Strawberries in January pt 5: from the head of Zeus Jones

In keeping with building on existing relationships:

A very sharp and clear discription of the distinction between telling about usefullness and being usefull.

The Aesthetic Divide by Adrian Ho

vision of the future

show me and I will make up my mind, guide me to understand and I will teach others

"Let's compare technology to works of art. Even masterpieces appear somehow lacking until people appreciate them. That's when they become truly complete. Beyond the works themselves, it's how people interpret or receive them that matters. And it's the same for technology. What matters is deciding how people will want to embrace new technology or features."

Kenya Hara

Strawberries in January pt 4 : the magic starts after the trick

A very important rule in magic (the real kind, not the one that creates 700 billion, ha!) states, that the real magic starts after the trick is done.

When a trick is performed correctly, the audience will go home and add stuff to the trick that was not there, but does enhance the trick.

Once home they face their audience and at that moment their own biases kick in. The trick grows, from a simple sleight of hand, to three lions and a midget bellydancer. The real magic starts after the trick.

The magic is in the story. It is the delight that the teller has in building on the groundworks laid by the magician, it's the delight the listener has in hearing the story, half shaking his head, knowing the story is probably bollocks, but kicking himself anyways for not going. It's the simple act of having something interesting to tell somebody else. That's the real deal the audience paid for. Not the trick.

So should we, as marketeers keep this in mind. The real story starts after the trick is done. Whether this means handling the client by giving him what he wants, but not how he wanted it, or by making sure that the products we sell are more then just one layer.

So much stuff is about the story we sell. But in actual fact it's the story they tell. So when done correctly, their work will do the business for you. And often in these jaded times, it's not about the, shouty, over the top, disruptive, big thing.

How are you gonna build on that? It's so distant and leaves nothing to the imagination. It's gone, but you don't buy it. The reaction is: ok, how did he do that? you go all CSI and start deconstructing it. The trick did not pull you in, it just triggered an reaction to disprove it.

It's about the up close and personal small gestures. They stop us in our habit driven lives and catch our imagination and give us permission to build upon them and make life interesting. Bold trumps big these days. In these days of obiquitousness and larger than life events that our minds can't comprehend, you gotta feel it to believe it.

And like anything in else in our lives, nothing feels stronger than the stuff that happens close to home.

the view from a far is sometimes sharper

Derren Brown is a mentalist. His book about the trade is quite a spell binding (boom tish!) read.

Among the many gems, he discusses the fact that it is easier for him to play his tricks on those who watch him the closest. He flipped the old saying "for every action there is an equal reaction" by stating that for every bit of concentration in one part of the brain and on one part of his act, there is a loss of concentration in another part of the brain and on another part of his act.

This simple insight allows him to play with people. With great ease.

However, the people he as a magician fears most are the once who don't give him their full attention, those who glimpse out of the corner of their eyes to see what it is he is doing. No pressure is there on them to follow. They are not paying attention to a single part, but just glance to see the entire act. And then spot the cheat quite easy.

Sometimes we as admen to can get so deep into research/work or as a brand in our products, that we just see parts and are being played without even knowing it.

So remember to cultivate blank slates. Be it in your agency, or those that don't fit into the target group you do focusgroups with.

Those with no pressure to come up with anything, that have no stake in your brand. Have them glance your work, brand or thinking. Forget territorial pissing and be suprised to learn a lot.

P.S. over on his blog Northern makes an very good case for blank slates in your own life. Go and read.

the power of words

Watching a regional football derby yesterday it struck me: these players were more ferocious, more physical, more inclined to play rough, to do whatever it took to win that derby not because of what the derby meant to both teams. It was because of what the word derby means. period.


It is this implicitness, the context of the word that these players understood. The reff understood, the crowd understood. Derby = hard play, full of fouls, at breakneck pace. More was allowed, because of the frame it was presented in.


Briefing is one of those words that lately has frustrated me. If say the agency we work with gives feedback about the briefing they received it somehow always revolves around questions of format, channel choice, pay off. It seems that the auto pilot kicks in whenever they hear the word briefing, and it takes them back to when they learned about it in school. Briefing = ......


Words. Context. We often glance over it, but once you get down to the nitty gritty of it, it is powerfull. Especially when the implicit meaning is understood but not articulated. When the illusion of civility is upheld or explicitly removed.



They can grant us room to grow or close our way of thinking down.


Exploring vs Drilling for oil


Immigrant vs illigal Alien


Words dictacte so much of the space we can, allow ourselves to take, and can help us articulate the reasons behind actions not explicitly mentioned, that a dictionary is this marketeers new friend. Perhaps obvious to some, but important enough to me to repeat.

House MD or Doctor Melfi

McCain and Obama. Bare with me. From an archetypical point of view.

the US/Western voter is a Hyperchondriac (compared to 90% of the people of the world, in terms of problems)

Obama is the Therapist.

McCain is the Surgeon.

O is centered around the mind and emotions. 

He talks and he listens. He is a chance for all the people to wallow in their own sorrow and to feel bad together. dream of better together. He is sympathetic. He wants to get to the root of it all and change us, it. He wants us to reach our full potential. But what he does not mention to much, but what people instinctively do know is that profound change is a long and hard road to travel. It takes guts to look at oneself and say, I do not measure up, I need to change. He knows that the problems patients talk about are not the root, that the solutions that they ask for are patchwork at best. He must educate and change.

But in reality there is no clear game plan from his side, it's a bit ambigious. We know it's cureable, but there is now easy one fit's all solution. it's a combo of medicine and therapy. It takes time. 

And like the great Soprano's have shown us, It's not always up to the physician, but the patient, whether one get's better.

Most (and please do not see this as a lightharted attempt to make fun of menatal illness,) people who see someone about their problems,  just wanna have an excuse " I am depressed, give me medication" or hear " It's not your fault, your childhood was bad" and then walk out with a solution.

Positive Change does not come easy. Negative Change does. Negative stuff impacts us way more than the good. Think sickness, death, pain etc. Negative is profound yet instant. Positive is fleeting yet longterm.

Enter the Surgeon. he talks about the body.

M says: mam/sir, you are ill. Boom. Negative. But the good news is, I am a Surgeon and I know what is wrong and how to fix it. Let's cut it out. He validates and than goes into default mode, whatever the problem. You don't know, because at that time the patient is asleep.

The fix is quick, but the recovery takes time. See how it's framed nice. Sure, you do not mind the long recovery, if the fix is immediate. 

You like this. it's straight talk. No flip flop. this it what you wanna hear. Perhaps not what you need, perhaps so.

And so what do you as a hypochondriac do? U want validation of your problem!

The validation comes in the form of the solution u get. A scar to prove it was real after all, or a mirror held up that you that confronts you with the fact that it's all in your mind and it wll take time to deal with that? Both hurt, one on the outside and not for long, the other on the inside and long.

Real change or illusion of change. 

If you ask the people at QVC, they'd laugh at the fact that you even have to ask.