Ben Essen

Nov 18, 2024 | mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Lea Karam |Ben Essen |Don Hoyt Gorman |Ross Negus

Small businesses are having a big moment. SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) are quietly reshaping the UK’s economy, by doing what many big brands struggle to do: connect, pivot, and stand out. While big names might hog the spotlight, it’s the SMEs that are winning in loyalty, adaptability and consumer trust, often on a shoestring budget. As nearly half of these businesses plan to boost their marketing spend next year, the question for larger brands is: what can they learn?

Oct 3, 2024 | mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Charlie Li |Ben Essen |Becks Collins |Paul Greenwood

As we find ourselves bombarded with a relentless stream of curated perfection and perpetual doom-laden news, it’s worth asking: when was the last time you felt truly present ‘in the moment’? When was the last time you took a photo without immediately thinking about how it would turn out on your social media? We live in a time where there is more content to consume, yet more people than ever before feel isolated, disengaged, and dissatisfied.

Aug 22, 2024 | mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Natasha Randhawa |Harry Kinnear |Ben Essen |Kate Knowles

Whether it was on your For You Page or yet another marketer’s LinkedIn analysis, you’ve likely heard the news — The Girls have packed away their Brat starter packs and are embracing a ‘very mindful, very demure’ outlook this season. This swift turnover is par for the course in the short shelf-life of TikTok memes and microtrends. In the age before algorithms, trends once enjoyed a 5-10 year life cycle, dictated by fashion houses and disseminated by celebrities.

Jul 4, 2024 | mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Grace Gollasch |Jenny Stanley |Amy Ramage |Ben Essen

This week, actor and singer David Hasselhoff (‘The Hoff’) joined the world’s leading video game studios and influencers in supporting PlanetPlay’s Make Green Tuesday Moves (MGTM) initiative. PlanetPlay is a not-for-profit platform that enables video game players to help fight climate change through in-game purchases and gameplay. As of 2 July, each participating game has launched a series of green items featuring ‘The Hoff’ to help fund sustainability causes.

Jun 27, 2024 | campaignlive.com | Ben Essen

This year's Cannes Lions winners are a testament to the power of building on the past. Like Daft Punk making a music career from stitching together old tracks, the most successful campaigns today are those that embrace and reinterpret previous successes. So rather than shunning ideas because “they’ve already been done”, we should ask: "How can we give this a modern twist?"Here's a fun stat: one in five of the hits we listen to on the radio contains direct pieces of previously released songs.