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Nov 21, 2024 | 
mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Eaon Pritchard |Chris Jefford |Luca Della Dora |Paul Pilbeam
From an evolutionary perspective, the discomfort we feel when confronted with artificial humans — in ads, video games, or even robotics — stems from our evolved innate capacity to detect social and biological anomalies from just scraps of information. This phenomenon, often referred to as the ‘uncanny valley,’ describes the sense of unease we experience when something looks almost human — but not quite. This response likely evolved as a survival mechanism.
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Oct 25, 2024 | 
mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Steve Hastings |Dan Dawson |Chris Jefford
Tracksuit, the brand tracking company for challengers, has published a whitepaper titled ‘The Emotion Effect: How to Avoid the Seven Deadly Sins of Emotionless Advertising’. Featuring insights from Google, IPSOS, and The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, the study highlights the power of ads that evoke strong, positive emotions. According to Tracksuit, ads that trigger positive emotional reactions are 27% more likely to be shared and can boost brand pricing power by 40%.
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Sep 5, 2024 | 
mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Andy Crysell |Harry Kinnear |Chris Jefford
Anyone with an interest in club culture has probably seen one of the many videos on X, TikTok and similar, mocking the sight of clubbers who are not joyously waving their arms in the air, but instead using them to hold their phones aloft. Typically, these also feature a DJ bro giving his all to a big tech-house drop, with everybody in the place determined to capture the general epic-ness of the occasion.
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Sep 3, 2024 | 
mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Alice Pukhova |Geoffrey Chang |Chris Jefford |Molly Taylor-Prevett
Disruptor brands — those that transform their industries — were once rare and revolutionary. Today, though, it seems every new brand aspires to be a disruptor. This trend is evident in the rapidly evolving branding cycle, where a new and exciting brand emerges, only to be followed by others attempting to replicate its impact. Monzo, one of the first prominent online banks, was created to cater to younger millennials and Gen Z.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Emily Fairhead-Keen |Natasha Randhawa |Chris Jefford |Grace Gollasch
Having returned from two weeks in Sicily, apart from the obvious desire to build more ricotta, pistachios, siestas and baroque into my life, it made me think how we could all be a little bit more Sicilian.
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Aug 22, 2024 | 
mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Anita Wong |Chris Jefford |Will Poskett |Sam Collenette
(They don’t step into a bar together, don’t worry.) The answer is that all these video game brands have created , creating interconnected campaigns across multiple platforms. Whether that’s through films, comics, or collectable cards, these giants have managed to level up and expand beyond their fictional game worlds to reach new audiences and keep their current fans engaged. But that’s old news, right?
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Geoffrey Chang |Chris Jefford |Molly Taylor-Prevett
You can be a disruptive brand without being an industry disruptor. Disruptive marketing and disrupting the market are two distinct things. One uses standout creativity to gain a competitive advantage. Out-thinking and out-manoeuvring bigger players who don’t have to try as hard. (Think Avis versus Hertz.) It’s about making a lot of noise. And being creative within your limitations. The other speaks of challenger brands solving a category-wide problem.
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Aug 7, 2024 | 
creativebrief.com | Chris Jefford
Chris Jefford, CEO & Co-Founder of Truant, champions rest for keeping summer inspiration levels high CEO & Co-Founder Truant Apathy is the enemy of creativity. As the summer season kicks in it is all too easy too easy to find ourselves on autopilot. Whether boiling our brains on the Northern Line, or navigating the mental gymnastics of summer childcare logistics, summer can be a difficult time to maintain momentum.
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Jul 9, 2024 | 
mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Harry Kinnear |Becks Collins |Chris Jefford |Jerome Hiquet
Worldwide digital advertising spend is increasing every year, but ad blocking is also on the rise. So with our July theme of ‘Fame and Attention’ we thought we’d ask our network, from a marketing and strategic point of view, how should brands best capture our attention. We see twice as many ads today than ten years ago. Whether this estimate is right doesn’t really matter. The reality is: we live in an intensely noisy world.
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May 2, 2024 | 
creativebrief.com | Chris Jefford
Like all great love affairs, I remember the place it all happened. It was a sunny day in Shoreditch, and I had just stepped outside of a coffee shop, Americano in hand.
My phone buzzed.
A call, out of the blue, to say they’d seen us around and they liked what they saw.
No promises, but there was a chance that we could get together, possibly start something, say ‘to hell with it’ and take a leap into the unknown.
