28th October 2017
@martinweigel on client bravery. ‘Exhorting clients to be ‘brave’ enough to buy ‘brave’ work is not just poor psychology. It misrepresents and undermines creativity, passing it off as some roll of the dice, or reckless shot in the dark in which the possibility of total failure is deeply embedded.’ ‘Bravery’ : The folly and the vanity.
Nice summary of the WARC event I attended last week – New Technology – Digital Assistants, Voice Strategy, VR and Insights – ‘A recent article in the Wall Street Journal noted that tech companies now have their eyes on the ‘next billion’ internet users, mostly from the developing world. But the new users are very different from the first billion…. they are likely to favour voice and video rather than typing and text.‘
From The Atlantic.’It’s been said that software is “eating the world”. More and more, critical systems that were once controlled mechanically, or by people, are coming to depend on code. A small group of programmers wants to change how we code—before catastrophe strikes.‘
How Airbnb could be increasing home prices and rental rates.
Big Data meets Big Brother as China moves to rate its citizens. The plan is to launch its Social Credit System in 2020. The aim? To judge the trustworthiness – or otherwise – of its 1.3 billion residents.
Is Efficiency Killing Brands? From @adage – “Digital metrics are very short-term focused, and that has led marketers into a short-term mindset ….A lot of people in management do not have marketing backgrounds, and find the short-term argument seductive. They are judged quarter by quarter, and they want results, by quarter. I wish we had more CEOs and CFOs that understand if we restrain marketing to the quarterly cycle, we stuff it.’
Giving an effective presentation includes three things – making a point, making people care about your point, and asking for something.
‘Who you hang out with has a huge impact on your happiness. A lot of us accumulate friends along the way because we went to school together, or we work with them. And I never say to dump them, but proactively find happy friends who like to laugh. Humour has a measurable impact on daily happiness. So find funny friends. Or at least friends who think you’re funny, that’s big.’ This is a Lazy Person’s Guide to Happiness.
Sumptuous or OTT? Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby) brings his cinematic touch to H&M’s “The secret life of flowers”, a short film set in a mysterious country mansion where it is always spring.
From Open Culture – ‘A list of chronological Oscar winners often tells you more about the state of the culture than the state of the art.’ Here is a short clip of every Academy Award Winner for Best Cinematography in one supercut: From 1927’s Sunrise to 2016’s La La Land.