Category: News

Categories
News

Listen (and Look) Up! What neuroscience can teach us about building attention-grabbing campaigns

“Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.” 

Howard Luck Gossage (an infamous American adman dubbed “The Socrates of San Francisco”) coined this particular phrase in the ‘50s, but you could be forgiven for thinking it comes straight from a 2020s influencer handbook. 

Interest, or attention, is – and always has been – a flimsy thing. It’s pretty hard to capture and harder still to pin down. Do that successfully, and you’ve still got to convert it into action. 

For agencies and brands alike, this is a constant challenge. And it’s one that science is determined to crack. 

Neuroscientists have been working on understanding and measuring attention for years (with mixed success). It’s for exploring questions like these that Dr. Cristina de Balanzo, a Board Director at Walnut Unlimited, first established the ‘Brainy Bar’ in 2015. It has since covered important subjects such as emotion, memory, perception, our senses and emotional advertising – but this time around, Cristina chose to uncover the science behind what makes people truly pay attention. 

She was joined by top neuroscientists Dr. Tim Holmes, Aoife McGuiness and Dr. Andy Myers, who came together to deliver a series of lectures on the topic. They spoke about what attention means, how to measure it, how to use it to drive memorable creative – and how all of that can help to deliver effective brand campaigns. 

Here’s what we learned.  

Lesson 1: The quality of attention matters

When was the last time you gave something your full attention? I mean really, truly, fully – not just keeping your eyes-forward in a meeting while internally wondering about your dinner plans, or surreptitiously scrolling through TikTok or Twitter while you listen to a film. 

If the answer is ‘a while’, you’re hardly alone. Nowadays, we’re constantly flirting with overstimulation, and any campaign has to triumph over innumerable distractions if it’s to meaningfully reach anyone at all. 

Tools like eye-trackers are increasingly popular as brands attempt to understand which ads are having an impact, but as Dr. Tim Holmes explained in his lecture, when it comes to measuring attention, we miss a lot of nuance if we focus only on the length of time spent looking at something. 

“We tend to assume that sustained attention is always good news for an ad campaign or a package on a shelf, when in fact sustained attention is probably more likely to correlate with cognitive load. That is: with confusion,” he explained. 

For this reason, he said, time is not a good enough measure on its own. We need to understand more than whether we are drawing people’s eyes; we need to build campaigns that give them a positive reason to keep looking.

Key takeaway: Brands don’t just need to capture people’s attention, they also need to make that attention worthwhile. Focus less on the amount of time someone spends looking at your campaign and consider whether you’ve successfully routed the attention you get into meaningful action or positive brand consideration. 

Find more from Dr. Tim Holmes on LinkedIn. 

Lesson 2: It’s not just about what we see, but how we see it 

What makes a good creative campaign? 

Neuroscientists haven’t quite come up with a framework yet, but researchers like Aoife McGuiness are getting close. Her work helps us to understand why we find creativity and the arts rewarding, and therefore what elements should go into building an effective brand campaign.

What makes something fun to look at? Well, as she told attendees, “It’s not just about the object properties, it’s about the act of information processing. Enjoyment is not all about what we’re looking at, but how we’re looking at it and the things that happen in the brain when we do.” In short, people derive pleasure from their own ability to understand. “This reward can come through detection of novelty, pattern forming, violation of expectation, a puzzle to solve, a visual trick and so on.

“What differentiates this abstract type of reward is that it’s not linked to any kind of survival instinct – it’s just pleasure through the act of information processing.” 

And, if you get tricky with it, you can create that feeling of pleasure. Take this SwissLife campaign about ‘Life’s Twists and Turns’: 

The text creates a kind of “cognitive conflict” (it makes us double-take), which is “an aesthetically appealing experience” to the brain. This gives people the reward required to hold their attention, rather than just grab it. 

In short, we like it, because it challenges us – and this makes it fun to look at. 

There’s even better news, too. Researchers have found a link between the activation of the part of the brain that switches on during these moments of conflict, and memory – which suggests that there is a link between this kind of creative and brand recall. 

Key takeaway: Creativity is key. Ideas that challenge our expectations or force us to think really do engage a different part of the brain – and that can give viewers pleasure and have a positive impact on their ability to remember it. 

Aoife McGuiness is Customer Neuroscience Manager at CloudArmy. 

Lesson 3: You shouldn’t forget about audio 

Our ears are always on, and you don’t have to be actively listening to process information. In fact, passive engagement is much more common than active listening. After all, when are we ever truly actively listening in our day-to-day life? That is: doing nothing else but focusing on the input of our ears? It’s rare, that’s for sure. 

But as Dr. Andy Myers explained, the idea that passive listening is less effective than active listening is a misunderstanding of how we interact with the auditory world. 

“We don’t have to be aware to be processing information,” he explained. “And ‘active’ doesn’t always mean ‘accurate’.” In fact, Walnut research found that in an experiment, up to 16% more errors were made by active listeners than their passive counterparts. 

That same experiment highlighted that branding was also stronger in the passive condition, and that when a brand was mentioned a second time around passive listeners, the brain response was particularly boosted. (So if you’re planning a radio ad, definitely repeat your brand name…) 

“In the overstimulation age, our brains are looking for ease,” Andy explained. But the context of your programming is also important to consider. If you are listening to classical radio and a loud, metal-backed ad plays, that causes an abrupt attentional shift. “We found that congruency is key,” he said – when listeners weren’t disturbed from their flow, they took in more information. So information-heavy campaigns performed better on talk radio, and sonic ones were better suited to music radio. 

“Attention is prone to the simplest priming,” Andy said, “And our attention is affected by our expectations.” So let people hear what they’re expecting to hear, and you might just come out on top. 

Key takeaway: The context of your message is hugely important. When you’re working with audio formats, ensuring that your campaign meets expectations is the best way to attract valuable passive attention, and land your message more successfully with an audience. 

Dr. Andy Myers is a Director at Walnut. 

Hey! Down here! 

Do I still have your attention? 

You might not have considered the neuroscience behind your favourite brand campaigns before – I know I hadn’t – but since attending the Brainy Bar I’ve been spotting cognitive conflict everywhere. 

The truth is, capturing attention requires your creative to jump through a lot of hoops – and some of them aren’t possible to predict. How busy someone is, the mood they’re in, how much more cognitive load they’re able to take, whether they’re hungry, tired, or irritated by a particular song or sound… 

It makes designing attention-grabbing campaigns something of a minefield. But brains are not unhackable, and by rewarding audiences’ attention, giving them something interesting or unexpected to look at – or, otherwise, aligning with the background hum of their life – we can deliver brand campaigns that really make an impact. 

You can find out more about our eye-catching campaigns here. 

Or click here to learn more about the Walnut, the human understanding agency. 

Categories
News

How we designed an awareness campaign for World Menopause Day 

When it comes to awareness campaigns, the clue’s in the name – they’re about spreading information to help enlighten people. That means they need to be several things: eye-catching, interesting, and informative. As a designer, that’s the kind of challenge I love.  

World Menopause Day 

At both Nelson Bostock and TMWB, our agencies have always prioritised culture; whether it’s through team-building socials, open forum meetings or by celebrating awareness days. We feel it’s important to provide every individual a voice and ensure they feel wholeheartedly supported by the company in which they work.  

Through our newly launched ‘Cultural Spotlight’ form, individuals can submit topics they feel we should be talking about, and we listen. One such request was for ‘World Menopause Awareness Day, which is celebrated on 18th October. It’s a particularly important topic, as menopause is something we are all aware of, but seem to know little about unless directly affected. 

Our internal DE&I working group involves a variety of people from the agency, passionate about fair representation and workplace development. During our catchups, the team brainstorm and discuss concepts suited to each topic. For World Menopause Day we combined forces with our Unlimited B2B friends at TMWB to create a campaign that would run throughout our shared office space, drawing on the talents of our design, copy, and ops teams.  

Designing the campaign  

First thing’s first, we chose an approach: an informative Guerrilla campaign. We know that spare time to pause and fully digest something new can be hard to come by in a busy office, so we decided to flood the space with information. That way, people could access it wherever they found themselves.  

Our plan was to take over our office space with a flurry of information, presented in a series of different ways to ensure people were engaged. The trio of designers in our DE&I committee set to work on an array of posters, interactive games, and table-top stands to be placed on desks, and in toilets, the kitchen and our meeting room spaces.  

These are natural hotspots where people to gather during in their day, which is vital. It’s not about forcing new behaviours – instead, we modified the usual landscape to draw attention within people’s natural workflows.  

The look and feel  

We employed a variety of graphic design and communication methods to ensure that different thought processes were accommodated, boosting the probability of long-term memory and future recall.  

Menopause is a serious topic, but we wanted our campaign to take the taboo out of the experience. The design had to feel informative but – most importantly – fun and approachable. That’s why we led with an illustrative design style, combined (of course) with a little of our internal branding magic.  

For components such as the ‘48 symptoms’ poster, simple illustrations were key in communicating relatable emotions to the reader, increasing the potential of retained information.  

We designed ‘Fortune Teller’ games (a common playground favourite of the past), which employ ‘system 2’ type thinking – where the user is more analytical, rational and considered due to participating in an experience – and even our A5 desk stands considered different comprehension preferences of our audience, with guides to useful podcasts, TV programmes, books and blogs.  

Content in action 

Creating a lasting impact  

As fun as this project was, its success depends on how much of a lasting impact it creates.  

At UNLIMITED, we have brilliant menopause support readily available, but people affected by menopause (directly and indirectly) vocalised the need to create a more visible support system. And thus, the concept of a discrete ‘internal channel’ for people to join and share experiences, advice and support was born.  

We established key figures within HR networks for people to go to when seeking further confidential advice – taking the uncertainty out of what can feel like a nerve-wracking process – and flagged these ‘next steps’ in our campaign collateral. Making this information more visible also allowed people to act without having to search themselves, and the easier the journey, the higher the potential uptake.  

Passion projects like these are a brilliant demonstration of how dedicated our vast internal network of operations, copywriters and designers are to creating a self-improving internal structure and happier workplace environment. We’re firm believers that we do our best work when everyone is seen and heard (and it’s always fun to flex the creative muscles on something new.)   

For more information about the menopause, check out these brilliant sources:  

Podcast: The Dr Louise Newson Podcast 

Blog: The Hot Resignation  

TV Programme: Davina McCall: Sex, Myths and the Menopause 

Report: GenM’s Invisibility report 

The British Menopause Society: is navigating some misinformation with Louise Minchin and ITN on October 18th: https://thebms.org.uk/news/world-menopause-day-2023/

Categories
News Uncategorized

The Winning Minds Awards: September 2023

September 2023 was a big month for everyone. It was the warmest September ever on record, a river of wine coursed down the streets of Portugal, and Nelson Bostock launched their brand new Winning Minds Awards!

With the creation of our brand new division Unlimited B2B, which comprises both the team in Nelson Bostock and our friends over at TMW Business, a new set of awards were required so we could ensure that everyone was celebrated.

The new Winning Minds Awards are split into four sections that celebrate each facet of our incredible division, making it the biggest and best award ceremony yet! 

Our winners were nominated by their colleagues for the brilliant impact they’ve generated for the agency or their clients. Each of them have been living our values of Bold, Open, Real and Give a Damn.

Read below to see the new awards and our winners!

PR Minds – Ibby Bridges

“Ibby has been an absolute powerhouse in the weeks leading up to the event, from compiling an extensive analyst list for invites and drafting invites, to pitching post-show briefings and building briefings docs – the list goes on!”

“The client is ecstatic and it’s all down to Ibby’s hard work”. 

Marketing Minds – Stephen Hastings 

“The client is really happy with where things are at and it’s an account that looks like it’ll grow and grow – much of which is thanks to Stephen’s persistence and patience to get the job done.”

Creative, Content and Planning Minds – Bella Green 

“Flexible, fast without losing any attention to detail – and when under some tight deadlines too. Positive and prepared to go the extra mile to ensure all is ok.”

“A dream to work with and always smashes it out of the park.”

Greatest of All Time Award (GOAT) – Em Brine

“They’re absolutely living our new values (especially ‘Give a Damn’) with all the great work they’ve been doing on the DEI committee – but also in keeping our culture alive, supporting everyone with a friendly face, and making sure our divisional days are a joy to attend.”

Categories
News

Is the nation really ready for the big AI takeover? Here’s what the stats say

Is AI coming for our jobs? Can we trust it? What value can it actually bring? 

These were the questions buzzing in everyone’s ears at last week’s webinar from TMW’s team of fervent future-gazers. 

What’s Moving the Nation? is our regular temperature check on how the country is feeling and behaving, and the subsequent implications for brands. This time around, because we’re mildly obsessed with the proliferation of AI tools and how they’re impacting our – well, every – industry, we wanted to see how the nation felt about the topic too. 

(If it’s something that interests you too, why not attend our Humans vs Robots event on November 9th? We’ll be talking real life generative AI use cases with experts from B2B brands. Find out more here.) 

Our What’s Moving the Nation panel comprised of Chief Strategy Officer Dan Bowers, Head of Data & Insight Tim Noblett, Executive Social Influence Director Olivia Wedderburn and Associate Planning Director Fred Brinton. In an eye-opening half-hour session, the TMW team harnessed exclusive insights from our Human Understanding Lab (HUL) to get under the skin of UK opinion. 

It all started with an overview of our collective state of mind. 

While people in general continue to be an uncertain bunch about our current situation (and understandably so), our HUL found that more positive emotions, such as calmness, relaxation and happiness are starting to shine through. And that’s even when factoring in the one in four of us who are feeling the strain of household finances.  

So, what else is inspiring feelings of uncertainty? 

Here we reach the crux of the matter: for most of us, it’s the constant forward march of new technology.  

With so much recent speculation about the big AI takeover, it’s been all too easy to get caught up in the negative hype. Our data delvers discovered that: 

  • 50% of respondents think AI is a real threat to humanity. 
  • 29% are concerned about the impact of AI on their jobs. 
  • 25% are excited about the opportunities AI provides, with this excitement being more prevalent in upper socio-economic circles. 

So, more than a few of us are worried about what AI will do next.  

But do we trust what it’s doing today? Our webinar hosts covered this issue too. Against the backdrop of a broader distrust of digital information (think: election rigging and fake news) only 26% of us trust AI to produce information that’s factual and unbiased.  

As you might expect, demographics play a key role. 

Gen Z are more likely to embrace new AI technologies and welcome its application within the workplace. Older generations, on the other hand, are less likely to invite it in, for fear of heralding in their own obsolescence.  

*Clears throat* It’s the ciiircle of life. 

Olivia Wedderburn made an important point. Quoting celebrated futurist Amy Webb, she stated that “this year, the internet as we know it is over,” and went on to detail the typical circle of life all game-changing tech developments must cycle through. Inevitably, before every mass adoption, come the years of uncertainty and scepticism.  

With the arrival of Web 1.0, people were adamant online shopping would never catch on. 

With Web 2.0, social sharing apps (and endless plates of avocado toast) were met with raised eyebrows. 

Now, with Web 3.0, developments like digital collectibles, virtual spaces and cloud technology have already gone through the hazing process and lodged themselves firmly into our online way of life. 

All of which points to AI following a similar trajectory. And, let’s face it, the use of AI is fairly ubiquitous already – from Face ID, to purchase predictions and beyond.  

Which leads us to the next section of our webinar. How can AI make life better for brands and consumers alike? 

While the nation remains uncertain about the new breed of AI tech, we believe that brands can embrace the opportunity to lead the way and embrace the new possibilities it introduces.  

We propose that the answer lies in three key territories – creativity, message and value. 

Our What’s Moving the Nation? team shared some positive use cases in each: 

Amp up the creativity 

  • Coca-Cola partnered with AI tool DALL.E to give their entire database a chance to generate weird and wonderful brand ads using digital art prompts. 
  • The WWF used Midjourney to envisage a not-too-distant future where everyday animals had become extinct. A call to arms for the climate crisis if we ever did see one. 
  • Artist Holly T made a digital twin of her voice, allowing fans to get collaboratively creative and democratising music production in one fell swoop. 

Power your message 

  • Nikon combined ethereal photography and would-be AI prompts to encourage photographers to keep seeking beauty in the real world. 
  • Heinz asked AI art tool to draw a generic bottle of ketchup… then smugly shared the very Heinz-like results, proving their category dominance. 
  • To coincide with the Women’s World Cup, Orange published a montage of male footballers performing some very fancy footwork on the pitch. Then, they revealed they’d used AI and VFX to overlay men onto the original footage of women. 

Unlock new value 

  • American Airlines successfully reduced their contrails by tweaking flight paths with AI. Results showed that if their efforts were scaled up across the globe, airlines could come together to reduce airlines’ impact on global warming by 20%. 
  • McDonald’s used ChatGPT to turn family road trips into feel-good moments with personalised audio stories based on who’s in the car and where they’re travelling. 
  • Finally, Cadbury undertook an epic feat of ‘digital charity’ by creating thousands of celebrity deepfake adverts which local businesses could use to promote themselves. 

To round off the session, we took a deeper look at the ethics of brands integrating AI into people’s lives – and livelihoods. 

AI is set to fundamentally change our daily lives, and it will play a huge role in how humanity progresses. The onus is therefore on brands to replace the current undertow of uncertainty with a sense of possibility, so they can educate and inspire the nation. 

Moreover, they must prove that AI can enhance human capability, instead of merely replacing it. 

So, that’s how AI is moving the nation. You can watch the full recording here, and look out for our next event, coming soon.  

And if your AI appetite has been whetted, join us on November 9th at our Humans vs Robots: The Alliance event to hear from brands like Google DeepMind and Finastra about how they’re putting generative AI to work, with practical advice for how you can do the same.  

Categories
News

Why I invite AI-braham Lincoln to all my brainstorms

credit: shutterstock (standard licence)

In recent months, we’ve heard a lot about the difficulties of applying AI within the creative industries. For every benefit it promises, there’s a counterbalancing drawback. It can summarise complex ideas, but if the data isn’t clean, you’ll end up with a biased result. It can streamline your processes, but it can’t think creatively. 

If that’s the case, are creatives doomed to never benefit from the time-saving nature of AI without compromising the quality of their work? After all, in something like a campaign brainstorm, originality is the name of the game – and if AI struggles to offer any new perspectives (and just spits out what it scrapes online), it’s never going to be useful to us. No PR campaign ever landed national coverage with yesterday’s news. 

But what if you could make AI respond in a creative manner? You’d open up a whole new realm of possible use cases. 

That’s where my experimenting began. And what I discovered was this: since AI can only follow instructions, getting it to do something unexpected can be as simple as asking it not to answer as an AI at all, and instead to do so as (for example), Abraham Lincoln.  I even employed Succession’s Kendall Roy, and PR icon Patsy Stone… 

Stick with me. 

A new perspective 

In PR – and indeed any creative role – most projects depend on your ability to build a compelling narrative. Whether that’s to pitch a feature, build a content campaign or design a brand identity – the story is always what people remember. 

And, when you’re building out that narrative, it’s important to source a range of different opinions so you can identify the most powerful approach. 

That’s why we brainstorm. It’s about bringing together a range of perspectives to address a common theme, and in the clash of all the opinions, you can stumble across an interesting or untapped point of tension. 

But when you’re not able to pull a group of minds into a room, AI can fill some of the blanks. With the right prompts, you can sit in a packed auditorium of vastly different characters every time you brainstorm. 

For this to work, the choice of character is important – it’s not random. You first need to figure out what it is you need from the responses; ask the AI to respond as Abraham Lincoln, or someone else like him, and it’s going to give you a very formal, principled reply. 

AI-braham will give you answers in polite prose, and Kendal RoyGPT will respond in a myriad of barely distinguishable metaphors. But both can be incredibly useful as a starting-point for developing campaign names. 

It’s the “tone” in which the AI responds that will be your creative springboard, rather than the actual response you get. Patsy Stone, after all, is fictional. Even if she wasn’t, the Online Safety Bill would definitely not be her area of expertise. 

But when P-AI-tsy explains things, you’ll start to see bylines and campaigns behind every line. 

Raining on Big Tech’s Parade, anyone? How about Cleaning Up the Digital Streets? 

It’s not something you would have thought of alone, necessarily. And that’s the power of AI – if you don’t want to, you never have to do a solo-brainstorm again. 

Walk in their shoes

One of the bigger failings of AI we’ve written about before is its lack of empathy. 

In PR, content, design, and advertising roles, the ability to ‘walk in someone else’s shoes’ is a vital skill. We need to be able to judge possible reactions to work in order to decide how best to approach a campaign, brief, or newsworthy story. 

Though I’m sure someone is trying to change this, somewhere, AI simply can’t develop empathy, no matter what character you ask it to be. What it can do, is give you an approximation of it by helping you to widen your understanding of a project. Insert a new character into your brainstorm, and you’ll be forced to think in a new direction. 

By using this technique, you’re essentially encouraging the AI to suggest alternative points of view, which then challenge your own conventional ways of thinking, and your own in-built biases about a project or idea – and that’s one of the most important things you can take from a brainstorm. 

The human element 

Of course, it’s about feeding the AI the right things. Whatever persona you make an AI tool take on, it will still only have access to the same information. You’ll get the same facts regardless of whether you’re asking an ex-US President, a drama-loving disaster, or a fictional sleazebag – the magic is in identifying the spark within the answer. 

There’s a big human element – you need to use your own judgement to know what will work, what won’t, and what kind of persona is going to work best for your purposes. 

When it comes to creative exercises like “Campaign the Name”, for example, where brainstorm participants are forced to create a campaign to fit a pre-decided title, Kendall RoyGPT is a great option, because you’ll find it can fire off lots of options that sound campaign-ready. 

On the topic of cyber resilience, we could pull out ‘The Bounce Back Game’, and ‘The Cyber Cracks’ from the above. Thanks, Kendall. 

So you see, the character is adding a specific slant to the answers you get. Yes, the choices can be amusing, but they ultimately fulfil a purpose. 

Some of the best ideas come from subverting expectations. Getting to a surprising place on your own is definitely possible – but AI provides a shortcut. And with some modifications, that’s a shortcut creatives can really use. 

Categories
News

What Organ Donation Week means to me

Organ donation is one of those things people so rarely think about. Mainly because it often involves something very emotional and sad – post-death arrangements – which most people would rather avoid thinking about. But, if you or someone you know have received a donated organ (like I did), you’ll know there’s a hugely positive story to take from it all. 

When I was just two years old, I was diagnosed with childhood liver disease. I was still pre-malignant, but essentially a ticking-time bomb. To look at me, you wouldn’t know it. I didn’t have many symptoms; I wasn’t jaundiced and I had bundles of energy. The prognosis? I needed a liver transplant to live beyond the age of four. Of course, being so young, I couldn’t understand this at the time. But it’s not something any parents want to hear, is it? And I imagine mine were horrified when they were told this news by the doctors at King’s College Hospital. 

Thankfully, after an eight-month wait and going back and forth between hospital and home, I was lucky enough to receive a new, healthy liver. It came from a teenager who’s still very special to me. His name was Ben. And I owe all the rest of my life to him and his family who, in their darkest days, respected his wishes to donate. 

This brings me to the point I really want to make this Organ Donation Week 2023: If you decide you want to donate your organs after you die (because let’s face it, you won’t need them anymore), please make your wishes known to friends and family, and register your decision to become an organ donor. 

In England and Wales, we now have an opt-out scheme in place. But sadly, your decision can still be overridden by those close to you if they’re unaware of your wishes. Of course, when you’re grieving, it’s a horrifically sad time to make any rational decisions like that about a loved one. So, you can see how lots of people might say no when approached by a medical professional. That’s why it’s so important you make your wishes known. 

There are currently around 7,200 people waiting for a transplant in the UK. It’s a staggering amount. And lots of these patients are children, who, through no fault of their own, have been born with a disease which threatens their life. So, the more people who register their decision to become an organ donor, the more lives we (collectively) can save. Simply put, it’s giving someone a second chance at life – to live many more years than they might have. To build memories, enjoy extra time with loved ones and do things they didn’t think possible. To me, that’s an amazing gift to give someone. Having a transplant as a small child has meant I’ve been able to live another 31 years – something I’m always grateful for. 

I’m now the ripe old age of 34. I’ve had a lot of great experiences in my life, and I have a superb network of friends, family and some furry companions. Sure, it hasn’t always been plain sailing. Physically, I’ve had a few complications here and there. Like the time my stitches got tangled up in my stomach and they had to open me up again like a weird version of the game ‘Operation’. And growing up, I found it quite a difficult thing to process. But I’m still alive and well. My condition has never stopped me from pursuing a career in writing, taking part in a few 10ks, touring Europe, going to music festivals, watching the whole of the US Office with my husband… and so on. It’s taught me to never take life for granted and enjoy it as much as possible. 

So, there you have it. All of that wouldn’t be possible without organ donation. And as much as I dislike talking about myself, I’ve always felt it’s important to share my story to promote the cause and raise awareness. Plus, it comes in handy when people ask you to say, “something interesting about yourself”. 

This year’s aim for Organ Donation Week is to get 25,000 more people to register to become organ donors, helping to save and improve the lives of thousands of people in need of a transplant. Our UNLIMITED B2B division are marking the occasion on Thursday 21st with an open forum for discussion – along with some snacks and games, of course. If you can, consider taking some time out of your day to make a decision about your wishes and talk to your loved ones.

Think about this: Your organs have the potential to save up to nine lives. Will you register your decision and let loved ones know your wishes? I hope so. Thanks for reading. 

Categories
News

Can fintechs still make a splash in the UK?

When you ask Google for “the home of fintech”, the answer is no longer as clear cut as it used to be.

Once considered the undeniable land of fintech opportunity, the UK has since come under fire from industry commentators, particularly after its controversial exit from the European Union. And, until recently, investment had likewise dwindled. 

UK fintechs, like everyone else, have been faced with ongoing challenges, including global economic concerns, geopolitical tensions, and the recent downturn in the tech industry – all of which have caused uncertainty amongst investors. 

Fintechs are always looking for favourable economic conditions, and some made the decision to locate elsewhere. 

However, the UK has otherwise proven itself to be a land of opportunity for fintechs, offering many advantages – such as its favourable time zone and native language, its high concentration of financial firms, and its globally respected regulatory framework. 

Fintech is still considered the UK’s leading tech sub-sector, with the government insisting it will be the engine driving the UK to tech superiority. The announcement of a new £1bn fintech fund – backed by Mastercard, Barclays, and the London Stock Exchange – is its latest fintech supercharge.

One thing is certain; no matter where they’re based, EVERYONE in the industry has an opinion about where the home of fintech is and where the future lies.

So the question for UK fintechs becomes: how can they proactively ensure that they remain a leader in this increasingly competitive space? 

The answer is simple: bold views told through powerful stories. 

An opinion can be a powerful thing. While some fintechs are holding back due to ongoing uncertainties, the opportunity for commentary is huge. As always, relevance and timing are crucial considerations. 

For example, news hijacking (if conducted correctly) is an effective way to cut through the noise and get opinions on current matters heard. 

When Tesco confirmed its card payment systems briefly went offline across much of the UK back in 2022, we helped Railsbank (now known as Railsr) provide commentary to Grocery Gazette, about how “comfortable” customers have become using the latest payment tech. The CEO stated that in just a few years – like cash – card payments will also feel like a “thing of the past”. 

A bold view, told at the right time, can cut through and gain attention – in vital trade media or nationals.

Some of the key areas of interest and growth that we have seen over the past three years – from cryptocurrencies to BNPL – have generated some incredible debates. With the right media handling, successful spokespeople will have been able to build a reliable reputation off the back of their input.

As the fintech landscape is constantly evolving, these opportunities are only continuing to grow. 

It is therefore vital that businesses of all sizes have a solid PR strategy in place to navigate these fast-paced opportunities, maintain relationships that matter, and ultimately drive growth. 

There is still a great opportunity for fintechs to make a splash. While funding has slowed, interest is evergreen. You just need to find the right way to tell your story.

We at Nelson Bostock have been steadily building our fintech portfolio, working with the likes of Railsr (formerly Railsbank), GoCardless and Amazon Pay to increase their visibility to core audiences. So, why not get in touch to see if we can accommodate your business needs? 

Categories
News

Why AI isn’t killing off human content…yet

It seems like AI is everywhere these days. Every other headline, advert and opinion piece (including this one) seems to mention the technology. As a result, you don’t have to go too far to hear someone ringing the last call bell for anyone working in creative roles. Designers, writers, videographers. We’re all doomed, it seems. But are we, really?

As a writer, I naturally have a vested interest in NOT losing my job to ED-209. But I also firmly believe that the death of human advertising is still a way off. Here are three reasons why I believe this.

AI is new and exciting

All forms of advertising benefit from being ahead of a trend, or on-trend at the very least. With AI being a new, exciting and much-talked-about innovation, it makes sense that brands are exploring how they can reap the benefits. Inevitably, that means using it for advertising, and then shouting about it for all the world to see.

But the thing with trends is… they change. AI is undoubtedly here to stay; it’s already doing remarkable things in the world of customer service and scientific research, but its ability to captivate audiences will dissipate. They’ll move onto the next big trend, whatever that might be.

The obvious answer is often boring

Our brains really don’t make much sense. We can see loads of hard evidence telling us exactly why a certain car, phone or games console is the best, only to go out and buy something completely different. Why? Because we like it. We’re irrational and we like what we like, even if we know it’s not the best.

AI doesn’t really do irrational. And that means it doesn’t always produce content we’ll like. Humans don’t always think logically. Instead, we form connections based on emotion, memory and lived experience. That can result in some utter garbage ideas, unquestionably, but also some standout gems. Take the Cadbury’s Gorilla as an example. It’s totally illogical as an advertising campaign, but you all remember it, don’t you? If all advertising was done by AI, you’d never get anything like the Cadbury Gorilla again, and the industry would be a darker place as a result.

Marketing is about differing yourself

Tone of voice. Brand image. These are factors businesses agonise over. But if we were to switch to an entirely AI-based marketing world, they wouldn’t really hold much value anymore. That’s because, while AI can produce content based on the information you input, it’ll always produce a similar, if not identical, result based on that information.

By comparison, if you give several humans the same brief, they’ll produce wildly different results from each other, including things you wouldn’t have thought of.

So, while consistency might not be quite on the same level as if everything was produced by a single AI platform, you will find little gems and human elements that’ll push your identity forward.

Bring it on, HAL 9000

These AI movie references aren’t getting more recent, are they? Regardless, while I have no doubt AI is on track to change our lives, I don’t think it’ll steal our jobs any time soon. Hopefully it’ll wait long enough for all of us to retire.

Categories
News

Lessons from AdLand

Last month I finished a bootcamp at the School of Communication Arts 2.0 in Brixton to learn about creativity from the school’s dean, Marc Lewis, and I thought I’d share the things that resonated most with me as a PR.

There are some great strategies here we should be unlocking to reach brighter, more vivid places within our campaigns. B2B is no longer consumers’ poor cousin – there are massive opportunities for brands who embrace creativity as our working and personal lives become even more deeply entrenched. The below just might help you find – and capitalise on – them!

  1. You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs

In other words –  you have to make a mess in order to have something to clean up. Or you need to have a real problem, to find a solution.  

The route to creative that feels real and authentic is to find a problem that people genuinely care about. It might not necessarily be the one your business wants to solve, (for instance driving sales for a new product or raising awareness of your brand), but when you start thinking about the things that are real issues or worries in your life, you’ll get much closer to helping your customers.

  1. Dig a little (or a lot) deeper to find the interesting

Kids ask on average over 70 questions a day. Somewhere along the way, we lose that curiosity and the habit of asking questions. When faced with a brief, we need to try and tap into our inner child. Ask everything we can around a single problem: the who, what, when, where, why and how, to make sure we get to a previously unexplored place.

And the same goes for when we are crafting a brief. Rather than thinking of the product benefit, see if you can get under the skin of what challenge it’s solving for a customer. For instance, “my product protects against ransomware 24/7”. Well, what’s the benefit of that? It means you don’t have to worry about your business’ security after hours. And the benefit of less worry out-of-hours, might just be a better night’s sleep. 

Suddenly you aren’t dealing in anti-ransomware, you are dealing in a good night’s sleep and all the possibilities that offers to your customers.

For B2B, this has the potential to unlock far richer areas for creativity.

  1. I’m every woman, it’s all in me

I’m not sure this is what Chaka Khan originally meant when she was singing the song – but it applies to creativity too. When you are looking at ways to solve your problem, all the answers you’ll ever need are either within you or in front of you.

I don’t just mean your ability to Google! We need a mix of lived and received knowledge from different fields to come up with new and unexpected answers.

But to make that a reality, you have to be curious and go out hunting for the answers. Everything you read, listen to, see or discuss with your friends and family becomes the basis of knowledge and insight. 

Every walk you take down the street or morning spent drinking coffee and eavesdropping on the people around you is another nugget of information you can later mine. So, don’t underestimate the value of rewarding curiosity and individuals that actively seek knowledge during the working day.

  1. A well behaved creative seldom makes history

The free flowing state of creativity we all desperately want to achieve rarely comes when we are sitting in front of our laptops. But that’s about as far as I can go in describing how you unlock the state of ‘free child’ – that playful, curious energy where great ideas live. My advice to you is to tune in to what makes you feel that way, whether it’s a cold shower, doodling on a notepad or blasting Taylor Swift. 

For those leading teams on a creative brief, also think about how you can inspire that feeling of playtime when brainstorming. Bring sweets, take them on a field trip, or tell a stupid joke.

The other important lesson here is around rules. We have to know them to break them. Every industry or category will have a series of rules – whether that’s stylistically or in how they speak to customers. Find those rules and think of the opposites. These will be the key to standing out amongst competitors.

Huge thank you to Marc Lewis and the team at SCA 2.0! If you are an aspiring creative, I would definitely recommend having a look at the courses they offer.

Categories
News

Will AI kill PR jobs? 

HumanVsRobots

On the 30th of November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT – an AI chatbot which spots patterns in language, learns from its mistakes and provides eerily human conversation. The chatter around this new generation of AI hasn’t stopped since.

Fearful of missing their moment, tech giants such as Microsoft and Google rushed to release their own AI tools, with mixed results.

Many commentators were quick to predict the death of various jobs. They see waves of mass unemployment sweeping offices around the world, even hitting the world of marketing and communications.

After all, ChatGPT can churn out a press release in seconds. It can spit out blogs and bylines, summarise weighty reports, and write reams of web copy, all in less time than it takes to make a cup of tea.

So, why should businesses invest in PR agencies when they can create their own content in moments, for free?

For a start, even its biggest fans will admit that ChatGPT and similar tools are still a work in progress. As an example, let’s take a core PR skill: writing a killer pitch to hook a journalist.

Here’s how the conversation went:

So far, so average. One of the biggest drawbacks with tools such as ChatGPT is that, by definition, it can’t create anything truly original. The subject line isn’t wrong. But tech writers will receive hundreds of emails on some variation of ‘AI revolution’.

Of course, in reality, pitches are written with a particular journalist in mind, allowing a targeted approach and a personal touch. If this was a real pitch, we could supply background information about the company too, so the chatbot wouldn’t need to make up details such as ‘utilizing AI technology since 2016’.

But there’s another problem – it’s too long. Journalists are busy and usually want to get straight to the point. Let’s ask again:

Things have started to unravel. What event? What product?

Not only that, but there are gaps in the logic. It’s telling the journalist that they get a lot of emails – so they should come to an event instead.

Speaking at the Human vs Robots event on AI in B2B, Dr. Cristina de Balanzo, expert in neuroscience, identified this exact shortcoming.

“AI can only mimic rational decision-making,” she said – it’s not able to adjust according to things that our “human insight” makes us experts in, like context. While our human brains are always subconsciously drawing on things like memory, intuition, and empathy, AI simply “lacks common sense, free will, opinion and creativity.”

You can hear more about the event in our 5 key takeaways blog.  

Let’s try  refining our prompt further:

From offering an interview about AI in PR, we’re now running a podcast on AI in healthcare and education. One more try:

It would have been easier, at this point, to write it the ‘old-fashioned way’. Perhaps one day (and with better prompting) tools similar to ChatGPT could save a lot of time for tasks like this.

But there’s a more fundamental shortcoming to AI tools in PR: they can never apply experience of the real world to a challenge.

Great comms calls for empathy

The core mark of a successful comms professional is truly understanding their clients, and their target audience, on a human level.

Communicating effectively is impossible without empathy. It’s about knowing what to say, and how to say it, rather than rattling off press releases and bylines.

PR pros tap into their market expertise to create messaging that lands with specific target audiences. And that means knowing what drives those stakeholders on day-to-day basis.

As Tim Brennan, Senior Account Manager, Nelson Bostock, explains:

“Behind every pitch, there’s more context than an AI could possibly be expected to know. Each pitch is crafted with comms objectives in mind, which in turn link to specific business objectives. That affects who we choose to pitch to, the topics we pitch around, what we offer the journalist, and so on.

“PR, at its heart, is about relationships. We build up individual connections with journalists and clients over a long period, adding a crucial layer of background and credibility. ChatGPT can’t attend a media meet to find out what’s inspiring a journalist. It can’t jump on a call with a client to understand a nuanced message. And it can’t pick up the phone to drive a story home.”

Without this strategic view, plus a deep knowledge of the media landscape and strong relationships with journalists, it’s simply not possible to tell our clients’ stories in a way that resonates.

Standing out from the crowd demands original thought. That’s why creating engaging and impactful thought leadership is presently beyond the capability of ChatGPT.

In short, weaving a story that stickswill always require creativity, passion, and ultimately, a touch of humanity.