Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Communication Strategy, Community, Complicity, Conformity, Consultants, Crap Campaigns In History, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Customer Service, Management, Marketing Fail, Planes, Planning, Reputation, Research, Resonance, Respect
Way back in 2006 I wrote a post about what exclusivity means.
Not the marketing version of it … but what the people who can afford to have it, really want and expect from it.
The reality is this group of people don’t care about showing – or sharing – their success with the masses. They don’t have any desire to be ‘aspirational’. In fact what they want couldn’t be more different – because all they really seek is to keep the masses as far away from them as is physically possible.
I entitled the post, FUCK YOU MONEY, but really it should have been called FUCK OFF MONEY … because that’s the spirit that defines exclusivity to them. The ability to live in a world where the only people around them are equal people.
Or said another way, they like to practice economic racism.
It’s part of the reason LVMH lost cache in China when they opened stores in lower-tier cities.
It’s part of the reason Bentley lost long-term customers when they became the car-of-choice for rappers.
And it’s part of the reason why Air New Zealand have scored a massive own goal with their most valuable customers with this billboard rolling out all across NZ.
For those who don’t know what Koru is … it’s Air New Zealand’s new Frequent Flyer Program and Koru Black is their highest tier.
To be fair to Air NZ, Koru is genuinely one of the best frequent flyer programs of any airline in the World … so with that in mind, I get why they think offering the public the opportunity to get more points to get closer to ‘black status’ is appealing.
However, it isn’t for the fuckers who already have achieved that status.
For them, they’ll not only see it as Air NZ allowing more people to be part of their club’, they’ll see it as Air NZ allowing ‘lesser people’ to be part of it given they ‘won’ their place via a promotion rather than ‘earned the right to be there’ as they will no doubt tell themselves they achieved
Is that bollocks?
Sure, but that doesn’t mean they don’t think it, which is why one of the best bits of airline research I’ve ever read was when the wonderful David Lin – who worked for me at Wieden, and is now Mr Important at Apple – told me that ‘business class was the politest way to say ‘fuck off’ to everyone who always wanted their time or attention.
But there’s more …
Because added to this is the fact many Koru Black members feel annoyed they already have to share ‘their’ airport lounge facilities with people from other airlines who happen to hold a business class ticket – which results in situations where there’s no seats available to rest in – and you start to think Air NZ may not understand their top customers as much as they may like to think they do.
What makes it worse is that it would have been so easy to discover …
The main one being just sit in the airport lounge and listen to the conversations when it’s full.
But it seems they didn’t. Or haven’t. Because what else would explain their disastrous decision to set all ‘black tier’ customers frequent flyer points to zero when they launched Koru.
Sure, they did a u-turn on when they discovered how angry it had made customers … but they still did it, which not only undermined their launch, but left customer with a horrible taste in their mouth they’ll remember for a long time.
I mean, you’d think it would be obvious to not do that, but apparently it wasn’t – which not only suggests Air NZ put their faith in the wrong research and creative partners – not to mention are incapable of evaluating standards with an objective, global perspective – it highlights how you can have all the data in the world, but if you don’t look for, or understand, the fucked-up, hypocritical truth of your customers, you’ve got nothing.
Also see every research company who announced with the upmost confidence that Trump wasn’t going to win the Presidency in his first term … either because they were arrogant, blinkered or simply failed to understand people rarely tell you what they think, instead they tell you what they think will protect them from revealing what they really believe.
Oh my god, we’re in June.
JUNE!!! What the fuck?
June has always been a very significant month for me …
Not simply because it’s the official half way point of the year.
Not simply because it’s the month the ad industry gets to pretend it’s the 80’s at Cannes.
But because it’s my birthday, Jill’s birthday and Paul’s birthday …
But this June is something more, it’s the start of the World Cup – and while that excites me – it also makes me feel a bit sick because I’m seeing Trump and FIFA actively change it from being ‘the World game’ to ‘the rich persons game’.
That said, Trump and FIFA are made for each other.
Self-interested, money-hungry, egotists who will gaslight, exploit and lie on a whim.
Where the approach to ‘reputation management’ is to cause drama so people are distracted from the issues they want to hide.
Which leads to this …
Saw this couple near the Colenso offices recently.
For fucks sake …
Don’t get me wrong, being an increasingly cashless society has some major implications.
It makes the banks and card companies richer.
It makes the poor and needy, even more vulnerable.
But we’re now in an age where if there’s anything we don’t like or don’t agree with, we decide it’s all part of some evil conspiracy … and even if that was true – which it isn’t – we are still choosing to ignore the stuff we should be demanding be explored or investigated.
+ Forest getting into Europa versus Man City’s 115 charges.
+ US Airport delays versus Trump and his Epstien connections.
+ AI Data Centre costs versus Zuck putting spy software on all Meta computers.
+ Cashless society versus the collapse of the NZ economy.
Which highlights that Trump may be evil, but he’s smart. Because not only does he know his audience better than research companies – even with all their data sets and models – he also knows people like to complain but rarely do much about it.
Maybe that’s why his approach is influencing more than just American politics – but management practice and Linkedin preaching.
And while we may like to think we’re smart enough to ignore it, the reality is we haven’t been smart enough to push back against it.
So let’s hope the back half of ’26 is better than the front.
[Especially in terms of birthday gifts I get on June 12th, hahaha]
Today is a public holiday in NZ.
To celebrate ‘King Charles’ birthday’.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
As much as I’m not a massive royalist, I have more time for Charles than I do for a lot of them.
Even more so now I get a long weekend because of him.
So happy birthday Chaz, very kind of you to give us the present.
I think I’ll have sausages for my tea in your honour.
See you tomorrow.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Comment, Effectiveness, Food, Happiness, Health
Once upon a time, I was very athletic.
I played rugby for the school.
I was one of the fastest 100m runners in the county.
I played football with my mates every single night of the week.
I loved everything, and then – aged 21 – I got a detached retina and everything changed.
The seriousness and fragility of my eye meant anything that could cause trauma was off limits – so apart from not being allowed to do any sport, I wasn’t even allowed to lift anything heavy … and so very quickly, I went from active life, to sedentary life.
Unsurprisingly – yet ironically – the impact of this shift meant that while my eye was OK, the rest of me wasn’t.
And this was my normal for over 30 years.
That doesn’t mean I was happy with what was happening, I wasn’t. In fact, in my darkest days, I really hated it. I hated me.
Who I was. How I looked. How I felt.
And what made things worse was I didn’t know how I could change it.
My eye was still fragile. My work was full-on. And food was one of the only things that gave me momentary joy.
But – as I have documented in the past – things changed 2 years ago when I was convinced to eat well for 3 months.
What’s hilarious is this was not because of my weight, but something else entirely … but something inside of me clicked, and I mentally chose to do it, rather than argue against it.
One of the biggest surprises was how much I relied on food to manage stress. You’d think that would have been obvious but it wasn’t. I remember how one of the things I did was go for a walk every time I found myself going to the fridge outside of breakfast, lunch or dinner.
So I walked a lot.
A hell of a lot.
So much so that it not only was the biggest contributor to me getting healthy again – arguably, healthier than I ever have been – but it got me falling in love with walking and now, running.
That image at the top of the page is a perfect example of that. It is my December result.
That’s right, I walked over 750,000 steps. Over 550 kms.
For someone who used to complain about walking the bin up his drive, that’s pretty amazing.
But then, it was December as I’ve detailed many a time … NZ festive season holidays are brilliantly long.
However, just to prove that was not a fluke, here’s the results of last week.
Yep, proportionally, I walked more than when I was on holiday!
How?
Well, let’s just say I have a lot of walking meetings …
Plus, the more I walk, the more I can eat the bad stuff I bloody love, haha.
But this is just to say, if exercise freaks you out, start with walking … doesn’t matter how far you go … because as long as you do a little bit each day, you’ll not just seamlessly improve on what you can do, but also who you are and who you can become.
Not because weight defines that, but feeling a bit healthier does.
Happy to chat to anyone who wants help with it.
Probably while I’m out walking.
Filed under: 2026, Comment, Football, Loyalty, Nottingham, Nottingham Forest, Sport, World Cup
The football season is over …
I should be happy because not only did Forest get to the semi-finals of the Europa Cup, they will be in the Premiership next year … their 5th consecutive year in the top flight, which is their longest period since the Premiership began, way back in 1992.
Add to this the impending World Cup and I should be basking in football delight.
But I’m not. If anything, I’m suffering from PTSD.
Yes, I appreciate to use a term like that could be deemed disrespectful to those who have truly suffered – but it genuinely is how I feel thanks to the mental and emotional impact Forest’s season has had on me and the disgusting way FIFA are approaching the World Cup in the US.
Now you can say this is ridiculous. And on one hand I’d agree with you. But while nothing surprises me in the behavior of FIFA – and the US government – Forest has been a deep part of my life for pretty much all my life and while it may appear to have been a positive season, it’s been anything but.
Put simply, this season has been a shitshow.
The sacking of a beloved manager.
Followed by the appointment of 2 disastrous choices.
Resulting in us needing to hire a 4th manager for the season. FOUR!!!
Which led to the constant mocking of the team, owner and management by media and opposition fans.
A season of almost unprecedented underperformance.
Endless unnecessary, self-destructive decisions that caused pain on and off the field.
The constant, realistic pressure and threat of relegation.
The tragedy of seeing players suffer injury and – in Elliott Anderson’s case – personal loss.
In fact, if it wasn’t for basically the last 6 weeks of the season, it could have been one of the worst seasons in the clubs entire history.
What made it even more worse is that after 3 seasons of fighting for our lives to stay in the Premiership, we had an unbelievably successful season last year – resulting in us getting into Europe for the first time in 43 years.
FORTY THREE!!!
This filled the fandom with excitement and dreams … the belief this was the start of a new era for the club, one filled with the sort of nights and memories that previous generations never got to experience but heard about from fans who were there for Forest’s magical run from the late 70’s to the late 80’s.
But instead, we faced a torrent of turmoil and the impact – mentally – has been huge on me. And no doubt countless others.
Is that ridiculous?
Of course it is … especially for me, given I have such a charmed life by all accounts.
However, the old Liverpool manager – Bill Shankley – once perfectly captured the impact a team can have on a fan when he said: “Football isn’t a matter of life and death. It’s more important than that”.
Now I’m not saying Forest are more important than my family, but it is far to say they feel like an extension of my family.
Over half a century they have helped define who I am and where I’m from.
They’ve forged memories and moments that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
They’ve created friendships and connections that are truly significant to me.
They’ve made me feel proud of the city I was born in and the team I support.
They’ve shaped my identity, values and beliefs about how the World game should be played.
Huge and important things and in return, I’ve given them time, commitment, money and belief.
I’ve stuck with them through the darkest of times.
I’ve celebrated them in the moments of glory.
I’ve travelled ridiculous distances to show my support.
I’ve got up in the middle of the night and early in the day to see them.
I’ve endured rain, sleet and snow to watch them get thrashed by lesser opposition
I’ve backed them, defended them and protected them when faced with unfairness or ridicule.
I’ve never wavered, even when they’ve tested my patience to the extreme.
It’s why I don’t ‘support’ Nottingham Forest, I am a member of them.
Admittedly not on the pitch, but definitely in terms of my thoughts, choices and considerations … which is why seeing them do so badly for so much of this past season, was like watching a loved one go through major illness. Where you’re there for them, but you wish you weren’t.
Not because you don’t care, but because you do.
Too much.
So there every moment of pain and discomfort destroys you with a similar ferocity.
Yes, I appreciate most of the players don’t come from Nottingham.
Yes, I appreciate all the players earn more than I could ever imagine.
Yes, I appreciate most of the team would move without hesitation in certain circumstances.
But while they play for my club, they are my family.
It’s why when they were going through their constant run of losses, it started to harm me.
Changed my mood.
Impacted how I behaved.
Affected how I was feeling
It’s also why, when they found their spirit – even if they lost the game – I experienced feelings of hope that were completely disproportionate to the reality of the situation.
Because when you support a team, the reality is it gets conflated with who you think you are.
Or hope to be.
Your hopes, dreams, ambitions and possibilities.
So, when they fail, you feel you’re failed too.
In terms of who you are, who you can become and who you give your time, love and support and time.
It’s a level of attachment that – if it was with a human – would be deemed as highly problematic.
Which helps explains why – despite the club taking a massive step backwards over the previous season – Forest fans are incredibly happy we will be in the top tier for another year.
Not simply because we love Forest, but because it means our ‘fan delusion’ can continue for another season too. Where all the hopes, dreams ambitions and possibilities we have for the club’s future represent the hopes, dreams, ambitions and possibilities we have for our own future too.
Because sometimes, it’s less about achieving our goals as much as it is knowing they haven’t been erased.
As they say, ‘it’s the hope that kills you’ … but it is also what keeps you coming back.