This Week in Strategy: A horse walks into a bar. Bartender says, "Hey." Horse replies, "You read my mind!"
Hi Strat Pack,
What a week! John Seifert dips out of Ogilvy (he's retiring apparently), John Wren rakes Wendy Clark over the coals for leaving DDB to join Dentsu Aegis (seems like he's just bitter, IMO), and WPP gets a £600 million bailout from the British government.
Hope you enjoyed this week's newsletter! See you next week!
(Just kidding!)
But seriously folks, what a week. I feel like I've hit peak video conference. Anywhere between 60-75% of my week is spent staring at that little green light on the top of my computer screen. I feel like Winston Smith in 1984 who felt obliged to set his features into the expression of quiet optimism which it was advisable to wear when facing the telescreen. Which is honestly exhausting. Maybe you feel like this too.
I've never been one for Facetime or video chat or whatever. But now I don't have a choice. And I've noticed how terrible I look on camera. And maybe you have noticed how terrible you look too. The good news, apparently, is that a) literally everyone looks like garbage on a laptop webcam and b) GQ has come out with this handy dandy article: 6 Ways to Look Your Best on a Video Call.
And an insider tip from a friend suggests that if you wear lipstick, a strong red lip really pops on webcams because of how they pick up contrast. I'll be honest, I'm strongly considering buying that on-camera video light. And I really want a podcast mic. But that's a story for next week.
Ok, hard pivot (or maybe not). I came across The True Legend of The North Pond Hermit which is a very enjoyable 23 minute documentary about a man who lived alone in the woods in Maine for 27 years from 1986 to 2013. During that time he saw one human and said one word to them, "hi". He claimed that he had never once been sick. You had to have contact with other humans in order to get sick. It's a really bonkos story. And if there's one thing you read this week, consider another GQ article, the longform and really fascinatingly in depth The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit. Goes deep into the Hermit's backstory, how he survived (a lot of food theft), and how he knew who the Kardashians were when he came out (he had a radio at his camp and also stole a lot of batteries). Fitting story in our era of social distancing
Alright, stop messing around trying to figure out how long each day I spend on FaceTime skincare (not enough!) Let's jump right in.
The one thing to read this week
1) The Best Bit Of Advice About Problem Solving You’ll Ever Get … [Rob Campbell - The Musings of an Opinionated Sod]
Problems. We love them. The bigger and badder the better.
Of course you have to be sure you have the right problem. And then you have to remember that as much as some people may want to claim it, business – and life, for that matter – can not be approached like one big engineering problem.
Well, it can, but the solutions are – at best – short term and – at worst – ignored for being utterly bland, boring and emotionless. But that’s not what this post is about
You see, in our quest to solve big problems, we like to show our solutions by overwhelming the client with our brilliance. Brilliance of our considerations. Brilliance of our proof points. Brilliance of our brains. I get it … You not only want to lead the client through your thinking so they ‘get it’, but because you’re proud of what you’ve done. But there’s 3 things wrong with this approach …
The first is – as my Dad used to say – if you’re desperate to show how intelligent you are, then you’re not that smart. This has never been more true in the creative industry where the reality is the work should be doing the proving, not you. And secondly, this ‘demonstration of intelligence’ approach more often than not, results in presentations that are hundreds of pages long.
Literally hundreds.
Slide after slide that takes people on an extremely long journey on how difficult the problem is you have to solve and how complex and detailed the path to your solution has been. It is, at best, a strategy where the goal is to beat the recipient into submission. And why am I saying all this? Well recently, I caught up with someone who told me 3 things I absolutely love. Three things that should change the way companies approach problems and communicate their solutions.
Now full disclosure … The person who said this is not some random individual. In fact I’ve known and worked with them for a long, long time. But more than that, he is – and has been for 2 decades – at the top of his game. The business leaders, business leader. An individual with an incredible history of success through pragmatic decision making and investment in innovation. I asked him if I could mention his name but he said he preferred if I didn’t. Not because he wants to be mysterious, but because he’s humble … which is another reason he doesn’t work in adland, ha.
That said, he has personally shaped the way I present … Semi-structured, singular stories rather than a mass of slides. Strong visuals rather than pages of information. Clarity rather than confusion. Spoken through the nuanced, authentic lens of culture rather than superficial generalisations of convenience. Communicating as an informed outsider rather than a blinkered insider.
The language of people not corporates. Provocative rather than comfortable. Inspiring the possibilities of creativity rather than creating structures to stop it.
Now I appreciate not everyone appreciates my style – and that’s fine – however, it has led to a lot of success for me and now, I realise why.
You see what this individual said to me was this:
Make sure your presentation is focused on the opportunity not the problem.
Remember, solutions need to be simpler than the problem.
If you can’t sum your solution up in a sentence, you have either an ego problem or a problem with your solution.
That’s it. Sounds obvious doesn’t it.
But how many of us are doing it? How many of us are writing presentations that celebrate the complexity of the problem rather than the power of the opportunity? How many of us talk about our approach to executing the solution rather than what the solution actually is? How many of us talk about solutions as a range of elements tasks rather than one overarching idea?
I would like to think I’ve been following those 3 steps for years, but even now – I read them and go through old approaches and see where I could have done things differently.
More concise. Cleaner … at least in the articulation of the solution and how I got there.
One of the best bits of advice I ever got was ‘talk to a friend outside the industry about your idea. If they don’t get it, you might need to re think about it.’
This is not about dumbing down. Or being simplistic and basic. It’s about really thinking about what you’re doing and how you’re expressing it.
Because as Ronald Reagan said, “if you’re explaining, you’re losing”.
2) A take on BBH's 3 stages of planning [Praveen Vaidyanathan - Twitter]
A great resource whether you're just starting out, managing junior planners, or just having an existential crisis and trying to figure out what the fuck you're supposed to be doing with your career.
I also strongly strongly recommend checking out the original BBH 3 stages of planning, from circa 2003/04, I think. Courtesy of Will Humphrey when he was at Lowe, in about 2007.
The other good one is Undercurrent's, in a handy Google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18vPo7S1KJqxBWaZYcLVa3f4Zwuc94zcp8_aKBviS3Y8/edit#gid=0
Hope you find them useful.
3) Extraordinary Times call for Extraordinary Minds [Ian David - LinkedIn]
So here we are. Deep in the throes of a global pandemic, our cities and streets on lockdown, our norms shattered and runs on everything from Wall Street to toilet paper in the local grocery store.
Uncertainty reigns. Yet for all our existential angst, we know we'll get through it. We always do. The world turns, night follows day, life moves on. But for now, the watchword is perseverance.
Marketers are no more immune to crisis anxiety than the waitress who's just been told her restaurant will never reopen. Working remote, keeping family and loved ones close, they too wrestle with priorities in an economy turned upside down.
The first order of business is to stay safe, limit risk, and watch out for the vulnerable. But as the new normal starts to take hold, minds will inevitably drift towards what happens next.
And that begets a whole new set of questions.
For make no mistake, the work that will need to be done tomorrow will not be the same as the work we were tasked with a month ago. Everything has shifted on its axis, and so has every proposition on every project brief. When the wheels start turning again, don't expect it to be business as usual.
Brand purpose? Forget it. That's as dead as a dodo. The days of blandly hijacking a cause and sticking a logo on the end of a 3-minute video are over.
If this crisis has shown us anything, it's that most brands can offer little in the way of solace in times of extremity. The ones that can do so because an intrinsic benefit is hard-wired into their DNA. We don't need our hand sanitizers or canned food to teach us a lesson in being better people, we need them not to run out.
This is not to discount the actions of brands like Levi's, Old Navy, Apple, and others who have guaranteed workers wages and benefits. Or Tesla and Dyson who have converted operations to make ventilators. But that's not brand purpose. That's doing the right thing. The minimum we should expect from any corporation with an ounce of integrity.
From their sofas, dens, and make-shift home offices, the stewards of our nation's products and services surely realize this. Faced with a mountain to climb when the all-clear sounds, they'll know that much of the weak-minded nonsense that passed for thinking up until a few weeks ago isn't going to cut it.
They'll know that what will be needed are a few big ideas, preferably of the "fuck-me" variety - monstrous pieces of thinking with the capacity to lift a brand up by the lapels and set it back on its feet.
Whole industries are going to need them - automotive, airlines, dining, entertainment, sports, tourism, property, finance, etc. - and so will the millions of newly laid-off workers now looking for work.
Budgets will have been cut to the quick, so the temptation to opt for a short-term fix will be high. It should be avoided. Big ideas build for the long-term. They create equity and trust. They are flexible, hard-working, fun, ingenious, and over time deliver a far greater ROI.
But here's the thing: Big ideas require big thinkers. Lateral minds with the ability to delve into unexplored places, open a new door and say, "This way, follow me." Ad agencies used to be stacked with these people. Today, not so much. Many were brutally culled when the drive to cut costs at all costs began around 15 years ago. Being slightly older and having the audacity to turn 40 didn't help either.
But they're out there.
Freelancing solo or teamed in networks, they're as good as they ever were. And come the Fall, or whenever this nightmarish shit-show passes, an eye for a fresh angle is going to be very much back in vogue. Let's use them and harness what they have to offer. Given the chance, they'll answer the call.
This crisis has no redeeming features, but it might afford us one small silver lining:
A chance to reset. To get back to doing things right. To start afresh and begin again.
4) Quick Hits: A few articles that are concise, important, interesting, impactful, and I'm not going to write long descriptions for them
Motors by Memory [Van Monster] A must read for anyone who remotely gives a shit about System 1 memory structures and iconic brand assets. To find out which car logos the general public can recall with ease and which ones they struggle to remember, we asked 100 people to draw 10 badges from well-known car makes in the UK as accurately as possible, purely from memory. We analysed over 1,000 drawings, that took over 60 hours to draw, noting everything from the colours used, to the shapes remembered, the styling of the font and the impact of the smaller details. Our research revealed many memory mishaps, but also demonstrated which motoring legacies are seemingly engrained in our memories forever.
Ridiculously Good Creative Feedback [Heidi Hackemer - Zwolf Strategy] Item as described. A really really smart presentation. Join for the first 25 minutes of functional & emotional tips to build strong relationships with great teams. Stay for the next 45 minutes of actually really smart Q&A. Of particular note in the Q&A:
The 100 Best Social Ads of All Time [Julian Cole x Daniel Eckler] Another brilliant deck of inspiration to download to your back pocket. As an aside, Eckler runs a series called This Week In Creative Technology. I've always known This Week in Strategy was unoriginal, but wow. This punches me in the gut.
The lockdown in our minds will be the last restriction to be lifted [The Guardian] Really fascinating piece on the long-term consumer impacts of Covid-19. We have internalised the reason for staying apart, and coronavirus will leave us wary. Habits of trust will have to be relearned. Societies are shaped by custom and ritual as much as they are held together by legislation. We must not underestimate the aggregate effect of curtailing millions upon millions of micro-niceties, even if we cannot predict what the impact will be. After the rules of lockdown are eased, the cordon sanitaire will remain in our minds. Some habits of trust might have to be relearned. It might require effort on a political and individual level to practice social un-distancing – to reach out of our digital boltholes. Repairing the damage done by this disease will be a project of cultural reconnection, not just economic redistribution
Pandemic Advertising Got Weird Fast [The Atlantic] The Atlantic has been absolutely on top of societal/cultural upheavals of Covid-19. Just how necessary it is to disastertise—to contort a simple message about drive-through lanes or beer delivery to paint a company as public servants during an extraordinary moment—isn’t as clear. Americans seem eager for practical information and opportunities to help, not solemn vows of corporate togetherness. If advertisers simply were to go idle, the harm could radiate out to lots of working- and middle-class people with little or no direct connection with advertising itself. In past recessions, companies that maintained their communications presence had an easier time recovering when the economy stabilized, enabling them to retain employees they might have otherwise laid off. If disasters have any silver lining, it’s that they give people a rare opportunity to reimagine society. When the pandemic ends, America might try to create a future that’s less reliant on broad public knowledge of virus-killing pizza ovens.
5) Department of Great Work
I've got to be honest with you guys. All the work I'm seeing is starting to blur together. So I'm also including great creative work that's not advertising this week. And yes it's basically just stuff I've collected scrolling through Vimeo. What do you want from me?! YouTube is getting boring
Pornhub Launches Series of 'Cleanest Porn Ever' Instructional Videos [Complex] In their latest effort to keep you in the house watching porn, rather than out of the house spreading COVID-19 around (and not watching porn), Pornhub is launching a "Cleanest Porn Ever" event, according to a press release it sent out on Wednesday. This event will feature "a series of instructional videos" from the site's Model Program, which aims to educate the public on minimizing the spread of (bad) germs while having sex. Obviously it's an attempt to capitalize on the whole "you know what, on second thought maybe I don't want to get sick" movement that's become all the rage during the current pandemic. [ED Note: This article is Safe For Work]
Jeep - The Great Indoors [Ads of the World] Playing off the iconic grille ads from a few years ago. Incredibly well executed and I love that these are real and not not spec ads. From Cummins & Partners for Jeep Australia
Delivered [Vimeo] A slice of life in the time of corona. Thousands of invisible front line workers risk their health every day to bring food to your couch. They aren't just immigrants struggling to survive in New York City. They aren't just the delivery men and women you don't look at when you open your door. They are the backbone of this city, they are the essential. Most importantly, they are people too and they deserve our respect and recognition now more than ever. Tip generously if you'd like and give them PPE if you can.
Baseball returns to Taiwan with cardboard cutouts in stands [The Hill] We might disagree on whether or not this is great work but I think it's absolutely brilliant. “Hopefully a lot of people can see it and get that little glimmer of hope that things can be back to normal and this can be beaten,” Uni Lions pitcher Josh Roenicke, who was quarantined upon his return to Taiwan after he traveled to Florida last month for the birth of his child, told the WSJ. “For those three hours, they get to forget about life,” Rakuten Monkeys pitcher Justin Nicolino said. “They get to forget about all the bull—, all the stuff negatively affecting them and dive into watching what they love.”
A Social Distance [Vimeo] Great example of UGC. A crowd-sourced film featuring residents of the countries most impacted by COVID-19, documenting their life during the lockdown. Spanning more than 30 countries, the film includes a breadth of perspectives, from a 93-year old Malayan grandmother to a 19-year old Slovenian man, and includes an original score that was remotely performed by musicians from around the world.
Excelsior #EverUpward is a Moving Love Letter to New Yorkers in Quarantine [Little Black Book] Burn through the Cuomo VO in the beginning and what you see is a really beautiful snapshot of the anxieties we all have bottled up inside all of us. The film was created in an effort to positively reflect moving forward and highlight what New Yorkers miss most at the centre of self-isolation. The film encapsulates the themes surrounding their week: “We miss you. We love you. We’re thinking of you,” heard in countless phone calls, Zooms, FaceTimes, and Governor Cuomo’s address to NYC
This Meme Does Not Exist [Imgflip] An AI meme generator that has some pretty LOL results. These captions are generated by a deep artificial neural network. Nothing about the text generation is hardcoded, except that the maximum text length is limited for sanity. The model uses character-level prediction, so you can specify prefix text of one or more characters to influence the text generated.
Department of Bad Work
Disney lawyers ruin the fun for some Star Wars fans’ MayThe4th celebration [Fast Company] The annual Star Wars celebration on May 4 got off to a sour start when Star Wars’ corporate parent shared its terms of use if fans tweeted MayThe4th in reply to Disney Plus. I think if we've learned one thing from The Force Awakens, it's don't piss off Star Wars fans.
6) Platform Updates
TikTok finally finds favour with India's social media elite [Economic Times] Until recently, this section of online users frowned upon TikTok’s content and labelled it “cringe-worthy” even as users from tier-II and -III cities gained rewards and recognition through the platform, turning India into the biggest market for the Chinese video-sharing social network.
One of the reasons TikTok has been able to catch on with India’s social media elite is due to a surge in its visibility on other popular platforms.YouTube to host virtual film festival with Tribeca, Sundance and Cannes [New York Post] The streaming service said Monday that it will launch a free 10-day digital film festival this spring with 20 partners. Dubbed “We Are One: A Global Film Festival,” the event will be produced and organized by New York’s Tribeca Enterprises. The YouTube-hosted event will feature programming from 20 top film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival. The online event is set to run from May 29 to June 7 and it will be available at youtube.com/weareone
As always, the full archive is available here. Was this email forwarded to you? Want to start getting this on a weekly basis? All I need is your email, everything else is optional. Thanks for sticking around as always. See you next week!