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Speci

@speci.news
43 followers 227 following 34 posts

A newsletter about how tech companies do brand and marketing by @jack.cully.blog

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Speci @speci.news · 06/08/2025
The performance marketing era is over. What’s next? www.speci.news/a-new-market...
speci.news
A new marketing era begins
The sun rises on a changed discipline.
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Reposted by Speci
Jack Cully @cully.blog · 13/05/2025
In a Stratechery interview a few weeks ago, Zuckerberg waxed lyrical about how Meta's basically going to replace marketing departments. It's sat with me since I listened to it because I think he's really wrong. #brand #marketing #meta #ai www.speci.news/meta-wants-t...
speci.news
Meta wants to replace your marketing department
Zuckerberg's mystery box won't work.
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Speci @speci.news · 13/05/2025
Two years after OpenAI popularised generative AI with ChatGPT, AI is still a solution in search of a problem. But we’re getting there! AI’s product market fit is coming. www.speci.news/whats-the-po...
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What's the point of AI?
There won't be a breakthrough AI product that replaces the iPhone. But AI is still going to take over the world.
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Speci @speci.news · 02/05/2025
Is advertising an output or a process? @rorysutherland.bsky.social thinks it's a process. But Mark Zuckerberg thinks it's an outcome. Who's right? www.speci.news/meta-wants-t...
speci.news
Meta wants to replace your marketing department
Zuckerberg's mystery box won't work.
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Speci @speci.news · 19/03/2025
Show the thing!
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Speci @speci.news · 18/03/2025
Apple should restart its live event tradition, even if that means less polish. www.speci.news/apple-loses-...
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Apple loses its live events (and its way)
How the pressure to deliver Apple's answer to AI collided with no more live demos.
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Speci @speci.news · 14/03/2025
The story of Apple, Meta and AI last year. www.speci.news/2024s-year-i...
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2024's Year in tech
The year that augmented reality and artificial intelligence broke out.
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Speci @speci.news · 08/03/2025
Cultural commentators will tell you there isn’t a monoculture anymore. I don’t think that’s true - I think internet culture is monoculture. But maybe there are a few monocultures? www.speci.news/welcome-to-t...
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Welcome to the emotional internet
Remember the Jaguar rebrand fiasco? Yeah, that was only two weeks ago. But it feels like forever ago, right? I spotted the rebrand late, the Thursday night before the Friday that everyone jumped on ...
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Speci @speci.news · 04/03/2025
Okay, so Speci is a newsletter about how tech companies do brand… but back in November, I couldn’t resist writing this one. I adored the Waitrose Christmas ad. It absolutely nailed audience alignment and brand coding. So it’s one of the greats in my book. www.speci.news/sweet-suspic...
speci.news
Sweet suspicion
A Waitrose masterclass (via murder mystery).
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Speci @speci.news · 03/03/2025
What can the history of machines tell us about the future of AI? www.speci.news/whats-the-po...
speci.news
What's the point of AI?
There won't be a breakthrough AI product that replaces the iPhone. But AI is still going to take over the world.
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Reposted by Speci
Jack Cully @cully.blog · 27/02/2025
Where people see your creative is as important as the creative. Seeing a digital brand on a non-digital channel makes it feel way more legit (as the data in this post shows). mktg.substack.com/p/channel-mi...
mktg.substack.com
Channel mix matters more than you think
It's not just what they hear about you, it’s where they hear about you.
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Speci @speci.news · 26/02/2025
ChatGPT is a brand now. #tech #brand #branding #marketing #ai #chatgpt #openai #opinion
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Speci @speci.news · 26/02/2025
Meta showed off a prototype that isn’t going to ship for a long time. Why? It’s all about positioning. They showed a working demo to the world and they became the company to beat in AR. www.speci.news/metas-orion-...
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Meta's Orion swagger
Meta held an event for a device that they’ll never ship. It was the right decision.
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Speci @speci.news · 25/02/2025
In November 2022, OpenAI, a research lab, released ChatGPT. This was the moment they became a consumer brand, but they didn’t know it yet. Here’s what they did over the last few years to grow ChatGPT, a research tool, into a consumer brand. www.speci.news/chatgpt-is-a...
speci.news
ChatGPT is a brand now
And so is OpenAI
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Speci @speci.news · 12/02/2025
Are dumb phones *really* taking off? I took one on a test drive (and ended up keeping it) 👇 www.speci.news/boox-palma/
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It’s iPhone season! So I bought a 'phone' with an e-ink screen
How I ended up with a Boox Palma.
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Speci @speci.news · 11/02/2025
THREE THINGS that the Ray Ban Meta smart glasses do, and what they tell us about how AI will actually drive augmented reality 👇 www.speci.news/two-weeks-wi...
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Two weeks with Ray Ban Meta smart glasses
Two weeks ago, I bought a pair of sunglasses from Ray Ban. They’re glossy black Wayfarers, exactly as you’d expect them. I bet you can picture them: they’re iconic in design. There are a few differen...
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Speci @speci.news · 09/02/2025
September is iPhone season. Every year, Apple produces a highly polished marketing pitch, the main event being a Special Event, followed by websites and billboards and PR. 2024’s iPhone party was crashed by the promise of AI. www.speci.news/apple-event-...
speci.news
How AI infiltrated the iPhone event
On Monday, Apple held a special event called It’s Glowtime. Clocking in at 1 hour, 38 minutes and 50 seconds, it was a long one. At the event, they introduced to the world the Apple Watch Series 10, ...
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Speci @speci.news · 20/01/2025
In this week’s Speci, I pour one out for Meta’s brand managers. www.speci.news/meta-wrecks-...
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Meta wrecks its brand
Meta’s recent policy turnaround makes a wreck of its careful brand building efforts since 2021.
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Speci @speci.news · 08/01/2025
Say hello to the Stakes Spectrum. Every product sits on it somewhere and it’s your job as a marketer to figure out where your product sits on it. If your product is low-stakes, focus on how quick and easy it is to try it. If it’s high stakes, focus on overcoming barriers like trust and safety.
A spectrum, on the left side it says “low stakes” and on the right side it says “high stakes”.

Under “low stakes”: low risk, higher likelihood for consumers to try something new/unfamiliar 

Under “high stakes”: high risk, inertia, low likelihood for consumers to try something new
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Speci @speci.news · 07/01/2025
In August, I shared some thoughts about how AI was killing great product design. It’s because AI was such a bubble that everyone - including now Apple - has been smooshing it into their product experiences to show they’re not behind. www.speci.news/how-ai-is-ki...
speci.news
How AI is killing UX (for now)
Generative AI is impressive, but it’s making our apps less useful right now. There’s an age old balancing act in the technology world. On the one side of the scales, there’s the technologists, the sc...
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Speci @speci.news · 06/01/2025
2024 was the year tech got exciting again. As the mobile era saturates, new technologies like AI and spatial computing are starting to become mainstream. Here’s a look back at what happened in 2024, and what I’m excited about for 2025. www.speci.news/2024s-year-i...
speci.news
2024's Year in tech
The year that augmented reality and artificial intelligence broke out.
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Speci @speci.news · 08/12/2024
Cultural commentators say that the monoculture is gone. I don’t think so. It’s just that internet culture is monoculture now. www.speci.news/welcome-to-t...
speci.news
Welcome to the emotional internet
Remember the Jaguar rebrand fiasco? Yeah, that was only two weeks ago. But it feels like forever ago, right? I spotted the rebrand late, the Thursday night before the Friday that everyone jumped on ...
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Speci @speci.news · 28/11/2024
For marketers, balancing budgets is hard. Performance marketing is addictive, because you can see the impact immediately. Brand marketing is hard, because it’s essential, yet very tough to measure. Disney and Nike can teach us a lot about this difficult dance. www.speci.news/what-running...
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What running shoes and a hundred-year-old mouse have in common
How Nike and Disney took their brands for granted
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Speci @speci.news · 26/11/2024
How Apple shifted “mixed reality” to “spatial computing”. www.speci.news/apples-marke...
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Apple's marketing vision
Last week, I told you how I felt about Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s £3,499 headset it claims is the future of personal computing. It left me feeling weird – I felt amazed and overwhelmed, but also lonely...
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Speci @speci.news · 23/11/2024
Back in July, I tried the Apple Vision Pro. It was the best thing I've ever put on my head. I returned it. www.speci.news/a-week-with-...
speci.news
A week with Apple Vision Pro
From Apple’s Newsroom last month: Apple today announced Apple Vision Pro will expand to new countries and regions, with pre-orders for China mainland, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore beginning this T...
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Speci @speci.news · 22/11/2024
Today, the Apple Watch is known as a health and fitness device. But it didn’t start life that way. Ten years ago, Apple launched the Watch not as a fitness device… but as a fashion accessory. Here’s the story of how that changed. www.speci.news/apple-watch-...
speci.news
Apple Watch: from fashion fad to healthy success
Apple's product marketing masterclass
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Speci @speci.news · 21/11/2024
Just over a year ago, EE unveiled its new brand strategy. At the time, I thought it was obviously taking a page from the Apple playbook. Here’s what they did. www.speci.news/everything-e...
speci.news
Everything Everywhere: EE’s brand new strategy
The mobile network is trying to be more things. Will it pay off?
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Speci @speci.news · 19/11/2024
Waitrose is winning Christmas. www.speci.news/sweet-suspic...
speci.news
Sweet suspicion
A Waitrose masterclass (via murder mystery).
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Speci @speci.news · 18/11/2024
Brands can be worth billions. Twitter’s was its most valuable asset by far. They are also incredibly fragile. As Elon Musk demonstrated last year, they can be taken away in moments. www.speci.news/changing-twi...
speci.news
Changing Twitter’s name was Xtremely reckless
Musk had brand magic, and now he doesn't.
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Speci @speci.news · 17/11/2024
Last April, a song by The Weeknd went viral. Except… it wasn’t by The Weeknd. www.speci.news/if-it-aint-d...
speci.news
If it ain’t Drake, don’t fix it
I have feelings about not-Drake
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Reposted by Speci
Jack Cully @cully.blog · 16/11/2024
Lots of people have come over here recently, so let’s say hello again. Hello, I’m Jack 👋 I write things about how tech companies are building their brands. Also about how they’re destroying them. So this one from last year feels relevant today for some reason. www.speci.news/changing-twi...
speci.news
Changing Twitter’s name was Xtremely reckless
Musk had brand magic, and now he doesn't.
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Speci @speci.news · 16/11/2024
There’s never been a better time to becoming the “starting point” of your category: the place a customer first looks on the internet. In the 2010s this was Google, in the 2020s it will be lots of different brands for different purposes. www.speci.news/everythings-...
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Everything’s changing. Again.
We thought that everything had changed with the iPhone, cloud computing and a ubiquitous internet. And it had. Except, really, it hadn’t.
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Speci @speci.news · 16/11/2024
How an ad for the world’s most recognisable fast food chain is… perhaps the perfect ad. www.speci.news/sorry-the-ne...
speci.news
Sorry, the new McDonald’s ad is really good.
And is that... Ronald McDonald?
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