MBS Intelligence
Concepts, marketing & creative direction
Shopping for Spring
A subject I love talking about and debating is whether ‘retail theatre’ in supermarkets is still as relevant today as it was in days gone by. Since Covid, all of my repeat supermarket items have been bought on...
Do sports clubs need creative directors?
Two weeks ago, Kenny Annan-Jonathan was appointed as Creative Director at Crystal Palace, marking the first time a Premier League team has hired a creative lead. Brought in to “oversee apparel collections and fashion...
A visit to Amsterdam’s Duikelman kitchen shop
Anyone who knows me well knows that I love stores! One of my favourite ways to explore a new city is through its shops. I always wander through the supermarkets, and in the past I made sure to visit local department...
All to play for: the meteoric rise of competitive…
‘Competitive socialising’ may be a new term, but it is certainly not a new concept. Punters were throwing darts in pubs as early as the fifteenth century, and anyone who’s played a game of pool in a bar or taken...
Notes from another small island: reflections on six months…
I’ve been the editor at The MBS Group for the best part of four years. In this time, our working patterns have bounced from office working to home working and back again, before settling into the hybrid structure...
The show must go on: what can the classical…
In November, the English National Opera was given a piece of advice: develop a new business model. After years of shrinking audiences, Arts Council England slashed the ENO’s annual funding to zero, recommending that...
Reflections from South Africa part I: Delighting, differentiating, and…
The summer season of 2022/2023 in Cape Town has been a remarkable one. Post-Covid, tourists are back in droves, restaurants, beaches, hotels and stores are full, there is a vibrant atmosphere in the city and the...
Feeling buoyant: how the cruise industry is bouncing back
Is there a corner of the travel sector more resilient than cruises? Just two years ago, Covid-19 had ground the cruise segment to a halt: losses were mounting, share prices were falling, and ships were being dubbed...
Community in a cost-of-living crisis
If any of you have ever taken a meeting with Saul Klein, Managing Partner at Phoenix Court Group (home of VC funds Local Globe and Latitude), he will insist that you meet at their offices and take you for a walk around...
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