The Strategy Blog.
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Attachment Reminder: You may have forgotten to attach a file. Don’t send? Send anyway?
There’s a robot reading our emails. It’s there for our own protection. After all who wants to have to resend an email when they’ve forgotten to actually attach the promised document? It is our little virtual personal assistant. This notification comes up if you write, in the body copy of…
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A call for more to be done by our industry to represent people with disabilities
We clearly still need a Glass Lion. (The Cannes Glass Lion recognises work that implicitly or explicitly addresses issues of gender inequality or prejudice, through the conscious representation of gender in advertising.) Of course we do. It’s not enough. We need more action. We must all decide whether we think women should…
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Turning old media around
Newsbrands have done well in the shortterm out of Brexit with sales and subs going up. Consolidated sales are finally being considered for the medium. Here’s a related world with potential other learnings for the category. Printed book sales are up – are there lessons for printed magazines and newsbrands…
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#womennotobjects
“It’s kinda messed up” “It’s like gross to see” “I don’t like seeing that” “Cover your eyes, cover your eyes” These are the reactions of a bunch of kids when shown ads featuring the objectification of women according to Madonna Badger of the campaign: Women not…
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How much empathy do you have?
Empathy is a finite resource, according to HBR’s Adam Waytz. If I am empathetic towards you today, I will have less empathy towards my friend at dinner this evening. If you take on board one colleague’s problem over lunch, you’re going to be less ready to shoulder the burden of…
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Are Planners Printist?
James Wildman, CRO of Trinity Mirror says they are. He writes that research has uncovered prejudice in agencies: “Printism can be defined as: “The preconceived opinion not based on reason or actual experience of the print medium; bias, partiality, unreasoned dislike, hostility or antagonism towards, or discrimination against, print – accelerated…
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The Secret Life of Millennials
The Great Wall of China is the only man made structure visible from space; a penny dropped from a tall building can kill a man; men think about sex every 6 seconds; we only use 10 per cent of our brains. Millennials have the attention span of a goldfish.…
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Down with the “Digirati”
“Programmatic: it’s automated trading – say it as it is. What is big data? – it’s what you do with it that’s important”. This is Claudine Collins speaking her mind about advertising buzz words that she hears too much and just aren’t simple enough. We all have a tendency to…
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Engaging with the flagpole
Are you as sick of jargon as the rest of us? In the run up to a recent panel session with Karen Stacey, David Weeks and Omaid Hiwaizi, I asked around the office for everyone’s favourite, or is that most hated, jargon. There was a deluge of response. And not…
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Adblocking: A Darwin Wedge?
Economist Robert H. Frank coined the term Darwin’s Wedge to describe situations where stuff evolves to benefit the individual but actually is bad for the species overall. Look for instance at the elephant seal. Bull elephant seals are huge. They can weigh as much as 6 thousand pounds. They’re 5…
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“Juries don’t buy evidence they buy narrative… Our job is to tell the story better than the other guy”.
This is Johnnie Cochrane on The people v OJ Simpson, American Crime Story. The jury he’s talking about are of course those picked for the famous controversial murder trial in the 1990s. But could he be talking about any jury? Including those who are about to judge the awards for…
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Even if you have the right strategy, the wrong tactics will get you wet.
The exciting part of the Oxford and Cambridge boat races this year was the women’s race. (Yes that’s right, the section of the old established rowing competition that although it has been taking place alongside the men’s race since 1927, and annually since 1967, has only been televised since 2015).…
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