The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Proper long.

And given I overwrite everything, that is probably a scary thought.

But I hope you hang in there, because it’s something important – at least to me. And who knows, it may trigger some thoughts – or hate – and I’ll consider that a win. Maybe, ahem.

So I don’t know about you, but I miss the TV show, Succession.

I miss the characters … the writing … the inconvenient truth how companies – and some families – work.

And while there are many articles and reports dedicated to explaining what ‘worked’, I recently read something that captured how it worked.

I love that write up.

I love it for a whole host of reasons … of which one is acknowledging that to make something that can capture so many people’s attention for so long, is an act of creative magnificence.

And while we may all nod our heads in agreement, the thing is we forget that.

We forget the challenge of keeping millions engaged and interested over a period of time.

Or maybe more specifically, we have forgotten HOW to do it.

Let’s be honest, the attitude of many brands is ‘keep things the same’ or ‘don’t fuck it up’ … while not realizing the biggest risk to achieving what they want to achieve is literally doing the same thing, in the same way, over-and-over again.

Of course, a big reason for their attitude is their quest for attribution.

Where the brand is synonymous and attributed to what they do/say/communicate.

However, rather than achieve this by doing interesting things that audiences value and can engage in – which is literally, the fastest, most effective way to build active, interested, engaged and committed attribution – we see more of the lazy approach. An approach sold by people with methodologies that mistake repetition as reputation.

Hence, we see countless campaigns featuring ‘consistent fictional characters’ doing variations of the same thing no one really cares about or relates to as if they’re trying to do a homage to the ‘Gold Blend’ coffee ads from the UK. WHICH CAME OUT IN THE 1980’S!!! Or the modern equivalent, where every element of every piece of communication is plastered with cues of whatever colour a brand is associated with. All the while ignoring the fact what it actually does is pull people out of their engagement with the communication because they’re questioning/wondering/laughing what sort of person drives a red car, lives in a red house – with red wallpaper – and only eat red vegetables. But even that isn’t the lowest of the low. No … that belongs to the work that shoves a watermark of the brand logo/name into the top left-or-right-hand-side of all their work … as if acknowledging their communication is so boring that the only way to know who it is from is to literally shove it in front of their faces.

I’m not saying ‘brand assets’ aren’t a thing … but they only become that with creativity.

Over time.

Continually reinforced … expressed … added to.

Without that, you end up with things that are more like weights than rockets.

And that’s the problem I have with so a bunch of the marketing practice being peddled …

Because they fail to appreciate the difference between recognition and value.

Or meaning.

Or resonance.

Or connection.

As I said to a client recently, just because I know what the swastika is, doesn’t mean I want to be a Nazi.

But that’s where we’re at right now … repeat, repeat, repeat.

Which is why that comment on Succession is so important.

Because they understand the importance of constantly adding to the narrative, not repeating it.

Keeping viewers not just interested … but on their toes.

Which leads to them engaging with the show, even when they’re not watching it.

Talking, discussing, sharing, commenting, deducing, arguing.

A program where none of the characters had many redeeming features, kept millions around the world coming back to them.

To learn. To listen. To grow. To hate. To debate.

Is that hard to do?

Of course.

Is it impossible to do?

Nope … especially when you hire proper talent and let them do what they’re great at, rather than value talent on how little they cost and then tell them what to make. Even though you don’t have experience in knowing how to make things people want to engage with.

But as a friend said to me recently, there were no conversations about ‘attribution’ with Succession were there!?

Nope. Not one. Not even from the first episode.

And maybe that was because they didn’t start the show with the intent of creating the lowest common denominator of recognition … then repeating it over and over and over again. No … their intention was to make something interesting … and then keep adding to that so their audiences would keep giving a fuck.

Look, I have no problem with marketing practice.

It is important and has a real role and value in building brands and driving effective marketing.

But that role and value is only released when it is done well and honestly … and right now, it feels there’s a lot of soundbites and not a lot of depth.

Selling systems that promise simplicity but ultimately are outsourcing responsibility.

Outsourcing responsibility to people who can profit from it, despite having no experience in actually creating it.

The irony is we all want the same thing.

Hell, we all need the same thing.

But there’s a major difference between playing not to lose and playing to win so maybe there needs to be more conversations about that, rather than blindly follow people who present themselves as business liberators when really, they’re good insurance salespeople.

Of course, the reality is that, despite what some may say, there’s not one ‘all encompassing’ answer to all this.

I get how expensive everything is so the temptation to stick and stay with what you know and what is working for you, is high. But regardless who you are, it will not last forever and it’s far better to own the change than be left behind by it.

Just ask the Disney execs how they’re feeling as they watch their Marvel universe start to implode.

Building anything is a journey that goes through highs and lows along the way.

But it’s the people who think – or say – they can stop that, who end up creating branded mediocrity.

Or should I way, ‘mediocrity attribution’.

Which is why there is one final example of the commercial value of adding to a story rather than repeating it and that’s Queen.

Specifically their recent sale of their back catalogue for ONE BILLION POUNDS.

Whether you like the band or not, you can’t say that is not an impressive number.

And while even I – a massive Queen fan – accept that in 1986, they stopped being musicians and became entertainers [aka: ‘turned crap’] … it’s the music they made until that point that gave them their legacy, fans and economic value.

Because rather than basically repeat their first hit over and over again … they kept taking people to different and interesting places.