Ep 160: Are “AI Managers” A Reality For Brands In The Future? With Luke Hodgson, co founder of Commerce Thinking & High Cohesion
On this episode I’m talking about brand loyalty in a hyper personalised AI world with Emily Gray, Founding Partner of Untangld: an international Strategy Studio defining how businesses win.We get into what loyalty really means today, from communities and connection to the risk of over optimised personalisation, and why Emily believes true loyalty is earned through relevance, not reliance.We talk about the impact of AI on brand relationships, how to design for meaning instead of mechanics, and what marketers can learn from the likes of Starbucks, Elf and Rapha. Emily also shares how brand strategy needs to evolve in a world where customer expectations are fluid and attention is scarce.If you're thinking about retention, CRM or how your brand shows up in a world shaped by automation, this one is for you.This podcast is brought to you by our friends at Omnisend. Your email marketing platform shouldn’t send you on side quests just to get help. Omnisend’s 24/7 support is always here — real people, real answers, no hold music. So good, it’s boring! Try for free today.Checkout Factory here.Sign up to our newsletter here.
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Ep 72: Tom Rees, founder of Wiro Agency
We discuss the print services origins of Wiro, pivoting from a platform-agnostic model to Shopify only, his take on Commerce Components and why this additional enterprise layer is useful from a pricing perspective, the similarities of brand expectations and caution between COVID and now, using the current market volatility to their advantage when hiring, why partnerships with bigger agencies is a great growth initiative, why we need to enter a new era of hyper-realistic case studies and his go-to internal agency stack including Slack, ClickUp, Notion, Google Drive, Pipedrive, Quickbooks and Loom.
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Enjoy ✌️
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Ep 71: Tom & Tom, co-founders of Superco
We discuss building the Lizz Truss of Shopify apps, the advantages of being non-developer founders, approaching the agency business from a fist principles perspective, the keys to hiring great people, why the best partnerships are based on client needs not the best technical solution, the advantages of having a wide partner network including VCs and branding agencies, why adding quality to the conversations is the key to good personal branding, the advantages of a fully remote team and why working with your best mates is a good foundation for a successful business
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Enjoy ✌️
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Ep 70: Piers Thorogood, co-founder at We Make Websites
We discuss getting approached by an agency group in 2019 sparked the idea of an exit, how COVID derailed the exit plans, the key milestones of the Born deal; the initial conversation, due diligence and SPA negotiations, the advantages of having one person focusing on the deal, the importance of the business being able to run in parallel to the exit plan, the challenges of due diligence, specifically the difference in process between the target and acquirer, the lessons learned of not taking corporate finance advice, the inherent risk of a deal falling through and what he’d do differently if he did it all again.
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Enjoy ✌️
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Ep 69: Gavin Ballard, founder of Disco Labs and Submarine
I sit down with Gavin Ballard, founder of Disco Labs and Submarine.
We discuss how a love of Shopify led to the creation of Disco Labs, why they decided to pivot from an agency to a product, the challenges of process transition when pivoting, why being at the coal face of client issues helps with product development, Submarine’s GMT through their existing agency partner network, the importance of the developer experience and a revolutionary new paradigm in online retail; ‘flexible commerce’
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Offcuts is a podcast and newsletter about commerce, culture and AI.
We explore how brands grow in a changing landscape. From shifting consumer behaviour to the rise of AI in digital work. It is part founder’s perspective, part field notes from inside the industry.
We speak to founders, operators and technologists about what is working, what is changing and what is next. Expect sharp thinking, useful links and the occasional hot take.
All grounded in what is actually happening. Not just what is trending.
Brought to you by the team at Factory: https://www.factory-digital.com/
Ireland