Audiences are exhausted by optimization and can smell a shortcut a mile off. The agencies and strategists behind recent culture research argue that visible effort – not speed or scale – is now what earns a brand attention, and respect.
Nearly three quarters of the public say optimization is ruining their lives, according to research from cultural agency Ok Cool. As people push back against the pressure to optimize every aspect of their lives, the findings suggest they are placing greater value on their social lives and personal interests.
Increasingly, brands face a similar expectation. If they want people’s attention, they need to give them a reason to care.
We’ve become used to sharing everything online, but now people are finding enjoyment of experiences without an audience. Annie Harte explores the resurgence of analogue culture and what it could teach brands about creating spaces not just for performance.
Annie Harte
He’s spent 14 years at Adobe, watching it reinvent itself from boxed software to subscription giant to AI powerhouse. Now VP of International Marketing Simon Morris has a job harder than many: staying one step ahead of the very marketers he’s marketing to.
Alex Zeevalkink
Sponsors spend millions to be seen, but then frequently don’t truly activate their most valuable right, hospitality. Here’s how to turn the access already paid for into memorable experiences and long-lasting relationships.
Matthew Blake
She’s turned a Kubrick film, a David Bowie single and 13.8 billion years of history into beautiful data-driven art. Apostrophe One founder Valentina D’Efilippo on why data design is more clarification than simplification, and how brands can utilize data's storytelling power.
Rich Hewes
