Warren Buffet is a man to be admired. He's obviously a good investor and manages to be a good bloke.
He's pretty good at the odd turn of phrase like this one, "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful".
It mostly means don't follow the herd, there is huge competitive advantage in not following the trends.
Yet, despite advice from the the man who know to make money better than most.
Most agencies and brands do the opposite.
Put up pictures of most ads in a category, they all look the same.
Then again, so many briefs seek to 'Disrupt' and shock people into being interested.
So much work follows the same trends everyone has read.
So the same cool shit becomes wallpaper.
When life at the moment is more interesting (euphemism) than ever.
Brands have forgotten to be interested in real life.
Planners too.
Relying on a social listening and masses of data to get a proxy of people.
Instead of seeing the whites of their eyes.
It shouldn't take this, very important work from Saatchi and Saatchi on Meet the 85% to know how they feel right now.
Scared, confused, frustrated, knackered.
Life is full of tension and new habits and attitudes, yet most don't see it.
Betting on Metaverses rather than life. .
Right now the truth is awkward and myths are easy.
Myths that people ever cared about brands rather than real life.
That anyone knows what's going on right now, when it's really chaos.
That distinctive assets are the way to win rather than making people care.
That approaching marketing in the same way as the 1950s when economics, media and culture are all different will work.
That we don't need to understand people anymore, just target then precisely.
That social media followers mean commercial success.
That 'Gen Z' is a useful audience strategy.
But when the the truth is awkward and myths are easy.
It's a great time to be a planner with both old craft skills and new media skills.
With imagination and logic.
Who's able to get to the real truth about what a client really means in real life rather than a pen portrait.
Who's brave enough to want to solve business problems instead of brand problems (or drive performance metrics).
When best practice has become anything but, and myths and process matters more than truth.
Let's get to work.
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