Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Honesty, Imagination, Innocence, Insight, Marketing, Mum, Mum & Dad, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, Relevance, Resonance
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been invited to speak at a couple of conferences – in Hamburg, for the APG, and at ‘Closeness’ in London.
In both cases, I was asked to talk about the importance about empathy – something I’ve been banging on about for centuries.
And in both cases, I felt the best way to do it was to talk through the lens my Mum had taught me … which is the title of this post.
For an industry that is supposed to understand people, I’m surprised how few seem to really understand what that means.
Rather than understand hopes, dreams, fears, ambitions and contradictions … it seems we prefer to focus on the bits that are relevant to our business needs, without seemingly realizing the important role context plays in shaping how we live.
If you don’t get context, you don’t get people … and you don’t get context without investing time.
Not focus groups.
Not ethnographic studies.
But an on-going commitment to going down the rabbit hole of people’s lives to understand how they live and the nuances that separate each and every one of us.
You can’t do this if you want to ‘fast forward’ to the bits you have pre-determined will be useful to you.
You can’t do this if you want convenient answers to ‘sell your campaign’.
You can’t do this if you want answers rather than understanding.
This last point is especially important.
Frankly, understanding is becoming a lost art.
Understanding is built on emotional connection, not intellectual.
Where you leave your prejudices, barriers, filters, expectations and hopes at the door and focus. Asking questions to understand more about what someone is saying than to get the answers you want to your specific challenge.
It’s hard.
It takes real practice.
Because while you may appreciate every person has a story … it can only truly be revealed if you let them do it in their own way, in their own time, in their own words. Which means you might end up hearing things that makes no sense to you, even though it makes perfect sense to them … and while that might not initially seem valuable, you’ll soon realise it’s immense.
But all this takes time.
And takes a real commitment.
However it lets you go back with knowledge that enables you to make work that feels like it was born from inside the culture rather than from a bunch of observers.
Work that is filled with the nuances that makes the audience take notice.
Care.
React to.
Feel respect towards because it shows respect to them.
Or said another way …
Work that is resonant to culture rather than just relevant.
And it all starts by being interested in what others are interested in.
Not for commercial gain, but because you are interested in who people are.
It’s why my Mum is still teaching me how to live, 4 years after she has gone.
And now she is teaching others too.
Thank you Mum.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Design, Insight, Luxury, Management, Marketing, Professionalism
When I was young, I loved cars.
OK, I still do … but back then, they held a particularly strong fascination.
Freedom. Independence. Status.
Now while there are many cars that are burned into my consciousness – the Ford Fiesta XR2, the Fiat X19, the Triumph TR7 to name a few – there is one that has a special place in my heart.
Not because I wanted one, but because in my provincial mind, it represented the pinnacle of success.
It was … a Ford Granda.
Yes … that tank like thing at the top of this post.
I know … I know … how utterly shameful.
As I said, it wasn’t a car I aspired to owning or driving – besides, I was years off being allowed to drive – but it was the biggest car on the road and in my small, little mind, that meant the driver was doing one of the big jobs in life.
You have to understand that I was entering as period of my life where school life was soon going to make way for the rat race … and while I was good at school, I was crap at exams so I was looking for direction in terms of a job that could one day, potentially let me own a Ford Granada.
Jesus, I was sad.
It gets worse … because I still remember seeing a man drive a BMW 7-Series when they first came out and going up to him to ask what he did for a living as I couldn’t believe anyone in West Bridgford – my home town – could ever have a job that let them buy a car like that.
The irony was it was less about having something that would convey status and success to the outside world and more about setting a goal that would let me think I have done OK in life if I ever got to own one.
Which I didn’t .
The reason for all this is that I recently watched a video for the launch of the MK II Granada.
It’s long, but it’s worth watching for a whole host of reasons.
Part of it is because it highlights how far the car industry has evolved since 1984 interns of technology and what they regard as driver/passenger comfort and sophistication … part of it is because it’s funny to see them make big claims about small features [digital clock anyone?] … but the biggest part is how much technology we still regard as luxury is over 30+ years old.
It doesn’t make me want a Granada, but it does help me feel less foolish rating them in 1984.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Food, Italy, Marketing Fail
Cultural appropriation is a big subject these days.
I have to admit, I am torn by it.
Of course, when someone adopts anything from another cultural background and doesn’t acknowledge it’s origins – or doesn’t ensure it is expressed with the respect and context it deserves – then it’s bad [I’m looking at you Gwen Stefani] but I can’t help feel that in some circumstances, it can help build ties between heritages that can encourage understanding and acceptance.
Jesus … I sound like a Ms World contestant don’t I.
If that wasn’t bad enough, it’s all because I wanted to show this photo …
Yes, that really is a pizza with chips on it.
CHIPS!
And it was at Whole Foods.
An American firm using British chips on an Italian cuisine.
If I was Italy, I would see this as a legitimate reason to declare war … but then, based on this campaign from my mate from a few years ago, maybe Italy culturally appropriated pizza from South Korea.
Maybe.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Comment, Craft, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Music, Queen
The picture above is a ‘behind the scenes’ photo of Queen preparing for a photoshoot.
Not just any photoshoot … but one that define their immortality.
Now looking at the state of them, you’d not thing that was possible.
John Deacon is wearing a Queen t-shirt for christsake.
But in the hands of the brilliant photographer Mick Rock, he turned these 4 lads into genuine music icons with an image that will outlive the band and define an album, a song and a video for decades ahead.
At a time where more and more people are trying to devalue the value of craft, I hope people see this and remember it’s not a cost, but an investment that pays for itself many times over.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Fashion, Luxury, Marketing, Resonance, Women
I’ve written how mental Gucci have been in the past few years in both their fashion and their marketing – though on this last point, it’s been quite refreshing from the up-itself-image-bollocks the fashion industry tends to perpetuate.
However I recently saw an ad for their lipstick that is making me think they’re doing more than just trying to superficially differentiate from the competition.
Yes brands like Dove have celebrated ‘real beauty’ before – though they also sold skin whitening products so you know that their intentions for female empowerment are not entirely true – but it’s rare for a high end fashion brand to do such a thing, especially in such dramatic fashion.
You see even though Dove celebrated women of all shapes and sizes, they tended to all be classically beautiful … however here is Gucci, doubling own on celebrating the beauty of the imperfect by showing what my American friends would say is a ‘British smile’.
We will have to see if they are truly going to push this agenda but in an industry so superficial they can make a puddle look like an ocean, this is a step in the right direction in helping women celebrate their own beauty, not someone else’s definition of it.