BIG QUESTIONS
What should you be talking about in your marketing?
Let’s be honest, much of the time our audiences would prefer not to hear from us marketers at all. And if you do push marketing at them, they just don their impenetrable mollusk-like shell and hit delete. What to do? Maybe instead of telling them how you COULD help them if they’d just buy your thing, you could just start helping them right there IN the marketing. In other words, instead of thinking of marketing as an exercise that helps the company (e.g. driving leads and sales), think of it as 100% in service to the audience. In fact, would it be such a bad thing if marketers started thinking of ourselves as working FOR the audience instead of for the brand? We’d certainly try to get to know our audiences a lot better than we do now. Think: what are their challenges? What are they trying to do? What’s getting in their way? What could help them do things faster, better, cheaper? The answers to these questions also answer the one from the headline above.?
TOOL JOY
Typing Mind for the AI-curious
If you’re looking for the perfect place for your AI experimentation, try Typing Mind – an AI aggregator slash interface where you can use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DALL-E, Perplexity AI, and more. It also has a built-in prompt library, prompt folders, and AI characters like “Blog Image Generator” and “YouTube Content Writer” to help you with particular tasks. Its intuitive UI makes it perfect for beginners (which, let’s face it, most of us are), while more advanced options provide flexibility for experienced users. There’s a free trial and a one-time payment of $39 if you like it. (Note: above image created using Typing Mind/Dall-E)
DESIGN WE ❤️
“Dew Point” by Lily Clark
And now a moment of design Zen, brought to you by Los Angeles based artist Lily Clark. This sculpture is made from super hydrophobic ceramic and needs no further explanation. Is it a metaphor for life? Are we all little droplets that grow, dance, and ultimately succumb to a slot shaped abyss, only to reemerge and do it all over again? That’s the beautiful thing about good art and design – it presents itself simply and honestly, allowing the viewer to introspect, draw their own inferences, and perhaps walk away with a new perspective.
BEEP BOOP
Happy happy, joy joy: A new study from down under (AU/NZ) shows that while 6 in 10 respondents think that people’s sense of playfulness declined during the pandemic, the majority now think it’s time for brands to be playful and funny again.
A funny little twang: Californians may not realize it (partly because TV and film actors often talk like them), but they have their own collection of unique accents.
Home field advantage: A beautiful little 52-second video story from Neil Foard about why we should be cheering on our co-workers.
Use Me Up: Eight ways to squeeze maximum value out of your creative agency.
Nummy Gum: This gum makes you more attractive (ha, surrrrre).
SPECIAL FEATURE
WORD TO THE WISE
“People that work hard just have a larger ‘luck surface area.”
Lucky things happen to them, but only because they expand their likelihood of getting lucky. They write, they build, they interact with the world, they surround themselves with optimists. But at the end of the day, accidents happen. And accidents are good. The best way to approach any campaign is to increase its “luck surface area.” To be thoughtful, rational, yet creative as possible, and put enough big thinking into the world so that accidents can happen.
— Danny Weisman, Group Media Director, Noble People
WHAT CLIENTS WANT
How to get more bang for less bucks in 2025
CMOs expect their budgets to rise a bit in 2025. Some of that will go to tech investments and some to agency partners (instead of adding headcount). But it still doesn’t look like a year of big budgets. Here are a few strong ideas to help you get more bang bang out your dollar bills.
- Hone your audience targeting. The more exact you can be with your audience profile, the less expensive it often is to reach them.
- Repurpose content. Republish old content for the part of your audience that never saw it the first time. This is particularly successful with content that’s already been a hit previously.
- Deepen SEO content investments. Google has a big appetite for video and graphical images. You could add these elements to your top performing blog articles to get more potential traffic.
- Evolve your keywords. How people search and for what is constantly changing. If you’re operating off of stale keywords, your efforts will be less effective.
- Partner closely with your agencies. Clients who understand and follow sensible processes – like knowing how to give useful feedback when and how to involve their agencies – pay less for the work than others.
ICEBREAKER
What is your favorite expression that most people have never heard of?
Jason: That’s bussin: Well, can’t say it is my favorite, but it is one I hear a lot around my house with a 15 and 18-year-old. It means something is extremely good, excellent, or tasty.
Melissa: Puchacay: It’s a Chilean expression for “Oh Wow.”
Irene: Sucks eggs: I either made this up or just misappropriated the phrase “go suck an egg,”but to me it just refers to a situation that, for lack of a better term, really sucks.
Laura: Lagniappe: Learned this when I lived in New Orleans. it means “a little extra,” like when a restaurant gives you a biscotti alongside your espresso.
Sarah: Wicked: In New England it means “very” or “really” and we like to use it wicked often — sometimes even twice in a sentence.
Todd: Goat Rodeo: A wonderful term (and perhaps apropos of this moment in politics) that refers to a situation so overwhelmingly bad, so irretrievably broken, so unbelieva-diculously disastrous, that there’s nothing left to do but sit back and watch the trainwreck unfold.
John: Cholera Jasna: My Mom raised 4 kids, and grew up in Communist Poland, so she had an extensive repertoire of old-world curses that she belted out on a regular basis when we crossed the line, which we did habitually. My favorite was “Cholera jasna! (pronounced “holera yasna”)” which roughly translates to “Holy s**t!”.
Marielle: All Chips, No Salsa: Scott Galloway recently likened AI-written copy to “All chips, no salsa.” Chips being the cogent but dull output. Salsa being the human element that elevates content, adds dimension, and makes it engaging.
FALLACIES, PARADOXES & THEORIES…OH MY
Color psychology
A gobsmacking 85% of consumers cite color as a primary factor in their purchase decisions. Color psychology is the study of how colors influence consumer behavior, emotions, and purchasing decisions. For example, red can symbolize excitement, passion, energy and urgency. Black is sleekness, luxury, and elegance. Brands use colors to evoke these emotions and to help create the visual language that customers can recognize and remember. The colors that you choose for your brand palette should start with what appeals to your audience. But brand values, personality, differentiation, culture, and accessibility should also be considered. What NOT to consider: trends.
