TWIS: I always wanted to be a Gregorian Monk but I never got the chants
Hi Strat Pack,
Let's start on a high note (ha-ha just kidding): Time to change your password again. your email was almost certainly one of 773 million records that was included in a breach called Collection 1. Read about it here, then check to see if your data was breached (spoiler alert: mine was) at https://haveibeenpwned.com/
Full disclosure: we did not cover the Instagram Egg this week. I'm sure you're well aware of it. Maybe we'll get to it next week. Maybe not.
Alright guys, stop messing around changing your Yahoo password from 2008 and let's jump right in.
1) Why Nike’s Woke Ad Campaign Works and Gillette’s Doesn’t [New York Mag Intelligencer]
There were so many hot takes on the Gillette film across the internet this week. I think that this Intelligencer article sums up my thoughts the best. Personally, I'd give the insight an A and the execution a B-. When thinking about how we want to take a stand, it's so important to be solutions-oriented.
Of course, sometimes people deserve to be accused. But brands do not enjoy the corrective moral authority that might be enjoyed by a church or a family or a group of community elders.
Nike’s message to customers worked because it's uplifting rather than accusatory. It doesn’t urge them to interrogate their roles in societal structures that may cause oppression, let alone the roles played by corporations like Nike. It skips past that, looking toward a solution rather than a problem. The Gillette campaign, by comparison, is a downer.
2) Apple, Facebook Messaging Rivalry Hints at Intensifying Services Battle [The Information]
Both companies have recently hit speed bumps in their core businesses. For each though, messaging has become a highly sticky application that keeps users loyal to their respective platforms.
For an idea of the business opportunity around messaging, look no further than China’s giant WeChat, which offers a huge array of services. Users can make payments, check a social feed and book doctor appointments in major cities, among other services. The company also offers an enterprise version.
Of interest to me was the mention of Apple Business Chat that I had never really heard of. The CNET article summed it up the best: "I can use iMessage to have a beer or water delivered to my seat at a baseball game? Go on, I'm listening"
3) AI Robots Speed Up E-Commerce in Warehouses [WSJ Podcasts]
I, for one, welcome our warehouse robot overlords.
You know what you and I both have in common? 7 minutes and 55 seconds of free time on the subway to listen to this podcast. Sit through the tech headlines (yeah its a little old, sue me!)
Or skip past all that to the 3 minute mark, and listen to how companies like XPO Logistics and Rakuten are rolling out automation in warehouses to boost productivity -- "increasing human-machine collaboration". The tech, as it turns out, is much more complex and difficult to wrangle than you'd expect.
4) This is the first truly great Amazon Alexa and Google Home hack [Fast Company]
Might I recommend checking out Project Alias. It latches onto a Google Home or Amazon Alexa device. Project Alias serves as a gatekeeper between you and big corporations. It effectively deafens the home assistant when you don’t want it listening, and brings it to life when you do.
The most appealing part of Project Alias is its promise of privacy. Amazon has a relatively poor track record here, storing past conversations in the cloud. Google, too, collects spoken data. Of course they aren’t meant to listen in to your private conversations, but by nature, the devices must always be listening a little to be listening at just the right time–and they can always mishear any word as a wake word. But whether these devices are true privacy invasions or not, frankly, it’s hard to trust big companies with relatively poor privacy track records to always hear only what you want them to hear.
Enough of that, on to something (actually) more positive...
5) Department of Great Work
DNA Discounts by AeroMexico [Behance] Really great work by the Ogilvy Mexico team back in Julyish that this week started trending on social media
How to make a great cocktail by Hackett [YouTube] Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. This video is from 2 years ago and clearly didn't get a lot of traction then. But they've partnered with a bunch of cocktail instagram accounts and have cut it down to a :10. Here's an example...watch to the end card, it's worth it.
New ITV campaign muses on the nature of compelling characters [Campaign UK] "Great characters make great drama" breaks the fourth wall with 2 of ITV's (a UK TV channel) most iconic characters that contemplate the kind of character they are and why we love them. BEAUTIFULLY shot and very compelling. (The first ad in the article is for a great show called Endeavour which is in the Inspector Morse universe and is available on the PBS app here in the states)
6) The history of two iconic foods
So this one is not even directly related to advertising. But culture is memetic (as I believe it is), and advertising is one of the main drivers that propagates culture.
Hopefully you will be able to start drawing connections between these products growing from niche to globally recognized staples, and the role we play as advertisers. Or maybe not!
The History of Hot Sauce in America [Extra Crispy]
Chilies were first domesticated 7,000 to 9,000 years ago in what is now Mexico’s Tehuacan Valley. And like other New World crops (potatoes, beans, corn), chilies did not leave the Americas until the arrival of Christopher Columbus. That means no chilies in Indian, Thai, or Chinese food; no Spanish pimentón, no Hungarian paprika, no Tunisian harissa. Kimchi, if you can believe it, was white.
How the Slice Joint Made Pizza the Perfect New York City Food [New York Times]
In hundreds of pizza shops around the city, many no bigger than subway cars, you’ll find New Yorkers shoulder to shoulder, eating slices in near silence. “Teens, Wall Street guys, guys camped out with a shopping cart, a pizza place is the most diverse space in the city. Inside a pizzeria that dream of diverse New York City is a reality” said Colin Atrophy Hagendorf, author of “Slice Harvester: A Memoir in Pizza” and host of the Radio Harvester podcast.
Ok so thats our spiel. This week in Strategy come out every Friday morning, and is the perfect hangover subway companion.