Intermission: Links
Thoughts on a few topics
Hi, for now Mehdeeka season 4 is still in planning but in the mean time I’ve saved quite a lot of links that I’m keen to share my thoughts on. Enjoy!
I always find critiques of marketing from non-marketers very interesting. Anne Helen Peterson’s Culture Study newsletter is one of the ones I most look forward to reading, so this is not a critique of her critique, but more of a don’t people realise we market the way we do because the general population responds positively to it?
In this piece, AHP argues that text messages are the ‘final frontier’ which marketing is now infiltrating. The email inbox has long been flooded, and now more and more brands are sending text messages, and for good reason; open rates are as high as 98%.
Personally, I have long abandoned my text inbox. The majority of my communication with people I actually know is either through Messenger, Whatsapp, Instagram DM, or email. Right now my text inbox is basically a list of “XXX called and left no voicemail” thanks to the strange robocalls going on in Australia at the moment, and the occasional brand text. Most of those brand texts are reminders - my dog needs flea and tick treatment, my chiropractor appointment is tomorrow, my delivery is expected today.
The whole conversation of “I don’t like brands contacting me through X channel” is kind of moot to me. You gave them that contact info and approval to contact you through it. If you don’t like it, you can unsubscribe. At some point, that brand said to you “is your phone number and text inbox worth 10% off to you?” and you said yes. If anything, what you should take from it is “well actually, my phone number is worth X% off” and that you won’t give it up for anything less.
We’re all active agents in the distribution of our personal data, so take control of it.
It really reminds me of when the Social Dilemma came out on Netflix and “revealed” how social media algorithms work. It only revealed to me how many of my friends didn’t know that everything they do is tracked on the internet. What did you think was happening??
There was a point where I cleaned out my follow lists on social media and went through my email and unsubscribed from a lot of crap - and now I’m happier for it. You’re in control of what you see and what you feed the algorithm so go do something about it.
A good resource to help you sell SMS marketing as a channel in your organisation - tips on how to show ROI, setting up a strategy, and growing it as a channel.
2) How is your digital media company better or different than Logan Paul
Places like Substack, the breakout success of Buzzfeed (think the Try Guys and Ladylike), podcasts, and more and more traditional journalists becoming personalities just make it seem so obvious that it’s more about the personalities than it is the outlet.
Not endorsing Logan Paul at all, but he is a great example of how far reaching a media organisation can go, and how many pies it can have a finger in. It’s surprising that somewhere like Vice is struggling when they have all the ingredients for success - and they also have the brand awareness and strength that allows them to be edgy, try new things, and fail without too many consequences.
I hate monday.com, I hate asana, I hate evernote, and I hate notion as a productivity tool (it’s great as a wiki tool though). I hate productivity hacking, books on productivity etc etc. And this is why! Trying a new productivity tool is equivalent to writing “blink” and “breathe” on your to-do list just so you can cross them off as soon as you’ve written them down to make yourself feel productive.
So many times, people spend more time making their productivity tools looking pretty,and updating them than they spend actually doing the work.
Disclaimer: I begrudgingly use productivity tools at work. But I negelect them and mainly just use the notes app to write down what I need to do so I don’t forget.
A good design link, which within it links to many other good design links - I particularly like Why do so many book covers look the same?; the two articles are definitely good pair reading.
Fashion and design are cyclical, and book covers are no different. Both articles also touch on how book covers are a marketing channel, and so what is “pretty” or what is “related to the story” is not necessarily what wins in an A/B test with consumers.
Another great point to take from this is that publishing houses look to what was successful in the past to design the covers of the future, prefering tried and tested designs ove the potential for something to flop. A metaphor for the whole publishing industry perhaps.