Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Content, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Digital, Effectiveness, Emotion, Empathy, Entertainment, Happiness, Honesty, Imagination, Inclusion, Innovation, Insight, Long Copy, Love, Marketing, New Zealand, Perspective, Purpose, Relevance, Research, Resonance, Sentimentality, Truth
As many of you know, I’m quite the emotional guy.
[OK, I get it … that’s an understatement. Let’s leave it there]
But while this can sometimes result in me having an ‘Elton John’ moment [™ Elton John] I have always been a huge believer in the value and importance of empathy.
Part of this is because my Mum always told me to be interested in what others are interested in, but as I got more and more into my planning career, I realised that if you can truly understand the feelings and emotions someone is experiencing, it enables you to make work that others will also feel and resonate with.
A perfect example was this work we did ages ago for Nike in China.
It had already been decided the idea for the global 2012 Olympics Campaign was going to be Greatness. The problem was that when we spoke to kids all over China, they didn’t feel they were ever able to refer to themselves as great.
They felt that was a term saved for the chosen few. The people who the government deemed as having done things that raised the entire nations profile and success.
Of course they didn’t articulate it like this … we got there by spending time with them and slowly pulling away the layers of codes and confusion so we could understand what they wanted to say rather than what was being said.
Or said another way, we wanted to understand rather than get answers.
Now I am not denying it took a while … and I also accept being an Olympic campaign, we had the time and the money to do things right. But the thing is this rigour was worth it … because not only did it turn into an incredible campaign … not only did it become China’s most successful ever campaign … it helped changed attitudes towards what greatness is and allowed millions of kids to feel they could feel valued and valuable.
This is the work.
The reason I say this is because for the past few months, I’ve been working with The University of Auckland’s Creative Thinking Project in exploring new ways to use creativity to engage and deeply resonate with audiences.
Thanks to the work of Sir Richard Faull, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at The University of Auckland and Nuala Gregory, a fellow of the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries – also at The University of Auckland – we have explored and experimented with a whole host of different creative formats to identify which one can create the best conditions for connection.
The findings have been astounding.
While the vast majority of communication spend goes towards television, digital and outdoor advertising … none of these had the same impact on audiences as the power of the poem.
In fact, when poems were used as the content for television, digital and outdoor, the increase in engagement went up on average 13.3%.
THIRTEEN!
OK, I know that may not sound a lot on first impression, but when you consider last year, companies spent SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIVE BILLION DOLLARS GLOBALLY on advertising … if this can improve connection to potential audiences by 13%, then it has huge commercial opportunity.
[And by that, I mean for brands, creativity and the University of Auckland]
Now I suppose on one level, none of this should be a surprise.
Rap is a kind of poetry.
A way to communicate that’s felt as well as heard.
But while we have started to explore this, our focus has been on poetry and the results, as I detailed above, have been fascinating.
Sir Richard believes this may be heavily influenced by the challenges the World has faced over the past few years. Where the feeling of isolation of helplessness has created an yearning for any sort of emotional connection. And while TV may have their manifestos, they often come over as contrived … whereas poems have a fragility to them that enables them to better resonate and connect to audiences.
For example … of the literally thousands of poems tested, this was one that achieved one of the highest scores, despite being from an anonymous author.
Now this mountain I must climb
Feels like the world upon my shoulders
But through the clouds I see love shine
It keeps me warm as life grows colder
While it is deliberately ambiguous, it appeared to connect to audiences as they saw it as capturing the struggles they felt in life. Where there is still an expectation for progress and yet the conditions people find themselves having to deal with are increasingly harsh and difficult.
Other poems that resonated – and follow a similar theme to the previous example, except it is by contemporary poet, Ocean Vuong – include this:
And when your fears subside
And shadows still remain
I know that you can love me
When there’s no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness
We can still find a way
As well as a piece from his work entitled ‘Life’, which has a much darker theme:
Loneliness is my hiding place
Breast feeding my self
What more can I say?
I have swallowed the bitter pill
We are still working on the research but have set up an instagram that lists the poems that have tested particularly well.
I would love it if you could visit the page and let me know how the poems affect you. If they do.
Now I appreciate this leaves me open to all sorts of ridicule.
And I assure you that I am not trying to suggest poems are the future of effective advertising.
This is simply a project to see if there are techniques that allow us to better connect emotionally to audiences without necessarily needing to spend months in the field meeting endless people.
While I am part of this work, it is ultimately the property of Auckland University.
Fortunately, they have said I can promote the work because they would love to have more respondents take part. So if you are interested in discovering more – and helping see where this creative adventure could lead, can I ask you to sign up here.
That said, I would recommend you do it today … because studies have found April 1st is the optimal day to get people to sign up to ‘research’ that is actually just some 80’s song lyrics from Foreigner, Guns n’ Roses and Queen.
Have a great day. I know I will.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Confidence, Consultants, Content, Creativity, Culture, Digital, Fake Attitude, Innovation, Management, Perspective, Planners, Point Of View, Professionalism, Relevance, Resonance, Respect
I used to think it took a lot of hard work to be simple.
A lot of thinking.
Evaluating.
Sharpening.
Changing.
But maybe I was wrong because I literally cannot imagine how much time it took to create this:
It’s a masterclass in nonsensical.
A blueprint for showing a company who doesn’t know what they actually do.
A celebration of the buzzword bingo bullshit that permeates so many organisations.
Basically, imposters talking to imposters with words they’ve so bastardised the meaning of, that you’d be hard pressed to recognise their original definition if you were left alone with them in a bar overnight with only a dictionary for company.
The verbal equivalent of Mickey Rourke.
Or Lara Flynn Boyle.
Hence now …
Innovation means ‘we’ve made something average a little bit better’.
Revolution means ‘we’ve never done this before though others have’.
Experience means ‘we offer our customers boring and average’.
Transformation means ‘we’ve caught up to everyone else’.
[hence ‘digital transformation’ is simply code for, ‘not being left so far behind’ as opposed – as many in the industry also like to position it – as reinventing the whole category]
And while adland is the cause of a lot of this bullshit, the consultancies – or worse, the wannabe-consultancies – are taking it to a whole new level. Continually creating nonsensical language and definitions in an attempt to feel intellectually superior to those around them. Believing this sort of language acts as a sort-of ‘code’ that helps identify other delusionists, wannabe’s and/or victims … so they can revel and reward themselves with their Emperors New Clothes bullshit.
Until they can’t.
What is particularly amusing is these companies still celebrate the old adage of ‘quality over quantity’ … even though they show up with a level of excessive vulgarity that would put Donald Trump to shame.
Talking in plain English – or plain any language – is not a bad thing.
If anything, it is the most powerful.
Not just because it is easier to communicate and relate to.
Nor because it shows you can identify the core problem that needs addressing.
But because it captures something my old man used to say to all his young lawyers:
“If you want to show how intelligent you are, you’re not that intelligent”.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Brand, Brand Suicide, Comment, Confidence, Consultants, Content, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Dad, Design, Digital, Distinction, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Finance, Honesty, Imagination, Insight, Internet, Legend, Love, Loyalty, Management, Metallica, Money, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, Relevance, Resonance, Respect, Rick Rubin, Standards
I am a massive fan of Rick Rubin.
Actually that’s not quite right.
I am a massive disciple of Rick Rubin.
I think he is incredible. His ability to help others express their most powerful creative voice is amazing.
So much of this is down to how he see’s his role.
Not as a music producer, but as a sophisticated fan.
Someone who wants the band he loves to be their shameless best.
Protecting them from ever feeling they have to compromise on who they are or what they want to say because he fiercely believes the greatest return comes when you express your honesty and authenticity rather than play to be liked.
It’s why the artists he’s worked with reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the most culturally significant artists of their time.
Those who either defined a genre or validated it.
LL Cool J
Run DMC
The Beastie Boys
Slayer
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Rage Against The Machine
The Black Crowes
The Dixie Chicks
Johnny Cash
Look at that list. Look at it.
Hip Hop. Rap. Rock. Metal. Thrash. Blues. Country. Funk.
No one should be able to be so successful with that range of genre and artist.
It’s hilarious and yet there are so many more artists I could mention because for almost 4 decades, Rubin has helped artists not only express their truth but recognise the economic power from doing so.
He has created icons.
He has revived icons.
He has shaped, pushed and provoked culture.
He has influenced, shaped and changed music forever.
When we hear agencies talk about ‘creating culture’, most haven’t come anywhere close to what he has helped create.
But what I love the most about Rubin is how he decides who he is going to work with.
Basically his entire decision making process is based on one simple process.
Taste.
If Rubin likes what he hears, then he’s up for it.
It doesn’t matter whether it has any connection to anything he’d done before, he see’s it less about the music and more about the artist needing help to express … find … or rediscover their voice.
Not their singing voice. Their soul.
It’s not that far off what we as an industry say we do for brands.
Except we’re increasingly forgetting what brand is because we sacrifice it time and time again for the quick win.
I get it, we’re fighting for our lives … but in our quest to show we have value, we’re destroying what makes us valuable.
Oh I know we won’t admit that.
We’ll point to words like purpose, experience and membership as proof ‘we get it’.
We’ll say they’re representative of modern brand building and all else is old.
We’ll show 1000 page decks that show how our unique processes ‘guarantee’ success.
And some clients will buy this, which means we can go away thinking we’ve got it all sorted out and we’re legends.
Except we haven’t and we aren’t.
Yes, all those elements play an important role in building a modern brand … however they’re never the lead, always a supporting actor because …
Sales without distinction doesn’t build a brand.
Purpose without sacrifice doesn’t build a brand.
Data without understanding doesn’t build a brand.
User journeys without nuance doesn’t build a brand.
Eco-systems without an idea doesn’t build a brand.
Personalisation without being personal doesn’t build a brand.
Wanting to be something to everyone rather than everything to someone doesn’t build a brand.
The harsh reality is we’re dangerously close to confusing commoditisation with brand building. Of course this is not all our fault, but continuing to perpetrate it, most definitely is.
While I appreciate Rick Rubin didn’t mean the photo/quote that appears at the top of this page to be interpreted this way … he pretty much sums up how to build truly distinctive and definitive, culturally resonant brands.
And he does it in 10 words.
TEN!!!
And that’s part of Rubin’s magic.
He understands how to get to the simplest expression of his viewpoint, because he knows the simpler it is, the less obstacles to deal with.
Simple lets truth speak and rise.
Simple lets possibilities flourish.
Simple lets distinctiveness be expressed.
Simple is unbelievable power.
Now the irony of simple is it’s not easy to pull off.
Simple is definitely not simplistic. To be simple requires a hard work, experience and confidence … and while as an industry we have known this and advocated this for decades, we seem to have recently decided the opposite – where we celebrate complexity.
What the hell?!
Maybe it’s because we’re making more money from this approach. Or just feel more important. But the endless playbooks, frameworks, processes, tools and strategies we’re producing aren’t building better brands, just bigger obstacles.
Again, there’s a place for them. But the way they’re being used – they’re more like hammers than brushes – forcing them into the process, competing with all around them and ultimately leaving people lost with what they’re following, what they’re building and what they’re actually doing this all for.
As someone recently said to me – someone hugely successful in business – when companies make the solution more complex than the problem, they’re just creating another problem.
Please don’t think this means you skimp on standards or rigour.
If anything, it’s the exact opposite … but because everyone knows what they’re working towards [rather than doing their version of what they think everyone should be working towards], it means they can be sharp and focused and that means your work can be expressed in ways that lift things up rather than bogs them down.
I get some people won’t like this.
I get some people won’t agree with this.
I get some clients would never sign off on this.
But apart from the fact I doubt any of them will have come close to influencing, shaping or creating culture in the same commercially infectious way Rubin has, if they really believe selling the complexity of intelligence is a smarter way to operate, I’ll leave you with something my dad – who was pretty good on this whole intelligence thing – used to say to his lawyers:
“If you have to show how clever you are, you aren’t that smart”.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Culture, Digital, Diversity, Social Media
I am part of the last generation who experienced life before the internet while also being able to embrace it as an integral part of our life.
It has been amazing and as an [over]user/sharer on pretty much every platform out there, it’s fair to say that I am a big advocate of it.
However things have been changing.
Maybe it’s due to the hell of 2020.
Maybe it’s because we live in such political times.
Maybe there’s simply more pricks out there these days.
But it’s not nearly as nice as it once was.
It’s been happening over some time, but the warm, supportive nature of the mid-2000 blogging community has definitely gone.
I loved that time.
It actually was a community rather than just a bunch of people being on the same platform.
And while people disagreed with each other, there wasn’t the spite you see today.
OK, sometimes there was – but when it happened, the community united to stamp it out.
The attitude was ‘by all means have a different point of view, but maintain respect for the other person views as well’.
It was self-policing … a community who openly opposed anyone who was being toxic towards another, or being condescending or desperate to not just ‘be right’ but wanted to ensure the other person looked foolish to all around them.
But that’s the environment we have on social media most days.
All social media … from Twitter to Linkedin and everything in-between.
Sure, sometimes the internet reveals it can be a community again.
United for something good or meaningful.
But sadly that’s now the exception, overtaken by a bunch of arrogant, condescending, self-righteous pricks.
Who are mainly men. White men.
Who are happy at the destruction of another.
Ridiculing them.
Humiliating them.
Of course trolls have been out there since the earliest days, but we are witnessing a new breed. They’re not the people who we can easily dismiss as vicious fools simply seeking attention.
No, this lot are much harder to spot.
Because they’re able to be personable one second and destructive the next … leaving a stream of people confused and broken from the experience of the interaction.
Broken in terms of who they are.
Broken in terms of what they believe.
Broken in terms of thinking they can contribute.
The ‘I-am-better-than-you’ attitude is everywhere.
It is social bullying of the highest order … where groups form around cults of personality and feel it is OK to ignore pleasantries, debate or reason and feel it is perfectly acceptable to revel in trampling on another.
No one – or very few – would ever dare do that to someone face-to-face and yet they think this is perfectly acceptable behaviour on social platforms.
Well it isn’t.
We have enough hate and anger in the World without us happily adding to it.
And while some may say, “it’s only a small minority doing it”.
They’re confusing the small minority who do it all the time with the large majority who do it some of the time.
And while I appreciate we can all make mistakes or have a bad day – and those so people can show incredible compassion towards others at certain times … the fact is, when we fail to acknowledge our bad behaviour – whether through embarrassment or arrogance – we are showing others it’s OK.
To not care about others.
To think our views are superior views.
Which is why we should maybe all practice something Jill has told me since we got together.
Never do or say anything to someone you wouldn’t do with your significant other next to you.
Because if you do, you can’t complain when you’re punched in the mouth.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Apathy, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand, Brand Suicide, Comment, Content, Context, Creativity, Culture, Digital, ECommerce, Environment, Social Media
Social media.
Or for some, digital marketing.
Oh the terms and the tropes.
The guru’s and the chancers.
The rules and the frameworks.
The DTC brand successes and the DTC product commodification.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of social media marketing. I think – done in the right way – it can powerfully drive brand, business and fandom in ways many other forms of marketing can’t hope to reach.
There’s countless amazing examples out there, but underpinning all of them is the inconvenient truth that they’re based on an idea. It may not always be what the ad industry likes to call a ‘big idea’, but it’s an idea all the same.
Something that holds all it does together. Guides it. Shapes what it does. Gives it a reason to exist and add to culture rather than continually try to steal from it.
But the problem is these brands are still in the minority because the vast majority still practice what my beloved Martin Weigel refers to, “the continuous production of social landfill”.
There are countless reasons this occurring …
The belief it gives them ‘free’ advertising.
Their fear they may be left behind or left out.
The attempt to look and act relevant to the times.
But without doubt, the worst reason is ‘people really are interested in who we are and what we have to say’.
Oh my god, that’s the worst of all.
A deluded state that manifests itself into some of the worst behaviour and marketing you can get … liked and supported by those who either work for the company or want to.
So what we end up with is an ever-increasing production of sheer shit.
Pointless, mindless marketing filth that doesn’t so much scrape the barrel, but is the scrapings of the barrel.
Things like this …
What. Is. That?
Seriously, how deluded and desperate must you be to think this is the sort of content the World is waiting for.
Yes, I appreciate they have almost TWO MILLION followers but come on …
And they’ve even incorporated a way to ‘vote through emoji’ to allow their ‘fans’ to interact with the content.
To paraphrase a comment once made to me by a client … sometimes, the people who like your stuff are the people you don’t want liking your stuff.
Pity the poor social media people who have to manage this stuff.
I say pity, because surely they can’t think this is good?
Surely they are the human equivalent of a battery hen … held in a small room and told to keep finding ‘ideas’ to churn out as content.
Stuff that is the very embodiment of social media landfill.
An always on strategy that turns people off.
But my god, what if they think this stuff is good?
What if they believe people wait with baited breath for the latest piece of content they literally are churning out?
What if the client thinks it is driving ‘powerful user interaction metrics’?
I know Colgate Palmolive make many products.
Some of which have become brands that are very, very popular.
But maybe someone needs to tell them that just because people buy them, doesn’t mean people care about them … certainly outside of the environment they inhabit or in the detail Colgate finds fascinating.
Or to paraphrase another old client of mine:
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.