The Last Animal
For marketers, strategists, and leaders navigating AI, trust, and judgement. Serious thinking in plain language — no trend reports, no recycled frameworks. Just the ideas that matter.
The Position
Alex Cheeseman makes sense of shifts that organisations are too close to see clearly.
He's always been an entrepreneur at heart; drawn to the moments where the rules of an industry stop working and something new has to be built in their place. That's taken him from the early days of companies like Outbrain (pre-IPO) to the CRO seat at NewsCorp, and now to leading Teads' Finance vertical worldwide.
Twenty years across media, marketing, and executive leadership have produced one consistent obsession: the gap between how organisations think they work and how they actually do.
In his writing he focuses on three things:
The breakdown of marketing orthodoxy, AI's effect on knowledge work, and how people build real intellectual independence.
"The work is not about predicting what comes next. It's about understanding what doesn't change and why that matters more."
Current
Global Finance Vertical Lead
Experience
20 years
Sectors
Media · Strategy · Executive Leadership
Former
NewsCorp · Newscred · Outbrain · Teads
Thinking arenas
Marketing Orthodoxy · AI & Knowledge Work · Independent Judgement
Featured Work
Discussion on how AI is changing how we measure marketing effectiveness and what that means for strategic decision-making.
Exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping strategic thinking and what marketers need to understand about the coming shifts.
Why the old models of measuring marketing effectiveness are breaking down and what replaces them.
Media has an attention problem; it's time to evolve our measurement practices
Start Here
Where the Thinking Lives
01
"The industry gives me conflicting advice and I don't know who to trust."
→ What conditions created this belief , and do those conditions still hold?
02
"I know AI matters but I'm not sure how to rethink my work, not just my workflow."
→ What happens to expertise and judgement when execution is automated?
03
"I want to stand for something intellectually but I don't know how to build that."
→ What is the difference between a personal brand and an intellectual identity?
Themostoriginalthinkinglivesattheintersections,notinsideanyoneterritory.
Field Notes
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Recent Writing
Podcast
Go deeper than industry news and trends. Conversations with the people who shape the world of marketing and advertising, exploring the human side of the industry.
Marketing Effectiveness Lead at Samsung shares his journey from a quiet seaside town to the heart of London's tech scene.
Head of Automated Media and Technology at Heineken discusses in-housing digital media buying, AI in marketing, and the power of kindness.
Managing Director at IPG UK and Ireland shares his vibrant journey through media, culture, and identity.
Marketing Lead at LIDS explores the intriguing role of nostalgia in today's marketing strategies.
The Premise
Serious thinking. Plain language. Some bite.
If that resonates, read the work as it's written.
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