Alex Steer

Better communication through data / about / archive

The need for speed in AI ethics 27/05/2023

Language models, truth and logic 05/02/2023

‘Brand’ vs ‘activation’ advertising: a matter of timing 05/02/2023

No, you shouldn’t cut your marketing budget to help with the cost of living crisis 17/09/2022

Ethics and opportunity in a world without third-party cookies 27/01/2022

Predicting the future of advertising: hits and misses 09/08/2020

The media agency of the future will have no boundaries 21/06/2020

Machine learning needs people knowledge 30/07/2019

When they go deep, we go wide: Why almost everyone is getting marketing science wrong 04/01/2019

Nets, spears and dynamite 27/10/2018

Sustained vs temporary advantage 02/07/2018

Use data as a pogo stick, not a crutch 26/06/2018

Algorithms will not kill brands. Really. 05/01/2018

False optimisation 22/10/2017

From data science to marketing science 11/11/2016

Why the pound is down: a crash course in machine learning 08/10/2016

Facebook video metrics, and why platforms shouldn't mark their own homework 24/09/2016

YouTube vs TV: where should advertisers stand in the 'battle of the boxes'? 27/04/2016

Saying no to marketing tech's Project Fear 01/04/2016

The dangers of data dependency 12/02/2016

Buzz and effectiveness 07/02/2016

Ad-blocking comes from a measurement problem 19/09/2015

The M&C Saatchi advertising equation 26/08/2015

Lift Points: A currency for effective impressions 11/08/2015

From engines to engineering 05/08/2015

Designing for 'maybe' 05/08/2015

To graduates: Why I work in advertising 06/06/2015

Measurement and confidence 20/03/2015

Goodbye Fabric, hello... 08/03/2015

Something sensible about the internet of things 17/02/2015

Philosophers vs Ad Men 16/02/2015

Brands, self-delusion and the internet 06/02/2015

Saying yes with data 30/01/2015

Why do brands want to be loved so much? 24/01/2015

Theoretical languages and practical flaws 19/01/2015

The Times Unquiet Film Series 15/01/2015

Children's dictionaries are a lesson for us all 13/01/2015

Products: be amazing or be unfinished 10/01/2015

Why standards beat processes 10/01/2015

Practise what you tweet 03/12/2014

Black boxes 02/12/2014

Making money on the Hype Cycle 11/08/2014

How to use Twitter's new 'impressions' metrics 18/07/2014

What planning is for 18/06/2014

Fun with funnels 18/06/2014

The ROI error in social media 16/06/2014

Finding business models in big data 15/06/2014

De-cloaking 14/06/2014

Revisiting the future of social networks 07/04/2014

Using real-time data in a crisis 07/02/2014

Making ad retargeting less annoying 02/01/2014

Plug: Multichannel Marketing Ecosystems 31/12/2013

Why teens are leaving Facebook (it's not privacy) 10/11/2013

Why is no-one talking about reach on Twitter? 06/11/2013

We need to earn data 05/11/2013

WPP Marketing Fellowship: Advice for applicants 04/11/2013

Big data has an advertising problem 04/11/2013

Three ways to be fearless with big data 29/10/2013

What the Publicis/Omnicom merger means for big data 28/07/2013

Can buying feel more like making? 13/07/2013

Vine, Instagram and fake digital trends 29/06/2013

'Big data' in 1980 22/06/2013

Less than you assume, more than you imagine: Futureproofing online privacy 21/06/2013

The 'fallacy' fallacy 20/06/2013

Internet Explorer: makes ads about Do Not Track; tracks you on its website 16/06/2013

Big data and small ambitions 15/06/2013

How the Guardian reads the Daily Mail 27/05/2013

Microsoft: Work From Here. Until you drop. 14/04/2013

Traders, guardians and big data 14/04/2013

Startup strategy and 'framing contests' 13/04/2013

Predicting the future of advertising: Do the futurists beat the pundits? 03/04/2013

Why tech companies are killing agencies, and vice versa 23/02/2013

Are we underselling big data? 28/01/2013

Fabric + KFC: Cristal gold for best use of data 19/12/2012

2013 marketing predictions - the list of lists 14/12/2012

The Amazon Kindle Fire ad - what I liked, what I didn't 23/10/2012

Recording trends in social media 30/09/2012

Advertising ROI - be careful what you wish for 25/09/2012

Agile planning - good things, bad things 21/07/2012

Information, speed and privacy 02/07/2012

The best advice you can give in marketing: 'It depends' 21/06/2012

Giving away your data: Just say no 11/06/2012

Data and radicalism in advertising 08/05/2012

No, Facebook isn't making us lonely 01/05/2012

What's really changing in the publishing wars 30/04/2012

Awkward questions for digital marketing companies 29/04/2012

Are Facebook 'likes' speech? 29/04/2012

Sunshine 15/04/2012

Wallpaper advertising 15/04/2012

The Titanic, risk and uncertainty 15/04/2012

Time to take privacy seriously - part 2 21/03/2012

Time to take privacy seriously - part 1 11/03/2012

The dangers of content marketing 08/03/2012

The future of social networking - whitepaper 25/02/2012

Activism Programming Interfaces 21/02/2012

The future of social networks - six pivot points 01/08/2011

Female artists and drug-related deaths: the numbers 24/07/2011

Why the Republicans are getting their strategy wrong 23/07/2011

Content-sharing, medieval and modern 17/07/2011

Facebook 'likes' and dubious approval 17/07/2011

Bad theory in advertising 15/07/2011

Brands and the order fetish 11/06/2011

Planning under uncertainty 09/06/2011

The problem with consumer confidence 01/06/2011

The cloud without the silver lining 22/05/2011

Splitting the future of libraries into two 13/03/2011

Social media disaster response, 1906-style 11/03/2011

Switched-off futures - two quick thoughts 11/03/2011

From script to print to ebook and back 09/03/2011

Kindles, iPads, and medieval readers 08/03/2011

The future of (the idea of) the book 06/02/2011

The internet, criticism and the culture wars 03/02/2011

Media and revolutions: Microscopes and megaphones 02/02/2011

Getting economic history wrong with Google NGrams 14/01/2011

Predicting the new annoying for 2011 05/01/2011

Taking TV seriously 04/01/2011

Releasing advertising into the wild 13/12/2010

Squeezing out originality on Facebook 06/12/2010

Permanent brokenness: stray thoughts on wikis and leaks 30/11/2010

Long, thin advertising 18/11/2010

A wave of the hand 17/11/2010

Interesting now 08/11/2010

The Godwinometer - measuring crazy Hitler references in real time 06/11/2010

Goodbye wristwatch, hello wrist 05/11/2010

Life's for sharing, TV channels aren't 31/10/2010

Yesterday's brand new is today's brilliant 29/10/2010

The massive importance of absolutely everything 27/10/2010

Digital marketing like it's 1996 19/10/2010

Spambulation 17/10/2010

Getting medieval on your internet 14/10/2010

We're all wrong, the Gap logo is fantastic 13/10/2010

Asking last year's questions 06/10/2010

Brands, love and trust in new markets 16/09/2010

Make your own ads 16/09/2010

Advice for WPP Marketing Fellowship applicants 13/09/2010

Not the end of ownership 07/09/2010

Two planners with eleven hours to kill 05/09/2010

Undiscovered public knowledge 31/08/2010

My stats are completely broken 27/08/2010

Just get it 27/08/2010

Tribal networking and the Online Clearances 25/08/2010

Brand language by accident 20/08/2010

Chasing lions 17/08/2010

Good materialism and online craft 03/08/2010

You either love it or... that's it 03/08/2010

Cross my palm with data 30/07/2010

Nee-argh, nee-argh, nzzzt 29/07/2010

Haptic things and the post-signal world 29/07/2010

Facebook and the new errors of judgment 29/07/2010

Good, more advice on social media 28/07/2010

Monks and hypertext 28/07/2010

If Facebook were a country... 27/07/2010

Predictive crime analytics, Victorian style 27/07/2010

Your friends are round the corner reading this post 27/07/2010

Coffee and elbow grease: social responsibility wins in social media 26/07/2010

You'll never beat the internet again 26/07/2010

Marx's coat and the future of media 26/07/2010

Social media: facts are not advice 23/07/2010

Wikileaks and funding for the future 15/07/2010

New consumers, new rules: branding the World Cup 03/07/2010

Treat social media like crisis PR (not media) 24/06/2010

Brand clarity and better listening 22/06/2010

Word of mouth and relevant buying factors 16/05/2010

Volcanoes and the slow world 16/05/2010

Everyone needs a really boring hobby 16/05/2010

PowerPoint-bashing 16/05/2010

Using linguistics to debate ethics 16/05/2010

A few from the last few weeks 16/05/2010

Search and economy 16/05/2010

Electioneering up the garden path 13/04/2010

Nestlé, Greenpeace, trends and impact 19/03/2010

Nestlé, Facebook and tone of voice 19/03/2010

Conversation analysis by iPhone 19/03/2010

St Patrick and the prescriptivists 18/03/2010

All for the love of Marmite (and Latin) 08/03/2010

The Dictionary of Change 25/02/2010

iPads, iPods and consumer phonology 28/01/2010

The Long Give 18/01/2010

Tweeting the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 07/01/2010

Books and communities in the making 06/01/2010

Obama and the word terrorism 05/01/2010

The evolution of reading 29/12/2009

Sausages and statuses 23/12/2009

Rage Against Social Media 20/12/2009

From semantic webs to thesaurus worlds 18/12/2009

Climate and other gates 15/12/2009

Posting lions to Twitter 10/12/2009

A note on ‘heatist’ 09/12/2009

How dead is everything? 03/12/2009

Turn down the noise, turn up the silence 01/12/2009

Ole, Allah and all 30/11/2009

The Inquiry enquires 27/11/2009

When do people start planning for Thanksgiving? 27/11/2009

Climategate and speech communities 26/11/2009

A wordcrunching manifesto 25/11/2009

Online giving sites: why cheaper isn’t always better 12/10/2009

Reaching for the moon again 06/10/2009

Risk and asymmetric metrics 20/09/2009

Why Seth Godin is wrong (and why he isn't) 17/09/2009

The way brands talk 13/09/2009

Public knowledge about things you don't know 02/09/2009

Wikipedia: growing up, not getting old? 17/08/2009

29% more boring stories about your gap year 07/08/2009

Plummeting to the mean 04/08/2009

Guardian fails on Sats reporting 04/08/2009

Bad news: your dictionaries are worthless 31/07/2009

Fair access to the professions 23/07/2009

Weak signals about mobile technology 21/07/2009

If you are dead, press 1 20/07/2009

Pret makes things out of people 20/07/2009

If it contains numbers, it must be an insight 17/07/2009

A license to teach is not empowering 30/06/2009

Looking for examples of language use trends 30/06/2009

Just because you read it on a blog doesn't mean it's not rubbish 25/06/2009

Content, kings and civil social media 21/06/2009

Avocados and other unlikely claims 15/06/2009

In Praise of Prose 14/06/2009

Predicting earthquakes the easy way: the what, not the when 22/05/2009

Why fakecharities.org is wrong about charities 16/05/2009

Using a sledgehammer to find a knife 30/04/2009

Funders as think tanks 28/04/2009

When pigs flu: the social life of pandemics 28/04/2009

Who invented 'twitter'? 14/03/2009

I before E except in DCSF 11/02/2009

It's the size that counts, not what you do with it 30/01/2009

Why optional zero tolerance doesn't work 29/01/2009

Stronger, better, righter, worse 27/01/2009

Freerunning from the law 26/01/2009

Next up, crowdsourcing for brain surgery 24/01/2009

Pocket-vacuuming for charities 23/01/2009

The end of civilization in 6,000 words 22/01/2009

How not to improve social mobility 22/01/2009

The story behind the headline (isn't as good) 22/01/2009

The promised land again 05/11/2008

The articulation of your differences 17/10/2008

Nobody's guide to linguistic marketing 30/09/2008

Learning linguistics with Dizzee Rascal 13/08/2008

The plausibility effect; or, if it sounds true, it must be true 28/07/2008

Scottish dictionaries need money 14/07/2008

We do love dummy verbs. We are loving them right now. 09/07/2008

Another slice of dictionary, Mr Shakespeare? 01/07/2008

Notes on work in progress 26/06/2008

We're always going forward 'cos we cannot find reverse... 22/06/2008

Allo, Mary Poppins... 26/03/2008

Ing-ing 25/03/2008

Fun with unbalanced corpora 18/03/2008

OED update 14/03/2008

Errours endlesse traine 14/03/2008

You've been facewhacked 06/03/2008

Sleevefacing 06/03/2008

Not as funny as it used to be 29/02/2008