The Power Of Animation

The ability of animated graphics to communicate is powerful. This one shows the evolution of US Death Rates during the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic, a sobering topic. In just a few moments, it demonstrates the point deeper and richer than a 10 minute PowerPoint could.

An Ad That Will Challenge Your Notion Of Community

Take members of diverse groups, provide a safe space for honesty, and you, too, can create a piece like this. Danish TV2 did a brilliant job in breaking down social barriers in this short (3 minute) video.

 

F***ing Annoying Robocalls

Gads! Yet another robocall on my office line. This one was about our “vehicle warranty expiring”. Massively annoying.

I, interested as I am in things marketing, I had to wonder what kind of ROI these provide. How many people bite on these schemes? How much money is made?

I expect that the investment for most of these comes in the acquisition of the spoofing software and the list of phone numbers to use for the fake caller-id. Either time, or a few bucks on some dark-web server. So, like spam email, a very low follow through rate is fine. The software probably sends out hundreds of calls a day (thousands?), so one or two folks responding and closing does, in the end, pay off. This calculus doesn’t include jail time, fines, etc for law violations. If these folks are offshore, they might be lacking.

My main thought: if you’re a legitimate business, I urge you to use caution with these bots. Confirming doctors appointments, is, I think, fine use of these technologies. For cold calling clients: no…dear god, don’t do it! Invest the time and resources to do this right. Research your contacts, know who you’re calling, and how you will make their life better.

What do you think? Let me know.

Contemporary Communications

A current cultural value: speed. Faster, faster…get more done sooner!

So, with that, one of my recent personal observations: I need to slow down. In the grand flurry of work, I find it easy to wrap myself up in the frenetic nature of life and reactively communicate. My most common culprit: email, though other medium catch that, too.

Taking that moment to consider “what am I trying to say?” and “what do I want to happen?”, then evaluating my content against those proves itself valuable again and again.

Also valuable: thinking through medium. Is an email the best tool to get the results I need? Sometimes I end up shifting to a phone call after a few emails where we talk past each other.

Quite often slowing down, getting focused on quality ends up being by far faster. In my experience, I find that true more often than not.