Is social media entering its final act?
The Financial Times recently suggested that 2025 could be remembered as the year social media’s long decline became irreversible. They made this point on TikTok – the very platform now flooded with the kind of AI-generated noise they warn could spell the end. It’s a striking observation, especially when you consider how many of us […]
Rebrand time? Hmm…
Time for a rebrand? It’s not about how you look. It’s about who you are. “We think it might be time for a rebrand.” It’s something we hear regularly and often, it comes from well-established teams who feel things just aren’t sitting right. Something’s off or out of sync. A little tired, maybe, or […]
Why good marketing alone isn’t enough
It was our eldest son’s 15th birthday last week. And in a rare and very welcome moment, our youngest – twelve years old and normally glued to his mates and his screen – offered to help bake the cake. Naturally, I jumped at the chance. Just the two of us, chatting about our favourite cakes, […]
The business of creativity
Just finished reading “The Business of Creativity” white paper – and here’s what stuck: I don’t always finish reports like this. If I’m honest, they’re often too long to stick with and sometimes a bit too pleased with themselves. Maybe it was the contributors that caught my eye (Sir John Hegarty) or because I’ve just […]
What everyone thinks an app is – and what it really can be
When most people hear the word app, they think of something they can download from the Apple Store or Google Play. A shiny icon that lives on their phone. A place to scroll, tap, or stream. And that’s not wrong… but it’s only part of the story. At Ashby, we build apps in the broader […]
Do you check the plumber’s taps before you hire them?
Do you check the plumber’s taps before you hire them? There is a saying in the trade: “The plumber always has a leaky tap.” Not because they don’t know how to fix it, but because they’re too busy fixing everyone else’s. It’s a phrase we’ve been thinking about a lot recently. Last week, while in talks with […]
Rest and reflection
We were away camping last weekend. The usual heaps of effort and ramming the Land Rover full to the roof of all the bits we might need – just in case. But there were trees. A river. The sun. Kids laughing. And they were playing cricket, football, and begging to go canoeing — not crowded […]
Do I really have to pay for hosting?
Matt Ashby here – Co-founder and Tech Director at Ashby (I handle the nitty-gritty that most people would rather ignore). The other day, someone asked me: “Do we really have to pay for hosting?” A fair question, but it carried a faint whiff of suspicion, as if we’d sneakily slipped it into the proposal, hoping […]
