eatbigfish

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! To celebrate this year, we are taking a look at an iconic Challenger brand that has consistently bucked the tradition of Black Friday. This year marks the 10th year of REI’s #OptOutside initiative. Since 2015, REI has shut its doors on the busiest shopping day of the year and invited everyone to join in opting to spend time outside – choosing nature therapy, as opposed to retail therapy. In our world of Challenger, this is a fantastic example of how breaking with the conventions of your category can make your core beliefs more visible — both to the outside world and ultimately within the company itself. Here is Strategy Director Liston Pitman’s deep dive into 'Opt Outside' in our latest Challenger Spotlight –

🚨 ONE WEEK LEFT TO REGISTER🚨 Is Your Marketing Boring You Out of Business? 🤔 Join Adam Morgan, Jon Evans, and Peter Field for The Extraordinary Cost of Dull, a LIVE session uncovering the shocking impact of uninspired marketing. Discover how boring campaigns are burning your budget and holding your brand back! 💸 What You’ll Learn:  🔍 The real financial toll of dull marketing (hint: it’s comparable to the GDP of Greece)  🤔 The Four Horsemen of the Dullocalypse - and how to avoid them  🧠 5 questions to ensure your next campaign captivates instead of bores 📅 Monday, 25th November 🕒 3:00pm GMT / 10:00am EST ⏳ Time’s running out! Don’t miss it - register NOW 👉 https://lnkd.in/eNjcUeTE

“People build brands not processes” I have been at eatbigfish for a long time. To put long in perspective, Destiny’s Child were at #1 in the charts with Independent Woman 1 when I started working with Adam Morgan.  I joined because Adam had written a book that featured all the brands I instinctively admired, and the book had laid bare why those brands were successful in insightful, simple terms.  Eating the Big Fish offered an alternative to the copy-the-best-practice-of-the -market-leader, with a side of you-must-give-consumers-what-they-want success formula that pervaded business and marketing thinking at the time. And from his study of Challenger brands, Adam unearthed new ways of thinking, which we turned into tools and frameworks, which in turn became powerful processes that have led to great strategies.  I am hugely proud of the research we do, the principles we codify, the insights we glean, the tools we build, the exercises we create – and all the commercial success that has brought to the diaspora of businesses that we have worked with, but that is not the most satisfying part of the job for me.  For me, the thing that I most value is the individuals who have been somehow transformed by Challenger thinking and working with eatbigfish. People who have come to us – sometimes sent by their boss, perhaps unwillingly; sometimes bored in their current role; sometimes taking a big risk in appointing us; sometimes encouraged by an agency partner or referred to us by a colleague – often having read an eatbigfish book. Many of them hesitant and unsure if this was a good or terrible idea.  When eatbigfish is at its best it has given these people confidence. It has re-engaged them with work that they perhaps found drab or difficult. It has made them excited by the plans they hatch. It has made them energetic and passionate, turning cynics into advocates, and followers into leaders. These people have gone on to build great brands and businesses.  After 25 years, my most abiding memories will be the people we have helped grow: the same people who have helped us grow in turn. Thank you.  Thank you to Gemma Parkinson, Kathleen Dunlop, Katie Lipscombe, Nikhilesh Brahma, Thomas Moradpour, Tom Laughery, Phil Thomas, Louise Dennett, Robert Bowers, Torvald de Coverly Veale, Jaimie Fuller, Douglas Lamont, Violaine Basse, Briac Dessertenne, Camille de Dominicis, Gem Misa, Rane Xue, Natalia Filippociants, Mark Docherty, Gayle Harrison PhD, Andrew Khan, Neil Hobkirk, Attila Akat, Reinhard Moschitz, Gaëlle Deschamps, Claire Lindsay, Norma Delaney, Mike Greenup, Jens Egelund, Saskia Fontein, Lynne Ormrod, Emma Woods, Steve Boland, Claire Hodge, Lee Sargent, Jing Mertoglu and Michael Aidan.  You are just some of the brilliant, brave, interesting people who I have been lucky enough to work with over the last 25 years. It is people who build brands not processes and we thank you. – Hugh Derrick, Partner, eatbigfish

“The poems want to tear into someone’s heart / regardless of the mess that’s there” writes lyric virtuoso poet Frank X. Gaspar. When I worked with Adam Morgan, Mark Barden and Nick Geoghegan on the turnaround of PlayStation, after the failure of the PS3 generation, they did what they do best: helped us write a story – a lost epic poem – able to tear into the mess of a struggling company and a demoralized and fractured culture. eatbigfish showed us the true power of story: its capacity to harness the momentum of strategic vision and the great propelling organ of the heart. The Lighthouse Identity unified, inspired and galvanized the resolve of hundreds of stakeholders at PlayStation. By the time we launched the PS4, every team – from marketing to product, game studios to network services – was living and breathing the brand, audaciously and irreverently. And tearing into the hearts of gamers to define the next generation. Without a doubt, that experience of getting the PlayStation story so right – what we did, how we did it, how much fun we had doing it, while massively outpacing the competition from the first moment– was the undisputed highlight of my career. Even being part of the meteoric rise of powerhouse NVIDIA, where I worked next, was no match for it. Heart-tearing is a pursuit of Adam and Mark’s even when they’re not being eatbigfish. During the pandemic, as lovers of poetry – Adam partial to Auden, Mark to Rilke – we decided on a Zoom to share poetry. And then the rub which, in retrospect, I should have expected: why don’t we write the poems? Actually, I could think of many reasons why not but … it was the pandemic, a time to try out random stuff. So, just like that, I wrote my first poem (after asking Mark how he had written his – I sat down, set a timer and wrote it – OK then!) Four years, hundreds of poems and an MFA later, I’m still writing, and we’re still sharing creative work. It turns out finding your own story has a lot in common with eatbigfish’s model of finding a brand’s: listen for what enters the heart with intelligent naïvety; overcommit; never, ever, be predictable. My deepest thanks to Mark and Adam, professionally and personally, for your never-a-dull-moment partnership. And many, many congratulations on 25 years of doing what you do best. – Maria Surricchio, Former Vice President, Marketing at Sony PlayStation US

In 2005 (or maybe even the end of 2004) I answered an ad in the Guardian jobs section for an ‘Implementation Rhino’ at a company called ‘eatbigfish’ to help them run 'lighthouse Identity workshops’. It’s safe to say I had absolutely no clue what they were talking about, but I needed to pay my rent. In the years that followed I have worn many hats at eatbigfish (admin, operations, strategy, research, product development, creative), learned all there is to know about Challenger, past and present (you can call me the all knowing Challenger trash heap). I have rhino-ed, herded hamsters, interrogated chickens, and helped our clients get out of the Mephisto Waltz, fight their Monsters, and get on their Pirate Ship together. One thing I can tell you about eatbigfish, we LOVE a metaphor. However, the best Challenger metaphor I have heard in all that time didn’t come from Adam’s books or an eatbigfish exercise. In 2016, Jude Bliss and I were lucky enough to travel to Sweden to meet some emerging Challengers for The Challenger Project. At our first stop in Malmo we interviewed John Schoolcraft, the Creative Director who had reinvented an oat milk brand with a bold new look and Challenger positioning, and then we travelled to Stockholm to meet Åsa Caap, a self described Intrapreneur who was running a Our/Vodka, a ‘start up’ within Pernod Ricard with a very different business model - a classic Pirate working inside the Navy. John and Åsa were two very different personalities, working on very different brands, but both were incredibly eloquent and insightful about the challenges and opportunities of taking risks within conservative categories or large organisations. I remember asking Åsa, “how do you get people to trust you?”, and she replied with the best analogy of the Challenger Mindset I have ever heard, which I still repeat often. She said, “We are under a lot of pressure. But I use a metaphor of the Dakar car rally. There’s no track, there’s an end goal. And the one who comes first wins. There is a path you can take, it’s known as the safest path. And if you’re fastest and you take that path, then you get there fast. Most of the cars go this way. But there’s also a few that go completely in another direction on their own, to the unknown. And very few of these guys reach the finish line, but when they do, they are weeks ahead of their competition.” eatbigfish has spent 25 years working with and following people who take that metaphorical unknown path to move further, faster (and arrive weeks ahead). It’s not for everyone, but it certainly is interesting. – Helen Redstone, Operations Director, eatbigfish

Culture is an integral part of eatbigfish, it’s at the heart of what we do.  I have been lucky enough to work at eatbigfish for over 12 years, across various roles. In my current role as office manager, one of my jobs is to organise the company parties; to make sure everything runs smoothly and that every detail is thought of.   At eatbigfish we know how to throw the best parties. They are more than just a good time, they are an investment in our culture – from house parties in our Bermondsey Street office with its permanent disco ball, to staying in a 7th century castle, there have been some fabulous events.   But one festive season stands out as a true example of how dedicated we are to our culture – December 2020 and the ‘Lockdown Christmas’.   Christmas is a big deal for eatbigfish – the whole company gathers together and celebrates the end of another great year. But lockdown restrictions meant that we (like much of the rest of the world) couldn’t physically be together to celebrate in 2020. So, in true eatbigfish fashion, we embraced our constraints and, despite all odds, we pulled off a truly spectacular ‘eatbigfish Countdown to Christmas’.   I gathered my elves, and we meticulously planned 12 days of gifts - one to unwrap each morning, truly indulging each fish’s inner child.  The gifts were accompanied with a message explaining the choice of gift – many were the same for everyone but some were personalised to each person. For example, we sent candles for the first day of Hanukkah, a decorate your own gingerbread house along with a Crisis charity donation, and even mulled wine and mince pies to go with a virtual viewing of the best & worst Xmas ads of the year.  With each gift individually wrapped and numbered (over 280 in total!), I gathered them into ‘Santa-sized’ bags and sent them off to my colleagues’ homes in the UK and US. And although my home felt like a sorting office for a few days, it was so much fun and a joy to bring some smiles to faces that I’d been unable to see in person for months.  On our final working day of 2020, everyone cracked open their favourite tipple (another gift from the elves), we set our Zoom backgrounds to ‘office party‘, donned our Christmas jumpers and hats, and had a lovely evening full of games and laughs.   So, while the 2020 festive season wasn’t the easiest to pull off, it’s become a testament to the strength of the culture at eatbigfish.  All our parties are amazing, but this one was eatbigfish through and through.  – Rosie Dean, Office Manager, eatbigfish

I'm the client who never left. If you’ve ever worked with eatbigfish, you know the feeling: that irresistible pull to get more. Maybe you call them back for another project, maybe two. Well, I’m the client who didn’t just keep coming back—I never really left. My first encounter with eatbigfish was when I worked at Molson-Coors in Canada. It was a real make-or-break moment for Molson Canadian, a brand that had been struggling. The Winter Olympics were just around the corner, and this was our window to restage the brand. Enter eatbigfish. The strategy we crafted together was nothing short of transformational. It didn’t just revitalize Molson Canadian; it put the brand back on the map in ways we hadn’t dared to imagine. It was one of those rare projects that doesn’t just change a brand—it changes everyone involved. So, how do you satisfy that irresistible pull to get more? Easy—you find ways to keep them around. One beer brand after another, I was hooked. Even when I moved to other iconic Canadian brands—Tim Hortons, and later Four Seasons—eatbigfish was always in the mix, their Challenger Thinking a constant in every big, strategic move I was a part of. Looking back, I can see something bigger was happening. Sure, I was technically the client, but with every project, every workshop, and every new challenge we took on together, something was shifting. Without even realizing it, I was becoming one of them. I wasn’t just absorbing their Challenger Mindset—I was living it. Unknowingly, I had become an honorary member of eatbigfish long before the paperwork made it official.  By the time I joined the team, it already felt like home. I wasn’t just a client anymore—I had been a Challenger in the making all along. – Anne Marie Armstrong, Strategy Director, eatbigfish

"eatbigfish has been a game-changer in helping us craft a powerful strategic narrative and Challenger brand positioning. Their well-structured workshops were expertly designed to guide us through complex ideas with clarity and focus. From the start, their team demonstrated an impressive ability to synthesize vast amounts of information, turning insights and discussions into a clear, actionable direction. They challenged us to dig deeper, pushing us toward a truly unique brand insight.  Throughout, eatbigfish’s facilitators maintained both momentum and strategic rigor, ensuring that every session was creative, colourful and led us closer to our final goals. Their expert summarization distilled our discussions into a concise and usable output, perfectly primed for further creative development. Beyond their strategic intelligence, they were collaborative, energetic, and a pleasure to work with—bringing a mix of creativity and discipline that’s hard to find." – Gemma Parkinson, Moët Hennessy

A brief interruption to our 25 Years celebrations to remind you that there is still time to complete our Challenger Community Survey. Not only will you be helping to shape the future of eatbigfish, you will also be entered into our prize draw to win the full collection of eatbigfish books (Eating the Big Fish, The Pirate Inside, A Beautiful Constraint and Overthrow II)! Spare 5 minutes? https://lnkd.in/e4fENu94

There are so many memories I could share, but one that really had it all was a workshop with a luxury hospitality client in Dubai. I had been living in the US for just over a year, and we were preparing to run a workshop with the Four Seasons at their Dubai hotel—a true pinch-me moment! Excitement quickly ensued, but so did sheer panic. Imposter syndrome was in full swing, and to top it off, I was five months pregnant and rapidly outgrowing every outfit I owned. Sweatpants were definitely not going to cut it here. Planning the workshop was no easy feat. This was a group of senior execs, and every detail had to be perfect—and if you know me, you know I sweat the small stuff. I was up against every coordinator's nightmare: a giant chandelier hanging in the center of the room, immovable furniture, and million-dollar artwork covering the walls. Post-it notes war room style? Not happening. This would require military-level planning…luckily, that’s my forte. Finally, the day to fly arrived! Settling into the unfamiliar comfort of an Emirates flight pod, I started exploring the vanity bag full of Bulgari miniature cosmetics when a sudden flush of panic hit me—I had forgotten to pack the workshop kit! No pencils, no notebooks…and if you’ve been to an eatbigfish workshop, you know that’s an epic fail! Trying to keep calm, I thought, You can fix this, Sam. As soon as I arrived at the hotel, I tracked down my new best friend, the event planner I’d been emailing for months. Together, we ventured to a large stationery warehouse in the middle of an industrial estate (in hindsight, maybe not my safest decision), but thankfully, we found everything! Relieved but slightly mortified, I reluctantly confessed my oversight to the team. They chalked it up to ‘baby brain’—a bit patronizing, sure, but I decided to roll with it…this time. Thankfully, the rest of the trip ran perfectly. Mark and I spent our only free morning exploring the old town, and the three days of workshops went off without a hitch. We were then treated to an unforgettable evening hosted by the team at the Four Seasons’ 7-star hotel, where we enjoyed a truly theatrical dinner. Later, we were taken to their private rooftop event space, surrounded by the rich and famous. On my last day, I was desperate to find a little souvenir to remember the trip. I took a taxi to the giant mall I’d read about online. It was insanely opulent, with a massive aquarium in the middle filled with sharks and waterfalls cascading down the walls. In a baby shop, I found a tiny pair of blue suede shoes—Finley’s first pair of shoes! I’ve treasured them and kept them in his baby keepsake box, and here he is, eight years later, holding them as I share the story of when I took him to Dubai. – Samantha Johns, Commercial Manager (North America), eatbigfish