Oystercatchers Insights
The latest news, partnerships and thought leadership from the Oystercatchers team.
The part of marketing that AI cannot replace
As AI takes on more of our execution, the strategic thinking behind the work isn’t devalued. In fact, it becomes the work’s differentiator.
The Future Isn’t In-House or Agency. It’s Intentionally Hybrid.
A few months ago, Oystercatchers and InnerGroup started discussing a question that many marketing leaders are wrestling with: what does the optimum hybrid marketing model actually look like? Most organisations today operate somewhere between fully in-house and fully outsourced. They have internal creative teams, agency partners, specialist consultancies, production partners and an increasing number of […]
The Long Game: Building a Career in New Business
Intrepid early-career agency talent braved a tube strike and thoroughly miserable weather to make it to the latest Oystercatchers X-Series on Thursday 5th June – they were rewarded with a conversation that was well worth the journey. The topic was one close to many hearts: how to build a meaningful, fulfilling and long-lasting career in […]
The Human Edge: Cultivating Judgment in the Age of Agents
At the latest Oystercatchers Club event, the conversation explored not just how organisations embed AI into teams and culture, but something arguably more important: the role of the individual operating the technology. To unpack this, we were joined by an expert panel featuring Matthew Kershaw, Rahim Hirji and Alexandra Foster. The Real Differentiator: What Humans Bring to AI The […]
Turning Conversations into Opportunity
Last night’s Oystercatchers X-Series brought together a group of early-career agency talent to focus on a skill that underpins long-term success in our industry, but is rarely taught properly: networking. Led by Benj Chilcott, the session explored a practical and grounded approach to using networking as a key facet of a career in agencyland. In […]
Relevance Reset: Five Lessons from the Oystercatchers Club
The corporate graveyard is full of brands that once looked invincible. BlackBerry. Blockbuster. British Home Stores. For years they dominated their markets until suddenly they didn’t. At the latest Oystercatchers Club evening we gathered a group of senior marketers to explore a simple but uncomfortable question: how do brands stay relevant when the pace of […]
Our Three Lessons from 2025
2025 started off relatively sedately. But there were already some indications of the seismic shifts that lay ahead. Speculation on one of the biggest mergers in this industry’s history had started, Donald Trump’s imminent return to office was upon us and NASA confirmed that 2024 had been the warmest year in history. But what has […]
The Pitch is Dead, Long Live the Pitch
What it comes to pitching, if you’ve been around the block, you will have trodden the well-worn path of traditional pitch processes many times. You know, the one that starts with a chemistry session, moves onto a briefing with Q&A, followed by a tissue session, and ultimately a pitch meeting. At the most basic level, […]
Mastering Chemistry Meetings
A critical step in most – if not all – pitch processes is the chemistry meeting. It’s the first opportunity for brand and agency side marketers to meet. It’s when clients start making their assessment about whether they want to spend their time and money with your agency. Equally, it’s when agencies get to meet […]
Key features in choosing an intermediary partner (Why Oystercatchers?)
At first glance, the world of marketing intermediaries might seem straightforward. After all, how many ways can you run a pitch process? And while that’s partly true, the real differences, beyond expertise, lie in the business models underpinning intermediaries. That’s where things get interesting, and where transparency becomes essential. Introducing the new ISBA Guide to […]
Why Training Your Marketing Team is the Best Growth Strategy
According to the Association for Talent Development, “companies that invest in employee training see 24% higher profit margins.” Now you might say there’s a clear conflict of interest there, after all, what else is that Association going to say, right? But if you want some additional evidence of the value of investing in your people […]
What makes a winning awards entry?
To help you submit your best entry into the Oystercatchers Awards, we asked our 2025 judging panel what makes for an outstanding entry.
The Future Isn’t In-House or Agency. It’s Intentionally Hybrid.
A few months ago, Oystercatchers and InnerGroup started discussing a question that many marketing leaders are wrestling with: what does the optimum hybrid marketing model actually look like? Most organisations today operate somewhere between fully in-house and fully outsourced. They have internal creative teams, agency partners, specialist consultancies, production partners and an increasing number of […]
The Human Edge: Cultivating Judgment in the Age of Agents
At the latest Oystercatchers Club event, the conversation explored not just how organisations embed AI into teams and culture, but something arguably more important: the role of the individual operating the technology. To unpack this, we were joined by an expert panel featuring Matthew Kershaw, Rahim Hirji and Alexandra Foster. The Real Differentiator: What Humans Bring to AI The […]
Turning Conversations into Opportunity
Last night’s Oystercatchers X-Series brought together a group of early-career agency talent to focus on a skill that underpins long-term success in our industry, but is rarely taught properly: networking. Led by Benj Chilcott, the session explored a practical and grounded approach to using networking as a key facet of a career in agencyland. In […]
Relevance Reset: Five Lessons from the Oystercatchers Club
The corporate graveyard is full of brands that once looked invincible. BlackBerry. Blockbuster. British Home Stores. For years they dominated their markets until suddenly they didn’t. At the latest Oystercatchers Club evening we gathered a group of senior marketers to explore a simple but uncomfortable question: how do brands stay relevant when the pace of […]
Oystercatchers Awards Presentation Evening
It’s finally time to announce the winners of the Oystercatchers Awards 2025. This year we received a record-breaking number of entries. Our judges have spent weeks reviewing the work, both online and in person, challenging each other, debating the detail, and celebrating the quality on show. Reaching agreement was no small task, but we are […]
Our Three Lessons from 2025
2025 started off relatively sedately. But there were already some indications of the seismic shifts that lay ahead. Speculation on one of the biggest mergers in this industry’s history had started, Donald Trump’s imminent return to office was upon us and NASA confirmed that 2024 had been the warmest year in history. But what has […]
Is your Marketing Operating System Helping or Holding you Back?
Most marketing leaders recognise when a plan should be working. A clear objective, smart channel choices, sufficient budgets. Yet often work still moves too slowly, teams feel stretched and spend doesn’t convert into momentum and business impact. In our experience, the gap isn’t always the plan. It’s the operating system that turns intent into […]