First Five Marketing

First Five Marketing Fuelling change through the culture of Sport.
•Defining brand strategy & purpose
•Athlete & Sports marketing
•Enablement & participation growth

18/09/2026

Everyone’s asking what On gets from Mbappé.

I think the more interesting question is what Mbappé gets from On.

Because the biggest brand isn’t always the biggest opportunity.

Especially if you’re an athlete being kept from the top of the roster!

Want to create more value for yourself?Create more value for someone else.I think athletes get this backwards all the ti...
18/09/2026

Want to create more value for yourself?
Create more value for someone else.

I think athletes get this backwards all the time
(start ups often, too!).

How do I get more followers?
How do I attract sponsors?
How do I get paid more?
How do I build something i can sell?

All perfectly reasonable questions.

But they’re all questions about what you want to get.

Try starting with what you can give.

10/09/2026

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Maybe we’ve spent too long asking what the f*ck happened to Nike?

Because apparently Adidas, Puma, Lulu and Under Armour all decided to f**k their share prices up at the same time.

Meanwhile sportswear itself is absolutely everywhere.

More participation. More culture. More relevance. More brands. More choice.

And perhaps that last bit is the problem.

What if sportswear has become an incredible category and an absolutely brutal place to build an advantage?

Being massive used to be the key.

Maybe now it just makes you the biggest thing for 400 smaller brands to take a bite out of.

07/09/2026

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Founders spend years building something distinctive.

Then spend the next few years accidentally diluting it out of the business - simply because they haven’t formalised it, made it teachable and scalable.

And suddenly…there goes your competitive advantage!

04/09/2026

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I think Tier 2 rugby is sitting on a f**king goldmine waiting for someone else to tell them it’s valuable.

Pirates. Ealing. Worcester. And plenty more.

History. Rivalry. Community. Identity. Audiences. Players. Stories.

Commercial assets that nobody else can copy.

Stop waiting to become a Premiership club before building a serious brand.

Especially now.

Because if the future of the top flight is decided by who makes the strongest business case, rather than who finishes highest on a Saturday…

I’d be getting very f**king serious about what makes my club worth choosing.

The clock is ticking.

28/08/2026

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You market your brand. You don’t brand your marketing.

I really didn’t think this was the controversial hill I’d be dying on in 2026, but here we are.

The arguments this week genuinely surprised me.

Not from clients. Not from founders who understandably haven’t spent their careers thinking about this stuff.

From people who sell brand and marketing advice for a living.

Apparently we’re still debating whether brand and marketing are the same thing.

They aren’t.

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