This week, we laid out hordes of Humbugs* to catch the Bah-rilliant Bristol-based strategist and Paul Feldwick fan, Alex Murrell.

He is currently Strategy Director at brand agency Epoch. Supplying strategic simplicity to the world’s biggest FMCG brands.

Alex talks to us on tonnes of topics, including making the jump from graphic design to strategy, efficiency vs effectiveness, why an ad being expensive and ignored is a good thing, what the Superbowl and a peacock’s plumage have in common, Darwin, Derren Brown, the pitfalls of purpose, Eastern European dystopian fiction, and a whole lot more.

*The book, not the mint. But we have those too if you’d like one.

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Here’s Alex’s website

Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn

You’ve got to read his articles “Errors of Efficiency” and “The Pitfalls of Purpose”

Here’s a baby-faced Derren Brown tricking ad-people with adverts

Ads Don’t Work That Way by Kevin Simler

And listen to our #CTAPod chinwags with the ridiculously smart Prof. Karen Nelson Field and Paul Feldwick too

Timestamps

(01:50) - Quick fire questions

(03:00) - First job in graphic design

(10:10) - The jump from design to strategy

(15:50) - Efficiency versus effectiveness

(18:50) - Signalling

(23:30) - Error 1 - Mass media is wasteful because it is untargeted

(27:34) - Error 2 – Mass media is wasteful because it is ignored

(38:22) - Error 3 - Mass media is wasteful because it is expensive

(42:06) - Listener questions on brand purpose and favourite marketing book

(47:29) - 4 pertinent posers

Alex’s book recommendations are:

Anatomy of Humbug by Paul Feldwick

How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

The Trial by Franz Kafka

Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy

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