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In Context

Louis Theroux recently hosted Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle on his Grounded podcast, and part of their conversation was around some of his edgier jokes and the resulting media outrage. Boyle in turn makes a really good point, and it’s one relevant to all of us in professional communications.

Context.

His opinion is, of course something he says to a comedy crowd at 10pm in Newcastle doesn’t read as well in a newspaper as someone has breakfast in Surrey.

Context.

The comedy crowd’s ready for the punchline. Someone reading a paper looking to stoke outrage – and maintain easy content for a week or so – not so much. Of course not. They haven’t (literally) bought in to the joke and the person telling it.

Let’s not forget this principle applies to all communications we put out there; from internal comms to industry to ads and marketing campaigns.

Does your message make sense to your audience in context?

I’ve seen organisational announcements so long some employees literally didn’t read all the way through to the actual announcement.

We’ve all seen ad campaigns so busy celebrating their own creativity the product and brand effectively disappear.

Online copy so bad it seems to forget you know what the internet is and how it works.

Context (to put it scientifically) gives your messaging ooooomph. It makes it more digestible for your audience – and in turn more effective.

Think about what your message means to people. Where it will work best. How and when it will be consumed.

A lot of people – and organisations – forget this. They spend time working on getting the message right to their own minds, and it then becomes an unwinnable challenge to try to force it into places it doesn’t always naturally sit.

The context of your message delivery really matters, and building it into everything you do, or write, or publish, or create, will ensure you’re in a position to really see a return on the investments and resources you use.

To talk to me more about how context is critical to your communications, start with an email to wadehowland@internode.on.net

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My Favourite Music of 2020

I’ll be honest: my taste in music is what most people would describe as horrible.

I get that.

Very heavily skewing to various genres and subgenres of metal, here are my favourite releases for 2020 with the top two highlighted and the rest in no particular order. If you’re adventurous you may find something here to inspire you while you work/drive/exercise.

Whatever your flavour, I hope you found new music this year you love just as much.

1 = Anaal Nathrakh – Endarkenment

How is there so much pure joy in this punishing noise? It is relentless and vicious and sarcastic and pounding, but when those melodies kick in it just elevates this to an entirely different level. First listen didn’t really click, but after that it just kept calling me back. Nasty and wonderful.

1 = Uada – Djinn

Black metal goes technicolour. Uada delivered a layered, nuanced and extraordinarily immersive album with 6 songs across an hour. Djinn adapts an almost 80’s post-punk approach to extreme metal, then polishes it up until its shiny bright. One to lose yourself in.

Sinistral King – Serpent Uncoiling

In which a mutated strain of black metal develops arena-sized ideas. Chunky, rolling riffs collide with choirs, Gregorian-style chants, blast beats, piano passages and a fire-and-brimstone delivery. Dark and addictive.

The Good the Bad and the Zugly – Algorithm & Blues

Released in January, this has been with me all year. No other band on earth packs as many riffs and hooks into an album, then tops it all off with gorgeous melodic guitar lines like these Norwegians.

Huntsmen – Mandala of Fear

Ambitious, sprawling and rewarding Americana Prog Doom Metal. Moments of noise and beauty, harmonies and heft. Give it time and revel in every detail.

殞煞 Vengeful Spectre – Vengeful Spectre

Black metal with a traditional Chinese element. Based on a medieval battle this actually sounds like a lone warrior, sword raised, riding into an enemy army knowing there’s a better than even chance he’ll be the lone survivor. Someone on r/metal claimed: this rips. And I can’t be any more succinct than that.

Spirit Adrift – Enlightened In Eternity

Warm, groovy, trad-inspired heavy metal. Cool riffs, great hooks and choruses you’ll be singing for days. It really feels like they weren’t trying too hard on the album – there’s a natural charm and accessibility all the way through.

Paradise Lost – Obsidian

Lush, ominous and ultimately hopeful, this arrived just as Autumn started closing in. Less metal than this band has been over their career but the songs are so good it doesn’t need to be too heavy.

Havukruunu – Uinuos Syömein Sota

Finnish black metal, this time underpinned with a pagan, folky flavour. I’d never heard of the band, but the hype was unmissable in metal circles – and in the end fully justified. One of the best surprises of 2020.

Thy Catafalque – Naiv

You haven’t heard anything like this weirdly beautiful Hungarian blend of extreme metal, folk, prog, electronica and then some. Another January release that made it all the way through the year as a regular listen.

Mora Prokaza – By Chance

My love/hate album for 2020: sometimes it sounds incredible. At others it is literally the last thing I want to hear. Dark, abrasive and deeply weird, this is essentially Belarusian black metal/hip hop/Peter and the Wolf-core (just in case that clears anything up for you).

Countless Skies – Glow

Packed with big, gorgeous melodies. This sits on the arty side of heavy, with clean and gruff vocals and music that amazingly sounds like the cover looks. I’m still unpacking everything here, but it certainly made an impact.

Thanks to all these artists for the incredible inspiration they provided this year.

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Write for your Intended Audience (aka Who Do We Sign For?)

All communication should have a reason.

And underpinned by that reason, it should be presented in the way most quickly and efficiently understood by your target audience, no matter the medium.

Always consider who you’re talking to. How is that person best going to understand what you’re saying?

I really hate seeing public signage presented in a way likely to miss the audience. So it’s been decided at a bureaucratic level there’s a need for some information?

Great. The very least you can do is make it clear and understandable to users. Now, take a look at this.

River Torrens pathway, Adelaide

This sign is 200m from the Adelaide Convention Centre, right on the edge of the city centre, in an area with international conventions and hotels. It’s on a popular walking and cycling path used by locals and tourists.

There must be a clearer way to say this.

You’d probably need better-than-conversational English to read and understand this. As a safety message, it’s a fail. As general information, it’s a fail. Even just the words ‘PLEASE SHARE’ and an arrow in each direction would be easier to consume – and understand – for non-English speakers.

Every time I walk past it, I wince. How can it be so important a sign is required, but the execution is so flawed? Any consideration for the very real (and very international) audience is completely overlooked.

And I know it’s always easy to criticise others, so I use this as a reminder for my own work.

Am I really keeping my audience in mind when I write? Ask any copywriter; especially when we work on big jobs it can be hard to take a step back and look at what you’re presenting.

But it’s worth it. Because if you fail to impact your audience, you’ve failed. And with just a bit of critical thinking when you review your work you can stay on the right path, whether it’s narrow or not.

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#TBT: Michael Buble

In a past life I wrote for dB Magazine here in Adelaide. I was fortunate to talk to a lot of artists I loved, liked, admired and discovered as I went.

One was a young Canadian crooner named Michael Buble. He’s back in town on tour, and been to hell and back since we spoke, but here’s a moment in time with a much younger man.

Enjoy!

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Consumers Lose when Broadcasters and Rights Holders move the Goalposts

The rise of women’s football – particularly since the 2019 World Cup – has been impressive. So much so, here in Australia Optus Sport has acquired the rights to show Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL), to compliment their Premier League coverage.

Source: The FA.com

Which is great news. For fans, it simply means more football, right?

No. No, it doesn’t.

Because the truth is fans in Australia now have LESS access to WSL games than we already did.

Reports positioned it as Optus bringing WSL to Australia, and highlighted the growing appeal of the league as a product, but curiously omitted the fact that it would result in fewer games being available. This is despite Optus including it in their own media release, albeit as little more than a footnote:

As a result of Optus Sport securing the rights, live Barclays FA WSL matches on The FA Player will be geo-blocked in Australia as of November 17, 2019.

Yep. In securing exclusive broadcast rights Optus has blocked streaming on the official FA Player app in Australia. It had shown all games live and offered a (from experience, robust) Chromecast option so watching games on TV was quick and easy.

Optus, however, doesn’t show all games. It offers 2 live games per round and a packaged highlights show to cover the remainder. Which leaves consumers (viewers) with less, despite rights-holders making more money.

Part of the WSL’s growing appeal are the clubs: Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea all have teams, which attract viewers across from the monster that is the Premier League. I’m interested in the WSL as a whole; but my focus and initial reason for watching is to follow Arsenal (for my sins).

The Optus deal means I can’t unless the Arsenal game is being shown – or I find a way around the geo-blocking.

And that raises questions about the real value in acquiring a league that leaves the genuine fans (and realistically, I don’t think we yet have casual WSL fans) unable to watch their team play live.

Especially when they could – free and legally – 10 weeks ago.

Financial support of the women’s game is great. The game will grow, and more investment means the professionalism and quality will increase, while the move of Australian players to the league will only lift its popularity here; as evidenced by Optus securing the rights.

Optus Sport has been a very welcome development for football coverage in Australia, and is being watched by the Premier League as they look at how best to capitalise on their asset moving forward.

But it rankles to see consumers lose out when business intrudes.

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Horizon: Zero Done – How Sony’s Surprise Move can Grow their Customer Base

With the next generation of gaming consoles expected to launch this November, Sony has pulled an unexpected move in an attempt to grow their install base.

They’re making one of the PlayStation 4’s biggest exclusive titles available on PC.

Source: Sony PlayStation

Horizon: Zero Dawn, developed by Guerrilla Games, was a brand new IP for the PS4. The game itself was a risk – a studio moving away from a well-established series to create something new to drive hardware sales – and it paid off spectacularly, having sold over 10 million copies.

A PC version is a surprise. It’s an unusual thing to happen. But it looks like a shrewd move by Sony, despite the predictable gnashing of teeth by some fanboys.

Sony is giving non-PlayStation owners an opportunity to play one of their best first-party games (that is, developed by a studio which Sony actually owns). And look at the timing. They’re doing it on the eve of the PlayStation 5 being officially launched.

One of the most anticipated titles for the PS5? A sequel to Horizon: Zero Dawn.

In the world of video games, PC gamers are the self-proclaimed ‘master race’. Their machines are more powerful than mainstream gaming consoles, and able to be upgraded as and when the user wants to. As consumers, they see console gaming as a step down.

But give them a chance to play Horizon: Zero Dawn and they may just love it.

As a revenue-driver the game is effectively done. This is a clever move by a business to squeeze more profit from an old asset, which now sells on PS4 for a budget SRP.

By inviting non-users into the Horizon: Zero Dawn universe, they stand to grow their user base as the new hardware looms ever closer.

The next challenge is to migrate them to the PS5 with the game’s sequel as the lure.

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Isn’t The Fight Worth It?

The recent discovery of an elite college admission scam in the US was shocking (in scope) but not terribly surprising. An article today was written by a college professor who teaches the ‘entitled students’, complete with advice from staff to new educators.

“Lower your standards,” they advise new colleagues. “The fight isn’t worth it, and the administration won’t back you up if you try.”

This results in an increased workload as staff find themselves

hounded to provide a remedial education on top of an already heavy set of official duties.

In other words – watering down their expertise.

This results in intelligent, highly-educated people having to compromise their abilities and efforts to placate those undeserving of this level of support. From my outsider’s perspective it seems not only damaging, but unsustainable.

It really jumped out as it comes just a day after a tweet from Tom Goodwin (@tomfgoodwin) had me thinking about the parallels in marketing and advertising.

The brutal truth is clients are being given too much say in their creative direction.

The revenue chase sees businesses placing more value on money coming in than work going out, which in turn creates a disproportionately-weighted sense of worth in what clients want and expect.

Despite our experience and education, we often find ourselves in a position of having to defer to people who don’t have the benefit of either of those things. And this is no casual client-bashing. The ability to listen to clients and understand their business and category is a fundamental skill for all marketers and communicators.

But there’s a clear parallel between the influence money has in both marketing and education: both sectors are wilting to accommodate revenue streams. Both risk diluting their ability to deliver the quality they’re meant to. It’s a sense of short-termism so short we can’t see it happening.

The fight is worth it. Our first step as creatives and marketers is to openly acknowledge it as Tom did in his tweet. Only from there can we really address the problem.

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How Your Marketing Communications are Consumed, and Why it Matters More than We Admit

Consumers don’t see your ad in isolation.

They don’t hear a radio commercial with a script in front of them, scanning the words like it’s a Disney Read-Along from when I was a kid. “You will know it’s time to turn the page…”

Drivers – who in this context are potential consumers and purchasers of your brand who just happen to be in a car – don’t stop and focus on each billboard they pass. It’s just another piece of information to process (or ignore) among many when you’re behind the wheel.

Ads in print appear alongside articles and other advertisements. On TV ads come in clusters. Even targeted digital ads are part of the wider online experience and not a natural focus point for the attention of browsers skimming news, videos or the socials.

And this is obvious. We all inherently know it.

But too many marketers forget this basic truth when they create a campaign. And this isolationist approach to consumer messaging diminishes your end product. If you haven’t considered the environment in which the message is being received by the intended audience, you haven’t done your job properly.

Our role in writing, crafting and delivering marketing communications is to make it clear and memorable. Be relevant. Be concise.

Be efficient with the extraordinarily limited time you have to make an impact.

Here’s a tactic I use when presenting radio scripts to clients: I read it aloud, but I don’t give them a copy. No reading, just listen.

Then I encourage them to do the same, even if just to a business partner. This gets them a step closer to understanding how the ad will work.

Does it make sense when you simply listen? Is the impact there? Do the words fall in a way that sounds right? (And from the radio advertising practitioner inside me: Would it be stronger if they didn’t, creating a jarring effect for listeners?)

In truth, media professionals are understandably reluctant to tell a client their ad or campaign will be battling for attention.

But as professionals we should recognise the situation, and do all we can to ensure it is as effective as it can possibly be within any existing constraints, regulations and parameters. Which means considering how the communications will be consumed.

If we can’t do that much, we risk poor returns for clients.

Consumers don’t see your ad in isolation. Use that knowledge to make what you create better.

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Customer Experience, Professionalism and What Goes on Behind the Curtain

How would your clients feel if they saw how you operate on their behalf?

If every piece of communication was transparent and available for clients to see…how would you feel? More importantly, how would they feel?

I’m a believer in an organisation’s Customer Experience (CX) starting deep within the business. It’s something I’ve touched on – and learnt a lot about – through my work with 6 Degrees Consulting.

Cultivated as part of organisational culture, CX can shape and guide the way we communicate with each other within the business, influencing our external behaviour: how we then communicate with clients, potential consumers, suppliers and stakeholders.

In short – your actions behind the scenes influence how you interact with others.

So when I get an email like this, it always amazes me.

Hopefully you r working?

Cheers

A genuine email, genuinely forwarded by an agency on behalf of a genuine client. With an email chain to follow to find the actual request, and decipher any action required.

How should a paying client feel if they saw how their business was handled?

And this informs my approach to any written communications involving work for clients. I write any peripheral detail in emails and responses attached to work, pitches, quotes or responses as though a client will see them.

As seen above, there’s plenty of professionals who will simply forward emails. Not reading them thoroughly could mean flippant or uncharitable remarks going to a client and potentially causing all kinds of damage to relationships and reputations.

There’s nothing to lose by treating everything you do as though it will be seen by everyone. It’s another facet of Customer Experience, demonstrating the respect you show to those you work with and for.

Because the thought of Hopefully you r working?  – as client or service provider – is quietly terrifying. And in this digital age of instant communications, we’re not in Kansas anymore.