What’s In This Issue?
This Week’s Main Stories
Story 01How “The Backscratchers” Are Reinventing The Agency Model
Story 02Food Transparency and When Storytelling Can Backfire
Story 03Trend Watch - The Rise Of Media Escapism
Story 04Have An Accent? It Might Help You Get Your Next Job
Story 056 Shifts In How Data Is Transforming Healthcare
Story 06Chinese Mall Installs “Husband Pods” For Bored SpousesHow “The Backscratchers” Are Reinventing The Agency Model
Back when I worked in the agency world, I remember the angst every time an unreasonable demand came in from a client without a “proper” brief. Rather than try to change this sad reality of last minute requests (or complain about it behind the client’s back), “The Backscratchers” agency have created a model that embraces this commonplace dysfunction and offers clients solutions via freelancers when they need it most. It’s easy to understand both why clients might love this disruptive model, and why it has many competing agencies confused and scared.
Food Transparency and When Storytelling Can Backfire
Storytelling can shape consumer perception, but it may also have an underappreciated downside. When journalist Amy Wu was invited by Iowa Select Farms to tour their pork production operations, she noted that taking a consumer into a farm to show "food transparency" is a good idea in principle, but it doesn’t change the fact that the animal will eventually die. Her conclusion is an educational one for marketers: “Showing hard-working farm workers is a great way to establish that rapport. Showing the crowded living quarters of pigs is not.”
Trend Watch - The Rise Of Media Escapism
Is it ever ok to take a break from your outrage and the 24-hour news cycle? We all should hope so. Yet taking this kind of break is leading to a widespread side effect: guilt. That time you spend watching The Bachelor or staying home from the latest angry protest march is time where you’re not impacting the world. In this well argued article, Washington Post writer Emily Yahr argues that we need this escape from media in order to maintain our perspective. "Media escapism” may be the only way to maintain your sanity.
Have An Accent? It Might Help You Get Your Next Job
AI voice-assistants have long had difficulty understanding foreign accents, but now Amazon may be taking steps to address this frequent issue. In Australia, the brand is hiring “a linguist with Australian background” to join their team. The same may be happening in other places around the world as these linguists can listen to the language and annotate everything from word pronunciation to pauses between words to help artificial intelligence understand all kinds of accents. Perhaps even including some (like Scottish) that routinely baffle English language speakers as well.
6 Shifts In How Data Is Transforming Healthcare
The new PSFK Future of Health report is out and a central theme is that data is driving personalization of diagnosis, treatment and overall clinical intelligence. The idea of “cloud diagnosis” for example illustrates the power of tapping a vast reserve of knowledge to properly diagnose patients. Another is the ability to offer preemptive education to prevent illnesses – which the report calls “Omni-Care.” For a summary of other insights from the report and details on how to purchase it, follow the link above.
Chinese Mall Installs “Husband Pods” For Bored Spouses
The bored husband at a shopping mall is one of the most common stereotypes of suburbia and now a Chinese gaming company has a solution that is rapidly going viral. The so-called “husband pod” features seat massages, retro video games and virtual reality experiences. While there are no plans to expand this outside of China at the moment, it’s easy to imagine this being popular just about anywhere … and not just among husbands either.
