Ben Essen
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Articles by Ben Essen
And The Hottest News From Cannes Is…
Iris' Global CSO talks about how creativity can make sustainability more desirable So obviously, the only thing happening on the planet last week was the Cannes Lions. My feed is a slideshow of badges, winners, yachts and chat about what to do about AI. Yet those few advertising folk still stuck in London will have noticed a rival event taking place: Climate Action Week.
Fragmentation is the biggest threat to your brand - So don’t feed it.
The marketing industry loves a specialism. Social. Search. PR. Retail media. Influencers. Commerce. Each with its own owners and optimisation logic. But outside our bubble, those boundaries do not exist. People move from streaming to scrolling to searching to shopping, often inside the same decision. This means that while the media ecosystem might be fragmented from a practitioner’s perspective, people’s real world experience of media is the opposite. More seamless and joined up than ever.
Have Brands Outgrown Mental Availability?
For the past few decades, advertising has followed a clear rule: build memory. Create distinctive assets. Repeat them. Stay mentally available so that when the buying moment arrives, your brand comes to mind first. Much of the most effective work of the last half-century was built on that principle. But the conditions that made it powerful are changing. As AI reshapes the way we explore the world, human memory is becoming less central to how many choices are made.
When the rules-based order is in collapse, marketers must embrace the chaos
Whether you’re watching the news or reading Brooklyn’s feed, these past few weeks have been another reminder that the rules-based order is in collapse. Agreements that once felt immovable are now conditional; norms are being ignored in plain sight. Power is no longer exercised through institutions, but through momentum, influence, and reaction. In the real world, we see this clearly. In marketing, we remain in denial.
Let’s call Zipcar’s demise what it really is: A Marketing Failure
Last week was the first full week back at work for people who relied on Zipcar. New bookings ceased after 31 December, and suddenly a service many of us quietly depended on simply isn’t there. For me, that moment landed hard. 20 years ago, when I moved back to London, I sold my Ford Escort. It felt like a sensible rebellion against the absurdity of owning two tonnes of metal to travel five miles. Less sensible was how I sold it.
Think Ecosystems, Not Audiences: B2B2C Without the Hyphen
The marketing industry loves its labels. B2B. B2C. D2C. Each comes with its own playbook, metrics and specialist agencies. But outside our bubble, that distinction doesn’t exist. Business buyers are also consumers. Procurement leads are also parents, partners and fans. And consumers increasingly judge a brand not only by the product they receive but by the companies, suppliers and systems behind it.
Forget Newton. It’s time for quantum marketing
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Advertising in the age of atomised fame
Financial Times journalist Elaine Moore began the year by lamenting that today’s A-listers aren’t famous enough to draw big crowds like the screen icons of the past. Young stars, like Zendaya and Paul Mescal (both 28), are struggling to open movies on the strength of their name alone because they can’t cultivate cross-generational audiences, notes Moore.
Psychology behind the rise of SMEs: big brands, take notes
Small businesses are having a big moment. SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) are quietly reshaping the UK’s economy, by doing what many big brands struggle to do: connect, pivot, and stand out. While big names might hog the spotlight, it’s the SMEs that are winning in loyalty, adaptability and consumer trust, often on a shoestring budget. As nearly half of these businesses plan to boost their marketing spend next year, the question for larger brands is: what can they learn?
Reversing the doomscroll: participation not spectatorship
As we find ourselves bombarded with a relentless stream of curated perfection and perpetual doom-laden news, it’s worth asking: when was the last time you felt truly present ‘in the moment’? When was the last time you took a photo without immediately thinking about how it would turn out on your social media? We live in a time where there is more content to consume, yet more people than ever before feel isolated, disengaged, and dissatisfied.
Should your brand hop on that trend?
Whether it was on your For You Page or yet another marketer’s LinkedIn analysis, you’ve likely heard the news — The Girls have packed away their Brat starter packs and are embracing a ‘very mindful, very demure’ outlook this season. This swift turnover is par for the course in the short shelf-life of TikTok memes and microtrends. In the age before algorithms, trends once enjoyed a 5-10 year life cycle, dictated by fashion houses and disseminated by celebrities.
Fame is no longer just for big brands
If you weren’t being talked about at the office water cooler, you weren’t being talked about. By definition, brand fame means ‘communicating with mass audiences’ with ‘universal meaning’, according to Marketing Society analysis. This thinking has its roots in Byron Sharp’s How Brands Grow, which asserts that ‘mass exposure’ is the only way to lodge your brand into someone’s brain. In other words, something isn’t famous unless your mum knows about it.
David Hasselhoff joins PlanetPlay's fight against climate change
This week, actor and singer David Hasselhoff (‘The Hoff’) joined the world’s leading video game studios and influencers in supporting PlanetPlay’s Make Green Tuesday Moves (MGTM) initiative. PlanetPlay is a not-for-profit platform that enables video game players to help fight climate change through in-game purchases and gameplay. As of 2 July, each participating game has launched a series of green items featuring ‘The Hoff’ to help fund sustainability causes.
illy partners with Feels Like to launch e-commerce platform
Premium Coffee brand illy has partnered with design and innovation studio Feels Like to launch a new e-commerce platform. The new digital identity aims to position illy as a high-end, premium coffee brand with sustainability in focus. Oriol Castellar, Art Director at Feels Like, said, ‘Together with illycaffè, we built an online space that’s all about the joy of coffee. A place that reflects illy’s dedication to providing the world’s finest coffee with sustainability at its core.
Four Favourite Books: Sarah Yeats
My reading has been focused around the subjects of purpose and sustainability, and all that comes with this. The aim has been to help me develop a deeper understanding of the matters I really care about, to make sure my actions serve a true and positive purpose, in both a business and personal sense. There is No Planet B, by Mike Berners-Lee As an individual who deeply values the environment and the future of our planet, reading this book has been a captivating and enlightening experience.
Q&A: Ethica's Mariana Silva on her sustainable fashion hub
Can you tell us more about you and Ethica? What’s the idea behind your project, and why sustainability? Ethica – Sustainable Fashion Hub is an online platform that serves brands and consumers that are looking for more sustainable patterns of fashion consumption.
Q&A: isla's Alex Camacho on how there's no sustainability without creativity
In this interview we spoke to isla’s Community and Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Alex Camacho, to find out how to creativity can be elegantly injected into communications to effectively hit more more environmental goals. Note: isla works with agencies, brands, organisers and suppliers to provide guidance and support on environmental issues. Hi Alex, good to talk. So, first off, in your experience, how exactly does creativity drive sustainability?
How can we be happier on social media?
When the Smithsonian finds us ‘historically unhappy‘ it’s no leap to place part of the blame at the predominant communications technology of our time — social media. Never before has half the planet shared the same media platforms with their opportunity for continuous comparison with everyone else.
Stimulating change while preserving the core
The new wave of digitally savvy, always-on, content and technology-led brands has shaken up many markets from bookselling, to opticians, to villa letting to the music industry. They have disrupted the old order of things. Brands like Amazon, Warby Parker, Airbnb and Spotifyhave done things differently — focusing on performance marketing, emphasising functional benefits and in some cases making the CMO report to the Chief Consumer Officer or the Chief Growth Officer.
Rising Inflation May Sideline Cause-Related Marketing
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5 Ways To Reinvent Business Travel For Sustainability
While other MediaPost newsletters and articles remain free to all ... our new Research Intelligencer service is reserved for paid subscribers ... Subscribe today to gain access to every Research Intelligencer article we publish as well as the exclusive daily newsletter, full access to The MediaPost Cases, first-look research and daily insights from Joe Mandese, Editor in Chief. Become a subscriber today! If you're already a paid subscriber, please sign-in. Username Password Forgot?
Rising Inflation May Sideline Cause-Related Marketing
by Ben Essen , 6 minutes ago Let’s take it back to 2021, when everyone dreamed vividly about the post-pandemic world and all its potential, forecasting post-COVID realities where masks would become a thing of the past and the economy would right itself. Unfortunately, it's safe to say that not only is COVID still part of our daily lives, but that 2022 has been economically complicated so far. Gas prices are far higher than we would like.
BITE trends, thinking & inspiration
Trend Should brands be joining in on the Clubhouse fun? Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Socialbakers Yuval Ben-Itzhak, President at Socialbakers explores what the rise of this new social app means for brands and their marketing teams. March 1st 2021 Read More Trend A move to the minimal Liam McHugh, Missouri Creative Liam McHugh, Design Director at Missouri Creative writes that brand logos are being simplified because the world around them is more complex.
MINI UK: A not normal relationship
This case study explains how Mini, the car model owned by BMW, created a participatory social media and digital out of home campaign to engage consumers in the UK. Automakers & marques Compact, small family cars United Kingdom Strategy Ben Essen Brand owner: BMWAgency: Iris Worldwide (creative); Vizeum (media)Brand: MINI UKCountry: UK Ask a recent VW Golf purchaser why he didn't choose a MINI and he'll say 'with MINI you're... WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading Not a subscriber?
Embrace the outliers: Abandoning certainty will unlock the creative qualities of big data
This article argues that the term 'big data' reinforces the creativity-hindering idea that more data can give us more certainty. Big data theories & ideas Strategy Ben EssenIRIS The term 'Big Data' implies scale, objectivity and quantification – and in doing so reinforces the creativity-hindering idea that more data can... WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading Not a subscriber?
WARC Webinar: Does Big Data inspire or hinder creative thinking?
This presentation accompanies the Warc Webinar, 'Does Big Data inspire or hinder creative thinking?'. Strategy WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading Not a subscriber? WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing Prove your case and back-up your idea Get expert guidance on strategic challenges Tackle current and emerging marketing themes We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively.
WARC Webinar: Does Big Data inspire or hinder creative thinking?
This webinar explores the opportunities in Big Data and how to realise them. Data management Creativity & effectiveness Account planning, strategic planning Creativity & research Strategy Download slides Ben Essen (Head of Planning, Iris and winner of the Admap Prize 2015)Colin Grimshaw (Editor, Admap) 'Embrace the Outliers' by Ben Essen The Admap Prize 2015 Watch more webinars... WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading Not a subscriber?
“Advertised emissions”: A vital new metric to help the industry tackle climate change
“Advertised emissions”: A vital new metric to help the industry tackle climate change Grace Kite, Jonathan Wise and Ben Essen This article outlines research by Purpose Disruptors and magic numbers concerning the environmental impact of incremental sales generated by advertising in the UK, and how the industry can respond. Additional sales from advertising add 28% to the annual carbon footprint of every single person in the UK.
You are what you need. Personalisation according to Confucius
We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC.
How Domino's repositioned itself from pizza delivery to mealtime solution
This article examines the journey undertaken by the UK branch of pizza brand Domino's as it reacted to the rise of brands disrupting the food delivery sector by reimagining itself as a digital-first mealtime solution. Restaurants & takeaways United Kingdom Strategy Domino's reacted to the new food delivery competitors by repositioning from pizza to a full mealtime solution for specific occasions, days of the week and TV viewing... WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading Not a subscriber?
MINI UK: A 'Not Normal' relationship
MINI UK: A 'Not Normal' relationship Ben Essen and Farhann Cachra This case study describes how Mini, the car manufacturer, attracted new customers by focussing on existing customers and their love for the brand in the UK. MINI UK: A 'Not Normal' relationship Principal authors: Ben Essen, Iris; Farhann Cachra, Vizeum UKContributing authors: Jerry Pu and Jack Gibbon, iris London; James Hankins, Vizeum UK MINI – A 'Not Normal' relationship How celebrating the 'Not Normal'...
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