I’m yet to meet a one armed economist! I long for the day! In fact I’m so preoccupied with this goal that I’d go out and search for one if I had the time. I admit my ambition is driven by one assumption which is of course that a one armed economist couldn’t possibly say, “On the other hand?”
Every economist I’ve heard from is an ‘accordionist’, – they play both ends against the middle. You know the type, “It’s going to be like this, but on the other hand it could be like that”. Whatever, their a dangerous breed! They mention ‘inflation’ and the world responds with panic; they talk up the stock exchange and the bull comes out of the pen. They’re influential and from a two handed perspective they’re never wrong – how could they be at ‘two bob each way?’
Explore our historical blog articles for nuggets of wisdom (and random musings) from our crew.
In 2002, Seth Godin wrote a book called “Purple Cow” in which he wrote “If you’re the same, you’re invisible”. To be honest, I couldn’t agree more. It’s an age old argument between client and agency and one that I’m sure will continue for decades, if not centuries, to come. But the landscape is changing. Agencies such as Jack in the box aren’t just presenting radical ideas with little substance. Adland is beginning to realise the importance of results and that key to all this is communication.
When walking my pooch on Saturday morning, carrying the ever-reliable ‘doggy bags’ in anticipation of that fateful moment, I reflected on the fact that the Shire of Busselton went down the biodegradable doggy bag path some months ago. I also recalled that the South Bound festival, which doubles Busselton’s population for a weekend each January, also went down the biodegradable path recently, with biodegradable cutlery and other food-service packaging. I wondered – who else is jumping on the ‘biodegradable-band-wagon’?
I’ve spent years bemused, and sometimes amused at the decisions made by some small businesses. Up until yesterday, possible the greatest mystery has been why clients do not take advantage of an agency’s print management facilities. They commission us to design and conceptualise their brand – arguably a company’s biggest asset – then they take the artwork to a printer, often unknown to them, and think they’ve saved money. Beside their obvious inexperience at finding the RIGHT printer they also lack the technical know how and the inability to know what quality work is – yet they believe they are saving money.
If I were a nuclear scientist I’m sure I could not be asked the proverbial question more often. “What’d ya do?” they ask. And there lies the first of the many dilemmas this question poses. What do I do?.. …I know what I do but the complexities and the variety of disciplines are such as to leave me tongue tied. In fact so complex is the final response that I have decided to make it the subject of this extended blog.
It occurred to me just yesterday that most people don’t understand dual concepts such as that of marketing. Some may not even acknowledge that marketing is indeed ‘duel’ in its conceptualisation. Accepting that marketing is a multi-disciplined profession I would contend that ‘marketing’ is the meeting of two broad terms – strategic and creative, or if you like the ‘head’ and the ‘heart’.
I’ve never had children (well none I know of!) but I think I can appreciate the feeling of being a new parent. Last week, Jack’s latest baby was born – our msgbox eMinder system. This was a pipe dream that rattled around the studio for sometime until both Lee and I decided that no one actually had a system that would do what we needed…so we built one!