Helping people choose to care.

Blake Social

Whether you're building a business or leading an organisation, better decisions start with understanding why people choose to care.

Try one week without wondering what to post.

Consistent content without carrying the whole marketing plan in your head.

Understand why audiences choose to attend, engage and return.

Fresh thinking for your team or event.

Build the systems behind your marketing.

Blake Social

My career has been a strange one.

I worked with children while I studied law... and then became a freelance writer, and was published in The Times and the Huffington Post.

I learned audience behaviour at Facebook before most brands knew what social media was.

Then I spent five years trying to make people care about a bank.

Somehow that led to Formula E, the Commonwealth Games, World Gymnastics and spending far too much time wondering why some sports create lifelong fans while others struggle to fill grandstands.

I wasn't always the creative strategist handing out megaphones to brilliant businesses. I was once studying a law degree, and writing freelance crime reports...

From Warwickshire to Spain (And Back Again)

The big brands had all the money. The small brands had all the soul. And no one was handing the second group a big enough microphone. [Enter me, stage left]

One café changed the way I think about marketing.
Years ago, one of my favourite cafés closed.
It had beautiful food. Brilliant coffee. Friendly staff who remembered your name.
Everyone who found it loved it... but hardly anyone found it. 
It's competition wasn't bad cafés. It was every other café anyone already knew. 
I've seen the same problem ever since.

Amazing visitor attractions that never become the obvious family day out.
Independent businesses hidden behind louder competitors.
Sports with extraordinary athletes that struggle to create lifelong fans.
Most organisations don't have a quality problem.
They have an attention problem.

The question underneath everything I do:
Why do people choose to care?

That's the question behind every Attention Review, every strategy and every recommendation.
Not: "What should we post?"
Not: "How do we get more followers?"
Those are useful questions.
But they're rarely the real problem.

Sport, always. Copy that makes someone go "ouch" before they agree. Pink loud enough to be a decision. Telling a client the thing nobody in the room wants to say first. Accounts with 800 followers out-working accounts with 800,000. Data that ruins a lovely theory. Working from a zoo cafe because that's the day I've got. People who post it imperfectly on Tuesday instead of perfectly in November. 

"Awareness" as a strategy. Screenshots of reach with nothing behind them. Content that only exists in drafts. Beige, in every form it takes. Third person about pages. Another framework when what's needed is a post. Agencies selling execution for a problem nobody diagnosed. Circling back. Doing it that way because it's been done that way. Asking permission. Beige.

Where I Stand on the Important Things

Reach

Remembered

Campaigns

Behaviour

Followers

Fans

Algorithms

Psychology

Virality

Loyalty

Content

Commercial Impact

The House Blend

“I wouldn't trust Katy to keep my plants alive, but I'd let her run my company.”

Take it from Them

— My sister Amy

Inside My Head

In My Spare Time

A notebook. Too many browser tabs. A cup of tea. Three hours disappearing down a rabbit hole about something nobody else has realised is interesting yet.
Followed by a family trip somewhere with animals.

Outside of work...

You'll usually find me with Adam, Enzo and Immi, exploring somewhere new—or watching wildlife documentaries because my four-year-old has developed surprisingly strong opinions about bonobos.

Unpopular Opinion(s)

Brunch is a scam. Participation in the group text should be mandatory. Avocados have the best PR in the business.

Travelling with kids, Barbados, MotoGP. spiced rum, Schitts Creek, Wildlife documentaries, Sport, Why children become obsessed with one animal and ignore another.
I promise they're all connected.

Ask Me About

Not sick of me yet?

From the Field Notes

The Mindset Shift that Changed Everything for Me Five Years Ago

Mindset

I Quit My Job With No Plan and It Was the Best Worst Decision I've Ever Made

Business

The Sourdough Starter Situation: A Cautionary Tale About Perfectionism

Personal

Get in touch

Not sure which offer is the best fit?
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My Substack — The Field Notes. Things I've noticed.

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