Month: July 2017

  • What does a great email look like?

    I often end up with my head in the data and need to check myself to ensure that the basics are happening. This was a deck that I pulled together on what does a great email look like? Why email marketing? Because it still works and provides relatively good value in terms of marketing spend.…

  • Audrey Li + more things

    My friend and former colleague Audrey Li wrote a great rambling essay. Audrey’s family live in a small town / village in Sichuan province. Sichuan is in the west of China. The essay covers WeChat, payments, crime and the party’s fight against pollution. WeChat scams are surprisingly common for an authoritarian regime that surveils everything.…

  • Rosemary Smith + more things

    Rosemary Smith is a 79 year old Dublin woman who owned her own driving school. But from the 1960s through the 1970s Rosemary was one of the world’s foremost rally drivers. With the right support, Smith could have done so much more. Part of her problem is that motorsport is still a very privileged sport.…

  • China Inc. + other news

    Xi’s Sign-Off Deals Blow to China Inc.’s Global Spending Spree – WSJ – China Inc. a mix of brands from those that aren’t known in the property development space to the owners of House of Fraser or Weetabix. I was speaking to a technology start-up who talked about raising their funds and getting them in…

  • IDM model + more things

    IDM model no longer viable for Japan semiconductor industry: Q&A with Socionext CEO Yasuo Nishiguchi – fascinating read. Understanding the IDM model is crucial to understanding the semiconductor industry and technological developments to date. Sky Garden (Stoned Moon) | Robert Rauschenberg Foundation – my favourite work from Rauschenberg’s commission in 1969 by the NASA Art…

  • Blade Runner 2049 & other things that made my day this week

    A new Blade Runner 2049 trailer, the suspense is killing me regarding how Blade Runner 2049 will stake up against Ridley Scott’s original film. Blade Runner was the last truly great analogue film and yet it is still difficult for digital to surpass the originals visual impact. McDonald’s seems to be going hard on supporting…

  • Living with the Apple Watch

    I got the first iteration of the Apple Watch and managed to put up with it for about 48 hours before giving up on it. I have managed to persevere with the the Apple Watch 2. Apple managed to speed up the performance of glanceable content, but it still doesn’t have the use case nailed.…

  • Samsung smartphone + more

    Samsung smartphone sales Samsung Smartphone Sales – Korean analysts report that the Galaxy S8 is Selling 20% below last year’s S7 – not terribly surprising. The market is mature and Samsung smartphone sales will be losing ground to the Chinese Android players like OnePlus, Huawei and ZTE. Samsung smartphone sales are caught between two prongs.…

  • Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

    I took the opportunity in June to re-read Daniel Kahneman’s work Thinking Fast and Slow. Kahneman uses storytelling from key points in his career to take the audience on a journey through biases and better decision-making. From a book that is obviously aimed at a consumer audience it has an outsized impact on marketers. After…