Have you ever been to someone else’s family gathering and 90% of what’s said goes totally over your head? Surrounded by people in fits of laughter, whilst you giggle nervously sipping your prosecco? Yeah, you’re absolutely not in. In fact, I’ve been thinking about in jokes a lot. We absolutely love jokes where the less information you get the better. Because its context, history, kinship. It shows you absolutely are in. You’re one of us.
A few months ago I was at an IPA Eff Fest event where Jennie Roper, Head of Insight, Kinetic UK, did a fantastic, Lionel Ritchie inspired talk on evidence-based decision making. Jennie had been working on a OOH campaign for Subway, testing different creative in similar towns. They would change one thing at a time and test the results: the advertised sandwich, the copy, the colour of the background, and, interestingly, whether it mentioned the geography that it was based in.
A local place, for local people
People want to “get it”, right away, Jennie said, whether that’s a joke, a rhyme, or a puzzle. That’s why tapping into the tribe works. Because the brand is essentially signifying it’s one of us. Just like a football supporter only wears his own team’s strip.
So you have to understand the identity of the place, otherwise you start sounding like an outsider. Or one of them. The example Jennie used that whilst using “Hello Yorkshire” might work in Sheffield, “Hello Lothian” wouldn’t work in Edinburgh”. Which is why (apart from the neat use of fairy lights) this eBay advert on a bus in Edinburgh caught my eye.
If it’s happening in Caledonia this Christmas, it’s happening on eBay
Excuse the terrible camera work.
SO MANY QUESTIONS!
Ok, firstly why is the logo ebay, but the copy is eBay? Surely the weird capital B only works if its from the logo? Secondly, Caledonia?? Have you ever heard anyone from Edinburgh (or anywhere else for that matter) refer to themselves as being from Caledonia?
A quick Google on that one tells you all you need to know about the word:
Its modern usage is as a romantic or poetic name for Scotland as a whole, comparable with Hibernia for Ireland and Cambria for Wales.
I’m not Scottish, so I may be way out of line on that. Perhaps there’s a fond, tribal affiliation to being Caledonian that I have no idea about because I’m on the outside looking in. But I suspect not. I think the campaign may have come out of the US, so is a good lesson to anyone doing location based marketing outside of their own geography (but one all should have learnt a long time ago, right?).
According to Jennie, using a region’s name in the creative is less about locality and more about tribe, personalisation and novelty. Caledonia wasn’t technically incorrect, it just wasn’t tapping into the tribe. The use of Caledonia (and the fairy lights!) was definitely novel, so perhaps they’re hitting a nail on the head somewhere. It just feels sloppy and disrespectful. Did they think so little about the people they’re targeting in this region that they didn’t even Google the name?
Don’t you just love when you’re learning about a new subject or topic, and things are still refreshingly surprising? I hear some people talk about marketing strategy and I just can’t believe how jaded and cynical they sound. Now that may just be their personality, or that’s just what happens when you’ve been doing something for multiple decades. Or maybe I’m just naive.
What ever the answer, I’m loving learning about marketing strategy, and brand strategy, and business strategy, and digital strategy and today I learnt that experience marketing strategy is a thing.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learnt on my hunt for the latest and greatest words on the subject, is that you have to be super self aware (or at least it helps). Those who think for a living must first understand themselves, before attempting to understand others.
In a recent Sweathead episode Mark Pollard and Camilla Grey Petty discuss the ups and downs of freelancer life, versus employed life, and topic that came up time and again was self care. Learning to love yourself. Learning to speak kindly to yourself.
Write a love poem to yourself.
They spoke of sitting with your feelings. Letting them be. Understanding what they are and where they’ve come from. We’re so busy, hurtling from task to task, place to place. Getting on with it. And so we often forget to just… feel.
The practice of Mindfulness encourages people to be present in the moment by connecting with their physical body. To regularly take a moment to just be and feel.
By allowing yourself to feel what you’re feeling, when you feel it, allow your brain to figure out what on Earth is going on inside. Is this sadness or fear or anger? Is it about the traffic or your boss or a nagging sense of failure?
It’s a tough gig to figure that one out.
Strategy & self love
I honestly don’t think it’s a coincidence that I’ve stumbled on the world of the strategist at the same time that I’m trying to figure out how to be a better human. How to human better. I’ve been through a huge period of self realisation this year, and so Mark and Camilla’s words really struck a chord with me.
Camilla also said that being a strategist is about being able to put things down on paper, in a succinct manner, that other people understand. Which is exactly what I’m practising with this blog. I think I’m a pretty good writer. I can be succinct when I really put my mind to it. And I have no idea if anyone else understands it.
Learning how to feel
We can all feel, right? Why would anyone need to learn how to feel? Well, I think I do. I want to understand what I’m feeling. I want to turn over those feelings in my hand, look at them close up, appreciate them for what they are. To question them with a gentle, loving curiosity. Because that’s the only way I can set them free.
Otherwise you’re just squishing them down further. Trying to ignore them. Only peeking at them out of the corner of your eye. Trying to stop them taking up space. Like Monica’s secret cupboard. I have a desire to know myself better. To treat myself better. To love myself better. So I want to look.
I’m a big believer in deliberate practice. Actively practising a skill to improve. Being aware of the problem is only part of the battle. Now you have to overcome that hurdle. So my plan is to set myself a 30 day challenge. Every day in December (which can be an intensely emotional time any way) I will try and follow this practice daily:
Notice a feeling
Identify that feeling
Accept that feeling lovingly
Think about that feeling, where has it come from, who is connected to it
Notice the feelings in my physical body in that moment
Remember that I am perfectly equipped to handle that feeling
Decide whether the feeling requires action, or waiting out
Speak kindly and confidently to myself
I love you man
That last one is something Mark mentioned he says to himself and his friends as a reminder to be kind to yourself. During this month I would like to come up with my own version of this. Or perhaps I love you man works just as well for me.
This is such a personal practice, and it works differently for everyone. How do you show yourself love?
Maybe it’s because I’m currently writing an essay on the subject, but it seems that influencers have been in the news an awful lot recently. And every time someone publishes an article, the world sets out to rid the influencer and the brands that use them to shreds.
Kellogg’s recently announced they were going to stop using influencers because they are expensive, ineffective and often difficult to measure.
One agency we work with said a campaign was a success because it generated loads of comments, but when we dug deeper into the report, we realized that the influencers we’d paid had just gone to a WhatsApp group of other influencers and asked them to make all of those comments.
Joseph Harper, social media lead at Kellogg’s in the U.K. and Ireland
Influencing influencers
Now, a lot of these focus on the influencers for influencers sake type influencers. I mean the ones that just have a bigger than average following on Instagram. The reality TV stars of the internet. There is so much more than that to influencer marketing, from celebrity endorsement, to subject matter experts, academics, journalists. But when most peoples think of influencers the image that they conjure up is probably exactly like Alexa: the subject of Economist’s 1843 Mag’s recent piece of influencers.
It’s titled Inside the mind of a digital influencer, and that’s exactly what it is. It’s got a lot of heat on Twitter for being absolutely ridiculous, and I urge you to read it because in some ways, it really is a bit nuts. But what really hit home to me reading this piece is that there is a generation of people growing up putting their lives on the internet, using it to paper over their insecurities, and a mechanism to receive approval on a near constant basis.
Everyone’s at it
So, maybe not the whole generation are doing it. But it’s interesting to get a look inside the mind of someone who is compelled to put their life on the internet. Because we see them all the time. You see them in your social feeds. And as a marketer you might look to use them in your work.
The woman at the centre of this article is getting a lot of heat for her lifestyle, and the Economist is getting a lot of heat for writing this piece.
The Economist it would seem is there to write about the economy.Whether we like it or not large amounts of money are being moved around because of influencers.The Economist should write about them.The Economist does not exist to confirm my world view.
This expose, if I can call it that, shows an insecure and vulnerable person, who’s main form of self approval and recognition is the internet, a place full of people semi-anonymously looking to kill time, with no little to no interest in her wellbeing.
The article itself doesn’t always paint Alexa in the best light, maybe she is the person portrayed in the article, maybe she’s not. Maybe she’s now hiding from the world, regretting doing the article, and feeling more and more anxious about her life choices. There’s no way of knowing.
Using influencers for marketing
Good, solid influencer marketing is born from identifying a business need, writing a marketing objective, and recognising that influencers are part of the mix to achieve that objective, right? Just like any other toolkit in the marketer’s toolkit. So, here are my top tips (bear in mind this is from conducting academic research, and not real world experience, so feel free to chip in, comment and expand):
Firstly, influencers are people to. Yes, this is business, but its nice to be nice.
Autheticity is absolutely crucial to effective marketing. The more organic you can make the relationship the better.
Find influencers you can build long term relationships with. Build brand ambassadors, champions.
Look for audience engagement, not just follower counts. Look at who comments, likes and shares their post. Analyse the type of posts that resonate most with their audience – how would they react to a post with your brand attached?
Think about influencer marketing like co-creation. It’ll feel more real.
Follow the rules! The ASA has been hotting up for sometime on influencer marketing. You must make sure it is clear and obvious to the audience that this is a commercial relationship. Instagram has a great mechanism behind the scenes for achieving this. Find ASA’s guidelines here.
Don’t use influencers in a vacuum. Make sure they’re part of a winder strategy. They can support an ATL campaign. Use different types of influencers to reach different parts of your audience.
Influencer marketing done well
Influencer marketing can be risky. You’re using people that you have very little control over to relay your message to your audience. Honestly, anything could happen. But done right, for the right reasons, using the right people, with the right support, in the right marketing mix, influencers can help brands to connect on a deeper level with their audience, and reach new and engaged audiences.
There’s a lot to be said for being just a little bit naughty, wouldn’t you say? To play at the edges of acceptability. To push people’s buttons and see what happens. Coming up with new ideas is about seeing just how much mischief you can get into, and then only when you’ve reached the edge, pulling back into slightly safer territory.
In my last post Ideas are threats, I touched on lateral thinking, after Mark Pollard called it out as an advertising planner’s stock in trade. Lateral thinking is about producing a volume of creative and incongruous ideas, in order to get to the best possible solution to your problem.
“Brain training pioneer” Edward de Bono is more well know for his six hats (especially that pesky black hat). But he formed the idea of lateral thinking 50 years ago: possibility thinking.
Ok, but what is it for? Where do I start? How can I use it?
In its simplest terms, lateral thinking is a way of stretching the innovations your mind can come up with. You have a problem. You need a solution. The odds are, someone has tried to come up with a solution before, right? But you still need a solution. Which means either previous ones didn’t work, or they didn’t work well enough (too expensive, too slow, too complex, etc).
So you don’t just need any solution, you need the right solution. The best solution. Ok, so this is where lateral thinking comes into its own. People think of Sherlock Holmes (one of my heroes) as a man of logic and reason. And that he was. But he was also a great lateral thinking.
Elementary, my dear Watson!
According to my good friend Google, lateral thinking is the solving of problems by an indirect and creative approach, typically through viewing the problem in a new and unusual light.
View your problem through a new and unusual light
Unusual, you say? Ok, we can do that!
When you think of problem solving, you think you need only the right information. But lateral thinking can throw in loads of curveball information, to stretch your mind, to make it work harder for the problem. And therefore find different solutions to everyone who has tried to crack the problem before (I’m going to try and stop saying solution now).
Lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces.
So let’s take a look at a problem that lots of people face when searching for a job, and one that was raised recently in Mark Pollard’s strategy discussion group Sweatheads:
I’m job hunting at the moment. Does anyone have any ideas or pointers on what to include in an application? Resume, cover letter and…? And any thoughts on what makes a great cover note?
Lateral thinking exercise
In other words, how do you get cut through when looking for a job? Here’s the process we’re going to follow to approach this (obviously this is going to be quite a generic outcome, but let’s see how we get on):
What are our assumptions about getting a job?
What are the normal routes to a job?
What if we couldn’t do any of these things?
How can we reframe the question?
Let’s work backwards.
Change the perspective.
Once we’ve worked through these steps, hopefully we’ll have come up with a number of different routes to getting a job. Some will be awful, but we’re looking for that one little gem, the nugget of gold amongst the rocks.
What are our assumptions?
Everybody wants a job.
A company has a specific need for specific skills for a specific amount of time.
There is a person or group of people making the decision on the person they will hire for that role.
There will be other people, and possibly a lot of other people, wanting that role.
The better the job the more competition for the role.
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know – people with an “in” to the company will be able to queue jump.
It’s not all about the skills and experience, but about cultural fit.
Hiring managers are scared of making the wrong decision, so might go for the safe option, the person that ticks all the boxes.
Ok, that’s a good list for now. Doing this for real I could go on for much longer, but this should do to illustrate the point without boring you to death with lists.
What are the normal routes to a job?
You see an advert for a role online (job board, industry publication, etc), send a CV or fill out an application form.
You someone in a company and ask them to put you in touch with HR, the hiring manager, or the person in the department who might be your boss.
You network within the industry to hear about roles as they come up.
You reach out to your existing network to hear about roles.
What if you can’t do any of these?
This is where things get interesting. How do you get a job if you can do any of these things?
If you can’t reach out to them, get them to reach out to you. Become really well known for a particular skill or project. Self promotion.
What if you can’t use a computer, so you have to send in the application by post?
What if you’re really nervous and can’t speak to people at networking events? You could host an event and be behind the scenes, and hopefully build your confidence.
What if you were really expert and went to speak at events, rather than being a delegate?
What if you’re looking for a job in a new industry or country where you have no network or expertise? You could put together a portfolio of work with transferable skills. You could reach out to people you admire in the industry for mentorship, or guidance. You could start a blog on the topic you want to become an expert on to teach yourself about the subject and eventually showcase your expertise (hello wannabe strategist…)
How can we reframe the question?
So now you start questioning the question. Do you really need a job? What is a job? What defines the job you are looking for? What happens if you don’t get a job? What happens if you got a job in a different industry? How would this process be different if you were making a purchase? If you had to buy your job? How would you approach this differently if you needed to start the job tomorrow? Or in five years?
The questions here are limitless. I just stream of consciousness writing to get a load of questions out, before you start answering them.
Do you think you’re asking the right question? Or has the question changed based on this exercise?
Working backwards
You’re looking for a job. Presumably you’re looking for a specific job. Imagine you’re already in that job. And you’re smashing it. Really think about that situation. What does it look like? What does it feel like? Where are you? Who are you with? What are your colleagues like? What’s your boss like? How is your homelife different with this new job? What kind of money are you taking home? Where is your office? What do you have for lunch?
I’m not sure if you can tell but I’m a big believer in visualisation. This is a good step for getting clear on what you want, as well as for this lateral thinking exercise.
Now you’re clear on the end game, how did you get there? Work backwards.
What was your first day like?
How much time was there between finding out you got the job, and starting the job? What did you do in that time?
How did you find out you got the job? Who told you? Where were you? Who did you tell first?
What sealed the deal? What put you in front of the competition?
What was the interview process like? How many rounds? How many people?
What feedback did you get after your first interview? Who interviewed you? Where was it?
How did you find out about the job? How did you apply? How did you position your skills?
I know this is easier said than done, but it’s such a useful exercise. And there’s no right or wrong answer, so chill out and give it a go. There’s an infinite number of combinations, so do it multiple times. Try doing it when you’re in different frames of mind to see if you come out with different answers.
Try and be a bit mischievous with your answers. Play around with them. What if you were being totally outrageous with your route to your job. Make up stories about dragons, wizards, blackmail and sex.
How many different ways can you get a job?
Change perspective
This is a great exercise, and one I’ve used many times before. I absolutely love it. You get to pretend you’re someone else trying to solve this exact problem. I call it What Would Obama Do?
If Obama was trying to get they job you want, how would he approach it? Would he go on Ellen and let the world know what job he was looking for? Would he make a documentary about his skills in that area? Would he already know the CEO of the company, or one of its investors?
Now try this for a bunch of different people. Have fun! Come up with people in different situations to really try and stretch your imagination. Here’s a few I’ve used recently:
Family: a father, a toddler, a grandmother
Subcultures: a hipster, an emo, a punk, a Belieber, a nerd
Real people/Celebs: Elon Musk, Lily Allen, Jeremy Corbyn, Oprah, Jim Carrey, Victoria Beckham, Gareth Southgate, Beyonce, Alan Sugar, Simon Cowell, Elvis
Professions: engineer, visual artist, city planner, glamour model, teacher, growth hacker, mountain climber, professor, footballer, MP, reality TV star
What now?
Now’s the time to refine. You’ve thought about your assumptions and how to challenge them, and push them to one side. You know what your dream outcome is, and have thought about the steps in detail to make that happen. You’ve got out of your own head and thought about how a load of different people might approach the problem.
Now you refine those. You’ve gone to the edges of possibility, and now you can bring yourself back into the safe area.
List out your options. Hopefully you have more interesting options than when you started. And more effective, more efficient options. And more expensive, more elaborate options. You have the power to decide which ones are right for you, right for now, right for this situation.
Problem solving resources
As you go out into the world and solve different problems, there are many ways to approach these, not just lateral thinking. There are some great resources to help you on your journey. Here are a few:
Everything we know is right until its proved wrong. Science a whole profession of certainties that are ripe to be disproved. But that doesn’t invalidate the work they do, not one bit.
There’s no right answer in here. That’s not true, actually. There are often many, many right answers. And some might be more right than others. And some will be down right wrong. But you’ll have a load of options to try that you didn’t have when you started.
And the further towards the edge of reason you can push your thinking throughout the process, the more interesting your answers will be. Challenge your thinking at every step. If you discount an option, ask yourself why. Leave it on the table for that little bit longer.
I’d be really interested to hear how you use lateral thinking in your work, or if this post has helped clarify lateral thinking for you.
I’ve always been a bit of nerd. I’m naturally curious, and am known to be a bit of a know it all. It’s taken a long time to come to terms with the teacher’s pet in me, but it’s finally something I’m not only learning to love, but nurturing. I honestly don’t know why more people aren’t more in touch with their inner nerd. It’s so much fun!
Today I totally nerded out on strategy. I went to an IPA talk by the formidable thinker Mark Pollard, and had my conscious well and truly stuffed. It was great! As someone looking to get into a more strategic role, it was a solid introduction to strategy and insight. Mark has been a strategist for TribalDDB, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett (AUS & NY), McCann, Saatchi & Saatchi, Edelman and now his very own Mighty Jungle. Phew!
Choose your words
There are a number of things that I can start putting into practice right away. The first is how to choose words. Mark talked about words a lot. He talked about steering clear of jargon and business speak. He urged us to use natural language and plain speak.
But Mark also chose his words carefully. He used poignant language. Strong words with strong meanings. In my work, I will review my writing carefully and look for ways to use language better, to tighten and simplify sentences and use bolder words.
How to frame a problem
One of a planner’s key skills is working out what the problem is, framing it and explaining the strategy to overcome the problem in such a way that it can be easily understood by the others in the room.
Below is Mark’s handy framework for getting from problem to strategy.
Lateral thinking
The foundation of creativity, ideation and strategy: lateral thinking is at the centre of the planner’s role. And yet something that very few people in the industry can explain, Mark told the audience, in his chipper and mildly self deprecating way. So here we go (cheers Wikipedia):
Lateral thinking is a manner of solving problems using an indirect and creative approach via reasoning that is not immediately obvious. It involves ideas that may not be obtainable using only traditional step-by-step logic.
Cool. Got it. Let’s go! Mark shared with us a number of different techniques for coming up with new ideas using lateral thinking. He asked us to draw two vertical lines, each with five dashes on them. One labelled Glasgow and one labelled Brownies. On each dash we had to write one thing that we associate with Glasgow and Brownies on their respective lines.
In my defence, I know very little about Glasgow and these associations a very loose
This is linear thinking. It’s rational. Next is where the fun comes in. Take anything on the right, and anything on the left and smush them together (yes, that’s the technical term). And see where the wind takes you!
So for example taking spa and grandma I thought of Grandspa: a mobile spa for older people, bringing relaxation into their home. Or by combining subway and baking I thought about having retro trolly service on the underground, serving a range of homemade cakes called Metrobakes. And as ever, go back, revise, tighten the words, strengthen the name.
Coming up with ideas is an age old pre-occupation. And something our ancient survivalist brain sees as a threat in others (what if they work out how to steal our food?). Lateral thinking is not new either. De Bono coined the phrase 50 years ago, and he is still the most well known writer on the subject. You can read his introduction to lateral thinking on Google.
Insight, insight, insight, insight
Please can you quit saying insight? Unless you’re using it right and sparingly. Over using a word dilutes its meaning. And there isn’t really another one for insight, so use it wisely.
A true insight makes you so think “that’s so interesting, I’ve never thought about it like that before” (like that drunk girl at the bar listening to you give her home truths about her crappy boyfriend).
It reveals or inspires something about a person or the world. It’s lateral. It often hangs around just one word.
It can take the form (first observation) but (second observation) or (first observation) despite (second observation). It can take the form people believe X, but actually Y is true. It can include metaphors or similes. But it must challenge current thinking.
So what?
Learning the business of strategy and planning is fascinating. I love geeking out on different frameworks, different ways to attack problems. One of my favourite games to play is to try and figure out what was briefed in when I see an advert or a piece of communication.
What deliberate practice do you do to improve your strategy skills? How to you improve your craft?
Advertising’s role is the world is a much disputed one. It’s purpose is to change a behaviour or attitude: usually to spend money in one place rather than another. But since advertising has become more sophisticated than “Buy this vacuum, your wife will love it!”, it’s role has changed.
Recently I wrote an essay on advertising in ethics, and one of the topics it touched on was whether advertising is a builder of culture, or a mirror, simply reflecting our own attitudes back to us. Absolutely, there is an element of both in reality, but it is something that we don’t often think about as an industry. Ads, Fads and Consumer Culture is a great read if you’re interested in this topic.
Humans are constantly looking at the world around us to get cues about how to behave, how to dress, how to speak, what to think, what to eat. How to be part of the tribe. Because if you’re not in the tribe, you’re out. And if you’re out of the tribe you’re unlikely to survive.
So you wanna be in our gang?
So we all innately want to be “in”. In the modern world we look for social cues everywhere. The people we hang out with. The people at work. The people on TV: actors, celebrities, the news reader, cartoons, and, yes, adverts. We internalise everything about them, and make a judgement about whether we want to be in their tribe, or not. Do we identify with them, or not.
Advertising is a mirror of culture
One theory is that advertising draws from culture, and only draws from culture. And then reflects back to us our own societal norms. Because to sell to people is to create a world that they identify with, and want to be part of.
Advertising shapes culture
The flipside is that advertising builds culture. It takes influences from outside its own society. That is has the ability to change societal norms. This, to me, is the essence of what a social change campaign is all about. Think click click, clunk clunk. This campaign was an agent of change. The aim was to change the social norm. The only difference is that it was intentional and a positive change.
Making positive change
There are people out there making positive waves in the industry. Interestingly some of the biggest impact has come from media owners. Both Transport for London and Channel 4 are running competitions to improve the representation of minorities in adverts.
This Lloyds advert previously tackled the stigma of mental health, and went on to win the Channel 4 competition.
So what?
As a planner, or art director, or account man, what can we take from this? Well, what I take from this is a huge sense of responsibility. Social norms have been evolving since the dawn of time, of course, but since we’ve had mass media, and advertisers with their own agendas leveraging these channels, there has been an acceleration in the rate of change.
Every person on this planet has a responsibility to tread lightly on the Earth. To be good to each other. And to try and leave the world a better place than when we arrived. And for advertisers this means holding ourselves to account for what we put out into the world.
Not to hide from the impact our words and pictures and product placements and celebrity endorsements and media buying have on people. On strong people. On vulnerable people. On adults. On children. On each other.
David Ogilvy is a name that is synonymous with advertising, but someone that I know relatively little about. Hello Wikipedia!
Businessman; founder of Ogilvy & Mather; Father of Advertising.
Tell me something I didn’t know.
Failed scholar; apprentice chef; wildly successful Aga salesmen.
Huh? Ok, so that’s interesting. So successful a salesman was he that in 1935 Aga asked him to write a manual on selling Agas for others to follow: The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA Cooker. It became the gold standard for selling, and not just Agas. In 1971, Fortune called it “probably the best sales manual ever written.”
Ogilvy’s lovely way with words convey such meaning, and so much of it still resonates today:
If you find yourself one fine day saying the same things to a bishop and a trapezist, you are done for.
I hope some day, I have the great fortune to speak to a Bishop and a trapezist in the same day. What an occasion that would be! Some of his words perhaps resonate less so today (and I will if I want to!):
Do not wear a bowler hat.
He also said this:
Expand your horizons, grow empathy
When I was 16, I didn’t take A levels, as was the norm at the time and place. I decided not to specialise down to the three or four subjects allowed at that level, but to take the International Baccalaureate instead. This choice meant that I could continue to study a broader range of academic studies; you had to take English and maths, as well as a language, a humanity subject, a science and an additional subject.
But the advantages of taking this course were so much more than that. It wasn’t just that you could continue to pursue a range of subjects. You also had to take a course called Theory of Knowledge, essentially a philosophy course. Students are also required to do extra curricular activities: something active, something creative and something service oriented – volunteering etc.
Furthermore, every subject had to have a cultural element, to expose students to a wider world. In English we studied texted from across the globe, both written in English and translated. In art, we were encouraged to look for inspiration from far flung places. In chemistry we learnt how different parts of the world contributed to our current understanding of the subject.
The point is, we were encouraged to look outside of ourselves, so much more than the regular academic courses. Our horizons were expanded. We were encouraged to look up from our own little lives, from our screens, and see what’s out there. And develop an empathy and understanding for the wider world.
Travel makes you feel stupid
Mark Pollard talks about how travel makes you feel stupid (Sweathead ep 07 11 2018). It challenges our assumptions. It reframes how you see your own life. Things you take for granted as being the norm, or just a natural fact of life turn out not to be the norm. Marks says travel helps you build empathy.
I love this.
You know the feeling. You’re on holiday. You’re in a different country. You’ve done your research, you know the culture, you’ve picked up some of the language. You know where you’re going, where to stay, where to eat, what to eat. You’ve totally got this.
And then something seemingly simple totally floors you. Like… there are no supermarkets. You have no idea where to get household essentials of your AirBnb. How you are you going to do the dishes.
Or, you head to someone’s house and they immediately ask you if you want a shower (as is the custom in much of Brazil). Or have a whole conversation about football only to realise you’re talking about entirely different sports.
You get my drift.
But this is actually a good thing. It means you’re getting out of your own head. You’re looking up out of your own life, and really seeing what’s out there. Seeing what some of the other seven billion people in the world see. You’re expanding your horizons. Yay for travel!
Feed your conscious
So what are you going to do today to “stuff your conscious”? Where are you go to places to brush up on art, culture, science, technology, maths, crafts, teaching methods? How are you going to reframe how you see the world?
How time is changing. I’m reasonably well read on quantum theory, and I’ve come across chaos theory, but this is a whole other kettle of fish. I can’t summarise this article, so you’re going to have to do it for yourself.
How weight is changing. When is a kilo not a kilo? Since the standardisation of measures, a hunk of metal outside of Paris has been our constant. But next year, that will change. We’re going to start using the Planck constant as the basis for our measures. A weight for all people, for all times.
AI is learning to dress itself. In way bigger news than China’s AI news anchor, AI cartoon characters are using machine learning to dress themselves, with inevitable hilarity.
I’m putting it out there. I wannabe a strategist. And inspired by Alex Morris and his absolutely incredible strategy scrapbook (read it now, read it later, read it again next week, flip it to a random page and use it like tarot cards).
As a life long PR darling moving into a more generalised marketing role, I miss stretching my strategic grey matter. So I’ve started collecting little snippets that catch my eye. Graphics, quotes, strategies, ways to solve problems, ways to frame problems, human foibles that amuse me.
And I’ll collect them all here. Just for you. Enjoy!
Go to people and places
As a starter for 10, here are some places to go if you’re on the hunt for the latest thoughts from the industry’s greatest thinkers:
i'm a wannabe strategist 