{"id":11716,"date":"2020-05-25T10:52:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T09:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=11716"},"modified":"2020-08-27T14:47:21","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T13:47:21","slug":"give-me-a-compass-not-a-crystal-ball","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/news\/2020\/may\/give-me-a-compass-not-a-crystal-ball","title":{"rendered":"Give me a compass, not a crystal ball"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-ZaVGr wp-block-lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image\"><section class=\"fullwidth fullwidth--overflow \" data-aos=\"fade-up\">\r\n  <div class=\"container container--spaced-lg\">\r\n    \r\n    <div class=\"row\">\r\n      \r\n      <div class=\"col-md-6\">\r\n                \r\n                <blockquote class=\"blockquote blockquote--md-right\">\r\n          A stitch in time frequently does save nine. Many a true word is, indeed, often spoken in jest. Clich\u00e9s such as these stick because they are reliable, if imperfect, guides.                  <\/blockquote>\r\n                \r\n  \t\t\t      <\/div>\r\n      \r\n      <div class=\"col-md-6\">\r\n    \t\t<p>Things become axiomatic because, broadly, they&#8217;re true.<br \/><br \/>A stitch in time frequently does save nine. Many a true word is, indeed, often spoken in jest. Clich\u00e9s such as these stick because they are reliable, if imperfect, guides.<br \/><br \/>Of the many clich\u00e9s doing the rounds at the moment, one that seems to be bearing up well to overuse is the old saying that a crisis &#8220;brings out the best and worst in us&#8221;. Time and again, we see evidence of this essential truth \u2013 a truth that applies equally to brands as it does to people.<\/p>\n<p>There is a clue within the wording that provides an important protection against the biggest danger facing brands during the crisis, which is to overestimate how much Covid-19 will change the way your brand should behave. I say this because, although the virus is undoubtedly having a massive impact on behaviours and attitudes, these impacts don&#8217;t alter the fundamentals for a brand.<br \/><br \/>Perhaps the biggest fundamental to consider is that people don&#8217;t really change, as Bill Bernbach memorably observed: &#8220;It took millions of years for man&#8217;s instincts to develop. It will take millions more for them to even vary\u2026 a communicator must be concerned with unchanging man, with his obsessive desire to survive, to be admired, to succeed, to love, to take care of his own.&#8221;<\/p>  \t\t<\/div>\r\n  \t\t\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    \r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"lazyblock-two-column-side-by-side-text-inline-image-button-Z12GTjf wp-block-lazyblock-two-column-side-by-side-text-inline-image-button\"><section class=\"fullwidth fullwidth--overflow\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">\n  <div class=\"container container--spaced-lg\">\n\n    <div class=\"row\">\n            <div class=\"col-md-6\">\n\n        <div class=\"text-image-item\">\n        \n                    \n          <div class=\"content\">\n                        \n                        <div class=\"p\">\n              <div>In a crisis, it is easy to forget the inherently long-term nature of brand-building and to get moved around by the headwinds rather than the tide.<br \/><br \/>Jeff Bezos is another marketing titan who reminds us of this point. In one of his most famous quotes, he contrasts the frequency with which he gets asked &#8220;What&#8217;s going to change in the next 10 years&#8221; with the scarcity of how often he&#8217;s asked &#8220;What&#8217;s not going to change?&#8221;. His conclusion is simple: &#8220;I submit to you that the second question is actually the more important of the two \u2013 because you can build a business strategy around things that are stable in time.&#8221; You can build a brand strategy around them as well.<\/div>\n<p><br \/>Obsessing about what is going to change is not only less revealing, it is also more complicated and thus more likely to get you to the wrong answers. According to Bezos, one of the advantages of asking what&#8217;s not going to change is that it&#8217;s a far easier question to answer: &#8220;When you identify those big ideas that are stable in time, they&#8217;re usually customer needs. You don&#8217;t have to do a lot of research. These things are so big and so fundamental \u2013 you know it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>The implications are clear. While the effects of Covid-19 will be serious and lasting, people and their needs will fundamentally remain the same. So will the brands that succeed. This is not, however, an argument for stasis. Far from it. To paraphrase the old adage I quoted earlier, every brand can use the crisis to bring out the best in themselves and drive out the worst.<\/div>            <\/div>\n                        \n                      <\/div>\n\n        <\/div>        \n      <\/div>\n            <div class=\"col-md-6\">\n\n        <div class=\"text-image-item\">\n        \n                    \n          <div class=\"content\">\n                        \n                        <div class=\"p\">\n              <div>The point to highlight, the clue I mentioned lurking in the wording, is that the answer does not lie outside the brand, it lies within. We need to &#8220;bring it out&#8221;, not graft it on. This is not a time for grandstanding or superficial gestures. This is a time for brands to dig deep into themselves and latch on to what they do best. What they have always done best. They need to be a heightened version of themselves, not a retrofitted post-Covid identikit slapped on from the outside.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>I could mention a few VCCP client examples of heightened brand permanence, but that would look like favouritism. So, instead, I&#8217;ll use the updated Budweiser &#8220;Wassup&#8221; ad to illustrate the point. This is an ad that is so old, it first ran in the last millennium, but it&#8217;s as true today as it was back then. Bud is, was and always will be about the idiosyncrasies and occasional profundities of true camaraderie. Of course, the updated ad needs the voiceover tweaking to reflect the new socially distanced context, but the overall truth of the message remains the same as when the ad originally aired back in 1999. Moreover, it will remain the same if we fast-forward to 2041. Or 2062.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>When the waters are choppy, you don&#8217;t need a crystal ball. You need a compass. A compass not only guides you forward, most importantly it tells you where you&#8217;ve come from. This is the only way to plan a course and safely reach your destination.\u00a0<\/div>            <\/div>\n                        \n                      <\/div>\n\n        <\/div>        \n      <\/div>\n      \n    <\/div>\n\n  <\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":11,"template":"","categories":[191],"class_list":["post-11716","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-agency-news"],"acf":{"capability_ids":[],"client_id":"","websites_to_publish":["3","5","6","7","8"],"author":{"ID":930,"post_author":"2","post_date":"2020-07-02 12:04:34","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-02 11:04:34","post_content":"","post_title":"Charles Vallance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"charles-vallance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-01-19 12:22:45","post_modified_gmt":"2026-01-19 12:22:45","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=people&#038;p=930","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"hero_video":"","hero_image":{"ID":11717,"id":11717,"title":"Charles_7 (2)","filename":"Charles_7-2.jpg","filesize":81952,"url":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/news\/2020\/may\/give-me-a-compass-not-a-crystal-ball\/attachment\/charles_7-2-2","alt":"","author":"11","description":"","caption":"","name":"charles_7-2-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":11716,"date":"2020-08-20 09:56:10","modified":"2020-08-20 09:56:10","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-300x113.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":113,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-768x288.jpg","medium_large-width":640,"medium_large-height":240,"large":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-1024x384.jpg","large-width":640,"large-height":240,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-1536x576.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":576,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":720,"Header":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-1920x720.jpg","Header-width":1920,"Header-height":720,"Wide":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2.jpg","Wide-width":1920,"Wide-height":720,"Square":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-1152x720.jpg","Square-width":768,"Square-height":480,"Tall":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-768x720.jpg","Tall-width":307,"Tall-height":288,"Mobile":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-768x720.jpg","Mobile-width":768,"Mobile-height":720,"Facebook":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-1200x630.jpg","Facebook-width":1200,"Facebook-height":630,"Grid-Item-Square":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-768x720.jpg","Grid-Item-Square-width":768,"Grid-Item-Square-height":720,"Grid-Item-Wide":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-768x384.jpg","Grid-Item-Wide-width":768,"Grid-Item-Wide-height":384,"Grid-Item-Tall":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2-384x720.jpg","Grid-Item-Tall-width":307,"Grid-Item-Tall-height":576}},"meta-title":"Charles Vallance","meta-description":"A stitch in time frequently does save nine. Many a true word is, indeed, often spoken in jest. Clich\u00e9s such as these stick because they are reliable, if imperfect, guides.","social-media-image":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Charles_7-2.jpg","news_id":"191","relateditems":[{"relateditem":{"ID":11618,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2020-01-05 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-05 15:25:00","post_content":"<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-right\":\"\\u003cp\\u003eEqually time-honoured is our tendency to promote people away from what they're good at and propel them into senior management.\\u003cbr \/\\u003e\\u003cbr \/\\u003eLike most peculiar habits, this has many more downsides than upsides. It is, perhaps, the greatest operational flaw in our industry. We still labour under the misapprehension that management is the ultimate goal of an advertising career, when it shouldn't be. The ultimate goal should be to make the best ads you possibly can and to stay doing this for as long as you can.\\u003cbr \/\\u003e\\u003cbr \/\\u003eI say this because all the really good people I've ever worked with understand that advertising is not a service industry. It's a manufacturing industry. Unlike so many managerial professions, we make a concrete end-product (even if this is increasingly transmitted in digital code). We make something that people see and feel, something that moves, that speaks, that's musical or photographic, interactive or emotive, familiar or brand new. At the start of every project we begin with nothing, and at the end, we have produced something tangible that can be communicated to the outside world. Where we can then say 'I had a hand in making that'.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\",\"quote\":\"As an industry we have a number of peculiar habits. Talking ourselves down is one of them. Focusing on ads and stunts that the rest of the world won't notice is another.\",\"blockId\":\"6KiTe\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-6KiTe\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/image-full-width {\"image\":\"%7B%22alt%22:%22%22,%22title%22:%22Wordless%20Bar%20still%20(2)%22,%22caption%22:%22%22,%22id%22:11620,%22link%22:%22https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?attachment_id=11620%22,%22url%22:%22https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Wordless-Bar-still-2.jpg%22%7D\",\"blockId\":\"Z4inna\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-image-full-width-Z4inna\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/text-full-width {\"text\":\"\\u003ch4\\u003eThere is a thrill to this making process that few other office jobs can match. I\u2019m sure completing an audit is satisfying, but I doubt it\u2019s thrilling. No doubt there is satisfaction to be found in advising on an obscure sub-clause in contract law. However, this has negligible public jeopardy when compared to sending your little creation out into the world and waiting for Campaign\u2019s patrician thumb to signal death or glory in the Colosseum of its opinion pieces. And that\u2019s before your Mum and Dad weigh in.\\u003c\/h4\\u003e\",\"blockId\":\"crkGb\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-text-full-width-crkGb\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-right\":\"\\u003cp\\u003eService is central too, but it is of secondary importance. If I were a Client I'd tolerate badly punctuated status reports if the ads were great. But no amount of slick minute-taking would compensate for sub-standard work. The same is true in the restaurant trade. What do you value most when you go out to eat - the kitchen or the front of house? (I would stress, for the record, that I say this with the greatest respect to Jesus, Fernando, Chris and Jeremy, just in case I need to book a table at short notice in the coming weeks).\u00a0\\u003cbr \/\\u003e\\u003cbr \/\\u003eThe craft of making something informative, entertaining or in other ways worthwhile is the essence of what we do. And craftsmen don\u2019t move away from the product as their careers progress, they move closer. They gain experience, they hone their skills, they mature into master craftsmen, they encourage and nurture new makers. As a business, we are in danger of losing this artisanal instinct. We are in danger of undervaluing hard-won experience in a way that would be unthinkable to the worlds of design, fashion, architecture, film or journalism. And we are in danger of absurd managerial title inflation, with its attendant focus on fashionable abstractions such as disruptive business models, new value exchanges, transformation agendas and the like.\\u003cbr \/\\u003e\\u003cbr \/\\u003eBut none of these should be our focus. We should simply focus on making a better product tomorrow than we did yesterday. If we do this, everything else will follow. This is why the agencies that do best are the ones that let their people stay closest to the work, and the ones who do worst promote their talent into the craft-free zone of senior management, miles away from the heat, chaos and sizzle of the kitchen.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\",\"quote\":\"Of course, advertising is not entirely a manufacturing business.\",\"image\":\"%7B%22alt%22:%22%22,%22title%22:%22IN-SITU-2%20(2)%22,%22caption%22:%22%22,%22id%22:11619,%22link%22:%22https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?attachment_id=11619%22,%22url%22:%22https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/IN-SITU-2-2.jpg%22%7D\",\"blockId\":\"7Hl2K\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-7Hl2K\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/quote-full-width {\"quote\":\"So next time you\u2019re offered a new job or a promotion, here's a question that might be worth asking; will the move take you nearer to the stove, or further away?\",\"blockId\":\"1rT3tl\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-quote-full-width-1rT3tl\"} \/-->","post_title":"Artisans, Not Managers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"artisans-not-managers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-08-28 01:00:01","post_modified_gmt":"2020-08-28 00:00:01","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=11618","menu_order":0,"post_type":"news","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"relateditem":{"ID":11583,"post_author":"11","post_date":"2020-04-20 17:02:59","post_date_gmt":"2020-04-20 16:02:59","post_content":"<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-right\":\"\\u003cdiv\\u003eI've always loved train journeys. I like seeing into people's back gardens. I like the noise, rattle and rumble of trains. And I like the sense of common purpose I feel with my fellow passengers, chugging our way towards a shared destination.\\u003c\\\/div\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003eGiven my locomotive fondness, it's perhaps no coincidence that, from the back of my house, I can see the railway leading to Victoria station three stops up the track near to where I work and, in the other direction, down to Brighton and the south coast.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cdiv\\u003eI could never have expected two places that are geographically so close to feel so far away. Yet so it transpires. The pandemic has rooted all but essential workers to the spot. It is such an odd and alien experience. But this is why, despite the fact that I can't use them, I love to see the trains even more.\\u003c\\\/div\\u003e\",\"quote\":\"One of my favourite parts of the working week is getting the overground into the office each morning\",\"blockId\":\"1RcwvS\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-1RcwvS\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-left\":\"\\u003cp\\u003eTo me, they are a living symbol of what the recovery will represent when it arrives. This is in part because they will signal the return of my commuting routine, the cup of coffee on platform two at Wandsworth Common station and the occasional skirmish with an over-iced Danish pastry. These little pleasures, these little journeys, will for a while have the feel of an exorbitant luxury that not even Versace, Faberg\\u00e9 or the Medicis could match.\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003e\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003eBut, I'm afraid, they will in time become utterly prosaic again. In a good way, but nevertheless in a mundane way. Which is why they are not the main part of my current infatuation with the rolling stock of south-west London. Because, for me, these inanimate, rolling objects represent much more than the promise of a return to a familiar and comfortable routine. They represent something far more profound and far more admirable. These are the vehicles of our salvation, the transport for our NHS workers, the freight for our post, our produce and our grain, the carriages for our shelf-stackers, our pharmacists, our building society workers, our teachers, our carers, our network engineers and our warehouse workers.\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003e\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003eWhen I go for my one allocated bout of exercise each day (far more than my pre-Covid-19 strike rate, I might add, although not really meriting a tracksuit), I make a point of hugging the paths nearest the railway down from Bellevue all along Bolingbroke Grove to Clapham Junction, or along Boundaries Road and Chestnut Grove to Bedford Hill and Balham station. Each train I see feels like a blessing. Proof that the people who make our country run and who preserve our health are still going about their business, still showing true grit, still keeping us literally on track.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"text-right\":\"\\u003cp\\u003eOf course I realise that south-west London's overground train network is not wholly responsible for the preservation of our way of life. A vast armada of machinery from articulated lorries, tractors, trucks, dustbin lorries, fuel tankers, courier vans, delivery scooters, muck spreaders, Tube trains, police cars, private vehicles, ambulances, post vans, buses etc are all playing their vital part in the mobilisation of the legions of key workers who are keeping our country running. They alone are the people still travelling around our towns and cities to perform their essential roles. Taken together, the vehicles that transport them represent the visible side of an army that has too long remained invisible, hiding in plain sight in the seat next to me on my commute.\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003e\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003eSo, even though it's not the full picture, I think it's fair enough to view the 8.03 from Balham, or the 9.11 from Battersea, as symbolic of a heroic effort. To see them as rattling, trundling tributes not just to what our key workers are doing for us during the pandemic, but what they will continue to do for us when better times return, just as they did before the virus struck. It has, ironically, taken an invisible enemy to make fully visible what was there all along.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"blockId\":\"Z11MvAj\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-Z11MvAj\"} \/-->","post_title":"Trainspotters of the world unite","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"trainspotters-of-the-world-unite","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-08-27 16:43:20","post_modified_gmt":"2020-08-27 15:43:20","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=11583","menu_order":0,"post_type":"news","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"relateditem":{"ID":11624,"post_author":"11","post_date":"2020-01-13 15:43:38","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-13 15:43:38","post_content":"<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-right\":\"\\u003cp\\u003eThe 1920s conjure up images of F Scott Fitzgerald, No\\u00ebl Coward, Oxford bags, cocktail parties, flappers, prohibition and the jazz age. And it came, of course, after a time of terrible conflict. No wonder they called it the roaring 20s. People had a right to party.\\u00a0\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003e\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003eWhile the Brexit dramas of the past few years in no way compare to the turmoil of war, there is I think a detectible feeling of release in 2020. The chance for renewal, revival and even optimism. It has been a long wait, so let's hope so.\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003e\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003eIf there is a new spirit afoot, it will need nurturing and protecting as it is inevitably young and fragile. It will be reinforced by everyone working hard to understand each other and find common ground, rather than clinging to the habits of polarity and groupthink. But, one suspects, this is rather more easily said than done.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"quote\":\"The 20s are finally upon us. Last time round, it was a singularly glamorous decade, at least retrospectively.\",\"blockId\":\"wXCB0\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-wXCB0\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/image-full-width {\"image\":\"%7B%22alt%22:%22%22,%22title%22:%22the-great-gatsby-party-580%22,%22caption%22:%22%22,%22id%22:11626,%22link%22:%22https:\\\/\\\/www.vccp.com\\\/?attachment_id=11626%22,%22url%22:%22https:\\\/\\\/www.vccp.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/the-great-gatsby-party-580-1.jpg%22%7D\",\"blockId\":\"2etG2E\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-image-full-width-2etG2E\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/text-full-width {\"text\":\"\\u003ch4\\u003eTo alter attitudes, we first have to adapt behaviour. If we start doing things differently, we might start to think differently, and thus alter our world view to accommodate a more diverse and heterogeneous set of opinions.\\u003c\\\/h4\\u003e\",\"blockId\":\"F9qth\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-text-full-width-F9qth\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-side-by-side-text-inline-image-button {\"items\":\"%5B%7B%22text%22:%22%3Cp%3EI%20have%20seen%20a%20few%20people%20on%20Twitter%20make%20this%20move.%20They%20have%20deliberately%20started%20to%20follow%20people%20they%20would%20otherwise%20have%20disagreed%20with%20and%20ignored.%20Although%20at%20times%20it%20may%20be%20infuriating%20to%20hear%20conflicting%20views,%20the%20overall%20experience%20is%20likely%20to%20be%20both%20illuminating%20and%20edifying.%3C\\\/p%3E%22%7D,%7B%22text%22:%22%3Cp%3EThis%20isn't%20simply%20to%20do%20with%20platitudes%20about%20the%20importance%20of%20listening%20and%20getting%20out%20of%20your%20bubble.%20It%20is%20to%20do%20with%20strategic%20success,%20not%20to%20mention%20electoral%20success.%20I%20say%20this%20on%20the%20basis%20of%20the%20recurrent%20findings%20of%20network%20analysis.%20Contrary%20to%20what%20might%20be%20expected,%20the%20most%20influential%20connections%20are%20the%20most%20distant%20ones,%20not%20the%20nearest.%3C\\\/p%3E%22%7D%5D\",\"blockId\":\"1mNHi1\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-side-by-side-text-inline-image-button-1mNHi1\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-right\":\"\\u003cp\\u003eIn it, he demonstrated that the weakest, not the strongest, social ties are the most irreplaceable ones. Since then, his weak tie theory has been validated repeatedly by more recent, data-driven research.\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003e\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003eThe finding, in fact, is not as counter-intuitive as it first appears. If you surround yourself only with people, views and connections that are close to you, then you will inevitably form a clique. The problem with cliques, as Tim Harford observes in his sociocultural study Messy, is that they become blinkered: \\u0022In a clique, everyone knows everyone and all tell you the same. The more peripheral the contact, the more likely she is to tell you something you didn't know.\\u0022\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003e\\u003cbr \\\/\\u003eWhat we don't know, of course, is precisely the thing we need to master in order to progress and flourish. Denying ourselves access to it, avoiding weak ties, is strategic folly. This has been illustrated emphatically in politics of late. The failure of the two opposition parties in the last general election was, to some extent at least, their failure to be peripheral. Neither of their leadership teams managed to reach meaningfully beyond their electoral cores. They spoke to their strong rather than weak links. A friend of mine drove across America just prior to Trump's election victory and, a devoted Democrat, ended his trip convinced that Trump would win. The periphery between the two coastlines gave him the insight of the weak tie.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eAs we know from Dominic Cummings' recruitment blog, politics and communications are inextricably linked. So, with the new decade unfolding before us, I would urge adland to run towards the periphery, to nurture and cultivate the weaker links it has perhaps neglected over the past decade, particularly during those late teenage years.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"quote\":\"This is what Mark Granovetter's groundbreaking study of social networks established back in 1973. He called it 'The Strength of Weak Ties'.\",\"image\":\"%7B%22alt%22:%22%22,%22title%22:%2220s%22,%22caption%22:%22%22,%22id%22:11625,%22link%22:%22https:\\\/\\\/www.vccp.com\\\/?attachment_id=11625%22,%22url%22:%22https:\\\/\\\/www.vccp.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/20s-1.jpg%22%7D\",\"blockId\":\"1N1yTs\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-1N1yTs\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/quote-full-width {\"quote\":\"We are now moving from adolescence to adulthood. Let\\u2019s act accordingly and embrace the looser ties of difference, diversity and heterogeneity, rather than the strong ties of the village and the clique. Let\\u2019s open ourselves up to the margins and the overlooked. Let\\u2019s start the 20s with a roar, not an echo.\",\"blockId\":\"ZCVSAs\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-quote-full-width-ZCVSAs\"} \/-->","post_title":"The hidden power of the weakest links","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"the-hidden-power-of-the-weakest-links","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-08-27 12:01:10","post_modified_gmt":"2020-08-27 11:01:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=11624","menu_order":0,"post_type":"news","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}}],"related_content_title":"YOU MAY ALSO LIKE","visible_on_home_page":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/11716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}