In a change from our usual scheduling, this newsletter is coming to you on a Monday. A testament to the wild lands that are autumn in agency world. Shout out to everyone who’s staring down a packed Q4 schedule, and already starting to think about the Christmas break…
Is it too early to be talking about a John Lewis ad?
Don’t panic; it’s not the Christmas one yet. The store has released an ad drawing heavily on their archive and playing with the brand’s presence as a cornerstone of British culture through the decades. The ad is to celebrate the return of the ‘Never Knowlingly Undersold’ price promise, which has had a revamp to make it work in the modern retail landscape – incorporating online prices for the first time.
Are you asking for help enough?
This piece from Productive Flourishing landed in my inbox around the time a podcast about using generosity to grow your business, and it sparked a lot of thinking about asking for and giving help.
I wonder how a career spent in small ‘bootstrapped’ teams and with growing businesses (coupled with a fierce independent streak) have shaped my approach to work. Are there better ways to spend time and energy than learning all the things oneself?
The thing we forget, though, is that when we ask other people to help using their unique contributions, we’re offering them a chance to do more than give us a thumbs up on the work we already did. We’re telling them that we see — and value — what they have to offer. Being asked for help is validating. It ties into our purpose, our sense of mastery.
What UX can teach us about marketing
I wear a UX hat on a lot of our projects. I might not be designing the nuts and bolts of an A/B test but I spend a lot of time thinking about user perspectives, and how someone who knows nothing about the company or product is going to interact with a website or campaign. The temptation when writing a brief is often to cram in as much of our own perspective as possible – but is that the right thing for your customers?
I enjoyed this piece on the tension between marketing goals (e.g. pop ups to join the newsletter) and smooth UX (an uninterrupted customer journey) and between how each discipline approaches understanding customers. Read the full piece for some practical insights into working together (spoiler: it has got a lot to do with communicating)
