Speci

The performance marketing era is over. What’s next? www.speci.news/a-new-market...

In a Stratechery interview a few weeks ago, Zuckerberg waxed lyrical about how Meta's basically going to replace marketing departments. It's sat with me since I listened to it because I think he's really wrong. #brand #marketing #meta #ai www.speci.news/meta-wants-t...

Two years after OpenAI popularised generative AI with ChatGPT, AI is still a solution in search of a problem. But we’re getting there! AI’s product market fit is coming. www.speci.news/whats-the-po...

Is advertising an output or a process? @rorysutherland.bsky.social thinks it's a process. But Mark Zuckerberg thinks it's an outcome. Who's right? www.speci.news/meta-wants-t...

Show the thing!

Apple should restart its live event tradition, even if that means less polish. www.speci.news/apple-loses-...

The story of Apple, Meta and AI last year. www.speci.news/2024s-year-i...

Cultural commentators will tell you there isn’t a monoculture anymore. I don’t think that’s true - I think internet culture is monoculture. But maybe there are a few monocultures? www.speci.news/welcome-to-t...

Okay, so Speci is a newsletter about how tech companies do brand… but back in November, I couldn’t resist writing this one. I adored the Waitrose Christmas ad. It absolutely nailed audience alignment and brand coding. So it’s one of the greats in my book. www.speci.news/sweet-suspic...

What can the history of machines tell us about the future of AI? www.speci.news/whats-the-po...

Where people see your creative is as important as the creative. Seeing a digital brand on a non-digital channel makes it feel way more legit (as the data in this post shows). mktg.substack.com/p/channel-mi...

Meta showed off a prototype that isn’t going to ship for a long time. Why? It’s all about positioning. They showed a working demo to the world and they became the company to beat in AR. www.speci.news/metas-orion-...

In November 2022, OpenAI, a research lab, released ChatGPT. This was the moment they became a consumer brand, but they didn’t know it yet. Here’s what they did over the last few years to grow ChatGPT, a research tool, into a consumer brand. www.speci.news/chatgpt-is-a...

Are dumb phones *really* taking off? I took one on a test drive (and ended up keeping it) 👇 www.speci.news/boox-palma/

THREE THINGS that the Ray Ban Meta smart glasses do, and what they tell us about how AI will actually drive augmented reality 👇 www.speci.news/two-weeks-wi...

September is iPhone season. Every year, Apple produces a highly polished marketing pitch, the main event being a Special Event, followed by websites and billboards and PR. 2024’s iPhone party was crashed by the promise of AI. www.speci.news/apple-event-...

In this week’s Speci, I pour one out for Meta’s brand managers. www.speci.news/meta-wrecks-...

2024 was the year tech got exciting again. As the mobile era saturates, new technologies like AI and spatial computing are starting to become mainstream. Here’s a look back at what happened in 2024, and what I’m excited about for 2025. www.speci.news/2024s-year-i...

Cultural commentators say that the monoculture is gone. I don’t think so. It’s just that internet culture is monoculture now. www.speci.news/welcome-to-t...

For marketers, balancing budgets is hard. Performance marketing is addictive, because you can see the impact immediately. Brand marketing is hard, because it’s essential, yet very tough to measure. Disney and Nike can teach us a lot about this difficult dance. www.speci.news/what-running...

How Apple shifted “mixed reality” to “spatial computing”. www.speci.news/apples-marke...

Back in July, I tried the Apple Vision Pro. It was the best thing I've ever put on my head. I returned it. www.speci.news/a-week-with-...

Today, the Apple Watch is known as a health and fitness device. But it didn’t start life that way. Ten years ago, Apple launched the Watch not as a fitness device… but as a fashion accessory. Here’s the story of how that changed. www.speci.news/apple-watch-...

Just over a year ago, EE unveiled its new brand strategy. At the time, I thought it was obviously taking a page from the Apple playbook. Here’s what they did. www.speci.news/everything-e...

Waitrose is winning Christmas. www.speci.news/sweet-suspic...

Brands can be worth billions. Twitter’s was its most valuable asset by far. They are also incredibly fragile. As Elon Musk demonstrated last year, they can be taken away in moments. www.speci.news/changing-twi...

Last April, a song by The Weeknd went viral. Except… it wasn’t by The Weeknd. www.speci.news/if-it-aint-d...

Lots of people have come over here recently, so let’s say hello again. Hello, I’m Jack 👋 I write things about how tech companies are building their brands. Also about how they’re destroying them. So this one from last year feels relevant today for some reason. www.speci.news/changing-twi...

There’s never been a better time to becoming the “starting point” of your category: the place a customer first looks on the internet. In the 2010s this was Google, in the 2020s it will be lots of different brands for different purposes. www.speci.news/everythings-...

How an ad for the world’s most recognisable fast food chain is… perhaps the perfect ad. www.speci.news/sorry-the-ne...