Sound More Interesting at Cocktails Memo | January 27, 2023

25 talking points for better conversation at cocktails from news of the past week.

1. Russia still controls about 20 percent of Ukraine.

2. The IMF is exploring a multiyear aid package for Ukraine worth as much as $16 billion.

3. A third of Japanese people are over 60, making Japan home to the oldest population in the world, after tiny Monaco. It is recording fewer births than ever before. By 2050, it could lose a fifth of its current population."

4. "The Wizard of the Kremlin" was the fifth best-selling book in France in 2022.

5. Labour is 20 points ahead in UK polls.

6. A plan by the Indian army to purchase 12,730 ballistic helmets designed for Sikhs has drawn criticism from the topmost religious leaders in Sikhism

7. India to get more than 100 cheetahs from South Africa.

8. The FDA is considering a one-and-done annual COVID-19 booster plan.

9. QOTW: "Do you know how much you have to lie to be known as the lying congressman?" -- Leslie Jones

10. Electric battery and plug-in hybrid vehicles accounted for 19% of new cars sold in California in 2022.

11. The average US vehicle weight is now a record-breaking 4,289 pounds, according to EPA data.

12. Toyota is the world's top-selling automaker, with around 10 million vehicles sold in 2022.

13. China's convenience store Meiyijia eyes 50,000th shop by 2027.

14. $47.4 billion was invested in the broader space economy in 2021. Last year that number was down 58 percent, according to Space Capital investment fund.

15. Viewers in the US streamed the equivalent of 19.4 million years of content across all platforms in 2022.

16. AI can't escape the gravity of DC: Sam Altman, creator of ChatGPT and CEO of OpenAI, made the rounds in DC this week.

17. BuzzFeed announced using ChatGPT to help create some of its content.

18. Marketing professionals have been particularly keen to test-drive ChatGPT at work: 37% said they had used AI. Tech workers were just a little behind, at 35%. Consultants followed with 30%.

19. There are likely over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way.

20. Of the 3.5 million people who work as truck drivers in the US, 75 percent are over 40, roughly 40 percent are not white, and at most 10 percent are women.

21. Nearly four in ten French business leaders admit to working intense, long hours without regular breaks, well above the 25% global average and besting rates in the US, UK, and China, the survey from health insurer Bupa Global found.

22. Disney turns 100.

23. Erling Haaland: With 18 games left, he is on pace for 48 goals, which would shatter the record for the most scored in a Premier League season.

24. After winning The Eddie, Luke Shepardson returns to work as a lifeguard.

25. The Skatepark Project, Tony Hawk's nonprofit, has helped build 661 skate parks nationally.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

ITK Daily is geopolitical business intelligence for senior executives with global ambition.

ITK Daily curates news @ the intersection of globalization, disruption, politics, culture, + sport and provides actionable insights and sharp commentary.

Snowbird took one-star reviews and made them into a rallying cry.

Snowbird took one-star reviews and made them into a rallying cry.

"Too advanced. One star."

"Disappointed. One star."

"There are no easy runs. One star."

Snowbird embraced these one-star reviews into a rallying cry.

A rallying cry that works and delivers.

A rallying cry that compels and inspires.

From Snowbird's website:

You've probably heard things about us.

You might have ideas about us.

But if you haven't ridden here, you really don't understand.

Too steep?

Too hard?

Too much snow?

Isn't that why you came here?

At Snowbird, what you see is what you get.

But be prepared for it to exceed your wildest expectations.

Why did turning Snowbird's one-star reviews into their most effective promoters work?

Simple.

Snowbird knows its audience.

While ski resorts worldwide get gobbled by global mega-resort hospitality companies, Snowbird has remained true to those looking for challenging terrain, deep snow, and poor WiFi.

Not those looking for groomers, lazy lunches, and Instagam-friendly internet.

Snowbird isn't Vail Resorts.

Consider Vail Resorts recently released some ski-season-to-date metrics.

At Vail Resorts, dining revenue is up 58.0%

What?

Compared to Snowbird, Vail Resorts are just giant cafeterias with some slopes.

Snowbird isn't for everyone; it is proud not to be for everyone.

Snowbird wants you to know, without a doubt, it is not for everyone.

By capturing web review quotes from one-star reviews, Snowbird used the "negative" reviews as "positive" reviews.

Snowbird embraced the negative with gusto.

Too steep?

Definitely.

Too hard?

Absolutely.

Too much snow?

Precisely.

In fact, you should probably go skiing somewhere else.

The firm behind the ad campaign, Salt Lake City's Struck, juxtaposed the one-star reviews with outstanding shots of vertiginous vistas and knee-deep-pow.

Check these out here.

With such cantankerous communications, Struck could maximize Snowbird's limited media and production budget.

By taking this scrappy communications approach, what were, in reality, humble print and digital ads became viral, share-worthy pieces of rebellious promotional content.

Is your communications pugnacious or pleasing?

If you need help being pugnacious, Caracal is here to help.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

ITK Daily is geopolitical business intelligence for senior executives with global ambition.

ITK Daily curates news @ the intersection of globalization, disruption, politics, culture, + sport and provides actionable insights and sharp commentary.

Psychology yes. Technology no.

The future is psychology, not technology.

Wow. 

That is a statement. 

Few think it.

Even less say it.

It's not logical, and that is the point.

According to Ogilvy's Rory Sutherland, there are better paths to creativity than rational thinking. 

He suggests discarding logic and start asking more stupid questions.

In a 2019 Campaign article, Sutherland goes on a rant regarding the beauty of video conferencing over email.

You can read the interview here.

"I've had about 24 video conferences this week," he said. "It's fan-fucking-tastic." 

"The extent to which you can do business with people really effectively once you make it socially acceptable to use this technology is, I think, genuinely the most exciting thing." 

On one day, he said, he started with a call to Australia and finished the day with one to Peru.

"You realize how slow and ineffective email is," he points out. "If you went round the average office, there would be 20 people emailing for every one on a video conference, and that has to be a productivity disaster." 

"There are these huge behavioral things, and they are clearly 100% psychological," he argued. Beyond the more obvious benefits of a first social meeting between business associates, "there patently is no economic reason why people aren't video conferencing."

I discovered Sutherland completely unplanned but planned via a podcast algorithm. 

Though technology brought us together, his views on psychology have changed my thinking on communications for the better.

Sure, software is good for the repetitive, crunch data, mundane tasks that fill our lives. However, logical tech is often an epic failure regarding creativity and applying old ideas to new business solutions.

More from the Campaign article: "Technologists are obsessed with getting people to adopt the latest technologies, but as a marketer, you might say, we've got this thing where there have been psychological obstacles to adopting it."

Technologists and economists assume that most decision-making is driven by logic.

This is flawed.

Using logic to make a decision is called System 2 thinking.

However, most decision-making is driven by emotion.

This is called System 1 thinking.

Facts and numbers don't drive our decision-making.

Facts take a back seat to emotional responses.

Numbers with no context and color are no match for actual experiences.

Great communicators understand the power of ubiquitous and unconscious System 1 decision-making to sell products or shape ideas.

Sutherland stated: "Once you reach a basic level of wealth in society, most problems are actually problems of perception."

The role of a business is to create value by solving customer problems.

As I move through life, it is clear you don't always need to solve complex technical challenges with massive and costly technical solutions.

You must communicate with a customer to see things from a different, more indirect perspective.

Acknowledging the importance of perception will better position your brand and improve your communications.

Excellent communication secures attention, frames the narrative, attracts the right clients, and repels the wrong ones.

Communicators tap into aspiration.

If your wine is Piedmont, you're worldly. 

If you have an iPhone, you're fashionable. 

If you wear Sid Mashburn, you're cool. 

If you read WM Brown Magazine, you are refined.

These examples are some highly functioning behavioral communications.

Consider this by Sutherland: "If you stand and stare out of the window on your own, you're an antisocial, friendless idiot. If you stand and stare out of the window on your own with a cigarette, you're a fucking philosopher.

Nike shoes are globally sourced, low-wage assembled, overpriced pieces of cotton and foam.

Throw Serena Williams on a Times Square billboard, and all of a sudden, when you purchase a pair of Nikes, you'll run faster, serve better, and attack the net flawlessly.

That is some highly functioning behavioral communication.

Buying a silk scarf from a farmers' market vendor, even if the quality and design are high, is less satisfying than walking into Hermes.

In Hermes, you engage a well-appointed salesperson where you'll pay a premium for a scarf because it's displayed in a well-lit, French-designed showroom and walk out of the store happily with a glorious orange box.

That is some highly functioning behavioral communication.

Walk into a convenience store. 

When you see bulletproof glass, what do you think?

Walk into a hotel. 

What do you think about seeing a doorman welcoming you into the lobby?

As Campaign reports, Sutherland's thinking touches on many facets of life. 

Namely, the importance of "psycho-logic," or non-rational factors, in making decisions and solving problems.

Sutherland's point is fundamental to creative communications because "every good creative idea has some element of apparent illogicality."

Creative agencies play a vital role because, unlike most areas of business and government, creative agencies, according to Sutherland, provide "a safe space in which dissident and dissonant thinking can emerge" and "where you can make stupid suggestions and still get promoted."

"You're required to become quite trivial and frivolous."

If you need help being trivial and frivolous, Caracal is here to help.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

ITK Daily is geopolitical business intelligence for senior executives with global ambition.

ITK Daily curates news @ the intersection of globalization, disruption, politics, culture, + sport and provides actionable insights and sharp commentary.