The Drip Edition 11

Hello comrades (not sure why I went Soviet there – perhaps a reaction to capitalist NYC?)
 

I am back from my travels, refreshed and have jumped right back into the lunacy of work. How exhilarating!

I am sure most of you don’t need telling, but New York is a crazy place (I know – an obvious statement). I just didn’t realise it would be THAT busy! I felt overwhelmed (not in a bad way) with all the people and the noise and the crazinesss of it all, but also really inspired by the movement and pace of the city. The subway was also a really good source of interesting campaigns and creative advertising! Lots of awesome copy ideas 😉 I always love underground or subway advertising because generally it is about the single-minded thought and (if we are lucky) the beauty of the copy. Simple ideas executed within minimal space.

The people also all seem to be doing things all the time. They’re really busy and creative and progressive there. It was also interesting to see how a city of that scale uses outdoor space so differently, because they don’t have much private space at home (everyone lives in a microscopic apartment). So nobody worries about having intensely personal phone conversations loudly on the streets – the streets are their homes!

I’ll tell each of you about it when I see you in due course, and if you’re really unlucky I will take you through all of my pictures in great detail describing every little thing I saw.

Fun fact: when you say “holiday” to Americans, they think of a day like Christmas or Easter. A holiday is not a thing you do when going overseas or taking time off of work, it is a day. Weird.

But for now, I am sure you don’t want to hear about what a wonderful holiday I had whilst you sat in the office picking up the slack I left in my wake!

So, on with the show!

Some highlights for this week: The Get To By brief – what it is and how to use it (wonderful); 10 examples of great briefs and the campaigns that went with them using the Get To Buy brief; CMO’s planning on brining digital in-house; some creative inspiration for our designers; 20 new moons were found around Saturn (!); Mental Health Day and an interactive New York Times take on modern office culture (amusing and cool).

Let’s get to it.

A Round-Up of All Things Digital

This article gives some key updates to platforms, takes a look at some of the best creative online and also highlights some cool social campaigns. Google’s first ever B2B advert; new features added to Facebook Dating; New ad formats for FB and IG; The NHS Recruitment ad; Spotify now lets users share songs on Snapchat; Snapchat has extended video lengths to 3 mins; ITV News has launched a youth-focused news roundup channel on Instagram.

There was also this very nice campaign by Oxfam which encouraged people to buy more second-hand clothing. Tackling fast fashion, sustainability and also just actually taking the notion of second hand charity clothing and marrying it with the desire for vintage clothing.

CMO’s Plan On Bringing Digital In-House
 
This does not scare me (runs screaming). These same CMO’s see an increased spend with agency and marketing partners. Read more about why this is so here.

The key takeout for me is that CMO’s don’t believe that agencies are doing a good job of providing integrated solutions. And I can’t help but wonder why. I think in large part has to do with the fact that agencies can’t actually afford to build agencies that have every single function within them. The WPP’s and Publicis’ of the world that do have the capability end up siloed, as they just absorbother niche agencies, but struggle to integrate. There are lessons to be learned!

Are CMO’s Extinct

Listen to the CEO of GetSmarter talking about whether the CMO is extinct or not. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

Duh.

Like most things in life, this question irked me intensely (jokes – I am meditating these days and really trying not to be annoyed by everything).

But honestly, that’s like asking if an airplane needs a pilot. It actually doesn’t really anymore, technically. But someone has to steer, and take responsibility. Anyway,listen to the podcast – it’s actually quite interesting, despite the clickbait.

Creative Inspiration:

Here is some creative inspiration for all my designers and creatives out there.

The New York Public Library made these insta-novels, which I am loving, to inspire young people to get interested in classics again in a way that appeals to them.

Adidas also made these awesome 100% recyclable performance running shoes.

Also this Transform the Subway campaign from MTA New York City Transit, which aims to educate people about the important updates being made to the underground in NYC in order to improve the service. I really enjoyed this, as I saw it firsthand.

 
This Water Box, an AMAZING mobile filtration unit –
great use of OOH.

New York Times Interactive Website

This interactive website by the New York Times is incredibly amusing. It’s about office culture, life in a corporate environment and modern ways of working. The site is a multi-media experience, allowing you to explore various articles, soundbites, quotes and podcasts about office life. It’s an in-depth analysis of workplace user behaviour, curating a number of articles around the NY Times itself, and with custom-made content for the microsite.

20 New Moons Found Around Saturn
 
Guys, we discovered 20 new moons around Saturn! Science! It has now overtaken Jupiter as the planet with the most moons, and Jupiter is FURIOUS.

World Mental Health Day
 
Thursday was World Mental Health day. Adland is looking at ways to tackle mental health issues across the board. Publicis gave its employees the day off yesterday to create awareness of Mental Health Day, and to focus on their mental wellbeing. Read the advice from some of the advertising leaders in the UK about how they look after their own mental health.

Speaking of Mental Health, Cathy sent me this wonderful campaign done by Lidl focusing on how to get young people to talk about mental health, how to support them and what to do to assist as an adult. It’s really wonderful to see a brand giving this sort of advice, without an overt agenda.

Beautiful.

The Get To By Brief
 
The “Get To By” is the simplest, most direct brief one could ever hope to receive, and it is also the most wonderful for creatives because it sums everything they need to do up in one simple paragraph. If you can nail this brief, you can nail the campaign. Easier said than done.

Julian Cole, author / founder of Planning Dirty Academy (a very handy resource, go visit the site for great tools and creative ideas and subscribe to his weekly newsletter), provides a synopsis of how to use it and why to use the Get To By brief here.

Here is a great description of an insight (also someone once told me an insight is something you cannot Google, and that has always stuck with me).

10 Examples of Creative Briefs

Adding to the Get To By Brief, here are some epic examples of how brands have actually used this style of brief, and how they got to their creative idea from the insight.

My favourite one: “Designed to be deleted”

And that is ALL for this week.

Any comments, complaints or suggestions, please do email me 😊