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Music, Meaning and Knowledge

Here is something to tide you over during the holidays, when you need a break from the all the festivities. University of Toronto Psychology professor Jordan Peterson delivers a truly brilliant lecture on music:

Music affects us in ways that most of us can't quite put it into words, and yet is very much a kind of language. More specifically, how does music produce in the listeners intimations of meaning? How do we translate wave patterns into language of emotions?

Part of me doesn't want to add any comments here on this lecture, it's better if you just listen without me colouring (ruining) what he talks about. The other part of me wants to write really long-winded passages about a number of points and insights uncovered by Peterson. Since it's a Friday just before Christmas, you will be pleased to know that I'll refrain!

One thing I will add: having played music for people professionally for twenty years, the single thing motivating me from the beginning is the awesome power music has to change people by affecting them in ways that nothing else can. How that happens is phenomenally thrilling and inspiring, yet, after all of these years, so much of what music really means has remained a mystery. Even though I've seen it and often helped to guide it along, the "language of emotions" is a beautiful mystery always beyond grasp.

Relating this somewhat back to planning, Professor Peterson does an amazing job explaining the ways that our perceptions build meaning, and in my opinion this is central to what communications is all about. Sure, that's stating the obvious, but knowing that and figuring out how it works are two different things.

Can Designs of the Year

Innovation in bottle design is pretty rare, most just stick to the same old formula. This Coke Blak bottle is beautiful, and you can see more winning bottle designs here. (It's the end of the year, there are lists for everything).

Creativity to the Rescue

Parents with young kids will be familiar with Mega Blocks. The brand has the best slogan: Creativity to the Rescue. How can you beat that? We have a Mega Blocks play area here in Toronto, the twins love it.

We just got word of a new campaign aimed at (Mega) moms, called kidsgetit.com. In addition to kid-friendly stuff at the website like wallpapers and games, there is a separate website for some really interesting and fun videos featuring two kids and a camera interviewing grown-ups. Photos can be found at flickr, too, which is a good idea.

Here is what Scott Goodson, head of StrawberryFrog, the agency behind this effort, has to say about the campaign:

"Moms - or as we call them, 'mega moms' - are very connected with other engaged parents in online communities and peer-to-peer spaces. They love to pass on brands and initiatives which fulfill their values.

"(Mothers) are gate keepers of the home in an increasingly more difficult environment for controlling their kids, due to new technologies and lack of time," Goodson concludes. "Mega Brands and its Mega Blocks, Rose Art and other brands stand for creativity in the home, for imagination and free play - and against the pressures that force kids into very structured lives and being adults too early."

Hurray for Mega Blocks, and I can certainly attest to how much time moms spend online connecting with other moms, it's a really powerful community. Any effort to promote imagination and creativity sounds cool to us.

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What You May Not Know

Looks like I have been tagged by the one and only Asi, which means that I have to come up with five unknown things about me. (Just found out that Clay also tagged me, which is really strange, as I was just about to tag him! Small plannershere).

Warning: I can guarantee mine will most definitely pale in comparison to Asi's, who included some wild stories about Delta Force training, and completing a triathalon.

1. Starting with a personal one: I've been with my wife Henny for roughly twenty years. We are high-school sweethearts, which sounds really corny but it's true, and it's something that I'm (quietly) quite proud of. Because there is little chance she will ever read this, I can reveal that here (shhh).

2. Having spent so much time in clubs, bars, lounges and booze cans, I've recently come to understand just how much I love freaks. Really, this was kind unknown to me, as a result of the fish-in-water syndrome: it's all I ever knew, until recently (now I have a "real" job, surrounded by, ah, normal people). 

Nutty bartenders, obsessed DJs, eccentric promoters, mad music producers and remixers, insane club owners: these have all been family for most of my life, and I love them. Sometimes I think that is why I love having this weblog so much- most of you fellow weblog-geeks are obsessed, passionate freaks, really you are. Why else would you spend so much time doing this? I love meeting and connecting with all of you.

3. Illegal boozecans and after-hours parties. We used to spend a lot of time "borrowing" abandoned warehouse locations for after-hours parties. Since they were strictly word-of-mouth parties held at the very beginning of what was to eventually become a global music movement (house, R.I.P.) it will forever remain a magical part of my life. The sense of grassroots real community was very powerful, I'm glad I was a part of it.

4. When I was about 14 years old I read the Communist Manifesto. Bit odd, but here is some background: my grandfather died in a Greek prison in the late 60's, he was a member of the socialist resistance movement, fighting the Yankee-led (sorry, still in propaganda moe) military junta of 1967-1974. Since as long as I can remember, our family was always talking about philosophy, history and ideology, so in University I ended up doing a degree in Philosophy and History, focusing on Intellectual History. Studied Intellectual History and 20th Century Philosophy, and in a way, it kind of relates to what I am doing now. Sometimes I get a kick out of the vaguely lefty tone of all things 2.0, it feels that there's a bit of idealism still in the air.

5. Poker. Do not mess with me at Poker, as I will inevitably win all of your money. I play poker online, very regularly. It is the ideal combination of strategy and luck, art and science, which means on the basis of its Generalist appeal, it should be played by all planners.

Well, that was not so bad after all, good memories.

Here is who I am tagging:

John Grant - hoping he coughs up some unknown bits of info about analogue gear

our favourite Ny-Lon-er (did I get that right?) Claire Hyland.

Jon over at Living Brands, one of my faves

Someone I have to catch when I'm in London again:Faris

Leland at Whistle Through Your Comb, the man runs a great weblog

Leadership

“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.”

(Norman Szwarzkopf)

Wise words from someone I never thought I'd pull a quotation from. Strategy, planning and theory are great, but the hard part is execution, and that requires strength of character, determination, confidence and skill.
(I think this is true in most things, not just war. Or marketing.)

The Value of Messy

Umair keeps posting gems. Some recent thoughts on Linked In, and the value of being "messy" in a post-network economy have a lot of implications for brands and marketing:

 

In other words, in the post-network economy, (re)learning how to create value is going to be, in large part, about getting messy. This is perhaps Google's deepest - and most jealously guarded - secret.

Forget about economies and cost-cutting and trimming the fat - because that stuff's a commodity. It's not a basis for any kind of advantage.

What is a basis for advantage is exploding what was clean and streamlined yesterday: unlocking new possibilities for value creation which are messy because interactions at the edge are richer, deeper, riskier, and, ultimately, human.

Nussbaum: Best Design, Innovation Books of 2006

The Amazon Wish List grows and grows.

Check out the picks of the year's best from Bruce Nussbaum at Business Week.

Going Down Without a Fight?

 Some recent comments from Martin Sorrell, commenting on the challenge of adapting to the rapid pace of change, via Ad Age.

 

"Our established agencies are not moving fast enough" to adapt to the change, he said. Rather than disregard the fledgling technologies, some of which, like that used by a start-up SpotRunner, could replace companies' need for creative and media ad agencies and ultimately put much of WPP's holdings out of business. That's why Mr. Sorrell is investing in them. "We could ignore it," he said, "but I'm not prepared to preside over a company that gets disintermediated."

Best Buy Gift Finder

The folks at Best Buy have launched a fun, interactive Gift Finder for the Holidays, kind of like the Imagini Gift Finder I wrote about recently.

Someone from Best Buy contacted my to bring this to my attention, which I thought was pretty cool, after noticing the post here about Imagini.

iVillage: Something for the Ladies in Second Life

Head over to Claire's l-e-mental weblog to read all about the fantastic new project they are launching for iVillage in Second Life.

The concept (from my understanding) stems from the idea of a "hud", a kind of branded tour of Second Life, which I think will be one of the huge trends in 2007.

Beginning December 14th, every two weeks the iVillage Girls Night Out events in Second Life will celebrate and showcase great locations, personalities, and content already existing inside of Second Life. Each Girls Night Out evening will be curated by a different Second Life resident and who will lead a tour of interesting local and indigenous locations already established inside Second Life. Tours will range from things like music events, discussions, tutorials, and more.