The short version

I'm Anthony Lopes. I run Lopes Advisory — a commercial strategy practice for founder-led SMEs whose growth has stalled.

Twenty years in digital marketing and revenue operations. One pattern I kept seeing: founders adding marketing spend to fix problems that weren't marketing problems. Disconnected systems. Broken data flow. Strategy and execution pulling in opposite directions. All of it showing up as "marketing isn't working."

Lopes Advisory exists to break that loop.

Why the name changed

I started Deep Thought Marketing in 2009. Sixteen years later, the work had outgrown the name.

The marketing expertise was still there — it had just become one capability inside a broader strategic practice.

So Deep Thought became the methodology. Lopes Advisory became the practice.

The change isn't cosmetic. It's a statement about what the work actually is. Marketing as a category has outgrown itself. What used to be marketing is now commercial strategy with marketing as one capability underneath it. Calling it anything else is a category error that costs founders real money.

What I believe

Most stalled growth is a systems problem, not a marketing problem.

Diagnosis is the product. Execution is downstream. Selling execution without diagnosis is how budgets get wasted.

Lead volume is the wrong goal. Modern marketing intercepts intent; it doesn't capture leads.

Last-click attribution systematically lies. Making budget decisions on it is malpractice.

AI discovery is replacing search for high-value informational queries. If an LLM can't cite you, you don't exist.

A strong point of view is the cheapest, most durable moat a small company can build.

"Strategic partnership" means nothing. Refusing work means something.

How I work

Solo. Senior. Remote. Based in Johannesburg, working across UK, EU, and South African time zones.

Small number of engagements at any one time, because diagnosis done well can't be done in volume. Direct access — you're not handed off to a junior. When you hire Lopes Advisory, you get me.

I take on work I believe I can move. I turn down work I don't — including work from founders who are looking for validation rather than diagnosis. The refusal list is not a marketing gimmick. It's how the practice stays honest.

Background, briefly

Twenty-plus years across paid media, CRO, SEO, content, email, retention, and revenue operations. Career history spanning gaming, insurance, education, and — most recently — higher education partnerships across multiple international markets. BCom in Strategic Management. Harvard ManageMentor leadership certification. The usual alphabet soup of platform certifications, most of which matter less than the pattern recognition that comes from twenty years of watching the same problems repeat.

What matters more: I've sat on every side of the table. Agency. In-house. Client. Operator. That's where the diagnostic instinct comes from.