Strands of Genius: Better Briefs, An Ode to VML, Media-opoly House Rock
plus 15mins of anon
WRITING FROM | Chattanooga
WORKING ON | settling into our house!
LOOKING AHEAD
Nov 12-22 | Chattanooga, TN
Nov 22-24 | Atlanta, GA
Nov 24-Dec 5 | Isla Mujeres, MX
Dec 5-15 | Chattanooga, TN
Dec 15-18 | Atlanta, GA
Dec 18-20 | Chattanooga, TN
Dec 20-29 | Nashville, TN
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
We’re back in Chattanooga, and reunited with our house! We had dreams of furnishing it from afar, but it turns out we still beat a lot of our furniture… which means we still got to have a classic ‘cook your first meal in the house and then eat on the floor’ moment. We also had a ‘are we burning plastic? OMG who puts plastic in new ovens’ moment, which was less fun but equally exhilarating - ha! (I even checked to make sure nothing was inside when it was pre-heating, but it turns out plastic is clear and I didn’t see it.) But, we’re enjoying the all of the ‘firsts’ and laughing at ourselves and how inexperienced we are when it comes to playing house. While we enjoyed taking a page from Ken’s book and making our job ‘beach’ now it’s time to make our job ‘house’ :)
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
our house, staring at the stars from the hot tub, Madison & Paulie, Judy and the Keils for letting us bachelorette in your house, Hunk o Mania, Madi’s baddies, our handyman Will, who has done a remarkable job in our absence, all of the leaves changing colors & YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
BETTER BRIEFS
To help improve the global issue of poor briefing, BetterBriefs has partnered with the IPA and The Marketoonist Tom Fishburne to release a new compendium featuring stats-backed satirical cartoons accompanied by punchy industry opinion from Mark Ritson, Orlando Wood, Merry Baskin, Peter Field, Daryl Fielding and more. Published today, the compendium entitled The issues with briefs and how to make them better, features humorous cartoons by Tom Fishburne that bring to life some of the key issues around marketing briefs, and we were asked to provide commentary on one.
These draw on the core findings from BetterBriefs’ global 2021 study into marketing briefs, such as revealing while 78% of marketers believe their briefs provided clear strategic direction, only 5% of agencies agreed; 65% of agencies and 32% of marketers are unclear on who the target audience is in briefs, and 68% of marketers and 88% of agencies weren’t clear on how the idea and creative work would be evaluated coming out of the brief. (Better Briefs x IPA)
AN ODE TO VML
Campaign asked Faris for 120 words of commentary about the recent mega-merger that led to the formation of the ‘world’s largest creative company.’ The word limit inspired a different sort of answer: It turns out that poetry is a great way to communicate depth with fewer words. Think of it as an ode to the names of agencies, old and new, because everything is built on that which came before. And give yourself a point for every reference you catch ;)
AN ODE TO VML
We used to make fun of the old onesLike law firms with names on the door
Then names became initialisms
Chiat Day is TBWA
And James Walter Thompson no more
Ideas took over for a decade
Mother would look after you
Brands were Naked
(In the eyes of consumers)
And AKQA’s answers were true
Lowe joined octopus Mullen
Adam&Eve and Ned, Mac & Bill
FCB gained and then lost a Draft
But McCann is McCann
And Ogilvy is Ogilvy still
Now VML is biggest
Valentine McCormick Ligibel
HQ Kansas City
(Go Chiefs!)
Let’s all hope they do very well
Today there’s Uncommon,
Mischief @ No Fixed Address
Thinkerbell, Lucky Generals
Rethink, GUT, and Special
Let’s all hope that they transgress. (Campaign)
SCHOOL HOUSE ROCKS PARODY THAT STILL RINGS TRUE
I absolutely loved Schoolhouse Rock growing up, and still find myself singing ‘conjunction junction’ from time to time, so when Faris showed me this parody, I was eating it up! For those of you who didn't grow up with Schoolhouse Rock, it was a cartoon musical that taught you lessons — about everything from language to the government. In 1998, this parody was written for SNL but was ultimately scrapped. From Open Culture: “Conspiracy Theory Rock” features a disheveled gentleman—a stereotype of the outsider crackpot—leading a sing-along about the machinations of the “Media-opoly.”
Figured as greedy octopi (reminiscent of Matt Taibbi’s “vampire squid”), the media giants here, including GE, Westinghouse, Fox, and Disney, devour the smaller guys—the traditional networks—and “use them to say whatever they please and put down the opinions of anyone who disagrees.” While some of the primary players have changed, the video holds up in an age of media consolidation and ever-increasing corporate political influence. (OpenCulture)
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:: AND NOW ::
HT @misscrisp
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
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