Five things on Friday #405
This week: marketing + advertising.
Things of note for the week ending Sunday, November 9th 2025.
#405
INTRO
For a few years now - thanks to a particularly paced set of birthdays and celebrations - me and a certain group of friends get together loads for 4-5 months of the year then barely see each other again for 6-7. This year, in August, when that seeing-each-other period kicked off again we realised that a) we’d all had reasonably tough starts to the year, b) we’d all been collectively crap at checking in with each other, and c) we could all work harder at being better friends. We all love each other and care about each other we just let life get in the way too easily.
So we agreed: from now on we’d all work harder at seeing each other. One dear pal made the suggestion that maybe every time we see each other we make a commitment to see each other again before we part ways.
And so it was on Friday night we hosted a curry night here for eight (!) people. For the budding chefs among you wondering how on earth you do such a thing, well, you start with a great recipe for a few people, then triple everything you put in 😁
From this huge pile of FRESH:
To this vat of curry:
…in all of about 90mins. Mazin.
That recipe btw, I cannot recommend enough. It’s from the BOSH! vegan cookbook (page 78 if you already own it). Best thing in there by miles.
Point is: that’s why you didn’t get a newsletter on Friday. The good news is: I was in and out of London a lot this week so had a lot of train time to do the pre-work. Which means you’re getting a newsletter today - hooray!
Sidebar: ‘I would’ve written you a newsletter but I made a curry instead’ is the new ‘Sorry I was late to the meeting, I couldn’t find my biscuits’ (something I said on a reasonably important call recently and my team have NOT let me forget since - thanks gang).
HOW ARE YOU?
I hope you are enjoying this mild start to autumn (I am) and that wherever you are in the world your Christmas plans are simmering nicely. If not, why not. Have you considered making some?
Yes, it’s November 9th and I’ve said the C word. Don’t worry though, I’ve not had time to watch the Christmas ads yet - so there’ll be none of that here (yet). Maybe I’ll save it for a December edition - you know, like a normal person.
If we’re not talking about the Christmas ads, then what are we talking about?
Well, let’s find out shall we?
—
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. MARKETING LESSONS FROM ONE OF THE GREATEST
Marc Pritchard is a Proctor & Gamble lifer. For nearly as long as I have been alive Pritchard has worked at P&G, working his way up from accounts and finance up and into marketing and one of the more successful ones at that.
Bringing up the averages on the ‘average term of a CMO in role’ that we see get whittled down each year, Pritchard is an exceptional marketer in more ways than one.
For those of you who have done the Ritson Mini MBA, you too will know the decisions Pritchard has made, the problems faced, and the proper marketing methodology that he used to solve them.
In short: when Marc Pritchard speaks, marketers should listen.
This week, in his speech at the Association of National Advertisers, he spoke about five enduring lessons that are helping him and his teams navigate the complexities of today’s media and technology landscape.
And I think they are worth reading.
Two things to note. First: there should be NO SURPRISES here. None at all! This stuff is EASY to learn (and you should learn it) but it takes decades to master. To insist on. To truly believe and hold onto, fast. To ignore the constant newness of everything. Decades. But only by delivering on it over and over and over will you get there.
Second, in the same week as Cindy Rose delivered her first earnings call at WPP, it’s interesting to see Pritchard (an ex-accountant) mention creativity as a core part of his lessons and for Rose to not mention it once during the entire call.
It’s easy to be cynical and in fairness to Cindy, the audiences were entirely different. One is to a room full of marketers another is to call full of shareholders, analysts and journalists. But still - the [advertising] world is always listening.
The last thing anyone wants is another Elopapocalypse…
THING 2. DIVERSITY SCHMIVERSITY
October 2nd. The Daily Mail (not linked here) badly reports an excellent Channel 4 study on black representation in advertising.
Here’s the ‘offending’ chart.
Over on Bluesky, the wonderful Emma Monk has completely skewered the reporting and it is a wonderful thing indeed.
Let’s take a look at the whole “there are too many black people on TV” thing, shall we? After Pochin claimed Black people in TV adverts “made her mad”, all her supporters tried to use 👇🏼 as their excuse for why she was somehow justified in her overt racism. Spoiler - she isn’t! 🤨 🧵 1/22
— Emma Monk (@monkemma.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T19:09:11.557Z
(I’m not posting all 22 skeets but the whole thing is worth a read and probably reasonably good to have in your back pocket when yer racist uncle starts having a pop on Boxing Day).
I appreciate ‘Daily Mail is wrong’ is not exactly headline news but I wanted to add some additional colour to this specific example because as Emma points out later on in her thread:
“[They’ve] ued a still from an award winning advert for inclusion of disabled people to highlight the “over-representation” part because the woman in it black 🙄”
The still in the image at the top of this Thing.
What is GENUINELY amazing about all this is as it turns out, the ad in question ‘Sigh of Relief’ (featuring nine white people, two black people, and one Asian person) delivered the highest sales ROI ever of any single campaign for Currys.
E V E R.
Here’s a non-paywalled Campaign link with that detail. Incredible eh?
Be a non-inclusive numpty if you want but you’re literally losing out on CASH.
The Channel 4 press release on the report is here and the report itself is available to download right here.
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN… GAMING RELATE NEWS BITS
In which James thinks there isn’t much to report so will get through the news/points of interest quickly and then try and convince you all to play Arc Raiders as soon as you humanly can.
News Bites.
There are some new PlayStation brand ads out.
Woo! And I think I like them (most of them).
Unexpected Catch (my personal fave)
Stunt Jump (feels GTA ish)
Crash Landings (I don’t get this one)
I think this is the third edition on the trot where I’ve talked about conceptual creative in video games and here’s Sony stepping up to show us theirs. It’s always a tricky one with Sony. It’s a feeling they’re trying to capture and I think I like Unexpected Catch because I can see the player in it. That’s the one that made me understand the concept. The others are a bit harder… but whatever, the point is: expect to see these big ads in big places. Cinema, huge OOH, etc etc… because Sony understands that CONCEPTUAL CREATIVE IN GAMES IS IMPORTANT. Capturing an emotion is equally as important as communicating your RTBs (if not more so) and you do that by using emotion in your advertising.
As an aside this Australian execution of the main global campaign is a great mix of OOH, mural, and experiential. Really nice stuff.
How a bunch of hackers freed the Kinect from the Xbox.
This is a great story about the brief-and-yet-still-ongoing history of the Xbox Kinect. A lovely bit of tech that could be used and played with in all kinds of wonderful ways (including this wonderful 2008 example from me and my mate Rich).
Balatro has a charity calendar now.
If you’ve not played Balatro you should probably change that. It’s genuinely great and I still revisit it from time to time. This week the very smart people behind the game announced a 2026 WALL CALENDAR FOR CHARITY and it a) looks mental and b) probably worth getting.
How on earth do you find lasting, meaningful success with a live-service game?
Yeah, that’s a tricky question. One that Eurogamer has attempted to answer with an in-depth look at a bunch of live-service games (and some Q&A with the folk behind them). Work in live service? You should probably read this.
What is James Playing?
As I mentioned at the top, Arc Raiders has taken over my life. I am still playing Hades 2 - I’ve defeated Chronus 8 times and now I’m headed up to defeat [redacted] again and again and again (Prometheus is a dick, mind).
But Arc Raiders. Wow. Every single time I go in I come out with a new story. Whether it’s making new friends (and finding a new feature), or making new enemies and barely making my escape. I am having fun.
If you want something tense and different; an extraction shooter that seems to have learned from the best (and worst) from extraction shooters. That doesn’t make you feel like you’ve been screwed over when you really have been or makes you feel amazing when you just about escape then come play. It’s great solo (you make new friends 75% of the time) and it’s great in teams (you make new friends 25% of the time).
If in doubt, just go search your short-form-content platform of choice for ‘Arc Raiders’ and see the lols come back.
THING 4. THE THING WHERE I AM PLEASED TO THE REPORT THE POORLY DIGITAL OUT OF HOME IS BACK
Way back in FToF #395 (Thing 5), after a few specific examples arrived in my inbox and I saw a couple of my own in real life, I wrote this about TERRIBLE geo-targeted OOH.
Well, it looks like none of you have listened to a damn thing I said and have been caught sniffing the media tech-stack glue again.
Look at these jokers.
“BERMONDSEY” COMMA
“TERRY’S JUST GOT FANCY” FULL STOP
[PACKSHOT]
“NEW SMOOTH FILLING” NO PUNCTUATION
“DELICIOUSLY UNSQUARE” NO PUNCTUATION
There’s a lot going on. But one thing that absolutely is not going on is literally anyone in BERMONDSEY going ‘Oh my God! This ad is definitely for me!’
I should mention, after FToF #395 I had a bunch of people in my whatsapps howling at how bad this was (as well as a few new subs from media agencies - hi gang, please learn from this), and then a small handful of Very Senior Marketing Folk laughing with me at how bad they were.
I’ve said all I needed to say on this but one client-side marketing director (who asked to remain nameless) put it best when they said:
“YESSSSS. All the classic hallmarks! Font size and space allocated for a two or three line edge case - [insert geo-target here] - rendering the comma and the notion of it flowing together as one statement totally redundant. Zero relevance to the product. Just tech for tech. It may as well say: BERMONDSEY, TERRY'S JUST GOT UPSOLD USELESS AD-TECH!’
RIP.
This is a client saying this. If you’re a media agency selling this stuff please for the love of God do better.
THING 5. ‘THE JOB MARKET IS HELL…’
…young people are using ChatGPT to write their applications; HR is using AI to read them; no one is getting hired.
A depressing if eye-opening read about the state of the job-market - and how we got here.
There are no solutions in the article and the story is US-focused but as a sign of the times… well.
sigh
BONUS SECTION
THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.
ENJOY.
NASA's Voyager Spacecraft Found A 30,000-50,000 Kelvin "Wall" At The Edge Of Our Solar System. We will be talking about Voyager for most of our lives.
There's a bunch of stuff about Tony Hopkins doing the rounds at the moment (because of his new autobiography) but this one with Stephen Colbert is my favourite.
One of the companies I advise on is hiring a new Campaign Manager. London-based, four days a week, nice people, working in games… what’s more to love?
Tchéky Karyo has passed away. You may not know the name but you almost certainly know his face. What a wonderful, wonderful actor. Rest in peace.
‘We support future talent for marketing purposes only’ maybe.
THERE IS A NEW MUMMY MOVIE COMING! WITH BRENDAN FRASER AND RACHEL WEISZ!
Eddie Murphy doing James Brown in front of James Brown (for a Richard Pryor tribute show) will never get old - watch the whole thing.
I’m determined to use this next time a chugger stops me outside Farringdon station.
My friend George is speaking on a panel about advertising in gaming later this month. Wanna come?
And finally, for the bonuses this week this: Jamie Laing.
I like Jamie Laing. Yes, he’s as nepo baby as they come - yes, he’s an ex-Made in Chelsea star turned celeb/radio star.
But also yes, he’s done amazing things for charity (Comic Relief’s ‘Ultra-marathon Man’ had me in tears) , for openly talking about his dyslexia, and for conversations around masculinity.
Both in talking about stuff that affects him personally but also, in my opinion, resetting what it means to be a man through the eyes of the media.
So when, out of absolutely nowhere, he a) starts prolifically posting on Linkedin and b) suddenly has things to say about …checks notes… an Amazon Ad he read about in The Drum…
…you are suddenly inclined to ask questions. I wonder who does write these for him.
Maybe it’s the same person who writes John Hegarty’s? (FToF #384).
Maybe there’s a whole industry of people doing this for the Linkedin juice?
Maybe (as some commenters have suggested), it’s an ad.
Who knows? One thing I do know for sure: Jamie isn’t writing these.
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
Signing off sharpish this week with one piece of advice.
One of the best pieces of corporate advice ever given to me.
In my first start-up, many years ago, after a particularly dicey meeting with our investors, our founder turned to us and said:
‘Beware the Hippo’
‘The what?’
‘The hippo. The Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. They’ve not been in the meetings. They’ve not seen the pre-work. The blood, swear and tears. They’re wheeled out for the final say and their salary demands them to have an input. Beware the hippo - it can end ideas, solutions, and creativity in an instant’.
So yeah, that’s my advice to you this week:
Beware the hippo.
Until next time,
Whatley out x
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