Late letter today. If you’re on the subway on the way to dinner, or at home rewatching Girls, or scrolling on the phone waiting for the check, or whatever else you’re doing, enjoy.
Guys I’m going to be honest… I saw Barbie last night. I will not do a letter about this because everyone else is, and I like to give you HIGH QUALITY NEW HOT CONTENT. I saw it at Alamo Drafthouse, and got there 15 minutes late and they really acted like I was going to be arrested — a look of utter disgust, walkie talkies, an escort. Scary. My favorite part was that Barbie wouldn’t live with Ken and just wanted to have sleepovers with her best friends every night. Life SHOULD be like that.
I also watched CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH this week (loved it) and PAST LIVES (liked it) and started rewatching GIRLS for the fourth time (loved it).
FIRST UP! Some questions I got this week……….
Big fan of your newsletter. Hope you're good.
I saw you wanted questions for an upcoming newsletter, and while I know you mainly write about B2C companies, I'd love to know your thoughts on the B2B space. Are there any brands you think are doing cool things in this area? Opportunities for interesting creative? Anecdotes/reflections from any B2B projects you've worked on?
For context, I just started a new role as a creative in an agency where I'll be working mainly on B2B accounts. I'm keen to resist the idea that B2B is boring and create work that speaks to business leaders in an interesting, creative way. Would love to hear your perspective on this area!
I’m going to include a bunch of examples in this answer for you. The role of creative employees at B2B and SaaS companies is to emphasize the benefits of the product you’re selling. It’s a lot easier to sell something that actually works. I’m curious who some of your clients are, because depending on the areas of their specialty, I could streamline my answer.
Before I started this letter I worked at Meta for a few years as a creative director on their business marketing channels, Meta for Business and Instagram for Business. The educational content and actions we were encouraging businesses to take (spend more on ads and use more of Meta’s measurement tools, mostly) weren’t the sexiest, but the success stories were. I created a show called Social Skills for Meta while I worked there, which is now in it’s 4th season. Here’s what I learned:
Design and graphics do a lot of heavy lifting here, especially if people are discovering your brand’s content via social or email. There are so many designers who specialize in infographics and data visualization, and makes it a lot easier for people to digest the stories you’re telling and the promise that you’re selling. Email me if you need some recs.
People love BIG, CLEAR NUMBERS. Lean on big wins and accomplishments that businesses have had because of your product.
Find interesting people and relevant brands to spotlight. Some of our top-performing episode of Social Skills were because of the talent I cast, like Sana from Diaspora, and Zoe from Parade Underwear.