#10 – About not stopping, cracking creativity, narrating economics, being distinctive, journeying strategy, and buying AI junk on Etsy.
Hello hello.
We’re about to enter the tenth week of inspiration delivered into the most open-minded inboxes and this issue is packed with good stuff. It’s entertaining, analytical, educational, personal, and a little bit ridiculous – all the things you’d expect from a well-curated newsletter. *cough cough*
If you’re curious what I’ve shared in the past weeks, have a snoop around the archive. And if you like what you see, why not subscribe (just click on that big, fat button just below.)
Enjoy this week’s Six Links of Inspiration:
Don’t Stop. A music video for Greenpeace UK, shared by Tim Keil, created by the talented folks at Mother.
Cracking Creativity. A few of you might have seen a chart making the rounds in our little social bubble: the updated version of a table outlining the top drivers of advertising profitability. This is the presentation that goes with that chart. Key takeout: creativity drives profitability – and by a much higher factor than other, more rational (and, probably, controllable and predictable) levers.
Narrative Economics. I recently found myself with a bit of surprise time to think – and into that window of opportunity someone posted a link to Richard Shiller’s Coursera class on “Narrative Econocmis.” Now, as a strategist in the creative industry it shouldn't surprise you that cultural narratives influence (mass) decision making. And it also shouldn’t surprise you that a discipline built around the homo economicus hasn’t spent too much time thinking about that. But I was struck by the similarities of Shiller’s idea of epidemiologically spreading narratives and the theme of a book I’m reading: “Foolproof” by Sander van der Linden provides tactics to battle the spread of misinformation. And leans heavily into the vocabulary of virology (and provides some shocking findings about that spread that people working in communications probably should be aware of.)
Be Distinctive. Everywhere. Ipsos and JKR released a bit of research looking into the status quo and the quality of distinctive brand assets. According to their study, only 15% of all brand assets tested were truly distinctive (i.e. “immediately and uniquely brought the brand to mind and could be used in isolation.”) Brands’ colours and slogans are the least distinct, their products the most. Definitely worth a read. Thanks for the share, Utymo.
My strategy journey. An insightfully written retrospect on three decades in brand strategy by Richard Huntington, thoughtfully posted into my timeline by Keerti. I particularly like the distinction of strategists into “Splitters” and “Lumpers” – because I’m sure that every strategist/planner immediately will have an intuition where they sit. But there’s lots more to discover in this piece, so click. the. link.
A.I. Generated Junk Is Flooding Etsy. God, another article about AI, when will this ever stop, I hear you think. Yes, but this one has this great line in it: “Younger generations often talk about the total fakeness of money and the surreal position of always having to collect it. Logically, they want to make money online by creating something out of nothing. And with the help of AI, they can even make money by making nothing out of nothing.”
That’s it for this week. If it’s hot where you are, please share this refreshing collection of links with three of your friends.
Read you all next week.