If you don’t know what I’m going on about, you should read here and here.
If you came here for some planning, advertising or marketing stuff, then – apart from being bonkers – you would be much better off going here, here and here.
And if you accidentally found yourself on this blog, change your search engine immediately.
That’s it. For now. Ta-ra.
So this is it, the end.
At least the end for now.
As the old bird in the picture above once sang, “we’ll meet again” … before adding “don’t know where, don’t know when” … though if I was to hazard a guess, apart from continuing to co-manage the Advertising Planning School On The Web [#apsotw], I’d say there’s definitely a good chance they’ll be a post when my son is born and I want to show him off.
So until then, thank you for all the laughs, lessons and insults over the past 8+ bloody years … have an amazing Christmas and may 2015 be an utterly epic year for all of us. I have a feeling it will be, after all, my son will be here.
And with that, here’s a little reminder why you should be glad my impending fatherhood is forcing me to disappear for a bit.
[In my defence, it was all lovely Marcus’ fault and you can find out why, here]
Christ almighty, how the hell do I still have employment after that?
Mind you, that’s not as bad as the fact that some of you watched it way back in 2007 and still came back for more. Mental.
For the record, I still have – and wear – that shirt, and even more shocking than that [at least for Northern] is it doesn’t have any military insignia on it at all.
Not one bit.
Amazing.
And on that bombshell, all that leaves me to say is thank you and goodbye … or maybe it’s au revoir? … who knows, I guess we’ll see.
Whatever it is, off I trot to experience a new, mad, scary, wonderful chapter in my life.
Shiiiiiiit.
Wish me/him luck.
Ta-ra.
Filed under: Comment
There’s a couple of people I know who are struggling with some major decisions in their life.
Some of them are almost paralysed by it … knowing they should act but fearing what might happen if they do.
All this is leading to is doubt, uncertainty stagnation and regret.
Of course big decisions need big considerations, but too often we end up focusing on what we might lose rather than also considering what we might gain.
I get it. I really do.
When I was deciding on whether to move to Australia, I was utterly conflicted.
A lot of things were going on in my life at that time so the easier option was definitely to stay in England.
And yet my heart – and my parents – felt it was something I should do.
I was so stressed out by the decision that, much to my parents amazement, I went to see a councellor.
In over an hour of conversation, there was one thing he said that especially helped.
While he acknowledged moving to Australia was a risk – especially for the reasons I was going to do it – he said the thing I had to remember was the greater the risk the greater the potential reward.
Of course that’s obvious and of course, that also highlighted how in my particular case, there was a relatively low potential for success … but in my quest to work out what to do, I’d lost sight of the possibilities that could occur if it all went well and that bit of clarity helped me make my decision.
For me, that decision was to move 12,000 miles away from my beloved family and see what might happen.
And what happened?
Well, based on the original reasons I went … it failed.
It didn’t fail immediately and I had an amazing journey along the way but based on the final outcome, it failed.
However for a billion different reasons, it changed my life for the better forever.
Seriously.
I cannot begin to cover all the amazing things I have experienced and discovered in my life because I took that first step.
To be quite honest, everything that has happened to me in the last 18 years can be traced back to that decision to go.
Every single thing.
The life I now enjoy would never – and I am not overestimating that – have happened had I let my mind only focus on the risk rather than the potential for reward.
That doesn’t mean my life would have been bad had I stayed in England, but it would certainly be very different and so I am forever grateful to my parents, friends and councillor who helped me make a balanced decision rather than a fear driven one.
So to the people I mentioned at the beginning of this post who are going through their own moment of indecision, I leave you a little poem.
It was given to me by a friend who was given it by their friend.
After 17 years of marriage their husband died.
He was 39.
She was on her own with a young child.
She didn’t know what to do but she knew she had to do something.
It helped her. I hope it helps you.
Filed under: Comment
I am a massive believer in understanding associative memory.
I’m not as extreme as Clotaire Rapaille … but I do believe that if you uncover someone’s first experiences with a particular situation, environment, product or category, it can give you a clearer understanding of what the individuals real relationship is with that situation.
There are many people who don’t subscribe to this point of view and that’s fine, but recently a friend showed me something that – in a very roundabout way – highlights why looking for someone’s frame of reference may give us more understanding about their actions and behaviour than the classic ‘insight’ model, favoured by so many.
[For the record, I am not dissing insight. I am a massive advocate of it and believe in it’s importance and value … however the way many people/brands go about identifying it [not to mention, what they actually classify as an insight] is both bewildering and embarrassing]
Have a look at this.
What do you see?
If you said a naked woman being held by a man, then this would indicate you are probably over the age of 12.
For the record, if you said a naked woman being held by a man that is sexually stimulating to you, this this would indicate you need help. Fast.
The reason I say that is because my friend – a psychologist – told me that when he shows this vase to young children, they see something entirely different.
Because young children don’t have any associative memory for ‘intimate couples’, they see dolphins.
Nine dolphins.
No, I can’t see them either – not even one of them – but the point is, while our associations can evolve, if you look for where they began, you might get more insight into how to fundamentally change attitudes and behaviour than anything ‘big data’ can tell you.
In short, it may be the difference between infiltrating culture and playing only within the confines of the category.
Of course, it’s not easy, but then anything worth something, rarely is.
Filed under: Comment
Once upon a time, I lent a friend some money.
It wasn’t a huge amount, but it was enough to be noticed and felt.
The friend was going through a lot of troubles at the time so I was very happy to do it.
Time passed and nothing was mentioned.
Nothing at all.
But thanks to the power of social media, I was able to see that the lifestyle they were leading didn’t really demonstrate any level of sacrifice.
Nights out.
Celebrations.
Holidays.
They all were maintained even though the money they borrowed – and it was very clearly a loan, not a gift – was never returned.
I must admit this led to a lot of animosity from me.
Especially when I saw they were enjoying vacations that far exceeded anything I had ever had both in terms of location and duration.
But this is not about my choice of friend, this is about priorities and perspective.
You see, I know my friend would never want to upset me.
If I was to ask him any of the following questions – prior to this situation – I know they would have answered with an emphatic “no”:
+ Would you ever knowingly want to upset a friend?
+ Would you ever borrow money from a friend and never pay them back?
+ Would you ever want to show you are not worthy of being trusted?
And this is what’s fascinating … because as much as I genuinely believe they would mean it when they said it, when they found themselves in their situation, they did the complete opposite.
Of course they wouldn’t see it that way.
Instead of viewing their behaviour as ‘unfair, selfish or uncaring’, they would regard it as simply ‘doing what their family needed’.
Of course, if they were using the money to pay their rent or put food on the table, I doubt there’d be a single person in the World that would challenge that … but in my friends case, it appears ‘what their family needed’ was to maintain a lifestyle they felt they were entitled to, either because that’s how they were raised or how they used to live.
In other words, they would argue: how can it be unfair when all we’re doing is maintaining our normal standards?
Which gets to the heart of what I’m trying to say in this post.
Regardless what we may think is ‘convention’ … regardless what people may say ‘they would do’ when faced with certain circumstances … when faced with the realities of hypothesis, people’s choices and decisions end up being far more heavily influenced/justified by self-interest – whether they’re conscious of that or not – so if you blindly make plans based purely on what people say ‘will happen’, then you have to prepare yourself for the potential of disappointment.
Remember that next time you’re in a focus group.