A lot of good businesses look more in control from the outside than they feel on the inside.

The proposed UK social media ban for under-16s has triggered the obvious reaction in marketing circles.

If the ban forces brands to rethink how they reach younger audiences, that may not be a bad thing. In fact, it could expose just how many brands have confused rented attention with actual relevance.

One of the biggest shifts Cornwall needs over the next few years is not just more money coming in. It is a stronger relationship with commercial thinking.

Because funding can help something start. Investment can help something scale. But neither automatically builds a model that can stand on its own two feet.

The 2026 tournament is the biggest in history, with more teams, more matches and more global visibility than ever before. But reducing the World Cup to a media plan is also the fastest way to miss what actually makes it powerful.

Because the World Cup is not just a sports property.

It is a culture moment.

The screen industry is changing fast.

That can sound like a threat, but I think it is also an opportunity, especially for the production companies, producers and regional screen businesses willing to let go of some old assumptions about where money comes from and what a ‘proper’ screen model is supposed to look like.

A benchmarking survey exploring how agencies are navigating pricing, profitability, forecasting, delivery pressure and changing client expectations.

Most businesses have a vision, a plan, a positioning statement or a growth ambition. There are decks, workshops, away days and bold intentions everywhere. What is often in shorter supply is the thing that makes strategy actually useful: a clear connection between the big idea and the business reality underneath it.

Good ideas absolutely matter. They are often the spark. They can open up new directions, sharpen a proposition or create momentum. But ideas on their own do not build resilience, improve margin or make a business easier to scale.

The agency pitch landscape has become increasingly hard on everyone involved. For brands, it can feel like a long, resource-heavy process with too many similar options and not enough clarity. For agencies, it often means months of unpaid work, high internal strain and no guarantee that the process is actually designed to identify the right partner.

War and conflict on this scale are devastating. Lives are being lost, communities are being torn apart, and the effects reach far beyond the countries directly involved.

The recent IPA agency census figures landed heavily for a reason. Creative and non-media agency headcount fell 14.3% in 2025, while total headcount across IPA member agencies fell 6.8%. Open roles were down sharply too, with vacancies across all seniority levels falling 40.8% year on year.

Across the industry, the landscape is shifting quickly. Independents are carving out space with specialist, scene-led expertise. Larger networks are reframing social, experiential and strategy teams around culture. Creator-first agencies are emerging out of talent businesses and PR models. And more brands are building in-house culture teams of their own.

Many organisations are dealing with a more uncertain funding landscape, shaped by tighter local authority budgets, changing expectations around public investment and increasing pressure on already-stretched operating models.

One of the biggest issues I see in agency businesses is that what looks like a commercial model is often just a costing model in disguise.

Hearing that Corsica Studios is closing in its current form hits hard. For a lot of people, this will feel personal. It certainly does to me.

Visit Cornwall going into liquidation is genuinely gutting. But this may be Cornwall’s best chance in a generation to rebuild the visitor economy in a way that actually fits how travel works now, how communities feel now, and how the county needs to thrive in the years ahead.

Cultural relevance is rarely built through aesthetics alone. It is built through trust, consistency and contribution. It is something brands earn over time, not something they can borrow for a campaign window. That distinction matters more than ever.

Almost three years ago, I moved from London to Cornwall and have been managing Warm Street from here ever since, with regular trips back to what I still call “town.” That shift in perspective has changed how I think about audiences, creativity and where cultural value actually lives.