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The World Cup just wrapped, and my ‘summer of soccer’ is officially benched. Time for a reflection… VAR was supposed to fix football's officiating problem. Instead, it became a masterclass in how good technology fails when the process around it doesn't keep up. I've watched this game since I was a kid and now spend my weekends coaching four soccer-mad kids of my own, so I watched this World Cup final through more than just a fan's eyes. I watched it through a data and strategy lens. VAR was built to catch "clear and obvious errors." Instead, it's invited microscopic review of every marginal call, delaying celebrations while still leaving plenty of decisions down to human interpretation anyway. That's not a technology problem. That's an implementation failure: strong tech, vague rules, weak feedback loops. Semi-automated offside technology gets it right because it does one thing well and leaves the judgment call to the referee. AI can flag incidents in real time, but the final call still belongs to a human. AI referees aren't the answer. Thoughtful hybrid systems are. https://lnkd.in/e5P2tikv

The White House just laid out over 90 federal policy actions on AI, and most people in political and public affairs are going to skim right past why it matters to them. The "America's AI Action Plan" is built on three pillars: 1. Accelerating innovation 2. Building out infrastructure 3. Leading on AI diplomacy Translation: fewer regulatory speed bumps, more computing hard-power, and a government actually trying to keep the U.S. ahead instead of tripping over its own shoelaces. This is exactly the kind of decisive national strategy the industry needs. Campaigns and advocacy work run on speed and precision now, not vibes and a Google Sheet from 2019. Better infrastructure and fewer barriers enable effective firms to deploy sharper audience analysis, faster message testing, and campaigns that keep pace with how fast sentiment shifts. But faster AI doesn't mean practitioners should pursue looser standards in order to save a few bucks. The campaigns that win will pair that speed with real guardrails for truth and transparency, not just a chatbot and a wing and a prayer. In fact, agility without integrity is just noise with a bigger megaphone. Read more about America’s AI Action Plan here - https://lnkd.in/gReb_84y

Living in the U.S. as a Brit, you spend a lot of time defending your life choices to people back home. Now the World Cup has landed on U.S. soil, and my fellow Brits are finally getting a front-row seat to what I've always loved about this country. The energy, the scale, the enthusiasm for sport and spectacle, not to mention the genuine friendliness Americans have for people visiting their home town. Scotland's first World Cup in 28 years, and they're playing it in my backyard. The universe has a sense of humor! What strikes me watching the reaction back home isn't the football. It's the realization that America does these moments differently, bigger for sure, but also in a way that pulls people in even if they arrive skeptical. I've watched that shift happen to every British mate who's visited me here. They come in with the jokes. They leave with genuine affection. Maybe it takes a World Cup to finally prove my point. Welcome to America, lads. Told you so!

The guy on the left started a data company 13 years ago with one prospective client and $0 in the sales pipeline. The guy on the right is me looking at him, and honestly? I'd tell him to buckle up. A2P just turned 13. We're officially a teenager! As a dad and CEO, I can tell you that companies grow up a lot like kids do. There's the infancy phase, where you're just trying to figure out how to stand up. That was 2013 for us. One client. A dataset. An analytic methodology, and a lot of hope! Then the toddler years, learning to run before you can walk, and falling on our face a few times. We ran our first ads in 2015. Elementary school is where you finally work out what you want to be when you grow up. In 2018 we became a full-service marketing agency. Then the tween years, where the world gets bigger real fast. DCI partnered with us in 2024 and things REALLY took off! And now? Thirteen. The age where you stop asking permission and start building your own thing. Last year we launched Insider Maps, which charts everyone around a single person, family, friends, colleagues, the lot. And Audience Match+, because Meta matching 30% of your custom audience and calling it a day always felt a bit cheeky. We get to 70%. 300+ clients later. 15+ people on a team that feels more like a family. And remember that one original client? They’re still with us today. Thank you Mackinac Center for Public Policy for all the support over the years. To everyone who's been part of the ride, the awkward phases, the growth spurts, all of it. Here's to the teenage years! If you could sit down with yourself from 13 years ago, what's the one thing you'd tell them?

Apparently, at some point, you’re supposed to “update your headshot.” So…here we are! For those I haven’t connected with yet, my name is Andy Bookless: British Import & Analytics Enthusiast. Outside of work, life’s a mix of family, trying to stay reasonably fit (while also enjoying my cadbury chocolate!), and losing arguments with my own curiosity. I’ll be sharing a bit more here, some thoughts on strategy, some observations from the field, and probably a few things that should have stayed in my head. If you’re curious about the kind of things my curiosity tends to win arguments about, you can take a look here: https://a2precision.com/ If we haven’t met yet, feel free to say hello!

McDonald’s launched a new burger recently called the Big Arch. What happened next is a reminder that the internet has a sense of humor… and absolutely no respect for your carefully planned marketing rollout. An Irish comedian took one look at the launch and decided the only sensible response was to challenge it, publicly and loudly. And with the kind of mock-serious rivalry usually reserved for international football matches. Suddenly the Big Arch wasn’t just a menu item. It was a storyline. People picked sides, memes appeared, and the “burger war” travelled across social feeds faster than most paid campaigns ever could. Here’s the lesson for brands: You can launch a product with a meticulously engineered campaign, months of planning, and a stack of media spend. But the moment the internet gets involved, the narrative stops belonging entirely to you. Sometimes that’s a risk. Sometimes it’s rocket fuel. The smartest brands understand this and leave room for the audience, creators, and the occasional cheeky comedian to run with the story, because culture moves faster than marketing calendars. And when the internet decides your burger is the center of a global rivalry, the worst thing you can do is try to control it. Better to grab the popcorn and let the show run. https://lnkd.in/eJU8Nfnc