I love technology.
That doesn’t mean I’m a geek or a nerd … I just love tech.
Of course, when I say that, I don’t mean intellectual tech that can make a massive and positive difference to mankind, I mean the sort of tech that ends up producing robot rabbits, dogs and pretty much any other animal you’d find in the farm of Old McDonald 2.0.
With this in mind, it won’t come as any surprise that I read a few tech/gadget mags, of which 2 – T3 & Stuff – are particular faces.
While at their heart they’re pretty much the same, T3 is a bit more serious whereas Stuff is a bit more cheeky.
Or said another way, T3 is for tech connoisseurs whereas Stuff is for normal people who like gadgets.
This difference has never been clearer than when they launched their latest editions.
While both have done James Bond specials and dedicated their cluttered front pages to the fact … one has executed it in a way that captures the spirit and mood of Bond whereas the other just feels like a very bad impression of what someone thinks Bond is about, even though what they’ve ended up with looks – and feels – like a magazine on the gadgets of Austin Powers.
The thing is, there are occasions where the information and data you have will be the same – or at least very similar – as everyone else, so what these covers demonstrate is that the role of a planner isn’t just to furnish their colleagues with insights and context about the issues/views/considerations/habits of the audience – but to also explain the brands spirit, voice and point of view, because as I’ve said many times, the talent of a planner should be evaluated on output, not their carefully crafted powerpoint presentation.