#Empathy18 Highlights: Finding Your Truth in Marketing

Finding Your Truth in Marketing

How to find and communicate the truth, and challenge the lie, to ensure you and your company make decisions on fact, not fiction.

A nose for nonsense

Joseph O’Leary from Full Fact booted off the day by talking about how we can spot misinformation.

Most often false claims are based on real data. So what has been done to that data? Yes it’s true, but is it fair?

Joe showed a framework for assessing claims: Ask is its plausible, provable, useful & unambiguous?

Joe also explained how we need to be skeptical, and not cynical. To help you on your path the becoming a skeptic, you need to be inquisitive and always go one click further. You never know what you’ll find beneath the claim.

Equally so in our own communications, provide a point of reference for claims to help gain certainty and trust.

Purpose debunked

Richard Shotton did his own fact checking on the current golden child of marketing: brand purpose.

Richard showed that the initial research responsible for igniting the brand purpose bandwagon is, in fact, flawed.

A worthwhile watch.

Selfie stick marketing

Martin Weigel from Weiden+Kennedy told us how the industry has become lost in a fantasy world of its own making. And one which is nothing like the realities of those we serve.

We’re creating for audiences that simply do not exist. It is, as Bob Hoffman said, narcissism disguised as strategy.

Martin outlined part of the problem being due to the boxes we put consumers in. He explained how these labels can obscure the truth, dehumanise people and erode empathy. We need to see beyond them.

We also need to embrace the fact that real life is messy and something which can only be witnesses first hand. You simply cannot learn about the realities of a culture without experiencing it.

Clear the decks

Amelia Torode talked through the table top principle.

When things are going wrong or if you’re starting from scratch, the first thing you need to do is take everything off the table.

Don’t just re-arrange the pepper pot or refold the napkin.

Take it all of then workout how you want it to be structured.

The inbox emptier

Tom Chatfield talked about taking back control of tech and having a more functional relationship with the tools we use on a daily basis.

Tom explained how our inboxes have become a to-do list written for us by other people. We have become slaves to it.

And yet this behaviour isn’t constructive. We need to switch off more.

If you want to see clips from any of the above, then please get in touch…