Blog
Writing from Turner & Co, and Guy's essay series, Assay This.
From the blog
19 October 2026We kept getting hired for the second job. So we changed what we sell.Turner & Co started out selling content. Our best work kept starting after the brief ran out. Here's why we've changed what we offer, and who it's for.
16 October 2026Growing, plateauing or declining: three moments to bring in outside helpMost businesses don't plan in growth, and don't act in decline. Here's how to tell which moment you're in, and what usually helps.
16 October 2026Six sales against one: what a three-day test told usAn agency campaign was spending heavily and selling very little. A small, cheap test in the same account showed what to scale instead.
16 October 2026The chatbot said 39. It was wrong twice.A general chatbot answered a simple football question in seconds, with the wrong player and the wrong number. Here's why checkable answers beat fast ones.
16 October 202616.1%: what free government data told us about who really stays in MurciaWe needed to know whether Murcia was a real long-stay market or just a holiday coast. Spain's official statistics answered it, for the cost of the time to ask properly.
16 October 2026From idea to in market in three months: what actually slows a launchLoanPrep went from an idea to a compliant business, approved to advertise, in around three months. The app was the easy part.
16 October 2026Before you call the lawyer: the brief that saves you feesLawyers, accountants and grant advisers charge for their time. Arrive with a clear brief and you pay for advice, not for them to work out what you're asking.
9 July 2025What Happens When Your Market Stops Playing by the Rules?Even the most experienced brands can get caught off guard when their market suddenly stops behaving as expected. One day, everything feels stable: your customers are loyal, your campaigns are converting, and your…
9 July 2025SXSW25: From Sci-Fi to Society: IBM’s Vision for AI and Quantum Computing – Arvind KrishnaSUMMARY BY GUY TURNER What if the biggest breakthroughs of our time weren’t a decade away , but already here?That was the heartbeat of IBM CEO Arvind Krishna’s SXSW 2025 keynote. In a session that felt part vision,…
26 May 2025Fresh Thinking in one of the World’s Youngest DemocraciesBy Guy Turner · Turner & Co In one of the world’s youngest – and most determined – democracies, we didn’t just find a project. We found a purpose. Before Tasch and I launched Turner & Co, I spent my career in media…
24 March 2025SXSW25 – Your Brand is a Joke: And That’s an Opportunity – Panel DiscussionSUMMARY BY GUY TURNER In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, brands face the challenge of connecting with a generation that values authenticity, relatability, and, notably, humour. At SXSW 2025, the panel…
24 March 2025SXSW25 – Human-Centered Storytelling: Driving Connection & Culture – Cheryl Miller HouserSUMMARY BY GUY TURNER What does it really mean to be human? It’s messy, complicated, emotional. And the best brands? They don’t just sell us products; they make us feel seen. They remind us that we matter, that our…
24 March 2025SXSW25 – Leveling Up Your Ad Game: How Next-Gen Stats Are Reshaping Marketing – Itai Cohen (Digital Turbine) and Andrew Moffatt (Qrious Insight)SUMMARY BY GUY TURNER I thought this might be a niche geek out session for me as a former head of data and insights managing both Ipsos and Roy Morgan relationships…but it took a fairly hard pivot with a little…
24 March 2025SXSW25: Women, Psychedelics, and the Future of Health – The Next Frontier in Integrative Medicine – PanelSUMMARISED BY GUY TURNER At Turner & Co, over half of our client base operates in women’s health , particularly at the intersection of mental health, hormonal transitions, and the reproductive cycle. From…
20 March 2025SXSW25 – 7 Non-Obvious Secrets Of Understanding People To Predict the Future – Rohit BhargavaSUMMARY BY GUY TURNER Are We Going to Be Alright? The Future is Ours to Shape The world feels chaotic. Digital addiction, war, nationalism, AI risks – it’s no wonder the most common question futurist Rohit Bhargava…
28 November 2024The Rest Is History: Why Audio on Demand is Bringing the Past Into the FutureHistory Is Not Niche – It’s Everything “History is arguably the broadest subject in existence – it’s the record of all human experience.” Often misunderstood as niche, history encompasses everything that has ever…
28 November 2024Marketing Teams Must Lead the AI Revolution, Here’s WhyIt can be exhausting being in marketing right now. Every day, there’s a new trend to keep up with, another must have tool to explore, data to stay on top of, and a never ending stream of updates from platforms like…
2 November 2024The Psychology of Reality TV: How Businesses Can Use Familiar Techniques to Capture Attention and Build LoyaltyLove it or hate it, reality TV has become a cultural phenomenon, with shows like The Real Housewives, Love Island, and Survivor drawing millions of viewers every week. But what makes these unscripted dramas so…
2 November 2024Remember When…Your Customers’ Dreams Came Wrapped in Frustration?Ah, remember the good old days? You’re eight, it’s your birthday, and you’re finally unwrapping that G.I. Joe tank, Star Wars Millennium Falcon (the only reason I mention the Falcon, the Pinotti’s living 2 houses…
Assay This
Guy's independent essays on the systems that make the world behave as it does: sport and money, media and power, technology and the people caught between them.
- 27 September 2026Kanye West Played Tampa. Macklemore Won’t.Raymond James Stadium, four months apart. One of them arrived with a clause saying the venue could not cancel him over anything he had ever said. The other was a support act.
- 17 September 2026Sydney Sweeney Moved Up the Cap Table. So Did Tom Brady.Sydney Sweeney took equity in a sports prediction market. The day before her campaign launched, its future landed at the Supreme Court. Everyone talked about her body.
- 15 September 2026Corruption Didn't Get More Brazen. It Got Better Structured.The Los Angeles Clippers moved money to Kawhi Leonard in a shape the salary cap cannot see. Steve Ballmer lost a year. Los Angeles lost a decade. The company in the middle was a $248 million fraud.
- 10 September 2026Packer Wanted the Rights. Norman Wanted the Game.LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday. The players who turned it down are now paid twice as much for the same golf. Two Australians tried to break a sporting cartel and only one of them had a price
- 9 September 2026He Founded His Own Party. It Lasted Twenty-Eight Months.He then joined somebody else's and won a seat within a month. In the same stretch a central banker became Prime Minister of Canada six weeks before he had a seat, and a mayor became Prime Minister of
- 8 September 2026GPT-6 Astra Ate 30% Of My Week In An Hour. Roblox Would Have Texted Me.I own shares in a company built on OpenAI’s platform, so read me accordingly. The product is superb. The customer care is a disgrace, and it is not only OpenAI.
- 4 September 2026You Cannot Found a Lakers.Anyone can found an AI lab this afternoon. Founding a basketball team costs eight billion dollars and the permission of thirty people who lose money by granting it.
- 4 September 2026286 Days at Sea. Then Someone Said Pattaya.The USS Abraham Lincoln docked in Thailand covered in rust. 18 months ago the man who now runs the Navy looked at a photograph of a rusty warship and said whoever was responsible should be ashamed.
- 16 August 2026We Unmasked the Wrong Man.Jon Harvey is Count Binface and was Lord Buckethead. The other man in this story with two names gave Farage 12 million pounds and owns 12% of the largest private creditor of the United States.
- 2 August 2026It’s Got to Be the PigeonsBilly Birmingham turned Bill Lawry’s love of pigeons into Australian folklore. The Twelfth Man made the phrase immortal, but the joke depends on our having forgotten what pigeons once were.
- 2 August 2026The First Paving StoneRoads are civilisation’s autobiography. Every empire leaves them behind.
- 2 August 2026The Charter of Assay ThisEssais. Assays.
- 30 July 2026The Prince of Zurich.An Australian comedy podcast mapped a decade of FIFA a week before FIFA put the World Cup up for sale. That is not a scoop. It is a confession: none of it was ever hidden.
- 26 July 2026The Empire's New (Sporting) ClothesVictoria paid $589 million to escape the 2026 Commonwealth Games. The thing it was fleeing was barely worth hosting. But the replacement is a colonial abomination.
- 22 July 2026The Man Who Won the World Cup, and You Can't Name Him.Argentina had Messi. France had Mbappé. Spain had a sixty-five-year-old nobody can name and a twenty-year plan. Only one of them lifted the cup.
- 22 July 2026Trump Media Doesn't Only Grift. It Also Built a Data Business.Selling Wall Street a millisecond head start on the president's posts is not just a cash grab. It is the new vanguard of courtsiding the market. And it does not stop at Truth Social.
- 21 July 2026Don't Burn the Boats. Use Them.The most-quoted advice in bootstrapped startup-land is survivorship bias. The oldest story we have says spend the fleet systematically, because no one knows how many pitfalls lie ahead.