The100: Human behaviour, human resources and Hugh Grant

Human behaviours

The Ogilvy Behavioural Science annual is always an excellent read and Creative Salon have picked out what they learned from it. You’ll be unsurprised to hear that I particularly liked this quote:

“Get away from your desk. Physically go where your audience is. Observe their body language. Watch them interact with each other, your topic or your product. The quality, and therefore value of insight is far, far higher. Ride the storm.”

If only there was a way to do all that without actually having to leave your desk 👀🙋‍♂️

Human reactions

I’m not going to join the semantic trench warfare about a certain car rebrand. But I am going to share the seven reactions to every major rebrand. 

Amongst those reactions is ‘The Cautionary Tale of Tropicana’. Which, as it transpires, still hasn’t gone away… Sales are down after another packaging change. 

For those interested in consumer-centric packaging, I’ve recently put together a 30 minute presentation called Why Watching Beats Asking When it Comes to Packaging Research. It explores the 4Ds of packaging, video examples of pack fails and how to avoid them. Shout if you’d like it presented to your team.

Human resources

Sometimes we all need a reminder of things to bookmark.

Number 1 on that list is Jeremy Connell-Waite’s recently updated Better Stories website. It’s packed full (and I mean full) of resources, such as storytelling courses, reading lists, and 100 inspirational female speakers.

Meanwhile, Lolanda Carvalho, Amy Daroukakis, Ci En Lee and Gonzalo Gregori have been at it again, compiling a treasure trove of trend decks. Here they are for 2025. Brace yourselves.

AI corner

The APG have put together a constantly evolving list of AI tools for strategists. Lots of interesting stuff in here. 

And here are 185 real world Gen AI use cases from the world’s leading organisations. Thanks Google. 

This section wouldn’t be complete without Ben Evan’s annual masterpiece – this year it’s called ‘AI eats the world’. I encourage you to go through the whole deck. 

And finally…

My wonderful daughter texted me this week about food prices. I quite liked how she summed up everything in one text chain. 

Hugh Grant is in magnificent form in this Vanity Fair interview. The trait he most deplores in others? “Telling me the menu is only accessible through the QR code”.

The creativity in the naming of the road gritters in Scotland remains second to none. The map enables you to a) See those names, and b) Track where they are. My favourite? Blizzard of Oz. An honourable mention also goes to Nicole Saltslinger.

Want to know what some of the Mr Men names are in other languages? You really do, trust me. Mr Bump in Norwegian is a thing of beauty. 

Until next time, when it will be December. Jeez.