to use in the future.
Something I recommend most is a hype file:
Save screenshots where people have given you compliments
Sent you nice feedback on work,
orWhen friends have just said thanks, something nice or say you have gone over and above etc.
My hype file is pinned in my Apple notes and is great when you’re having a crappy day or need a kickstart when having a low point. I split mine out into work hype, into home hype and friends hype.
A spin on the hype file is called a brag document when you have had great feedback, when they’ve got great coverage (for you, your work etc) about them or your product etc.
Hire File
When I was in-house and developing my department (think of org design with connected profiles) I would create a Hire file.
It is a notes file of the areas we were not as strong in and is not just a list of roles but a file full of examples of very strong profiles from LinkedIn that would be great additions to my department. Hire files are more than just skills but are a well-rounded profile that would be a great hire for these roles or roles to craft in the near future.
I would look at my hire file and see profiles of people on LinkedIn and craft job specs around their style of profile and on a couple of occasions they actually applied for the role and were standout candidates.
In your hire file don’t be afraid to save LinkedIn profiles or export to PDF and save in your hire file and reach out to these profiles, speak to them and say what you are looking to do and the timeline, often they will get back in touch closer to the time of hiring or you can keep them as warm leads.
These are all recommendations I make to my coaching clients, especially for CEOs, CPOs and CMOs.
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My Favourite AI Tools
Small disclaimer: I have to admit I am not a huge AI tool user. Why? Simply put; I haven’t been blown away by many AI first products and I tend to take as long tweaking and editing to make something I would want to put my name to. Most of the time I have to use the jobs-to-be-done framework to work out what the AI tool purpose is and then have to fit my need.
With that said here are my favourite tools
Perplexity - I use it for quick answers, it is quick and acts like an answer engine (not a search engine - it isn’t a new Google) and offers sources from their answers
Bing Image Creator - I use it to create quick and easy images for this blog and presentations. It is a simple and free creator (not exactly perfect images but good for blogs or social content)
Descript - I use it for editing podcasts, it automates and transcribes my podcasts (audio and or video) and then you can create clips to share on social media. If you can create in a Google doc, you can create and edit video and audio in descript.
Notion AI Q&A - I use it to find and ask questions about the documents and databases in my notion. It saves me a lot of time and works better than the standard search does. As a Product person, I appreciate the care and effort taken in this product.
Lex.page - I use it to build out ideas and articles or to question myself on the content. It’s perfect for simple editing and it is like writing in Google docs with inbuilt actions to take with quick prompts to help move you forward.
Claude - I use this as a creative assistant. I find it better for answers than ChatGPT. I have found you don’t need the most detailed prompts for Claude to produce high-quality answers and their artefacts really do help create a better search for better results. It’s a product that puts the consumer at the front vs other creative AI tools.
Bearly.ai - I use bearly as a creative assistant and alongside it being research assistant, as you can select the AI model when you query you can ask it varying questions or question on other AI models (say ChatGPT 4o and then Haiku) to validate or expand out. I don’t use Bearly as much as I should… Something that many people love using it for is transcription (audio and YouTube videos)
Other decent AI products include Grammarly, Canva and ChatGPT 4o.
Google’s AI Ad Problem
Google’s Issue Is It Put Product Ahead Of Their Audience In A Tasteless Way
You know an ad has caused controversy when the brand turns off comments on their YouTube upload… and then Thursday (1st August) night pulls the ad completely.
Dear Sydney (ad below) is one of those ads that has blown up and not in a good blown up way.
A simple ad suggesting how to use their new Gemini AI product has highlighted several issues with how the general public is reacting to AI and how it will influence parenting in the future.
What Google has failed to see is much fear around AI and its potential impact, especially on parents’ hands on / hands off approach to tech and how many fear lazy parenting and over reliance on tech will impact us all.
Google has forced their AI tech into a sporting event without thinking of the second and third-order effects of the ads.
In some respects, Google has done exactly what an ad is supposed to do, create conversation, on the other hand it has been tone deaf to how people are viewing AI.
Did It Miss The Mark Or Was For The Wrong Ad Audience? Google’s media quote is quite telling: "We believe that AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it," I feel for Google ad communications manager Alana Beale who had to respond to media requests on an ad that missed the mark. Being in-house and responding to advertising campaign concerns or issues is not an enjoyable place or position to be in.
Gemini Gone Too Far? If Google Gemini had just helped the father tweak the say ‘sorry-not-sorry’ line for breaking Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s record that would have landed much better, unfortunately, this shows this ad might just be for investors and shareholders over consumers.
Keep an eye out for the next series of AI apps and chatbot ads, as the feedback, commentary and kickback will be telling in how AI tools might have to be advertised and targeted moving forward.
>> If you liked this post, read about Google’s AI battle. And how Apple’s approach to AI is likely going to win them the long-term AI battle.
Brands You Don’t Have To Say Anything
One of my biggest bug bearers is how brands fell into the trap to say something every time something happened or every time there is a calendar event happening.
Brands let the social media companies mislead them, chasing engagement and using these channels as news platforms hasn’t brought you closer to customers or fans, it has cut your reach and diluted important things you need to say.
Quality will beat out quantity almost every time.
Why? In every training workshops, in most c-suite coaching and founder expert calls I am always asked questions along these lines, should we talk about this news story or should we share something on National X or Y day, the answer 99% of the time, is don’t say anything unless you are directly helping, immediately impacted by the event or you are the go-to resource.
A free tip: Unless your brand is directly involved - it is often smarter and more authentic to say nothing externally. You will have to cut through internal pressure and say no, this is your job as a leader, knowing when no beats yes and being focused on what makes you win.
Remember this deliberate approach doesn’t mean you (and your brand) don’t care, it means when you have something important to say you will get cut through and it will land with your customers.
The less time you spend in a ‘war room’ making hard decisions and press statements (and social posts) - the better for you, the team/department and the brand.
Hodinkee’s CEO Update & “In The Comment Section”
Hodinkee (the watch editorial and ecommerce site) used to be the go to example of what a content brand could be.
It used to be a signal of how to create a media business around a theme, in their case luxury watches.
I have spoken to five businesses in the last five years who all have mentioned Hodinkee and their approach as the example of what they were attempting to replicate in their business. In most cases the investment costs to even consider this will put most businesses off.
Media Companies Of The Future: I do believe every company will become part media company - some channels and media will be a natural media fit based on their business vertical, while many others will struggle to make the transition.
The shift to commerce was a bumpy one for Hodinkee and in their recent CEO update (“A Note On The Future Of Hodinkee”) suggested they were going back to their roots. Their sub-header said it all “Spoiler alert: It looks a lot like its past, and I think you're going to like it.”
Speak With Not To: This blog post is a shining example of how to speak to and with your customers while knowing your customers and their they would respond…
“See you in the comments section!” cemented knowing how to speak to their audience while knowing them and their expected reaction(s), with 453 comments and counting this is highly unusual.
Would any other company get this feedback on-site in 2024? - I highly doubt it.
Moving into August many brands are disconnected from their customers and from knowing how to speak with and to their key audience, it is great to see a brand admitting they made a couple of strategic missteps and embracing feedback on site, rather than social media.
Best of luck to Hodinkee and if there was a coaching moment here, it would be to embrace your audience, keep them front and centre of your messaging and don’t be afraid to admit a mistake and guide them into the future.
My 6 Must Watch And Listens From The Last Week
Here are six incredible listens and watches to help you understand how decisions are made in large business and with elite professionals.
>> Etsy Scale & Ensuring Human+ (So human have to be behind AI product creations Creativity.
My main takeaway is being deliberate in your choices and ensuring you can build your marketplace with long term thinking in mind and adapt to tech changes.
>> Masters Of Scale - Kat Cole’s approach to leadership and why she joined AG1.
My main takeaway is Kat is very personable and extremely thoughtful and driven, if you want to be leading from the front you have to get deep under the skin and understand the true operating model.
>> YouTube creator sensation Cleo Abram on what made Nike almost ban record-breaking sneakers (hint there’s a flow chart and must be on general sale to be included in the Olympics
My main takeaway is tech is always going to help improve times of athletes but unless they are the elite level athletes its likely not going to win too many races and Olympic and governing bodies will review tech and innovation quickly (for safety and fair use).
>> Rory Sutherland delivers one of his best talks about making time to rethink the question and apply behaviour sciences to make better decisions .
My main takeaway is thinking about the question and what humans want will place us in front of creating better solutions, it’s then a choice (as I said in brand is in 2024/2025) not just optimising to the financial leader’s spreadsheet.
>> How 7-Eleven is repositioned itself and building a better shopping experience
My main takeaway is many can learn from building an experience from international stores and building more relevant shopping experiences.
>> Acquired’s long form interview with Howard Schultz on Starbucks history, strategic moves & why being wrong made Starbucks right
My main takeaway is even when you are a listed company with millions in sales even larger brands will treat you badly (Coca Cola in this instance) and their competitors will leap at the chance to collaborate. I have experienced this a number of times and it rarely ends badly…
Must Reads Drop 0724
This wee I brought back my must reads newsletter from a seven month sabbatical. I now call the newsletter a drop, it will likely be monthly, a little more like a mixtape was than a weekly newsletter.
Why The Sabbatical? We are in the biggest content tsunami we have ever been, constantly bombarded by content, whether thats video, audio, web or app based content and to be honest it is hard to cut through, especially in an email newsletter.
The Backstory: For nearly ten years every week without fail I sent out Must Reads, firstly as an internal newsletter and then once a handful of people asked me I opened it up and broaden it out further.
Why Bring Back Now: I have been writing daily on this blog, I wanted to get back into the flow of content creation and curation and then see how it felt to write it. I actually have 3 drafts that I never sent as it didn’t quite feel right or land well enough when I sent to myself.
So rather than copying and pasting it, here are the 5 most popular stories and my Netflix deepdive:
Most popular top down
BNPL to attempt to replace credit cards (what could go wrong)
Netflix 80 games release (to leverage IP and become gaming relevant)
Charli XCX summer of brat taking over (if you’re in Marketing or Growth dive deep into this music and cultural push)
Netflix Deeper Dive
Netflix Expansion Issue: Gaming is Netflix’s newest approach to capturing and owning your time and attention, the issue for Netflix it’s costing the consumer more money (away from ad tiers) and their bet isn’t paying off for now. Research is showing it’s only one game that is remotely popular. The same happened with other brands, but will this large investment be worth the added pain and expense for the consumer I highly doubt it in the short to mid-term.
Netflix's Game Portfolio is Dominated by a Single Game
Netflix is using the classic dominant media company playbook, leverage your own IP and create more media and games around it, even suggesting 80 games based on their IP. They attempted this already with podcasts but maybe this is the way to win in gaming and owning more of your time on multiple devices. LinkedIn (yes LinkedIn), YouTube and Netflix are all competing to be your canonical media company whether that’s through native content, entertainment series or games.
Below is a quote from Netflix’s shareholder letter about the importance of advertising to Netflix moving forward, with the pricing packages going up to be more profitable; the quality of its programming and cultural relevance of programmes are going to be critical for their success and continuing to open our wallets each month.
“Ads fulfil two important strategic priorities for Netflix: first they enable us to offer lower prices to consumers; and second, they create an additional revenue and profit stream for the business.”