Selfstorming Blog
Insights on advertising, creativity, marketing science and AI in Marketing.
Google Vids Go Free and Predict-to-Pitch AI Arrives: This Week in AI
Google Vids goes free, Selendis automates b-roll, and 42AI raises $62.5M to simulate consumer choices. A sober look at this week's AI marketing stack.
The Strategy Behind the Tears: The 5 Best John Lewis Christmas Ads
John Lewis built a festive monopoly by weaponising nostalgia, soft toys, and indie covers. Here is the strategy behind their iconic Christmas ads.
Why the 2026 Christmas Ad Season Finally Killed the Tearjerker
The 2026 Christmas ad playbook traded forced tears for physical craft and Norwegian cynicism. Here is why John Lewis lost its crown to Prada and VisitOSLO.
Vercel's marketing team runs on markdown files and a design system. So do we.
Vercel's CMO says the biggest thing his team built last year is a product marketing brain in markdown. It is a Brief Zero. Here is how Vercel uses it, how we run Selfstorming on one, and how to copy the setup without an engineering team.
Our new ebook finds the empty box in your strategy
Frameworks are proper strategy nerd stuff. I love them mostly for three practical reasons, which is why I built 50 Shapes of Strategy: a handbook, editable templates and a file for your AI.
Google's AI Ads Go Global and Reddit Locks the Doors: This Week in AI
Google expands AI Mode ads, Reddit locks out open-web crawlers, and DoorDash reveals the reality of agentic commerce. What this week's AI news means for your media mix.
Reach is a rate, not a number: why your market keeps forgetting you
Dale Harrison's case for reach primacy: 2x better creative can't beat 100x more reach, and because buyers forget constantly, reach has to be a rate, not a campaign total.
Hyper-targeting is paying more to ignore your future customers
Half of Coke buyers buy once or twice a year. Angela Voss on light buyers, frequency, the real cost of CTV and measuring TV with ten models instead of one.
Natural-Language Feeds and 10-Minute AI Video: What This Week's AI Moves Mean for Media Mix
Facebook turns feed control into natural-language prompts, ElevenLabs tackles audio production, and Anthropic maps agentic workflows for brand teams.
These 5 Golden Drum Winners Will Make You Laugh
When global ads bore people to death, these five Golden Drum winners used local quirks, fake mourners, and itchy cows to steal the show.
5 Golden Drum 2026 Winners That Solved Friction Instead of Buying Attention
Most award shows reward corporate vanity. Golden Drum 2026 picked campaigns that hacked WhatsApp, forged legal contracts, and built functional products.
Dull Is Expensive. Here Is What Entertaining Earns.
The Cost of Dull priced the waste. Entertain or Die 3.0 measures the other side: +39% memory lift, 2.8x image lift, 17 of the top 30 brands with double the preference, and awareness that buys you no fun at all.
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