Iain Aitch
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Author, journo, thought leadership, media consultant, ideas. Artsy working class social history. now mostly on bsky.app/profile/iainaitch.bsky.social
Articles by Iain Aitch
Iain Aitch on LinkedIn
Iain Aitch’s Post Unique senior copywriter, storyteller, strategist & thought leadership consultant. Writer of engaging content & new ideas. Specialist in data, AI, LLMs, culture, architecture, history, construction, SDGs, charity, health 55m Edited I have a dilemma. One of my non-negotiables is NO WANKERS. Can you say that on Linkedin? What I mean is no clients who are just awful people. The ones who scream, shout and demand the impossible.
How can I become successful at thought leadership?
When it comes to thought leadership, there is a simple explanation that I give to all my clients as to what it is. Despite being a buzz phrase that they have all heard of, not all of them come to me knowing what it is. But my explanation of how to best do it is even more simple. It is this: You need some original thoughts and you need to be a leader, or at least want to be one pretty soon.
Who re-brands the branding agencies?
Gaining new contracts can sometimes be problematic when you can’t speak about who your last client was, or what you did for them. Yet this is a situation I often find myself in. I’m not exactly meeting new clients down dark alleyways, but it can sometimes feel a little like that. “Come alone, no cops… or other agencies.” I am talking about the work that I do for (often) agencies who have made a name for themselves doing the kind of work I do for them. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?
Introvert extroverts, meetings, pitches and asides
When it came to the pandemic lockdowns, there were few better equipped to cope than writers. With the majority of us being work from home natives who are happy in our own company, we took to the new world of work like a duck to water. We had all the hardware and software in place, along with the all important comfortable office chair and desk. We’d already purloined enough pens, pencils and notepads from in-house jobs, awaydays and meetings to keep us going for a decade-long lockdown.
Don't you know, the only way to change things, is to shoot men who curate things?
Until that moment, the conversation had painted the locals as savages. Swinging from the branches of Poundland for amusement, Between bouts of injecting heroin into their eyeballs. Kill a Kosovan and win a Ford Ka, as they had it. The shock in their faces prefaced the condescension by mere milliseconds. "I thought you seemed... different." This was year zero. 2006. The day that the art arrived, with a buffet, And with snobbery. Pearls, even.
I hate Zoom. Let's do a Zoom
In lockdown, no one can hear you scream. Especially if you are on mute. While Zoom/Teams meetings seemed like a joyous liberation back in March 2020, they now seem like a special kind of torture. I avoid them if I can. BUT, I am now willing to jump back in. So long as you put your deck to one side and quit PowerPoint. Promise? Okay. The one thing I am hearing from those who work in offices is that creativity is at an all-time low.
An idea for Sir Keir Starmer
Nature abhors a vacuum. Rolling news channels abhor one even more. Yet, during the last week of the pandemic one has been allowed to exist. Midweek, the government abandoned its daily press conference. This was an odd piece of timing, coinciding as it did with the easing of lockdown, a mini-heatwave and the continuing Robert Jenrick scandal. With this in mind, the Labour Party could do worse than take on this slot themselves.
Time to get Evens
As far as legendary music venues go, The Klondyke Snooker and Bowls Club in Levenshulme, Manchester is hardly up there with The Marquee, CBGBs or the 100 Club, but that is precisely why it is playing home to Washington DC duo The Evens early on a Thursday evening. It is not that the band could not fill a venue larger than the floral-wallpapered 150-capacity social club backroom, nor is it some kind of low-key warm up date.
Speaking as a weirdo and misfit with odd skills…
The big news story of the last 24-hours — seemingly overshadowing the kick-off of World War III and Australia burning to the ground — is the fact that Dominic Cummings is looking to hire some new staff for №10. The job ad (if you can call it that) is a doozy. It pretty much slags off the civil service and paints Cummings himself as a maverick outsider running a start-up. It’s surprising that he doesn’t mention a list of nearby vegan pop-ups or the in-house table tennis league.
dominic cummings job ad
The big news story of the last 24-hours – seemingly overshadowing the kick-off of World War III and Australia burning to the ground – is the fact that Dominic Cummings is looking to hire some new staff for No.10. The job ad (if you can call it that) is a doozy. It pretty much slags off the civil service and paints Cummings himself as a maverick outsider running a start-up. It’s surprising that he doesn’t mention a list of nearby vegan pop-ups or the in-house table tennis league.
Save our souls
Margate is a ghost town. That’s not to say it’s dead, or even that it resembles the Ghost Town that The Specials sung about in 1981. Although it once did. Too much fighting on the dance floor, apparently. No. What I mean is that Margate is a town of ghosts. It is built on lost dreams, lost ships and lost innocence. Lost souls. To be honest, It’s mostly the lost souls. You can see them out of the corner of your eye on the stone pier. The Stone Pier. Never the Harbour Arm. Leaping. Falling. Flailing.
Jumping the shark with a terrier
The launch of Huddersfield Town’s new football kit has been causing something of a stir on social media, inevitably leading to coverage in the actual media. The outrage is coming from Terriers fans and fans of other clubs alike, mostly lambasting the club for defiling the kit with a huge Paddy Power sash, which has been compared to a beauty show sash or hen party accessory. At first, I thought the kit launch was a stunt. But now I am not so sure.
Extinction Rebellion On The Buses (and tubes and trains)
Extinction Rebellion (XR) is all about ideas. Not all of them new, but some executed in a novel manner. Like it or not, the small-but-organised grouping is managing to get a lot of media attention by doing things a little differently. In London, the group started off with a kind of arty soft launch (a parade and nudity in the Commons) before moving on to blocking major junctions and then public transport.
Brothers and Sisters, a bit of hush for the beauty queen
It may seem somewhat strange nowadays, but trades unions once held their own beauty contests. Many workplaces did the same, especially the manufacturing factories in the Thanet area. There is no date on the clipping, but this would have been around 1974. Here is Janet Hughes, winning the Miss AUEW contest at the Margate Winter Gardens. Now merged, merged and merged again into Unite The Union, the AUEW is now a thing of the past, as are trades union beauty shows.
Copywriting - THIS IDEA
Posted on April 20, 2017 by Iain Aitch - Updated January 18, 2019 I create engaging copy that people want to read. Several clients tell me that my pages are the most visited on their websites. I am also adept at creating shareable copy and articles that act as PR for clients.
You bet I'm hostile
Posted on January 21, 2019 by Iain Aitch - Updated January 20, 2019 I’m not naturally hostile. Honest. But having a shaven head creates certain reactions. As does having a working class accent. So, when you have both, people make certain assumptions. Sometimes I like to play up to them. After all, it gets me work. But, accent and haircut or not, I have spent the past few years developing a skill that is becoming more and more desirable. What is more, I enjoy it. I’m hostile for cash.
The Gillette #MeToo ad is PR, not an advertisement
The new Gillette ad is not an advert. It is a PR campaign. The advertisement/movie entitled We Believe has been viewed over 3 million times in a couple of days. Far more views than the brand would get for some dad foaming up, or a celebrity combining sports skills with a quick shave. With appointment to view TV dead in the water, the brands need to find new ways to grab an audience. Pissing people off is just one way to achieve that.
Why I don't work for betting companies
I wrote this post about betting way back in the summer and thought it sounded somewhat self-indulgent. But, as sometimes happens, my heart needed to allow time for my brain (and perhaps mass opinion) to catch up. So, here it is. Why I am eschewing one of the more lucrative markets for writers nowadays. I have now edited it to detail some of my work with those in debt and those who have gambling problems. I like a bet. Although I have been doing it less of late.
Just because they're big ideas...
Part of having ideas for a living is rejecting what can initially seem like good ones. Maybe even the best ideas. That may sound hard, but it’s not. You’ve already had five others that morning and, even though this initially seemed like the best one, you can just let it go. But not everyone can work like this. Those who struggle with ideas can see any idea as a sunk cost. They’ve struggled with it, agonised over it and obsessed about it.
Content is everywhere, so why the **** is it not in your window?
Content should always be tailored to the business. It is your voice in the outside world. An important part of that content is, naturally, sales content. It is the nub of all business. You want to sell, whether that is your new gadget, a fruit juice or charity. This is why I am also so surprised when businesses fail to do this in the real world and the virtual world. I’m looking at you food and drinks businesses. And I am particularly thinking of restaurants and cafés.
Me too, him too, her too. Yawn. - THIS IDEA
Me too is a reflex. And you know what? It works. For a while at least. After all, the zeitgeist is where it is at. It is also relatively inexpensive, as it doesn’t involve a whole lot of thinking. When it comes to marketing, PR and advertising, me too can work like a charm. Just photocopy someone else’s ideas and ride their wave. But me too has a limited shelf-life and hinges on what is now a very limited attention span.
Toby Young, Spiked, Katie Hopkins and how stupid stopped being the new clever - THIS IDEA
Being rude, crude, un-fact-checked, or even downright racist, had, until recently, been the path to power and influence for those using the media to build a career. Katie Hopkins was top of the columnist pile, Nigel Farage had Question Time as his own and little Toby Young was appointed by a chum to a government post to stir up the lefties and the oiks. Only no one reckoned with the fallout from the Trump presidency and the subsequent Weinstein A-Bomb.
Content quality or content quantity? - THIS IDEA
A new client recently asked me why they should hire me when they could probably get three content farmers from a freelance-for-hire site for the fee I was asking for. Good question. Here’s the answer. And yes, they hired me. Content is a question of quality AND quantity. That is not to say that you can’t do well in searches with a LOT of fairly average content. It’s probably a good idea if you don’t have a lot to spend, or a lot to say.
Not meeting expectations
Those attending Newham’s full council last night (4 December) may have been expecting fireworks, given that the loss of £52m of public funds in the London Stadium debacle had just been confirmed. But, in the end, any protest by councillors was limited to a whimper, rather than a bang. In truth, it was all over bar the shouting by the time the meeting began. Only there was no shouting.
How Kevin Spacey changed crisis PR forever - THIS IDEA
Kevin Spacey’s PR team must have been initially pleased with themselves as the story broke over his alleged sexual assault of a a then 14-year-old Anthony Rapp. Their client was accused of pretty much the worst thing you can be accused of, yet the initial headlines were about Kevin Spacey coming out as a gay man. Spacey’s team had time to strategise, write and re-write, prepared by months of rumour and some solid Twitter accusations.
How Kevin Spacey changed crisis PR forever – Iain Aitch – Medium
Kevin Spacey’s PR team must have been initially pleased with themselves as the story broke over his alleged sexual assault of a a then 14-year-old Anthony Rapp. Their client was accused of pretty much the worst thing you can be accused of, yet the initial headlines were about Kevin Spacey coming out as a gay man. Spacey’s team had time to strategise, write and re-write, prepared by months of rumour and some solid Twitter accusations.
Modern day mining - THIS IDEA
“Have you got all this in a spreadsheet?” This is often my question upon arriving at a business and a new client tells me all about their customer base. Most often, the answer is ‘no’. Most often this answer comes from a business that does a good degree of business online and most of it via a computer in some way or other. The beauty of modern business is that it comes with a slew of data.
Take notes, they could just be everything - THIS IDEA
I am often asked for the one tip that I would give to writers, journalists, copywriters and, well, just about anyone who writes. My answer is always the same, whether you write for a living or for fun. Take notes. Get a notebook. Fill it. Then fill another one. And so on. 90% of what you write down will be irrelevant at best and incomprehensible at worst. Those who take notes religiously know only too well the feeling of going back through their notes and wondering just who the hell wrote them.
Be the odd one out - THIS IDEA
Truly great ideas seemingly come out of nowhere. Flashes of inspiration that suddenly fight their way into your cerebral cortex and out of your mouth or on to the page. Only it doesn’t really work like that. Every idea you have, no matter how left-field or out-of-character it may be, is a product of your environment, your learning and your past. Nothing is created in a vacuum, so you will wear your influences, whether that is on your sleeve or deep in your heart. In many cases, this is great.
You're shit (and you know you are) - THIS IDEA
A fellow writer recently posted a question. Someone had sent them a woeful press release. Spelling mistakes, dire copy, factual errors. The whole lot. Should they say anything to the PR company who sent it? Some time ago, my answer would have been to ignore it. Let it go. But I have changed my tune in the last couple of years, not least because I have seen so much poor work and sloppy execution of half-baked ideas, in both PR and journalism.
Writers are horrible people, which is exactly why you need to hire them
Writers are seldom good people. You would only need to take a cursory look at their emails, messaging accounts or notebooks to see that. It is the job of writers to push the envelope and think so far outside the box that it may as well be on fire, in another country. They think the unthinkable, share gallows humour of the worst kind and live in fear of their Google search and internet histories being revealed. They’re awful. Don’t let your son or daughter marry one. They’re maniacs.
Writers are horrible people, which is exactly why you need to hire them - THIS IDEA
Writers are seldom good people. You would only need to take a cursory look at their emails, messaging accounts or notebooks to see that. It is the job of writers to push the envelope and think so far outside the box that it may as well be on fire, in another country. They think the unthinkable, share gallows humour of the worst kind and live in fear of their Google search and internet histories being revealed. They’re awful. Don’t let your son or daughter marry one. They’re maniacs.
5 ways to just have ideas - THIS IDEA
Ideas are difficult. Everyone has some. But not everyone has enough, or enough good ones at least. Of course, some are better at having ideas than others, but there are ways that you can find to help you actually have ideas in the first place. Some of them involve you creating space for thinking, whereas others rely on you distracting your mind and emptying your head. Both can work equally, but here are my five favourite ways to have ideas. My sure-fire guide to thinking creatively.
Ideas from in-house? How does creativity in an office even work? - THIS IDEA
From time to time, I am offered a job. I know, I know, it’s hard to believe that someone would wish to have me in their office on a full-time, permanent basis. But it happens at least once a month now. It’s getting worrying. This strange phenomenon happens despite me clearly stating on sites such as LinkedIn that I really do not want a ‘real’ job. The salaries are not bad either. Usually.
Hey! That's my idea! - THIS IDEA
An idea can be useless passing thought, or the route to fame and fortune. Some people place a huge amount of importance on their protection. Whereas other prefer to let them go free. Less experienced copywriters, authors and journalists will worry about people ‘stealing their ideas’. As if the notion to interview Brad Pitt or a hot take on fidget spinners has only occurred to them. But, shocking as it may be… Of course, this applies strictly to ideas that have had nothing done with them.
That is a terrible idea - THIS IDEA
Ideas are subjective things. They provoke emotions. Love or hate, usually. If it’s a maybe then it’s probably not good enough. You really want ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I like to think that my ideas are great. But some of them are terrible. Those are usually the best ones. It’s subjective, you see. Keep up. Working in ideas is a strange pastime, but you have to remember that although daring people have hired you, they can become less risk-positive when presenting the results to their boss or to their board.
Please don't hire me, I don't give a damn for your mission - THIS IDEA
Many start-up bosses don’t understand how the world works. How many? A LOT. As a consultant, I see this all the time. Newly-minted CEOs (or their head of HR) will issue a tender or get in touch with a blurb about their business and what they need. Somewhere up near the top will be the desire for someone who is ‘passionate about our mission’, or words to that effect. That is usually the point where the conversation ends for me.
How PR works in politics - THIS IDEA
The big political story this week has been the possibility of the ‘end of austerity’. This is being posited by the media as ‘stirrings’ against Theresa May. But I would posit it is anything but. So much so that I cannot believe a media-savvy, erm, media has missed the story and bitten the hook. For me, it is pure PR.
I am an ideological extremist - THIS IDEA
I was not a good kid at school. I was annoying. I asked questions. But not the ones you are supposed to. I wanted to know how history spoke to now, why only one opinion was being presented and how much my teacher was being paid. This led to lots of detentions. The form for these was to write an essay, which was usually a pointless piece of writing about your own behaviour and its consequences.
Stress testing ideas to the extreme - THIS IDEA
Political debate can be frustrating. Just when you think the representative of your ‘side’ has landed a knockout blow you see the opposing leader (or patsy) come back with something reasonable, well executed and stress-relieving. Before you have time to examine the answer, things have moved on. This is no mistake or coincidence. Each side will have rehearsed the potential questions and their own responses time and time again, whether for Prime Minister’s Questions or a TV debate.
How the **** do you sell ideas? - THIS IDEA
“How on earth does selling ideas work?” “You do what?” “Are you making this up?” “Is that even a job?” How do I get in on this?” These are just some of the reactions I get when I tell contacts, friends, family or acquaintances what I do for a living. Ideas are at the hub of everything, from business to faith, from politics to the arts. But they are so often neglected as an isolated part of a process. Some people are great at selling, organising, leading or creating.
Can you make us a viral? - THIS IDEA
“Can you make us a viral?” is something that I get asked a great deal. It’s an occupational hazard of selling ideas for a living. The answer is usually no and sometimes maybe, but never yes. You can guess at the formula, but it shifts constantly in the wind. What is seen as witty one week is try-hard the next. So, to give you a very live example, the above tweet, a flip remark on how a scene on Sky News looked as I watched my lunch, went viral yesterday and today.
When low tech trumps high tech in the election - THIS IDEA
Photos of this rather rude set of election flyers have been shared across social media this week, proving that people sometimes prefer ideas set out in low tech, old school ways. When all the funny is in gifs on social media, a still image on the street stands out. These are based on the sort of prostitution flyers you see in London’s phone boxes or stuck to lamp posts. Click on the above link to buy sets of postcards or posters based on them.
Iain Aitch
Iain Aitch has used his home town Margate extensively in his books and his journalism. He is the author of A Fete Worse Than Death and We’re British, Innit and has written for The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and The Times. He has worked with Dreamland, Turner Contemporary and Kent County Council on projects that meld art and local history, and is currently researching a new project on Margate beauty queens.
No-good punks - Brewdog run out of ideas
Disruptive brewing giant Brewdog seem to have finally run out of ideas. The brand markets itself as a punchy punk rock-themed brewer, but recent evidence has seen it displaying all the punk rock attitude of a pair of Primark bondage strides. It has become the shouty pub bore, the office joker in comedy socks. It’s the Christmas jumper of brands. Once a joke, now in the mainstream and just annoyingly unfunny after a few years.
Value for money? | forestgatedotnet on WordPress.com
Is £4m per job good value for our money, Sir Robin? The recent raids by HMRC at the London Stadium (Olympic Stadium in old money) may have had some Newham residents worrying about their £40m investment in West Ham’s new ground. The council tax-payer’s hard earned cash is due to be paid back over the next 40 years, but you may well wonder what we are getting for our investment, bar a few free tickets for Mayor Sir Robin Wales and his cabinet.
An election devoid of ideas - THIS IDEA
Launching the 2017 Conservative Party election manifesto, Theresa May said that people are not ideological. That is to say that they are not wedded to theory, beliefs or ideals. I’m sad to say that she may be right. Former staunch Labour voters in the north are considering a switch to the Tories. That would have been enough to prompt a fist fight in the past. But not so now.
Why do political parties create camels? - THIS IDEA
It is hard to be in the midst of a General Election campaign in the UK without considering the novel political ideas that are being put out there by the various parties. But the sad fact is that, perhaps as usual, they are largely absent. Yes, political ideologies and parties are based upon ideas and draw from yet more – often dusty old manifestos and economics journals. But those standing for office seldom come up with anything original, or even inspiring. Why is this?
The closed hand - THIS IDEA
There has been a great deal of fuss in media and advertising publications this week about the new McDonald’s ad that is not a McDonald’s ad, even though it is. Still with me? The story goes like this. Mindy Kaling, of the much-loved comedy The Mindy Project appears in a faux ad that mentions Coca Cola and Google, but never the burger chain that paid for the campaign. Instead, the ad instructs you to Google ‘that place where Coke tastes so good’.
On Radio 4 tomorrow
On Radio 4 tomorrow I shall be appearing on Radio 4’s Making History show tomorrow (Tuesday 6 September) at 3pm. I will be talking about my own work, the Miss Black and Beautiful show at Autograph ABP, 1st Century queens and even music hall star (and lost part of history) Gus Elen.
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