This Week in Strategy: Did you hear about the can crusher who hates his job? It's soda pressing.
Hi Strat Pack,
Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! You know what happens when you don't vote? You get Google's new logos. That's what happens. These logos are just so bad. But, as the article says - to paraphrase Sun Tzu, if you wait long enough by the river, the bodies of your favorite Google products will float by. I can only hope these new glyphs won't stick around for long. Click through and read the article, it's funny and well written. And VOTE!
I know I'm a little late to the game on this, but I watched Class Action Park the other day on HBO Max (here's the trailer) and I really need you to watch it too. It's the story of this water park in the 80s. Where most of the rides were built by the owner who had literally zero engineering experience, and the place was run by a bunch of 15 and 16 year olds. It was chaos. The documentary is brilliant. And it's narrated by John Hodgman. Worth a check out!
Last but not least - a New MIT algorithm automatically deciphers lost languages without knowing its relationship to other languages. What?! Researchers at MIT developed the algorithm in response to the rapid disappearance of human languages. Most of the languages that have existed are no longer spoken, and at least half of those remaining are predicted to vanish in the next 100 years. Up next, the researchers are trying to expand the work to identifying the semantic meaning of words — even if we don’t know how to read them. That's so cool! Science is great.
Alright stop messing around trying to figure out what happens if you run Google's new logos through that lost languages algorithm. Let's jump right in.
The one thing to read this week
1) The Diderot Effect: Why We Want Things We Don’t Need [James Clear]
[ED Note: this is actually an article on how to reduce consumption, something I believe we all need to do in order to limit humanity's impact on our changing climate. Alas, we work in advertising and there's an interesting nugget in here on consumer behavior that I want to share. So use this to your advantage, but also click through to read about how to defeat the Diderot effect, and, ahem, reduce, reuse, recycle]
The famous French philosopher Denis Diderot lived nearly his entire life in poverty, but that all changed in 1765. Diderot was 52 years old and his daughter was about to be married, but he could not afford to provide a dowry. Despite his lack of wealth, Diderot’s name was well-known because he was the co-founder and writer of Encyclopédie, one of the most comprehensive encyclopedias of the time.
When Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia, heard of Diderot’s financial troubles she offered to buy his library from him for £1000 GBP, which is approximately $50,000 USD in 2015 dollars. Suddenly, Diderot had money to spare.
Shortly after this lucky sale, Diderot acquired a new scarlet robe. That's when everything went wrong.
Diderot’s scarlet robe was beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that he immediately noticed how out of place it seemed when surrounded by the rest of his common possessions. In his words, there was “no more coordination, no more unity, no more beauty” between his robe and the rest of his items. The philosopher soon felt the urge to buy some new things to match the beauty of his robe.
He replaced his old rug with a new one from Damascus. He decorated his home with beautiful sculptures and a better kitchen table. He bought a new mirror to place above the mantle and his “straw chair was relegated to the antechamber by a leather chair.”
These reactive purchases have become known as the Diderot Effect.
The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption which leads you to acquire more new things. As a result, we end up buying things that our previous selves never needed to feel happy or fulfilled.
Life has a natural tendency to become filled with more. We are rarely looking to downgrade, to simplify, to eliminate, to reduce. Our natural inclination is always to accumulate, to add, to upgrade, and to build upon.
In the words of sociology professor Juliet Schor, “the pressure to upgrade our stock of stuff is relentlessly unidirectional, always ascending.” And in Diderot's words, “Let my example teach you a lesson. Poverty has its freedoms; opulence has its obstacles.”
2) How to Win An Argument With a Strategist [Advertising Week 360]
We’re not are not in the business of creative for creative sake but are here to use creativity as a problem-solving tool. Creativity is a weapon when applied to the right problem but becomes pretty useless if pointed in the wrong direction. This starts with admitting there is a problem (an honest first step required in any intervention) and requires a debate on whether we’re defining the problem in the right way. If we get this initial definition wrong, all the work might be wrong, so best to get your comments in early when they can have a disproportionate impact on the outcome.
A good brief or deck or strategy is an argument that has tension built into it, and that tension is created by it having a shape. Depending on your school of thought it is either the shape of a fish (thanks Jim Carroll) or some stairs (thanks Martin Weigel).
In each you can challenge the various points in it – is the ambition lofty enough, are the challenges we face large and perilous enough, and does our solution tie together those strands into a neat and inspiring bow.
Flawed starting assumptions - Wrong-headed assumptions are often baked into a client brief and if we don’t challenge them, whatever argument comes afterward is probably not right.
Misuse of data - Every planner has at some point cherry-picked a data point that supports the argument, or over-sampled to find the agreeable human in a focus group who said what we wanted them to. Data is no replacement for a strong point of view so however robust it seems, look for the interestingness before believing all the data.
Right but not interesting - Which brings me to perhaps the most important point – is it right but not interesting? An alcohol brand was working from the insight that it created ‘non-agenda connection moments.’ That’s not inherently untrue (though you could also word it as ‘people hang out’ which begins to feel less interesting), but it might not be the most exciting way in. I always loved the dumb simplicity of Bailey’s strategy that it is half booze, half cake.
It’s a stretch - Often a strategy will fall down in its final moments. The consumer, category, brand, and business strands are all plates in the air that need tying together into a single-minded thought and they just don’t quite make it. In creative we say, ‘long walk for a ham sandwich’ and that long walk often begins with a strategy that meanders through information without landing a thought.
Closes vs Opens - Lastly, does the single-minded thought create a springboard to creative work or does it close down options? The smartest strategy in the world isn’t worth the paper it is printed on if it can’t be executed.
3) Retail Spotlight!
As I'm sure you know, the Hallmark Channel has already switched full-time to Christmas movies. Which got me thinking about the holiday shopping season, and retail in general. Here are a few interesting articles about why (and how) brands are getting by in 2020.
Why category leading brick and mortar retailers are likely the biggest long term Covid beneficiaries. [Gavin Baker - Medium] This is a long but really interesting article focusing on the financial aspects. Really interesting, even if you have to Google some of the financial acronyms.
Many of the perceived Covid winners such as e-commerce, videogame and streaming media companies have simply been pulled a few years forward into a future that was inevitable. Their destiny did not change. The future for those businesses simply accelerated whereas the future for category leading “brick and mortar” retailers has changed dramatically as a result of Covid, more so than for any other business of which I can think
If most e-commerce companies have been pulled 1–3 years into the future in terms of their revenue, then the e-commerce businesses of most category leading brick and mortar retailers have been pulled 5–10 years into the future.
I sometimes think that investors do not appreciate how large and rapidly growing the e-commerce businesses at some of these category leading retailers are. Wal-Mart’s digital revenue in Q2 was an annualized $42 billion, growing 94% — faster than Amazon. Best Buy’s digital revenue in Q2 was an annualized $19.4 billion, growing 242% — faster than Amazon.
One long term benefit of Covid for category leading retailers who are taking significant e-commerce share during Covid is that for the first time *ever* at many of these companies, e-commerce is being resourced and managed appropriately while taking advantage of all the online advantages conferred by their store networks. I suspect this is the first time that the online analytics team is as important to the CEO as the merchant. This is a profound cultural shift at many of these companies that is likely to be enduring. Nothing accelerates change like success.
Time will tell, but I am reasonably confident that category leading brick and mortar retailers are going to be the biggest long term beneficiaries of Covid. These retailers used to be called “category killers,” but that terminology has fallen into disuse as it seemed silly in the face of Amazon. I suspect we will begin to call them “category killers” once again.Why American Eagle is the last mall brand standing [Fast Company] At a time when many retailers are hemorrhaging money and closing stores, American Eagle saw a 32% rise in revenue and is on track to open 70 new stores this year.
How did AEO become one of the last successful mall brands in America? The answer seems to be the company’s single-minded commitment to its target customer: Gen Z, the oldest of whom are now in their midtwenties. So what does Gen Z want from a fashion brand? Jennifer Foyle, AEO’s chief creative officer and Aerie’s global brand president, says the company’s research points to one clear reality: Today’s young people want comfort, and she means that in every sense of the word. “They want their clothes to be soft and comfortable, but they also want marketing campaigns to make them feel comfortable in their own skin,” she says. “This is now at the forefront of everything we do.”
In the second quarter, AEO saw a 74% increase in revenue through digital channels across all brands. But at the same time, she believes strongly that brick-and-mortar retail isn’t dead, it’s just evolving. While many suburban malls have been dying for some time, she sees opportunities to expand into shopping streets in smaller towns and into outdoor lifestyle centers, which are increasingly popular.
Your Friday Morning Hate Read
4) Creativity Is Dead, Long Live Curation [High Snobiety]
I hate this so much. So so much. But before I talk about why I abhor this article, let's set a few things straight. The author has a PhD in Sociology from Columbia, while I am an asshole behind a keyboard. The author has a masters in Media Studies from The New School, while I work at a company who for *years* excelled at buying the rotting husks of failing dot.com media darlings. Now that we've established that I have absolutely no bona fides, grab a bloody mary, click through, read the article, and then come back and let's commiserate together.
Here are a few choice passages that are so...terrible that I have no choice to share them with you.
When brands moved from manufacturing products to manufacturing culture, design, luxury and art, curation zoomed onto taste, aesthetics, identity and social status. Curation became the fuel of modern culture.
Curation shifts attention from products to the curatorial point of view, which is infinitely more valuable. This flips the script of brand strategy from product benefits to the story, and makes it imperative for brands to think like curators.
Under pressure for newness, brands struggle to actually create new stuff, but by curating the old, they give it renewed meaning and purpose in consumers’ eyes. Curation contextualizes product within a specific time and a point of view.
Viewed through the lens of creativity, curation becomes a perfect connective tissue in our niche and micro culture. “The curator is a junction-maker, a catalyst, a sparring partner, somebody who builds bridges," says [I don't care who, TBH]
And so, a good starting point for any brand to think like a curator is to create your own aesthetic world instead of simply relying on your product’s aesthetic or your visual handwriting...Beyond making products more valuable, curation as a brand strategy extends to the entire value chain.
OK, I just need to say a few things:
Curation is not a brand strategy. Brand strategy is brand strategy. It's worrying that I need to keep repeating that
The headline "Creativity is dead" !!!!! If creativity is dead, what is left to curate?
Brands do not manufacture culture. Brands are not the arbiters of culture. The Eames chair didn't become a midcentury icon because The Eames Corporation created an aesthetic for it. A very complex web of subcultures act as arbiters and gatekeepers that bring things from niche to mass. Brands are so thirsty to create culture (see, e.g., all the hot takes about how to make your own Ocean Spray moment--no I'm not linking to any) but ultimately all that most of us can ever do is capitalize on culture. Not create it.
Sometimes Advertising does create cultural moments, like Budweiser's Wassup, or Verizon's "Can you hear me now" but these are the exception not the rule. We should all strive for this in our communications, but we can't count on it happening.
I really don't get the thesis of this article. Should brands act as curators, or should brands work with people who are already curators? If so, is this article basically just Malcolm Gladwell's TheTipping Point for fashion? What about every other industry?
I could go on but I just really don't want to. This was just frustrating. I'm frustrated. Now you are too.
5) Department of Great Work
It's NERF or Nothin' [Ads of the World] Oh hell yeah. Hasbro, Inc. brings celebrities to animated life for the high-octane NERF House sequel, NERF House X, starring athletes - and their animated doppelgangers - Julian Edelman, Klay Thomspon and Sky Brown, musician Diplo and renowned chef Guy Fieri. Both the Power Rangers and Transformers also cameo. Watch all of these they're hilarious. And really smart use of pandemic shoot. From Superdigital.
Central Park Is Alive With The Sound Of Music, Thanks To A Site-Specific App [NPR] Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid has written new music for a GPS-enabled app called Soundwalk, specifically designed to accompany walks around Central Park. Before you begin your walk, you download the music and turn on your phone's GPS. What you hear depends on the route you take. Reid designed the app so that the listener is also the composer; the path they choose and how long they stand in certain places allows them to control their soundscape. I love this so much.
Neue’s Norwegian passport designs feature landscape illustrations on every page [It's Nice That] Six years after Neue won the coveted contract to design Norway’s new passports, this week saw their release. The concepts that won them the project were lauded back in 2014, winning design prizes long before they truly existed, and happily, they are even more beautiful in real-life printed form. The design concept is based on nature and its intrinsic meaning to Norwegian culture, pervading all ages, genders and regions of the country. An illustrated landscape is, therefore, depicted on every page. While practically the brief called for a new passport design to increase security, more idealistically it asked designers to connect with the Norwegian people on a foundational level, with a theme that was widely recognisable, expressed Norwegian identity, maintained traditions and would remain relevant for many years. Beautiful. From design agency Neue.
Etsy Brings People Closer Together with Meaningful Gifts in Emotional Christmas Spots [Little Black Book] Etsy, in partnership with creative agency 72andSunny New York, has launched its 2020 holiday campaign, 'Give Like You Mean It' with three new emotional films highlighting the power of a meaningful gift. The new films are live and will appear across national and digital channels in the US. Etsy will also be rolling out holiday campaigns in the UK and, for the first time, in Germany later this year.
6) Platform Updates
It's earnings season! How did everyone do?
Twitter revenue rises 14%, but user growth fails to impress [TechCrunch] Twitter beat out analyst expectations on revenue and net income; however, Wall Street was stuck on Twitter’s user figures, which showed minimal growth and sent shares lower in after-market trading. Twitter’s mDAUs — the company’s internal audience metric that measures monetizeable daily active users — hit 187 million in the third quarter. That’s a razor-thin improvement from the 186 million the company reported in the second quarter of this year, although it did represent a 29% rise from the 145 million in the same period last year. Analysts from FactSet had expected 195 million mDAUs.
Facebook Posts Record Revenue Despite Ad Boycott [Wall Street Journal] Facebook Inc. posted record revenue in the third quarter as strong digital-ad spending outweighed a high-profile ad boycott, data-gathering restrictions and continued fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Looking past 2020, the company sounded less sanguine. Facebook finance chief David Wehner warned of a “significant amount of uncertainty” in the coming year.
Borat 2 has set a new record on Amazon Prime Video [Digital Spy] As for how well Borat Subsequent Moviefilm did, industry sources tell Deadline that the picture opened bigger than any film ever on Amazon Prime. But despite Amazon’s “tens of millions” of watcher claims, the lack of transparency on viewing figures from streaming sites in general makes it impossible to get specific or even check that boast. What’s inarguable: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm got more headlines than any movie in recent memory and is the rare streaming original film to actually capture a position in zeitgeist usually reserved for TV shows. Its Google searches over the past week rival Star Wars
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