Entries Written By Alistair Vince
The100: Storyhunting, the future of work & research bashing
De/Im-parting wisdom Tom Callard (soon to leave advertising agency BBH) wrote about the 50 things he’s learned in ad agencies. The whole list is great, but my highlights are: Trust your gut, but also try to prove it wrong. Hunt for revelations, not ‘insights’ (thanks Richard Huntington). The consumer might not give you the answer, …
The100: The illusion of research, what is brand and Sriracha sauce
“When in doubt, read Bullmore.” Tom Darlington starts us off this week with a must read for anyone in Marketing on the brilliance of (Jeremy) Bullmore. Not only has he covered every topic, but he has done so with clarity, brevity and fertility – qualities often lacking from modern discourse on the subject of brands, …
The100: Strategic questions, shopping trolleys and Air Horse One
I’m back. You didn’t notice. That’s ok 🙂 Neither did anyone at Watch Me Think towers (which I take as a compliment). On a side note, if you need any tips on hiking in the UK, pub lunches, theatre, museums and cinema, then I’m all topped up on that 😉 What is insight? Thanks to …
The100: Awkward silences, trendy falsehoods, & Jurassic cats
The Effect bias I made that name up to describe my predilection for this wonderful clickable diagram of cognitive effects, biases and fallacies. A particular rabbit hole for me was the top right quadrant of too-much-information. Are you average? Apparently the average professional spends 21.5 hrs per week in meetings? Up from 14.2 pre-pandemic. Crikey. …
“Give me less analysis, make me do more work”
Said no-one. Ever. (To me anyway.) That’s why I don’t believe that clients are suddenly finding themselves with more time, or have a desire to do all of the analysis themselves. I believe they want opinions and recommendations based on high quality, truthful insights from their peers. Yet there is this constant drive towards DIY …
Empathy? Not feeling it.
Consumer closeness? Not even close. Consumer centricity? More like on the periphery. There is plenty written about these 3 key approaches to market research, but no one has nailed it. No one has got it working in such a way that they are really understanding people; and as a result, no one is really winning …
The100: Budget insights, shorter briefs and knickerbocker glories
Everything changes? BBH labs have analysed consumer behaviours, beliefs and attitudes to see if ‘change’ is really true. Change is to marketers what lightbulbs are to moths. We fixate upon emerging behaviours, fetishise the latest platforms, and fantasise about ‘new normals’. The world as understood through agency decks is a place of constant upheaval. There …
The100: Syllogistic reasoning, better briefs and the Burlap King
Machines need paths With apologies to many out there hanging their proverbial hat on AI, we have read an argument that states AI Is No Match for the quirks of Human Intelligence. Insight problems generally cannot be solved by a step-by-step procedure, like an algorithm, or if they can, the process is extremely tedious. I …
The100: Uncertainty testing, impressing strangers & brown sauce
Nice egg, Mr Fabergé, but… Rory Sutherland (does it again) on how looking at the parts can destroy the value of the whole: While more use of data, quantification and comparison is always good in theory, it is not always good in practice. For one thing, too much data drives people towards analytical thinking — …
The100: Sonic extinguishers, supply chains and cheese (of course)
Imposter imposters As Tim Minchin said of imposter syndrome: I know we’ve all got it but it’s a bit boring now […] I don’t know if it’s the most interesting way to describe it […] Get over it and stop being a w*%ker […] Because you have plenty of evidence that you are good at …