This Month
August 2015 : We’ve sent 98% Pure Potato to the publisher
Hurrah – the middle weeks of July were a bit of a blur as Tracey Follows my fellow author and myself put the final touches to the manuscript of our book about the origins of account planning and sent it to the publisher Unbound. From this point on the conventional publishing process swings into action and we look forward to encountering copy editors, proof readers and typographers. These wheels move slowly. As soon as we have a publication date I will let you know but it is going to be in 2016. One of the most rewarding aspects of the last few months was a series of interviews with some of the most distinguished advertising thinkers of the last 30 years who had founded agencies of their own and been responsible for some of more creative and effective advertising campaigns. People like Dave Trott, Adam Lury, John Bartle and Jeremy Bullmore. The principle learning from these conversations was the way that customer response has on the whole been left by the wayside in the rush to monitoring customer behaviour. We hope that when the book is published it helps to push the pendulum back the other way. What people think marketing communications says matters. You don’t get the full story by monitoring sales and social media sites.
Colouring in between the lines
You probably already know that the best seller booklists are full of adult colouring books: 7 at the last count out of the top 20 on Amazon.Speculating why colouring has become so popular is a good way to relax over August. A couple of thoughtstarters for you – while in principle you COULD do your colouring using an online app – the point seems to be to get right away from the internet and relentless social sharing. I’ve included the Coca Cola graphic as a piece of irony because colouring is an activity from which brands are excluded. Brands don’t want their identities negotiated with their customers, the prospect of their colours logos being hijacked and possibly redrawn as something else is an obvious worry. It is a reminder that however cheap and immediate digital is for marketers that it has its limitations and people are doing something else on their summer holidays and its hard to imagine how brands can join in. Also that human activity and imagination are a good deal broader than we give people credit for. I remain committed to running research projects which dig into creativity and motivation. Putting those alongside the data stream.
Interactive Video using Touchcast
This tip came from one of the interviewees for the book,former Persil brand manager and founder of Added Value Peter Dart. Touchcast makes the production of interactive videos a cinch. Its a free download for the Ipad and the beta is also available for desktops. What it allows you to do is make your own videos on your pad: and drop websites, pictures and social media feeds into the video timelines which can be seamlessly opened and closed. Since so many desktops and of course pads have built in webcams you can talk straight to camera – there’s a teleprompt you can paste your script to. And you can greenscreen behind yourself so you can pretend to be on the beach or in the office depending on who you’re trying to impress! Video is becoming such a dominant part of the internet this looks like a very intuitive way to put videos together without having to recruit a small army of film editors and post production people. Useful for briefing your own team in different locations and you can use it to talk to customers as well. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Up and coming
I am around for most of August. Let me know if you want to meet up to talk about up and coming projects or if you need a spare pair of hands. I hope you get a bit of a break and enjoy what seems to be turning into a better than average summer weather wise.
Check out the blog at Further and Faster or follow johngriffiths7 on twitter.
