Aun Aprendo: Week Notes #34
It’s been a while. Phil prodded me… I’m back to the Week Notes.
My Week Notes routine has suffered when I either have nothing to write about or when I have too much to write about. Currently, I fall into the latter camp. Work is busy. We’re in the middle of annual planning for the next financial year and that brings with it lots of work, lots of meetings, meetings which in turn create more work….
Lots going on outside of work too. The notebooks are a beneficiary of this - and various themes and links are emerging as they always do when you think just hard enough about the links between everything that is going on. I’ve just been poor at translating into notes for the blog. Anyway, excuses out of the way….
This week I went to the University of Birmingham to speak to students studying for their Masters in Digital Marketing. I was asked to speak about ‘developing a critical approach to marketing metrics’. Despite the busy-ness I reference above, it’s always worth protecting these sorts of things in the diary. Not only because of the opportunity to pay it forward and share some experience with people who are just starting their careers, but because more selfishly the types of questions you’re asked to speak about in these kinds of forums are typically important, foundational things which you might not yet have developed a point of view on. Every day is a school day…. I’m increasingly convinced that questions are typically more valuable to a strategist than ‘answers’.
I had some very nice feedback on the presentation which is always pleasing.
My presentation is embedded below.
Doing
I did the Birmingham lecture on Tuesday and then on Wednesday I joined a panel at Reddit about the future of marketing for CPG. Their platform is fascinating and one I spend a huge amount of time with as a consumer and a media planner. It’s a teasure trove of information on any topic you care to think of. From these two sessions two new blog posts are emerging... Both of which I hope to finish in the week ahead.
Our little newsletter is about to hit it’s fiftieth edition. That feels significant? We’ve not missed a week this year and the momentum is building nicely. It feels easier to recruit new subs each week as the network effect builds. Analytics show some subtle shifts in referrals too… less from email, less from linkedin and more from the substack platform itself.
Some big projects coming a conclusion at work. One of the peculiarities of global agency life is the ‘presentation roadshow’ - you present work. Then you get feedback. And then you take it to another person. You get more feedback. Then comes another meeting and another meeting and another. It’s an iterative, intriguing process. Diplomacy is often overlooked skill in the comms planner’s repetoire.
Reading
Picked up Prophet Song again. Determined to finish this time. I have a holiday coming up shortly and hope to get through a few more books on the journey there and back as well as by the pool.
Enjoying the second series of Adam Morgan’s podcast. The most recent episode with two ex planners from W+K was incredible. In particular enjoyed the Gossage quote about a mousetrap needing to leave enough room for the mouse. Some of the best things I’ve watched, read or listened to all do this incredibly well. Tàr springs to mind, as does Hawthorn and Child by Keith Ridgeway.
Watching
Started watchind Adolescence. I must admit I’ve found it a challenge. My son is eight in the next week or so. He’s just close enough in age to the central character that my wife and I have agreed it is a tough watch on a personal level. The script and the ‘stage play as TV show’ format is breath-takingly good.
