This Weekend in Strategy: If you say AT&T backwards, you sound like a Canadian bomb technician
(Saying the joke out loud helps!)
Hi Strat Pack,
I know. I know. We talked about this. I've gotten bad at writing these. (Maybe you might not have even noticed?) I'm not going to try to sugarcoat this. I'm fried, man. This year has finally caught up with me. I was thinking about why I've been worse than usual in pushing these out, and the truth is because I am trying to put a little more of myself in each issue, it's taking longer. And getting more difficult to find inspiration. But fear not! The editorial department is taking some well needed time off to recharge our batteries soon, but don't worry, delivery of This Week in Strategy will continue (relatively) uninterrupted until Christmas.
Speaking of neuroscience, this article is super interesting and worth burning a NYT paywall meter for: Your Brain Is Not for Thinking. Like a thousand years ago (but actually in August), I shared an article called 'Allostatic Load' Is How Unrelenting Stress Damages Your Body which you can read here. The Times article touches on the same subject matter, but explains it in a much more interesting, and useful way:
Your brain runs your body using something like a budget. A financial budget tracks money as it’s earned and spent. The budget for your body tracks resources like water, salt and glucose as you gain and lose them. Each action that spends resources, such as standing up, running, and learning, is like a withdrawal from your account. Actions that replenish your resources, such as eating and sleeping, are like deposits.
The scientific name for body budgeting is allostasis. It means automatically predicting and preparing to meet the body’s needs before they arise. Consider what happens when you’re thirsty and drink a glass of water. The water takes about 20 minutes to reach your bloodstream, but you feel less thirsty within mere seconds. What relieves your thirst so quickly? Your brain does.
Not immediately applicable to advertising but interesting nonetheless when thinking about behavioral economics and what makes us tick.
So what else is going on with me? I'm glad you asked! Spotify released their 2020 recap and while I will not inundate you with my listening history, I will tell you that I was genuinely shocked to learn how many of my friends are in the top 1% of Taylor Swift listeners. If you know me, you know I am a huge Swiftie, and I guess I'm just happy to learn how many of you are, too. And low key shoutout to friend of the Newsletter, Roger whose band put out a really fun emo/ska cover album called Taylor Slow. It's good. It's just good.
Let's wrap on something funny. I've been hanging on to this since Halloween (h/t This Is Indexed):
Alright, we're already a day late and a dollar short. Stop messing around trying to figure out how many Hallmark Channel christmas movies I watched over Thanksgiving break (correct answer: 7). Let's jump right in.
The one thing to read this week
1) ‘Humaning’ and the greatest marketing bullshit of all time [Marketing Week]
[ED Note: Another barn burner by Ritson. It's a bit long so I only selected my favorite passages but it's worth a full read. Very enjoyable. And also I just learned that Maslow's hierarchy of needs is bullshit?! That was taught to me in AP Psych as real! What the hell man! [ED Note Note: when I excitedly told my girlfriend this she looked at me like I just told her the sky is blue, so maybe it's a more well known fact than I realized.]]
Mondelēz’s promise to “stop marketing and start humaning” is a new entry into the all-time marketing bullshit top 10, an exclusive list only the most delusional, out-of-touch and supremely earnest can hope to make.
And there I was thinking 2020 was already as shitty a year as anyone might imagine. But just when I thought it could not get any worse, the marketers at Mondelēz shouted, “Hold my beer” and lowered the bar even further with their ‘Humaning’ concept. It’s hard to know where to start with ‘Humaning’, the new verb (I guess) from the global snack foods giant. “Today,” a suitably millennial voice announces in the new corporate video, “we need to stop marketing and start humaning”.
No, I don’t know what it means. And after you watch the intro video (shown below) I’ll bet you are none the wiser either. I strongly suspect most of the marketers at Mondelēz are pretty perplexed about it too. But that is not going to stop their employer from making a complete ass of itself for the six months it will take to realise its new approach/philosophy/word makes them look very foolish.
As a renowned lover of brand purpose and all things associated with corporate vision, I have been asked by several marketers for my own thoughts on Mondelēz’s new direction. Is it, as one colleague enquired over the weekend, the biggest piece of bullshit in marketing history?
No, I assured her, it is most definitely not. In fact, it barely scrapes into the Marketing BS Index (copyright pending) I maintain up in my ivory tower. I use a highly scientific formula to assess every major marketing pronouncement and award it a BS Index Score from 1 to 100.
That number is based on how nonsensical the core idea is on a scale from 1 (smart) to 10 (asinine) and then how much damage the idea has had on the broader marketing community as a result from 1 (none) to 10 (thermonuclear). As you can see from the table below, Mondelēz and its humaning nonsense make it into the Top 10 – but only by a whisker – dethroning PwC after many years in the upper echelons of marketing bullshit.
10. Mondelēz and ‘humaning’
“We started to think: What is so unique about our brands and categories?,” explained Mondelēz CMO Martin Renaud last week. “That is where this idea for connecting to people and connecting with humans came from and that is how we arrived at ‘humaning’.”
According to the company’s launch materials “humaning is when storytelling becomes storydoing”. That does not make it any clearer and the general consensus is this new corporate strategy is fantastically bad.
Renaud told PR Week that he hopes for more criticism of his new concept so he can “grow together” with the critics. His hopes are about to become true if social media is any measure.
6. Seth Godin and storytelling
Seth Godin is a bit of a marketing enigma. On his day he can produce startling moments of marketing clarity. But a lot of the time he sounds like he has been replaced by a slightly faulty random slogan generator being operated by a distracted chimpanzee.
His lowest point (or highest if you are looking at the Marketing BS Index) came over a decade ago when he declared: “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” There might only be 16 words in that sentence but arguably you could not create more marketing BS if you tried with a thousand.
It’s a quote that reinforces the dangerous message that marketing is dislocated from product design and functionality and is now just about communications. And it’s probably the reason why hundreds of perfectly good marketers ruin their reputations, LinkedIn home page and chances of a decent role by putting “storyteller” in their job title. For fucks sake, storyteller?
1. Abraham Maslow
Utter bollocks from the moment in 1943 when Abraham Maslow first published his ‘theory of human motivation’ in Psychological Review.
Maslow built his model from qualitative research on the Native American inhabitants of the Blackfoot reservation who later pointed out that his whole theory was entirely incorrect when applied to their culture and identity.
The hierarchy has subsequently been criticised on the basis of missing stages, putting stages in the wrong sequence and the fact stages change according to circumstance, culture and geography. So basically everything.
But the dreaded hierarchy proved a hit with marketers who had no formal training but wanted something scientific-looking and faintly European-sounding to beef up their empty marketing plans.
Its prevalence across every crap marketing plan (along with the equally redundant SWOT analysis) serves only one positive: to identify badly trained marketers and crappy marketers at 50 paces.
BONUS ARTICLE: ‘Thumb-Stopping.’ ‘Humaning.’ ‘B4H.’ The Strange Language of Modern Marketing. [New York Times] Click through, if for no other reason, to watch a bunch of clearly-not-marketing-people say Humaning with various degrees of incredulity. Every industry has its argot, but people who work in the advertising “space” seem to love insider language more than most. In news releases, ad copy and earnings statements, they have tortured plain talk in service of the sell, with Frankensteinian combinations and avalanches of acronyms.
2) Is the DTC brand aesthetic bad for business? [Marketing Dive]
Oh man this could be such a spicy hot take if it wanted to be. And maybe I'm biased because I want the answer to be "yes, it is bad for business. There's a lot of bullshit in this article, but here's a few choice paragraphs I found interesting.
What makes DTCs appear so similar is that many of them are trying to talk to the same customer base, [Someone] said, namely millennials. Adopting the now-familiar branding themes of other DTCs can signal to consumers that the company they're looking at is part of the set of brands they already trust to understand their needs.
"I'll see an ad for God-knows-what brand and it'll have some hip serif font with some clean minimal background and I go 'Here we go again,'" Shine said. "But at the same time, I'm going to go, 'They probably get it.'"
Rather than turning off customers, the similarities in DTC brands can actually work in their favor, by putting consumers in a place where they feel comfortable. Branding is tied to human psychology and a longing for feelings of safety and familiarity, according to Song.
"Consumers are creatures that like familiarity," Song said. "We like to go buy things and use things and be around things that feel familiar, feel comfortable and feel cozy to us. So when you see that you had these styles, these palettes of colors, these font types, across your Instagram for so long, you gravitate towards things that also feel fun and familiar, versus something that's way off base and it just doesn't resonate with you the same way because it just isn't what you're used to seeing."
Branding is cyclical and DTC's cycle is not over yet. But as DTC brands continue to enter the space, or grow their businesses, there's a new cycle emerging for Gen Zs that is anti to the millennial appeal that DTCs hold, according to Shine. He said DTC branding has become a "dominant visual language of communication," and may stay so for the next five to ten years, but added that younger generations are more focused on a rebellious "frumpy on purpose" vibe.
"I think we are experiencing fatigue right now. I think that's fundamentally what you're hearing and that's what people are writing about," Song said. "But the truth is, things change when they stop working."
3) Department of Creative Resources
It's the end of the year, but I'm not quite ready to do a roundup yet (and still have at least tens of minutes of listening to do, Spotify!) so I thought, what's better than lists? Resources of course!
Free Mini Course Creative Brief Writing [Julian Cole - Planning Dirty] I've been writing briefs for years and I still benefitted massively from this course. It focuses mainly on the GET-TO-BY model which in full transparency is my preferred briefing template. No matter what level planner you are, this course is worth it. Here's a preview from Julian on the importance of a pithy target consumer (something, I think, we can all improve on)
What Logo Size is Best? Guidelines for Websites, Social + Print [Looka] A handy reference guide for the next time your clients main piece of feedback is "make the logo bigger!" Solid advice on logo sizing basics across digital platforms, thanks Looka!
Idea & Concept Development [HyperIsland Toolbox] First of all, HyperIsland in and of itself is a great resource. You should keep it handy at all times! Second of all, I'm a big advocate of the double diamond method of idea generation. THird of all, this is a really solid, really simple ideation guide. Bookmark it and keep going back.
4) Holiday Work Roundup
Warning: Hot Takes ahead!
I'm going to come out swinging. I did not like the Steve Carrell Santa ad. I can't fault Goodby, Silverstein on the execution of this ad (brand film? At 3:30 it's probably 2:30 too long...). To paraphrase Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park, the production clearly "spared no expense". But the strategy just really sucks. It's lazy and it just sucks. "Togetherness. The greatest gift of all." Gimme a break. Every planner who touched a Covid brief pooped that strategy out in like 4.5 seconds back in May immediately killed it because, like, duh. What does that even mean? How is it ownable to any brand, let alone Comcast which is a terrible company (more on them later). And I'm sorry but what the fuck is the gift of togetherness? Is it getting together physically in groups which the CDC certainly doesn't recommend? Or is it, as the ad seemingly recommends, just doing more Zooms and facetimes, which we've already established in the beginning that we all hate. Harumph. 1/10 for good cinematography. Maybe I'm wrong, it seems like the internet doesn't hate this ad as much as I do: The internet is loving Steve Carell playing Santa in new holiday commercial. Oh wait, that article is from the Today Show, a fully owned subsidiary of Comcast, the fucking evil company that produced this spot. Gimme a break
It’s a Call to Arms for Christmas Lovers from Sergeant Santa and ITV in 2020 [Little Black Book] A case study in how two radically different pieces of work can come from the same insight. This basically comes from the same human truth as the Comcast spot but strategically and messaging wise, it's so much better. Instead of leaning into Covid fatigue and trying to figure out a meaningful way to spin that message (spoiler alert: don't try) ITV flips the script in this :60 call to arms. It's not "look at how tough this year was". It's "this is Christmas godamn it! Yeah it's different but we're going to enjoy it! Whether you enjoy it or not!" Such a better piece of work. 8/10 for their pluck and charisma!
Rapid Fire ads: Beautiful films with really clunky product integration: That's right sports fans, it's time for retailers who don't know how to be relevant:
All Signs Point to a Tearfully Sweet Holiday Ad From Kohl's [Muse by Clio] Yeah it's a pretty ad but I don't get why it's Kohls. I saw the spot on TV and didn't realize until the third viewing that the first sign to her neighbor was the back of a Kohl's box. Love Willie Nelson. And the conceit is cute. But what does it have to do with Kohl's. And honestly when you think about it for like half a second, this commercial gets so dark. The neighbor lady clearly did not just move in. Why had they never met. The woman then ostensibly disappears for *months* and there is no concern from the little girls family. No like, honey this is what's going on in the world. And this woman who is ostensibly a long hauler with Covid and just spent several months in the hospital. I feel for her, that's got to suck shit. Bring her a casserole. Give HER the gift! She's the one who needs it. And I did not enjoy this sycophantic writeup from David Gianatyasio. From YARD NYC. 3/10 for making me sad
Amazon: The Show Must Go On by Lucky Generals [The Drum] This is a genuinely beautiful piece of film. Starting French ballerina Taïs Vinolo, this conceit feels really real. And let's be honest, I LOVE the elevator door acting as stage curtain replacement. For months, we've seen real life versions of this story playing out in neighborhood blocks across the US and Europe. Whether it's the Broadway actor singing from his window for his neighbors, the Florentine (person from Florence?) opera singer singing from his balcony, or these classical musicians playing from their balcony in Brazil, this has been happening. But the role of the brand feels like such a force fit. I'm glad that Amazon paid to have this made, and as the worlds largest corporation they don't really *need* the money, but I just don't know what makes this an Amazon spot. 10/10 execution 2/10 brand association
Christmas 2020 | Inner Child | #ReindeerReady | TV | McDonald's UK [YouTube] OK, yes. There's a lot going on in this headline but when you actually click through, this is a really adorable spot. McDonald's just gets their audience, man. It's a narrative story that unlike *ahem* many on this list, clearly places McDonalds as the hero. And the inner child is in the stomach? And that's where McDonald's goes? It's a bit on the nose but it works. To quote someone I saw on the internet, this ad feels like a warm hug. From Leo Burnett London. THis one gets 9/10 Christmases from me.
Coca-Cola Christmas Commercial 2020 [YouTube] This spot rules. 1. Directed by Taika Waititi 2. Wieden + Kennedy. 3. I found this longform, after seeing "holidays are coming" which is an updated version of this 1995 spot that has been running for a thousand years and is SO iconic. Watch the 1995 version and tell me you don't have the song stuck in your head. So by the time we get to the Turn, and the Coke truck picks up to take Dad home, its like, oh awesome, this is Santa. Really really strong, triggering our System 1 memory structures for sure. But don't take my word for it, Marketing Week just crowned it the year’s most effective Christmas ad. 10/10 ornaments on the W+K Christmas tree this year
That's enough Christmas for now.
5) Great (non-Holiday) Work
Sony’s iconic PlayStation shapes take over London Tube station for UK PS5 launch [The Verge] Holy fuck this is so good. I'm sure you've seen it but of course I'm including it because its brilliant. From British PR Agency Red and Mediacom.
Coronavirus: Germany hails couch potatoes in new videos [BBC News] I'm screaming at what I can only imagine the approval process was to get "we were lazy as raccoons" approved by the German government.
2020 Is Satan’s Soulmate in New Match Ad from Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort [AdWeek] We've already established my love for Taylor Swift. The new ad is yet another example of Reynolds’ mastery of pop culture, and uncanny ability to tap into the zeitgeist with a sharpshooter’s precision. In addition to the spot itself, Maximum Effort created real Match.com dating profiles for the two lovebirds. Satan’s profile lists his age range as 65+ and his hometown as Hell, Michigan—which is a real town. His biggest regret, according to a Match.com prompt, is going down to Georgia.
For Visible, Schitt’s Creek Star Dan Levy Is Delightfully In on the Joke [AdWeek] Seeing Levy alone and framed in the spot, the first thought is, “It’s Dan Levy. I’m sure whatever this is, it’s good.” Then, the camera starts panning in, and it’s time to then click on the sound to hear what Levy is saying. Then, once you’ve made it to the end, realizing that it’s an ad for Visible, you still feel a sense of satisfaction. Since you missed the first few seconds, you play it again. Then, you fully get the joke about one of Levy’s most visible (no pun intended) traits: his prominent eyebrows. And that's the beauty of it. An ad you want to watch again and again. From Madwell
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