Who Remembers Tumblr? Lessons in Tech, Empathy & Daily Music Blogging

Lessons in Tech, Empathy & Daily Music Blogging 🎧💡

Remember Tumblr? That place where gifs went to live forever, fandoms flourished, and your experimental poetry probably still lingers in the digital ether?

Well, back in 2014, I decided to embark on a rather eccentric side project: write a daily music blog/Tumblr for an entire year. Yes, daily. Every. Single. Day. 😅

The blog (Morning Music Shuffle) was my attempt to combine a love of music, a need to better understand content marketing, and possibly some masochistic tendencies 🥴.

What started as a quirky experiment quickly became a crash course in content creation, consistency, and most importantly - customer perspective 🧠.

Looking back, this wasn’t just about music. It was about walking the walk 👣.

Why Marketers Need to Get Their Hands Dirty 🛠️

Too often, we sit in meetings debating campaign frameworks, buyer journeys, and martech stacks. But here’s the truth: you can’t understand what it means to engage an audience if you’re not doing it yourself. You need to live the customer experience 🙌.

That little Tumblr blog taught me more about SEO, tagging, audience behaviour, and CX than any whiteboard ever could. Not because it was complex but because I used the platform, felt the friction, and had to earn every reader 🧩.

It was content marketing in its rawest form: no paid media, no automation, no fancy analytics dashboard. Just a post, a track, and the hope someone out there enjoyed it 🎵❤️.

That kind of empathy, really thinking about what someone else would want to read or listen to, is exactly what today’s marketing often forgets. We forget that at the end of every campaign is a person, probably scrolling on their phone while drinking lukewarm coffee ☕📱.

So, What Did I Learn From a Year on Tumblr?

💡 Empathy beats assumptions. Real marketing starts with understanding the human on the other side of the screen.
💡 Consistency is hard, but it builds trust (and a backlog of great content).
💡 Tools don’t just support marketing, they shape it. Learn them, use them, respect them .
💡 Oh, and never underestimate the power of a great playlist!

So, if you're a marketer wondering whether you really need to get hands-on with your tech stack or spend more time seeing the world through your customer’s eyes… the answer is yes! Preferably, with headphones on 🎧😉.

📸 : Author's own! Kraftwerk @ Tate Modern, 2013.

Curiosity. Experimentation. Acceleration. The Future of Marketing with AI.

Twelve months ago, most marketing teams I spoke with were cautiously circling the edges of AI - curious, but conservative. But in just a year, we’ve gone from guarded experimentation to full-on integration. AI isn’t a side project anymore. It’s woven into how we can work, plan, create, and grow.

Speaking with agency heads and peers over the past few weeks alone, its clear AI is not just a strategic play niw - it’s a cultural one. Innovative leaders doesn’t just push for AI adoption, they’re now rallying employees to think differently, experiment relentlessly, and see AI as an amplifier of human potential, not a replacement.

As a Computer Science graduate, I’ve always been curious about innovation and quick to adopt emerging tech in marketing. My own AI journey started back in 2017, launching Adobe’s AI offering at the time, Adobe Sensei. Since then I launched AI Search at Yext in 2020, lead AI adoption within VMware marketing in 2022 and more recently work within LettsGroup, pioneers of an AI-powered VentureFactory that helps startup ventures get from idea to exit.

In tech you’ve always needed a learn-it-all mentality but Kieran Flanagan’s recent LinkedIN post highlighted two emerging trends that are particular to AI:

  1. Employees need to take ownership of their AI knowledge. You can't rely on others to teach you. You have to do the work.

  2. Before asking for more headcount and resources, leaders should ask if AI can do this.

I’m taking ownership by using tools like MyTelescope, ChatGPT, Deep Research, Claude, and agent.ai daily to streamline and supercharge my personal work. Plus I keep up with the daily innovations by participating in industry forums hosted by the likes of B2B Marketing, Pavilion, CMO Circle, Propolis, IQPC and more.

But a word of caution. It’s tempting to fall in love with the efficiency gains AI brings - faster content, streamlined workflows, endless outputs. But more content doesn’t always mean better content.

At the same time, we need to engage more deeply with the ethical questions AI raises. These tools are powerful - but what exactly are they trained on? And can we confidently say they’re safe for commercial use? These are critical conversations we must have as we embed AI into our day-to-day work.

So, let’s nurture curiosity. Create space for innovation. Encourage teams to explore, experiment, and embrace what’s next. But let’s keep intentional too.

Because the future of marketing isn’t just AI-enabled - it’s AI-accelerated. And we get to lead the way.

#AI #MarketingLeadership #Innovation #FutureOfWork #CMO #AIinMarketing #B2BMarketing

Are you a Marketing Guru or a Marketing Gnu? 🧞‍♂️🫎

Back in my Oracle days, I ran a campaign targeting marketing directors with this very question - challenging their willingness to embrace analytics and tech to raise their game.

Fast forward a few decades, and it’s still the same question. But today, it’s less about dashboards and more about your personal relationship with technology and, more importantly, your mindset.

📈 Growth happens when you stay curious and open to change. Don’t chase every shiny new thing, but do embrace innovation when it adds real value.


Take AI. It’s enabling marketers to do more — from prompts to assistants to autonomous agents. But there are still two common fears I hear all the time:

🎨 "AI will kill creativity". Not true. Some creators are brilliant. Many are average. AI will outperform plenty of what we currently accept as "good enough." But great designers, photographers, writers, and editors? They’ll evolve, just like they did with Canva, Lightroom, and Photoshop. Let's not dismiss AI out of fear. We don’t shame people for using spellcheckers, do we? 😉

✍️ "AI will kill writing". Writing isn’t just about words. It’s about craft. I've worked with the best writers and editors in the business, and they are essential. In an AI-driven world, their skill in guiding, refining, and elevating content becomes even more important. Good writing stands out more than ever.

So, don’t be a Gnu.

Be curious. Be adaptable. Be a Guru. 🌱✨

#Marketing #AI #Creativity #Mindset #Innovation #GrowthMindset #Curiosity

AI, Vibes and Jessie J

Flying visit to Advertising Week Europe. One of those grassroots-feeling events where every session is packed and, just like Disneyland, you spend a lot of time queueing. 😡

Sessions were thankfully tariff-free 😀 and covered (of course) AI in marketing, search evolution, artist partnerships and collaborative marketing strategies.

Three Key Takeaways:

💎 AI as your creative partner
Lots of talk about AI empowering not replacing creativity (yep!). But nice to see some pragmatism (and tool tips) in Adobe's 3 step "AI-enabled creativity framework": deep audience research, creative exploration and AI-enabled human creativity.

💎 Authentic partnerships beat transactional relationships
Loads of speakers on the topic of trust (even musician Jessie J!) in the digital world, but partnerships seem even more critical than ever. Speakers emphasised the need for shared values and alignment (dare I say its all about the "vibe"?!) as the foundation for successful collaborations.

💎 B2B marketing in crisis
The "off stage" chat was all about the identity crisis of B2B marketing - where does it sit? All under a CRO? Or should we split growth & corporate marketing? Measurement? Do we need all these people? AI can do it all, right? Is brand really a thing? Lots of churn going on!

As always it was to a chance re-connect with friends and colleagues. Great to see you Claire Darley Helen Gillbe Hung Le Alastair Hussain Michael Bayler Linus Gregoriadis Justin Cooke John Horsley Simon Johnson Lindsay O'Gorman Simon Morris.

Finally, congrats in particular to John Horsley and team in a first outing for Path7. Great panel discussion that dove into partner marketing as purposeful collaboration requiring matched values. Speakers discussed how partnerships differ from paid media by being more authentic and trust-based, especially valuable in the post-GDPR landscape where we now have "richer data but less of it."

Right, I'm off to queue for a coffee in my kitchen 🚶🚶🚶🚶

#AdvertisingWeek #AIMarketing #PartnerMarketing #MarketingStrategy #DigitalMarketing

Marketing B2B Technology: 6 Tips For Overcoming Common Challenges

Thank you B2B Marketing for interviewing me for their latest report "Marketing B2B Technology: 6 Tips For Overcoming Common Challenges", discussing the unique challenges tech marketers face in 2025.

After reflecting on the wider report, here are my four key takeaways (no spoilers 😉):

⚖️ Flexibility meets long-term vision.
Today's tech marketing requires a delicate balance: maintaining strategic direction while adapting quickly to market shifts.

🛡️ Data privacy isn't just compliance - it's competitive advantage.
Beyond regulatory requirements, a privacy-first approach builds customer trust. We need to ensure we're not just following rules but creating meaningful, trust-based interactions that prioritize first-party data acquisition.

❤️ Differentiation requires emotion, not just features.
In a crowded marketplace, product features alone won't set you apart. The most successful tech companies create emotional connections through their brand storytelling (not a term I love, but you get the point).

👥 Decision-making happens in tribes.
Purchase decisions have always involved multiple stakeholders across departments, creating a collective decision process that extends sales cycles. But more than ever, in the current digital noise distraction, it demands tailored content for each persona at every stage of the buyer's journey.

Anyway, you can read more here: https://lnkd.in/eDnfgKE8

Thanks Lina Vaz for inviting me in!

#B2BMarketing #TechMarketing #MarketingStrategy #DigitalMarketing

“Humbled & thrilled” 🤣

At the Pavilion networking dinner in sunny Shoreditch we joked how far too many LinkedIn posts start with “humbled” and/or “thrilled”.

Let’s just say I enjoyed the conversation 😀

Chatham House rules prevent sharing too much but great to get perspectives on

✨PLG v SLG
✨The team of the future (people vs tech)
✨The rise of the “GTM Engineer”
✨Staying current & relevant
✨The latest hot AI apps and agents (this week's edition!)

It’s a great time to be in marketing. So much innovation and lots to think about for the future…

… there’s every chance the marketing team may soon be you leading a group of AI agents 🤖

And who knows, the photo below (taken outside the restaurant) could be your team dinner shot in 2030 🙃

But last night was a reminder that human connection is always going to be valuable and important.

Thanks for the conversations Oliver Hassell, Ollie Browning, FLPI, April Shuxia Wang, Graeme Hutchison, Joe Batten, Rachel Dennis, Donna Owen. And Nicola Anderson for hosting!

Do things only get better?

Last week I booked a restaurant for myself and my Dad (the Potted Pig in Cardiff). I’d been wanting to try it for a while and to some extent it was a random choice.

The day before Dad had been telling me a story about my Mum (she passed in 2020) and how he’d forgotten to meet her on her last day at work when she was pregnant with me (bad Dad!).

It wasn’t until part way through the meal that he casually informed me that the restaurant we were in was actually in the basement of the very workplace that was part of that story (a former bank).

The key part of the story was that when my Mum got pregnant, pregnancy was considered a fireable offence in many companies. And whilst she wasn’t fired, it was assumed she would just leave. There was no question of working, returning to work or indeed maternity leave. Attitudes to working mums was “basic”.

In fact, compulsory maternity leave wasn’t a thing back then as it was only made law in the UK in 1975, and even then it was fairly patchily implemented.

So despite all the bad things going on in the world right now, it got me to thinking about all the positive things that have happened in my lifetime. When I was born global poverty, disease, literacy rates, gender equality and global awareness of environmental issues were a lot worse than today. But since then many things have improved:

  • Dramatic decrease in child mortality rates, increased life expectancy worldwide, and advancements in disease treatment like HIV/AIDS medications. Near elimination of diseases like polio, tetanus, measles, and diphtheria.

  • Advancements in medical science: organ transplantation, cancer treatments, and DNA testing/sequencing.

  • Increased gender equality (including compulsory maternity/paternity leave).

  • Higher global literacy rates with increased access to education, particularly for girls in many regions. 

  • The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War.

  • The Montreal Protocol successfully reducing ozone depletion, increased focus on renewable energy sources, and greater global environmental awareness. 

  • Development of the internet, widespread access to information, and innovations in communication technology.

We have to believe things can only get better.

Back to School. CRO School!

I’m happy to share that I’ve obtained a new certification: CRO School from Pavilion!

Always good to stay curious, and great to learn from a cohort mostly made up of Sales leaders and CROs. Enjoyed the comprehensive overview of all the GTM functions now coalescing under a single CRO (not Head of Sales!) role.

A lot of marketers are rallying against this development, but I'm a big fan of an integrated GTM team working together under a single leader. If done right you can unlock the connectedness of sales, marketing, customer success and rev ops.

It was also a reminder that the "them and us" of marketing vs. sales is quite frankly ridiculous - we have more in common than differences.

Thanks to all the tutors - Sam Jacobs, Russell Mikowski, Stephanie Valenti, Kiva Kolstein, Sam Slevin, Cassie Young, Rick Smolen.

hashtag#backtoschool hashtag#learnitall hashtag#staycurious