Tom
@tomdarlington.bsky.social
Advertising, media and marketing. Writing.
I write a newsletter about Comms Planning: Ideaswelove.substack.com
And I write about other things here: tomdarlington.co.uk/blog
I write a newsletter about Comms Planning: Ideaswelove.substack.com
And I write about other things here: tomdarlington.co.uk/blog
I’ve voted for yourself
October 10, 2025 at 8:33 PM
I’ve voted for yourself
my efforts to continue with the #weeknotes survive, barely...on 'doing the boring thing', writing for the IPA and details of various forms of content consumption www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/do-the-...
Do the Boring Thing: Weeknotes #39 — Tom Darlington
Not quite weeknotes, but ‘fortnight notes’ instead. Last weekend I went down to wales to play golf with some friends, so my ability to write and conclude the notes from my week was hamstrung. Post wee...
www.tomdarlington.co.uk
October 6, 2025 at 6:37 AM
my efforts to continue with the #weeknotes survive, barely...on 'doing the boring thing', writing for the IPA and details of various forms of content consumption www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/do-the-...
Slowly trying to get back into the weeknote habit...
This week a request to do a presentation results in the conclusion that no one - least of all people in marketing - really knows anything.....
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/no-one-...
This week a request to do a presentation results in the conclusion that no one - least of all people in marketing - really knows anything.....
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/no-one-...
No One Knows Anything: Weeknotes #38 — Tom Darlington
I was asked to give a talk to the marketing department of a big media and technology platform. The brief was to share some trends for the year ahead and discuss the types of things which would affec...
www.tomdarlington.co.uk
September 21, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Slowly trying to get back into the weeknote habit...
This week a request to do a presentation results in the conclusion that no one - least of all people in marketing - really knows anything.....
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/no-one-...
This week a request to do a presentation results in the conclusion that no one - least of all people in marketing - really knows anything.....
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/no-one-...
Been thinking a lot about one of @willsh.bsky.social ‘s greatest hits - fracking the social web. At some point all services stop being about the plumbing of getting information from A-B and start becoming a platform with features and formats and a more advanced logic for content discovery
August 31, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Been thinking a lot about one of @willsh.bsky.social ‘s greatest hits - fracking the social web. At some point all services stop being about the plumbing of getting information from A-B and start becoming a platform with features and formats and a more advanced logic for content discovery
Taking Oliver Burkeman's idea of Aliveness as a navigation tool and applying it to brands and communication....
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/optimis...
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/optimis...
Optimising for ‘Aliveness’ — Tom Darlington
Recently I was explaining a personal dilemma to a friend. Should I do the big, scary and potentially rewarding thing I was considering or should I do the safe, bland and sensible thing? He then intr...
www.tomdarlington.co.uk
August 5, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Taking Oliver Burkeman's idea of Aliveness as a navigation tool and applying it to brands and communication....
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/optimis...
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/optimis...
Rolex’s new golf ads are really really really bad. Why on earth they got rid of #perpetual I have no idea
June 13, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Rolex’s new golf ads are really really really bad. Why on earth they got rid of #perpetual I have no idea
Why do media agencies need a chief media officer?
May 18, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Why do media agencies need a chief media officer?
Maybe a good analogy for a lot of the sludge we see online from various generative AI tools is Muzak. It looks and feels a bit like the real thing. It works in certain contexts. But if you stare too long you realise what’s happening in real terms
April 4, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Maybe a good analogy for a lot of the sludge we see online from various generative AI tools is Muzak. It looks and feels a bit like the real thing. It works in certain contexts. But if you stare too long you realise what’s happening in real terms
News preferring to focus on the losses incurred by tech billionaires rather than the pension schemes of your average person , I see
April 4, 2025 at 12:46 PM
News preferring to focus on the losses incurred by tech billionaires rather than the pension schemes of your average person , I see
Review and rebuild sounds like the worst kind of agency pitch theme I’ve ever encountered
April 2, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Review and rebuild sounds like the worst kind of agency pitch theme I’ve ever encountered
Reposted by Tom
Column. On pathetic European freeloaders.
www.thetimes.com/article/7652...
www.thetimes.com/article/7652...
March 26, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Column. On pathetic European freeloaders.
www.thetimes.com/article/7652...
www.thetimes.com/article/7652...
Why have people given up on headphones on public transport?
March 19, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Why have people given up on headphones on public transport?
A thing about dimensionlising brand experience across 'scale', speed and strata.... riffing off Stewart Brand, Thomas Heatherwick and some of my own thinking (god forbid)
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/scale-s...
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/scale-s...
Scale, Speed & Stratification — Tom Darlington
In his 2023 book Humanise, Thomas Heatherwick talks about the need for buildings to hold the attention of someone for length of time it takes to pass by it. In order to pass this test, he suggests a...
www.tomdarlington.co.uk
March 16, 2025 at 8:07 PM
A thing about dimensionlising brand experience across 'scale', speed and strata.... riffing off Stewart Brand, Thomas Heatherwick and some of my own thinking (god forbid)
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/scale-s...
www.tomdarlington.co.uk/blog/scale-s...
Someone voluntarily offered me and my co-writer £95 a year to receive our newsletter. Feels like a minor achievement
March 2, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Someone voluntarily offered me and my co-writer £95 a year to receive our newsletter. Feels like a minor achievement
Have spent a significant amount of time correcting Claude’s mistakes today. The answers it gives me in one of my projects look and feel fluent. But comparing source material with output, it’s easy to spot big errors
February 5, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Have spent a significant amount of time correcting Claude’s mistakes today. The answers it gives me in one of my projects look and feel fluent. But comparing source material with output, it’s easy to spot big errors
The adjectives used by trade press to describe people moving jobs could really benefit from an overhaul. Raids, Re-surfacing and 'reemergences' don't really feel very positive....
February 5, 2025 at 12:52 PM
The adjectives used by trade press to describe people moving jobs could really benefit from an overhaul. Raids, Re-surfacing and 'reemergences' don't really feel very positive....
A thing about Stone Island and their latest campaign. Never owned anything by the brand, but the more I read about them the more interesting they become ideaswelove.substack.com/p/ideas-we-l...
Ideas We Love: Community as a Form of Research
Issue Number 41: Stone Island brings its community of devoted fans to the fore
ideaswelove.substack.com
January 30, 2025 at 8:58 PM
A thing about Stone Island and their latest campaign. Never owned anything by the brand, but the more I read about them the more interesting they become ideaswelove.substack.com/p/ideas-we-l...
Reposted by Tom
If only Open AI had stolen some irony along with all the copyright material it ‘borrowed’.
January 29, 2025 at 11:16 AM
If only Open AI had stolen some irony along with all the copyright material it ‘borrowed’.
In the end, everyone becomes a traitor
January 24, 2025 at 9:38 PM
In the end, everyone becomes a traitor
I’ve voted for yourself
January 24, 2025 at 9:31 PM
I’ve voted for yourself
The challenges in traitors are so convoluted as to be almost indecipherable
January 23, 2025 at 9:20 PM
The challenges in traitors are so convoluted as to be almost indecipherable
