Dispatch from an advertising future #31

How to Balance your Brand Communication Plans

Clients wanted people again, not just AI advice. The driverless car, thankfully one with a vaguely interesting TaxiChat algorithm, dropped them outside. Their faces got them through security and into the conference room. They were ready. The positive dialectic of real consultancy; when black and white turned grey; when it all turned a bit speculative. There were two chairs. A monitor. It booted: “Thanks for coming in. I’m really looking forward to processing what you have to say”. They looked around. The office was empty of people… but full of Intelligence. He started with a joke… The client laughed appropriately.

For Faris and Rosie

They were well into double figures now. Travelling. Talking. Being the boy in the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Refusing to use the word idea as a verb but doing it anyway.

They’d started when people wanted to hear from people. They’d gone through the bubble when people only wanted to hear from AIs. They’d waited patiently watching as supposedly super-intelligent algorithms gave frankly really dumb advice. Now it was consultancy 3.0. Clients wanted people again. They wanted human insights, human thinking, creative humanity, human creativity… and they were willing to pay for it. Particularly now there were so few humans who seemed able to do that without checking with an algorithm first.

It was Thursday so it must be London. The driverless car, thankfully one with a vaguely interesting TaxiChat (TM) algorithm, dropped them outside the building. Their faces got them through security and up to the first floor where the conference room was set up. They were ready. This was what they did best. Talking. Discussing. Pushing the ideas. The positive dialectic of real consultancy. They worked best when the debates got dense, when the clients surprised, when black and white turned grey. They shone when it all turned a bit speculative. They loved meeting new clients.

There were two chairs. A monitor.

The AI booted: “Thanks for coming in I’m really looking forward to processing what you have to say”.

They looked around. The office was empty of people… but full of Intelligence.

He started with a joke… The client laughed appropriately.

Dispatch from an advertising future #13

NFL secures TikTok partnership to attract millennials

Here at the British Casting Company our department for Short Form Output (SFO) ensures our content remains engaging as our younger customers change their viewing habits. Our millennial content experts work with editors to sharpen programming and we are in discussions with Wimbledon and the Boat Race to develop new competition formats and The Proms about new time signatures. The News team and SFO are talking to the main parties about new forms of announcements and policy itself. Soon our editors will not have to cut to fit: sports, culture and politics will arrive at the BCC ready to fit.

Dear colleagues,

I’m delighted to announce a new department here at the British Casting Company. The SFO (department for Short Form Output) will ensure that BCC content remains relevant, accessible and engaging as our younger customers change their viewing habits.

Since we moved from BroadCasting, through NarrowCasting to simply Casting, we at the BCC have ensured that our content forms follow the latest trends in media consumption. Back in the day when people wanted reality, we jumped on the reality TV bandwagon. When they wanted on-demand we gave them on-demand. And now we are focused on the demand for ‘shortest form’. And that’s where the SFO is here to help you.

Of course our team of millennial content experts will work with your editors to shorten, and sharpen your programming. But more than that, the SFO is working with our partners to shorten and sharpen the very raw material of our programmes, making it easier for us to deliver shortest form content.

We are already in discussions with Wimbledon and the Boat Race to explore new formats for their competitions that more closely match the demands of shortest form content. We’re talking to publishers read to relaunch Book at Bedtime and to The Proms about revolutionary new time signatures. Most exciting of all, the News team and SFO are talking to the main political parties about new forms not just of policy announcements but also policy itself. Soon our editors will not have to cut to fit: rather sports, culture and politics will arrive at the BCC ready to fit.

The BCC has always been at the forefront of content, taking Lord Reith’s mandate to “inform, educate and entertain” into new media, new technologies and new historical moments. With the SFO we’re ensuring that mission remains relevant to our new audiences by moving further upstream into the forms of sport, culture and politics that we have reported on and helped create for nearly a century.