Working Together
Every engagement starts with a conversation about the question you're trying to answer. From there, the work usually takes one of three forms: a focused project that answers a defined question about where you stand or where to invest, working sessions with your leadership group, or ongoing counsel as a trusted sounding board. Where AI is the focus, the Seventh Wave framework provides the structure. In every case, the aim is the same: clear, practical recommendations you can act on.
AI in Context
How should AI change the way you operate? Every leadership team is asking the question, but the conversation is almost entirely focused on the technology itself.
My starting point is different. AI doesn't replace the fundamentals of marketing and media. It exposes them. When AI platforms misread your brand, the cause is rarely technical. It usually points to a gap in strategy, positioning or investment. Fix the foundation and the AI opportunity follows. How these platforms interpret and recommend your brand is fast becoming as important as how search engines once did. Most brands aren’t ready for that shift, and the ones that move first will have a significant advantage.
I help leadership teams work out what AI genuinely changes for their business and what's simply noise. The Seventh Wave framework gives your team a clear, practical and structured route to adopting AI day to day, grounded in your commercial priorities rather than the technology itself.
WAVE Framework
Strategic oversight to strengthen your marketing foundation and protect your media investment.
W – Where you stand
The first stage delivers a detailed assessment of how AI platforms and the market currently perceive your brand. It identifies the positioning gaps and mixed messages that may be undermining your commercial performance.
A – Align
With the reality established, the next step is getting everyone pointing in the right direction. That means working with your marketing team and partners to sharpen the positioning, sense-check the media mix, and establish the authority signals that make your brand visible and coherent across every channel. The role here is not to replace your team but to give them a clearer brief to work from.
V – Verify
A plan is only as good as its ability to survive contact with reality. Before significant money moves, everything is pressure-tested: the media mix against the commercial goals, the partner briefs against the strategy, and the assumptions against the evidence. This is where independent senior judgement matters most, asking the hard questions early so the investment is protected before it is spent, not audited after.
E – Execute
The measure of any strategy is what actually changes. The focus remains entirely on outcomes, ensuring the strategy is not just a document on a shelf, but something that your team can act on with confidence. That means staying close enough to ask the hard questions as the work goes live, tracking whether the investment is performing as planned, and making sure AI tools are being used in ways that serve the strategy rather than distract from it. The goal is a marketing investment working as hard as it should.