Well, here we are again, a new year, full of hope, aspirations, and ambitions – even if a quick look outside as we emerge from our duvets seems to confirm that things are still horrible, a pandemic is still raging, democracy is still under threat, and the old issues of 2020 have not mysteriously disappeared.

Once upon a time, in a land far away there lived a widow and her young son. The widow had always been kind to her son, as long as he did what he was told, but woe betide if he stepped out of line! ‘You can always be replaced’ she said to him; ‘There are plenty of boys out there who would love to come and look after me in return for a warm house and regular meals.’

Well, that was, shall we say an interesting year. Quite aside from such cataclysmic episodes as a pandemic, Brexit negotiations, elections, and what has sadly become the usual quota of intolerance and violence we had a few little moments of our own in the quiet backwater that is advertising and media.

What will we take away?

Remember when the trades were full of thought leaders enlightening the rest of us? In the media world these were usually smart people from agencies, or media owners.

Advertisers rarely featured – indeed back then there was almost a paranoia around anything that could be described as sharing secrets outside the organisation.

It’s a mystery why it is that sensible, smart people so often see things in absolutes: black or white, right or wrong, win or lose, media or creative. Surely the concept that teamwork is generally a good idea is not that hard to grasp?

For the last seven and a half years the Cog Blog has provided a weekly platform for me to rant on about this or that pet hate, to vent on what I see as industry wrongs and injustices, to amplify others’ good ideas, and to comment on the latest tit and tattle. To be honest, most of this really doesn’t make a great deal of difference in the overall scheme of things – but the subject of this week’s post does.

Disclaimer – I helped the asi team with last week’s annual conference

Last week’s asi conference, the annual get together of the video and audio audience measurement community broke new ground, and not just because it was a virtual as opposed to a physical gathering. It featured a session devoted to the concept of attention; it was the best ‘attended’ event asi has run; it attracted an audience from a number of disciplines beyond pure audience measurement; and it generated a wider, and a more lively debate than usual (and most asi’s in my experience are good at debate).

One of my favourite quotes from the great Jeremy Bullmore goes as follows: “People build brands the way birds build nests. Through the straws and scraps they chance upon.” It’s a wonderful summation of how it’s people who build brands – and why all channels, all the straws and scraps have to work together, to fit together to build the whole.

Disclosure: I help asi with their annual conference and will be chairing a session at the 2020 virtual event

At the start of this year (on January 9^th) The Cog Blog came out with the traditional list of predictions for the year 2020 to come. Amongst these was the following: ‘Media runs on measurement. If the measurement is wrong, or not there, or not validated objectively then we’re all in trouble. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in for a nasty shock when they wake up to find that the ground beneath their feet has turned into a rather nasty, messy bog’.

The Cog Blog a couple of weeks ago contained some lessons I’ve learned over the years, illustrated with real-life examples. I asked the great Cog Blog reading population – an ever growing not to mention discerning group – to contribute to the follow-up.

That great cartoon-strip philosopher Charlie Brown once said: “I have been repeating the same mistakes in life for so long now I may as well call them traditions.” Had Charlie Brown ever grown up he may very well have enjoyed a successful career in advertising.

In the last few days, egta, the European Association of TV and Radio Sales Houses published a comprehensive report into advances in hybrid television audience measurement. I don’t pretend to have read it – it runs to 104 pages and is really a source document outlining the options available – but fortunately I know a man who has who assures me it is both comprehensive and useful.

‘WFA says it has cracked cross-media measurement’ screamed the headline in ‘Campaign’ last week. The body of the article of course was a lot less hysterical. ‘Campaign’ headlines sometimes err on the side of over-enthusiasm, but this example really doesn’t do anyone any favours.

You may have noticed me banging on about the benefits of experience lately – here – along with a defence of the older adman.

You may very well ask: what do you know? Who are you to lecture the young and vibrant with your talk of the last century, of full-service agencies, of long lunches and longer afternoons?

Things always seem to kick off at WPP when I’m away. In April 2018 (when the Cog Blog was on a break..) Sir Martin Sorrell left his creation. This time it’s some poorly thought-through remarks from Mark Read, Sorrell’s successor that have fired up a number of advertising luminaries over the age of 30.

Just occasionally in amongst the cries for attention and the blatant sales pitches on my LinkedIn feed a gem appears. Admittedly most of these gems tend to be written by one of Dave Trott, Bob Hoffman or Richard Shotton but every so often someone else simply hits the spot.

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A few weeks ago, The Cog Blog commented on the boycotting of Facebook by a variety of big name brands. How’s that been going?

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I have never met Tom Goodwin. I’ve never even heard him speak, but as is the way with these self-made social media superstars I feel as if I know everything there is to know about him.

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You don’t need a smart-arse blogger to tell you that these are uniquely difficult times, nor that some things won’t ever be the same again. All of us have examples to hand – from our attitudes towards home working, to how we feel about walking into shops or eating in restaurants right through to the likelihood of ever again paying for anything with cash.

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It’s been a busy few weeks at Facebook, what with the ad boycott, hastily arranged meetings with agencies, bullish statements from Mark Zuckerberg (‘who needs advertisers, and in any case they’ll be back soon enough’), and remarks from the company and its supporters that there’s really nothing to see as here at Facebook we were in any event cleaning out the Augean stables. No one believed them.

In the midst of all this a ‘Campaign’ piece by Daniel Gilbert ‘In Defence of Facebook’ appeared.

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