Turning 50: what nearly 30 years in marketing has taught me

A slightly nostalgic look back at the moments that sparked my love of marketing, from BA tailfins to “email on the move”

With a big birthday coming up, I’ve found myself looking back at where my fascination with marketing really started.

Perhaps turning 50 does that to you. Or perhaps it is because marketing itself is changing so quickly again, with AI, search and content all shifting under our feet. Either way, it has made me think about the moments that first made me realise this was the career I wanted to pursue.

One of the earliest was during a placement at British Airways.

I was there when BA unveiled its controversial new brand identity and tailfin redesign. What fascinated me was not just the design itself, but the public reaction to it. People really cared. They had strong opinions. They felt something had been changed that belonged, in some way, to them.

I later wrote my dissertation on it, with the title: “Is it really more than a paint job?”

And of course, it was.

That experience sparked my interest in branding. It showed me very early on that brands are emotional. They are not just logos, colours or clever campaigns. They carry memory, loyalty, pride, expectation and trust.

What I learnt from mystery shopping

Around the same time, I was also involved in mystery shopper research for BA.

This meant travelling on up to ten flights a day around the UK, acting as an undercover customer. Staff did not know who I was. I would observe the experience, spot what worked and what did not, take discreet photos on a tiny disposable camera and report my findings back internally.

It sounds quite glamorous. In reality, it involved a lot of airports, a lot of notes and probably far too many sandwiches.

But I loved it.

Long before analytics dashboards, heatmaps and AI-generated reports, I was learning how much you can understand by simply watching customers properly.

Where did people get confused? What made the experience easier? What details shaped how they felt about the brand? Where were the gaps between what the business thought was happening and what customers were actually experiencing?

Those questions have stayed with me.

The lesson I still come back to

That early experience taught me that good marketing starts with understanding people.

Not guessing. Not assuming. Not jumping straight to a campaign because everyone feels they “should be doing more marketing”.

Properly understanding.

For many small and medium-sized businesses, this stage is easy to skip. There is always pressure to get something out there: a new website, a LinkedIn campaign, a brochure, an email, an advert.

But without the thinking behind it, marketing can quickly become busy rather than useful.

That is probably why I still spend so much time asking questions before recommending anything. Who are you trying to reach? What do they care about? What do they already think about you? Where does the sales process get stuck? What are customers actually experiencing?

The answers are not always where people expect them to be.

From fax machines to BlackBerry launches

It is easy to forget how much marketing has changed.

When I started out, fax machines were still part of office life. Campaigns took months to plan. CD-ROMs were considered exciting. I remember working on staff enablement tools for Shell Europe on CD-ROM, which at the time felt very innovative.  

Marketing felt slower then. Campaigns had longer lead times, there was more time to think, plan and test ideas properly before everything went live.

Now, of course, you mention a CD-ROM and half the room looks blank.

Later, agency-side, I worked on the O2 BlackBerry launch to SMEs and corporates. The campaign was called “The desk is dead”, which says everything about the excitement around it at the time.

“Email on the move” felt genuinely transformational. The idea that you could respond to emails away from your desk changed expectations around work almost overnight.

Looking back now, it is interesting how every major technology shift feels both exciting and slightly unsettling at first.

The same is true of AI today. The tools are different, but the pattern is familiar. Something new arrives, everyone tries to work out what it means, and businesses feel pressure to respond quickly.

But the basics still matter.

Clear thinking. Clear positioning. Knowing your audience. Communicating in a way people understand. Building trust over time. The technology changes. The need for judgement does not.

Seeing marketing from both sides

After those early experiences, I went on to work agency-side, client-side, in a start-up and eventually for myself.

That mix has probably shaped my approach more than anything.

Agency life taught me pace, discipline and delivery. I started as a junior account executive in the West End and learned from some brilliant people who taught me how to manage clients, handle pressure and get things done properly.

Client-side experience gave me a different perspective. It showed me the internal pressures businesses face, the challenge of getting buy-in, the need to balance ambition with budget, and the reality that marketing rarely happens in isolation.

Then came the start-up world, where plans have to be practical because there is nowhere to hide. You quickly learn what matters, what is noise and what actually helps move a business forward.

All of that feeds into how I work now.

What has stayed the same?

Nearly 30 years in marketing has taught me that the most useful lessons are often the simplest.

• People want to feel understood

• Customers notice when a business is clear, consistent and easy to deal with

• A brand is shaped as much by experience as by design

• Research saves time in the long run

• Marketing works best when it is connected to the real commercial goals of the business

  
  

These are not new ideas. They are just very easy to lose sight of when the next platform, tool or trend appears.

Still fascinated by it

When I think back to that British Airways placement, the mystery shopping flights, the tailfin debate, the BlackBerry launch and even the CD-ROMs, what stands out most is not the technology or the campaigns themselves.

It is the people.

The way customers behave. The way businesses communicate. The way brands build meaning over time. The way small changes in experience can completely alter perception.

That is what first drew me into marketing, and it is what still keeps me interested now.

So, turning 50 has made me a little reflective. But mostly, it has reminded me that I still find marketing just as fascinating as I did at the start.

Looking back has reminded me how much the fundamentals of marketing still matter, even as the tools keep changing.

Clear thinking. Understanding people properly. Building trust. Communicating well.

Nearly 30 years later, those things still sit at the heart of good marketing. And that is still the approach I bring to the businesses I work with today.

If any of this resonates with where your business is right now, I’m always happy to have a conversation.