Spark

AI vs critical thinking

Ryan Sheppard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:14:09 +0000

Welcome to Spark, a newsletter from Vivace. We curate and publish the most interesting thinking and ideas from our community on themes ranging from business and finance to culture and creativity. Send pitches and feedback to spark@vivacecontent.com. We’d love to hear from you.

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re trying to figure out AI—just like the rest of us. It’s a topic we’ve explored before in these pages, and one we’ll no doubt keep coming back to.

This week, I’m delighted that our wonderful editor Mimi Hayton has put her thoughts to paper. She’s one of the most thoughtful knowledge workers I know, and learning from her research, analysis, and deep thinking is always a treat.

Where are you on your AI journey? Send us your hot takes and opinions—they just might make it into a future edition.

Enjoy,

—Joel

A rational person’s guide to thinking about AI right now

If the mere mention of AI makes you want to hurl your device through the nearest window, and you are ignoring it like your life depends on it, I do not blame you. If you are riddled with anxiety about the impending employment apocalypse and consuming anything AI-related like your life (or at least your job) depends on it, I also do not blame you.

Never fear, I have the solution for everyone!

This is my handy guide to everything you need to know about the endless discourse around AI: pre-filtered, de-hyped and put through my stringent, proprietary editorial selection process which I have very succinctly called “reasonable takes I have read that don’t sound like a sales pitch or an apocalypse”.

AI is a fear vector: The resignation letter heard around the world

A few months ago, Mrinank Sharma, former lead of Safeguards Research at Anthropic, published his resignation letter, which went viral. To summarise the hot takes: “The alarms aren’t just getting louder. The People ringing them are leaving the building”.

But was this a grand indictment of AI? Or of Anthropic as an organisation? And a system of corporate governance buckling under pressure? And doesn’t that sound like so many of the systems underpinning our fragile existence? The crisis of conscience within organisations like Anthropic are a mirror for those happening everywhere:

AI technology has become a canvas on which to project all our existential fears. But behind the anxiety, what we are really left with is a bunch of dysfunctional organisations with toxic cultures. Why is this comforting? Because organisations are just groups of people. And people can be reckoned with.

AI is symptom, not cause. Accelerator, not originator.

Critical (and deep) thinking was already on the decline, thanks to twenty years of cognitive offloading and internet use.
We were already producing content slop.
We were already consuming fresh water and energy resources at unsustainable levels.
Artists and creators were already having their work stolen, copied and exploited without credit or compensation.
Cultural innovation had already stalled and begun to loop backwards…

AI was trained on work produced by humans. We taught it. We created it within the business and regulatory environments that were already sustaining unethical, exploitative practices.

AI is not inherently bad or good. It is responding to us, shaped in our image. No wonder we just had a Frankenstein reboot and a spinoff! Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair…if we don’t like what we have wrought, let us first take a look at ourselves.

AI Washing is rife, especially within the job market

Anyone who is using AI regularly for work, and who has experienced first-hand the level of technological…fragmentation, shall we say, within most organisations, has to be looking at the current waves of supposedly AI-based retrenchments, and the prophecies of those to come, with a degree of scepticism.

The maths just ain’t mathing. This Sherwood article explains why:

AI is becoming a go-to reason for layoffs — but is it actually replacing workers? | Hyunsoo Rim

At best, employers have been “using the investor-friendly buzzword to explain their downsizing decisions”. At worst, they are “downsizing for what AI might deliver in the future, not what it already can”.

Meanwhile, according to an economic letter published in February by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco:

There is one place AI is showing a consistent productivity boost, however…

Productivity is the sales pitch. Shareholder value is the output.

Here’s the thing about productivity: it’s fiendishly difficult to measure. Because it’s difficult to isolate from other factors. So beware anyone who comes bearing gifts that promise it:

If we look to the US, GDP growth has been strong so far this year, whilst job growth is paltry, leading some to take this as an early sign of the promised AI productivity boost. But, measurement difficulties considered, what do the actual numbers say?

So where does this leave us?

Nothing is certain. Anyone who tells you it is, is selling you something. We still have choices, and agency, around how this technology and these tools are shaped. We need to recognise much of the AI discourse for what it is: propaganda, and to stop believing that the futures being described are a foregone conclusion.

Here’s what I do know: nature abhors a vacuum. Old jobs will go away. New ones will (almost) certainly replace them. What those jobs could look like is a question worth thinking about with curiosity—not fear.

I strongly urge you to read all the original articles quoted here and make up your own mind. I promise it will be an hour well spent. Stay sane, question everything.

Mimi Hayton is a writer, thinker and strategist who believes everyone has something valuable to say and enjoys helping people to discover what that is, so they can say it clearly.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Spark is a production of Vivace, a global B2B creative studio and consultancy that helps businesses drive meaningful brand and commercial impact. Get in touch if you’d like to chat with any of the team. Have a great week ahead.

Down with dashboards!

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

“Marketing teams aren't failing because they lack data; they’re failing because they’re drowning in it.”

I’m sure these words will resonate with many of you in teams or organisations where marketing has become a “reporting sport”. I recently connected with Sean Sampson, Managing Partner of a South African creative agency who was experiencing exactly that—and decided to do something about it. They’ve developed an exciting AI-powered solution that might just transform marketing reporting for good!

Enjoy,

—Ryan

Tell us about your background and how you became interested in the power of AI for marketing?

I think a lot of teams are currently going through the same pain we did.

We are a creative agency and our creative has taken centre stage for the last 5 years, won us some awards, and some very cool clients. In order to deliver on our client goals, we of course had all the dashboards that we could informing us of how our campaigns were doing. The overall strength of our creative and creative team kept the campaign results trending in the right direction, but the hard part was trying to grasp why or what was causing specific ups and downs in the metrics.

Then, a year ago, we bumped into Martin. Martin has a Masters in Computer Science and Advanced Mathematics, and he had just exited from the software company he had built up to employing about 50 software developers. Martin likes Cappuccino. Ryan le Roux, my business partner, makes a great cappuccino. It seemed obvious we should work together.

Through Martin we had access to deep knowledge about the AI industry—so we built a team around him. This team has built a product that is now helping our agency and others. It’s an ever-changing landscape, so we’re learning and building day by day.

How did you frame the right problem to go after?

The real problem isn’t that marketers don’t have insight—it’s that insight is often locked behind work.

In most teams, understanding performance means someone has to pull reports, interpret charts, build a narrative, and then convince everyone else. That process takes time, and because it’s slow, decisions get made based on habit, instinct, or what feels ‘safe’. So the problem we decided to go after was:

You talk about the ‘antidote to dashboards’—what’s wrong with dashboards?

Dashboards aren't inherently ‘bad’, but they are just containers. They tell you what happened, but they almost never tell you why or what's worth your attention.

They provide the illusion of control: seeing a screen full of charts makes us feel like we’re managing things, but visibility isn't the same as actually taking action.

So when I say ‘down with dashboards’, I don’t mean ‘burn the charts’—I mean stop mistaking reporting for thinking.

In what instances are dashboards actually useful and where do they quietly fail?

They help when you already know what you’re looking for and you’ve got simple, steady goals e.g. you have a clear KPI, a stable funnel, and a specific question. They allow you to monitor health, spot obvious problems, and keep teams aligned. They are also great at giving the user a lot of information within a single visual—and are much better at doing that than just words.

Where they fail is when the situation is complex, fast-moving or unclear—which is most real marketing. When things get messy with multiple channels interacting, when the market shifts, or you’re trying to figure out which creative actually drove a sale, you end up staring at a ‘wall of facts’ with no way to know what’s driving the results.

That’s where teams get stuck: they can see the numbers, but they can’t see the story.

You talk about the fact that dashboards have created a whole operation around reporting. What happens inside a team when reporting becomes the work?

When reporting becomes the main event, the culture shifts from making progress to just showing activity:

Meetings become boring status updates
People spend their energy defending their specific numbers instead of trying to improve the business
Teams get ‘busy’ but the actual strategy gets buried under the weight of producing the next report

If insight becomes simple to access and understand, how does that impact day-to-day workflow and what other benefits have you seen?

The goal isn't to have a ‘magic button’, but to make insights accessible without needing a specialist to translate them every time. The immediate benefits are speed and focus: it allows teams to learn and iterate based on evidence rather than arguing over opinions.

But doesn't just apply to marketing, either—every function that makes decisions has the same underlying problem: there’s information everywhere, but clarity is rare.

If you can translate complexity into usable direction, it applies to:

Product teams deciding what to build next
Customer teams understanding churn risk
Finance teams spotting inefficiencies early
Leadership teams making decisions without waiting for a monthly report cycle

The opportunity is moving from ‘data visibility’ to ‘decision intelligence’. Not replacing people, but helping people make better calls with less friction.

What are the limits? Where does AI not help?

AI isn't a silver bullet.

It can't take responsibility: humans still have to decide what ‘good’ looks like and what trade-offs are worth making.

And it won't fix a mess: if your goals are unclear or your data is garbage, AI will just help you chase the wrong metrics faster.

Sean Sampson is a South African entrepreneur who started his first business at university and has been building ever since. His journey eventually led to 11&1, and now into software and AI-driven products. He has a practical, solutions-led view of marketing, one focused on solving real business problems, unlocking growth and building useful innovations like Mia, using systems thinking and AI.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

The parenting double standard

Ryan Sheppard — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:45:57 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Close friend of Vivace and ex-colleague Daniel Callaghan has just returned from paternity leave and has some reflections on balancing fatherhood with two young children and a full-time job.

Hopefully, this resonates with many of the parents out there in the Vivace community! We’d love to hear whether you agree with Dan and your own thoughts on navigating gender norms and stereotypes at work, particularly when it comes to parenting expectations, via LinkedIn or email.

Enjoy,

—joel

‘Fathers are let off the hook’

I’m very fortunate to have just had 7-8 weeks off to welcome my second son, Ralph, into the world. This was a combination of paid paternity leave and annual leave, as well as bank holidays. I was mindful of taking as much time off as I was given by my company so I could spend quality time with my family.

It has been challenging. It's not just having a baby: it's going from one baby to two! My oldest is a toddler and he's in his terrible twos, as they say, so he's having his tantrums. Balancing which child takes priority if you're on your own with them and they both want your attention is incredibly hard. I won't sugarcoat the fact that there have been some really testing times since I’ve returned to work.

The double standard: everybody’s working

I am passionate about my job and I get to do good work with people I really get along with. In comparison, my wife has a harder job than me, taking care of two small children who are seeking her attention constantly as long as they're awake. I also have the benefit of physically going to work and then leaving it behind, whereas she doesn't have that. She's purely got the kids, so she doesn't have an outlet.

From the perspective of a father navigating this transition back to work after paternity leave for the second time, it feels like for women, you can't win. You're either a working mom who's not invested in their kids, or you're invested in your kids and you're not taking your career seriously. Whereas I think the dads, we are let off the hook.

We have to call out the double standard around women and how they're viewed as ‘working mums’ — you don't ever hear the phrase 'working dads'. Society, particularly older generations, still has that mentality of the woman should take care of the kids while the dad works.

Being fully transparent, I am in a very fortunate position that my wife doesn't need to go to work. Any amount of money that she would make by going to work would only cover childcare. So, in our situation, given my wife wants to be with our kids, it doesn't logistically make sense for her to go to work and send them to childcare, when she can do it herself.

Parental visibility at work is a choice

I really make an effort to boast about my wife and kids and talk about them in a way that makes other men feel comfortable to do the same. The other week, Ralph had his second set of injections, and I put 'Ralph's injections' as the reason I was out of office in my calendar. I don't want to hide the fact that I'm not going to be at work because I have to take care of my family—I'm there to support my family, which is really important.

I want to be a good role model, I want to set a standard for other dads, and I want to show the way that I think dads need to show up at work and with their kids. I could argue that some of my work relationships have become stronger because I talk to other parents about their kids. It creates more of a kindred spirit between us, which then helps improve our working relationship.

There's a great organisation called Parenting Out Loud, run by Elliott Rae. It’s all about dads being loud and proud about their caring responsibilities at work. It supports them to be equal parents at home and is a revolution for working dads.

Hybrid working: not just a ‘women’s’ benefit

There's data showing that more men are now spending time with their kids than ever before. It might be because we're blessed now to have the opportunity of hybrid working, or because men are actually more invested in their children. Either way, I can’t stress enough how important hybrid working is for co-parenting.

Being able to wake up with my boys and spend time with them is invaluable. I can make them breakfast, get them dressed, brush their teeth—not that that's easy!—then I can come down for lunch and spend my lunch break with them. As soon as I finish work, I'm with them. I don't have to commute for however long it would take me to get home from the office. That's really fulfilling and keeps me motivated in this job.

Plus, it benefits my headspace and attention while at home, so that when something comes up, and I want to send a quick message or an email, I have the ability to pop upstairs for five minutes, send that message on my work laptop, and it's out of my headspace. Whereas if my laptop was in the office, then that might be in my brain distracting me for the next 12 or 16 hours or until whenever I was next at work.

Maintaining boundaries when working from home

I consider myself a hard worker and I pride myself on having a strong work ethic. I’m lucky to have found a manager and a workplace that acknowledges that and provides true work-life balance. As long as you're doing the work and delivering, then it shouldn't matter what times or how long you're working.

One of the things I’ve learned in my mental health journey is not to bring my work home with me in a negative sense. I can still talk about work at home, the challenges and the positive things, but when I'm with my kids or my wife, I don't want to be focused on it. So I've made a real effort to get to the point where I can close my laptop at the end of the day and then not think about it.

Recently I’ve built an outdoor office so we can now give my previous office space to Ralph, to be his nursery, and I can have a dedicated space to work. Having a place where you can go to disconnect and make the transition from home life to work life is important.

Daniel Callaghan is an Employer Brand leader with experience across London Stock Exchange Group, Capital One, Clyde & Co, and now Payoneer. Passionate about equality, empathy, and mental well-being, he believes storytelling is a powerful driver of cultural change. He is also a proud husband and father of two boys.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Why your writing is hard to read

Ryan Sheppard — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:05:22 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Financial markets are complex, and financial marketing tends to reflect that…but it’s our job to parse the complexity into content that audiences can easily engage with.

This week, we’re delighted to feature a brief masterclass in how to write readably from comms expert David Butcher.

Since 2019, David’s annual Readability Report has charted just how readable financial content really is. It’s a great resource for any financial marketer and indeed anyone who wants to engage and persuade. Something tells me that’s just about all of us.

Enjoy,

—joel

Why your writing is hard to read – and how to fix it

George Orwell’s 1946 essay Why I Write is a useful guide for content writers:

Orwell doesn’t mention readability – we use the word more in 2026 than 1946 – but he might as well have.

Readability is a simple measure of how easy something is to read. It’s a metric of short words and short sentences. A low score is good – a high one bad. If you want people to read on these days, you must be readable.

For example, this article has a decent score of 9.2. A teenager would understand it. Or, more likely, that 45-year-old you want to influence, who’s tired, stressed and reading it on the train home.

They don’t need this extract from a 16.1-scoring investment blog:

You probably came across similar purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug earlier today.

Hard reading

We’ve got finite capacity for information. Miller’s Law says human working memory has room for seven items, plus or minus two. You can probably find research with other numbers and none of them is infinity.

If your content asks readers to remember seven things, you’ve probably hit their limit. And you’d better hope they read nothing else that day.

Hope is what you have in our attention economy. In 2004, experts measured how long people focused on a task before getting distracted. The answer? Two-and-a-half minutes. That’s since fallen to 47 seconds.

Today, adult Americans spend just 16 minutes a day reading for pleasure. That number has also been falling and may continue to do so.

We say reading. What we really mean is scanning. We all know we’re content rich and time poor. It’s an impossible equation – so, instead of reading online content linearly like we used to, we scan for what we need. We’re like honeybees: we dwell on a point briefly, get what we need, then buzz to the next.

If that wasn’t bad enough, 57% of us online scanners can’t be bothered to scroll to the second screen. The attrition rate is brutal. Few get to the end.

A reading fixation

If these habits are new, the science of reading is age old.

When we look at words on a screen or page, our eyes perform fixations. That’s a snapshot of 7 to 9 characters, lasting a quarter of a second, enabling our brain to comprehend the words. You probably used 12 fixations on that last sentence. This sentence needs 3.

Then your eye literally goes blind while it jumps to the next fixation. Longer words eat up more of a fixation, take 2 or 3 fixations, or demand a regression, where you go back and re-read something. This chews up energy and time.

How to be readable

Writing readably requires 3 things.

Choose shorter words

Lean into the science – and behavioural science – of reading. Asking readers to perform as few fixations as possible. Write with concise and precise words.

It’s often said English consists mainly of short words. There will almost always be a better, briefer word to express what you want to say.

Yes, long and complex words are available. But, as the brilliant paper Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly concludes: “Write clearly and simply if you can, and you’ll be more likely to be thought of as intelligent.”

The thesaurus is your friend.

Create shorter sentences

Corporate content writers tend to use commas too much, believing that, as their thinking evolves, the reader will accept that evolution, and be happy to read long sentences, full of excessive information, where commas, liberally applied, almost start appearing at random, extending average sentence length, and having the effect of making what started as a sharp piece of thinking descend into meaningless oblivion, and then they feel they don’t have time to edit what they’ve written. Sorry, what was the point again?

There’s another way. It requires short sentences. It’s hard work but always worth it. Readers will recognise your effort to create simplicity. They’ll reward you by reading on.

The average written English sentence length is about 14 words. Bigwigs at Oxford University and the UK Government ask their content creators to stay within 25 words. You could do a lot worse than remembering these numbers.

Write shorter articles

Word count might not contribute to numeric readability scores but we all value brevity, don’t we?

So, you decide what’s best for your readers – mindful of their time, capacity and energy constraints.

There are plenty of guidelines. For instance, the Associated Press in 2014 required reporters to aim for 300-500 words, saying, “We are failing to exercise important news judgment when our stories are overlong and not tightly edited.”

Wise words.

There’s plenty of advice out there. One is specifically designed for corporate content creators: The Readability Report.

When I led communications for large financial institutions, I needed a snappy, empirical report, to help me win arguments about clear and simple communications. But there wasn’t one.

So that’s why I created the annual Readability Report. It measures a universe of financial content –leavening the story with the latest or most noteworthy academic evidence. You can download the latest edition for free here or just get in touch.

David Butcher is a communications expert helping organisations to tell their story with imagination and energy – contributing to commercial success. He has 30 years of experience in PR consultancies, blue chip financial services firms and, for the last eight years, running a consultancy. He has a brace of history degrees, reads a lot, is a Fellow of the RSA in London.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Your vast, untapped alumni opportunity

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:14:42 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Last year we featured a Spark from Lauren Harbury about the rise of the personal brand and how businesses can and should be more intentional in activating their employees as brand advocates. Now we turn to the next frontier of untapped potential for your brand: your alumni.

Emma Sinclair MBE is a serial entrepreneur and an early identifier of exactly that opportunity, founding EnterpriseAlumni to help some of the world’s largest companies create ongoing business value by engaging with their former employees. She spoke to Vivace friend and former colleague Katharine Ramsden about why alumni are such an important audience and the benefits of building an alumni network.

—joel

What inspired you to focus on alumni in the first place?

Alumni networks are complex but incredibly rewarding ecosystems—for both alumni and their former employers.

My inspiration came directly from my own life experiences. Throughout my life, I’ve often turned to former colleagues for advice and support—indeed some of my former colleagues were early investors in EnterpriseAlumni, and Investment Bank Rothschild & Co, where I started my career in Mergers & Acquisitions are also one of our clients—a full-circle alumni moment!

From a macro perspective, companies spend millions finding, hiring, up-skilling and retaining alumni only to say ‘thanks, bye’ when they leave. In a world where job tenure is 1-3 years, it just doesn’t make sense—so it felt like a vast, untapped opportunity. And experience tells us that large company initiatives that start manually but have scale will need tech.

Why are alumni such an important audience and network?

Lifetime employment has become a distant memory, and yet so much effort, resource, and money go into hiring people. What a waste to make such an investment only to throw it away on departure day.

Alumni are potential rehires and a source of referrals, from an HR perspective. They are clients and introducers from a revenue perspective. And more broadly, they are a large marketing army that companies could be directly engaging with to own the narrative.

Boomerang hires have become the most coveted employees: In today’s market, employers are far more likely to rehire someone they already know and trust—their alumni—rather than go through the lengthy and costly process of recruiting and training someone new. Stability and security are highly valued. In fact, research from ADP showed that, as of March 2025, 35% of all new hires in the U.S. were boomerang employees—mind-blowing!

On one of our webinars, BCG shared that alumni drive between 15-35% of their revenue! But it’s about much more than just cost savings.

Building long-lasting, genuine relationships with former employees doesn’t just strengthen your employer brand—it shows your current team that you want to maintain a relationship with them even after they leave, and be a source of support, or as we say, their career co-pilot. This turns your alumni into passionate brand champions who rave about your company and drive new business straight to your door.

And, of course, there’s the practical side: re-hiring alumni can save up to 50% in recruitment costs, since these employees need less training and are far more likely to hit the ground running. They are a proven cultural fit, already have established relationships and networks, and tend to stay longer than new hires. In a recent survey, 72% of former employees say they would return if given the chance.

Why have companies typically overlooked alumni and their value?

Companies have traditionally overlooked alumni because the departure of an employee was often seen as the end of the relationship—end of story.

It is only in the last decade that companies clocked the opportunities that come from the full employee lifecycle—there has often been a lack of data, planning, and understanding of how alumni actually fit into that bigger picture. By focusing solely on current staff, many companies missed out on the massive opportunities that engaged and connected alumni can bring.

That’s why EnterpriseAlumni is leading the way in thought leadership and awareness – making it our mission to show organizations that their alumni are a bigger and more influential community than ever before.

Can you cite any companies that are doing it particularly well?

Today, there are 186,000 corporate alumni groups on LinkedIn. That means your alumni are already building communities out there. By giving them a dedicated space to connect and collaborate, while staying in touch with your organization, you get an army of recruiters who will also help generate new business opportunities. At this point, you’re tapping into opportunities that already exist and are just waiting for you to grab them.

PwC has an extensive year-long program that culminates in Alumni Week, where alumni give TED-style talks, are rewarded with perks, and have an opportunity to get together across the US and Mexico.

BlackRock has an award-winning program with a meaningful global events strategy from Singapore to the UK, France, and the USA.

Retailer Marks & Spencer keeps things fun with perks like the Sparks card, which gives loyalty rewards and helps track alumni engagement. Their alumni network isn’t just about staying in touch—it’s also a recruitment tool. In fact, a chunk of their seasonal hires come from alumni.

Global law firm A&O’s Shearman has a strong alumni network and partners with internal initiatives such as Fuse, their LegalTech innovation hub, where alumni (and others) are meaningfully supported to start businesses and shape the future of digital transformation. It’s a win-win: alumni give back while staying connected.

What have you learned along the way in launching and building EnterpriseAlumni?

That value has to go both ways. Whilst our clients are the corporates, alumni are the true customer. Alumni networks succeed when they offer genuine benefits to their members, not just the company.

That’s why data is key. Knowing your alumni and how they interact with your network lets you tailor experiences, keep them engaged, and make smarter decisions.

Like all things, collaboration across businesses is key. The most successful alumni programs also require buy-in from across the organization: HR, marketing, leadership, and beyond. Securing senior internal support early gives you a huge head start.

Emma Sinclair MBE is CEO and Founder of global software company EnterpriseAlumni, the only tech company in the world to have raised money at scale with gender balance, and a certified woman-controlled company.

In 2016, she was awarded an MBE by the Queen of England for Services to Entrepreneurship. Outside of work, she has a long focus on refugees, entrepreneurship & employment. She is UNICEF’s first Business Ambassador, launching their first-ever crowdfund in 2017 to fund tech labs in refugee camps.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

The year ahead in financial marketing

Ryan Sheppard — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 15:13:48 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Happy New Year!

We hope you were able to find some respite and relaxation over the holiday season and are as excited about the year ahead as we are.

To help us think through all that’s to come in 2026, we asked Bill Wreaks, CEO and Chief Analyst at the Gramercy Institute, to share his predictions for financial marketing, which are based on his conversations with senior marketers from leading financial firms.

We’re delighted to be part of the Gramercy Institute as part of its Agency Short List, and always enjoy connecting with and learning from Bill and our peers in the space. Without further ado, I’ll hand things over to Bill.

—joel

2026: The Year Ahead in Financial Marketing

Financial marketing enters 2026 amid profound shifts: artificial intelligence solidifies as everyday infrastructure, clients demand more personalized value, and executives face accountability for results that build lasting trust.

These are my predictions for financial marketing this year based on my conversations with a number of senior marketers from leading financial firms in late December. Every marketing team will benefit from getting the jump on these shifts—before catching up becomes an issue in itself.

1. AI shifts to seamless operations
Post-2025 trials, companies will integrate AI directly into daily processes like planning campaigns, analyzing customer data, and generating content, yielding dramatic efficiency and quicker insights. Team members will grapple with role changes, sparking essential dialogues on training and oversight.

2. AI powers superior client journeys
Focus pivots from trimming expenses to delivering tailored relevance, with brands leveraging AI to predict preferences and craft individualized interactions. Pioneers in customized financial services already report stronger retention, a trend set to accelerate.

3. Heightened demands for proof and protection
Leadership will require hard evidence linking marketing to income growth, even as oversight on data practices and AI ethics tightens. Chief marketers must weave safeguards and metrics into all tech initiatives from the start.

4. Live events reclaim center stage
Screen exhaustion fuels craving for meaningful face-to-face gatherings that offer real utility and warmth. Brands excelling here—merging precise outreach with authentic encounters—will outpace remote-only rivals in fostering loyalty.

5. Structured outreach to influencers and regulators
Creator partnerships in finance evolve into formal, trackable tactics, while outreach to officials demands unified strategies across departments. This integration will amplify influence on public views and policy.

6. Revamped structures for digital presence
Advanced search tools reshape discovery, elevating profiles, feedback, and online footprints to critical priorities. Organizations will restructure to oversee these across diverse platforms.

7. Evolving teams and mindsets
Versatile specialists flourish as automation streamlines hierarchies, favoring adaptable cultures over outdated divisions.

8. Dedicated talent development
Proficiency in analytics, AI tools, and rules will drive organized learning initiatives, equipping teams to handle disruptions effectively.

9. Expanded global production
Routine creative tasks migrate to affordable, skilled centers in Asia and Latin America for speed and savings, reserving local expertise for sensitive strategy.

10. Tech in the background, people upfront
AI becomes ubiquitous yet unnoticed by year-end, with success hinging on marketers who blend automation’s reach with genuine insight and connection.

Gramercy Institute's Recommendations for Financial Marketers for 2026
Financial leaders must proactively shape 2026: embed AI responsibly, prioritize client-centric designs, and fortify teams against risks while nurturing human elements. Craft your 12-month plan now—balancing tech precision with relational depth—and track tangible advances to lead the field.

Bill Wreaks is CEO & Chief Analyst of The Gramercy Institute. Founded in 2002, Gramercy Institute is a think tank for senior marketers from leading financial firms. Gramercy Institute's network comprises over 3200 financial marketing professionals, worldwide. GI hosts fourteen conferences each year in New York, London, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Toronto, and hosts four award programs each year honoring excellence in financial marketing.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Great writing starts from within

Ryan Sheppard — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 18:15:06 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Season’s greetings to you and yours! Before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, I had an opportunity to join the Gramercy Institute Chicago Forum once again, speaking on a panel about innovation in financial marketing. Here are a few takeaways from the session.

We’re excited to announce a Vivace first: the entire core team will be in London next week for what has become an annual festive season tradition—our Vibe with Vivace happy hour. We’d love to see as many of our UK-based friends in person as possible, so please join us on Thursday, December 11th, at The Viaduct Tavern from 5-7pm to raise a glass or two with me, Ryan, Jeanette, Laura, Mimi, and the wider Vivace community. RSVP here.

Finally, we have our second-to-last Spark of the year from expert editorial consultant, writer, and editor, Anthony O’Connor, who dives into the secrets behind producing great writing within organizations. Spoiler: it doesn’t happen by accident or in a vacuum. Writing is the foundation of great content and many great brand experiences—essential to any marketing function—and yet it’s often a sorely neglected skillset within marketing teams. Read on to find out how to remedy this.

—joel

How to nurture a culture of writing in your organisation

“That was a very interesting discussion, we covered a lot,” the hiring manager said across the polished table in a vast room that could have hosted a wedding reception. “Now, it’s time for the writing test. Ready?”

“Great, looking forward to it,” I replied, trying to hide my nerves because I really wanted the job, for lots of reasons.

“So, here’s a copy of today’s Financial Times. Pick a story, create an angle for any of our customer groups in asset management and make your story stand out. Write it in your own words with the appropriate tone. I’ll be back in about 40 minutes.”

“Perfect, see you then,” I smiled.

It was just me, a very short brief, a crisp newspaper, a blank Word document and no internet access. I knew there was no time to panic (I panicked for a few minutes of course) and I quickly scanned the newspaper for the story that would stand out.

How do you stand out?

Writers and editors working in commercial firms are often advised or directed not to mix politics with finance and investment. When I got to page three or four of the Financial Times, a story about a new UK government policy threatening to chip away at people’s hard-earned pension savings called out to me. I went for it and wrote a subtle yet human piece about how politics plays with people’s dreams. I figured – and hoped – that other candidates would steer clear of politics so my risky choice would differentiate my writing.

The brief assumed that I had done my research about the firm’s customers, what issues mattered to them and how the firm expressed its brand (tricky because there were no verbal identity brand guidelines). The task would have been impossible if I hadn’t done a lot of research and thinking about the company before I arrived for the interview.

Writing starts with thinking

Any screenwriter, journalist, advertising writer or novelist will tend to think for a long time – about their audience, the detailed topic they are writing about and why – before they start writing any words.

A screenwriter will build a detailed image of cinemagoers who invest time and money to sit in the dark and be entertained. Likewise, a smart advertising copywriter will know the right emotional and factual buttons to push to make messages resonate and stick with a target audience. Journalists, particularly those on a specialist beat, will aim to think like their readers, to understand their challenges, hopes and aspirations.

Writing for humans

A couple of years ago, I was running a monthly writing workshop for a small group of very bright post-doctoral research analysts. I was asked to help the team sharpen their writing and storytelling skills. During one of the first sessions, we spent a lot of time talking about personas, profiling and describing people who read our work.

“I write what I think is important and interesting, like I used to when I was doing my PhD,” one of the analysts explained. “And I hope that anyone reading my work will find it useful and interesting like I do.”

I tasked the analysts to create a detailed profile of a fictitious person, including their emotional, personal and professional characteristics. Then I asked them to rewrite a piece of their writing for their newly created target reader. The results were hands down richer and more powerful in the focused pieces, we all agreed.

The more you know about an individual or group of people, the more tailored, conversational and human the story will be through the authenticity and nuance you can incorporate. Just like we do when we talk to someone we know very well.

The business of writing

Over many years I’ve seen how writing in a professional context – particularly in large matrix organisations – can make some people nervous: they think they should be competent writers because they are educated or the role requires it.

Writing is a learned skill that anyone can perfect with study and practice. Individuals, organisations and leaders together need to find ways to invest in the craft of writing and to create systems that enhance a culture of good writing.

Starting your journey

The sure way to avoid turning pale at the gills when anyone mentions grammar or writing technique is to study gaps in your knowledge. Writers of all levels can build confidence with a writing toolkit that provides straightforward structure and techniques that deliver tangible results quickly.

Seek out feedback on your writing from willing experienced senior writers and editors who will help you deepen your confidence and perfect your craft. You could also consider discussing your writing with a mentor who will also benefit from your fresh insights and enthusiasm. Good writing becomes even better when it includes more thinking and perspectives.

Investing in a successful writing culture

Any hiring manager that hires writers, whether it’s someone who will write occasionally or full-time, has a great opportunity to shape their organisation’s writing culture. After creating a solid job spec, testing a candidate’s knowledge of writing technique and assessing their ability to write in specific formats that you value will be vital.

Effective writing assignments in an interview process should test a candidate’s ability to think, analyse and write proficiently. Include stretch elements in a writing test to explore a candidate’s potential to develop as a writer and storyteller. Hiring people with scope to develop their talent will develop your writing culture in turn.

Encouraging your teams to attend ongoing training workshops on writing technique, editing or brand verbal identity delivers a clear message that writing competence or excellence is expected in your organisation. If training budgets are squeezed, ask experienced members of your in-house team to run workshops or seminars, invite experts from other organisations to share their knowledge and experience, and provide avenues for mentoring.

Creating an excellent writing culture is as much about process and systems as it is about creativity and technique. Writers will produce their strongest work on time and on budget when they have clear guidelines and expectations. In busy organisations, briefing a writing project is often less detailed and focused than it should be. But experience shows that a brief that clearly defines what success looks like is more likely to produce it. With a strong brief on the table, any feedback on the work will be more constructive and effective.

When teams or companies recognise and celebrate good writing, it sends a clear message to other writers to aspire to write well.

Anthony O’Connor creates value across editorial consulting, writing and editing, and training high-performing teams. He works with international clients and partners to elevate leading brands to new heights, supports businesses to perfect their customer-centric thought-leadership and storytelling capabilities, and trains writers to be ready to perform much better than AI.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Everything, everywhere, all at once

Ryan Sheppard — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 13:02:15 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Brand signposting encompasses the many ways we prompt audiences to recognise and hopefully remember us, and then nudge them towards the destinations they might be seeking. A logo is the ultimate brand signpost, but so is a call to action button, or a selection of visuals that help customers to categorise our brand and perhaps begin to weave some of our desired associations into their minds.

But there is such a thing as too much signposting—as Amy Erato cautions in this week’s feature. Amy is a marketing leader and writer who recently joined our bench of talented senior marketing specialists. She and our Managing Director Jeanette Juetten were commiserating over their shared experiences of terrible hospital signage, something many of us can probably relate to, and the following piece was sparked…

—Ryan

The science of brand signposting

Walk into a hospital and what’s the first thing you notice? Signs. They’re everywhere. Directional arrows. “Registration.” “Authorized Personnel Only.” “Do Not Enter.” “Emergency Department Ahead.” Sometimes there are even hallways with directional arrows painted on the walls or floors in colors corresponding to specific departments or patient areas.

The intent is to help, but in fact the effect is often the opposite. When there is too much information everywhere all at once, the result is confusion. People hesitate. They ask for help. In a hospital where urgency and stress is already high, unclear signposting compounds the anxiety.

The same can be said about marketing.

Every touchpoint is a brand experience

A website banner and call-to-action is a type of signpost. Every navigation bar is supposed to help you find your way, but when there’s too much information, too many directions, and too many messages, the result is the same as a crowded hospital hallway: confusion.

From digital touchpoints like websites, emails and social media pages, to direct mail, brochures, and articles, the visual and verbal cues are all signposts guiding people through a journey. When brands try to say everything, everywhere, all at once, customers don’t know where to look or what to do next.

The importance of subtle and overt cues

When shaping and guiding a brand experience, details matter. Details like what people see and how they interpret your message are important. These subtle and overt cues work together to shape how audiences connect with your brand.

Visual
These are the consistent fonts, colors, and typography of your brand.

Sensorial
Consider the needs of those with visual impairment, including color choices, font size, and the use of braille or text-to-speech features.

Linguistic
Language used must be clear and intentional. Consider offering information in multiple languages and ensure those with disabilities can understand.

Navigational
Layout must be intuitive and easy to follow, with clear calls to action.

Like a patient trying to navigate a hospital’s hallways who loses confidence in their sense of direction and becomes confused, a customer faced with too much information during a brand experience loses confidence in the brand. Good signposting whether in digital experiences or in real life reduces friction, anticipates needs and simplifies decisions.

When you navigate your website, product or app, how easy (or difficult) is it to find your way around, without asking for help? If the experience doesn’t meet your customer’s needs, they may search and ask for help, or they may just leave. When they leave, they will find someone else to meet that need—probably your competitor.

The cognitive load on the customer journey

Every customer journey comes with a cognitive load: What do I do next? Is this trustworthy? What can I expect now? When it’s too much, people disengage. When your brand guides people seamlessly and each “sign” makes the next decision obvious, you build trust and make the journey seamless.

Hospitals get this wrong all the time, and so do brands. However, both are simply trying to get people somewhere important without getting lost. In marketing that means being intentional.

Is your brand language clear or cluttered?
Are you trying to say too much all at once?
Are your visuals helpful or do they distract?
Does your digital navigation make the next steps obvious?

When you guide your audience with intention, they find what they’re looking for without frustration. They trust they’re in good hands. And trust, both in hospitals and brands, is everything.

Amy Erato has led marketing efforts at several non-profits in industries spanning healthcare, insurance, financial services, and the performing arts. She builds brand strategies that drive engagement, strengthens reputation, and connects mission-driven organizations with the communities they serve. Currently she is the Director of Marketing at a rural hospital in Wisconsin.

Photo credit: Gregory Schmidt MD | Navjunk = horrible hospital navigation (+ a solution)

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

How to be a better client

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 12:00:22 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

This week we’re lucky to be featuring Eileen Lynch—our former Marketing Leader and CMO at Thomson Reuters and Refinitiv respectively, as well as a current partner at Broadridge, where she leads Investor Communications Marketing. Eileen’s marketing leadership has been inspirational for many of us here at Vivace, so we’re thrilled to be able to share some of her insights in Spark.

Throughout her career, Eileen has led large-scale, global marketing at leading organizations, across Brand, Marketing Strategy and Planning, Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Organization Design and Performance Measurement functions. She shared her thoughts on agency relationships and being a better client with former colleague and friend of Vivace, Katharine Ramsden.

—Ryan

How to be a better client

Over your career in brand you’ve worked with many agencies and partners. What are the hallmarks of a good partnership?

Great partnerships start with a shared vision, agreement on priorities (i.e. are we both solving for the same challenge?) and respect for what each team brings to the table.

Accountability from the client side requires what you would expect: knowing the customer and the competition, deeply understanding the business challenge and the marketing opportunity and, importantly, ensuring your leadership is aligned with the opportunity at hand.

Identifying the right agency partner requires careful consideration and an appreciation of both the art and the science of creating great work:

Is the agency culturally aligned with us?

Can I see this agency as a natural extension of my own team?

Does the agency admire our brand and are they excited and passionate about creating great work that will help us win in the market?

Those intangibles are in addition to technical skills: knowing your industry and your business, knowing how to create amazing narratives, and understanding the channels and platforms that will accelerate your success.

What are some of the critical challenges for organizations that you have worked on with agency partners?

The financial and risk business of Thomson Reuters was split off and became Refinitiv. That required a new brand, a new identity system, a new customer proposition and narrative, and a redesign of our product portfolio. We brought together the expertise of a few different agencies, working as part of a holistic team, all focused on igniting the power of brand to drive financial value.

Another challenge I have tackled with trusted agency partners is the simplification of a GTM product portfolio, ensuring customers can quickly and easily find the products and solutions that will help them win in the market. That meant cleaning up the portfolio, building a simple architecture that bundled like-minded offerings and creating a naming strategy that drove consistency and clarity in how products were presented to the marketplace.

There are countless examples of agency work focused on simplifying our digital offerings; creating state of the art end-to-end digital experiences; simplifying how customers and prospects learn about our company, our products, our thought leadership and success stories; or even how customers service their accounts—all without leaving integrated digital ecosystem.

Some of the most interesting agency work I’ve done is around Customer Experience design. It required an agency with a deep understanding of how customers interact with us at every key touchpoint. We started by defining what we wanted the experience to be and then analyzed user engagement across all touch points. We identified the points where we could simplify and align experiences, enhancing productivity while engaging and amazing the customer.

What are some of the keys to success when managing agencies?

Start with a team of people that you respect, understand the skills they bring to the table.

Ensure you are all working towards the same end goal. Winning in the marketplace aces winning at Cannes.

Hire grown ups. Have adult conversations. Be comfortable being honest and direct with each other

Know what the agency is good at. Hire agencies and talent that can give you what you need.

Be sure you are giving them clear and actionable information they can build on: is the strategy clear? Is the brief specific and compelling?

Have some fun. Create an environment where the team is excited to be engaged and do their best work.

Give them room to think and execute.

And equally, how do you manage and align the needs and expectations of internal stakeholders and teams, alongside your agency partners?

The most important first step is to have internal alignment and agreement on what you are solving for. Manage internal expectations—be clear on who is ultimately responsible for making decisions and keep those people engaged.

Listen closely to feedback and, at the same time, be prepared to fight for good work.

In your experience, where are the lost opportunities between agencies and clients?

Lost opportunities are usually the result of lack of alignment. Be sure both parties are focused on the same outcome. Sometimes the lost opportunity is good work that died along the way because of hundreds of small cuts.

Eileen Lynch is the former Group Head of Marketing at London Stock Exchange Group, where she co-led the transition and integration of LSEG and Refinitiv communications and marketing. Before joining LSEG, she was the Chief Marketing Officer at Refinitiv, and earlier in her career, she led Corporate Marketing at Thomson Reuters and Merrill Lynch.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Storytellers of timeless ambition

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Does anyone else have a friend who always seems to pop up on TV? For me, that’s Dr. Sam Willis, or just Sam—an award-winning historian, archaeologist and broadcaster with a knack for entertaining through world-shaping stories. He is the consummate storyteller, so I asked him to share one of his favorite brand stories with us. This time it’s Louis Vuitton.

I hope you enjoy his reflections, and if you have questions you’d like to put to him, let us know.

—Ryan

Trunks and Treasures: The Louis Vuitton Story

Guest essay by Dr Sam Willis

It’s one of the finest pieces of design I’ve ever seen.

It celebrates status, innovation and craftsmanship.

It acts as a bridge between past and present.

And it tells a story.

This is the Coeur de Paris.

Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds High Jewelry Collection | Louis Vuitton

This magnificent jewel was the centrepiece of Louis Vuitton’s 2024 high jewellery collection, Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds. The collection consisted of no fewer than 220 unique creations, their largest high jewellery collection to date. The focus of the collection was a celebration of nineteenth-century French craftsmanship—and therefore a celebration of the company’s own roots which lie in Paris, in 1858.

This was the time and place when Louis Vuitton burst onto the international stage, a brand visionary. It’s well known that he began with luggage—in the form of trunks—but in his trunks lay a much, much bigger plan.

Until Vuitton came along, luggage was ugly, bulky and impractical—DOMED for goodness’ sake. But this was a time when steam was changing the way people travelled, the number of people who travelled and the type of people who travelled. Standing on station platforms and harbour jetties all over the world were thousands upon thousands of people, their eyes agleam with the promise of the future, their horrible, heavy and shabby luggage brimming with hope and ambition. There was so much hope and ambition that it spilled out of their luggage and pooled around their feet like magic dust.

Louis could see it. And he knew that each traveller’s magic dust deserved a proper piece of luggage. One with a flat top so that it could be stacked, so you could bring more of it; one that was durable so you could take it further and have it for longer; one that was stylish, that looked as good as its magic contents deserved. His trunks were not only magnificently hand-crafted but also decorated with stripes, patterns and his iconic LV monogram. He didn’t want his customers just to be seen with fancy trunks, but with his fancy trunks. Those trunks were no longer just a practical object but a symbol of worldliness and status. He had created a blueprint for luxury design and a way for signalling aspiration.

166 years later and jewellery designers in Louis Vuitton’s modern Parisian design studio on the banks of the Seine saw an opportunity to celebrate Vuitton’s vision by linking it with another icon of French design: the Eiffel Tower. This is what led to that magnificent jewel the Coeur de Paris, a masterpiece of creative audacity every bit a match for Vuitton’s trunks and Gustave Eiffel’s revolutionary iron tower. At its centre lies a breathtaking 56.23-carat diamond with a rare pink-orange hue, one of the rarest ever set by Louis Vuitton’s jewellers. It is framed by LV monogram star-cut stones and architectural design motifs evocative of the tower’s scaffold-style design.

We all think of the tower as a spike on the horizon, a vertical iron splinter amongst nineteenth-century stone mansions, but this gem offers a new perspective and therein lies the genius of the design. It evokes the vision of standing beneath the soaring structure of the Eiffel Tower, in the very heart of Paris itself, and looking upward. It is so much more than a necklace but a love-poem to Louis Vuitton’s creativity and elegance, and his love of modernity, grounded in the city that made his name. It is a piece of history reinvented for the modern world in honour of a man who only ever had his eyes set on the future. Louis Vuitton didn’t just want to create products but a timelessness, an ethos about legacy that would ensure his brand’s growth.

If only he could see this jewel now—what a moment that would be, proof that his legacy and vision still stands. A vision that can teach us all a lesson: brands that endure are led by those that dare to become storytellers of timeless ambition. The real goal is not to chase trends but to create enduring symbols—a way for people to see themselves not only in the present but also in the future.

Dr Sam Willis has worked as a creative for over 25 years writing and presenting award winning documentaries for the BBC and National Geographic, authoring over 30 books and consulting for many of the world’s biggest brands, including Louis Vuitton’s Paris jewellery studio. Find more of his work on his website and change the way you think about the past with Histories of the Unexpected.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

The great brand debate

Ryan Sheppard — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 13:04:00 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Spark has enjoyed a European-style break over August and we’re now back and ready to spice up your inboxes with renewed vigour, starting with a debate that’s been electrifying the comments sections of LinkedIn posts over the past few months, courtesy of our editor Mimi.

Meanwhile, I’ve been in Minnesota this past week, catching up with the team and diving into a mix of exciting projects we’ll be supporting in the months ahead. I’m really energized about what’s coming as we head toward the end of the year! More on that to come…

—Ryan

What’s your definition of brand?

Guest essay by Mimi Hayton

A few months ago, I shared what I believed at the time to be a lighthearted LinkedIn post celebrating the diversity of brand definitions. Little did I know that my innocent exploration of this idea would expose a rift within the brand strategy community, provoke an epic 7 part LinkedIn post in response and pull in number of industry heavyweights to boot.

The prompt that started it all? ‘What's your definition of brand?’.

If you’ve ever interviewed for a role in brand, you’ve probably been asked this question or a version of it:

What’s your definition of brand? It’s a great question because how you answer it tells someone not just how you personally think about brand, but how you see yourself in relation to it.

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7341407139564871680

Like many of us who have had a non-linear journey into the brand space, the experience I draw upon is varied, but the through-line is one of strategic intention combined with creative expression. No matter how we’ve ended up with ‘brand’ in our roles or titles, most of us also share a desire to understand things deeply and holistically. This is why I have always been drawn to the different ways people evoke not just what brand is, but why it matters.

It’s both the art and the science that fuels my passion for it.

Alongside my collection of definitions (or descriptions depending on your stake in this argument), I also did my due diligence and included one from Interbrand and their seminal article on the subject, from Calin Hertioga and Johannes Frederik Christensen's ‘What is a brand?’ (2018). 

It is a definition with a single function: to create shared, incontrovertible, meaning between the people who create brand value and the people who want to extract it. It creates a common ‘currency’, if you will, between brand practitioners and the various other brand stakeholders.

And of course it is perfectly fit for that purpose. With a combined 40+ years experience in brand, these are two people who know what they’re talking about.

What is a brand? | Brand Definition - Interbrand

What is a brand? Get a clear definition and get ahead in today's competitive landscape with a clear understanding of how to define branding.

interbrand.com/london/thinking/what-is-a-brand

One definition to rule them all

So why should you as brand shaper or marketer even care? Isn’t this all just academic posturing? Well, actually, this may or may not be the most important issue facing our field. Yes, something’s rotten in the state of brand and according to some that thing is the lack of a singular universally-agreed brand definition.

Why is this such a problem? According to Christensen and Hertioga, too many definitions of brand have created corruptive ambiguity for our profession:

“I think we can allow ourselves some poetry alongside the clarity when among friends”

It’s hard to argue with Christensen and Hertioga’s rationale—though naturally that didn’t stop me. As I said in my original post, “[it] might be accurate but it doesn’t exactly inspire me with a burning passion for my career”. It may be fit for the purpose of convincing executives in boardrooms that brand is worth a damn, but it doesn’t convince me that this is something worth dedicating my one wild and precious life to…

Of course then there is the argument that my own personal desires in this matter are completely irrelevant:

The lines are drawn

What emerged in the ensuing discussion were two camps that I've dubbed The Poets and The Purists. Johannes Christensen was provoked inspired enough to reiterate his original argument in a series of 7 posts which the dedicated among you may wish to explore fully:

Why the Branding Industry Is Stuck (1/7) 🛑

Ask ten branding professionals what a brand is, and you’ll get eleven answers. A gut feeling. A story. A reputation. A promise. A perception. That might sound poetic - but it’s not strategic. 🧩 In law, medicine, and engineering, professionals share clear definitions. Without that, they can’t operate. In branding? We’ve been operating without one for decades. And it shows.

www.linkedin.com/posts/johannes-frederik-christensen_definingbrand-brandingfundamentals-brandingtheory-activity-7345521310199951361-6Zto

The Poets, seeking resonance, and The Purists, seeking accuracy, then battled it out in the comments:

Some were in search of a compromise that could capture both:

Others are just sick of the whole argument:

"Yes, and...”

The debate was, of course, fated from the start. Purists are never going to concede that there is room for anything but absolutes, and Poets are never going to give up their poetry. Some see the question as philosophical; others as scientific.

It’s not about whether Christensen and Hertioga’s definition is objectively correct (it is), but whether ‘correct’ should mean game over for all other interpretations.

Is our discipline not rich enough to contain multitudes? Whether you're presenting to eternally skeptical CFOs who crave (false) certainty or crafting brand experiences that need to resonate emotionally, I believe there needs to be room for both poetry and precision. For the measurable and the magical.

Ultimately the more pertinent question is: do our profession's biggest challenges really stem from definitional confusion? Or from capricious human behaviour that no definition can solve…

Beneath the semantics, what we seem to be grappling with is the legitimacy, relevancy and potential of brand, in the eyes of non-believers.

Et tu?

So, are you a Poet or a Purist?

And how much does it matter?

Mimi is a brand marketing consultant, strategist, storyteller and creative. She currently lives in Manchester, UK, and spends far too much time on LinkedIn and Substack, where you can follow her for more thought-provoking musings. She also happens to be the editor of this fantastic newsletter.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

The art of the speech

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 20:53:53 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Spark is again demonstrating the network effect in action today with friend of Vivace Katharine (Kaye) Ramsden delivering the first in our Spark Conversations series between our community members and their wider networks.

Kaye is a highly experienced and award-winning branded content and communications consultant whom Ryan and I have known since our days at Thomson Reuters. She sat down with speechwriter Avi Herbatschek to reflect on his craft and address some of the myths of speechwriting in the process.

Speechwriting is a fascinating and little-spoken-about topic; we hope you’re as intrigued by this peek into the mind of a full-time speechwriter as we were.

—joel

In conversation with Avi Herbatschek

As told to Katharine Ramsden

There’s a common misconception that speechwriting is about wordsmithing. It’s not. A good speechwriter is, above all, a good thinker and someone who provides strategic counsel.

If you’re a CEO preparing to deliver a major speech, you don’t want someone who just cranks out polished sentences. You want someone who can absorb your thinking and elevate it—make it sharper, more substantial, more resonant, and more right for the moment.

A good speechwriter must give more than they’re asked for. They don’t just write up thoughts—they deepen them. That requires intellectual ambition and the ability to express big ideas clearly and simply. The best speechwriters are independent minds with the judgment to challenge, clarify, and shape ideas. They sound like intelligent people having a lively conversation and thinking out loud. That’s what the best writing really is.

Most great speechwriters I’ve met are generalists. Some people may argue that deep expertise in one domain is essential. Sometimes it is. But I mostly disagree. As the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein said: “Specialization is for insects.” All of the world’s knowledge—from the arts to the sciences—is, and should be, connected. And only generalists can make those connections.

Early influences

At first glance, my background doesn’t scream “speechwriter.” I grew up in France. English is my second language. When I immigrated to the U.S. at 12, I didn’t speak a word of it. At first, I felt uprooted—caught between the push to assimilate and the pull to preserve my culture. But over time, I learned to straddle the different, sometimes contradictory values of my birthplace and adopted country. That outsider’s perspective is now central to how I practice my craft.

I was lucky to grow up in a home full of books and debate. My parents encouraged open minds and spirited conversation. That not only piqued my interest in topics beyond myself—it also made me fall in love with reading early. And that matters. The starting point for any good writer is to be a good reader. That’s how you develop a writerly ear. You learn to spot, savor, and reverse-engineer good prose.

At 18, I moved abroad and studied political science, economics, and philosophy in France, Germany, and Israel. That experience gave me tools I still use: critical thinking, a global outlook, a joy for learning, and the belief that culture and knowledge are forms of capital that pay the highest dividend over time.

I also learned how to learn. For me, critical thinking isn’t just about acquiring new truths. It’s also about unlearning old falsehoods—spotting flawed logic, identifying biases, and confronting ideas through debate. That mindset has shaped my writing ever since.

Navigating an unnatural calling

One reason is that writing is unnatural. Unlike speech, it isn’t instinctive. The written word is a recent invention, and it leaves no trace in our genome. It must be learned—slowly, painstakingly—throughout childhood and beyond. And when we write, we lose the feedback loop of real-time interaction. We can’t see our readers’ faces or reactions. We have to imagine how our words will land. That’s not easy.

Another myth is that speechwriting is solitary. It’s not. Good speechwriting is deeply relational. You write for a speaker, but also for the people who influence them or whose opinions matter to them. That makes the work collaborative—and collaboration means navigating power, politics, psychology, and pressure.

Finally, there’s the tension between the values of writing and the values of corporate life. Writing seeks honesty; corporations favor caution. Writers chase surprise and originality; corporations prefer predictability and alignment. Writers are outsiders by temperament; corporate leaders are insiders by necessity. Writers value independence; corporations rely on consensus. That tension is built into the job—and it’s part of what makes it worth doing.

Capturing voices

Most people equate voice with sound. But for a writer, voice is about character. It’s about showing someone’s substance and style—the thinking behind the words. You can only craft a believable voice once you understand the values, convictions, and ideas they care about.

As for capturing the voice of the company, it comes down to understanding the business. You need to know the products and services, the competitive landscape, the market trends, and the company’s strategic direction. No amount of good writing can make up for not knowing what the company actually does or where it’s trying to go.

The future of the craft

There’s a temptation to think that long-form, idea-driven communication is obsolete—that no one has time for speeches anymore. But I disagree. The attention economy hasn’t erased deep thinking. It’s just made it more valuable.

As for AI, it can be very helpful to get a second opinion or expand your thinking, but, to a certain extent, it’s also promoting a very standardized form of writing and thinking.

I have noticed a shift toward more conversational formats—fireside chats, podcasts, unscripted interviews. But that hasn’t diminished the role of the speechwriter. If anything, it’s made us more essential. Behind the scenes, we still help shape the argument, find the message, and sharpen the story.

Even when the format isn’t a formal speech, a well-crafted backgrounder or talking points memo can help a leader think clearly about what matters. And when they speak with clarity and conviction, it still moves people. That’s not old-fashioned. That’s timeless.

Avi Herbatschek is Chief Speechwriter to the CEO and Chairman of IBM. He helps shape IBM's point of view on the present and future of technology (Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, and Quantum Computing) and its role in unlocking value for clients. He's also a rational optimist, a Wikipedian, and an unapologetic nerd. You can find more of his thoughts on his Substack: Popper & Karl.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Re-humanizing B2B marketing

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 14:12:00 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

‘How can we make it more human?’—is a question that has been asked by many a marketing team trying to sell data, software, and technology in businesses around the world. How do you captivate audiences when your product exists mainly in 1s and 0s? In chips and bytes? Product screenshots artfully inserted into device interfaces will only get you so far…

Cesare Serventi—or Ces as he’s known to us—has been solving this problem for many years, which is why he’s one of our go-tos when our clients need to tell compelling stories through sound and screen. And as with most of our bench of great senior talent, he is also a close friend, and now joins the distinguished ranks of Spark contributors.

This mini masterclass in human storytelling for the digital age is one that no B2B marketer or communicator should miss.

—joel

Creative storytelling, emotion and AI: Re-humanizing B2B marketing in the digital age

Guest essay by Cesare Serventi

I have a confession to make: after I finish editing a video or a podcast show, I watch it back repeatedly, examining each and every detail as though I was watching it for the first time.

I’m looking for spots in the edit where I can make subtle adjustments—the color grade over a clip, a transition in the music—all so that I can draw out more of one thing: emotion. These kinds of changes are the ones that probably no one else will notice, but I make them nevertheless because I feel they are important for the story.

Having produced and led many professional productions over the years, supporting corporate communications and B2B marketing for financial services companies, I learned early on that emotion is the driving force that makes content impactful and memorable.

From the copywriting behind campaign creative to the technical production that brings it to life across digital mediums, each stage is a crucial step in the process of turning ideas into powerful sensory experiences that can have lasting emotional impact.

In B2C marketing, campaigns often use emotions characterized by FOMO (fear of missing out), such as love or the sense of belonging, to tie customers’ loyalty to brands and their products. But in B2B marketing, the desired feeling isn’t about tugging heartstrings—it’s about helping people feel secure in their choices, understood in their challenges, and inspired by possibilities. In this context, emotions are less likely to be joy or sadness than confidence, urgency, or trust.

In a world where buyer journeys are increasingly complex, competitive landscapes more crowded, and AI-generated content more ubiquitous, the most powerful differentiator that companies and brands have is not more data: it’s a deeper connection.

Successful communication within B2B marketing needs to resonate and not just inform.

Finding and telling human stories in tech and SaaS

If we agree that success in tech and SaaS (software-as-a-service) is also driven by powerful storytelling, the task for its marketers is:

Your first instinct might be to look at the product, but the answer is actually to look at the people using the product and their experience around that. Though products within the technology and SaaS markets are often invisible, the advantages they offer to users and the impact that they enable is usually evident. That’s where the story lies.

For example: a data analytics tool isn’t just dashboards—it’s what empowers an analyst to uncover market-moving insight that gives them the edge over competitors.

A cloud solution isn’t just storage—it’s a critical component that helps a startup scale faster than others.

Great B2B storytelling should start by asking:

Then, it introduces the human behind that success. In a world where many SaaS businesses are nearly indistinguishable at the feature level, stories are what make them noticeable and unforgettable.

The future of storytelling in the age of AI

Though AI is clearly disrupting the creative industry and allowing virtually anyone with a device to easily produce content, humans still hold the power to find and tell stories in a compelling way. AI can help shape and express a message, but it does not define it. The most powerful narratives still come from real experiences, customer interviews, employee anecdotes, and founder perspectives. Those cannot (and should not) be outsourced.

Tools like ChatGPT, copy generators, and AI video editors are accelerating how content is created, but speed and scale of production alone are not enough, and never will be. Audiences still crave originality and voice. In my own workflows, AI tools such as Autopod are invaluable for drafting outlines for content and for editing long-form shows into a program in a fraction of the time it would take me. But ultimately, it’s the skills I have developed over many years for storytelling and stylizing content creatively that make my work authentic and engaging—or at least I hope so!

In the age of AI and automation, the most valuable thing that we can offer is not more information, it's more authenticity and intention. The brands that will win in B2B are the ones that understand emotion, tell meaningful human stories, and use AI as a tool to elevate, not replace, their humanity. Because, even in the most technical of industries, we are, and always will be emotional decision-makers first.

Cesare Serventi is a professional content creator and founder of Inkwood Studios, a boutique agency that helps brands and organizations tell their stories through videos and podcasts.

A Great British Odyssey

Ces recently captured and brought to life the inspirational story of ocean-rower Angus Collins' attempt to row solo around England, Scotland, and Wales this year. If he completes the row it will be a world record, the first successful expedition in 100+ attempts!

His mission is to raise awareness and money to support the charity James’ Place, which helps suicidal men get back on their feet. Check out the trailer below and follow the full story on Inkwood Studios.

3....2...1… 🚀

On Saturday 28th June, on a beautiful sunny morning in Southsea Marina Bay, Portsmouth, Angus Collins aboard his boat, Goosander, set off on his recording breaking attempt, rowing solo clock-wise around the mainland of Great Britain 🇬🇧

At the time of writing this post, Angus has rowed 83 nautical miles, equal to 154km, in the unforgiving waters of the English sea! 💪🏽

Inkwood Studios was there to capture the wonderful scenes as Angus’ wife Elsa, his dad and sister along with local friends and by-standers all came to cheer him on and wave him goodbye as he set off.

Follow the story on Inkwood Studios here: https://lnkd.in/e4n_-58j

www.linkedin.com/posts/cesareserventi_321-on-saturday-28th-june-activity-7345772429719289857-N0tS?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAADNwxABIJOgTF-WDc9rDtxuUhZMVj7vB0o

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

How to lead successful creative teams

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:51:02 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast,’ as the famous quote goes. And yet it’s probably one of the single most neglected areas of any business anywhere, often seen as a ‘nice-to-have’, rather than a core competency, let alone a keystone of success.

But why is this? Too much ambiguity? Too much complexity? Too much emotionality? The reasons would be worthy of a whole investigative series, but the fact is that great leaders don’t shy away from the opportunity to get right in the feels.

As we’ve discussed in Spark before, successful teams are the foundation of successful businesses, and successful teams are happy, connected, and supported. A few weeks ago, Ben Jarrold cooked up Part 1 of his team-building and leadership recipe, providing structure and guidance to a topic that can often feel more art than science. This week, he’s back with an insight-packed Part 2 for both aspiring and seasoned leaders.

—joel

P.S. Our Spark Reader Survey is still open and we’d love a few more responses if you haven’t yet had your say.

How to build and lead successful teams: Part 2

Guest article by Ben Jarrold

Reading this quote for the first time conjured a mix of negative and positive connotations for me: the first half prompted the thought of a terrible boss early on in my career, but the second recalled an amazing one.

The way anyone behaves, communicates, shares ideas, asks for help, seeks, and gives feedback can be influential. But for those blessed with the responsibility to lead, the shadow we cast has far greater potential reach.

As leaders, we should be striving to learn from both the good and bad examples that we’ve experienced, refining and adding our own leadership flavor, not to perfect, but to find the right harmony.

In Part 1: The hiring ingredients, I shared the key lessons I’d learned from 20 years of building, nurturing, and managing effective teams, specifically around making the most of recruitment opportunities to develop the ‘right’ team.

This follow-up focuses on the critical next step in leading your team to success: thoughtfully shaping a complementary environment that fosters harmony and enables effective work.

How to build and lead successful teams: Part 1

A time-tested team recipe from marketing leader Ben Jarrold

vivacespark.beehiiv.com/p/how-to-build-and-lead-successful-teams-part-1

Tailoring the recipe for your team

With your team in place, the next steps on the road to success are tuning how you operate:

Shaping the culture & environment
Setting the rhythm
Recognising contributions
Never stop learning

Prioritize culture

Ensuring your team operates within and shares a belief in a positive culture is the foundation of their success.

Carve out dedicated time for collecting input to shaping this culture, remembering to be as inclusive as possible, especially for remote workers and those outside of key locations. Inclusivity of all those responsible—both management and the wider team—sets the tone and ensures buy-in from the outset.

Listen to and discuss everyone’s specific needs around support, creativity and development. Maximize the tools, technology, virtual and physical spaces at your disposal, identifying where improvements can be made to enhance team cohesion.

Agree, formalize and share the outcomes of these discussions back with the team—you might think about codifying them into your own ‘culture principles’. Consider the different ways you can embed and incorporate them into daily work e.g.:

Refer to them regularly
Include in processes like onboarding
Recognize and reward individuals for exemplifying behavior

Former colleague and friend Mark Lulsens offers some great insights into Creativity and Creative Culture that deep dive into this topic further.

Creativity is learned

Kevin Ashton, in his book How to Fly A Horse: “Creating is not for the elite few. The question is not whether invention is the sole province of a tiny minority but the opposite: How many of us are creative? The answer, hidden in plain sight, is all of us.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/creativity-learned-mark-lulsens

Set the rhythm

Trust, honesty, and openness are attributes of any successful culture, but they need to be tangibly supported by processes and platforms in order to flourish.

Your team’s essential rhythm will be decided by when (frequency), where (location or platform), and how (structure, tone, agenda, feedback) you meet.

Create a plan for the team’s future development as a whole: upskilling, structure, service, and output improvement, and new or desired areas to expand into. Get ahead of potential opportunities by preparing strong, benefit-led cases to make them happen.

A key sign of a healthy team? They enjoy interacting beyond the work. This can happen organically when the culture is right, but enabling opportunities for people to interact outside of projects and day-to-day responsibilities can be a springboard to stronger relationships.

There are often individuals or small groups within teams that relish the opportunity to bring people together in this way—good leaders let others take the lead when the time is right.

A key sign of a healthy team? They enjoy interacting beyond the work.

Recognition comes in many forms

Acknowledging different voices within your team and giving everyone the opportunity to be heard (introverts and extroverts) in a balanced way will activate ideas that otherwise might get lost in the noise of a busy or highly vocal team.

Regular constructive feedback, review and challenge through clear goals are important, as well as offering stretch opportunities and delegating responsibility with the right level of support. But genuine care and respect are the true differentiators that fuel team spirit and a true sense of belonging. And they’re infectious too!

Recognition for individuals can come in many forms beyond the typical performance-based reward structure:

Empathy for everyone’s unique situation
Dedicated one-on-one time
Investment in both career and personal development
Performance rewards and celebrations

Nurturing belonging and a sense of achievement has a huge impact beyond the individual too: in order to innovate and create to their full potential—try, fail, and learn together—teams need to feel confident and safe. This also means ensuring that ‘collaboration’ isn’t just a corporate buzzword and has substance.

Genuine care and respect are the true differentiators that fuel team spirit and a true sense of belonging. And they’re infectious too!

Never stop learning

20 years of managing living, breathing creative teams has rewired my brain. Now, my thought process when I see any advert or campaign is not mere indifference or a fleeting emotional response, it’s ‘what did it take to deliver this?’.

‘What went into getting this work ready for the world to see, react to, or judge?’

‘How many people were involved from the initial brief to the KO meeting, through the discovery and concepting, to the countless iterations it took to finesse or wordsmith?’

‘How many hours were spent on the discussions, the debates, the client/stakeholder meetings, the failures, the inspirations? How much energy? What tools did they use?’

And most importantly, ‘what were the impacts, positive and negative, on the team—both the individuals and as a collective?’.

All of these questions should be on the mind of any good leader. Seek out, question, analyze, and take action from the results; each insight will move your team towards greater harmony and growth. Don’t be afraid to change things if they aren’t right —personnel, structure, processes, or rhythms—just be sure to carefully consider everything in its proper context. It’s all about balance.

Dinner is served

For the curious and sharp among you, you may still be wondering about something: my secret bolognese ingredient…it’s a tablespoon of Marmite.

I appreciate this may be more divisive than a priest at a dinner party, but remain open to the idea until you’ve tried it!

In the same vein, test and uncover your secret ingredient(s) in building and leading your teams to success—but always remain open-minded. Good leaders are adaptable and responsive to change. Shaping your recipe to suit the evolving palates of your people, customers, and environment will be sure to garner your dish rave reviews.

Ben Jarrold brings over 20 years of experience in creative operations, brand transformation, and marketing and communications, most recently at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). He’s known for building and leading high-performing teams, shaping creative strategies, and guiding major brand projects from idea to execution. Ben combines deep expertise with a hands-on, collaborative approach that helps teams thrive and brands grow.

📣 Don’t forget to complete our reader survey and help shape future editions of Spark!

Daily News for Curious Minds

Be the smartest person in the room by reading 1440! Dive into 1440, where 4 million Americans find their daily, fact-based news fix. We navigate through 100+ sources to deliver a comprehensive roundup from every corner of the internet – politics, global events, business, and culture, all in a quick, 5-minute newsletter. It's completely free and devoid of bias or political influence, ensuring you get the facts straight. Subscribe to 1440 today.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Activating your brand's greatest potential advocates

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 18:56:29 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

Ready or not, we are now living in the era of the personal brand, with big implications for both businesses and professionals:

91% of UK hiring managers prefer a candidate with a strong digital professional brand (Canva)
89% of consumers trust personal recommendations above all other advertising channels (Statista)
Brand messages are re-shared 24x more frequently when distributed by employees vs brand (MSLGroup)
82% of people are more likely to trust a company when their senior executives are active on social media (Weber Shandwick & KRC Research)

And if that wasn’t enough to convince you, recent research into LinkedIn has shown that company pages are averaging just 1–2% organic reach (Algorithm Insights Report 2025). So how should brands pivot to succeed in this new era?

Lauren Harbury, Head of Social and Paid Media at Broadridge, has the answer: employee brand advocacy. Yes, it’s time to activate your biggest reserve of sleeper assets—your people. Done right, it can be a win-win for everyone, and Lauren has 5 tips from her many years of running successful programs at Broadridge and beyond on how to do just that.

Lastly, if you’re a Thomson Reuters employee or contractor past or present based in MN, you’re invited to our unofficial reunion at Vivace’s Saint Paul office tomorrow! All the details are on LinkedIn.

—joel

P.S. Our Spark Reader Survey is still open and we’d love a few more responses if you haven’t yet had your say.

5 keys to nailing the delivery of your brand advocacy program

Guest article by Lauren Harbury

Employee advocacy has been a hot topic for the past few years, as an increasing number of employees become spokespeople for the brands they work for, particularly on channels like LinkedIn. We’ve seen a rise in individuals speaking about their work, company culture, and more, which raises both their personal profiles and those of their employers.

These employees are bringing their own networks into the conversation about your brand and shaping the way that it is seen by potential clients. Knowing that, if you aren’t thinking about an advocacy program, now is a great time to start. The key question to answer is:

I’ve been part of building advocacy programs over the course of my career, some better received than others, and with that experience—and the experience of launching our advocacy program at Broadridge—I think I’ve cracked the nut on how to make these programs engaging and valuable.

What we’re after: authentic engagement from employees across the business. It’s not magic. It’s strategy, structure, clarity, and a little bit of influencer dust.

1. Start with the right platform & take training seriously

Let’s start with the obvious: if your advocacy platform is clunky, hard to use, or buried under three layers of permissions, it won’t matter how good your content is. Creating ease of access is essential, and picking the right platform to manage your program is the key.

The right platform should integrate smoothly with your workflows, be mobile-friendly (because not everyone is logging in from a desktop), and offer admin-level controls so you can organize content in a way that makes sense. Give extra thought to the landing page that users will see on their first click—is it easy for them to get started right there? If not, it’s time for a re-think.

I would be remiss to not talk about training here, and my biggest advice is to take it seriously. Create a change management plan. Have a calendar of training courses for different time zones, teams, groups—however your business is organized. Document the steps that folks need to remember so they have an easy guide on hand. Offer ongoing training to remind folks about the program and help onboard new team members.

2. Think employee-first when it comes to content

At the core of your program is the content, and making sure that it delivers on your audience's needs. My team and I spend a lot of time talking to partners about what kind of content they want to see, and we organize content so that it is easy for them to find.

This could look like organizing by area of your business, region, topic of interest—any way that your community thinks about sharing. You also want to think about the types of content for which people will be searching. Is it a press release? An article featuring one of your executives? Photo recaps from events? Stories about our people and culture? All of the above?

What we’ve learned is that a combination approach allows users to tailor their experience and select exactly the right pieces to reflect what they’re excited about.

3. Keep it fresh 

The fastest way to kill momentum? Let the content library go stale. If employees log in and see the same few posts from weeks ago, that’s a problem. We’ve committed to updating our platform regularly with a variety of content types to keep it fresh and exciting for our users.   

That isn’t to say that your team needs to spend the bulk of their time versioning advocacy posts, but that when there is a compelling piece of content, it should connect to your advocacy program. Is your CEO in the news? That’s a piece of content. You’re announcing a new partnership? Let’s think about why that might be exciting to your employees.

Even a handful of well-written, relevant pieces can keep the platform feeling alive.

4. Prioritize personalization

Copy-paste doesn’t inspire connection. Full stop. Personalization should be a priority and something that is regularly discussed. Participating in an advocacy program helps build your visibility and expertise on the platforms you’re using, so it’s essential that the posts sound like they are truly coming from each individual.

We provide suggested copy for each post, but we encourage our users to take the extra time to personalize it before sharing. We want to see it come across in their voice, with their added insight or commentary on why this piece matters, and how it connects to the work or the industry.   

Personalizing also provides an opportunity to shout out key partners or organizations, building relationships. It can be as simple as adding “Excited to see our team leading the charge on this,” or “Thank you to XYZ for sharing your expertise.”    

Advocacy programs grow through momentum and nothing fuels momentum like seeing a colleague succeed. You’ll want to share the wins that your programme initiates with your teams, both current users and those you’re working to onboard.

This can look like updates on:

Who is on the leaderboard
A post that garnered especially impressive engagement
A lead that is attributable to the program
Comments from clients on advocacy posts

This isn’t just about applause; it’s about helping people see the impact of their participation and encouraging the behavior.

Bringing it all together

Employees want to be part of something meaningful, but, understandably, they also want it to be worth their time.  If you’re going to build a successful advocacy program, you want it to be user-friendly, easily personalized, and clearly connected to real outcomes. If you can achieve this, the conversation becomes less about “posting for the brand” and more about showcasing the impact of the team and the company.

Lauren Harbury is a creative marketer with more than a decade of experience in marketing strategy, social media and communications. She’s worked with a variety of B2B and B2C Fortune 500 brands, as well as small businesses, and is currently Head of Social and Paid Media at Broadridge.

📣 Don’t forget to complete our reader survey and help shape future editions of Spark!

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

What's in a word?

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 27 May 2025 20:49:51 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

If you’ve spent any time on LinkedIn lately it’s likely you’ve come across marketers and copywriters both protesting and encouraging the use of GenAI for copywriting, both sides making some compelling cases.

Weighing in on this discussion for this edition of Spark, we have friend of Vivace, published author and winner of Costa’s Children’s Book of the Year award Jason Wallace—who clearly knows a thing or two about words!

There’s one thing we can guarantee you: Spark is and always will be a platform for the best thinking and writing from our talented community of creative humans. And because we want Spark to continue to be as interesting and useful as possible to you, our valued subscribers, we’re launching our first reader survey.

We’d really appreciate if you could take 3 minutes to answer a few questions that will help us shape future editions of Spark here.

—joel

What’s in a word?

Guest essay by Jason Wallace

It’s a good question. And the answer? Quite a lot and perhaps more than many people think, even in the content business that many of us find ourselves in.

As a writer, I read far less than I should—a full-time job plus a sideline plus a twelve-year-old son do not add up to a great deal of freedom. So when I do get the opportunity for a bit of me time and pick up a book, I make it count with quality. One of the best lines I’ve picked out from my reading thus far is this, from David Mitchell (not the comedian, the other one):

“That appalled silence was my handiwork. Words made it. Just words.”
David Mitchell, Black Swan Green

Just words.

For me, that says it all. In two perfectly combined words. Because it’s never “just” words, and Mr Mitchell knows it as well as I do.

Words are how hostage situations are solved. They can bond or separate entire nations. They can start or end wars. Form or end personal relationships. Make us laugh, make us cry. Soothe us. Anger us. Make us care or engulf us with total apathy.

If William Wallace (looking very much like Mel Gibson) had mounted his steed and yelled: “This is going to be a horrible day, it’ll hurt and you might die, it’s up to you if you want to stick around,” to his men before battle, as opposed to the iconic, “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”—Scottish history may very well have looked a bit different.

Where am I going with this? Let me close the circle.

Words are triggers. A certain word, in a certain place, at a certain time, can fire off untold reaction. Yes, that evokes visions of guns, and the dangers therein, so let me flip that and now say words are equally arrows for cupid’s bow, ready to shoot and burst a balloon of love over someone’s head.

A little saccharine, but see what I did there? You can do so much with words. And that means untold potential for any company.

I’m already slightly tired of it already, but I’m going to open the lid on the world’s most fashionable topic: artificial intelligence. Because in an age of impatience, expectation, and a fear of being left behind, everyone’s turning to AI as the next magic key.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against AI per se. It does do many wonderful and speedy things (impact on climate aside), but is it “there” yet? Really?

Take, for example, a piece of AI-generated content trying to market sustainable aviation fuel data: “Navigating the aviation markets can be like trying to fly your way through turbulence . . .”

Stop. Enough. At this point, most customers are already reaching for the too-small paper bag from the seat pocket in front of them.

Here’s another: “Our company is dedicated to providing our customers with the best possible experience.”

Honestly? There’s bland and generic, and then there’s that.

Technology should be an enhancement, not a replacement. Because technology can’t “do” nuance, or subtlety, or reading a room. That’s for us. After all, we’re the intelligent ones. We developed language over hundreds of thousands of years, while in relative terms, computers have been around for mere moments, so how on earth can we expect them to ‘take over’?

We are the magic key. Handling words is a craft. It’s a skill, as it is with most crafts. Do it intelligently, effectively, and with care, and you will stand out in a virtual room that is overcrowded with obvious and repetitive AI-produced copy.

Jason Wallace is a multi-award-winning writer for fiction, with over 25 years’ experience of corporate digital marketing experience. His mantra: It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

📣 Don’t forget to complete our reader survey and help shape future editions of Spark!

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

CMO 2.0: Beyond marketing

Ryan Sheppard — Wed, 14 May 2025 16:23:40 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

If you’ve ever felt like marketing is still fighting for its seat at the table—or wondered why—it’s time to meet the (O)CMO.

I first came across Elliott Bundy, our guest contributor this week, through Vivace’s participation in Financial Narrative. As a founding board member, Elliott has emerged as a thoughtful voice on the evolving role of marketing leadership—especially in how CMOs can step beyond traditional boundaries to operate more like COOs and CEOs.

His piece challenges a lingering mindset and offers a refreshing, grounded take on how marketing can (and should) lead the business, not just support it. We’re proud to feature it here in Spark.

Best wishes to you for a productive and fulfilling rest of your week.

—joel

The (O)CMO Mindset: Operating Beyond Marketing

Guest essay by Elliott Bundy

Spend enough time in marketing and communications circles and you’ll inevitably hear the existential lament: “Why don’t they get us? Why aren’t we at the table? Don’t they get we aren’t just in charge of making things pretty?” It gets even louder in professional associations, where the conversation can spiral into a self-perpetuating loop of doubt and exclusion.

I’ve never really had time for that.

Yes, I was incredibly fortunate early in my career to work under a CEO who valued communications, marketing, and brand from the start of any strategic conversation—big or small. But I also remember one day, in that same company, when my manager had finally had enough of his own “proof gap.” He printed a year’s worth of our team’s work—every campaign, speech, press release, and brand asset—and laid it all out across the entire boardroom table. And this was a very large boardroom.

The CEO walked in, glanced at the landscape of paper, and asked, “What exactly is this trying to prove?” Then he walked right back out.

Because he knew what was on that table was output, but not value. Value came from the ways our work helped operate the company, not from how many artifacts we could stack in our corner.

Marketing and communications don’t sit outside the business. They are the business. Just as much as finance, HR, strategy, or business development.

And yet, marketers (meant here to include all the creatively strategic elements of a company, including comms, marketing, and brand teams) often find themselves questioning where they fit, asking why they aren’t at the table, or scrambling to justify their existence with dashboards and any quantifiable metric they can find. Not that anyone gets to escape proving ROI—I love a well-done dashboard as much as the next person. It has its place.

But despite all that effort, the self-doubt—or the treatment of the function as “less than crucial”—somehow always creeps back in.

That’s where I find clarity and confidence in the idea of the CMO acting as an operator; in the same way a COO or CEO operates, with a sense of ownership, strategic input, and self-awareness that comes from truly running the business. The (O)CMO isn’t just a rebrand of the function; it’s a reframing of what modern marketing leadership actually looks like.

There are a few core attributes I believe the (O)CMO brings to the table that set them apart:

The (O)CMO is an operator first. They don’t just run campaigns, they embed strategy into execution. Their job isn’t to make the brand look good. It’s to make sure the business is good and then communicate that with clarity, consistency, and credibility. That shift changes everything.

Then there’s the business narrative. Every company has one, whether it’s being shaped intentionally or not. Narrative is a shared responsibility across the C-suite, but the (O)CMO owns it—not in a spin-it-until-it-sells way, but in a tell-it-true-and-make-it-resonate way. Strategy becomes visible. Wins become momentum. The market and the internal team know exactly what the company is building and why it matters.

The (O)CMO also understands that trust isn’t a PR line; it’s a business metric. Spin breaks trust. Authenticity builds it. That means telling the truth. Owning mistakes. Listening and responding with meaningful action. Authentic communication builds stronger teams, more loyal customers, and greater investor confidence. That’s not just good ethics, it’s good business.

They lead through teams, not around them. The (O)CMO doesn’t micromanage. They delegate not to offload, but to empower—giving people room to lead, stumble, and grow, while providing clarity, coaching, and support. That’s how you unlock potential and create a ripple effect of ownership and innovation.

Connection is part of the operator’s toolkit, too. It’s not culture fluff, it’s strategic infrastructure. Through intentional onboarding, mentorship, and cross-functional collaboration, the (O)CMO builds teams that stay, grow, and win together. And they know their team sees the entire field of play more clearly than almost any other function. That makes it their duty to create connection and alignment where others can’t or won’t.

Because the best teams, and the best businesses, aren’t just productive—they’re connected.

And finally, the (O)CMO looks inward.

It’s not enough to lead others well if we’re not leading ourselves with the same rigor. That means owning your personal narrative, knowing when it’s time to stay or move on, and having the courage to bet on yourself when it matters most. The operator mentality isn’t just about business performance—it’s about personal clarity and conviction.

So yes, marketing is the business. And the (O)CMO owns that reality—with a mindset grounded in strategy, trust, leadership, and self-awareness.

It’s not a title. But it is a way of operating. And it changes everything.

The best teams, and the best businesses, aren’t just productive—they’re connected.
Elliott Bundy

Elliott Bundy is an advisor and board member focused on strategy, growth, marketing, brand positioning, and communications. He brings deep experience helping organizations define and amplify their value, with a particular emphasis on aligning brand and business strategy for long-term growth.

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Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

How to build and lead successful teams

Ryan Sheppard — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 13:54:50 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

I think many of us recognize that AI is only making human connection more important. A key tenet of The Vivace Way (our culture code) is prioritizing our community built on friendships and great working relationships within both our core and extended team.

Organizations are collections of teams. The stronger the teams, the stronger (and more resilient) your organization. But strong teams are not built by accident. Here to illustrate this is Ben Jarrold, a colleague and partner through many challenging transformation periods throughout Ryan and my corporate careers.

Ben draws on two decades of experience building, nurturing, and managing strong teams to offer some invaluable guidance on how to shape yours. Enjoy part one of this series on the key hiring ingredients and look forward to part two, on how to lead that team, coming in a future edition.

Bon appétit!

-joel

A time-tested recipe for building and leading successful teams

Guest essay by Ben Jarrold

I was recently in the kitchen making dinner, stirring our family favourite bolognese sauce, and all the while pondering how best to frame this article about my lessons learned leading teams over the years. You can probably tell where this is going, but there was something in the analogy of the endless recipe tinkering and fine-tuning, the seeking of culinary inspiration from the wider world, and of course, the discovery of a miraculous secret ingredient, that was very tempting to indulge in…

Fortunately, you won’t have to read through a Michelin-star-worthy ode to team leadership here. I put down my spoon, picked up my pen, and left the analogies at the kitchen door (for now). The truth is, there’s no need for an artificial construct to introduce what really matters: key lessons I’ve learned after 20 years of building and managing effective teams, and some shortcuts to avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made along the way.

Part 1: The hiring ingredients

To begin with, you need to gather your ingredients. Recruitment opportunities, like good quality produce, are precious—treat them as such.

Whether starting from scratch with new roles or replacement ones, recruitment offers the unique chance to build, blend, and create something special. I’ve built some guiding principles over the years that have largely steered me in the right direction.

1. Hiring ‘good enough’ is never good enough

Prioritising the time, energy, and focus required to get it right is a non-negotiable. Hiring ‘good enough’ will inevitably lead to mediocrity, can limit growth, and often results in long-term costs.

‘Good enough’ won’t foster and drive innovation, efficiency, or excellence. It can slow down team cohesion and morale if your hire isn’t a cultural ‘fit’ for your team and company values. A quick fix often equates to a negative cost and time impact, with more training required, lost productivity, or even having to re-hire and start again.

Hire exceptional people, and if you can’t find them immediately, be patient or consider other ways you can manage until you do.

2. Skills and experience are important, but team ‘fit’ and balance are essential

In addition to demographics, background, and experience, a team should also be balanced by personality and character. There are a multitude of options out there to assess a team’s personality traits and understanding what you already have, where the gaps are, and any complementary types that could ‘fit’ with your team can and should influence future hires.

This is especially true for a management team: the right blend of action-orientated, analytical and people-focused managers will aid a team’s ability to be more effective.

3. Going beyond box-ticking can reveal personality gems

Some of the best hires I’ve made have been those who didn’t necessarily have the textbook experience, the university degree, the seasoned management experience, or had even worked in a similar environment or team. What they did have was a spark, a palpable hunger or drive, and an evident passion. Almost an underlying confidence that signifies potential.

You can dig into experience and test skills, but setting tasks in the interview process that require time to come back with a considered point of view can reveal a lot. Provide an opportunity for candidates to highlight their alternate thinking, problem-solving, and how they interact, communicate, and collaborate with others.

4. When to listen to your ‘gut’

This has served me well in assessing character and ‘fit,’ but it’s something to build over time when assessing candidates. Gut reactions and feelings are, by their nature, subjective and just one of many factors to consider, rather than a single motivator for a decision.

For me personally, hundreds of interviews have helped to shape and refine this sense, creating a level of intuition and triggers that fire certain thoughts and reactions. Noting them down and revisiting them after an interview, discussing them with others and considering if they change with further interactions is an exercise that’s served me well.

5. Recruitment should not be a solo pursuit

Bringing in others at certain stages of the process who have different or complementary styles, approaches and views from your own is important to help you make the right, balanced decision. Seeing people in different settings and listening and watching them interact with others helps build a clearer picture of who they are and how they operate.

6. Don’t be afraid to hire your potential successor

Not for every hire, but having that key member or members of your team who can challenge your thinking and have a desire to progress offers you the opportunity to foster and develop talent and can drive your own ambitions.

7. Diversity is a priceless commodity

Diversity is reflected in different cultures, backgrounds and genders, but most importantly, in the experiences that come from these differences. This offers a richer variety of thinking, ideas, and approaches. Hiring with this in mind and leaning into those different experiences for inspiration has led to some of the most impactful, emotive, and successful creative campaign work I’ve ever had the pleasure of being a part of.

8. Find a responsible balance of human and AI input

Like it or loathe it, AI is now an integral part of the recruitment process. The important question is how and when to use it.

As a candidate, it can help identify good roles and companies that match your experience and desires. Then it can guide you in tailoring your application, improving your CV, and crafting a cover letter—all factors that supposedly increase your chances of getting an interview…or will they? If everyone is using AI to increase their recruitment attractiveness, remember that it is levelling the playing field rather than necessarily being an advantage.

As a hiring manager, AI can help you write a job description or company profile and assist with candidate testing. With optimised keyword selection and tonal sentiment, it will ruthlessly reduce huge volumes of candidates who don’t reach pre-determined thresholds of suitability—and we’re increasingly seeing it used in first-stage interviews too. The risk here is that we come to rely on it too heavily.

Without carefully considering the right point of human review, reaction, and selection, you are likely missing opportunities to uncover potential gems (noted in principles 2, 3, and 4 above) and the chance to see for yourself what makes individuals brilliant: the stories, the passion, the ambition, the potential. Years of service, job titles and qualifications never tell the full story.

A final thought: regardless of your well-considered recruitment and team dynamics, these efforts will ultimately be fruitless without an equally thoughtful and complementary work environment.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I'll share more learnings and ideas for how best to blend your carefully selected ingredients to create a harmonious and effective team.

Ben Jarrold brings over 20 years of experience in creative operations, brand transformation, and marketing and communications, most recently at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). He’s known for building and leading high-performing teams, shaping creative strategies, and guiding major brand projects from idea to execution. Ben combines deep expertise with a hands-on, collaborative approach that helps teams thrive and brands grow.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Behind the rebrand with CDP

Ryan Sheppard — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 20:08:54 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

This week, we are lucky to share some behind-the-scenes insight into CDP’s recent rebrand from their Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Shannon Joly.

Last year, we worked closely with Shannon and her team to deliver a fresh new brand for CDP that its stakeholders (and the planet) could be proud of—one that does justice to their industry leadership as the the world’s most comprehensive disclosure data platform, renews their commitment to transparency, and creates a new call to action to rally around: Earth-positive.

Read more about why the rebrand was so important to CDP in working to bridge the gap between scientific trends and economic business action in Shannon’s article here.

-joel

Lessons on leading an Earth-Positive rebrand

A Q&A with Shannon Joly, CDP

What made you feel that CDP needed to reignite its brand?

CDP’s CEO, Sherry Madera spoke with me early on about the uniqueness of CDP – after almost 25 years of existing, CDP was lost and misunderstood within the very ecosystem it created. Vanguards create the environment but then have the responsibility to continually shape it.

The more I learned about CDP, the more I was convinced of its importance in the years ahead—not only in the path it originally forged. So, we needed to get the brand ready to climb new mountains.

What was of critical importance to you throughout the rebrand process?

Harness the spirit, don't break the magic of it.

What did it take to engage support for the rebrand internally at CDP?

A CEO who understands the strategic importance of a brand is a great starting point. Empowered to do the work, I needed to convince my peers at the Leadership table that this was important for our collective success and our impact in the world. I took them through "why now" and articulated a "from – to" journey to help us imagine CDP's moment in time.

CDP is full of brilliant minds. Many people didn't realize the science behind brand building – and the more they learned, the more they collectively supported the work.

Now that the brand is live, what are you most excited about?

The moment in the future when CDP's operations and value proposition deliver the full potential of the brand.

Something unique to the brand evolution is birthing a new term: Earth-positive. Why do that, and how has it been received? How do you plan to use it moving forward?

This term is everything. It came about because we were stuck at one point in the creative process, trying to define the scope of CDP's impact across climate, nature, biodiversity, plastics, and-the-list-goes-on. We realized we were boxing ourselves into the different taxonomies and categories that society has neatly defined – and escaping from those microcosms was freeing.

That said, not everyone loved it in the beginning. It was quite contentious amongst the scientists at CDP – because it didn't come from proven scientific research and vernacular. But we brought them in and defined it with them, and now it's part of our mindset and influence in the world.

Shannon Joly currently serves as the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at CDP, bringing over 15 years of leadership experience to the role. Prior to this, she held senior roles at Thomson Reuters, Refinitiv and LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), running global brand build programs and leading marketing activation teams to enhance and protect the brand while driving sustainable growth.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

The Ides of March(eting)

Ryan Sheppard — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 18:37:33 +0000

Hello {{ First Name | Spark reader }},

From cobblers to the cobblestones of ancient Rome: the indefatigable Rohan Shams is so full of inspiration at the moment that we’re lucky to have another of his keenly observed essays and the chance glean yet more of his wisdom from his many years as a Marketing Director and Manager.

The Ideas of March have probably brought tension and sales pressure to many a business boardroom in these past few weeks, but Rohan’s sage advice is here to save marketing leaders and their teams from needing to take the Q1 fall (again). So hold onto your carefully laid marketing plans and veni, vidi, vici!

And, as Ryan told you about in our last edition, we were delighted to host our first client workshop in our new office in Saint Paul last week, welcoming the Thomson Reuters brand team for a brand workshop that we all thoroughly enjoyed! More here.

-joel

The Ideas of March(eting)

Guest essay by Rohan Shams

It’s about that time of the year.

A leader stands to present strategies and plans for the future. Little do they know, many of the other leaders they face will soon turn against them under the pressure of their own agendas—led by the ones they least expect.

Now, if you’re picturing the Roman Senate, with Caesar standing to deliver his big speech, only to be brought down by his own peers—well, the Ides of March bring a similar fate to marketing leaders in leadership meetings around the world.

The regular January “how long can you say Happy New Year” jokes have long dried up. The mid-February love in the air has truly faded. Mid-March brings that panic-stricken realization: Q1 is almost over, and we’re behind on marketing execution.

So, the usual reviews play out, where product leaders cynically ask why the innovative and unique 93,000 products they launched this quarter failed to make an impact—despite having just two and a half marketing associates assigned to the area. And the sales leads chime in, claiming lead quality and numbers have dropped due to marketing’s slow start to the year.

Yes, Marketing leaders are often the ones fending off questions about why the quarterly numbers aren’t looking good enough in the Q1 review.

Luckily, these meetings don’t end as tragically as they did for Caesar on the Ides of March, but for marketing teams, mid-March often results in a flurry of last-minute, panic-driven decisions: “Open the floodgates! Push anything out! We’ll improve it later!”

Budgets, which were just about finalized in February, suddenly take another major pivot. Any discussions about a strategic, long-term approach are tossed aside in favor of a quick PO to double LinkedIn spend or ramp up paid search.

For marketing teams that follow the Gregorian calendar, the Ides of March is often no less disruptive than it was for the Roman state in that fateful month.

Of course, many exceptional marketing leaders anticipate this scenario and come well-prepared. They’ve seen the blame-shifting before and have a tried-and-tested approach to navigate it.

And so, here are some of my own thoughts on tackling the end-of-Q1 rush—without discarding the long-term plans that you and your team painstakingly built over the past six months. These aren’t just marketing strategies, but a mix of leadership traits and tactical nuances I’ve seen outstanding leaders display over the years.

1. Be braver

One of the most admirable traits a marketing leader can have.

It may sound odd to call bravery a marketing skill, but often, the role of a marketing leader is to be the shield, not the spear, when blame is thrown around various functions. The pressure can be immense, especially if quarterly numbers aren’t looking great. And since blaming marketing is an easy escape route for many organizations, it takes real guts to stand firm on your strategy and protect your team.

The best marketing leaders I’ve seen take ownership in the room but make necessary adjustments behind the scenes. They shield their team from unnecessary blame, keeping morale high and focus sharp.

2. Move the time horizon

Short-term panic often stems from a narrow lens.

Despite the common belief, marketing hasn’t yet evolved to yield the power of electrons that can be switched on and off with a button. It’s a long game. When leaders fixate on a single quarter, it’s your job to zoom out:

What long-term pipeline did Q1 generate?
How does performance compare to historical Q1s?
What signals indicate stronger quarters ahead?

By steering the conversation toward the bigger picture, you shift minds from reactionary thinking to strategic patience.

3. Reuse, refresh, relaunch

If a campaign was working in December, chances are, it still holds value in March. Instead of resetting everything, consider:

Refreshing creatives or messaging
Tweaking distribution
Rerunning successful content with minor updates

The best marketing teams don’t start from scratch every 90 days—they maximize what already works.

4. Milk that cash cow

Every business has one product, service, or tactic that delivers fast.

Strong marketing leaders always have a go-to play ready, whether it’s a shorter sales cycle, a high-converting funnel, or a predictable audience segment. Having this in your back pocket can make all the difference when leadership is demanding quick results.

There are many ways to navigate the Ides of March(eting), but the key is not to let the urgency of Q1 derail your long-term vision.

As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. And it certainly didn’t fall because of one bad quarter. The best marketing leaders don’t just survive the Ides of March, they use it as a moment to reinforce strategy, resilience, and leadership.

Rohan B. Shams is a marketing and communications strategist with over a decade of experience in financial markets, sustainable finance, data, and transformation. He has led major projects to drive market expansion and establish brand positioning for global firms. Passionate about bridging finance, sustainability, and innovation with human-centered marketing, Rohan regularly shares insights on market trends, growth, and navigating emerging markets.

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Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at spark@vivacecontent.com.

Spark

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AI Washing is rife, especially within the job market

Productivity is the sales pitch. Shareholder value is the output.

So where does this leave us?

Down with dashboards!

Tell us about your background and how you became interested in the power of AI for marketing?

How did you frame the right problem to go after?

You talk about the ‘antidote to dashboards’—what’s wrong with dashboards?

In what instances are dashboards actually useful and where do they quietly fail?

You talk about the fact that dashboards have created a whole operation around reporting. What happens inside a team when reporting becomes the work?

If insight becomes simple to access and understand, how does that impact day-to-day workflow and what other benefits have you seen?

What are the limits? Where does AI not help?

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Your vast, untapped alumni opportunity

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Why have companies typically overlooked alumni and their value?

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What have you learned along the way in launching and building EnterpriseAlumni?

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