I know I said there’d be no blog posts till October because I’m busy moving countries [again]. but I thought I could use this ‘empty’ time to set a new APSOTW assignment.
Over the years we have covered all manner of subjects … from validating flag design to pitching new business to developing comms strategy to creating solutions to difficult problems.
But this time we’re going to do something different.
To be honest, it’s less about being evaluated on how you present your thinking and more an exercise on thinking.
Now the thing with thinking – especially thinking where advertising and creativity is concerned – is it rarely can be wrong.
Sure, people can have all manner of opinions on what you think… but it generally can’t be viewed as being fundamentally right or fundamentally wrong.
This is liberating – or should be – which is why I’m hoping as many people as possible will have a go at this assignment.
The actual deliverable is easy.
All you have to do is watch the below clip and tell me– based on what people are saying in the clip – what you think the brand could have said to make their audience care about shaving.
That’s right, all you have to do to take part in this assignment is watch a short film and then send me a single sentence.
That’s it. Easy eh?
OK, I’m not going to deny this is harder than it may first seem.
Part of that is because the clip is about African American men … so to succeed, you have to appreciate the context how African American men live in America.
The other challenge is you need to get your point of view into a single sentence.
That might sound super easy until you remember that single sentence has to also capture the context that makes your point of view so powerful.
[For a clue on how this could be done, click here … even though this example isn’t quite right as it’s based on having lots of additional information, which this challenge does not allow]
The reason for this challenge is 3 fold.
1. It will help your skills in reading subtext.
2. It will help you ability to write a provocative point of view.
3. It will help you make audiences want, or imagine, more from themselves.
As I said at the beginning, there’s probably no wrong answer to this assignment, but to win [and there will be a prize] you’ll need to see something in the conversations within the clip that you feel opens the door to a bigger, more intriguing, more exciting, more resonant point of view for the brand.
This is not about inventing something that isn’t there … this is about seeing something that is, but hidden in plain sight.
While the ultimate deliverable for this assignment is easy, your submission will be judged by some of the toughest, most experienced, most culturally authentic experts in their field, including – if I can convince him to publicly associate with me again – Jason White, the Global CMO of Beats.
So have a go, it will be fun and all you need to do is send me a SINGLE SENTENCE by September 30th to this address.
As I’ve said before, I believe the future of our industry will be built on developing ideas that are resonant with culture rather than trying to be relevant to them and hopefully this will help make that happen.
If you have any questions, please place them in the comments. Thank you.