...Gasp!

Chuffed to be chatting to Shane Stewart next week on Call to Action®. Ex MOJU, current Brand Director of XOXO SODA and hot (Chief) stepper at the stupendous 'Step by Steppers' run club. If you want to pose a pearler in our listener questions, post it below, email it over, call it in, or squeeze it out. You've got 2 days, 21 hours, a few minutes and some seconds. Your time starts now, GO. _ Feel better about #marketing with Call to Action® A ...Gasp! PODCAST ❤️ #grief #mentalhealth

Apparently, this week marks my first anniversary at ...Gasp! 🎉 Who’d be stupid enough to pivot agency-side this late in their career? Me! (hand proudly raised.) And I am damn glad I did! At ...Gasp! our team is, on average, 10 years older than WPP’s, and we couldn’t be prouder of it. Why? Because it means we do proper marketing with proper experience. No BS —just work that works. Here’s to more anniversaries at Gasp!, digging that age gap even deeper with the big agencies and proving that, like a fine wine, we just keep getting better with time Giles Edwards Sophie Edwards Elliot Connolly Louise Curtin-Giddings Chelsea Phillimore Leonie Remington #WorkAnniversary #ageism #propermarketing #agency

This week we positioned our most powerful fan at the rear end of a corpulent bull in hopes of snaring the attention of legendary bullsh*t fighter, Alex M H Smith. Quite possibly the sanest man in strategy, Alex is on a crusade to liberate that field from its unhappy association with buzz words, bloat, bafflement and a boatload of boll0cks. At the heart of his efforts to simplify the strategic stuff every business needs to get right, he’s written a bestselling book that is called, with absolutely no time for faffing about, ‘No Bullsh*t Strategy’. And, in a personal strategy that can only be called recklessly altruistic, he also gives away a huge amount of his knowledge, advice and insight on LinkedIn for absolutely free. As far away from lofty, academic theory as it’s possibly to be, Alex’s philosophy is all about helping businesses to see the anti-strategic decisions they make right now, and then do something smarter instead. And, in a chat that is like a breath of fresh air in a field that can often smell like a trouser pocket filled with old sick, we ponder… 📣 The importance of knowing the unique value your business brings 📣 How some early slip-ups helped him see the truth about business 📣 Why large and small businesses think so differently 📣 The most common strategy struggles most businesses face (And how to make them go away) 📣 The difference between selling products and selling time 📣 The role a founder plays in making strategy matter 📣 Demolishing the myth of the ‘legendary founder’ 📣 How to get everyone on board the same strategic ship Hear, here: https://lnkd.in/eWPDghN4 or wherever you pod. _ Feel better about #marketing with Call to Action® | A ...Gasp! PODCAST hosted by me #CTAPod #strategy

𝗨𝗥𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟 It has come to the attention of the publisher that several customers have become so professionally confident since reading 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝘆𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝘀: 𝟯𝟬-𝗼𝗿-𝘀𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 that they have upped their rates, pushed-back on woolly briefs, slapped-down terrible client suggestions, assertively pursued late-payments and entirely stopped signing off emails with ‘no worries if not’. This is clearly a dangerous state of affairs and as such we are issuing an urgent recall of the book. Return it to ...Gasp! Books and we shall replace it with a copy of ‘𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀: 𝗔 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲’. We apologise for any distress this may have caused. #copywriting #marketing _ Copywriting Is... by Andrew Boulton Published by ...Gasp! Books Creative publishing for creative people (done by silly sods)™ [Follow me if you like, you weirdo. But tbh you're better off following Call to Action® where I interview smarter people than me, on exactly this sort of stuff. Or ...Gasp! where I work with people smarter than me, and do exactly this sort of stuff.]

Exceptional poster for Arena Bodybuilding, long before 'customers like you also bought'... Credits (2001) Client: Arena Dance & Exercise Classes (Bodybuilding) Agency: Guye & Partner Creatives: Danielle Lanz, Dominique Oberwiler, Petra Bottingnole _ Follow me for more Creatively Memorable & Boringly Effective™ work, or ...Gasp! where we do it. #marketing #wit

Lovely play on having green fingers wit in this brand identity for CJS Plants, especially leaving them all around the van handle. Credits (1982) Agency: CS&S _ Follow me for more Creatively Memorable & Boringly Effective™ work, or ...Gasp! where we do it. #marketing #advertising

When art imitates life. Everything you produce - from your terms of business to your glossy marketing - should meet the standards for which you want to be known. ☝️ That's the thought that crosses my mind when I saw the ...Gasp! book "10½ Proper Marketing Principles". The book is a joy to behold - it could happily adorn any tabletop, from coffee shop to classroom. It leaves you in no doubt of Gasp's standards as a marketing agency. If you find yourself dishing out tatty A4 printouts to clients, you may want to consider whether you could portray yourself in a more generous light. Humongous thanks to Giles Edwards for sending me a copy of this beautiful book. You can find pictures of me modeling the inside pages in the comments.

There are so many brand perception surveys over the years where Volvo scores highest (unaided) on safety. When you look into their advertising archive, and this 'or buy a Volvo' gem from David Abbott, it's easy to see why. When brilliantly simple meets simply brilliant. _ Credit (1980s) AMVBBDO Copywriter: David Abbott _ Follow me for more Creatively Memorable & Boringly Effective™ work. Or ...Gasp! where we do it, Call to Action® where we explore it, The Chutes where we celebrate it. #marketing #advertising

Proud that our agency people are, on average, 10 years older than WPP's. _ Follow me, I'm old, or ...Gasp!, we're (relatively) ancient. #marketing #ageism

Imagine an aggressively-filtered Instagram photo of a mural on a gym wall that’s basically just the words 'Believe. Achieve. Receive' painted in some gloopy old Huel. Well, this week's episode of Call to Action® is the exact opposite of that, thanks entirely to our guest: author, columnist and critic, Patrick Freyne who is devoting his considerable creative energies to hacking 'hustle' culture to pieces and replacing it with good old fashioned happiness. And that, is surely worth a listen. Available wherever you get your podcasts, probably. Or over on our site with bonus links to stuff: https://lnkd.in/eSfJgmvj _ Feel better about #marketing with Call to Action® | A ...Gasp! PODCAST hosted by me #CTAPod