The last few weeks I’ve been tired.
I’ve also been frustrated.
I’d wake up and wonder why I’d chosen a career in marketing and communications.
I found myself surrounded by advertising that was trying to sell me things I didn’t need – bottled water, in-shower moisturising cream and upsized combo meals. Campaigns kept telling me I had to support causes – with my money – but when I tried to find out more information it wasn’t available. I was feeling pressured to simplify ideas and get them out quickly despite knowing that I was stripping them of deeper meaning. My own writing had fallen flat, repetitive and predictable, and when I looked for information on effective writing I mostly found grammar nazi views.
All I could see where the bad things about the sector.
Nothing inspired me.
I’d lost my faith in marketing and communications.
So I decided to fix this. I set out to find pieces that reminded me why I do what I do and how marketing and communications is so much more than what we experience most days.
Below is a selection of what I’ve found.
I hope it restores (or confirms) your faith in the industry like it did for me.
Advertising can be used to achieve something greater than selling a product.
While the world closely watches the outcome of World Cup matches, an England-based charity uses a haunting video to warn about the reported rise in domestic abuse during the tournament.
Learn more about the video.
Good campaigns gain support for a cause without the dry ask.
“Before, I was not clear on how to work with children with communication and swallowing problems, but when I had skills on speech therapy, it made it easier for me to make decisions on my therapy,” she tells me.
“I refused the job that paid more because I have had the opportunity to learn about speech therapy. That convinced me to stay.”
Read Phearom’s story.
Successful ideas are created by putting knowledge into a framework that is more lifelike not through using monosyllables.
Stephen Covey, in his book The 8th Habit, describes a poll of 23,000 employees drawn from a number of companies and industries. He reports the poll’s findings:
* Only 37 percent said they have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve and why
* Only one in five was enthusiastic about their team’s and their organization’s goals
* Only one in five said they had a clear “line of sight” between their tasks and their team’s and organization’s goals
* Only 15 percent felt that their organization fully enables them to execute key goals
* Only 20 percent fully trusted the organization they work for
Then, Covey superimposes a very human metaphor over the statistics.
He says, “If, say, a soccer team had these same scores, only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal is theirs. Only 2 of the 11 would care. Only 2 of the 11 would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do. And all but 2 players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent.”
― Dan and Chip Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Get the book.
Grammar is more beautiful, complex and diverse than grammar nazi’s and anarchists would have you believe.
“Grammar is not only about making sense of our world experience. It is also deeply interpersonal. Grammatical distinctions allow us to be dialogic, and to construe the many discriminations we make in our social structures. It allows us to argue, to flatter, to persuade, to defer, to cajol, to demonise, to proselytise.”
Read the full article.
Got any other examples of great marketing and communications? Please add them below.
Featured image is of Phearom and Ling in Cambodia. Photo by Anna Clare Spelman.