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Three decades of thinking about brands, creativity and growth, all of it yours to use.
355articles in the archive
Latest thinking.
Our time at Escher House has come to a close…
There are some decisions in business that feel much bigger than they appear on paper. For OTB, moving offices after nearly 30 years at Esche…
Reflecting on two years as a Marketing Executive
As my time at ThinkOTB has come to an end, here are some of the skills I have learnt and progressed since I first started at ThinkOTB. I can…
Why Good Businesses Plateau: The Hidden Cost of Past Success
Every successful business eventually hits a moment where growth slows and decisions take longer. What once felt sharp and ambitious, now fee…
The Cost of Unclear Positioning on: Sales, Pricing, and Growth
When an organisation falls behind target it is easy to think that this is caused by a bad product, a weak team, or poor forecasting. However…
Stop Adding More: Why Growth Comes From Better Decisions
If there’s one habit quietly eroding performance in most organisations, it’s the instinct to add more - More initiatives, more priorities, m…
The Real Reason Your Strategy Isn’t Working
Strategies fail because they’re unclear and unrealistic and built on too many assumptions, aim to please too many people, or try to mimic wh…
Think outside the box: Your Personal Thinking Equipment (PTE)
Most organisations say they want creativity, however few actually create the conditions for it. Better thinking isn’t about longer hours. It…
The shifts shaping smarter marketing thinking
Recently, we’ve talked about the signs your marketing needs new thinking and the principles behind The OTB Way - a belief that strong strate…
12 Days of Marketing Takeaways
As the year winds down and festivity begins, we’ve been reflecting on another busy year in marketing. From AI breakthroughs to ever more dis…
ThinkOTB partners with Cambridge Nutritional Foods to deliver brand strategy, creative campaigns and marketing communications across its leading wellness portfolio
ThinkOTB, Leeds based Creative Marketing Agency, partners with Cambridge Nutritional Foods to deliver brand strategy, creative campaigns and…
5 Signs your Marketing needs new thinking – and what to do about it
Marketing has never been more complex. Audiences expect more. Channels grow every year. AI is reshaping content at extraordinary speed. And …
The OTB Way: Why Marketing needs a new way of thinking
Marketing is evolving faster than ever. With AI reshaping workflows and audiences demanding authenticity, brands must earn trust in new ways…
The full archive.
355 articles- Our time at Escher House has come to a close…
- Reflecting on two years as a Marketing Executive
- Why Good Businesses Plateau: The Hidden Cost of Past Success
- The Cost of Unclear Positioning on: Sales, Pricing, and Growth
- Stop Adding More: Why Growth Comes From Better Decisions
- The Real Reason Your Strategy Isn’t Working
- Think outside the box: Your Personal Thinking Equipment (PTE)
- The shifts shaping smarter marketing thinking
- 12 Days of Marketing Takeaways
- ThinkOTB partners with Cambridge Nutritional Foods to deliver brand strategy, creative campaigns and marketing communications across its leading wellness portfolio
- 5 Signs your Marketing needs new thinking – and what to do about it
- The OTB Way: Why Marketing needs a new way of thinking
- Meet Nicky – Our new Account Director!
- Our Day at MAD World Summit 2025
- Why smiles matter at ThinkOTB
- The essential role of psychological safety in high performing teams and innovation success
- Building Strong Brands from the Inside Out
- A Royal Moment to Remember: Celebrating The King’s Award for Enterprise at Windsor Castle
- Closing one chapter and starting the next
- Full-service vs. specialist teams: what’s right for your brand?
- What the King’s Award means to ThinkOTB – and everyone around us
- Our favourite TV ads of 2025 so far
- Why Team Time Outside the Office Builds Momentum Inside It
- Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and Psychological Safety: The Real Measure of Success
- Why Client Relationships Matter More Than Ever
- The Path to Workplace Wellbeing and Happiness
- The power of yellow and transforming workplaces with True Joy™
- The Magic of Christmas Adverts: Heartwarming Stories, Creative Sparks, and Cultural Traditions
- 4 Tech Trends That Will Shape Organisational Communications
- Back to Work: Recharging, Refocusing, and Reimagining Success
- Happiness doesn’t just happen – here’s how to create it!
- From Inspiration to Innovation: The creative energy of our home, Headingley
- Diving into the Euros 2024 experience at ThinkOTB
- The marketer and mother
- Why a great brand ambassador is essential for modern marketing strategies
- Building a better brand so we can all rest easier
- The rise of remote working and how to make it work for you
- How much is too much when it comes to consumer data?
- Are you always bang on brand? How to create consistent content
- Why do businesses rebrand?
- Sales & marketing alignment: how to maximise sales enablement
- Content marketing trends to consider in 2024
- Using a multi-media approach to reach your audience
- Why is brand diagnosis important?
- ThinkOTB’s look ahead to 3 marketing trends that will be big in 2024
- Unmasking the Marketing Magic: How Organisations Capitalise on Halloween
- How important is brand advertising for delivering sales?
- The impact of Consumer Duty on marketers
- Can Threads unseat Twitter as the go to app for real-time public conversations?
- How integrated marketing strategies grow businesses by maximising engagement across the media mix
- We’re going on a Bear Hunt
- Was the King’s Coronation a marketeer’s dream?
- How to apply direct mail techniques in a digital world
- Is print marketing making a comeback?
- 5 steps to creating your emotional marketing campaign
- What should marketers be thinking about in 2023?
- Will there be more awards for ThinkOTB in 2023?
- Top marketing trends for 2023
- ‘Tis the season for Christmas ads!
- Can hashtags still make or break a marketing campaign?
- How is sustainability influencing your marketing strategy?
- Why TikTok is right for most brands
- How can brands navigate the cost of living crisis?
- The joy of joyful marketing
- Work placement: Getting up for 9am and other new skills
- How can marketing improve the UK’s mental health?
- Customer journey map: one of the most important assessments your business can do
- Jubilee ads fit for a Queen
- What does Musk buying Twitter mean for digital marketers?
- Why does it matter who you bank with?
- What is social purpose and how does it benefit your brand?
- What it means to get the best recommendations from our clients
- Endlessly stretching what I know
- 4 ways innovation could benefit your brand
- Can web accessibility really help you reach 20% more people?
- National Holiday? Does that call for a promotion
- How to build powerful marketing campaigns
- Marketing trends to capitalise on in 2022
- 2022: 4 ways digital consumers are changing
- Is print marketing dead?
- Why should social media campaigns be creative?
- When advertising got it wrong. Are these the worst adverts of all time?
- How influencers are driving growth
- ThinkOTB says thanks in The Drum Recommends Awards
- What Visa has really been doing behind the scenes
- Always-on innovation is key, but is it always easy?
- How to use humour in advertising
- Shivers up our spines: Great marketing campaigns
- When is it time for a rebrand? 5 signs
- Local advertising: 5 effective ways to market to local audiences
- “Make the most of every opportunity” – Work experience learnings
- Leeds can’t keep a lid on innovation!
- 5 ways to make great social media video content
- 6 ways social media does great things
- How does lateral thinking boost creativity?
- What Euro 2020 can teach marketers
- How can the marketing industry drive inclusivity?
- Schooling the next generation in creativity
- How can brands maximise the value of customer feedback?
- Brainstorming doesn’t work… so what does?
- What do food & beverage marketers need to know in 2021?
- When happiness flows, creativity flows
- Easter: the right time for brand innovation
- Can joy connect consumers to brands?
- Cultural change comes from the outside, in
- How do businesses stay relevant over 30 years?
- 5 trends that will define marketing in 2021
- Our perspective: receiving the Queen’s Award
- The Five Types of Creative You Probably Didn’t Know Existed
- Innovation marketing prevents blindspots and unlocks potential
- Loyalty to your staff drives client retention
- Introducing a new perspective on marketing: innovation marketing from ThinkOTB
- Virtual meetings are here to stay, so get used to them
- The most popular types of creatives across the UK
- Moulding success with Chase Plastics
- Winning the Queen’s Awards for International Trade: Interview with OTB Chairman Mark Davies
- School of Thought: The Final Standings
- Only a true partnership wins Board buy-in
- Will RBGs change your workplace?
- Back to business means back to innovation
- Is ‘Innovation Marketing’ uncontested market space?
- How do you build a happy brand?
- How to create a workplace where everyone thrives
- When happiness flows, creativity flows
- Why trust is key to your marketing strategy – and how to build it
- How to create an authentic brand
- 5 essential advertising and marketing books
- In celebration of School of Thought
- Advertising agency ethics. The number one quality you should look for when adding an agency to your roster.
- The forgotten hero of British Adland. Yorkshire’s own Colin Millward.
- Top tips when looking for marketing and advertising support
- The pubs are open! Our favourite beer adverts and TV commercials
- Farewell Ennio Morricone: His music in advertising
- Using online chat tools like Zoom for brainstorming
- How TV shows changed advertising and marketing… not the internet
- OTB’s top tips for B2B marketing success
- Now’s the time to get back to basics with your advertising and marketing
- How to choose and work with an advertising and marketing agency?
- Winning The 2020 Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade
- Now’s the time to ‘Be More Dog’ with your brand and advertising to bounce forward into success
- The brands that have it – who is smashing it at the moment and what you can learn from them
- Some top tips during strange times to help you invest your marketing budget in the right way
- Channel emotion in your marketing, not reason
- 5 persuasion and response techniques to improve your ROI
- What can marketing professionals learn from toilet rolls?
- Making WFH work for you
- How cigarettes shaped modern marketing
- 7 ways to be kind at work
- Consumer trends that will shape 2020
- The best Christmas ads of 2019
- 4 scarily good Halloween advertising campaigns
- Football clubs get their social media tactics spot on
- 6 signs a colleague may be struggling with their mental health
- 5 iconic moments of black representation in advertising
- Podcasts: a more intimate form of advertising
- TV must adapt or die trying
- Why does everyone’s favourite time of year arrive earlier with every passing year?
- Advertising in gaming is much more than mere child’s play
- Channel 4 wear criticism as a badge of honour
- Could hyper-specialist shops save our high street?
- Substance should always be valued over style
- The Great Hack: the dark side of data
- For art’s sake
- Do the ends ever justify the means?
- Gender stereotypes in advertising are a relic of the past
- Not everyone is going to like you. Accept it and move on
- Looking back: the power of nostalgia in advertising
- The changing face of stock images
- Anything but scraping the barrel: the beer scene in Leeds
- Marketing with pride
- How to treble your marketing results
- Celebrity endorsements: do they work?
- Finding your voice
- Bouncing back from criticism
- 13 ways your office can reduce its carbon footprint for Earth Day
- Manufactured controversy
- 7 ways to stay fit in the office
- How to resist the rise of automation
- Disrupting the big tech monopoly to reignite competition
- International Women’s Day
- Your absence from marketing events is damaging your business prospects
- Falling out of love with Valentine’s Day
- The launch of Umbraco 8
- The rise of a nomadic workforce
- Fyre Festival – a millennial marketing masterclass
- Leeds is everything it’s cracked up to be
- 2019 Resolutions
- ‘Switch off’ feature a safe bet with Barclays
- The best Christmas ads of 2018
- Political advertising is in need of reform
- Examining the ethics of corporate gift giving
- ‘Tis the season for peak discounts – how to stay profitable
- Scooter firm Bird asks for a push start as they target commuters in London
- Greggs: Masters in baking & marketing
- Axing Apu just won’t do
- Halloween needn’t be a one day throwaway event
- A different way of thinking – the advantages of cognitive diversity
- The unenviable task of being a Facebook moderator
- National Album Day
- Why bringing your marketing in-house isn’t always the answer
- Broadcasting live sport: a new frontier for Amazon?
- What brands can learn from the Nike – Kaepernick campaign
- Working to live or living to work?
- Reddit for marketing? Your content strategy could thank you
- How to make marketing incentives work
- What to remember when building a customer view strategy
- Why marketers shouldn’t ignore Pinterest
- The balancing act: how to be a socially responsible brand without alienating your customer base
- 3 ways you can use Facebook Messenger for marketing
- What is a Marketing Technology Stack and how can you build one?
- How direct to consumer marketing is changing the game
- Three World Cup adverts catching marketers’ attention
- Whatsuuupppp, dilly dilly?
- Why you should align sales and marketing
- A marketer’s summer reading list
- 3 things you should know about LinkedIn B2B marketing
- 3 ways to keep your app marketing relevant
- 3 things you need to know about data
- Nailing your digital strategy
- Three ways to improve your email marketing
- The benefits of real time marketing
- What does brand loyalty look like in 2018?
- Location-based marketing essentials
- Customer advocacy is the foundation for growth in Financial Services
- 3 ways augmented reality could change marketing
- What does Instagram shoppable mean for the platform and brands?
- All you need to know about GDPR
- 3 ways you can develop your brand’s tone of voice
- 3 insights you can draw from Easter marketing
- What is blockchain and what does it mean for marketing?
- The rise of voice marketing and some tips for developing a strategy
- The Valentine’s Day marketing roundup
- Do you know the difference between multi-channel, cross-channel and omni-channel marketing?
- 3 tips for building an ecommerce strategy
- The war on plastic – a passing fad or shift in CSR?
- Why the gig economy matters to brands
- Return on Relationship, not ROI
- The 2018 marketing trend roundup
- Can Twitter Promote Mode boost waning popularity?
- How to build a robust YouTube marketing strategy
- What does it meant to be a CMO in 2017?
- What is dark social and why does it matter to marketers?
- You might be hiding from Christmas, but it’s only a month away…
- How can brands make the most of the subscription economy?
- How does contactless payment affect your marketing?
- How to build a TV marketing strategy for the modern viewer
- How Snapchat is changing the nature of content marketing
- How colour can make your marketing more effective
- Is the marketing funnel still relevant in the digital age?
- 3 tips for student marketing
- What is GDPR and how will it affect marketers?
- Why brands should be paying more attention to interactive marketing
- How and why do magazine advertising and print still hold a place in marketing?
- How and why brands need to adapt to voice search marketing
- How user-generated content can improve your marketing
- What is the ROBO economy and how does it impact your marketing strategy?
- 3 ways to make your marketing more effective
- Why the modern marketer must embrace diversity, in all its forms
- What does it take to become an iconic brand?
- 3 things you should know about optimising your customer journey
- What is programmatic OOH and 3 benefits it holds for marketers
- What does it take for a brand to be customer-centric?
- 3 debates taking place around copywriting
- Everything marketers need to know about customer retention
- What is a purpose-led brand and how can marketers use it.
- Why is no one talking about marketing to men?
- The La La Land effect: how brands can appeal to our need for escapism
- The continuity of changing consumer behaviour
- Controversy in marketing, and how to judge a political brand campaign
- Top tips for crafting a push notification strategy
- 3 tips on how to extend your Twitter reach
- Three ways to combine old fashioned ideas with modern marketing
- Three tips for marketing an event
- The best April Fool’s campaigns and how to use humour in marketing
- How to use real-time marketing
- Why marketing measurements matter, and which should you use?
- Single Customer View, and how you can implement it into your marketing strategy
- Why hyperlocal marketing is so much more than location
- Top tips for integrating guerrilla marketing into your strategy
- Why marketers should take control of online reviews
- 3 insights for marketing to women from the #thisgirlcan campaign
- Earned, Owned or Paid content? What are they and why should marketers use them?
- Debunking 3 of the biggest myths about creativity in marketing
- What are abandoned basket emails and how can marketers use them?
- Three ways to reach your target audience online
- Why you should be talking about Facebook Live
- What to watch in marketing and advertising in 2017
- The OTB round up of what mattered in marketing and advertising in 2016
- 3 innovative ways you can use data in marketing and advertising
- What is social listening and why is it important for marketing?
- Why marketers may have to work to rebuild consumer trust in Black Friday
- Why online and offline marketing should go hand in hand
- The Coca-Cola marketing effect; three lessons we can learn from the kings
- 3 ways to make YouTube work for your marketing strategy
- 3 takeaways from the Festival of Marketing 2016
- Top tips to make your marketing budget go further
- 3 tips for creating topical, seasonal marketing campaigns
- 3 marketing takeaways from the Olympics
- Being Human; 3 tips for making your marketing more human
- 3 marketing insights from the rise of Pokémon Go
- 7 ways to keep customer experience at the heart of your marketing strategy
- Going Native: three reasons marketers are embracing native advertising
- Three tips for using WhatsApp as a marketing tool
- OTB’s top three tips for boosting your email marketing strategy
- The Power of Words in Marketing
- Why marketers are eyeing up Periscope on its first birthday
- How Artificial Intelligence is gaining ground in marketing
- Why marketers should learn to love LinkedIn
- The right direction? The highs and lows of mapping your customer journey
- How sensory marketing is taking the world by storm
- Mobile marketing and the mistakes you mustn’t make
- An important milestone in advertising diversity
- The not-so-secret world of Snapchat advertising
- Yorkshire and Leeds: The home of marketing & advertising
- Conversion Marketing: How to convert your ‘almost customers’ into buyers
- What should your New Year’s social media marketing look like?
- Shoppable Marketing This Holiday Season
- The Internet of Things: a marketing revolution?
- Focusing on personalisation in digital marketing
- OTB’s top tips for effective market research
- Translating your marketing into customer loyalty
- How brands use music to make their marketing sing
- OTB’s marketing round-up as the rugby world cup kicks off
- What can marketers can learn from Jeremy Corbyn
- How the hashtag has influenced marketing
- All eyes on digital marketing: the results are in
- OTB takes a look at the world of food marketing
- The top tv marketing campaigns to get your creative juices flowing
- How the latest developments are revolutionising the marketing world
- The diversity and marketing question
- Why social responsibility is important in marketing
- How to keep your marketing and content relevant
- Our top tips for rebranding your business
- Bring some sunshine into your marketing campaign
- Information, the most valuable currency in Marketing
- OTB takes a look at our favourite marketing campaigns this Father’s Day
- How Brand Re-inventions Keep the Consumer Coming Back
- Don’t know which marketing agency to choose? Don’t fear, OTB is here
- The three C’s you should consider as you build your new marketing strategy
- How to unlock a winning integrated marketing strategy
- Top tips and tricks for a successful digital marketing campaign
- How to avoid a one size fit’s all policy when marketing your small business
- Social Media and the Spread of Viral Marketing
- A Mother’s Touch: Mother’s Day Marketing
- Women in marketing
- OTB takes a look at travel marketing
- Why innovation and marketing should go hand in hand
- Our favourite Valentines marketing campaigns of recent years
- Why Mobile Marketing looks set to dominate this year
- The New Year Marketing Campaigns Honours
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Chat to us →Recognition
Some of the awards and accreditations we’ve won along the way.
