Views

The marketing world according to Midge

They’ve told me to write a blog using the words “marketing agency Leeds”

I have never been short of an opinion, but my reticence in writing a Blog (short for Weblog) has always been the fact that I have never thought of a subject to write one on. It’s a bit like a tattoo. When I was younger, tattoos were for real men who were in the Army or Navy and had been through stuff. Or just blokes who were hard. But I could never decide what to get.  And I wasn’t a Marine Commando or hard. So I didn’t. And now everyone has one and I feel like the rebel for not having playing cards on my neck or snakes up my arm.

The second reason I have never written a Weblog (as I shall be calling it from now on) is that I can’t imagine anyone being that interested in what I have to say. Normally when driving to meetings and people can’t get away, I lecture whoever is in the car with me about the world according to Midge – from my views on sea plastic to the lack of jingles in modern advertising (tragic) to how to discipline children (you don’t want to know). Or on running and owning a marketing agency in Leeds (see what I did there).

But it would appear that people do want me to write stuff down and publish it on a website and let people comment on it.

So I asked what people want to hear. The usual about what are the predictions for this year to how to keep talent coming in to marketing were thrown around.

My Predictions

No one can predict what is going to happen this year. Even the people who shape the future can’t tell you what they are going to do. The biggest renunciation of responsibility ever known to Great Britain and the UK of allowing a completely unqualified nation to vote on a subject that they know nothing about and were completely disinclined to find out. What it showed however were a couple of quite interesting points with regards to marketing:

No one can be on the fence anymore

You were either a lefty Corbynista who loved being told what to do by Brussels or a goggle-eyed racist who wanted everyone thrown out and a return to a 1940s Britain that never existed. And by the way it’s the same in the US and it is becoming the same in culture and religion. If you are not with me, you must be against me.

Don’t assume what people will do

People don’t like it when you tell them you know what they are thinking and you assume what they will do. The one surefire way to get the working classes of the north and mid-west to do something they might not want to do, is for the liberal middle class elite in London or New York or Los Angeles to tell them they can’t.

“The people have spoken”

I know 3 is more than a couple, but the other interesting thing is when politicians say “the people have spoken”. Since when is 52% to 48% a resounding victory? I was missing on the day they did statistics at uni but I’m sure you wouldn’t change the whole future of a country based on such a fine margin of error.

I tried to find some marketing issues out of a stream of consciousness.

Maybe next time we will focus on the 10 year challenge of setting up and running a marketing agency in Leeds. Or how to retain the best talent in marketing agencies in Leeds. Or more importantly my tips on disciplining children.

Tune in next time or better still ask me for a lift.

Richard Midgley, Group Planning Director

Want better?
Let’s talk