TWIS: Why did Beethoven get rid of his chickens? Because all they said was "Bach! Bach! Bach"
...And his cows all preferred Moo-zak. I'm here all week ladies and gentlemen!
Hi Strat Pack!
Look, we could talk about Amazon breaking up with NYC on Valentine's Day, but that's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is Influencer Witches of Instagram, a real article, really reported by Cosmo. There are so many gems in this article, but special shout out to "Even if modern witches don't have to fear being burned at the stake, they still experience their share of haters."
And here's a funny tweet about bands as transportation options, ranked in descending order of convenience.
Alright stop messing around in the Cosmo comments section. Let's jump right in.
The one thing to read this week
1) Why most briefs are wrong [Dave Trott's Blog]
Another reason to love Dave Trott. His blog is called Dave Trott's Blog. Adorbs.
Most briefs are about a solution, defining the problem. If a problem has been solved, there is no creative opportunity.
This is where most briefs go wrong. The job of the brief is to change, to reframe, the problem. Creativity is about solving a problem in a new way. So the job of the brief is not simply to define the existing problem.
We don’t need strategists for that, the client can do that.
The origin of planning was to get upstream of the existing problem. To find an exciting new problem which, if solved, would render the existing problem irrelevant.
BONUS ONE THING TO READ THIS WEEK: Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field [Also Dave Trott's Blog]
The world from Steve Jobs’ perspective. Not that tiny things didn’t really matter. But that tiny things mattered incredibly. You have to get people to want to do the impossible. And that’s how you revolutionize six industries.
2) What I Learned from Watching the Super Bowl with Non-Ad People [Little Black Book]
We're not done with Super Bowl thought pieces yet. This one is quick and honest and really good. It will keep you grounded until next year's Big Game
Next year, skip your ad friend’s party and toss out the confirmation bias like you would with the leftover onion dip. You will find a focus group of real people is a much better indicator of success than ad people who will critique every spot while the actual game becomes texture.
For non-ad people, Ads aren't things to be parsed. Super Bowl ads are either good or bad in their eyes. Most of the year they avoid the product we create, and that pushes us to create bigger, braver, funnier and more breakthrough work for our clients. But on this one day, when the ad world gets its 15 minutes of fame, they are still not rarified moments. Even when budgets, star power and craft is at its peak, ads remain the de facto time to hit the bathroom or refill on guac.
Real people don’t think like marketers. Our world is foreign to them. We must consider our real audience, on the one day of the year they are slightly more captive, so we can nail that deft touch with our work on Super Bowl Sunday and every day of the year.
3) Why the Advertising Research Foundation thinks marketers should reconsider their personalization strategy [MarketingLand]
The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) warns marketers that excessive targeting and retargeting can lead to lower-than-expected ROIs, a poor customer experience and potential damage to a brand’s reputation.
Advertisers should definitely consider moving away from personalization and consider putting those dollars toward more traditional advertising, [some old, presumably white guy] said. “Advertisers have to research what the impact is for the long term for their brand,” said [another presumably old white man], chief research officer of the ARF, adding that it’s hard to tell a brand’s story within the confines of a typical targeted digital ad.
4) ‘A crisis boiling under the surface’: Agencies confront employee burnout [Digiday]
Dealing with burnout and mental health issues is still something not talked about freely at agencies. In a culture that is obsessed with creativity and driving success, it can be difficult to admit a problem.
Ad agencies are people businesses. Big accounts mean more work; there are often tight and sometimes unreasonable deadlines. Margins are squeezed, and salaries, especially for those starting out, can be low. Turnover is high. At some agencies, that kind of cyclical burnout is built into the way things work: According to one vp at a social media agency, their agency will bring people on, work them 60 to 70 hours a week and then, when they leave for better opportunities, repeat the entire process over again.
5) Department of Great Work
In Amusing New Ads, Deutsch Revives the Refreshing Sound of Buschhhhhhhhhhh [AdWeek] It's even grounded in audience data!
"Everyone has a dream" for Emergency (Italian Charity) [Ogilvy Twitter] Beautiful :90 film. Highlights the power of a narrative journey.
Anatomy of a deepfake: how Salvador Dalí was brought back to life [The Drum] GS&P for the Dali Museum in Florida
Just a beautiful Rimowa spot from back in September [YouTube] Keep your influencers. I'll take a beautiful luggage manifesto any day.
Brands are killing it on Giphy. Target is BAE [Giphy] because they just fucking get it. And New York Fashion Week [Giphy] is making a big push. Giphy is positioning itself as the live events homepage for the internet generation and that's so fucking smart.
6) Platform Updates
Nothing crazy this week. Some good stuff, even.
What brands should know about Reddit [L2 Inc] One nugget: Don’t underestimate Reddit’s ability to drive traffic… Last June, 70% of Domino’s social referral traffic came from one viral Reddit post.
LinkedIn debuts LinkedIn Live, a new live video broadcast service [TechCrunch] Welcome to the big kids table, LinkedIn. They see the platform not as rough-and-ready user-generated content, but as streams of the kinds of videos that fit with its wider ethos
Two personal ones!
How to skip YouTube ads using the Touch Bar on MacBook Pros [Business Insider] Only on Safari, though.
Facebook Finally Rolls Out Option to Unsend Messages In Messenger, But There's a Catch [Gizmodo]
Instagram Trends to Watch out for in 2019 [Forbes]
Facebook is Developing a Unified Messaging Inbox for Businesses [Social Media Today] The unified inbox would enable Page managers to respond to Instagram Direct messages and Facebook Messenger interactions all in one place.
Snap lenses are now available on Skype and Google Hangouts [Twitter] Click though to the site, very interesting pivot for Snap as a company.
Last but not least!
7) Unilever calls for brands to join pioneering cross-media [Campaign UK]
The FMCG giant said it had already made "significant steps" towards building a model that offered "real transparency of media performance, assessing unduplicated reach and impact across publishers, platforms and screens in a privacy-safe way".
It said the efforts were part of its aim to support "responsible infrastructure", one of three commitments made by outgoing chief marketing and communications officer Keith Weed in February last year, along with responsible platforms and responsible content.
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That's all for this week. Thanks for staying tuned as always. Have a great weekend!