Unlocking profit through the power of emotion

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Hi Reader

Happy New Year! As 2025 begins, it’s a clean slate – full of promise, potential, and the last of the festive chocolates. This week’s newsletter dives into fresh ideas and trends to kickstart your year: from behavioural marketing insights to embracing grit (aka a growth mindset) as the secret sauce for success. Join me in shaking off that post-holiday torpor and charging into 2025 with curiosity, ambition and a readiness to turn challenges into opportunities.

Enjoy!

Demystifying marketing

If you’re looking for a practical and engaging guide to how iconic brands are built, then Unlocking Profitable Growth – a new free book from advertising effectiveness experts System1 – is just the ticket. Rigorously scientific yet easy-to-read and entertaining, it’s an insightful way to discover how people think and why they buy one brand over another. The chapter on innovation is particularly good – taking in everything from the doomed Sinclair C5 to the successful launch of a Stella Artois sub-brand (Cidre Raspberry, if you’re wondering). Check out the book here.

Gartner identifies ‘New Spartans’ trend

As austerity continues to bite for many of us (with middle-class shoppers wondering whether they’ll ever be able to swap back from Lidl to Waitrose), new Gartner research has revealed that thriftiness is being embraced as a lifestyle choice. The ‘New Spartans’ cohort cite their underconsumptive behaviour as a form of self-improvement, seeing fixing rather than buying new or using products longer rather than replacing as more than just a battle against inflation and cost-of-living challenges. Companies that lean into these goals could see greater connection with their customers.

Do you support side hustles?

The rise of the side hustle has become a thorny problem for many employers. On one hand, it’s great to support a staff member with the ambition and drive to do something that benefits them financially and emotionally. On the other, bosses could be concerned that the management of that additional responsibility might be done on work time. Now, a new poll has revealed that almost all US employees have some form of side hustle, with 41% of them working on those projects during company hours. Personally, I’m in favour of employees having extra commitments, providing they don’t lose focus. Where do you stand on the side hustle conundrum?

The secret Ingredient to success: grit

In a compelling TED Talk, psychologist Angela Duckworth recounts her journey from teaching schoolchildren to studying what drives success. Through research spanning West Point cadets, National Spelling Bee champions and rookie teachers, one common factor stood out: grit. Defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals, grit consistently predicted who would thrive in challenging environments. Duckworth’s findings challenge conventional wisdom that IQ or talent alone ensures success. Instead, she highlights the importance of a growth mindset as a promising strategy to nurture grit. Duckworth emphasises the need for relentless experimentation and persistence – an approach that’s as gritty as the quality it seeks to build. Explore the full talk here.

Planning 2025 content just got easier

Your marketing team will thank you for sharing this 2025 events calendar, compiled by ad strategist Sean Choi. The handy Google doc contains a list of other 1000 international events as well as holidays, observances and even famous births and deaths. If you’re stuck for ideas for your social media content, this could prove to be very useful. Check it out here.

Thriving amid uncertainty: six strategies for entrepreneurs

Embracing uncertainty in business isn’t just a necessity – it’s a skill. This Forbes article outlines six actionable strategies to help entrepreneurs stay agile and proactive, from fostering a mindset of adaptability to leveraging data for informed decision-making. Whether it’s about building a strong support network or learning to reframe challenges as opportunities, these insights offer a practical guide to navigating the unknown with confidence. If you’re steering your business through choppy waters – as many of us are these days – this is essential reading.

Turning CAPTCHA from frustrating to fun

Verifying that we’re not robots, to robots, is one of the more annoying niggles of modern life. From clicking all the squares in a grid containing bicycles to identifying fruit, it’s a dull security format that was ripe for disruption. That’s why this DOOM-themed CAPTCHA is such a delight, taking a classic first-person shooter game and turning it into a bot-detector that challenges you to kill at least three monsters before you’re allowed to continue. TechCrunch has the story here.

Why vertical AI agents could eclipse SaaS

On the Lightcone Podcast, hosted by senior figures at Y Combinator, a fascinating idea is explored: vertical AI agents. Unlike SaaS, which offers general-purpose tools across industries, vertical AI focuses on deeply specialised solutions for specific sectors like healthcare, law or finance. These agents don’t just automate tasks – they master entire workflows, creating immense value. The hosts argue that this specialisation has the potential to make vertical AI agents 10x bigger than SaaS, offering a glimpse into the future of AI-driven innovation. That said, it’s one which they admit could see whole departments – such as QA – become unnecessary. Watch the episode here.​

The funding journey explained

Launching a business in 2025? This guide lay out a clear map of the investment odyssey that you’re embarking on. To all my fellow founders out there – I hope you can your turn your big ideas into reality!

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Drop me a line

That’s all for the first edition of 2025. I hope these stories have sparked ideas, ignited curiosity or at least given you a fresh perspective to carry into the year ahead. If you’ve come across any trends, insights or just a great story that deserves a spotlight, let me know – I’d love to feature it. Until next week, here’s to thriving, innovating and maybe even conquering a DOOM-themed CAPTCHA or two.

Cheers!
Adam

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