Five things on Friday on Sunday #292

Things of note for the week ending (not Friday but) Sunday 14th, 2019.

Newsletter #292: Introduction


Hello gorgeous.

As I start this week’s introduction it is Thursday. 21:36. I am at the office and there is a pause in proceedings (in short: dinner has arrived and my name is yet to be called), so I write.

– – –

Actually, scratch that. Literally, as I wrote that sentence, my name was called. Standard. My food was eaten and now? Now It’s 23:53 on a Thursday night as I (re-)start this section.

Pitchmas Eve.

Tired.

But exhilarated.

Big Pitch Energy.

‘I’ve not seen you like this for ages’ she said. And she was right. ‘You look good’ someone else remarked, ‘Thanks, I’m happy.’ I responded, ‘Happier than I’ve been for a very long time’

This too shall pass.

But for now, I’m going to settle in, soak up, and marinade the living hell out of this gorgeous feeling.

I guess I’d forgotten what it felt like to feel valued. That’s quite a big statement. Maybe I need to sit with it for a while before I unpack it any further. Let’s review it in a month (I’ll set a reminder and we’ll revisit it – plan? Plan). The only thing I would add if you’re not feeling that right now, find something new to do. Something new.

Look around. Look outside. It might be cold but the sun is shining. Spring is coming. So spring already.

Where was I?

That’s right…

It feels like every week I’m saying this at the moment BUT hello and welcome to the newbies. So many in fact I might have to give this email list a clean at some point soon (fun fact: Mailchimp allows newsletter writers 2000 free subs before it starts charging).

A big hearty welcome back to those that still subscribe (you’re all lovely).

We’ve got a lot to get through this week and some absolute belters to look at.

Shall we crack on?

LET’S.


1. DR KATIE BOUMAN

It is entirely allowed to have a girl-crush on Dr. Katie Bouman.



Without Katie, you probably wouldn’t have all seen this week:



First, this photo is amazing (almost as amazing as this photo of Kate as the image started ‘developing‘).

Second. I could try and tell you about Katie, and the how the photo was made etc… but why waste time when there’s a great 12min explanation on how it was done from Kate herself? Here’s Katie’s 2016 TEDx talk on the HOW behind the work (I love love love that this actually happened. Love it. And I love that there’s a talk telling you all about it too).

Third, this is one of the best things I’ve read about this so far is this article looking at some of the rough maths behind why, when transferring petabytes of data (see image above), planes are faster than the internet.

Thanks for giving us all a lesson in perspective, Katie.

We all need that right now.

2. MANAGING CHAOS

We’re moving from one awesome woman to one awesome man.

This week, CMO at Brandwatch and all round lovely human, Will McInnes posted an article called ‘Managing Chaos’ and it really is excellent.

Possibly the best business-related thing in this week’s rundown – and maybe one of the best things I’ve read about being an-actual-person-in-a-mental-workplace-making-things-happen I think I have ever read.

As an ex-startup guy, this spoke to me. As an agency man going into a pitch this week, it spoke to me again.

If you read one thing this week, then you should absolutely read Managing Chaos.

PS. The best thing? This is first of a series from Will so you should follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his blog (what year is this?) or something like that.

3. FLEABAG



I think this might be the third time that Fleabag has appeared in this here cinq choses le vendredi and I am totally fine with it.
REASONS.

The main reason is that this past week I finally finished the second AND LAST series/season of the TV show. And. It. Was. Perfect.

I first saw Fleabag at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2013. As a one-woman show with Pheobe Waller-Bridge at the helm. It was the final (and 18th) show we saw over the course of three days and it was phenomenal.

In fact, I’ve got the original write up right here:



Following its journey from then til now has been great. Watching the final final FINAL ever episode on Wednesday (it really is the last one – and rightly so, you’ll know when you watch it) made me realise/remember why PW-B is just such an amazing talent.

Right now, Season/Series 2 of Killing Eve is on its way to the UK (arriving who knows when) and PWB is taking the original Fleabag back to Broadway.

Two things to take out of this particular thing:

1. I can’t wait to see what Waller-Bridge does next.
2. If you’ve not seen Fleabag, you should fix that.

4. DAVID BECKHAM DEEP FAKE

This is wicked good.



This video of David Beckham reminds me of my friend Iain (hi Iain) but not for the reason you might think.

About a year or so ago, I was asked to contribute to a trend document for Government Communications Services. Two think pieces (that turned into two chapters). One on voice tech another on ethics. Proud of that work – and I think I’ve linked to it from here before.

The first chapter, however, which I think Iain wrote, was on next-generation fakery. The advent of fake news. The [entirely correct] re-badging of that one bucket term into two terms: disinformation and misinformation. And deep fakes. Deep fakes are the next level of fakery. It’s the famous video of Jordan Peele deep faking Obama. All of it is set to create major issues across the modern world over the next five/ten years. And we – as far as I know – as yet have no real way to combat it.

AND YET.

Here we are with a perfectly decent use of the technology to help David Beckham launch the Malaria Must Die for Malaria No More. Right click, open in new tab this Campaign article to find out more about the story.

This is a great video. For an equally great campaign.

What is it they say? The roads to hell are paved with good intentions…?

5. ROBYN

Friday night, I finished work, got the tube to Finsbury Park, caught the W3 bus to Alexandra Palace to see this woman. Robyn.



That was Friday night.

The first gig that I can remember in so long that I stayed ’til the lights came on.

So much singing. So much dancing. Hands in the air, carefree, emotional DANCING.

Three encores.

This privilege.

It was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to in my entire life.

From the moment Robyn stepped onto the stage, we were ensnared. Entirely spellbound. And we were hers. Seduced by her magic. Her voice. Her music. It felt like we were all guests at her own private house-party-cum-private-rave and it was utterly magical.

I am still, believe it or not, quite lost for words about how it all.

I will leave you with three things.

  1. The Telegraph wrote the only review I can find for Friday night’s gig and holy hell does it do a bang-up job (it’s paywalled but you can get to the article just by registering – it’s worth it).

  2. This moment? I was crying. I think everyone was. Anthemic. An incredible moment.

  3. The last time I wrote about Robyn in FToF I linked to a fantastic long read about how ‘Robyn Changed Pop’ – this seems like a suitable time to relink to that. I’m reading it again as soon as I hit send on this.

Me? I’m still on cloud nine.

And will be for a while.

If you were there, tell me – I’d love to hear from you.

THE ESSENTIALS:

The Essentials are the weekly links to the #MeToo movement. Any article. Any press. Any story. Any white male firing. If it happens, it’s here.

B O N U S. I SAID B-O-N-U-S.

THEY’RE DELIGHTFUL.

Five things on Friday #291

Things of note for the week ending Friday April 4th, 2019. 

Introduction 

Well, hello there you.

How have you beeeeeeen? 

Me? I’m super chill, thanks for asking. I spent the first few days of this week (well, Sunday through Tuesday) in the Cotswolds, at Whatley Manor (no joke and no relation) and it was everything we needed.

Utter. Bliss. 

Returning to real life on Wednesday, I was grateful to attend the (formerly Spredfast + Lithium but now called) Khoros Engage event in London – and it was genuinely great. Seeing such quality keynote speakers as Dr Hannah Fry (amazing – buy her book) and Danny Wallace (he has a book also – more on that shortly) is easily one of the better ways to bring yourself back into working routine, this much I can tell you. 

If you’ve never heard of the former, Dr Fry is a mathematician, writer, author, and speaker. When the initial intro sessions were over and the good doctor was introduced, there was an audible collective sigh at the first keynote being announced as being about MATHEMATICS… but how wrong we all were.

Witty, intelligent, and impeccably presented, Dr Fry’s talk was easily the best of the day. I’ve just bought her book – you should too. 

The latter, Danny Wallace, gave a talk specifically about ‘Understanding the culture of rudeness’ and it’s part of Danny’s talk that makes up part of first thing this week. Something I will get to imminently. 

Before I do that I should say a big fatthank you to the team at Khoros for a) the invite and b) putting on such a fantastic event. It was definitely one of the better ‘tech platforms doing decent stuff for their customers’ events I’ve been to in recent years and thematically, the right and correct strategy of not pinning themselves too rigidly to their product suite played out well. Good job and I look forward to attending the next one. Oh, and top networking afterward also (not something I say that often/ever/if at all). So yeah, good job team. 

If you’re interested in what you missed, you can read more about the event on the hashtag, #KhorosEngage. 

Right enough of that now, shall we get onto the things?

LET’S!

1. THINK MORE, REACT LESS. 

So yes. Danny Wallace.

Three things I know to be true about Danny Wallace. 

1. Danny Wallace first rose to fame as the chap that Dave Gorman bet he couldn’t meet other Dave Gormans. I read the book, ‘Are you Dave Gorman?’ – that they both wrote together. And it was funny. There was also a TV show. Late 90s thing. It was great. Pioneers of PowerPoint comedy. 

2. Danny Wallace is known in video game circles for voicing the character of Shaun Hastings in a whole bunch of Assassin’s Creed games. If you can remember the tech guy who chats to Desmond in the (arguably quite poor) ‘real world’ sections of the AC games, then you can remember Danny Wallace. He also did the narrator’s voice in the CRIMINALLY underrated and underplayed ‘Thomas Was Alone‘ (it’s probably available on mobile these days – you should all try it). 

3. Danny Wallace is a nice guy. I once met him. Almost exactly 11 years ago in fact, in April 2008. Back when flash mobs were a thing and several hundred people decided to rickroll Liverpool Street station. Here we are. I was there. Danny was there. My mate Abul was there. 

Here we are. 



All of this is off point. 

As I mentioned at the top. Danny Wallace gave the mid-afternoon keynote at the Khoros Engage event on Wednesday. In a talk written specifically for the day, Wallace spoke about the problems that arise from rudeness. Covering everything from an aggressive hotdog transaction to the rise of rudeness in social media through to the very real life and death implications of rudeness in the workplace – especially if that workplace is a hospital. 

But back to the social media thing, DW said this –‘We are reacting more, thinking less’. 

And fire-truck me did that resonate.

Something I talk about when I’m coaching or mentoring is about how do you go the extra click. What’s the [minimum of] one extra thing that you can do that literally no one else will think to do? 

When Danny said about reacting more thinking less, my brain immediately inverted them and pushed me into a new mantra for modern living (yes, I know).

THINK MORE. REACT LESS.

If I did tattoos, I would probably add this to the shopping list. 

And then, perhaps more interestingly, on the way home that evening I spotted this: 



If you missed it, footage leaked of this huge Amazon delivery drone blimp – a mothership of deliveries with drones whizzing in and out of it, taking its innards to the consumers that have orders waiting. There’s even a video and everything. 

I was on the train on the way home from the event and the Twitters was FILLED with explosive commentary all about how the world was ending and that Jeff Bezos has overtaken the world etc. You can imagine. 

Except there was one teeny tiny little problem.

The whole thing was a fake (Thanks Snopes).

Which is all great and amazing and super dystopian EXCEPT ONE THING. 

The whole story is a fake. The video. The imagery. All of it.

FAKEDY FAKEDY FAKE FAKE. 

And that was/is just ONE example. 

I guess my point is here, Danny Wallace gave a talk about rudeness. Told us what we all do. And he’s right. There’s proof. In this blimp story alone. But also everywhere around us. 

So go the extra click. 

Think more. React less. 

2. ANTHEM



An interesting item to consider publishing, this one.

And what I mean by that is: if you self-identify as a gamer then you’ve probably, possibly already read this one already.

If you don’t self-identify as a gamer then this may not be of any interest to you at all.

But whatever.

Jason Schreier’s ‘How BioWare’s ANTHEM went wrong‘ is a) a great piece of investigative journalism and b) a really interesting look at the way a whole ‘AAA’ game can be pulled apart by apparent internal politics/bad management. 

A thoroughly insightful read. 

Additionals:
– If you liked that, you might enjoy the accompanying podcast. 
– And you might also like the author’s most recent article in The NY Times. 

As a side note, as I’ve mentioned before, Jason Schreier has made a name for himself on getting the inside scoop on the development story of some of the biggest games ever launched (and some of the smaller ones too). If you’re a gamer and or working in gaming in any way, shape, or form, and you’ve NOT read Blood Sweat and Pixels, you should probably fix that. 

3. JOKER

What, you thought I’d miss it? 



Already I’m sold.

Well, to be clear, I follow the director on Instagram (you should too) and I was sold AGES ago. BUT, the trailer that dropped this week? Put this in your eyes.

YES? YES. 

I’m in.

So in.

Dark AF? Yes.

It’s just a trailer… I know.

BUT I AM ALLOWED TO BE EXCITED AND THUS I WILL BE.  

4. DROGARAMA



In a deal that has apparently been in the works for over a year, this yet-another-agency-purchase (after Fjord and Karmarama) by the consulting firm, Accenture, is crazy.

Update: the image above links to the large NYT piece but Katie Deighton’s write up for The Drum is worth a look also.

For a few reasons.  

One, from the few people I’ve spoken to, the fact that *it’s Droga*. The famously and fiercely independent agency of fantastic work — has sold up… to a consultancy. Like, if it was anyone (literally anyone) else it would’ve been OK (I’m not entirely convinced on this but I take the point). 

Three schools of thought: 

School one:
Creative industry folk kick back and complain. Accenture? Purveyors of such wang as ‘Now is client based and R&Done’ (an actual thing). What has our industry come to? Etc etc. Collective disowning of the creative heroes they all looked up and general disappointment all round. 

School two: 
This is JUST ANOTHER sign of the times. Of the consultancies parking tanks on the creative agency lawns and going after another piece of the marketing budget that they’ve traditionally not been able to deliver against. You could argue that Accenture is aiming trying to get to where WPP is aiming for without having the M&A legacy. And good luck to them. But I mean, if you think this is bad? Wait ’til they start buying media agencies…

School three: 
Fair play David Droga. Great building and selling of an indie for a truckload of cash and that’s the retirement fund double seven times over. Things are only just starting to get interesting. And the agency models will actually be forced to change (vs reshuffling the same deck and announcing to the world ‘We have a new agency model’ – when you really don’t). 

One thing is for sure: we live in interesting times. 


Related reading: ‘Why we are all consultants‘ by Alex Hesz.

5. TOKIMEKI UNFOLLOW



So I’ve written about this before (as a bonus thing a couple of weeks ago, and then again last week when I gave it credit, again as a bonus thing) but now that I’ve finished the process I feel like it needs mentioning again). 

First: PROOF!



So let’s talk about this for a bit.

First up, this is a great service! If, like me, you feel/felt like you follow too many people. Tokimeki Unfollow is about Marie Kondo-ing YOUR TWITTER FEED. 

Here are a few observations:Everyone should do this. It is SO cathartic. People die.And this last one is the thing that got me.

People I knew that had passed away – yes, I still followed them and that’s OK. But others? Others I didn’t know. I found final tweets from loved ones, updated profiles saying ‘RIP’, and more. It made me think about an after-life plan for my own social media accounts. What would I want on them, how would I want them handled? I’m yet to put any of this into action – but I should, and I will.

Something to consider. 

And speaking of consideration. At Digitas we’ve been talking a lot about how friction, in a customer experience, can be a GOOD THING. This process, the Tokimeki Unfollow, is all about that friction. It took me several weeks to work through the four thousand or so accounts that I followed (it saves your progress). But I assessed each and every individual one of them and know why it is that I follow them. This is not a rush/batch job.

And rightly so. 

Also, the graphics are cute af. 

THE ESSENTIALS: 

The Essentials are the weekly links to the #MeToo movement. Any article. Any press. Any story. Any white male firing. If it happens, it’s here. Suzanne Moore on Joe Biden.Woody Allen.

THE SECTION CONTAINING BONUS LINKS THAT SOMETIMES GOES BY THE NAME ‘THE BONUS LINK SECTION’ BUT THIS WEEK HAS SIMPLY ASKED TO BE KNOWN AS ‘GARY THE LARD MONKEY’ 

BIG UP YO BAD BONUS

CAREFUL NOW. THE END IS APPROACHING. 

Congratulations on reaching the end of the newsletter!

It’s just gone 7am on a Friday morning (I KNOW!!!) and I’ve got an AI-based thing/meeting I need to get to. I hope you a delicious weekend and, as I learnt earlier this week, rudeness is contagious. I believe the opposite to be true.

Do the world a favour: try and compliment three people today. 

See what happens. 

Go on. I dare ya. 

Until next time,

Whatley out. 

Five things on Friday #290

Things of note for the week ending Saturday March 30th, 2019. 

Introduction 

Hello, sunshine! ️️️

Spring has sprung, the sun has come out and, political climate aside, there is a definite lift in the step and feeling of all and sundry. 

I hope you’ve had a productive week. I know I have. One of those weeks where you kind of have to pinch yourself a little bit and realise where you are, what you’re doing, and what kind of brains you’re working with. Honestly, if you’d told me six weeks ago the kinds of meetings I’d be having this week, I would not have believed you (in the best of ways). 

So yeah, the new job is working out great, thanks 🕺️

What else can I tell you?

Oh yeah. Quite a few hit the reply button last week and the wealth, variety, and just sheer brilliance of those responses never cease to amaze me (if I owe you a reply, expect it after this week’s arrives). 

Maybe this week will be your week. 

So yeah, before we move on: How are you doing?

You have a think about that question and I’ll go ahead and get the things written down. Yeah? Yeah. 

Let’s do this. 

1. THE DAY THE DINOSAURS DIED

“If, on a certain evening about sixty-­six million years ago, you had stood somewhere in North America and looked up at the sky, you would have soon made out what appeared to be a star. If you watched for an hour or two, the star would have seemed to grow in brightness, although it barely moved. That’s because it was not a star but an asteroid, and it was headed directly for Earth at about forty-five thousand miles an hour. Sixty hours later, the asteroid hit. The air in front was compressed and violently heated, and it blasted a hole through the atmosphere, generating a supersonic shock wave. The asteroid struck a shallow sea where the Yucatán peninsula is today. In that moment, the Cretaceous period ended and the Paleogene period began.”



This paragraph (and photo) are taken from the opening of a fascinating article brought to you via The New Yorker and it details the background, story, and controversy surrounding a young paleontologist’s discovery of the most significant event in Earth’s history. 

It’s a long-ish read but if that opener has you, be warned – the whole thing does not let up from start to finish. 

Go read it – and enjoy. 

2. ‘PRIVACY MATTERS’

At some point in March, Apple put this out into the world (if you hit the image, the video should open).  



And I find utterly fascinating. 

A few things. 

First off, it’s a neat 45s ad. 

Second, from a practical/sweat-those-assets perspective, being made up of such tiny little chunks and edits, this is easy to turn into other, smaller edits (for pre-roll, social, 15s TV etc. (this part isn’t fascinating, just an observation)). 

Third, it’s crazy to me that this is the kind of world we live in now. Where one tech giant’s company’s advertising is specifically anti another tech giant’s business model. 

Fourth. It’s been five years since ‘the big Apple celebrity data leak‘ and while it was proven that Apple was not specifically at fault, I wonder how much collective memory is held in the public consciousness regarding the clash of these two points. 

Fifth. This is clearly aimed at both Facebook and Google. Will they respond? Google might. Facebook? Probably not. It can’t even keep its founder’s data safe. 

3. PITCH INNOCENT

aka ‘pitch insanity’



Dave Dye gives a warts and all insight into the gargantuan effort to try and win a pitch for Innocent drinks.

Sometimes they say there is a method in the madness. Reading this you realise that the madness is in the method. 

If you work in the industry, then this is a must read. 
If you don’t work in the industry and you have the time, this post gives a phenomenal look at what it can be like sometimes. Fortunately for all of us not all of the time. But I think there is something in this that anyone working in advertising can and will recognise… 

Read it.

As a side note, this reminds me of a pitch for Netflix I was once involved in. Easily the worst pitch I’ve ever had the misfortune to work on; three rounds in, an indecisive client, conflicting feedback after each round — everyone lost their summer.

Later that year, in autumn, playing pool with a mate from a competitor, turns out they pitched as well. And yeah, they had had a rough time of it as well. 

No one won.

Everyone hated it.

And guess what? The work was never awarded.

They ran the global stuff instead (I think it was the Gervais ads). Anyway. It happens. Hopefully, thankfully, afaik, only a few times in a lifetime but still. Look out for them… 

4. IAN DUNT



It doesn’t matter if you are or are not living in the UK. The next question still applies:

Do you have any idea what’s going on day-to-day on the UK/EU front (I hate the B word)?

It’s OK, the majority of you will either say ‘No’ or ‘I did but I really can’t be bothered anymore’ or simple ‘Yes but when will it all end?!’

Then I can recommend you follow one person and that person is Ian Dunt.

Ardently following the day’s proceedings with ongoing Twitter commentary punctuated by a decent write up every couple of days or so his Twitter feed is the first place I go to every day when I want to know what’s going on with parliament vs government (which is pretty much where we’re at on this by now).

Been in meetings all day and need to catch up? Go read Dunt’s feed.

Big parliamentary vote on? Go read Dunt’s feed.

Some big EU news story/development? Go read Dunt’s feed.

You can read it as one constant viewpoint on an ever-changing sea of uncertainty or simply see it as reading one man’s slow descent into madness as he tries to keep on top of the inept collective of buffoons that are attempting to run the country. Either way, he is a must follow. 

5. A NEW VIEW OF THE MOON

A super smart friend (and FToF reader/ playlist-co-author/collaborator), sent me this utterly gorgeous short 3min film about The Moon.

It moved me. 

It might move you too.

(Thank you, Sarah) 

THE ESSENTIALS: 

The Essentials are the weekly links to the #MeToo movement. Any article. Any press. Any story. Any white male firing. If it happens, it’s here. The big one this week is Mexico’s creative and media industries kicking back hard -at last. For those of you with an NYT subscription (of if you’ve not hit your monthly hit) this piece is also a good write up. The other one to read this week is this one: ‘the time they didn’t get away with it’. Final final thing: listen out. 

THE BONUS LINK SECTION

THE NIGHT IS DARK AND FULL OF BONUSES. 

THE END IS NIGH

Congratulations on reaching the end of the newsletter!

It’s 11:01 on Saturday morning, the kids are going crazy and I need to get out into the garden. I’m taking the Mrs to a spa for Mother’s Day tomorrow and not planning on being back online until the middle of next week. 

I can’t wait. 

I hope you have a glorious weekend, my friend. Thank you so much for reading, subscribing, and hopefully enjoying. 

Until next time, 

Whatley out. 


Welcome

Hello, and welcome to My Happy Place.

I’ve been writing here, on and off, since May 2006. A long time.

These days, however, the time I would normally spend writing my blog is now spent writing for my newsletter project, Five things on Friday.

What started out as a weekly exercise in writing has grown and matured into a (semi-)weekly publication that features most of what I’m passionate about and interested in.

So, if you’re looking for the very latest on what I’m noodling on, your best bet is to start looking over the past issues of Five things on Friday – all being well, that stuff will be bang up to date*.

So yes, thanks for visiting. If you’re looking to speak to me quickly, then you can nearly always find me on Twitter (DMs are open).

If not, then maybe I’ll see you on the subscriber list of the newsletter sometime.

Cheers,

James.

*The posts below this one are examples of FToF but I doubt very much that they’ll be reflective of the latest work. 

Five things on Friday #272

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Things of note for the week ending Friday October 19th, 2018.

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So y’know, SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

TO THE THINGS!
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1. ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER ‘AND WHAT A WEEK IT HAS BEEN FOR FACEBOOK’ SECTION

Sometimes, when it’s a slow news week, the press – especially in this country – might pick a ‘villain of the week’.

One week it might be beneficiaries of entirely legal corporation tax avoidance or the next it might the dangers of kids obsessed with gaming (it’s Fortnite currently,  Pokemon Go before, expect that to change at some point), or social networks and THE DANGERS OF SCREENTIME.

It is what it is. 

Facebook, whether you agree with it or not, right now can’t seem to catch a break. I only made passing comment to its new spy-device/home-video-calling system, PORTAL last week (and it was only in an email reply conversation did I realised I’d not unpacked my thoughts on it – I’ll come back to it, thanks Dev) but it was not received all that well at all. 

This week we had (first): 

‘Instagram Has a Massive Harassment Problem‘ 

An essential long read that really lays out just how effing awful it is for some people on the Instagram platform. 

Worse yet, people working there are quoted as saying: 

“There’s an effort called ‘kindness,’ which is to reduce bullying and harassment, but there’s not that many people working on it,” said Alex, a current Instagram employee who asked to be referred to by a gender-neutral pseudonym. “Generally, what you’ll find is a lot of these efforts on harassment or bullying, or there’s a new feature to track how much time you spend—they’re mostly done for PR.” Another Instagram employee told me nearly the same thing: that Instagram’s anti-bullying rhetoric “doesn’t seem connected to what’s actually going on in the company.”

I am reminded of the Listerine debacle all over again (thing three, here). 

Anyway, after that Instagram thing we have the ongoing saga of the exposed accounts issue (first they thought it was 50m, to be sure they revoked 90m security tokens, but now it turns out it was ‘just’ 30m). That’s worth reading up on. 

As a side point, it’s a bit horse has bolted but this week I went back through my Facebook account and just started deleting profile information (aka the stuff that has been exposed) and reconsidered what I want to keep on the platform. From a personal perspective, I only use the Facebook platform for two groups that I’m part of. And even that interaction is through the browser (not even the recent 3D photo update could pull me back). 

And then to top it all off, in the middle of this past week, the Wall Street Journal reported on a lawsuit that has been filed claiming Facebook knew about its over-reporting of video metrics for a year before it acted on it. NOT A GOOD LOOK.

Really. 
 
So yeah, it’s been a rough week for Facebook indeed. 

OH WAIT, THIS JUST IN: as we go to press (er, who’s ‘we’?), former leader of the UK political party, the Liberal Democrats (the US pundits will have fun with that), Nick Clegg, has been hired to lead Facebook’s global affairs and communications team.

Can’t think why… 

Ha. This piece from the FT (that the above is from) probably says more about the appointment than anything you’ll read on Twitter today (h/t Kate Bevan). 

So yeah, there’s your Facebook news for the week. FOR THE WEEK. Cray cray.

Finally, regarding PORTAL, Facebook initially said it had ‘no plans at this time’ to serve ads on PORTAL. But what you use it for, though? That’s another story. 

PS. Clegg has just published this to The Guardian. I’m about to read it, you should too. 

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2. Y&R

Burn, baby burn.

You hear stories and then you hear stories. All of this is entirely believable and, well, entirely on par for the advertising world of old (that I’ve oft-heard about and ne’er encountered). 

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3. A FEW THINGS REGARDING RED DEAD REDEMPTION II

HEY YOU, NON-GAMER, DON’T SKIP THIS SECTION QUITE YET. 

First off, in the same way that Marvel’s Spider-Man (for PS4) trailers and posters were literally EVERYWHERE a few weeks ago, expect the same from the incoming western ‘sim’ RED DEAD REDEMPTION II. 

Things to know about this game: 

1. It’s expected to be MASSIVE. 
2. It’s out on October 26th. 
3. I’m almost intimidated by how massive it is. 
4. I know SEVERAL lapsed gamers that are specifically coming back for this game (you know who you are).

Bear in mind the original came out May 2010 on last gen machines (PS3 and Xbox 360), that’s a huge statement. More so that we’re headed towards the end of the life cycles of the machines they’re launching on – the fact that one new release can drive hardware sales is testament to how big a game this is and just how much, if you’ll pardon the pun, is riding on it. 

5. Enjoyed S1 of Westworld? Imagine that but without the crazy robots. 
6. Here’s a ridiculous gameplay trailer. 
7. Don’t try and talk to me after Oct 26th. 

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4. BYE BYE GOOGLE+

If you haven’t read this massive thread on how bad everything was over there back when G+ was a thing, you should.

Neither Google or the author come off that well IMO.

But still. Silicon Valley is mental.  

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5. SMART DOORBELLS REDUCE CRIME BY UP TO 55%

Or do they?

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THE ESSENTIALS: 
 

  1. Five rules for the workplace 
  2. The Indian Government (again – but with impact)
  3. Hope and Despair

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THE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS

Right you animals, let’s get these bonuses IN AND ON. 

  1. ‘I pulled a 1,500-year-old sword out of a lake‘ 
  2. Crazy Random Re-Opened London Street? Amazing.
  3. My jury is still well and truly out on the Pixel 3 but this piece on exactly how they’ve computationally attacked the zoom function is PEAK NERDERY of the highest order. 
  4. A great thread of ‘facts’ (not all are true) about Freddie Mercury
  5. Pots. Kettles. Scamtastic.
  6. AMAZING PERCEPTUAL ILLUSIONS
  7. Yes.
  8. I’m speaking at a thing in Bristol next month. Are you in that part of the world? Come.
  9. ESCAPE FROM FANTASY (this has been everywhere but still, if you haven’t read it – read it)
  10. #COPYSAFARI. I mentioned Dr Draper in the intro. One of the many things he’s been up to in his trip here (and probably my favourite thing) was this ‘Copy Safari’ with Vikki Ross. Worth a read of this great hashtag.
  11. DOES YOUR STRATEGY EVEN LIFT BRO?  – compelling.
  12. I just can’t get enough.
  13. Man? Read this.

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PS. Don’t forget to subscribe for MORE.

Five things on Friday #271

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Things of note for the week ending Sunday October 14th, 2018.

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TO THE THINGS!
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1. SNAP ORIGINALS

Did you catch this announcement last week?

‘With Snap Originals, Snapchat turns to TV-like show programming‘

“Two years after Snapchat premiered its first original show, original programming has taken on new importance for the app, which has struggled to grow its daily audience. Snapchat is formalizing its original programming push through the formation of the Snap Originals brand.

Snap Originals will encompass Snapchat’s existing original shows, like political news series “Good Luck America,” as well as a new slate of scripted and documentary series that will begin to premiere on Snapchat on Oct. 10 and mark the platform’s entry into TV-like programming.” 

OK, so that’s interesting.

I read that and I think a couple of things.

Snap created Snapchat Stories. It was a huge success. Facebook lifts the feature wholesale first into Instagram, then into everything else – and makes it bigger. 

Facebook launches IGTV. It doesn’t seem to be a huge success. Snapchat copies it. And… makes it smaller? I don’t know. I remain unconvinced on long-form portrait content. But then again, from the same article:

“At the same time as Snapchat has seen its daily audience shrink — losing 3 million daily users in the second quarter of 2018 — its made-for-Snapchat shows have sustained regular viewerships. Half of the audience for two of Snapchat’s existing shows — NBC’s news show “Stay Tuned” and ESPN’s “SportsCenter” — tune in at least three times a week, said Sean Mills, head of original content at Snapchat’s parent company, Snap. Now Snapchat is looking to give people more reasons to check Snapchat more often by premiering episodic series that are designed to be watched on a recurring basis.”

Ignoring the DAU number drop (!!!), the episodic retention numbers aren’t bad at all.

And with a view to start selling six second unskippable ads against that content (also mentioned in the article), you can see how this might work for Snap. Might.

Is it something I’m going to be recommending to clients? Probably not. But then again I’m equally as bullish about IGTV’s lack of impact. Portrait long-form? Not a thing. I’ll gladly admit to being wrong when it is. But right now? There are better uses for your advertising dollar. 

Also: Ouch.

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2. GLASS. GLASS. GLASS. 

There’s a new trailer and it looks ace and I want to see it right now please thank you very much. 

I’m going to guess that you’ve already seen UNBREAKABLE (if you haven’t, fix that). The one that people missed, and criminally underrated, is another film called SPLIT. James McAvoy is (and IS AMAZING) in it and it’s worth a watch. GLASS is a little bit of a spoiler for the end of the movie but still, watch SPLIT…

And then get excited about GLASS.  

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3. READ THIS 

This, from HuffPost’s ‘Highline’, is a provocative look at the attitudinal and societal structures in place that go out of their way to deny support to the obesity epidemic. 

Read it and rethink.

Also: the photography is fantastic.

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4. FIVE TRENDS IN LEADING EDGE COMMUNICATIONS

Back in July, a rather lovely man named Iain Bundred (a recent FTOF subscriber and avid reader) asked me if I would like to contribute to the next joint WPP + Government Communications Services (GCS) digital communications report. 

TL;DR – I said yes, and we published this week. Hurrah!



You can find the full report over on the GCS.GOV website and, having written one chapter (voice) and helped build out another (ethics), as well as occasionally advise on the thing as a whole, I am immensely proud of it. Go see. 

If you’ve never heard of GCS, it’s basically a professional body that is set up to support any and all people working in communications roles across UK government. These kinds of documents are put together to both offer a level-setter on what is happening now and what is to come in the future – and of course, how you might prepare for that. 

Iain and I travelled up to Birmingham last week to help launch the document at the Public Sector Communications Academy. It was a big deal! And pretty awesome to be there and present my trend in person. 

One of the things I really love about my job is the whole responding to a client brief, thing. It’s the main thrust of what I do. It requires research, noodling, and fundamentally, a lot of writing. And I love writing. Writing something like this, something that could have broad-reaching practical application in governmental departments across the country reminds me of why I love what I do. So yeah. I did that and I like it. 

Next up: #OgilvyTrends2019! 

PS. Last week I shared some words about esports that I’d written (but didn’t get used). There were a few other bits in the pipeline that may or may not have been used too. I followed up on them and two will be landing before the end of year (so I’m told). So expect those at some point. This, the section above, is the one I mentioned that was definitely coming. So for those of you keeping track, you can tick that one off now 😉 

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5. THE BATTLE FOR THE HOME

I’m doing a ton of reading and research around Voice at the moment. Home assistants and their ilk will feature in some way or form come the next Ogilvy Trends doc (see #OgilvyTrends2019 for progress – right now, it’s just all drafts).

This piece ‘The Battle for the Home‘ is a great primer of the scene as it is today, including all the most recent announcements (including Facebook’s laughable Portal offering). 

Want to get up to speed? This is the article to read. 

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THE ESSENTIALS: 

  1. Bollywood
  2. The Indian Government
  3. Hey you know what, just India generally

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HE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS

B O N U S – B ON U S – B O N U S
…

  1. I really like this Tube ad from 1928
  2. Into Advertising? Looking for a book to read? BBH’s World Cup of Ad Books is a decent place to start. A bit heavy on the male side but still a good batch to be found.
  3. Instagram’s guide for keeping your children safe on its platform (what?).
  4. Did you catch YouTube announcing vertical video ad units? I nearly missed it.
  5. I’m assuming after last week’s edition you’ve all binged KILLING EVE by now? Good. You’ll be pleased to know that the BBC has acquired the rights for Season 2. Hurrah.
  6. Karen Blackett, UK country manager for WPP, appointed as Race Equality Business Champion is brilliant (also: my friend’s cousin, randomly).

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Until next time.

Five things on Friday #270

Things of note for the week ending Saturday, October 6th, 2018.

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TO THE THINGS!
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1. ALEXA-ENABLED HOMES

Here’s a thing: about ten days ago, it was announced that Amazon – specifically Amazon’s Alexa Fund – had invested in a Californian home design and prefab housing company, Plant Prefab.

THIS IS REALLY INTERESTING (h/t Caroline). 

I’ve long held the belief that home assistants won’t truly be ‘here’ until they come embedded in the home. Literally. Smart speakers are great – as are the myriad of products and services they plug in to – but until all those different touchpoints are completely in sync, eg: baked into the very walls of your home, then ultimately you’re just buying tech after tech after tech in the hope that it will eventually marry all together on its own. 

Amazon making this kind of move (and I fully expect Google to start looking at something similar in the near future; (see Google Fiber for early attempts in a similar space)) marks a move that is probably well overdue but completely in-line the the Bezos strategy for consumerism in the future. Alexa everywhere. Plugged into your door, your fridge, your home, and even your damn microwave*.

Most tech takes, on average 20-30yrs before it becomes completely embedded in the modern world. Smart-homes are no different. If anything, it may well be longer – given the size of the purchase. One thing is for certain, your children’s children will be buying these. I just hope they manage to avoid the nightmare as visualised from the opener of Season 2 of Mr Robot (4mins 24seconds – this is brilliant).

As I said, it’s really interesting and very much a sign of things to come. 

—-

*Did you see the Alexa Microwave? It’s actually a thing. I may have linked to it a week or so ago. And somthing has been bugging me about it since:  I don’t get it. I still don’t get it. It’s been a few weeks since they announced it and I’ve been thinking about Voice a lot of late and I STILL DON’T GET IT. Obvious accessibility benefits aside, IF YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE MICROWAVE TO PUT THE FOOD IN, YOU MAY AS WELL PUSH THE BUTTON ONCE/TWICE WHICH IS INFINITELY FASTER THAN SAYING ‘ALEXA, PLEASE TURN ON THE MICROWAVE FOR 3MINS’. I don’t get it. That is all. BLERGH. 

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2. NEW HELLBOY MOVIE? YES PLEASE. 

I’m just here for the poster. 

‘LEGENDARY AF’

Amazing. 
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3. I AM LATE TO THE KILLING EVE PARTY BUT I DON’T CARE

You’re one of three people reading this.

1. ‘James, where the HELL have you BEEN? Killing Eve has been out for AGES and I can’t believe you’ve taken SO LONG to get involved! Welcome! Isn’t it FANTASTIC?’

or

2. ‘UGH. JAMES! Another person telling me to watch this show! It’s on ‘the list’, OK? I just haven’t got around to watching it yet and hey, you know what, on your insistence, maybe I’ll start it tonight.’

or

3. ‘Er, WTF is Killing Eve?’

People 1. I know, I know. I should’ve gotten to it earlier.

People 2. DO IT. 

People 3. Read on! 

I’m a huge Pheobe Waller-Bridge fan ever since I saw her in SIXTY-SIX BOOKS way back in 2011. I then saw her again in 2013 when FLEABAG was a one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe (show 18 in that list). AND THEN AGAIN when FLEABAG become a killer BBC comedy (not seen that either? watch it). PWB wrote KILLING EVE and it shows. It is phenomenally good. Psychopath killer kills people. MI5 agent spots a pattern. Cat and mouse – AND BLACKEST BLACK OF ALL BLACK HUMOUR – ensues. 

Watch it with your eyes. 

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4. SOME UNPUBLISHED WRITING, PART ONE (OF MAYBE TWO BUT DEFINITELY NOT THREE)

Over the past couple of months, I’ve written responses to three separate writing/commentary briefs. One is definitely being published (next week, and I’ll yell about it here), two is currently in the ether (it might get used, it might not), and three… well about 10% of the Q&A got used.

I liked that other 90%, so I thought I’d reproduce the whole thing here because why not. 

The topic: Esports + Brands

Why is gaming set to be the new vanguard of sports sponsorship and brand experience?
There are two main drivers. First, and most obviously, there’s the explosion of eSports as a multi-million-dollar industry – globally. With an audience of over 300m players/viewers worldwide, and projected revenue for 2018 expected to hit close to a billion dollars – it is inarguable that eSports has arrived.
The second and probably the most important part of the equation is that game developers are now opening themselves to brand partnerships. It’s been a long time coming, first with in-game advertising in racing games for example, and now – with the advent of micro-transactions – in-game purchases are another way for companies to get their brands in front of the avid gamers of today.
 
What benefits are there of combining the gaming sector with live events / as well as virtual event experiences?
For the gaming sector, live events, virtual or otherwise, are its lifeblood. League of Legends tournaments sell out STADIUMS of attendees. With an online audience that grows well above seven figures, if gamers are a brand’s target, then looking to see how to get involved with these kinds of events would be an obvious choice.
 
How about in-game advertising and influencer marketing, what does this bring to brand experiences?
From an influence standpoint, professional players are where you can make an impact. Broadcasting their gameplay via Twitch or YouTube Gaming (and soon – Facebook), these ‘streamers’ have an attentive avid audience and fanbase stretching into the hundreds of thousands. If you can make the partnership fit – and by that I mean not come across as a clunky, ham-fisted money spunk, then the dividends you reap could be well worth the investment. From an in-game advertising perspective, I’d probably look past that and see if there was any way to brand any in-game items that could be unlocked or purchased using microtransactions. That could be something like Rockstar Energy drinks giving away free in-game items with every ring pull for Destiny 2 or even Mercedes popping up as an unlockable vehicle in Mario Kart.
 
Is football the obvious sport at the moment and why and what other sports could seize this gaming opportunity?
As a huge gamer myself, I have to say Football is far too obvious – and easy. I’d look further. The traditional ‘sports’ that we all know – they exist for gamers, yes. But DOTA, SFII, Super Smash Bros., Fortnite, League of Legends, PUBG… these are the games that people tune in to watch. Not FIFA.


—-

Tune in next week for more: STUFF THAT DIDN’T GET USED. 
(apart from the first one, that definitely is, and it’s a huge deal, and I’m super excited – you know which one, Iain)

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5. #ASKTWICE

Mental Health Awareness week for the UK was back in May. For the US, it starts tomorrow. I feel now as I felt back then. And if you need to talk, you can hit reply to this email or DM me on Twitter. I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs – (long-time readers will know). 

If you’re one of the 3-in-4 people that won’t suffer problems with your mental health then maybe this new ad from Time to Change is for you.

If a mate says they’re fine and you think they might not be, ask twice. 

(full disclosure: I didn’t work on it but it IS from Ogilvy London (and I really like it)) 

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THE ESSENTIALS: 

  1. Oh dear, Topshop.
  2. Iceland’s lessons for all.
  3. #MeToo across the EU.
  4. Nobel.
  5. And still Brett Kavanaugh rolls on.
  6. This chart though.
  7. What do you do on a daily basis? 

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THE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS

I HEARD YOU LIKED BONUSES SO I PUT BONUSES IN YOUR BONUSES SO YOU CAN BONUS WHILE YOU BONUS
…

  1. The Unilad/Ladbible thing is as grim as it is hilarious. There is a lot to unpack here. The dark motives of a leading competitor? The fact that you can be so massive and not make a profit? The general attempt to convince folk that what these publications create is anywhere near original?
  2. Brandwatch bought Crimson Hexagon. This is huge and firmly cements Brandwatch as THE market leader when it comes to all things social/market intelligence. I was the Brandwatch NYK event earlier this week  (it was great). If you get the chance to go next year, do so. 
  3. More Christine and the Queens.
  4. ‘Thunderstorm’ never saw the light of day. After the popularity of this reveal, I think that will change in the near future. 
  5. This is a tiny little thing but I love this Twitter execution from Xbox. Just a really neat way to bring to life a super active month of gaming in one easy video. Looks great in feed too. 
  6. On a related front, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is out this week and I’m not getting it until January (I’ve got Destiny to finish and Red Dead is out in a fortnight PLUS the AC price will drop in January). That said, it is reviewing INCREDIBLY well – and look, giant wangs!
  7. SNAKE RESCUE!
  8. Best speaker swag.
  9. The case for chaos.

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Until next time.

Five things on Friday #268

Things of note for the week ending Sunday, September 23rd, 2018.

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TO THE THINGS!
_____________________

1. NEED SOMETHING

WHAT THO? Send me your suggestions.

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2. SOME THOUGHTS AND LINKS ABOUT VOICE ASSISTANTS

Some noodles, underpinned with a few links on stuff I’ve been reading on the topic lately. 

Last week I mentioned I was on the Vocal Vanguard panel at BAFTA for American Express. As well as some further digging on the topic for that specific event, I’ve also been collating evidence for marking my own homework in public when it comes to reviewing the trends/predictions Marshall Manson and I made in December last year (see: ‘the end of typing’, slide 25 onwards). 

Here are a collection of different data points I’m noodling on. 

1. Five insights on voice technology 
Thanks for this one, Marshall. It covers off exactly what it says. No real surprises but good to have it from Google Assistant’s VP of engineering. 

2. The reality behind voice shopping hype
The Information here on excellent form (if you don’t have a subscription you can read the full article here) dissecting the astonishingly low numbers re sales + voice. 

Quote: 

“The Information has learned that only about 2% of the people with devices that use Amazon’s Alexa intelligent assistant—mostly Amazon’s own Echo line of speakers—have made a purchase with their voices so far in 2018, according to two people briefed on the company’s internal figures. Amazon has sold about 50 million Alexa devices, the people said.

Of the people who did buy something using Alexa voice shopping, about 90% didn’t try it again, one of the people said.”

Pretty damning – especially if you believe voice as sales driver is the key thing here (we’ll come back to this). 

3. Consumers are embracing voice services
This one covers a recent Adobe report that surveyed 1000 US voice assistant owners and, yet again, no huge surprises in the what but the lift in frequency (71% of smart speaker owners use theirs daily) means something is catching here.  

With these reports and numbers floating around my head, something struck me during the Amex panel I mentioned that I’ve been pushing around and, with no real evidence to support it (yet), I’m going to write out a theory here for discussion. 

In spite of multiple efforts by brands (tech and consumer facing included) the ‘killer app’ of the home assistant seems to be ‘Play some music’ or ‘Set an alarm’. This much we know. 

The consumerism dream of humans searching for and purchasing products all day long via their home assistant hasn’t happened. Yes, this is an extremely nascent space. Yes, we’re probably at least 10 years away from home assistants being commonplace.

However, I theorise that with the introduction of screen-based home assistant support (be that Chromecast integration with the Home, the rumoured (read: leaked – it’s pictured above for crying out loud) Home Hub, or even the Amazon Echo Show), consumers are able to be offered visual confirmations on actions and/or purchases.

The killer app, to my mind at least, will be one that snares this combination of UI points (screen + voice) perfectly – and potentially unlock the value that seems to be hidden away in this new vertical.

We’re seeing more and more integrated offerings coming forward in the assistant space (don’t even get me started on microwaves) – I don’t think enough attention is being paid to the opportunity that the screen integration brings. 

Like I said, just a thought – a theory. 

Expect more of this from me as we move towards the next edition of #OgilvyTrends2019. 

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3. THE TRAILER SECTION

A bunch of ace trailers dropped this week. 

Ready, steady… CLICK!

  1. CAPTAIN MARVEL
  2. STAN & OLLIE
  3. MARY POPPINS

Lovely. 

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4. @LGBT_HISTORY

This is an important read.

And an Instagram account you should follow.  

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5. THE MASSIVE VIDEO GAMES SECTION (INCLUDING SOME STUFF ABOUT THE V&A EXHIBITION)

If you follow me on Twitter you may be forgiven for muting or even unfollowing given the amount of gaming stuff I’ve been putting out since returning to the platform post-summer.

A combination of a spate of great releases (looking at you, Spider-Man and Destiny 2: Forsaken) and my annual jaunt to Birmingham for the Eurogamer Expo, it’s pretty much wall-to-wall gaming.

So by way of an apology, let’s talk games some more! 

FIRST:
Last Monday I got myself along to the DESIGN PLAY DISRUPT (check) exhibition at the V&A museum in London.

And it is excellent. 

A thoughtful and well-curated look at what video games are today, Design/Play/Disrupt is recommended to you for all kinds of reasons. 

Looking, as the name suggests, what it means to design a game, what the societal disruptive forces are at play (covering gamergate, inclusion, the use of non-english language, and more), and of course play itself.

There are nuggets to be found here. From understanding the impact of representation in gaming (see: Mafia III) through to a BRILLIANTLY presented set of short films on the SIZE of the gaming world.

It has the original notebooks of Neil Druckman, creative lead for THE LAST OF US, to some of the weirdest games you’ve ever seen/played – #DesignPlayDisrupt is worth a couple of hours of your time (and you can see my photos here).

It’s on until February next year and tickets are £18. We did it in two hours and saw everything – your mileage may vary. But GO. It is great. 

NEXT:
As I mentioned, I’ve been at EGX this weekend (got back this afternoon). I saw my friends, hung out in town, drank a bit, ate infrequently but overall I played A LOT of games.

Here’s a quick overview of that (in no particular order): 

  1. The Division II. Surprisingly enjoyable. 
  2. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. If you played and liked Origins, you’ll like this. I didn’t get a huge amount of time on it but I’m sure it’ll be great. I’ll probably get it next year when it drops in price. 
  3. Metro Exodus. Very Fallout. Not for me. 
  4. Destiny 2: Forsaken. I have this game but wanted to play it with a few friends that hadn’t touched it before. They enjoyed it, you might too. Bonus: I went to the panel with the game designers on the Friday and that was fantastic as well. Happy to nerd out at any point on any of this. 
  5. Nintendo Labo. OH MY GOD WHAT FUN (that’s me in the video). You can’t see in the video but I was laughing and grinning like a mad person throughout. This is definitely something I’ll be doing with the children at some point next year. 
  6. Figment. Utterly charming little indie game – out now on Steam/Switch (it’s about £13 too) definitely worth a look, I was smiling at the joy it brought. 
  7. Untitled Goose Game. Yes, that’s it actual name. Your job is to be a total dick to a farmer and it made me laugh – a lot. This will be huge. 
  8. Beat Saber is coming to PSVR. These guys were insane at it. 
  9. Starlink. Really interesting concept tying toy/model ships that interact with your controller (see this link for a selection of photos + a video that shows how it works). Fun. Probably a money pit, mind. 
  10. Call of Duty 4. The new battle royale one. I hated it. Blergh. 

Notable absences: didn’t play Tomb Raider. Didn’t get on with the last one so will give this one a pass.  For some reason, RED DEAD II wasn’t there. No idea why. 

And of course, in the evening it was the annual MLGX fundraiser and much fun was had. See peak nerdery on the #MLGX hashtag – no, I’m not linking it. If you want to see, I’m making you search for it. 

OH AND THE LAST THING:

PlayStation has followed the crowd and announced it’s own mini-retro console, The PS One Classic. If you know someone who will want one at Christmas, I strongly recommend pre-ordering now. This thing will sell out FAST. 

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THE ESSENTIALS: 

If you’re new here, the section known as THE ESSENTIALS is about highlighting the stories that continue to come to light in regards to the #MeToo movement. It’s been here since it began and will remain so until it ends. 

Only one this week and it is simply: #WhyDidntIreport
(sorry: two – ‘Everything I can remember‘)

These should come with trigger warnings by the way. Just, FYI. 

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THE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS

THESE LINKS ARE YOUR BONUS. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. 

  1. Video Game Skies are lovely.
  2. Americans are changing how they eat. Interesting read.
  3. We lost Dennis Nordon; this obituary from the BBC is excellent.
  4. If you’ve not read about the prisoner who painted Golf courses, you should.
  5. MDMA + OCTOPUS + ? 
  6. A great thread on Chas from Chas + Dave (who we also lost).
  7. Christine and the Queens (Again) in GQ. READ IT!
  8. I’m here for Joaquin Phoenix as Joker.
  9. Looking for something on Netflix? Try MANIAC.
  10. Big fan of the Wolf Alice Mercury Music Prize acceptance speech.

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Until next time.

Five things on Friday #267

Things of note for the week ending Saturday, September 15th 2018.

Did you know, if you SUBSCRIBE to the Five things on Friday newsletter, you are 100% guaranteed to get MORE STUFF (eg: a proper intro and probably some more gifs) than reading it here on whatleydude.com.

So y’know, SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

TO THE THINGS!
_____________________

1. HÉLÖISE LETISSIER

aka: Chris[tine and the Queens]

I think I have been in love with Christine and the Queens since I first ever saw them perform on Graham Norton many moons ago.

Music: amazing. 
Dancing: amazing. 
Attitude to life: amazing. 

The New York Times interview with Chris/Christine is fantastic. And I strongly recommend you read it. 
_____________________

2. WORLD AFRO DAY

“Hair bias is rarely discussed, but it 

remains a persistent global problem which affects millions. This year alone, families have had to take legal action both in the UK and overseas for the right to have their children attend school with their natural Afro hair.

Whether it be the refusal to overturn an American state ban on dreadlocks or the damaging implications of schoolgirls being forced to straighten their hair in South Africa, discrimination based on hair has serious implications for many people’s job prospects, education and wellbeing.”

A year, a young Ogilvy fellow co-founded a new BAME collective within the agency called Ogilvy Roots.

This year, that same person has helped get this campaign live for World Afro Day (definitely click and read up on this one). 

‘Change the Facts, Not the Fro’ is an awareness campaign that is focused on tackling how society perceives women’s Afro hair and highlighting the importance of celebrating it in its natural glory. This campaign aims to challenge the status quo so this generation and the ones to come feel they have the choice to wear their hair in whatever way, shape or form.

Well done, team. This is great work.

Give them some love!

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3. THE HURRICANE FLOREANCE STORM GRAPHIC YOU’VE ALREADY SEEN

Did you see/miss this?

Watch it now/again.

It’s been all over the Internet this past week – AND FOR GOOD REASON. This storm is BIG and helping people understand the impact that the flooding it will bring will mean more people evacuate and less people die. 

WIRED has the story behind how they did it.

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4. APPLE DOESN’T TWEET BUT IT BLANKETED TWITTER WITH FOR THE IPHONE LAUNCH AND WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT THAT

Normally, you’d shrug something like this off. But with the launch of Twitter’s ad transparency tool, these dark tweets can still be found, read, and analyzed. 

Which is exactly what Digiday did.

There’s some great conjectural thinking here. Worth reading. 

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5. TEN RULES FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

Mentor? Teach? Mentee? Study? 

Read this. 

Short, yet immensely valuable. 

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THE ESSENTIALS: 

If you’re new here, the section known as THE ESSENTIALS is about highlighting the stories that continue to come to light in regards to the #MeToo movement. It’s been here since it began and will remain so until it ends. 

This week, your essential reads are:

  1. Jane Fonda: ‘It’s only the beginning‘ 
     
  2. Lady Gaga ‘I’m still in disbelief‘
     
  3. ‘The dark side of working for Les Moonves‘

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HE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS

THESE LINKS ARE YOUR BONUS. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. 

..

  1. The V&A Video Games Exhibition, Design/Play/Disrupt, is NOW ON. Go and see it (I’m going on Monday).
  2. How do you beat bottlenecks?
  3. Cruise Entertainers (sang to the tune of Smooth Operator).
  4. Not a link but Spider-Man came out on PS4 last week and it is AMAZING. SPECTACULAR. And if you have even a passing interest in the game or the character, I strongly recommend you get it. It is SO GOOD.
  5. This is a great interview with a very young William Shatner
  6. Last week I was at BAFTA, speaking at an American Express event hosted by Actual Fiona Bruce. It was dead fun! Some links and photos here (if that’s your thing). Happy to answer questions on some/all of it. I also have a great Fiona Bruce/Rhubarb story now… 
  7. PREACH
  8. Naughty Made in Chelsea influencer lady - the ASA says you are NAUGHTY!
  9. Twitter in 2009 vs 2018 (see also: reasons for removing it from your life in the opener)

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Until next time.

Five things on Friday #266

Things of note for the week ending Saturday September 8th, 2018.

Did you know, if you SUBSCRIBE to the Five things on Friday newsletter, you are 100% guaranteed to get MORE STUFF (eg: a proper intro and probably some more gifs) than reading it here on whatleydude.com.

So y’know, SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

TO THE THINGS!

_____________________

1. MICHELLE YEOH

aka: the section where YET again James kicks off FToF with ANOTHER GQ profile piece (but it’s another stonker). 

Michelle Yeoh is a badass. A bloody good actor. An incredible athlete. And above all, seemingly a super lovely woman.

Definitely take some time out of your day and read this fantastic interview.

Bonus thing: While we’re are it, ‘In conversation with Kathleen Turner‘ is also worth gifting your eyeballs to for a good reading; there is SOLID GOLD to be found in this one. 

_____________________

2. HOW WHITE PEOPLE HANDLE DIVERSITY TRAINING IN THE WORKPLACE

This article (edit: it’s a section from a book), written by former professor and now facilitator and consultant, Robin DiAngelo, goes into the real experiences she has come up against when running diversity training for white people in the USA. 

Unpacking superiority, fragility, and more – it is provocative and prompts self-examination. 

A recommended read. 

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3. COME ON THEN, LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT LISTERINE INSTAGRAM THING

Full disclosure: I was asked to contribute to a piece for this last week and missed the deadline (Sorry Stephen!) this section is some of what I wrote and some further thinking. 

Did you see/miss this?

It’s been all over the trades these past two weeks and I’m kind of unsure what ELSE there is to say about it.

Oh how people cried!

People blamed: the Instagrammer, the client, the brief, the platform… and of course, it being a big Twitter viral thing, everyone piled in and had a pop or a moan. 

Truly, what else is there to say about the poorly briefed, poorly executed, and poorly received Listerine activity also known as ‘#BringOutTheBold’. 

Last year, Marshall Manson and I wrote about ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’ (slide 43 onwards). It theorised, and not without evidence, that for influencer marketing to succeed in the future then it would require brand marketers [and their agency partners] to take more ownership over influencer activity.

The point being, per the late 1800s economic theory the trend referenced, when it is in everyone’s interest to pull as much as they can from the opportunity available, no one will maintain that opportunity, and the well [of money, from brands] will run dry. After this week’s epic moan-a-thon, you can see it happening.

Let’s address the blame game (it’s stuff like this that makes me question the sanity of my entire industry at times).

First, it is entirely wrong to place any blame at the feet of the influencer. Entirely wrong. 

Here is a person is out to make money from their craft. If a brand wants to throw money at that, then fair play. If the armchair critiques literally pressed their thumbs two, maybe three more times then they would’ve seen that, irrespective of product placement, Scarlett London’s ENTIRE FEED is clearly the work of someone who enjoys creating quaint hyper-real model shots – and that’s entirely OK because this is their choice and their Instagram account is theirs and they can do whatever they want with it.

IMPORTANT POINT: Those choices also include the moment when brands want to stick a product in because y’know because that’s how they make money. Cool? Cool. 

SECOND IMPORTANT POINT: If anything, Scarlett London should be applauded for being able to get a mouthwash brand to pay for something that the poster does every day:

‘I post whimsical photos of my life with balloons’
‘Here’s some money’
‘I post whimsical photos of my life that now feature mouthwash’

👏👏👏👏 👏

Next up, you want to ridicule someone/something (because maybe, just maybe, you can’t move off the sofa today without feeling clever because you said something cutting about someone/something you’ve never met or worked on then OK) then ridicule the brand. This whole ‘bring out the bold’ campaign point is just so… blergh. Somewhere someone at Listerine wrote several PowerPoint presentations talking about the value of Influencer Marketing. Meetings were had. Budget was pitched for, allocated, and spent. And this is what they’ve ended up with. 

I don’t understand it. 

The (my) problem with marketing generally is that idiots ruin it for everyone else. A mouthwash commissioning content that barely speaks to their brand strapline of MAKE BOLD CHOICES (which, when you think about it, is almost the exact opposite of what you want a mouthwash for – surely a better line would be ‘MAKE THE SMELL OF LAST NIGHT’S BOLD CHOICES GO AWAY’) is terrible. And the problem is – as Marshall and I extolled at the back end of last year – content creators will keep content creating. It’s up to brands and agencies to both understand how to work with influencers and WHEN. Or else you’ll end up with stuff like this and the tragedy will be that influencer marketing will end for everyone. 

/rant

_____________________

4. COLIN KAEPERNICK

I love everything about this.

‘But James! The brand preference has dropped so suddenly!’

‘Yeah, piss off – sales are UP‘

…

“Consumers don’t think how they feel. They don’t say what they think and they don’t do what they say” – David Ogilvy. 

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5. POSITIVE ACTIVISM FTW

I love this for so many reasons. 

1. They noticed a gap for art and filled it. 
2. They noticed a lack of Asian diversity on display in McDonald’s and fixed it. 
3. The BTS video is brilliant – watch it.
4. AFAIK, this photo is still hanging.
5. I used to work at McDonald’s – and the idea of something like this happening at my own store puts a huge grin on my face (especially given the amount of OTHER STUFF that went on while I worked there – ask me about that over a pint some time).

Well done everyone.

Gold stars all round.

_____________________

THE ESSENTIALS

If you’re new here, the section known as THE ESSENTIALS is about highlighting the stories that continue to come to light in regards to the #MeToo movement. It’s been here since it began and will remain so until it ends. 

This week, your essential reads are:

  1. Ronan Farrow on how without the first amendment, #MeToo would’ve been denied oxygen.
     
  2. The rush to rehabilitate Louis CK (reading this reminded me: if you haven’t yet, please watch Nanette, you’ll find it on Netlfix).
     
  3. ‘This is bigger than Argentino‘

_____________________

THE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS

SING! OH MY GOD IT’S BACK AGAAAAIN.

Like the end credits of Bad Influence that you had to record and hit the ‘still’ button the VCR to read the lot… the bonus section is coming atcha in five, four, three…

..

.

  1. That time Bradley Cooper played the Elephant Man and just made faces.
  2. Searching for the Angel that held me on Westminster Bridge (this is a heartwarming read)
  3. Structuring Strategic Storytelling (read this, plannery folk).
  4. Losing Earth: the decade we almost stopped climate change (sobering)
  5. Related to THING ONE above, this is an amazing Thread.
  6. Yellow Stripey Things: A Comprehensive Guide.
  7. First degree BMW burns from Audi.
  8. I went to the ROMEO + JULIET Secret Cinema nd had a GOOD TIME. Also: Baz Luhrmann (you can actually see me in the background of that second shot – brilliant).
  9. ‘The best football club in the world‘ – hard to argue.
  10. A super simple – and screamingly obvious – design choice where someone just went ‘Yeah but why do we do it like that?’ – big fan. 
  11. The Facebook Story problem (good reading, as ever).
  12. I lost a pitch and talked about it (because the world would be a better place if we acknowledged failure from time to time). The replies are a mixture of friends, idiots, and mansplainers (sharing for the sheer comedy).  
  13. I’ve probably shared this before BUT DID YOU KNOW: the plural of anecdote is actually data? Bet you didn’t.
  14. Another AR is here and alive in 2018 proof point.
  15. Bob Hoffman: ‘Are you deluded?’
  16. Finally, Rob Blackie is worth a follow on Twitter. Consistently smart with an analytical eye for details that many miss. Do it. 

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Until next time…