BBH Labs

Has social media killed running? Running culture has never felt more commercial, or more performative, argues BBH London’s Pip Michell. It’s time for brands to bring it back to basics. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ez-DHU2y

Sex Positivity is sweeping culture. But there's a resounding silence from brands, argues BBH London Strategy Director Ally Waring. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/e9nfaUga

Why are you losing new business pitches? Misread the room? Fumbled the handshake? Failed to deliver on 1 of the 137 deliverables? Maybe. Or maybe… it’s The Curse of the Love Sweater 😱 😱 If you’re lucky enough to be unfamiliar with The Curse of the Love Sweater, here it is: 15% of people who have knitted their loved ones a sweater as a gift… were dumped straight after ⚰ ⚰ ⚰ What’s behind the curse? The prevailing thought is that a hand-knitted sweater is a gift with no chill. It’s a present that says, "Please, love me, I have spent four months labour, and risked developing tendonitis, for you." To be on the receiving end of that kind of keenness is a lot - especially early on in a relationship. It can feel overwhelming, even repellent. Hence, the breakup.  Agency pitches often suffer from the same curse. We smother the client with gratitude, we over-deliver by tenfold, we sing and dance and end with a big old ‘thank you’ slide. It’s hard to feel seduced by an agency when they’re giving up so much of themselves on first meeting.   A genuine zag in pitching would be to try less hard. To give less of ourselves away. To make the client feel grateful that we’ve chosen to be part of their process. Seduction beats sweaters every day of the week.

Party’s over guys, Tupperware’s just gone bankrupt. Tupperware, the 78-year old American business made famous for their airtight plastic food containers, has filed for bankruptcy (1). Launched in 1946 by Earl Tupper, Tupperware wasn’t an immediate hit (2). It was saleswoman Brownie Wise who later transformed the brand into a household name - her ‘Tupperware Parties’ strategy inspiring women to make their own money by selling the containers from their homes (3). But Tupperware failed to adapt. Long after the parties fell out of fashion, Tupperware continued to rely on its old strategy: independent sales representatives. So when competitors entered stores and websites, Tupperware wasn’t even showing up. Yes, it remained ubiquitous, but not as a brand. As the name for *any* plastic food container (4). So sometimes, the most important lessons are also the most basic: fame is worthless if people can’t find you. Spotted by: Lowri A. Sources in comments.

In their rush to show that everyone's an athlete, sports brands have lost sight of what makes sports special: winning. Will Roscoe urges marketers to rediscover the joy of competition. https://lnkd.in/eeksUzhx

Thanks for having us The Drum. Older people are our industry's most expensive blind spot. Learn more about them at https://lnkd.in/efcwyj4C.

"...the most famed campaigns for women’s football either use male football players as a prop for attention, or remove women altogether". The fandom is growing. But the industry isn’t keeping up, argues Senior Social Strategist Meg Anderson. https://lnkd.in/eHvBdTZt

Older people are our industry’s most expensive blind spot. At BBH we are getting under their skin with The Silver Culture Project, ethnographic research highlighting their attitudes, interests and desires to help brands understand and represent them better. To top it off, we've reimagined the iconic shopping trolley to reflect what older people told us they want from brands.

Strategists are like toasters. Don't focus on being smart. Focus on being useful.

The Death of the Metrosexual ⚰ In the 00s, the word 'metrosexual' was everywhere. The media was filled with depictions of a new subculture of straight men who cared about skincare and fashion. But now, no-one uses it. Why? It became redundant. What were once seen as niche behaviours have become mainstream. Men who use moisturiser or floss their teeth are no longer metrosexuals; they're just men. You can see a similar trend with "hipster". Today, former marks of hipsterdom (geeking out about coffee, wearing vintage clothes, listening to old music) are as mass as it gets. Last year, a Kate Bush song from 1985 went to Number 1. Hipster culture is now mainstream culture - and so the word has died. As an industry, we talk a lot about the birth of new slang and phrases. But perhaps we can learn just as much from the words that culture has stopped using. What other words have died?