Two things caught my eye this morning. First, Amazon was founded 25 years ago today. With 1994 on my mind, I then spotted a recent YouGov poll which revealed that Britons think that life was better in the past six decades and are most nostalgic for the 1990s. I’m aghast when I see surveys like this. We’re not living in Utopia. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And yes, I can see why the past appeals. We were all younger of course. Fewer wrinkles. More hair. But what’s ha

Are you an addict? You might be. Let me explain. We all enjoy a bit of what behavioural economists call confirmation bias. We gravitate towards articles, or commentators whose world view corresponds with ours. We do this because we are addicts. When we find opinions that validate our experience, the brain releases a tiny dose of dopamine, a feel-good chemical that gives us a sense of wellbeing, that all is good with the world. It’s why we return constantly to the newspapers,

I’m still astonished when people say that business-to-business copy-writing is dull. Even more amazed when they talk about technology in the same breath. Perhaps I’ve been lucky to work with some of the most inspiring tech businesses of the past decade or so. Maybe it’s because I’m a geek with an arts degree who’s fascinated by the impact of technology on society. Either way, I’m obsessed with the way in which our world is changing, faster than ever before. And I get a kick o

See this slide? This slide is your favourite content from all those e-commerce, e-platforming conferences of the past couple of years. And the EU says it’s dead. This is a big deal. In a ruling, announced this morning, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that Uber is a transport company, refuting Uber’s argument that “it is a computer services business with operations that should be subject to an EU directive governing e-commerce and prohibiting restrictions on the estab

A decade since the launch of the iPhone, it’s easy to take for granted the way in which it transformed communication, marketing and content. But back in 2007, the first-generation device was being marketed as a phone (yes really) and the app store and all that followed were far from becoming reality. But it was a revolution. I remember seeing my first iPhone in a passport queue in JFK airport in the autumn of that year. Compared with the incremental advances in mobile and ear

In 1981 a long-playing record cost nearly £5.00. That’s about £20 in today’s money. Why does this matter? Bear with me. I’m imagining how I’d describe the world in 2017 to my teenage self. Back then buying music was simple. Save up every month for one record. Listen at leisure. Start thinking about the next purchase in about four weeks’ time. So, I imagine asking the question. “If £5.00 buys you 10 songs in 1981, how many songs can you get for £5 (£20 in today’s money) in 201

After recovering from injury, I’m back in long-distance training for a couple of marathons this year. At the same time, I’m stepping up my writing, helping to tell great stories across all our digital channels, including social media. Writing and running? More in common than you might think. Here are 10 reasons why. Go ahead and add your own in the comments below. 1. It takes 40 minutes to warm up. You can have a rotten first few miles, the introductory paragraphs may be tort

You may remember that at the start of the year I purged my Twitter diet of scheduling tools, curating apps and any form of automation. I even abandoned lists for Tweet’s sake. The goal was to consume, share and engage with other users using only my home stream. So how did this experiment in Clean Tweeting go? Like any detox, it was tough to begin with. My social media schedule went out the window. Without Buffer and Pocket, I was spending more than an hour a day dipping in an

Everyone’s a writer these days. From tweets to LinkedIn posts, from blogs to white papers, writing skills are high up the menu for anyone working in a business that relies on content for digital marketing. But even when you’ve got a great idea for a blog, for example, there are plenty of obstacles between that cranial light-bulb moment and a good first draft. And many of them fall under that dreaded condition, writers’ block. Normally experienced at the start of the drafting

What’s front of mind for content strategists right now? I’m not claiming that this is a comprehensive list, far from it. But for me it reflects some of the most important issues on the table today. Here goes, and by all means add your suggestions in the comments at the end. How to write: Yes, there’s more to content than copy. Video currently grabs the engagement headlines, photos and banners will all drive up shares, clicks and likes. But pretty much every ‘unit’ of content