Weeknotes 25.13

Is "strategy" a dirty word right now?

Is "marketing strategy" a dirty word?

This week, Gareth Turner, founder of Big Black Door, ex head of Marketing at Weetabix, and previously in brand leadership roles at Arla and Heineken, and early-member of Outside Perspective takes the front-seat for the newsletter, asking if “marketing strategy” is becoming a vibe killer.

I've noticed a theme in my conversations with brands in the last couple of months.

For many, the phrase “marketing strategy” carries a frustrating connotation.

It can sound slow, theoretical, even like an excuse for inaction.

Not because they don’t believe in it, but because it feels like inertia.

Strategy sounds like something that happens in a PowerPoint, while action feels like progress.

People want action.

A new campaign, a refreshed brand, a social post that “gets out there.”

These are tangible, and feel like progress.

But is this bias toward immediacy making brands less effective in the long run?

The reality is that without a clear, thought-out direction, marketing becomes a scattergun effort, burning time and budget on tactics that don’t head in the right direction.

So I'm warming to the idea of talking about “growth planning” rather than "marketing strategy."

People seem to intuitively understand the importance of a proactive, dynamic process that ensures every action moves a brand towards a business objective.

Join the discussion in the comments… Are you seeing similar trends as Gareth? What’s your approach to selling in strategy, without it being seen as slow and less valuable?

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Who joined this week?

Each week, I’ll try to profile one of our members, so you get to know each other better, and find folk you might want to connect to. Shout if you fancy having your face here.

👋 Hi there I’m Claire Meadows

I’m a London-based "M"-shaped strategist—brand & integrated marketing at my core, with customer engagement, CX, and retail/commerce as my three key specialisms.

I’ve worked at agencies like Publicis, VCCP, and Geometry Global (now VML).

I actually started out as a Suit in agencies across London and New York, often doing strategy when no one was looking. In 2009/10, I made the full-time switch to Planning—best decision ever.

In 2024, two projects really stood out:

• A new strategic platform for a leading frozen food brand, creative is launching in March—can’t wait to see it out in the wild.

• A brilliant Eye Care project—part consultancy, part advertising, with a B2B/pharma angle. Lots of untapped opportunities, and it helped open doors for both the agency and client. Plus, they were genuinely lovely people to work with.I also spent time championing inclusion and mentoring as the Co-Chair of VivaWomen, Publicis UK’s employee action group.

One of my biggest achievements was leading a UK-wide speed mentoring event—a busy Q4, but so worth it. Women’s equality, mental health, and mentoring are huge passions of mine.

Things I’m reading/consuming/loving at the moment:

Reading: Just finished The Writing Game by Rosemary Friedman (she was a friend of my mum’s), which was a great read as I dabble in novel-writing. Now tackling The Pickwick Papers—as a University Challenge fan, I figured I should brush up on the classics and expand my references beyond contemporary writing.

Consuming: Currently on a homemade soup drive (winter mode). Standouts include Minestrone, Veggie Soup, and Parmesan White Bean Soup. Also, this Apple Cake—mix it up with pear—was unreal.

Loving:

• Total escapism. I’m originally from New York, so I need a distraction from what’s going on over there (politically, economically, emotionally...).

• Zero Day (Netflix) – Political thriller that feels very relevant right now.

• AmandaLand (iPlayer) – Brilliant writing, fantastic cast, and Joanna Lumley being her usual fabulous self.

• On Call (Amazon Prime) – A gritty LA cop drama—a good reminder that, no matter how intense my work gets, it’s nothing compared to what these guys deal with.

Say hello to Claire on LinkedIn, or via the community.

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Curiosity Stream

On AI and Strategy

A group of Outsiders came together this week to chat around AI and Strategy (you can see some of the salient points here) just hours before ChatGPT launched their new image model, which has many people fearful, and many people dismissive of those fears and many people excited for visual based concepting.

Has the barrier for creation dropped so low that all of our notions of creative value creation need to be redesigned? Is it finally time to kill the day rate?

Stephen Barlett has already waded in: What happens when the cost of creation drops to zero?

This piece on how it’s already changing some of the commercial models of agencies.

And it’s literally melting the internet - The demand is running OpenAI’s servers into the ground - what does this mean for reliance upon tools we don’t own?

Honestly, I feel like I’ve got whiplash with the number of new innovations in this space.

From our Friends

I’m really enjoying Zoe Liu’s tumblr as portfolio. Strategists often struggle to show their work in an impactful way, but Zoe is nailing it.

What makes something interesting? Harrison Moore unpacks this 1971 paper on what constitutes interestingness.

And if you’ve never been, it’s well worth attending Russel Davies’ Interesting - it’s one of the best “conferences” I’ve been been to in previous years. There’s more here.

Andrew Bailey is charging extra so he can buy eggs. And obviously this from MSCHF and The Ordinary.

&c.

» What we missed at SXSW - Matt Klein shares.

» Fiverr broke the internet - like the space-time continuum, it’s very easy to break (Thanks Ellie)

» Ignore class at its peril - the ripples of Adolescence will continue for a while (Thanks Joel)

» Is this article on Purpose and the Ps of marketing really only just being published? Feels like conversation moved way on already.

» Personalised sound? uhoh, Minority Report cometh again. (Thanks Nabila)

» Strategists to stalk

Wanna share your work, ideas or thinking with the community? - drop me a message, and I’ll pop it in the next issue. This is a scrapbook of our ideas, so please open up your brains.

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Workplace of the Week.

Ged is trying out some surprisingly good French roast coffee from Lidl this week. And if you’re looking for coffee, our friends at Studio Black have offered us 15% of your first order too.

Tell us where you’re sat, who you’re working with, what you’re drinking and thinking.

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/gigs

Every week, we share a list of roles found and shared via the the community. Some are directly from businesses who come directly to share their briefs with us. You can get these in real-time if you’re on whatsapp, telegram and slack.

Digest

1. Freelance social strategists (London,UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250327-social.html

2. Sports content strategist (India)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250327-rise.html

3. Freelance Influencer and Creator Strategist (Remote,US)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250327-pixly.html

4. Creative Strategist with events/experiential exp (UAE)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250327-hanging.html

5. Social Media Strategist (Remote,UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250327-fill.html

6. Creative Strategist with Retail exp (Clerkenwell, UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250327-dp.html

7. Audience & Engagement Strategist (Remote,UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250327-dance.html

8. Freelance Social strategist (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250326-pr.html

9. Freelance Mid-Level Design Strategist (NYC,USA)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250326-design.html

10. Brand strategy and creative strategy (Australia)
    https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250325-square.html

11. Freelance planner (US)
    https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250325-alc.html

12. Freelance Associate Social Strategist (NY,USA)
    https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250321-social.html

13. Senior strategist with CX/CRM work exp (London,UK)
    https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250321-havas.html

14. Digital Strategist (UK)
    https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250321-etch.html

15. Mid-Level Strategists/Planners with category/brand research exp in drinks category (NY,USA)
    https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250321-craft.html

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That’s all for this week.
mk ✌️