STRAT_SCRAPS v137

forced fishing metaphors

Alex Morris

Nov 21, 2023

THREE THINGS I WANT TO WRITE ABOUT AS A WAY TO THINK:

Fishing
Output
Vandalism

FISHING

I got back into fishing at the end of the summer…
Right when the best time for fishing was coming to a close.

So i’ve been doing a lot of thinking about fishing without actually doing much fishing.

»»

Sometimes that feels like strategy’s position as well. Lot of thinking about what you would do.

Strategy shouldn’t be about thinking. It should be about finding.

Preparing to execute with what you have, not deliberating on the perfect hypothetical.

Making sure you have what you need to do the thing.

To bring it back to fishing, strategy is picking lures for the tackle box while the car warms up at 5am.

Not sitting in front of a screen asking computer random questions just to satiate some weird need for more knowledge…

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OUTPUT

*continuing the thought from above*

That’s the thing about advertising though. There isn’t supposed to be a “season.”

And that’s why I went into it. To make stuff.

I want to put novelty and absurdity into the world. Helping brands get attention was the best way to do that. At least I thought that was the case.

The more people I talk to, the more it seems like the average number of “things produced per year” (TP/Y) is getting lower for everyone.

And the irony is everyone talking about “content creator led” or whatever. You know how they got a following? by posting a ton of content, repeatedly, for a long time.

Content creators we pay to partner with became their own brand through frequency.

Not that the world needs more content. It doesn’t.

Nor do brands need to do this to succeed. it isn’t the only route to growth.

not to mention production is the lowest margin stage of the agency process….

oh.

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VANDALISM

This is a drawing my 3 year old made on my iPad. I do not know how she managed to insert that background pic bc she definitely started with a blank page:

This is a book I bought at my favorite book store in LA1, based on the title alone. It is actually a printed dialog meant to accompany an art exhibit showing work where one artist had modified, copied or outright destroyed another artists work as part of their own process.

Bad Manners: On the Creative Potential of Modifying Other Artists' Work by CHAPMAN, Jake and Yuval Etgar: (2022) | Jeff Hirsch Books, ABAA

it made me think of a couple conflicting truths.

We should do this more as an industry. Be less precious about newness or ownership.
The art scene is super gated because modern art has become about the reference more than the visual. You need to know the context to really “get” the art. Advertising already talks to ourselves too much. We need less.. self service.

No resolution here. Because often there isn’t and two conflicting things can be true.

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80% of your profits come from 20% of your clients.

When was the last time you saw the type of energy you see in a pitch put into an existing client relationship?

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I obviously collect a lot of stuff from the internet (and IRL, my camera roll is a disaster). And I read as much as I can.

But I definitely collect more than I consume. Which I think is common?

It got me thinking… Would it be better to consume more than you collect? That would mean your consumption is being led by someone else but yourself.

Collecting more than you can read is in someways a counter to algorithmic media (depending on where you collect from)

Is the ideal then to collect just the same as you read? To me, that would require a throttling of the curiosity that fuels the “open in new tab rabbit hole”

So I think collecting too much is good.

As long as you do consume some of it.

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Here are some things to collect and maybe read:

How to talk to anyone. A collection of writing on how to talk to all the various people you might encounter at a family gathering.
The new toolset of product strategy. This is relevant to more than product strategy, even if the focus is about product rather than communications.
The anatomy of design thinking workshops (yes, another medium link.. there was a hole I fell into) – begs the question; is the repeatability of the workshop format an intentional feature? We’ve found the formula? or a result of workshops as high margin billable activities rather than a means to an end?

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I love this picture. There is no brief that can prompt this picture. Sometimes you gotta leave room for “photo-accidentally-taken-in-pocket” type ideas.

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book recommendation:

“The Agile Comms Handbook: how to clearly, creatively, work in the open.” by Giles Turnbill.

What it’s about:

Some quotes:

We can be brief. And clear. And unambiguous. And interesting.
Using chunks of the detail layer to make the context layer means you’re probably not providing very good context.
And using chunks of it in the lure layer won’t create a very snappy or attention-grabbing lure.
Agile comms does not predict what the ending will be.
It you want people to read something, give them something
that’s readable
Drafts aren’t wasted

A full page on drafts that is worth reading: