→ MUST READS MAY EDITION

Hey Must Readers, I hope you have all been well!
I’ve written today’s MR in the middle of Britain heatwave (33c currently thats 92f in an island not prepared for 23c+ weather).

Today I’m sharing a handful of must-reads, listens and more than usual must-watches.

Must Relax To: As the shows segment is continuing to be popular here are a couple of recommendations:
Scarpetta (Amazon Prime Video) it’s a crime based series with a number of interesting who done it plot lines & flashback episodes, Dutton Ranch (Paramount+) if you like yellowstone, you’ll love the Beth and Rip follow on (better than Marshall’s, the Kayce follow on).

My book recommendation is The Algorithm: The Hypergrowth Formula by Jon McNeill, I shared his podcast interview in last month’s Must Reads and if you like mental models and frameworks this is for you.

If you’re into podcasts and ecom here is an excellent long form pod with the founder of David and RX bar

If you’d like to share this with a friend, hit forward on email or copy and paste https://www.mustreads.co.uk/p/must-reads-may 

Onto the must reads, listens and watches:

HELPING YOU TO GET SMARTER FOR THE MONTHS AHEAD
MUST READS

Earlier Cancer Detection 👏

AI gets bashed a lot and mostly rightly so but away from the headlines and overhype we see AI detecting cancer years before other methods can. Mayo Clinic AI helps specialists detect pancreatic cancer up to 3 years before diagnosis in landmark validation study. When the pope drops a 41k word essay on disarming AI you know there is an issue.

Mayo Clinic AI helps specialists detect pancreatic cancer up to 3 years before diagnosis

Mayo Clinic AI detects pancreatic cancer up to 3 years before diagnosis in landmark validation study.

Mayo Clinic News Network • Susan Murphy

Why Storytelling & Images Often Beats Data 📈

There is an undertone to this months MR, it’s privacy and the ever increasing demand for more info and more training data. This is a great short video connected:

“Great art is not predictable or obvious, it is surprising.” 🖼️

In my long read recommendation I’m offering up what makes art great. For me it’s the time, the passion and the connection art creates and the fresh headspace it can push you into. AI is rightly receiving backlash lately but this is nice and balanced.

What Makes Art Great?

Notes towards an answer

nabeelqu.co/what-makes-art-great

The Brand World Cup ⚽️ 

As a big soccer/football fan still celebrating Arsenal’s premier league win, I always find it interesting the different perspectives on who and how brands can win being connected to a big tournament, especially when they are not the official sponsor. This year we have seen a huge spike in non official shirts/jersey’s going on sale, typically from historic large sporting brands like Umbro, we have also seen a large uptick in high street/retail stores leaning into nostalgic world cups.

Nike’s recovery needs a huge world cup and it doesn’t seem its going to happen. Meanwhile adidas have already won the advertising wars (alternative link).
Free Advice: If you want to eventjack, sporting events are highly competitive and ultra tribal so be careful, especially on social…

Which Brand Will Win the World Cup?

The planet’s most globally viewed sporting event is approaching. Opportunities are rife, but nailing the delivery requires global, local, digital, and physical nous.

Vogue • Joe Bobowicz

The A24 Cult Brand 🎬

If you are into film or limited series you will know of A24, with huge successes like The Drama, How To Make A Killing, Marty Supreme & Margot Got Money Troubles (which I recommend to watch on Apple TV - if OF offends you, maybe don’t watch) they’re well known for content but also the creative marketing.
This is a good insiders look behind the studio and why they have been the powerhouse studio every actor wants to work with in recent times.

A24’s creative plays

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/24-hours-inside-film-studio-a24-1236585678/

Why Interviews With Video Journalists Are Now Smart Launch Strategies 💡

» SMART PRE-RELEASE BREAKDOWN

This hybrid interview/product walk through from videographer and video journalist Cleo (she is YouTube’s poster child / royalty known for her Huge if true* channel) and Ferrari has dominated social feeds for the last couple of days.

Right now without a clipping campaign behind it. It features Apple design legend Jony Ive who’s company (lovefrom) co-designed the car and Ferrari Chief Designer Flavio Manzoni - they talk through the first Ferrari EV (😮 with a rumoured $640k price tag) and the tremendous depth of thought behind the vehicle. Just listen to Jony talk about the need for real thought not just more digital and more touch screen just because its electric.

YouTube MKHD also got a glimpse and offers an interested and balanced t

In today’s landscape many companies are using a modernised leak first playbook, (i) leak pictures/videos (ii) following up with big, sometimes bold video of the product or service with long written statement full of jargon (iii) drip specs/details bit by bit then (iv) follow up with publications, well known expert reviews and (v) creator and podcast interviews.

Ferrari rightly followed a different playbook, they partnered with Cleo (who has 7.5m YouTube subscribers, 3m+ on Instagram, 2.4m+ on TikTok) who can help shape the narrative, ask interesting questions not just the PR fluff and industry jargon filled pieces, she can help to flood the zone with her blend of long and shorter form videos, not only to create a different view but dominate the news and commentary around it. It’s smart from the legendary brand and another way that brands are rethinking and approaching launches differently.
Ferrari could have launched classically and done fine but a new media tech style launch has much better richer results.

Good Listener? 👂

You’ll likely want to think again - if you struggle to listen or showing up as if you are listening and showing the people around you they’ve been heard, here are 10 recommendations from Vanessa Van Edwards. 

time.com/article/2026/04/29/how-to-be-a-better-listener/

Experts At Work 🎵

For me there is nothing better than listening to experts breakdown their skills, especially artists, songwriters and writers. The NYT managed to interview two very different song writers, Sean Carter aka Jay Z and Taylor Swift (her music isn’t for me, but her skills and the fandom she created is second to none and something you have to learn from) break down their skills and styles.

Legacy media will always have a place in the media mix when they can use their brand to interview experts in their field for a 1 of 1 interview.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 How Sports Shape Culture 🥅

I’m filing this under new national hero gives Scotland hope. It also shows how sports can shape culture, especially around spending (and global events like the upcoming football world cup) on collectables in the hope of increased value.

Scott McTominay overhead kick featured on new £20 banknote

The design combines traditional banknote elements with imagery of McTominay's goal for Scotland against Denmark.

BBC News

Easy C-Suite Titles 👩‍💼

C-suite titles used to be almost impossible to achieve, however, for creators they are being given important titles to signal a shift inside of businesses.
I predict in the upcoming 18 months we might see let’s call them C-suite -1 level titles given out to signal a shift from traditional to new and pump internal narratives from stuck to creative. A title shouldn’t matter but in corporate it does, especially in larger established businesses and maturing startups.

Why many creators are joining the C-suite

Druski, Jake Shane, Whitney Leavitt, and Kristen Hollingshaus are among those touting executive-sounding titles for big-name brands.

Marketing Brew

You Pay 4.99 But Not 5? 🧠

There is a lot of behavioural science we see but don’t understand, charm pricing is one that works and oddly has worked for over 100 years, that is why there is 99c stores in almost every country.

Why you’re more likely to buy something for $4.99 than $5.00

Charm pricing wins.

thehustle.co/originals/why-youre-more-likely-to-buy-something-for-499-than-500

Meta Ray Bans: The Privacy Issues Waiting To Explode 💥

A very good video from video journalist Christophe about the meta ray bans and why they are so easily tricked into recording all the time even with safety guards (legal stealth mode). Just like with the drone issues of a few years ago this is going to be a big tech problem.
On my AI Moment Podcast we discussed AI wearables being the next wave since last year. With Apple, Meta, Snap and Google (coming back) all playing in this space, ease of recording and recording everything generation this is going to be a nightmare.

» You will also see Meta push their products and services directly into your feeds like I did this morning

Direct: Meta promoting their own products on Instagram with discounts

Simple Reminder 💜

Be Kind, Always

Instagram post

QR Codes Are Coming To Products Near You 📱

Having pitched QR codes a number of times (and for investment 15+ years ago on offline products) and seeing the rise and downfall in Covid, we are about to see major supermarkets and brands switch to QR codes to add more information and insights on the products we are looking to buy.

Who Knew There Is A Formula 🧮

“The frequent measurements serve as a constant, controlled feedback loop for the athlete and coach”

I love long reads like this, getting under the skin and uncovering patterns and formula’s to see how some nations are so powerful in creating athletes and others use more human vibes.

What Ethiopian running says about the limits of human ability

One school of training is highly personalised, technical and data-driven. The other is the one that wins marathons

aeon.co/essays/what-ethiopian-running-says-about-the-limits-of-human-ability

Melting Ice Hockey 🫠

The best mix: entertaining & educational

@anaheimducks

It’s not goodbye. It’s see you later. This is how the ice is removed from an NHL rink #asmr #anaheimducks #nhl

& A Few From Me

1. I revisit a popular post and updated for this year, why strategy is baking a better cake 

2. Where you win with marketing, a short post on moxie…

3. I time travelled to next year and stole a CMO journal entry just to help CMOs and CEOs build for a better year ahead…

4. Wondering how Amazon is winning in AI - I go into how they set up prime expectations

5. How Dr Hannah Fry’s AI experiment is a going to be an AI awakening for many. Watch her 20 minute experiment is great for those who are AI pilled and those who are anti AI.

LETS CHAT

Got any questions or comments on any of the Must Reads, or want to chat through Marketing, Growth or AI, get in touch mustreads@dannydenhard.com or hit reply

I am coaching CEOs, CMOs & Product leaders and consulting.
I also run AI workshops and AI hackathons, so get in touch

→ MUST READS APRIL EDITION

Hey Must Readers, why is it April seems like a blur?
I hope you have all been well.

Today I’m sharing a few must-reads, listens and must-watches with a few recommendations thrown in.

As the shows were the most clicked items last month, here’s two more shows:
(i) Rooster (HBO in US, Sky in the UK) TV show - light, silly funny and makes you want to watch more straight away (like a funnier Ted Lasso) and
(ii) Your friends and neighbours on AppleTV - often hilarious while tackling serious topics in softer ways and importantly you can binge easily. AppleTV definitely has the best programing.

Onto the must reads, listens and watches

HELPING YOU TO GET SMARTER FOR THE MONTHS AHEAD
MUST READS

Personalised Education At Scale 👏

Alpha School has rethought school from the ground up. From how AI can scale teaching to offering humans as support networks and coaching. If you ever want to hear someone who’s disrupted an industry and 100% believes everything they are working towards, Alpha school is the product and the service many kids won’t know they want until they get there

Fandom Power 💪

It is rare to see companies give in to fans, especially when shutting down its tech. I’ve previously spoken about community, superfans and fandom at length and now fans + nostalgia is a power brands just can’t and don’t really put a price on.

Meet the ‘Club Penguin’ superfans giving the game a second life

After Disney shut it down and fan revivals faltered, a volunteer team is quietly running a free version for a million users.

Fast Company • Rebecca Heilweil

Superfan Finances…Direct To Fan Winning - Patreon is one of the most trusted platforms for direct to fan engagements, they announced a record year with 33% YOY growth. With podcasts being the connective medium for a lot of creators, it will be interesting to see how other platforms compete and how other platforms sweep in (also good to be known for something)

Patreon Says Podcasters Earned $629 Million in 2025, Up 33%, as Platform’s Biggest Content Category Keeps Growing

Revenue generated by podcasters on the Patreon direct-to-fan platform hit $629 million in 2025, up 33%, the company says.

Variety • Todd Spangler

Here are the top paid podcasts on Patreon - https://graphtreon.com/top-patreon-creators/podcasts (with a number of sports pods topping)

Journalism Has Its Place 🎤

Journalists get a bad rap sometimes. But the ones we rarely see or hear about are the cornerstone of the industry, the ones who are running around defying tech shifts and getting the stories

www.semafor.com/article/03/29/2026/the-oldest-job-in-journalism-new-york-post-runners-defy-ai

Amazon Drone Delivery 📦

I often beat up Amazon on drone delivery - they used to use press releases to announce product innovation and then nothing, however, this video made me laugh, i’m not sure about the impact on the contents but kinda funny. This is also a good listen about how Irish entrepreneur Bobby Healy has started to crack drone delivery

@_nefertiticutz

Amazon Drone dropping off my package📦. I’m glad they didn’t break my shitttt😅 #AmazonDrone #Package #Drone #fyp

GLP-1 Impact 💒

Funny but interesting read about the impacts of GLP-1s on an industry that was rigged for many years. Industries hate disruptions especially causing more work…peptides are the hottest things being developed so keep an eye in this space and the ripples they are causing.

Your Brand Likely Needs Reshaping ♟️

Most brands didn’t “lose” their place in the market. They drifted there, one campaign, one trend-chasing post, one CEO quote at a time.

Over the last decade, channels have quietly hijacked the strategy. SEO rewired how we write, social rewarded outrage and stunts, COVID forced short-term pivots, short-form video made everything about the next 3 seconds, and now AI is warping how ideas are created, distributed and judged. In that chaos, brands ballooned into weird shapes – pulled into politics, events and culture they don’t fully understand, then wondering why nobody recognises them anymore. So I tackled this head on…

Stop Playing Brand Checkers: Play Brand Chessboard To Regain Control

Marketing Unfiltered #78 → Why Brand Is Struggling In The New World

Danny Denhard On Marketing Unfiltered

Roblox Build Player Loop 🧱

Roblox is a fascinating and extremely successful company. A platform with over 100m players who then turn into builders and the majority actually have the ability to earn from building. This is the playbook a lot of AI leaning companies are trying to understand (FWIW Molly has a shtick in her interviews so can come across different to normal tech podcasters). If you have kids or children in your life you know how important roblox is

Clips Are Now The Main Attraction 👁️

Podcaster and increasing New Media figure Ed Elson wrote a hugely popular tweet on how clips are now the main event and he wasn’t wrong, the majority of clips are manufactured to be consumed and influence audiences, from podcasts, mocked up interviews and from live streams. Smart people worked out many years ago that Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook and more recently LinkedIn are primed with audience who will want to consume short clips to fill their boredom time, most often with something enraging to cause engagement. What is often missed is the millions of clips shared in huge chat groups, across iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram and group DMs on IG sparking a load of debate and enragement and because its semi private and private by choice most won’t see their influence.

This interview is worth the 30 minute listen/watch if you’re interested to see how the next 6-12 months will be shaped and how clips are often weaponised.

Better For You Soda? 🥤

Better for you soda winners? Poppi has finally arrived in the UK after a big Pepsi acquisition, I came across this interesting breakdown of where soda advertisers spend and the % of their spend. Coca Cola used to want to be in your eyes every 6 seconds we have came a long way with online spending and investing into different channels

Tech Trail 😲

Who knew there was a notification database on iPhones? The FBI did and they used this feature to read deleted messages from a deleted chat app Signal. With tech whats often deleted doesn’t mean its gone

archive.is/bSQhD

Steal From Elon 🔓

Elon Musk is a figure who divides an opinion like very few, on one of my favourite podcasts, guest Jon McNeill (one of Elon’s most trusted execs) talks about his principles, his frameworks (you can steal most of them) and how observing can lead to the best action and results sequence.  

Grab Showing The Future With Brand Discovery 🥟

No more scrolling Google or IG — its new AI “Intelligence Layer” (powered by their historical 20B+ rides & orders) now recommends restaurants, trips & businesses right in their (super app) app, based on your habits, time of day & location. It’s showing what the west world misses - Discovery → Transaction in one seamless flow (we are still not ready for an app this powerful in the West but expect almost every major AI company to try this approach over the next 18months)

Grab uses AI to change how brands are discovered in its app

Grab’s AI updates extend to merchants and drivers, automating operations and increasing reliance on the app to reach customers.

Marketing Tech News • Muhammad Zulhusni

The AI Fightback 🤺

Taylor fights AI - many others have taken similar steps but the first mainstream artist who’s gone first

Taylor Swift files to trademark voice and image after AI concerns

Star lodges applications for a photo and two audio clips in apparent attempt to protect her image and voice.

BBC News

Shock: At Work Emoji’s Are Hard To Understand 🤙

Language is important. Words are important. Now a study shows Emojis are hard to understand and translate. 

Using Emojis at Work? You're Not Going to Like This Study 😮

Over 200 test subjects weighed in and emoji use makes you appear less competent. I am so sorry, my dude.

Gizmodo • Matthew Phelan

AI, Culture & The Future Of Work 🙌

I interviewed Dr Kelly Monahan who is a work researcher and helps fortune 1000 companies improve, we dive into AI’s impact, the essential culture point most “leaders” are missing with mass firing and why the future of work might look and operate very differently.

The Bieber Business 💵

The business of the Biebers, how Hailey and Justin collaborate for commercial success (they are actively leveraging the attention economy and their controversy to drive business growth) 

The Business of the Biebers

Bieberchella cemented Justin and Hailey Bieber’s cultural and commercial power, as they scale their own brands and drive virality for others.

Vogue • Lucy Maguire

Here’s a few must reads from me:

• I reverse engineered New Balance’s growth with their marketing plan since 2019

• I gave some ponderings on how to think about Growth differently and why building different features and marketing smartly is how the best growth professionals are doing it now (not always more ads and more ad testing) 

LETS CHAT

Got any questions or comments on any of the Must Reads, or want to chat through Marketing, Growth or AI, get in touch mustreads@dannydenhard.com or hit reply

I am coaching CEOs, CMOs & Product leaders and consulting.
I also run AI workshops and AI hackathons, so get in touch

→ MUST READS MARCH EDITION

Hey Must Readers, how is it the end of March already? I hope you have all been well.

Here are a few things I have enjoyed recently:
> My book of the month, Unreasonable Hospitality - a true page turner about going over and above in business & how it is possible (not just in the restaurant industry)
> TV show to binge this month: Paradise (Disney+) season 2 hasn’t disappointed its like a mini movie every episode, s1 e7 is the best TV episode in years!

Here’s one of my professional highlights from this month, leading an AI workshop for UK charity Place2Be

Thanks for reading today & let’s dive in.

HELPING YOU TO GET SMARTER FOR THE MONTHS AHEAD
MUST READS

Drake & The Crypto Casino 🎰

This is how rapper/singer Drake fronted the crypto casino Stake’s rise and popularity, by sharing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ bets he did or did not make and set up a partnership others have brought into their playbook. Stake is also famous for paying for clipping (turning longer form into multiple short form videos), paying for editors to create social clips targeting over a million views across social network and adding their logo on hundreds of videos. Clips with over 1m views usually pay between $300 - £1500 per million views.
FWIW, Mr Beast has a dedicated clipping company vyro that pays for clipping campaigns - in a recent campaign, paid $100 per 100k views ($1 CPM - cost per thousand views) for the podcast The Vergecast.
FWIW Stake also owns Kick the streaming platform - all a smart section of their content betting flywheel

Unlikely Wins and Comped Spins: Inside Stake’s Empire

www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-stake-drake-crypto-casino-adin-ross-gambling

The Real State AI 🙌

I was frustrated with the overhype of AI flooding our social feeds, I wanted to address this & I put together a deck and talked through where we are really at with AI. Watch my walk-through above or download the deck here.

Approved AI Generated Acting 🤖

In a positive step, Val Kilmer starred in As Deep As The Grave, a new movie where the film studio used AI to complete scenes after his death. His family and estate signed this off, and by all accounts, it was done really well. In the future, we are going to see this more and more, stars and former stars allowing their likeness to be used in movies.

Val Kilmer Resurrected by AI to Star in ‘As Deep as the Grave’ Movie

variety.com/2026/film/news/val-kilmer-ai-film-as-deep-as-the-grave-1236691042

Why Gen Z Is Struggling As ‘Everything Is Treated Like A Moment‘ 👀

“But Gen Z doesn’t experience cultural time this way. They’re reacting to everything that has ever happened. Which is impossible to actually do. On the one hand, it might make you more cosmopolitan (though this is hard to do without a guide to help develop your critical intelligence). But, on the other, it ruins your ability to assimilate anything and reduces you to a quivering lump of uncertainties. It also reduces your own ability to create because your response to life becomes so indeterminate. You can’t figure out what to respond to.”

Gen Z Lives in the Archive

Is cultural time actually continuous?

default.blog/p/gen-z-lives-in-the-archive

Don’t Mess With The Wrong People 🔥

I was sent this by one of my favourite people, and it gave me joy and perfectly represented the hatred I have for stupid processes and getting that 1 - 0 win over the robots who make your life harder

“I sent them the Tsunami of Truth”

The 'Paperwork Flood': How I Drowned a Bureaucrat before dinner - Sightless Scribbles

The blind author.

sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-paperwork-flood

Body Doubles 👯‍♂️

This is a really interesting read about body doubles and what movie directors want from their actors as much as their doubles. Way more than Joey’s hand twin, but fascinating to hear about their lives and what they’re actually needed for

The secret lives of six body doubles: ‘They wanted Julia Roberts to have curvier legs’

What is it like to be Michael B Jordan’s twin, Andie MacDowell’s hands or Rachel Weisz’s hair? Some of Hollywood’s best stand-ins reveal all

www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/17/secret-lives-of-six-body-doubles

How Coach Engineered Their Recent Success 👜

Coach has been on a rocket ship lately, they hacked its next chapter of growth by starting where most brands don’t: deep, ethnographic listening to Gen Z and rebuilding its idea of “luxury” around identity, self‑expression and honest conversation. Those customer insights now drive everything from product and creative to store experience, turning narrative‑led campaigns like “Explore Your Story” into a scalable engine for Coach’s $10 billion accessible luxury ambition. Not a playbook everyone can or will copy, but one to remember if you work in a brand that needs to cut through and reimagine itself

& here is a good run-down by their CEO

wsj.com

www.wsj.com/business/media/the-anthropologist-mapping-coachs-course-toward-10-billion-in-sales-817251a3

Corporate Succession 📲

The big question in Apple away from what is their AI strategy (which is perfectly playing out - let everyone spend billions and become the controlling device(s) where they fight to be primary supplier on) is who is going to take over from Tim Cook when he retires? This is an interesting look at John Ternus, who is a long-term employee trusted with running hardware, including iPad leadership and then in charge of all hardware like Macs etc. Disney had a long drawn-out process with 3 names strongly linked; John is the only real name mentioned.

Apple’s Heir Apparent Steps Into the Spotlight

As the company turns 50, the wheels of succession are in motion. John Ternus is likely the next CEO.

www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-apple-next-ceo/

The James Patterson Best Seller Story 📚

How the world's best-selling author has diversified, collaborated & embraced evolving to carry on his legacy

James Patterson Pairs With Viola Davis, MrBeast To Juice Thriller Sal…

archive.ph/d0wp1

No Money In Apps 😧

It is rarely discussed - apps rarely make money, they struggle to gain downloads, they are costly, Android is difficult to build for all the different devices and Apple are famous for not helping with discoverability and their tax. This is a good look at the popular apps, how many downloads they have and the money they have made.

Twitter tweet

How To Do Short Form Video 👏

Not what you think, but it’s a great example of how short form should be used

Going Viral 🤨

“Going viral” is now an engineered outcome, powered by an army of AI-fuelled clippers turning a tight narrative into thousands of tailored hooks that saturate every feed. For CMOs and founders, the real game is holding a crystal-clear one-liner while you explode it into hyper-personalised noise, so every micro-segment feels like the message was made just for them. 

Nothing Goes Viral by Accident

Clavicular, Clipping, and How AI Is Cleaving the CMO Suite

www.digitalnative.tech/p/nothing-goes-viral-by-accident?r=2byz&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

Can The Internet Be Cleaned Up? Yes 💰

Many years ago, reputation management was something only a handful of people could afford or specific companies would invest hundreds of thousands to remove or try to bump down articles, stories and reviews down the search results. Now it’s a game many play, but it’s spread across a much wider net and media types. Having worked on high-profile clean-up, aka removal side, it’s interesting to know (a) people didn’t know this happened, and (b) it happens way more than people think it does. This example is about Epstein…

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/business/media/jeffrey-epstein-online.html

Tracked 🆕

I love this style of investigative work, a little ironic how smart criminals are tracked by their internet usage, reviews and Strava activities…

Cheeky Bets Or News 2.0 🤑

Prediction markets are everywhere and can basically bet predict anything. Not everyone believes this is a good thing, and in many cases its allowing underage people to predict sports scores, predict on the death of international leaders and many more events. This prediction market is being dubbed news 2.0 and although I think it’s smart framing - I don’t love the message it sends.

Here are two very good interviews, Peter Kafka interviews Wired journalist Kate Knibbs, whose beat is now prediction markets…

Why Prediction Markets Are Turning Everything Into a Bet

Podcast Episode · Channels with Peter Kafka · 25 March · 46min

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/channels-with-peter-kafka/id1080467174?i=1000757225757

And Cheeky Pint: I love the cheeky pint format, great conversations you don’t feel like you should hear, but set in a mock pub in Stripe’s office over a pint of Guinness.

Awkward Conversation 😟

I love the Decoder podcast, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at companies, how they are set up, how they make decisions, often highlighting quirks of the CEO and the business. In this conversation with Superhuman (who has a famous email client and owns Grammarly) it got tense and awkward as Superhuman CEO Shishir Mehrotra had to answer questions around how his company created a feature that helps users write or edit like Nilay (the interviewer).

I have to say Shishir (guest) did a decent job in trying to toe the legal line and make it useful for the listener, whereas I’m not as sure Nilay (the host) could say the same (obviously, with his likeness being used without permission or payment being challenging for him). This is why I say media training isn’t helping most leaders going on podcasts - they are prepped for 3-8 minute interview segments for radio and tv and not for podcasts. Podcasters aren’t looking for gotcha’s; however, they are looking for a clip or two, so being able to be charismatic and control conversations with 3-5 stories or an insider story you wouldn’t normally hear is critical.

Here are some of the best pieces I have written and shared this month:

• 📧 What if Growth is different

• 🎧 How to be inspired by building AI solutions outside work for work successes

• 🎧 Why a company context document is your secret weapon to AI success

• 📧 My top takeaways from running AI workshops

👋 If you are struggling to make AI work at your workplace, hit reply or email me at ai@dannydenhard.com as I offer AI workshops and enablements (read them below)

March’s Must-Read 5 Themes For The Future:

1. AI’s real-world impact and ethics - From my “Real State of AI” deck and talk, to Val Kilmer’s AI‑generated performance and the Decoder episode, which connects to AI impersonation, there’s a strong throughline of AI hype vs reality, creative use cases, and consent. AI is just getting started for many but its impact is already showing

2. Media, virality, and clipping economics - Drake and Stake, MrBeast’s clipping company, short‑form video best practice, and the “Nothing Goes Viral by Accident” article all explore engineered virality, content flywheels, and how creators/brands weaponise clips to increase popularity and make significant money behind the scenes. Next time you see a comedian or podcaster clip several times thats engineered

3. Culture, identity, and generational pressure - Culture is more fractured than its been in a long time - Gen Z “lives like everything is a moment”, as prediction markets being seen as “news 2.0” and making people rich from betting on anything, and online reputation clean‑up - all this speaks to how the internet shapes and over shapes cultural, time, heightens anxiety, and creates tribal public identity for individuals and groups - what many overlook is questioning what they see, read & bet on…

4. Behind-the-scenes of influence industries - Body double business, James Patterson’s collaboration machine, Irish cartel tracking, and corporate succession at Apple all lift the curtain on how status, power, legacy, and narrative are actually constructed.

5. Systems, bureaucracy, and small wins against “the machine” - including the “Paperwork Flood” story, frustration with stupid processes, and the broader critique of bad systems (apps that don’t make money, clunky corporate processes) highlight a recurring joy in outsmarting inefficient structures.

Hit reply (or email danny@dannydenhard.com) and let me know what you think, agree, disagree, or there’s a nuance I‘ve missed. Let me know your thoughts

LETS CHAT

Got any questions or comments on any of the Must Reads, or want to chat through Marketing, Growth or AI, get in touch.

I am coaching CEOs, CMOs & Product leaders and consulting.
I also run AI workshops, so get in touch by hitting reply or emailing me danny@dannydenhard.com

Thanks for reading

Danny Denhard

→ MUST READS FEB EDITION

Hey Must Readers, welcome from a dry week just outside London

Here’s a mix of must read articles and videos to inform how you shape the next few months. Thanks for reading again today & let’s dive in.

HELPING YOU TO GET SMARTER FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS
MUST READS

Instagram post

We live in a world that recycles ideas; it is far from new (we recycle looks (this is why the mullet and baggy jeans are everywhere) and ideas from 20-30 years ago every decade or so), but formats become more creative and often become offline accessories. IRL and items of status are the smartest combo, and fashion brands are taking the opportunity. In this case, Coach x Penguin Random House collab is a great idea to leverage the explosion in charms and offers a way to attach yourself to the status of the brand and the status of the books, too.

I suspect we might start seeing old school badges and patches becoming something younger and trendy people move towards.

What’s Old Is New Again 🎯

I love the way some companies are leaning into and embracing magazines, not just for nostalgia and moving away from digital but as a way to connect more deeply. Brands and platforms have the opportunity to be creative and offer magazines and design paper and glossy newsletters to give to customers and fans.

The unexpected renaissance of corporate publications - Monocle

From dating apps to financial platforms, corporations are back to making magazines – and some of them are surprisingly good.

monocle.com/culture/media-industry/the-best-brand-magazines-feeld-mozilla-stripe/

📺 The Merge Between Podcast & TV

Have you noticed the trend, Podcast is becoming TV - How Goalhanger (this is the firm co-founded by Gary Lineker whose the rest of pods include chart toppers likes the rest is history, the rest is science, the rest is football & the rest is entertainment) is deciding whether it’s a podcast or a TV show is a true reflection of what podcasts are becoming with celebrity hosts and cult following

Inside Goalhanger's shift from podcast producer to screen studio

The modern broadcaster who happens to speak fluent audio.

digiday.com/media/inside-goalhangers-shift-from-podcast-producer-to-screen-studio

Why Betting Is Being Infused Everywhere & Why It’s A BIG Issue🙂‍↔️

An area that I would pay a lot of attention to over the next 6 months is prediction markets. Players such as Robinhood, Polymarket, Kalshi are invading, they target young adults to bet on almost anything, they lightly encourage insider trading (although Mr Beast's team just got a warning shot) and they are worryingly integrating into platforms like Substack (clever marketing and partnership play). This should make you question how they have got into this position away from aggressive advertising spends and bending a few rules before they are heavily regulated.

The British Food Invasion In The 🇺🇸 

British food has been criticised for years, but when people come to the UK, they actually see how good and, importantly, how diverse our food scene is. The British-style pubs have translated well and captured the American food scene with classics and high end British food at the centre of the experience

British Food Is Here

A new wave of English pub-inspired restaurants is opening across the US

www.eater.com/trends/939871/british-food-trend-english-pub-dishoom-expansion

👋 Work With Me

Here’s how I’ve helped businesses recently:

• Interim – Stepped in as acting CGO for a much‑loved marketplace, set up cross‑functional squads, embedded a new growth model and loop, and ran OKRs to align Product, Marketing, Data and Ops.

• Consultancy – Designed and launched new revenue lines and product offerings, led org design and redesign, rewired Growth strategy and rebuilt Marketing plans, and introduced PLG motions and network effects

• Coaching – Coached founders and C‑suite leaders (including at Nike and the BBC) on clarity, decision‑making and scaling themselves with their business.

• Advisory – Advised Founders, Product and Marketing leaders on annual plans, pricing structure projects and the rollout of pricing changes across comms and Product.

• AI – Delivered AI training and workshops for well‑known U.K. brands to turn hype into practical workflows.
  
  If you’re facing similar challenges or want to chat

  Book A Time Slot To Chat

Cultural Issues From The Top 👀 

Earlier this month, Pinterest laid off several employees across the company, but what was interesting was a few developers created custom scripts (on internal tools and messenger apps) to find out who was let go before formally announced and reverse-engineer who was let go.
Unfortunately, a somewhat smart idea but silly in reality, as they were let go for this. This says a lot more about the state of internal communications in large businesses.

Pinterest sacks engineers for tracking staff job cuts

The social media platform recently announced that it was axing around 15% of its workforce.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0k670n0ydo

How “Drops” Built Arsenal’s Millions ⚽️

As an Arsenal fan I know how many drops the club pushes, 50 in 2 years has brought in millions into the club. Adidas have benefited from the promotion and has become a canonical example for other clubs to promote their own drops as well as their official kit manufacturers drops too. This also shows what a global reach can do for football corporations clubs who leverage their fans numerous times a year.

While rivals jeer, Arsenal’s fashion ranges are making millions

archive.ph/13gx6

How AI Actually Works ⚙️

A really good explainer to understand how AI works (Harper is a great follow for AI advice and easy-to-understand explainers)

Actual Good Use Of AI Tech 🙌

As someone who sees AI’s positives, there is often the slop argument & experiencing poor quality and misleading videos and images. In news that’s flown under the radar, AI has detected breast cancer cases in AI-supported screening and reduced the workload of the hospital staff

AI support in breast cancer screening: Fewer missed cancer cases

www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/ai-support-breast-cancer-screening-fewer-missed-cancer-cases

How Instagram Is Now Engineered To Leave Your Friends Behind 🤨

I could say a lot about the current state of “social media”, let’s now call it entertainment media (serving a constant stream of video about something you expressed a tiny bit of interest in until you show it many times you don’t care). Instagram, which was once the centre of friend connections, is now leaving your friends’ content behind and being replaced by videos from strangers, brands that pay enough or viral engineers creating content to flood feeds. This is Instagram’s third life, I don’t predict they will have many more in the way its being shaped currently, but I suspect the knock-on effect isn’t great on how younger people use Instagram as the messaging app and canonical tool to see what and who’s in and who’s out…

Instagram is training you to leave people who love you

How does the lack of Cognitive Security affect relationships?

open.substack.com/pub/shedrinkswater/p/instagram-is-training-you-to-leave?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

A Follow-Up Read: How Instagram Has Shifted & Adapted In Social Media 3.0

Over the last 10 years, from the vertical media takeover to carousel dominance to why a lot of posts end up looking and feeling the same (hint, currently Insta and TikTok reward the same content as they can serve content you have shown you like previously)

I studied 10 years of Instagram posts. Here’s how social media has changed

There have been six key shifts – and no doubt more is to come.

theconversation.com/i-studied-10-years-of-instagram-posts-heres-how-social-media-has-changed-272898

The Anti AI Shapes 💡

When you think of safe spaces and anti-AI slop spaces, you won’t always instantly think of Reddit, but Reddit is becoming a safe haven for many in the fight against the AI content tsunami. More and more of us will flock to safer platforms, forums and apps that remove algorithmic control and are human-first networks.

Reddit's human content wins amid the AI flood

Reddit says its human contributors are valued amid an internet awash with AI-generated content.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y4zl0w062o

How Retailment Is Now A Critical Part Of The Anti Digital Movement 🛒

A couple of years ago, I made a similar recommendation to revive the high street and retail needed to be more entertainment with appointments as a USP, I don’t think everyone will flock to community, but with the digital fatigue many are suffering, this could be a theme for the rest of the year

Retailers Are Having an Identity Crisis — Here Is the Business Solution

Retailers are shifting from transactions to experiences, as gamification, social connection and community combat digital fatigue and drive growth.

www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/retailers-are-having-an-identity-crisis-here-is-the/502145

$70m + $8m = Lesson To Learn

Twitter tweet

Strange Happenings In The Arctic? 📹 

There is some great video journalism happening currently and newpress members (ex Verge journalists) are leading the way. This is a good investigation into shadows and figures appearing in the Arctic

Comments Aren’t Customers The Sydney Sweeney Saga 💰

I love this framing from American Eagle, calling out that comments and internet comments aren’t customers and despite the noise around Sydnet Sweeney they are bringing her back - sometimes proves the difference between cultural noise and customer signal…

'Comment sections are not customers': American Eagle brings back Sydney Sweeney amid celebrity push

Anatomy of how brands like American Eagle decide whether cultural backlash is noise — or a business threat.

digiday.com/marketing/comment-sections-are-not-customers-american-eagle-brings-back-sydney-sweeney-amid-celebrity-push/

The Economics Of Dog Shows 🐶

This is a strong look at the money in dog shows and why the business is thriving (not financially for owners and winners).

The economics of dog shows

Even the participants at the Westminster Dog Show, the best pups in the world, are unlikely to make a fortune for their owners.

thehustle.co/originals/the-economics-of-dog-shows

Astronauts Are Going Back To Space 👩‍🚀 

Whether you believe in space or not, it is interesting timing that NASA and the space mission is coming back after the space travel industry has gone so quiet. Maybe 7figures to fly in an advanced plane is too expensive…

After 54 Years, Astronauts Are Going Back to the Moon

NASA's Artemis II is poised for the first lunar mission since 1972

time.com/7346146/artemis-ii-launch-nasa-astronauts-moon-mission/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Size Guide Problems 💃 

Pallarax scrolling used to be a cool way to storytell (still is) and it went out of fashion with short videos, but Pudding has delivered a very nicely done story on the sizing problem in women’s clothes and why they fluctuate.

Sizing chaos

The inter-generational struggle to find clothes that fit more than a tiny portion of women's bodies

.cool/2026/02/womens-sizing

Must Reads By Me

Moving From Ask And Answer To Assistant To Agentic - Where Normal People Are Truly At With AI Usage

The 3 A's Of AI Adoption - From Today’s (i) Ask & Answer → (ii) Assistant, → (iii) Agentic.

aimomentpodcast.substack.com/p/moving-from-ask-and-answer-to-assistant

How To Become Agentic Commerce Ready

Helping you to be prepared for agentic era from AI recommendation to AI shopping

dannydenhard.com/blog/how-to-become-agentic-commerce-ready

The Metrics Hierarchy: Go From Vanity To Commercial

Why The 3 Levels Of Metric Matter More Than Ever For Leaders

www.marketingunfiltered.co/p/metrics

Storytellers Are Your New Commercial Weapon

In The Clip & Attention Economy Old Rules Are Broken!

www.marketingunfiltered.co/p/storytellers-are-your-new-commercial

65 Leadership & Leadership Team Tips

Why Leadership Team Development Is More Critical Than Ever

leadersletter.substack.com/p/209

Reddit Cheatsheet 2026 - How To Think About Being A Brand On Reddit

Learn how and why Reddit is such a unique channel, with openly direct feedback and trolling from redditors. Learn how to be a brand on Reddit and why Reddit might be the channel that helps you drive growth

dannydenhard.com/blog/reddit-cheatsheet-2026

» 👋 If you are struggling to make AI work at your workplace, hit reply or email me at ai@dannydenhard.com, as I offer AI training, workshops and hackathons 

+ LET’S CHAT

Got any questions or comments on any of the Must Reads, or want to chat through Marketing, Growth or AI, get in touch by hitting reply or emailing me.

• Coach: I am coaching CEOs, CMOs & Product leaders and consulting.

• Consultant: I help challenger brands, marketplaces and scaleups smash their targets

• Advisor: I advise companies on Strategy, Growth and Marketing
  AI! I run AI workshops, AI hackathons and AI training - so far a perfect 5⭐️score from each client

So get in touch - danny@dannydenhard.com 

→ MUST READS JANUARY EDITION

Hey Must Readers, January went quickly, didn’t it!

Here’s a mix of must read articles and videos to inform how you shape the next few months. Thanks for reading & let’s dive in.

HELPING YOU TO GET SMARTER FOR THE NEXT MONTH
MUST READS

Here’s a snapshot look at the top apps downloaded in December in the US in Q4. If you notice, there is a trend: utility apps and social apps dominate the downloads & usage, not specifically AI apps. I make this point as there is a huge thing made about AI, but this shows how, despite AI features being baked in, people want to be connected and what features they want to use their most personal devices for.

Once we see this shift to Gemini, ChatGPT etc or AI truly becomes baked in Android and iOS we will see AI be the work tool, not the personal tool. With this all being said AI is the next platform so please go explore & experiement and if you’re struggling let me know I have plenty to help you progress with

😯 Exclusive Sneak Peek

Here’s an exclusive preview from my AI podcast The AI Moment.
We had Geoff Gibbins from Human Machines on and gave us a breakdown of agentic commerce, and I turned the lessons into a dedicated checklist, so here’s an exclusive copy before it goes live on the pod - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fQz_FDaWKOC9SUO5D2wXBxAyAVjsBIi9zKb9pLkDtvM/edit?usp=sharing

Weird Trend - $10k Toy For Lonely & Aging People 🙂‍↔️

I'm not one to judge, but this unlisted YouTube video is an interesting, expensive trend, a realistic baby toy setting you back $10k.

Will You Get A Pair? 🧱

Lego and Crocs launch multi-year partnership with shoes shaped like giant bricks

www.dezeen.com/2026/01/26/lego-brick-clog-crocs

👋 I’m available to take on projects 

So if you are looking for someone to help you grow your business or get you back on track, I’m here to help you (through Marketing, Product, Growth & AI).
Get in touch by hitting reply (or here’s my LinkedIn)

I Sell Onions On The Internet 🛜

One of my favourite clients shared this with me, and it’s a fascinating look at selling a specific sweet onion on the internet. It always pays to read interesting articles like this to understand how unique products can sell online

I sell onions on the Internet - Deep South Ventures

www.deepsouthventures.com/i-sell-onions-on-the-internet

What Tennis Is Getting Wrong About Athletes 🎾

Whoop got banned from the Australian Open tournament this week, this is a good look at why/how the fitness band got banned from tennis’ first major (it was approved pre-event by the tennis governing body) and why Whoop is kicking back.

Wearables Like Whoop Banned at Tennis Grand Slams—for Now

frontofficesports.com/alcaraz-sinner-sabalenka-whoop-tennis

Here is how Whoop responded to the AO and created a body collection. This is an example of Agile Marketing & Product that will capture the tennis and sports world.

Twitter tweet

When Fame Isn’t Wanted Anymore ⚽️

What happened to infamous footballer (soccer player) David Batty? He was most known for missing a penalty and being a well-known hard man.
Here’s a great look inside his football career & why he happily disappeared

Newcastle v Leeds: What happened to David Batty?

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cp9jn090kv2o

Brainrot? 🤨

Are our attention spans really shot, or is it something else? Here’s the science behind it and how we could rethink consuming empty calorie content (when was the last time you remember the details of a good TikTok video)

Domains Are Still Critical 🇦🇮

An .ai domain costs £80/$100, a domain can’t still have a big impact, can it? It can, and it does… One of my favourite reports recently is the dot AI domain - generating huge revenue for Angilla. The AI boom is going nowhere and will help to keep a small island building out its economy

There are now more than 1 million “.ai” websites, contributing an estimated $70 million to Anguilla’s government revenue last year

sherwood.news/tech/now-more-one-million-ai-websites-contributing-an-estimated-70-million-anguilla-government-revenue

How Jellycat Took Over China 🇨🇳

Something you might have seen is an explosion of Jellycat content across the web, which is deliberate, moving from boutique shops & card stores to major outlets, it’s created a large cult following by leveraging the kidults trend and spread from the UK to China. A good reminder that something you don’t always understand can become huge with the right Marketing & cultural push

How UK plush toy Jellycat conquered China

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0e36p74v1o

» A Good Reminder

Twitter tweet

A Look Behind The Curtain 📹 

Via a friend of Must Reads, Chris H, do you think social and video editing is now easy, try being a DJ’s videographer - it’s a huge no thanks from me (I appreciate your work thou, videographers)

Gen Alpha Speech 🎤

This is a great watch for any parent or anyone confused by kidspeak.
I have to admit he did a great job (thankfully)

Twitter tweet

Privacy At A Price! 🤬

Europeans have seen a pop-up on Instagram suggesting an ad-free experience for a monthly price. It is no surprise, however, many don’t understand why, so here’s why…Meta’s ad business is huge (Reels alone is $50b business) and they need diversification away from ads (subs is the natural way) - the question for many is why would you pay for your privacy.
For context: Meta made $200B in revenue in 2025

Meta’s True Power Player WhatsApp 💬

Here is my favourite breakdown of how WhatsApp took over the communications world. WhatsApp's future is more entertainment consumption and more chat. WhatsApp's next play will be premium features and a move towards paid communities and interactions with your favourite celebrities and creators.
BTW - I was asked why competitors struggle against WhatsApp, minus switching costs (the pain to try and get people to move to another app) - try and compete with 3b messages sent a day & those annoying groups giving you FOMO…

WhatsApp won the most trusted brand in global YouGov polls

How WhatsApp Took Over the Global Conversation

Limitless Energy 🫐

Have you been to a store and seen the endless aisle of energy drinks recently? I have spotted it for the last 18 months, and the flavours just don’t stop coming (RIP Prime btw). Here is why the energy drink market is going into more and more flavours, often going into random flavours and heading into the dirty soda trend (which is when they add cream or fruit juice)

Monster Energy’s new flavour is inspired by the dirty soda trend

www.bevindustry.com/articles/98066-monster-energys-new-flavor-inspired-by-dirty-soda-trend

Must Reads By Me

The Death Of Monoculture - Why Andrew Schulz Nails Feed-Driven Culture

dannydenhard.com/blog/death-of-monculture

My Definitive Book Recommendation List For Leaders

dannydenhard.com/blog/my-definitive-book-recommendation-list

5 Google Gemini Prompts For Execs And Leaders To Win

dannydenhard.com/blog/5-google-gemini-prompts-for-execs-and-leaders-to-win-2026

What's Stopping Your Business From Becoming Successful In AI Deployment

dannydenhard.com/blog/whats-stopping-companies-from-becoming-successful-with-ai

AI Verification: Why Human Oversight Is Still Essential

aimomentpodcast.substack.com/p/ai-verification-why-human-oversight

» 👋 If you are struggling to make AI work at your workplace, hit reply or email me at ai@dannydenhard.com, as I offer AI training, workshops and hackathons 

+ LET’S CHAT

Got any questions or comments on any of the Must Reads, or want to chat through Marketing, Growth or AI, get in touch by hitting reply or emailing me.

• Coach: I am coaching CEOs, CMOs & Product leaders and consulting.

• Consultant: I help challenger brands, marketplaces and scaleups smash their targets

• Advisor: I advise companies on Strategy, Growth and Marketing
  AI! I run AI workshops, AI hackathons and AI training - so far a perfect 5⭐️score from each client

So get in touch - danny@dannydenhard.com 

→ MUST READS DECEMBER EDITION

Hey Must Readers, it’s been a while. I hope you have all been well.

I thought I would share a few must-reads, listens and must-watches with a few recommendations thrown in.

Thanks for reading & let’s dive in.

HELPING YOU TO GET SMARTER FOR THE YEAR AHEAD
MUST READS

Good dive into cultural influence this year

Diet Coke Cultural Not Soda 🥤

Diet Coke has engineered its comeback by leaning into Gen Z nostalgia, highly aesthetic & creative UGC & strategic brand collabs that position the can as both prop and personality, not just product
» Read the full breakdown

 🫠 Slop / 67 🤷‍♂️

It’s a crazy thing seeing two words like slop and 67 be selected as word of the year. If you’re a parent (or social media junkie) 67 will be the bane of your life. Even being banned/removed from their ordering system in In & Out Burger to prevent child and teen hysteria.
Hint: Google 67…

Cultural Influences 🙂‍↔️

This is probably the best talk I have seen on brands and cultures’ impact on branding for the last few years. Carve out time for Jasmine’s presentation

How cultural vacuums and creative power are reshaping what brands stand for next

Brilliant presentation on cultural impact

conceptbureau.substack.com/p/what-i-shared-at-amazon?r=2byz&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

The Brand Merch You Want To Wear 👕

In the US, there is a trend for restaurants and QSRs to offer merch.
This is the ultimate test for any brand, will customers and non-customers think so highly of you that they want to wear a limited edition t-shirt or tote bag. Well in the US this is becoming a trend and a true test of how well you are going.

In the world where people are using pre-loved marketplaces more than ever and not spending as much on fashion and fast fashion, I wonder if it could be a “luxury” spend.

Ofcoms Report 👀

The bi-annual report from Ofcom is always interesting. I read the report and summarised it (thanks to Gemini)

Meta & Alphabet’s app domination isn’t surprising but shows you the UK's reliance on international tech, specifically 🇺🇸 tech

Time spent on devices by age range - I’m thankfully way below the average but I know many people maxing out over 10 hours on their smartphones a day

The Oscars On YouTube 📺

It doesn’t seem like big news outside of the industry, but the Oscars going to YouTube is a much bigger trend of famous TV events, podcasts and sports being consumed by YouTube and becoming the new cable box. The major battle is Netflix vs YouTube, expect Netflix to allow uploads from creators onto Netflix (without the pay cheque) in the first half of next year.

Rory’s Best Pod 🎧

I’m a big Rory Sutherland fan; he does split opinion, but if you want to see and hear Rory’s best stories and anecdotes, he’s great with Jamie Laing (who clearly has a cute man-crush on Rory)

HR Speaks Out 🙊

This shouldn’t be news, but it is, the HR exec from the Coldplay concert has just spoken out and can’t say it hit the right note “And it’s not nothing. And I took accountability, and I gave up my career for that. That’s the price I chose to pay”

High Emotional Intelligence ❤️

Although I’m an Arsenal fan and maybe biased here, this is a lovely read on why football is so important to Gabriel as a professional athlete, as is being a father. Brazil make footballers differently

A Letter to My Family (And My Arsenal Family) | By Gabriel Jesus

For me, a day without football is a terrible day. 

www.theplayerstribune.com/gabriel-jesus-premier-league-arsenal-brazil

Win 2026 💪

My weekly Marketing & Leadership newsletter (with Must Reader my co-creator Harry) has gone out every week, and this week we have guided predictions for 2026 from a number of Marketing leaders.
» Read the deck 

» Here are 6 quick recommendations from me to win 2026 - they include
(i) Win By Going From "Time To Value" → Time To Value To Personalise
(ii) Understand Know When Not To Overpersonalise Messaging
(iii) Speed To Customer Value Will Be Critical
(iv) Don’t Just Be A URL, Be A Multi-Moment Brand.

Make AI Work For You 🤙

Since August, I have been recording an AI podcast named The AI Moment with my co-host Jonathan.
I strongly recommend you listen if you are trying to work out AI and understand how it can land within business. The whole idea is to jump to shows and they should be timeless, offering really easy advice in bite-sized chunks.

I break down my lessons and learnings 👇

The AI Moment Podcast: My End Of Year Review — Danny Denhard

How to understand AI as a business leader & why AI has to be deliberate and focused to win 2026

dannydenhard.com/blog/the-ai-moment-10-core-takeaways-for-the-future-of-ai-amp-business-success-from-my-side-of-the-mic

👋 If you are struggling to make AI work at your workplace, hit reply or email me at ai@dannydenhard.com as I offer AI workshops and enablements (read them below)

Agentic Purchases 🤖

If you want to see how AI is helping other than press releases, Visa ran a trial with AI to help their customers with transactions. Agentic (where agents take action for you) is the next battleground & fintech companies are investing heavily in AI purchases and supporting infrastructure. Want to know more? I explain the agentic web below in a clip below

➕Here is a good and balanced look at AI and its potential impact

Storytelling Roles 🪵

There has been a popular WSJ article about storytelling roles and demand for storytellers, I go deep into what companies need, how to shape ops to win and gain executive buy-in

The Increasing Demand For Storytellers And What Corporate Storytelling Often Misses

What the infamous WSJ article misses about the rise of the storyteller and how in-house creators and staff members can create a powerful revenue engine

dannydenhard.com/blog/the-increasing-demand-for-storytellers

& here’s what we will be making just before Christmas 😋

@saradaviescc

Omg you are going to love these puff pastry chocolate Christmas trees!!! All you need to do is pop to the shop and grab some ready-made pu... See more

Lastly, Enjoy: Last Christmas’ Birds Of A Feather 🎵

Twitter tweet

LETS CHAT

Got any questions or comments on any of the Must Reads, or want to chat through Marketing, Growth or AI, get in touch.

I am coaching CEOs, CMOs & Product leaders and consulting.
I also run AI workshops, so get in touch

» As a reminder: I am a coach, consultant and company advisor so if you need any help or someone in your team does, hit reply or reach out mustreads@dannydenhard.com or read through my website and testimonials.

🔓 Another Social Network - Deep Dive 🔓

Why the internet is broken according to the memo

What SNARF is and why we need a positive web & social experience

Or Is it too little too late? 

• Buzzfeed’s CEO writes famous memos when the company is on the verge of a big change. This time Buzzfeed has called out social media companies for creating addictive content that we mindlessly scroll.

• And in no surprise, they are considering creating their own version of a positive social media platform dubbed Island (which has been an existing platform).

• SNARF content is - Stakes - Novelty - Anger - Retention - Fear all geared to drive enragement to generate engagement and mindless scrolling.

• I’m all in for better platforms but the challenge every new social network has is generating networks you want to join with enough good content and good accounts you want to follow.

• Platforms like Reddit are closing off their content and going behind paywalls - with an advertising play and an inbuilt rewards system we are seeing shifts to new models and hybrid models to make social networks work financially

• With most social networks now 90% viewers (aka lurkers, those who do not generate any content) 9% creators and 1% super creators it’s a huge feat to create something that people will choose to use over their friends and celebrities on Insta, the endless stream of edutainment on TikTok or doom scrolling AI written LinkedIn updates

• A case for 👍️ - we often seek out new networks and want to replace old ones. Mindless scrolling is happening everywhere, we have forgotten how to be bored and we seek out places to fill micro slots of time (toilet breaks, commutes, on walks etc). Substack has had some success with superfans of the platform with their move towards more social interactions and their notes product

• A case against 👎️ - most social media is actually taking place on chat apps like iMessage and WhatsApp we are actively joining smaller groups and communities and being engaged here versus being performative and on display on social networks like TikTok and Instagram. I can’t see if Threads and Bluesky are struggling for daily and weekly users that a platform that likely will act like a platform around status and engagement will convert users.

I like what Buzzfeed created, it is the original viral publisher, I like Jonah (their CEO) but social networks aren’t just about content, it’s about signal, status, connection, velocity of content sharing and being responsible for something that changes sub-culture and communities.

A positive social network will take years to engineer for long-term success. Even if they brought on someone like Nikita Bier who has engineered two incredibly popular apps that have socially engineered teen sharing and sold to Discord and Facebook, I don’t think or see a new social product can be sticky enough to displace what’s out there. I will be happy to be wrong :-)

» As a reminder I am a coach, consultant and company advisor so if you need any help or someone in your team does, hit reply or reach out mustreads@dannydenhard.com or read through my website and testimonials.

This Must Reads Drop Includes:

1. Deep dive into why Tyson Paul was a hit-and-miss for consumers 🥊

2. Why playing the game is so important in the corporate world 🏢

3. Social media’s move to entertainment media might just save TikTok and its record revenues 💰

4. Why BRAT might just be the smartest marketing move of 2024 👏

5. 3 must watch videos on the future (yes including AI relationships) 🤖

   And no hot take on Jaguar’s “rebrand”

2x By Me

1. A few weeks ago friend of Must Reads Harry and I launched Marketing Unfiltered and I went deep into playing the game, what I call political intelligence (PQ). Remember even if you aren’t play ing the game it plays on with you!

Why Playing The Game Is Essential For Marketing & Growth Leaders

Read The 4th Installment Of The Marketing Unfiltered Newsletter

www.marketingunfiltered.co/p/why-playing-the-game-is-essential-for-marketing-leaders

2. My recent leaders letters newsletter on how the likes of Amazon, YouTube, Stripe, Spotify & Pinterest go against the way everyone else does it and rethink teams and approaching issues

Take Inspiration From How Other Companies Tackle Problems & Rethink Issues

How Amazon, YouTube, Stripe, Spotify & Pinterest Break The Norm

leadersletter.substack.com/p/leaders-letter-205-take-inspiration

Business 👩‍💼

• The Advertising Behind WICKED and the incredible scale that movie advertise and partner with now (thanks to the Barbie movie playbook). Many movies spend less on marketing than making money, this approach is flipping it on its head

• Google’s way of controlling everything - teaching and training staff of what to say and not to say and how to control being investigated. Smart in a way to protect themselves not as smart when Xooglers go elsewhere and aren’t helped the way they were before.

• How South Asian giant Grub built its own map service to compete with Google. I worked with a brand in the maps space and the level of detail these companies go into in incredible

• Being Remote Ready? How much would you spend to look better on Zoom/Meets?
  »I still highly recommend improving your sound, wearing headphones and considering a much better camera, the little details and experience matter!

• The Raise Of Ghost Job Listings - worrying sign many roles are fake or shared externally for internal candidates to be offered the job. It’s just what you have to do…

• Apps and app rankings - TikTok earned an estimated $269m in October from their apps & spending is expected to increase while brands try and work out how they play there in ads and in live streams. All eyes on what happens in the US to see if TikTok stays a global player or is removed. Something tells me its here to stay.

  • Here’s a good podcast on why TikTok might just be too big to ban

Sports ⚽️

• Ultra’s in Women’s football - an interesting look at top-tier women’s football teams now having ultras (think of the biggest hardcore fans) and why it is actually a great thing (fandom, deep love for their team and a way to bring in younger generations into the female professional game)

• The Story Behind “The Rest Is” Podcast Franchise Aka GoalHanger is a great deep dive into GoalHanger, it is the most powerful network of podcasts In the UK and why co-owner Gary Lineker is one of the driving forces in 40m downloads per month

• If you are looking for the other top-ranking podcasts and their networks I dive in below

Twitter tweet

• You wouldn’t have escaped the Jaguar logo launch this week but this explainer behind the LA Clippers’ new logo (NBA team) is well worth a watch especially if you haven’t been involved in a brand refresh or rebrand

• The Simpson NFL (Bart and the Bengals vs. Homer and the Cowboys) looks to piggyback from last year’s success on Disney+ — we will see a lot more of this in the near future

Music 🎧

• I’ve had this saved since the last must-reads and it is a great read on the biggest song in the US, Tipsy a bar song & why 16+ weeks in huge news in 2024 (thanks to streaming, cross-genre popularity & of course TikTok)

• Brat was the word of the year - Singer, producer and most importantly Marketer Charli XCX marketing campaign behind her album BRAT drove the word of the year to be BRAT. I highly recommend listening to Charli speak from 12mins below about BRAT and her approach to marketing herself, from making her logo on her phone to pushing out BRAT

Best Of The Rest 👏

• The science behind the Snicker bar - probably something you would read away from Must Reads but an interesting look at the engineering behind the world-famous chocolate treat

• Why you hate the sound of your own voice - simply put it’s science… but if you have ever created an audio file, video or voice-over you have to get used to looping over and over & end up rewiring the hatred for it

• The world’s largest sea creature found - the size is incredible. We were recently told of the aliens in the sea, I think this might just prove it. FWIW NASA started studying and investing in the sea and then was moved to space

• Indian whiskey is holding its own against international and traditional makers, but insiders are questioning whether this trend will last the test of time down to budget and international tastemakers

Live Streaming Problems?

• Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson “fight” caused huge streaming issues for Netflix despite driving a monoculture event

• Think Scale Of Competitors - Huge live sports events have previously done well on Amazon Prime Video (NFL), iPlayer and itvX with football/soccers Euro’s and World Cups driving large streaming audiences but weren't at 65m streamers online (most end up with a satellite or cable into their properties

  • For context - the Queen's funeral in 2022 was watched by 26.2m viewers & Prince Charles and Princess Diana had 28.40 million viewers from the UK, roughly 38% of the UK population.

  • YouTube has around 122m DAU (daily active users) so the scale was unreal and incredibly hard to ever test

• Internal Success? Netflix has called out this as a huge success in success internally and this will give them confidence moving forward

• External Successes:

  • Netflix live entertainment (Paul Tyson was not boxing) stream issue seems big for users but not so much for their share price (NFLX has gone up from 824 to 894 (as of last night)

  • Huge Audience: 108m global viewership (the problem was 65m concurrent users is a huge issue for any provider) and the largest female sports event ever between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano (real boxing!)

  • Stock: Analysts see Netflix’s success as a huge growth area and something that will retain users - especially those who are not loyal and just bounce between streaming platforms

• Sued: Already hit with a class action lawsuit with Netflix being hit with $50m lawsuit. Will people go legal for anything? Seems that way

• ADS ADS ADS — This is very much an ads play and seeking to drive huge ad buys. The ads-supported tier is becoming popular (40% of all new signups are choosing the ad-supported tier) and we are likely to see the largest advertising move to support and pay towards its recording programming budget

• Coming Up: Christmas day NFL games already teasing then confirming Beyonce's involvement, Netflix will have to ramp up their abilities to handle huge requests for live shows and huge audiences

3 Must Watch Videos

💚AIs’s role in relationships on demand… not human love and even marriage. Is this a big issue? Or just another example of humans being so disconnected

💴The AI Influencers making real money - learn from how a digital agency in Barcelona has created AI model Aitana Lopez and making serious money from Instagram.

Meet the real Ari Gold (yes from Entourage) and his influence over “combat sports” the UFC and WWF WWE. The growth of the UFC in recent years has coincided with what Ari and team made happen at Fight Island (an island converted to allow live UFC fights to happen) in the middle of covid

👋 Good Morning from a surprisingly sunny London 👋

The 1024 drop is here with a number of interesting must reads, listens and a couple of must watch videos.

Themes Featuring In This Drop ↓

• 🍗Going beyond being a treat brand

• 👮Brazil’s latest trend police influencers going for office

• 💪 Actionable & leadership tips for any business

• 🦋 Sports giving you wings?

• ☕️The deep-dive into Starbucks and why they are desperately trying to become a connection brand again

Unfiltered 🤫 I have started a new publication with friend of Must Reads Harry Lang and many other senior Marketing & Business leaders.
Join us as our first instalment that went out this morning & then fortnightly afterwards
→ https://www.marketingunfiltered.co/subscribe 

Starbucks Fight For Relevancy ☕️

The Must Reads Deepdive — Starbucks is an institution and a status symbol but they have been struggling!
Starbucks were on a tear but it made a strategic shift back in 2019, doubling down on mobile, non-coffee drops (the viral & trendy sugary drinks kids crave share on instagram), alongside a shift to ice coffees and the movement away from a third space (where you hang out thats different to home and work) is all resulting in declining sales, a new CEO has made a sweep of changes centred around putting “connection” at the heart of the reshuffle. Will this shift help Starbucks get back to the global coffee chain of choice? Experts from China and America do not agree it will…

The Problems Broken Down Further

• Cold drinks are now 75% of all sales for Starbucks - these take longer to make and often have less margin

• Custom orders and viral orders became real issues for stores and franchisees and made wait time skyrocket

• From the CEO’s own admission they have too much choice with “Overly complicated menu” - regulars will be fine with it, new or infrequent visitors struggle. We are told choice is a good thing, it isn’t but when you get many people in through random drinks in random sizes you are going to struggle to simplify enough to make it a destination for standard coffee drinkers

• The sugary Instagram and TikTok viral drinks have altered how others enjoy the brand - shaping a brand younger and more noisey turns away older customers

• The app ordering became so successful it caused a backlog on orders and reduced the interactions with baristas (removing the opportunity for connection and upselling opportunities

• Staff have unionised and repeatidly say how under staffed they are

• The exec reshuffle has continued with (i) new CEO Of Chinese division Molly Liu & (ii) a new role created as the Chief Brand Officer to the current Yahoo’s CMO Tressie Lieberman (who worked with new CEO at Chipotle and appears to specialise in branded love)

Will Starbucks win back customers and make new customers regulars? I have more doubts, why? As spending curbs in economics shifts across the world, more competitors came out and offer better coffee with better value, the bucks will struggle to reclaim some they have lost and bring in new long-term loyal customers. Despite the new CEO being highly regarded and well respected, I think short term it is going to be a coffe bean blood bath but long term they will win back many who left. The real problem area acquiring new and then loyal customers without really good perk programme and free coffee offers.

The video below is a good reminder these videos are for shareholders not for Jo/Joe Bloggs…

Twitter tweet

Good morning from a rainy and Autumnal London. The 0924 drop is focused on how to think about the future with several important themes bubbling under the surface. I went deeper into the future of media and how social media is not social and not supporting media.

Themes Featuring In This Drop ↓

• How To Make Culture Fit Tangible 👏

• Why AI Is Going To Be Challenging For Many 🤖

• DNA Up For Sale 🧬

• Ads Are Everywhere & It Just Won’t Stop 🛑

• The Increased Need For Cash 💸

• Spotlight On The Future Of Media 💬

Spotlight The Future Of Social Media

• Jack Dorsey On The End Of Social Media 
  One of the main reasons social media became toxic media is down to Twitter (& let’s call it out Facebook too) and its inability to make decisions that did not benefit its users. Twitter was the “news” + engagement around news stories for a long time but in the background, it had so many executive changes and infighting it ultimately lost its identity and the result: today’s version X under Elon. I don’t disagree with Jack’s point, however, social media now is short-form entertainment for most users (without the users understanding the shift or they role in how the platforms plan to make more money from training of their user data and behaviours) and rarely a social experience.

• Future Social Or Future Fades? Social in the future might end up like ‘noplace’ (vodcast below) which is a throwback to Myspace might just be a fad but shows how old is new and how Product Recyclement is commonplace even with social sites launching back in 2003. I’m old enough to remember the original fondly therefore i’m too old to sign up for noplace

• Social Media To Chat Social — We have all shifted over to group chat, whether that’s friends, colleagues or local communities, everything is a group chat. What X has seen is the move away from X and small communities popping up on Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage and tools like Discord and Slack. Communities will have to go niche to win and be valuable enough in a commercial setting, expect sponsors to flood your group chats soon and pay a high premium to do so.

• Infamous Journalist Taylor Lorenz Enterting Wave 2 Of Independent Journalism - Taylor Lorenz has made a name for herself, often offering inside scoops, reporting on what others do not and not being afraid to be outspoken on the latest trends. Taylor has created user mag to tell the stories mainstream media won’t. Taylor is definitely the new journalist model many try to fulfil creating podcasts, creating videos on YouTube and then going live on Substack with Q&A. Despite some wild accusations Taylor has quite the resume including The Hill, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, The New York Post & The Washington Post.
  We have had a wave in 2020/21 with journalists leaving and setting up on Substack and now we are going to see wave 2 with many going onto Substack (or Beehiiv or Ghost) to build out the reporting they want through a subscription model. But this is sustainable for the average reporter and not one that’s amassed thousands of followers because of the beat they have?

• The Future Of Media? Chat Apps? Media publishers think so but as I suggested previously, media can’t fall for another bait and switch from Meta and big tech. Channels could be great but most of the media companies simply won’t invest other than treating like RSS.

🎙️HUGE Podcast Deals 🎧

There have been 4 huge deals worth over $100m this year for popular podcasts:

1. This week; The Kelce brothers (NFL players) have signed a 3-year $100m deal with Wondery (part of Amazon).

2. Last month; Call Her Daddy co-creator Alex Cooper signed a new 3-year deal worth $125 million with SiriusXM (for her podcast and her new network of podcasts) leaving Spotify.

3. In February; Joe Rogan renewed his Spotify contract for another 4 years for $250 million.

4. In January; SmartLess (with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett) left Wondery for a 3-year deal worth $100 million with SiriusXM (Warren Buffet famously invested heavily earlier this summer in SiriusXM).

So What? Why is this important? 

• There are now millions of podcasts but very few are independent and make money

• Celebrity fronted Podcasts (in-built audience and superfans) have become incredibly popular, especially a-list podcasts, celebrity pods dominate the podcast rankings and hold typically huge bi-weekly audiences, so much so these podcasts charge 5 to high 6-digit rates for ads, some smartly charge huge figures to advertise on the back catalogue.

  • These stars have the option to go out and create a podcast with a team and a network behind them or go and join YouTube like Ronaldo and Tom Brady have in the last few weeks

• The influence celebrity podcasts have is far-reaching, especially what is being shared and the stories being told (untold elsewhere), these are then being flipped into news stories and creating headline stories in mainstream media who struggle to build relationships with stars like they used to.

  • Many smart PR firms are pushing their clients to host and cohost and paying large sums of money to appear on tier 1 podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts)

• Podcasts are the new way to build audiences, host & control debates and are being used to rebuild careers, recent examples include: the 2 hours of Candace Owens interviewing Andrew Tate, President Trump on Theo Von podcast was something else, Peter Thiel on Joe Rogan was painful to watch — all leading to huge listenership/views and driving huge awareness to brands sponsoring

• Big ad & media networks back the majority of the top 200 podcasts and have big talent fronting the pod - stars come with an existing audience and advertisers will invest massively into these pods

  • Sponsors demand ad reads by the hosts and are charged a premium for doing so as feels less like an ad and more like an endorsement

• Acquired a popular long-form podcast on how companies were built and the strategy behind them charges $500k for 4-episode midroll sponsorship or $750k for presenting sponsor

• This is why SiriusXM, Spotify and Amazon are investing millions in 3-year+ deals on these podcast advertising deals. They are moving away from exclusive rights and moving towards owning the ads inside the pods (and connected to the pods) and inserting ads across the feeds onto Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

• Brands are looking for the best possible advertising options, whether that’s brand side to find a new audience or creators looking for ad partners to monetise their latest moves. Brands are looking for reach, celebrities have them, ad networks can insert more ads (ad load aka the number of ads is up and increasing)

So the TLDR, brands will open up their budgets for popular podcasts and being associated with huge reach. Celebrities love the format as do their PRs and the ad-exclusive deals are huge and will continue to be while celebrity podcasters attract their celeb friends and major names to tell stories while brands can piggyback from an ad inserted into it.

Read More → How Jason & Travis Kelce Landed A $100 Million Podcast Deal

Jason and Travis Kelce (aka Mr Swift) have officially signed an exclusive podcast distribution deal with Wondery (Amazon).

pocket.co/share/7eed179b-886a-4229-b533-75f50a2d64c3

Want to see more about rankings and pod ad networks? Podtrac and chartable (for rankings) are great first steps

» If you would like to see my favourite podcast - I share them here

Quick MR Update » Must Reads Purpose has always been to cut through the noise now the minute-by-minute content tsunami we are experiencing and I wanted to take a break to ensure there were great articles, podcasts and videos you consume that you likely hadn’t already and will help you with the so what to make you smarter about the future.

What I cannot promise is the return to the weekly newsletter,
But what I can promise is more exclusive drops to subscribers. Covering the best views, listens and reads available.

🎧 How Brat Summer Is Taking Over Music & Fashion - Great going by Charli XCX and her team, turning her new album into a cultural movement and leveraging all Marketing channels available to her including her music video and taking over the boiler room. If you are in Marketing or Growth definitely take your own deep dive on Brat brilliance

The Business of Charli XCX’s Brat -

“Charli XCX’s album Brat has captured the zeitgeist this summer”. The Brat movement has infiltrated most social feeds and dominated music and music marketing on both sides of the Atlantic. Vogue Business breaks down her impact for fashion brands and how she leveraged her fan base.

www.voguebusiness.com/story/fashion/the-business-of-brat

Continuing to come to a screen near you all summer long

Twitter tweet Newsjacking at its best

Netflix Deeper Dive ↓

📀 Netflix Expansion Issue: Gaming is Netflix’s newest approach to capturing and owning your time and attention, the issue for Netflix it’s costing the consumer more money (away from ad tiers) and their bet isn’t paying off for now. Research is showing its only one game that is remotely popular. The same happened with other brands, but will this large investment be worth the added pain and expense for the consumer I highly doubt it in the short to mid-term.

Netflix's Game Portfolio is Dominated by a Single Game

Netflix has been not-so-quietly building out its mobile games portfolio for quite a while now. As of June, the collectio...

appfigures.com/resources/insights/20240621/3-netflix's-game-portfolio-is-dominated-by-a-single-game

Netflix is using the classic dominant media company playbook, leverage your own IP and create more media and games around it, even suggesting 80 games based on their IP. They attempted this already with podcasts but maybe this is the way to win in gaming and owning more of your time on multiple devices. LinkedIn (yes LinkedIn), YouTube and Netflix are all competing to be your canonical media company whether that’s through native content, entertainment series or games.

Below is a quote from Netflix’s shareholder letter about the importance of advertising to Netflix moving forward, with the pricing packages going up to be more profitable; the quality of its programming and cultural relevance of programmes are going to be critical for their success and continuing to open our wallets each month.

“Ads fulfil two important strategic priorities for Netflix: first they enable us to offer lower prices to consumers; and second, they create an additional revenue and profit stream for the business.”

🔓 As a reminder, I am a coach, consultant and advisor. I have space for coaching clients and consultancy from the start of January, get in touch (by hitting reply) or contacting me → mustreads@dannydenhard.com or DM me on LinkedIn.

By Me

• The Important Themes From My Coaching Sessions This Year - this is a personal review with actionable steps to take from my coaching of CEOs, COOs, founders, CMOs, CGOs, Heads of Growth, Product & Marketing → Link

• The 5 Roles You Should Hire For To Succeed Into 2024 → Link

• Self Improvement As A Leader - I appeared on the Marketing Freaks podcast. I break down my Marketing & Growth coaching, why managers and above don’t put their development first (hint no good management above them helping them to become better) and how to put yourself first to improve 2024 → Link

Here is a sneak peek of the 11 themes I am going to release on January 1st

Life Must Reads

• The PT Helping Music Stars To Put So Many Live Shows - Taylor Swift and Queen B have had an incredible year with their tours and supporting theatre releases. One key component that is overlooked is their fitness and stamina for a huge global tour → Link

• 25 Most Influential Women of 2023 - a genuinely brilliant list by the FT → Link

• The Extreme & Out Of Control World Of Energy Drinks - We go in cycles, healthy and low calories to vegan to diets fades and now we are seeing the most caffeinated drinks possible. The risks are clear but are they obvious enough? Expect more scrutiny on energy drinks (expect highest calorie food and super-sized options next year) → Link

• Must Listen/Watch! Jeff Bezos has some incredible insights and shares some previously unspoken gems on Lex Fridman’s podcast. I loved his insights, particularly when he discusses paper cuts - having a dedicated team to fix several small problems to help the customer. This is a 2 or 3 time listen to podcast (from space adventure to running the globally dominant company for two decades) ↓

» If you love podcasts and enjoyed this one pod, hit reply and I have a list of 3 other invaluable pods that will improve your career.

• RIP Autonomous Cars? Self-driving cars are failing safety tests and critically causing more danger and accidents than not. I cannot believe how many of the common issues should have been tested and thought through before AB testing is done on the road. It’s fascinating how the hype cycle goes around, particularly for a business like Cruise who were lorded for their work and are now struggling to move forward safely. This is the future but maybe flying cars might come around the same sort of time… → Link
  (PS With Tesla recalling 2m cars in the US will we embrace new tech or have a harder lens to review these new car companies)

• Escape To Hawaii - This week social media went wild for Mark Zuckerberg’s top-secret new compound in Hawaii, maybe smart, but, why are so many celebrities and CEOs creating survival bunkers? What do they know, we don’t? → Link

Work Must Reads

• The 5 Work Themes To Know & Understand For 2024 (From Friend Of Must Reads Bruce (Daisley) leading the way on company culture) → Deck - Newsletter 

• “Emails Are Dying Out?” BS - I keep seeing articles that suggest email is dead or doesn’t match younger people’s values - the issue here is they don’t make the decisions and rarely get to shape decisions so although we are on the journey of having less reliance on email it’s still how most decisions are made and other decisions are signed off → Link

• How Marketing Shaped Rudolph’s Red Nose - & How It Passes On generation-to-generation since the 1940s (this is also why Santa went from Green to Red, thanks Coca-Cola) → Link (this hasn’t happened for a while but expect mega brands to start hijacking public holidays again)

• TikTok Influence On Consumer Spending - TikTok shopping is going to continue to blow up in the next couple of years. The fear I have is consumers falling for scams and falling for brands which will run ad arbitrages to make thousands before human intervention or more regularly waiting for AI to detect issues and then put safety measures are actually put in place. TikTok has so many young people’s trust (video format spreads far and wide as it seems more trustworthy and there is never any review on if the data is true or not) and attention it will have a huge impact on spending habits and how brands will be perceived (and become guilty by association is something I am advising brands on) → Link

• Buy Now Pay A Lot More Later Hits Airbnb. A smart play for Airbnb but bad news for their guests (customers) who aren’t aware of the related charges and cost of having micro-loans given a marketing wrapping around it. Clothing brands are feeling the BNPL effects and many consumers just don’t know the credit issues until they are burnt → Link

• SEO Hijack & The Role Of AI - This was a viral tweetstorm in the search community and is now written up about leveraging competitive tools and open data to outrank who they rewrote content from via AI tools, FWIW this has happened for years - just not at this scale, it will happen time and time again (and just remember Google Bard is removing the need to click on the blue links for an answer) → Link

• Google’s New Business Line Being A Landlord - We will see this from huge companies, they will be going into real estate and investing in property to diversify revenues and please investors while experimenting → Link

• 🇨🇳 Chinese App Dominance & Say Hello To GPT Apps 💬 - this is a running theme for 2023 (and with TikTok’s rise to dominance since 2020). TikTok and their creation app CapCut & shopping app Temu have dominated iOS downloads, this is creating some ripples in the US and is likely to be in Europe too. Another notable re-entry is ChatGPT, despite many not knowing its retention it’s an important shift for ChatGPT to be on the canonical device and be available on the go. Expect ChatGPT app to come in and out of rankings when it gains updates and becomes more useful for the everyday person.

Have a great festive period and if you can, get some rest. I’ll see you again in January!

Thanks and go well,

Danny Denhard

» The Must Reads Update

For those who read the last Must Reads and for those who may have missed it (the real issue with email - you can never keep up), you will have seen I haven’t sent a MR newsletter number of weeks.
Why? Must Reads takes hours (some newsletters take way over ten hours with consumption & creation) a week to create and although is a passion of mine to help offer the best materials to help you be informed about the future it’s just not sustainable weekly. Moving forward Must Reads likely will become a monthly newsletter.

But as promised I wanted to share a few things from the last few weeks I have been up to, a handful of important Must Reads and must watch videos to help inform your future.

» How I Can Help You

⚡️ As a reminder I am a coach, advisor and consultant so if you are looking to improve your career, build your company or if need a senior business leader to help you grow or run a workshop / problem-solving hackathon let me know danny@dannydenhard.com or check out dannydenhard.co.uk for the full breakdown

» My Latest Posts

• How to create a business that connects the business and your customers aka Community

• Be A Better Leader: Leadership superpowers and kryptonite

• Don’t Fall Into The Good, Better, Best Trap

• Storytelling Masterclass - David Pullan broke down the magic formula — Emotion → then logic. Warmth → then competence. Connection → then challenge.

• I dusted off the mic & had two great podcast conversations recently (you read the breakdowns, watch or listen to these conversations below)

  1. The first with ex-Premier League Player Luke Staton who is now an author of Credo and motivational speaker

  2. Caleb Parker - the entrepreneur’s entrepreneur - we talk about the future of humanity (not just the future of work), the impact of AI and why entrepreneurs aren’t always right but do always drive change

» Must Reads Articles

• Why Nuance & Two Things Can Be True Is Being Lost 😞 
  - An incredible breakdown of what is happening with social media and why so many are losing their fight for diverse opinions and thoughts in the newsfeed-driven world we live in

• AI AI AI 🤖 Big Shock ;-) 
  AI is named the Collins dictionary word of the year - If you’re not sick of hearing AI yet - I commend you. We have already seen a number of AI Wrapper businesses go out of business with one small update, be careful chasing that get-rich-quick train.

• Close To Criminal? 🚨: Completely Irresponsible Behaviour: Cruise the self-driving business knew it had issues identifying children and big holes (amongst other issues) and pushed ahead. This is common in tech but when it does mean the difference between life and death you should face legal action. Now their co-founder and CPO have left the company. Not a good month for self driving.

• Netflix Is Now Just (Expensive) TV 📺: Netflix’s 15m traditional TV viewers (on their ad-supported tier) - Netflix has two options make money from us (the subscribers), the advertisers or both until they transform into the new Disney. Expect Netflix to really test their pricing even further than it has and make you work out if it is them vs every other streaming platform. Netflix will become a luxury for some and a privacy for others.

• Prime Cars 🚙 - Amazon is now going to sell cars, yes cars. Hyundai and Amazon have partnered up and will sell customisable cars through Amazon. Prime perk or have we reached peak prime? Smart for both parties if you ask me…

• You're Fired 🔥: An important read on how businesses decide on how to lay people off. Many companies follow the same practise 9 box grid but important to know other methods when you might need to make the hard decision or are part of a round of layoffs

• On A Mission 👏… Making Their Money Count - A millionaire is building 99 small homes to make their money count (I hope this is the future for many super wealthy individuals)

• Big Britney Book 📕: Britney’s tell-all book boasts her music streams - Britney’s book launch blew up TikTok and owned booktok and got to be a New York Times best seller. Expect this to be a way celebrities release their tell-all, strong lead story (the villain Justin Timberlake), a number of teasers about the lead story and then push sales and streams - with a streaming show to be the end game.

• News Sources & Implications 📰: Independent news outlets (via social networks) are more popular than ever - we want to learn from those we trust and speak our language not to be spoken at like we are sheep. Mainstream news has been reeling for a decade but will we see a rollout of mass adoption - potentially IF it aligns with what reaffirms out beliefs (this goes hand in hand with must read article 1)

• Sharents 🤳: Why Disney parents and their obsession of oversharing are the most hated people online. If you can share your breakfast and gym pics, won’t can’t Disney lovers ;-)

• Brain Clean Up 🧠: Why cognitive load theory is like a desktop clean up and will be better for you and your productivity.

• Here’s something you’d never stumble upon but only on TikTok, you would. A deaf nurse explaining how she learnt to speak ↓

@mikaelachavezt

This is just a short summary, but there’s so, so much work that goes into learning how to talk as a deaf person. It’s not an easy task and... See more

A Brilliant Watch ↓

Thanks to Must Reader Allan for sharing

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» Prime Hydration Growth
🚀 or 🧨

Prime has been on a tear, it is insanely popular with kids and young adults, and it is fronted by YouTubers (boxers, rappers - basically whatever they want to be right now) KSI & Logan Paul who reportedly own 20% of Prime hydration each. So let’s understand how & why its done so well.

Breaking Down Prime’s Smart Marketing

• ➕Smart Drink Sponsorship: Prime has officially sponsored the largest football (soccer) clubs in Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Barcelona.

• ➕Elite Connections: Sponsored elite athletes like Man City player Erling Haaland, UFC champions Israel Adesanya & Alex Volkanowski, alongside endorsement by boxing’s main male fighter Terence Crawford

• ➕Deep Followership: Alisha is one of the most followed female athletes in the world, and plays for the Swiss women’s football team and Aston Villa. Alisha has made the headlines (breaking up with her ex who plays who Villa men’s team) a number of times and I suspect that was one of the main reasons they signed Alisha

• 🤔Influencer x Ownership: Logan Paul and KSI only 20% of the company each but pitch themselves as the owners and founders (not entirely true). The interesting layer here is to their audience that doesn’t matter. The actual founding team and majority owners are Congo Brands who have made this work before and offer the capital and logistics and allow major influencer marketing to front the campaign. This is their third collaboration and the most successful for the product and logistics firm

• ⚡️Status: Prime has really hit the market hard and has become the major status symbol with limited stock driving the price up and then flooding the major supermarkets with huge quantities of SKUs.

• 🚩Banned: Based on the ingredients (albeit it is reportedly caffeine-free) the drink was recalled in Canada - like the manufactured Red Bull rumours of a ban it has helped the PR machine and sales

• 🚩Prime vs. Authority: Schools have warned parents about allowing their kids to drink Prime and bringing it into school - what kids want more is a status symbol that is said to be banned or against the rules

So whatever you say about the set-up or KSI and Logan Paul (both cancelled for some pretty questionable actions and comments), Prime is going to be around for a long time and be a status symbol for a generation.

👆I am constantly impressed by Daniel Ek and his way of articulating what others don’t. Daniel’s team are on the offence and often pushes out smart commentary from podcasts he has appeared on and this example is no different.
FYI: Don’t be surprised for other CEOs and founders to come out and say how they are constantly surprised and challenged by their teams in the move to change narratives away from RTO and mass layoffs

» Platform To The Rescue 📱- Cameo is often overlooked as a platform actors rely on. In the ongoing strike, cameo has seen a flood of actors wanting to create short videos for their fans to make some income while they cannot work or promote their work from the strike. When Jay from the inbetweeners has earned over a million from his videos other actors will dream of making this too. I suspect Cameo will see more premium stars join or attempt to create their own version until the middle of next year.

🚀 If you need to improve your own professional performance or your team needs a boost, I offer coaching, consultancy and company advisory work & have some availability this month & until the end of 2023.

» How Tech Billionaires Are Funding A Brand New City 🗺️
The Dive Deep Story

• Yes, that’s right, some of tech’s big players include:
  Michael Moritz - former journalist & famous Sequoia Capital VC,
  Laurene Powell Jobs - the billionaire activist and business exec (& Steve Jobs's widow) is known for funding big and going against the grain investor.
  Reid Hoffman - LinkedIn’s founder (& AI evangelist) has famously been outspoken about the issues around cities, around politics and is one of the leading minds around network effects.
  Marc Andreessen - the Netscape creator & arguably the most powerful VC - Marc is incredibly intelligent and studies history, he recently spoke to Joe Rogan on cults and their power alongside investing in WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s new venture living flow which builds communities
  & Chris Dixon - the A16z VC & Web3 KOL

• All have invested millions into Flannery Associates who are creating a new city outside of San Francisco - which is made up of an agricultural region 60 miles northeast of San Francisco

• The selling points include clean energy, brand new infrastructure & an under-served area of California

• Rather than Google attempting to build a city major investors and those who shaped the internet are attempting to build their own city (it’s easier to build one than fix one - SF is famously struggling and many see it as too much politics and not enough return)

• This is twofold, (1) a great way to influence change and create a new way of doing it (2) an experiment to see if you can build something IRL that can be a model to build out and scale.

» The Truth Behind The D’Amelio Empire & Why Venture Capital Makes Sense ⏯️

» How Raye Blew Up On Social Channels But Importantly Told Her Powerful Story ⏯️