The100: The psychology of habit, positive pitching and my spirit animal

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“They don’t say what they think”

For those of you that missed Nudgestock, it’s worth catching up on Paolo Mercado’s 10m talk about why marketers should be relying less on survey questions and much more on observation to discover hidden growth opportunities. We of course like Paolo 😉

Paolo talks about Nestea which was losing market share in the Philippines. The data they gathered and actioned made no difference to sales. So they switched to an observational approach. And they saw the product being used in a way that was completely unexpected. This presented a massive, double digit opportunity.

Doing without thinking

Once you’re in the habit of doing something:

…[your] behaviour is no longer a conscious choice. This means that telling you new things about the behaviour, or making it more expensive, isn’t likely to change anything. The behaviour is just what you do.

From a very interesting thread on the psychology of habits and how you can make or break them.

110% agree

When it comes to percentages, it turns out that the average consumer gets very confused when companies use percentages that are over 100 ($) to convey information. In general, they will, as a result, underestimate how much better something is. 

The entropy of trust? 

Trust is to capitalism what alcohol is to wedding receptions: a social lubricant.

Yet the sobering thought is that our trust in others is declining.

In praise of the 30 second canvas

Always great to be reminded of creativity at its finest, so I enjoyed this list of the world’s best video ads. If I may be so humble as to highlight: 

• Points of View (7) is my go to work one (on observation etc);
• Mr W (10) which will always be a work of utter genius;
• Dollar Shave Club (19) still makes me laugh out loud every time;
• The Force (24) is an acting masterclass from the boy (and funny);
• Meet the superhumans (27) defined 2012 for me + tune! Still get goosebumps;
• Sony Balls (42) I remember how different and amazing this was – epic;
• We are sinking (87) because I still repeat this joke to my kids on a weekly basis and it still makes (only) me laugh when I tell it.

Ditch the pitch

I’ve been interviewing some very generous clients – thank you – about the client-agency relationship (I will be writing it all up in July and sharing – have no fear), and pitching came up often. So it was interesting to read about ad-land’s launch of the pitch positive pledge. 

Mother and now TBWA London have taken it one step further. They’ll invest the time and money saved into the next generation of creative talent: Pitch It Forward. Like that.

“Data is not the new oil. It is sand.”

Benedict Evans wrote a piece on putting data into context:

There is no such thing as “data”, it isn’t worth anything, and it doesn’t belong to you anyway. Most obviously, data is not one thing, but innumerable different collections of information, each of them specific to a particular application, that can’t be used for anything else.

And finally…

Lek for short?

Helen Lewis on Europe’s ex-royals and what they have to offer in the 21st century. It starts with this:

One peculiarity of European aristocrats is that their names pile up, like snowdrifts. It’s lunchtime in Tirana, the capital of Albania, and I am about to meet Leka Anwar Zog Reza Baudouin Msiziwe Zogu, crown prince of the Albanians.

So that’s why…

WHSmith in airports. Very funny, very true.

What a cockerel

Literally crying with laughter every time I watch this. Perhaps I feel a kindred spirit.