Vaccine machine | Brigadoon Daily

Brigadoon Daily
August 16, 2021

Brigadoon Daily | Exclusively for Brigadoon Members

Vaccine machine

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TOP FIVE

1. Autopsy of a failed war

2. Earth is warmer than it's been in 125,000 years

3. “All roads lead to Mar-a-Lago”

4. NASA's new challenge reach moon by 2024

5. Sportswashing and geopolitics

GLOBALIZATION + STATECRAFT

Autopsy of a failed war: Our longest war ends in another abject failure.
Spectator

How the Taliban overran the Afghan army, built by the US over 20 years: Afghanistan’s military was molded to match American operations and collapsed without US air support and intelligence.
WSJ

Inside the UK’s post-Brexit economy: Why investors should have an eye on London: London is firmly open for business, and that is a message emanating from the gleaming towers of the city, the corridors of government, and the flashing screens of the stock exchange.
Worth

Canada is about to have an unnecessary, but very important, election. This is why.
David Moscrop

Dancing on ropes by Anna Aslanyan — the joys and terrors of translation: From Ottoman diplomats to the man whispering in Stalin’s ear, interpreters have played pivotal roles in history.
FT

DISRUPTION + INNOVATION

Earth is warmer than it's been in 125,000 years: A landmark assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change says greenhouse gases are unequivocally driving extreme weather, but nations can still prevent the worst impacts.
SA

AMERICAN POLITICS

Biden administration scrambled as its orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan unraveled
WP

The way the Senate melted down over crypto is very revealing
Ezra Klein

50 years after going off gold, the dollar must go for crypto: After Richard Nixon scrapped Bretton Woods, the US currency’s exorbitant privilege only grew — because the US embraced innovation, not regulation.
Niall Ferguson

COVID anxiety and fear of the base: Americans need to be more tactful and understanding when it comes to measures like masks and vaccines.
Peggy Noonan

“All roads lead to Mar-a-Lago”: Inside the fury and fantasy of Donald Trump’s Florida: Roger Stone, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Ben Shapiro—they’ve all made their way to the Sunshine State, fueling and profiting from a tabloid culture that turns politics into a spectacle, arguably Florida’s greatest export.
VF

COMMERCE

The next big thing will start out looking like a toy
Chris Dixon

Backing the spaceships being built by robots
The Times

Pfizer chief Albert Bourla: ‘We are the most efficient vaccine machine’: The pharma boss on the COVID jab, his exchanges with Trump — and why suspending patents is no way to inoculate the world’s poor.
FT

Charles Tyrwhitt adapts to the age of the homeworker: Nick Wheeler, the founder of the men’s outfitter, says recovery and growth will come through its casual ranges.
FT

SPACE + SCIENCE

NASA has a new challenge to reaching the moon by 2024: Its $1 billion spacesuit program
WP

PERFORMANCE

What we think we know about metabolism may be wrong: A new study challenges assumptions about energy expenditure by people, including the idea that metabolism slows at middle age.
NYT

CULTURE

The ebook at 50 — is the dream of a free, universal library fading? Project Gutenberg’s founder wanted unlimited access for all but his utopian vision has been eclipsed.
Nilanjana Roy

Banksy confirms he was behind a spree of new murals that popped up in coastal England towns: A video posted to the artist's Instagram page confirmed the news.
Artnet

SPORT

The insides of pro bowling balls will make your head spin: They're way cooler than the ones at your local alley.
Popular Science

Messi, PSG, Qatar, FFP, sportswashing, and geopolitics: Quo vadis, football? PSG's signing of Lionel Messi sent shockwaves around the world and sparked euphoria among fans, but it's also added fuel to the burning issue of financial controls in European football, and where the game goes from here.
DW

+ Lionel Messi's signing on fee at Paris St Germain includes some of the French club's cryptocurrency fan tokens, in the latest big name endorsement of new digital assets.

The wisdom of the crowd: Soccer takes the player valuations posted on the website Transfermarkt extremely seriously. It has never really stopped to ask where they come from.
NYT


Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

Curation and commentary by Marc A. Ross | Founder @ Brigadoon

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Brand marketing in a direct marketing world

Pop quiz:

What was the top 2021 Super Bowl ad according to USA Today's Ad Meter?

Heck, if you can name one of the top ten, I will give you bonus points.

The reason you can't remember the best ad or any ads from the big game, it's not the best tool.

It's not the best tool because it doesn't connect, make an impact, or leave a mark.

You see, brand marketing doesn't work in the direct marketing world.

Brand marketing is from a different age. A different business environment. A different communication era.

Brand marketing was created when John Wanamaker's statement "half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half" worked because it could work.

It could work because advertisers created a mass broadcast communications environment to serve its needs.

Radio was created to sell ads.

Television was created to sell ads.

Brian Millar, a co-founder of the Emotional Intelligence Agency, writes, "traditional advertising went after 'share of mind’–the idea was to get you to associate a brand with a single idea, a single emotion. Volvo: safety. Jaguar: speed. Coke: happiness. The Economist: success. Bang, bang, bang, went the ads, hammering the same idea into your mind every time you saw one.

"Advertising briefs evolved to focus the creatives on a single unique selling position and a single message. Tell them we're the Ultimate Driving Machine. Tell them in a thrilling way. It worked when you saw ads infrequently on television, in a Sunday magazine, or on a billboard on your morning commute."

This type of advertising worked because it was a communications environment of one to many with only a handful of vehicles to reach an audience.

But that is not today.

Today we are living in a direct marketing world powered by the WWW.

Now we have micro-media and personalized broadcast communications environment which serves the needs of the end-user.

The internet was not created for ads.

The internet is not mass media.

The Emotional Intelligence Agency conducted a study to understand what kind of content works to better understand this new communications environment. The firm found communications that used funny, practical, beautiful, and inspiring content delivers the best results.

Not surprisingly, the most successful brands do all four.

Also, not surprising, these are the adjectives used by any top storyteller.

She knows they are the best words when executing micro and personalized communications.

Yet most of us communicate using only one type of emotionally compelling content - if at all - employing brand marketing techniques that are closer to the days of Mad Men than to the present day of Laundry Service.

We still communicate like once a day, or worse, just a few times a month.

Instead of using tools that follow and engage our most active supporters in their media diet.

When it comes to the WWW and the direct marketing communications environment, being multidimensional beats being single-minded.

Surprise beats consistency.

Emotion beats fact.

Funny beats dour.

Useful beats sales.

Beautiful beats boring.

Inspirational beats directional.

The best communicators have always understood this instinctively.

By the way, USA Today's Ad Meter ranked Rocket Mortgage's "Certain Is Better" with Tracy Morgan, Dave Bautista, and Liza Koshy" as the best 2021 ad.

I don't remember the ad either.

-Marc