This Week in Strategy: What did Yoda say when he saw himself in 4K? "HDMI!"
Hi Strat Pack,
Can you believe it? Two Yoda jokes in a row. Don't worry there will not be a third.
Let's talk about the New York City subway this week. And namely how the New York Post (i know!) has been absolutely crushing it with their coverage of the subway. Item one: A Manhattan straphanger who risked his life in an attempt to stop a subway derailment and nab the saboteur responsible was honored Wednesday by the MTA — with a giant novelty MetroCard and a year of free swipes.
It is genuinely a story of bravery and Rikien Wilder is rightly being commended for his actions. But also look at that giant metrocard! I have two thoughts in no particular order 1) Those MTA budget cuts are hitting hard, that metrocard should be at least 3 times as large. 2) maybe it's that size so that Wilder will be able to carry it around and swipe it. That would be a dream.
Chairman Pat Foye cracked this was “the highest award the MTA can provide to a civilian.”
NYC Subway item two: MTA board to officially ban pooping in subways, buses. Look I don't want to explore this issue too closely, but the opening sentence of this article is just on point: "The only No. 2 allowed on the MTA is the train line." Hats off, Post reporter Vincent Barone.
As I'm sure you are aware, a grand jury decided not to charge two officers who shot Breonna Taylor to death with any criminal charges. In fact, the only charges to come out of the deliberations were for the bullets that missed. The conversation over the last few weeks has been (rightly) about the systemic racism in police forces around the country. But I think what's become increasingly apparent after this ruling is how fundamentally the system is tilted against People of Color in this country. And laws that are in theory colorblind are in reality unequally applied to benefit white people. There's no doubt in my mind, that if the situation was flipped and it was 4 black cops going into a white person's apartment, Taylor's boyfriend would be protected by so-called "Stand your Ground" laws and the cops who were fired for “an extreme indifference to the value of human life” (that's a direct quote from Brett Hankison's termination letter) would be charged with murder.
For those of you who are peacefully protesting, thank you. Let's keep the energy up and hold the system accountable for this (and all) massive failing of justice. For those of you that are able, please consider donating to support Black lives and communities of Color. This New York Magazine article is one of the most comprehensive resources I've found, and segments funds by their main focus.
Let’s end on a positive: I came across this video: Captain Sully's Minute-by-Minute Description of The Miracle On The Hudson and it was some of the most compelling film I've seen in a while. Sully was so in control and aware of the minutiae of his actions, how his airplane needed to respond, and how to shut everything unimportant out of his mind. The level of calm and matter-of-factness he showed even while explaining this is extremely impressive.
Something to think about the next time you blow a gasket because of an email or piece of feedback or just overall stress at work.
Alright, let's jump right in.
The one thing to read this week
1) The types of ideas in advertising [Vikki Ross - LinkedIn]
From Mark Pollard's really fucking good Strategy Is Your Words
NON-SPON CON ALERT: (that's non-sponsored content for the rest of us)This book is so good. Mark is one of the smartest, most empathetic, and most helpful people in the biz. Pick up a copy of the book here (now shipping internationally!)
2) The Normalisation Of Overworking In Advertising [Craig Ainsley - Medium]
“Okay guys, the pitch is on Monday so we’re going to be in over the weekend”. Why is this such a normal sentence to hear? It’s the mentality of an ill-prepared student handing in a rushed assignment, yet it is heard in big, smart, wealthy advertising agencies all the time. Also, why is it fine to expect or demand your staff to work over the weekend? For no extra money.
Everyone has their own way of working. Their own way of delivering the best of themselves. There’s a study that found that 11am was the most the productive time for creative people. There were no findings that suggested you get the best out of your staff at 3am the night before a pitch. But maybe that does work for some people. The problem is it’s those people that seem to be dictating the terms.
The 3am-ers are perhaps more likely to climb the ladder and arrive in the position where they are dictating or enforcing the 3am mentality. OK. However it doesn’t mean that it’s right or as effective as other ways of working. You can create great work or win a pitch by working regular hours too. A recent survey, as reported in The Independent, found that a 4-day workweek could add to a businesses’ bottom lines through increased productivity, as well as improved mental health.
Mental health awareness is perhaps one of the advertising industry’s biggest blind spots. It has become common for agencies, during Mental Health Awareness Week, to put a few posters up about the issue in reception, while at the same time pressuring their employees to work a 50-hour week on the pitch. For no extra money.
A while ago I [Craig] was working at an agency that were pitching for a global brand. I don’t want to name names, let’s just call them Anomaly London, 25 Charterhouse Square, Barbican, London EC1M 6AE. The hours worked over consecutive weekends on the pitch were punishing. Especially for the design department. Design departments always seem to get fucked. There was a moment when the globalCCO found out that one of the designers wasn’t available for one of the weekends because it was his birthday and he was going away, so he said ‘Unless you’re pushing a baby out this weekend, you’re working’ He also sent an email to the whole pitch team explaining that they need to ‘have a relationship with pain’. You’ve got wonder what this does for people’s anxiety levels and their mental health. And also, it’s just adverts mate.
Actually, you don’t have to wonder. While this was happening one of the producers was on leave for work related stress. Here’s what happened. After 20 days leave she was told if she wasn’t ready to come back she would have to take the rest of her leave ‘as holiday’. A lovely, all inclusive holiday to Stress. What a treat! She didn’t want to do that, so she came back. During her first morning she broke down into tears and was told, ‘you clearly aren’t ready to come back’, which is the bit I find really interesting, because perhaps the response should have been a question: ‘what are WE doing that is causing this anxiety?’ ‘How can WE change?’ In those 20 days she was meant to do all the changing. Whereas Anomaly, the self proclaimed ‘agents of change’ revealed that they have the inability to change when it comes to the mental health and wellbeing of their staff.
There’s no one bad person here. Sure, I was shitting on one agency there, but I can only write what I know. But I don’t think it’s the people. Maybe it’s a systemic thing.
Our ECDs and CEOs are following their ECDs and CEOs. Maybe it’s time to change it. We’re creative people. We’re all about breaking norms, changing the rules, being original. Why are we stuck in this this old way of doing things?
Maybe hope comes from the new generation of talent coming through. People who are more aware and in tune with real mental health awareness. What happens if employees just start saying, ‘no, we don’t want to work that way?’ After all, the current way of working is just one way of working, and only YOU know how YOU best work. And what are the agencies going to do, fire everyone? Or evolve?
3) The Future of the Office: Sir John Hegarty [Little Black Book]
I think we’ve got to be very careful in this debate as a lot of the encouragement to work outside of the office is coming from technology firms. I could almost write a science fiction novel about it where people are asked not to gather and to stay at home, in a way that gradually takes control and takes power away from you. It slowly diminishes you as an individual without you even realising it whilst you’re sold the idea of a life of convenience, working next to your bedroom, without having to commute anymore. You can see people thinking this is really great, not realising that actually, control is being taken away from them and being given to somebody else - another portal. I now have to go through technology to get to people, whereas if I’m in the office, I can just go and talk to whoever I like in a completely organic way which relates to how humans have developed. What technology is doing is taking that away from us and it’s reducing us by doing that. Don’t get me wrong, technology is great - but you’ve got to be the master of it, not it the master of you.
If you're in a creative industry, the whole point of growing as a creative person is that you’re constantly interacting. The more time you spend interacting, the more you’re going to get back. So if we compress this into a few days a week, you reduce the opportunity of influence - and in that way, you’re not recharging your creative batteries.
I always say creativity isn’t an occupation, it’s a preoccupation. You’re doing it all the time. I used to love watching people interact and observing my surroundings. All these little things feed your imagination so technology has taken that experience away from me. Removing the office altogether doesn’t lead to a creative environment and doesn’t build a culture that people want to join for the long-term.
Why do I find it interesting to go into a cinema and watch a movie with strangers? I get something from it. We don’t know what those things are, but we are communal beings. Since the beginning of time we have come together and we want to be with a group of people and experience things together.
So much of creativity is about serendipity - the creative world is littered with stories like this. If you limit that by only connecting through technology then you reduce the opportunity for creative development, so I personally don’t see it as a huge advantage unless we allow room for conversation - not just work related talk. When you have meetings, make sure you factor in time for catching up on other parts of life to create that chance for serendipity. The most creative thing we do is play and in a way it’s quite hard to play via bits of technology. So it can take away the sense of fun and spontaneity when others have to mute when someone else is talking.
[ED Note: Please don't take this as me advocating to return to the office before it is safe to do so. I live and work (from home) in New York and after 6 months it still terrifies me to pass someone on the sidewalk not wearing a mask. But I don't think having 100% of your workforce working from home 100% of the time is healthy or sustainable. And in my opinion a lot of the hype around permanent work from home is just that. The commentariat loves to bloviate. But as Jerry Seinfeld so succinctly said, Everyone hates this. Energy, attitude and personality cannot be “remoted” through even the best fiber optic lines.]
4) Quick Hits
Calling BS In Ad Tech [AdExchanger] Ad tech is full of BS. Why is that? Because when companies create confusion about their products, to make themselves sound more advanced than they actually are, they are able to sell more. Ad tech has spawned so many different types of technologies over the years to accommodate the various environments, formats, and data sets, it’s become easy to overcomplicate and speak vaguely. Add to that a variety of different actors – consumers, publishers, advertisers, ad agencies, technology companies – with different motives, a wide range of value propositions, and the BS piles up quickly. That’s why it’s absolutely critical for you to keep your BS detector on at all times, by being aware of situations in which you may encounter it, and by being ready with hard-hitting questions that will help you cut through it.
'You get 2 seconds to engage consumers online': Mars neuroscientist shares key findings [The Drum] The number one thing Mars realized is that it's very difficult to elicit emotions in short form. The creative moves into a very tactical, rational space because of the short duration. A Facebook ad on newsfeed is seen for two seconds and a YouTube skippable ad is skipped as soon as possible. “So, we front load our creative. And this creates a little bit of tension with our belief that ads require emotional messages," says Patilinet. "The ads that we tested have lower levels of emotion. Our conclusion was that it's probably because we've moved from 30 seconds to now six seconds, that it’s difficult to elicit emotions. And because we need our logo and we need our brand [in those six seconds], it's hard to make the ad emotional without a story.”
Shameless Self Promotion: Do you spend way too much time working on banner briefs? Do you storyboard out your banners and say things like "well that's a lot of claims to fit into a 15 second loop? Your banners can work so much harder! Along with really fucking smart Ali Goldsmith, I wrote 14 pages about how to make banner ads that actually work online. Read it here: Banner Beater: The Underrated Tool in your Brand Building Arsenal. And don't forget to share it with all your friends. Makes great happy hour conversation...
5) Department of Great work
M&M'S Injury Attorneys :15 [YouTube] I missed this when it launched, but I love how it plays on that very familiar personal injury trope popular enough that SNL spoofed it. How often do you see this comment in your work: "Not many ads on YouTube can make me hesitate hitting the skip button and question my sanity." I couldn't find credits but I assume this ws BBDO.
Ikea says it's the place for a good night's sleep in rather clever new print campaign [B&T] Last week we looked at Ikea's Tortoise and Hare, this week let's talk about their print ads. Three ads spoof fad products like energy drinks, anti-aging creams and vitamin supplements—but with Ikea sleep products playfully inserted into the scenes. The point being that there really are no shortcuts to the physical benefits of a good night's sleep. Andy Knight Ltd., a group of artists and set builders who create one-off set and prop constructions, built actual large-scale models of the fake products. Then, photographer Amy Currell shot them in-camera, adding the Ikea bedding. Very cool. From Mother London
Ikea to Open Its First Second-Hand Store [Core77] Ikea again? Yes! The second-hand store, which is a test project that will be re-evaluated regularly, will be supplied with furniture and home furnishings from a nearby Ikea store that have been damaged and repaired.
Shake Shack Celebrates Traditional Korean Flavors With Gochujang Fueled Creations [Hypebeast] Hey Shake Shack - bring this to the US! Leading the limited series is the Gochujang Chicken Shack which is centered around a sous-vide chicken breast that is deep-fried and smothered in a gochujang glazed. The limited gochujang menu items will be available at Shake Shack location throughout South Korea from September 29 to the end of October.
Someone's Taken a Bite Out of These McDonald's Billboards [Muse by Clio] McDonald's latest billboard campaign illustrates people's craving for McDonald's by showing giant bite marks in the ads—which involved forging special metal frames for them. As with many of agency's previous campaigns for the client, there are no words on the executions, and not even the McDonald's logo. From TBWA\Paris
6) Platform Updates
Even LinkedIn has Stories now [Engadget] LinkedIn’s version of Stories is a lot like what you’d find on Instagram or Snapchat. Take a photo, decorate it with text or a GIF and upload to your profile for all your professional connections to see for 24 hours. That might sound like the last feature you’d want or need on LinkedIn, but the company says there are some benefits to consider. Liz Li, LinkedIn’s senior director of product, says that early tests of the feature have shown that some people are more willing to post when they know it will disappear after 24 hours, rather than live on their LinkedIn profile forever.[ED Note: this sounds like the absolute opposite of what you want on a professional social network, but what do I know, I just work here]
In China, Paying With Your Face Is Hard Sell [Wall Street Journal] Interesting article showing that there are still limits to tech adoption. While this doesn't apply to advertising, I think there are some really clear extrapolations that we can draw when it comes to advertisers innovations at the cost of consumer comfort. Three years ago, Alibaba, the financial-technology giant controlled by billionaire Jack Ma embarked on an ambitious and costly effort to install facial-recognition devices at retailers that would allow people to make payments by smiling at a screen without having to use their phones. The payment technology has largely failed to gain popularity, analysts say, as some consumers have found the sign-up process cumbersome and had concerns about how their images and data would be used. It shows that even a major fintech innovator with a large customer base can face privacy concerns and struggle to change user habits.
Facebook says ‘technical issue’ caused its ads to appear on publisher websites without their permission [Digiday] Last week, some users clicking on news articles within Facebook’s iOS app were served with “interstitial” ads as they viewed that publishers’ content within the app’s browser, featuring advertisements from other companies. Ulrik Kristensen, a Facebook user who spotted the interstitial ads appearing on publisher sites last week, described the move as a “wrong step” from the technology company. “It’s bypassing the sovereignty of the publisher and impacts the user experience,” said Kristensen, who is also the head of partnerships and publishers at Danish ad network Step. “It impacts the user experience [and] many publishers use anchor ads that they monetize — this will lower the performance of their own ads.”
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!