Views From the Cove
It’s inescapable. Someone on your social media feeds is looking for a recommendation. Everyone has an opinion or a favorite to share. No, we’re not referring to the latest fad diet, but rather podcasts. Podcasts continue to pop-up regularly and there are a ton to choose from. One recent survey estimates that there are around 700,000 podcasts in circulation with about 30 million individual episodes floating out there.
As a creative marketing and communications agency, asking questions is central to who we are and what we do. Practically speaking, questions help us understand our clients and their needs. But, questions play a deeper role than formulating a to do list.
Perhaps the power of questions is best on display through our process of rebranding a business.
At Hencove, a rebrand is an intensely thoughtful process. We believe that in order to create a new look, feel, and story that is authentic to a business, we must first deeply understand who our client is, who they aspire to be, and how they hope to differentiate themselves in their industry.
This upcoming Saturday is the 144th running of horse racing’s most famous event – the Kentucky Derby. Even for the most casual of fans, the tradition, and pomp of Churchill Downs, combined with the thrill of the “greatest two minutes in sports” make for a must-watch event.
The power of sports is when they transcend beyond a score-keeping, win-loss construct to become a true inspiration for our lives. In 2009, the Kentucky Derby offered just such a moment. That year, on a muddy, sloppy track, a little-known horse, running at long odds to win, made a last-to-first dash into the history books.
When that horse, Mine That Bird, stormed across the finish, it gave all of us a powerful reminder to think about each time we step to the starting gate.
“We don’t do PowerPoint (or any other slide-oriented) presentations at Amazon,” said Bezos. In fact, Amazon traded presentations for employee written memos long ago. The reason? Bezos believes that not only is it harder to write a six-page memo versus a 20-page presentation, he thinks memos do a better job of delineating what’s important.
While we wouldn’t necessarily suggest ditching PowerPoint entirely, we do encourage Amazon’s way of thinking. By challenging conventions and finding new ways to work and think, we can open our minds to new possibilities, opportunities, and solutions. So, the next time you’re feeling stuck with your presentation, consider the following ideas…
Hint: It doesn’t.
In our digital, post-microwave, post-dialup internet age, we expect ideas to come fast and solutions to come faster. After all, just one search of “going viral” in Google yields a mere 11,600,000 results in just 0.55 seconds.
In many ways, this mindset has carried over into the business world. We put up billboards and expect customers to roll in. One whitepaper will rock the industry. Hockey-stick growth, people.
Everyone’s innovating and everyone wants to go viral.
This phenomenon of the lightning-fast spread of information is beautiful. But, age-old marketing theories and principles still work in 2018. They serve to realign our expectations with reality, while teaching us to appreciate the milestones along the way.
"And the Oscar goes to…"
These five words are familiar to all of us and for some, we even dream to hear our name accompany them one day. At the 90th Academy Awards, Jordan Peele fulfilled his dream and made history doing so.
Peele's night was momentous and offers plenty of life lessons. His acceptance speech, in particular, teaches us about perseverance as he revealed the tremendous self-doubt he faced that almost stopped him from finishing the screenplay.
Every now and then, there comes a good ad that breaks out of the four television walls and into popular culture. These ads grab our attention, and stay with us, for many reasons. They captivate us visually. They offer refreshing candor. Or, perhaps it's an annoying-but-catchy jingle that we can't forget. Others still stick with us because of their poignant messages.
It's for the latter reason that a 2002 Saturn ad began recirculating recently. But, not for the message you'd think.
