006: The trouble with human behavior
[Before - Session 2] Also, sunk costs
Tomorrow night we’re diving deep into human behavior, and right now I am a prime example of human behavior gone wacky.
First there’s the syllabus. Think of it like a 15-scene script for a movie we’re making called The Future of Advertising. It’s approved. We’ve got funding. We began production last week. We met our cast. We went on location….
And over the past couple days I’ve been preparing materials for Day 2 and realized, “this is not going to work out.” I need to revise the syllabus. So I did.
Also, in the course of prepping for Day 2 I had an idea for a visual device, and spent a bunch of time in Midjourney and Dalle-2 and Photoshop to help sell yet another metaphor. And I realized, “this is not going to work out.”
Here’s the visual. Can you guess the advertising industry metaphor?
Okay, so welcome to Sunk Costs! (Or, maybe I’m just playing loose with tactics, per Cecily Sommers.)
Which is only hilarious given Session 2 is focused on the roots of human behavior, Behavioral Economics and the practice of understanding people so you can do a more effective job of persuading them. As Rory Sutherland puts it, “The most valuable thing that advertising can offer is not the transfer of information, but the creation of emotional associations.”
And on that point I’m thrilled to welcome our very first guest speaker, the hugely talented Anastacia Mullins, Director of Strategy at The Social Lights, and a former colleague of mine at BBDO. She’s going to tell us how to obtain those valuable emotional associations. And we’ll learn how modern brands interact with cutting-edge agencies to understand humans, and create memorable impact.
Meanwhile, I’ve got 25 hours to make more changes.
I’ll post “During - Session 2” later tomorrow evening.