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Phillip Dyte

Managing Partner

About this Author

As a managing partner at iProspect UK, Phillip works on integrating digital strategy into the bigger picture for clients. Before this role he spent over two years in the Paid Social Media team at iProspect working across a variety of clients, as well as previously working at a PR agency.

WWDC: HomePods are Coming

From a low-key WWDC, the HomePod has emerged as the clear object of interest for the media. Much has been discussed regarding how it might compete in the wireless speaker market, and a few more strategic types have been musing on what it represents in terms of Apple’s approach to the connected home. The first point is only of interest in the sense that Apple’s sound quality needs to be good enough to compete in the space – certainly, at least, at the proposed price tag. But that’s all. It probably can’t hope to be the best, if simply because the audio market is a never-ending treadmill where there is always a better option. But Apple know how to design hardware, so let’s assume that its primary sale point is up to scratch, and will make the shortlist of those in the market. The second point, about the connected home, is a bit more involved. The fact is that the connected home remains a really slow-moving market, restricted by both a lack of unifying standards and slow upgrade cycles on white goods, let alone consumer appetite or ability to apply it. I mean, let’s assume that the type of person interested in a connected fridge is most likely to be under 35. Even if they had the £1,500-4,000 required to buy the thing, they’re probably going to be renting and in no position to make that decision. It’s not that Apple is wrong. Over time prices will fall and purchase cycles refresh, so the connected home will be here eventually – it’s just that won’t be anytime soon. Which leaves us with the interesting bit, which is that Apple are also trying to sell canned Siri – it’s first AI play in years and, frankly, not easy. Now, Amazon has shown that it’s not necessary to be omniscient to succeed in the personal assistant market, but that’s because it a) has a laser focus on fulfilment, and b) has the ability to connect that focus to its enormous infrastructure and supply chain, including things like Amazon Prime. But Siri, and indeed Apple, have almost none of this. It’s possible that Apple will try and force the question by, for instance, making Apple Music only work with HomePod – but that may prove a bridge too far for its users, who already face a swathe of proprietary restrictions. This leaves the company facing down the question of how to make its AI actually useful. My expectation is they will copy Amazon in the short term and focus on making sure Siri’s list of ‘doable’ tasks is sufficiently long – because it’s easier than building a knowledge engine, and because it clearly works. But eventually Apple will have to reckon with what they’ve created, and make Siri an altogether more powerful creature. Otherwise, well – it’s only a speaker. 0 3 min read

iProspect meets Santander's 'Accelerators'!

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Strategy is the task of communicating a wide variety of concepts to a wide range of people, all of whom have different levels of familiarity with the topic at hand. In mid-July, this was really put to the test as I was asked to help Santander with their three-day ‘Accelerator’ course for promising young entrepreneurs. I was to run a talk and workshop on strategic marketing, touching on subjects like rules for building brands, data and insight, and of course media planning. The finalists were all immensely bright and ambitious, and had a really broad spectrum of experience with marketing: some were just starting out, and some were practically experts! Putting together a session to appeal to everyone was an enjoyable challenge. Just to hedge my bets, I also drafted letters containing customised advice for each of the 18 attending businesses, giving my candid opinion on opportunities and areas of focus specifically for their brand and marketing efforts. Happily, even without these missives the feedback was that the session “was by far the best of the day,” and I’ve already received several follow-up emails! Matt Hutnell, Director at Santander Universities, got in touch with his own take: “Last week 18 amazing student and graduate led start-ups took part in over 20 masterclasses and workshops from sector leading organisations as part of the 2017 Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards. Phillip delivered a session on strategic marketing for start-ups that challenged the way the group of entrepreneurs thought about their brand and online presence. The personal review for each business that Phillip provided was an excellent addition to the session and reinforces exactly why we see such a valuable partner in iProspect” All in all, it was a pleasure to talk to so many smart people doing brilliant things. I’ve little doubt that the room contained some of the big names of the future. One day we’ll probably all end up working for them. 0 2 min read

Digiday Media Buying Forum

On Tuesday 26th March I spoke at the Digiday Media Buying Forum, where I decided to try and offer some insight on the process of taking specialist talent and turning them into generalist management. The imperative to think about this seems uncontroversial: as digital continues to become the dominant force in media, organisations are more than ever going to need to bring technical ability right through from the coal-face to leadership. Certainly if they want product expertise to be reflected in how the the business is run, anyway. It was also quite a timely moment to reflect on the topic. As it just so happened that the 26th marked my seven year anniversary at iProspect UK. On exactly that day in 2012, I walked through the doors for the first time as a newly-minted Paid Social Planner. Now, writing this, I have just become a Managing Partner. Giving up what you’re good at is nonetheless a strange process. Here are four lessons I learned from going through it myself. You get bad really quickly Digital is a rapid landscape, and if you’re not getting stuck in daily your skills will quickly become outdated. A User Interface update here, a new format there – at some point, you’re going to realise that you’re no longer an expert. My message was that this has to be something that you accept, rather than fight, and that companies would do well to make sure that specialists who are trying to grow are not kept in their erstwhile boxes. Engagement is tied to value As an ancillary to this, once you stop having quite such a clear and immediate source of value, you can become disengaged with your job surprisingly quickly. Sometimes, it’s going to feel like you’ve made a mistake. Sometimes people change their minds and go back to specialism. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that – we always need more specialists. But for those who decide to press on, they need to find new ways to generate value for the company – and for themselves. Build something only you can build A good way to do that is to take whatever generalism you are trying to tackle and inject it with the specialism you came from, or that your company is good at. So, when defining the strategy product for iProspect UK, I made sure to build from the ground up using iProspect UK's products and abilities. This created a different type of strategy with a different perspective on the world and that difference often propelled it further than a classic media strategy might otherwise have travelled. Fear is good Lastly, whilst we all have quiet periods it is good to listen to that nagging voice that says you’re not doing as much as you’d like. Inertia is a bad place to be. Instead, that fear should be used to break new ground in adjacent territories. So now, I’m doing more public speaking and (even) more work with data. And at this rate, I’ll be at iProspect UK for another seven years! 0 3 min read

Phillip Dyte

About this Author

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