Observations on brand, communications and what it takes to be heard.https://www.dontwaffle.me/en-gbhttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/ai-governance-not-generation/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/ai-governance-not-generation/The AI question that matters for a communications team is not what the tools can generate, it is how you govern them. Disclosure, a human review line and a short list of off-limits uses do more for your credibility than any prompt library.Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/why-consistency-not-creativity/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/why-consistency-not-creativity/Most growing businesses do not have a brand problem. They have a consistency problem, and it costs more than they think because the bill never arrives as one number.Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/the-retainer-question/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/the-retainer-question/A retainer can buy you continuity and senior judgement, or it can quietly become a subscription to an agency's convenience. The difference is whether anyone is checking.Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/when-communications-become-strategic/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/when-communications-become-strategic/There is a point where no one person can hold the whole story any more. Most owners try to fix the drift by communicating more. That usually makes it worse.Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/strategy-without-execution/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/strategy-without-execution/The gap between strategy and execution is where most agency relationships quietly fail. Closing it is a structural problem, not a briefing one.Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/how-to-tell-if-your-marketing-spend-is-working/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/how-to-tell-if-your-marketing-spend-is-working/Most owners can tell you what their marketing costs. Far fewer can tell you what it earns. Here is a plain test for separating spend that pays its way from spend that just buys attention.Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/the-ngo-that-sounds-like-three-ngos/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/the-ngo-that-sounds-like-three-ngos/Read an NGO's fundraising appeal, then its programme reports, then a trustee's newsletter, and you will often meet three different organisations. Here is what that drift costs, and the lightest way to fix it.Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/the-ai-credibility-tax/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/the-ai-credibility-tax/AI has not made communications cheaper. It has moved the cost from writing the words to standing behind them, and that is the real bill landing on every comms function this month.Tue, 14 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/when-not-to-hire-a-marketing-manager/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/when-not-to-hire-a-marketing-manager/A marketing manager is the obvious next hire for a growing SME. It is often the wrong one. The gap is usually seniority and direction, not more hands.Tue, 14 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/what-a-communications-director-does-all-day/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/what-a-communications-director-does-all-day/Most of a senior communications director's week is spent deciding what not to do. Here is a realistic version of it, so you can judge whether you need the judgement or just the hands.Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/most-smes-dont-need-a-rebrand/https://www.dontwaffle.me/perspectives/most-smes-dont-need-a-rebrand/A rebrand is the expensive way to fix a problem better day-to-day governance would have prevented. Before you commission a new logo, work out whether your brand is actually broken or just unmanaged.Tue, 12 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT