Five things on Friday #389
Oh, silly season.
Things of note for the week ending Friday December 6th, 2024.
#389
INTRO
Hello hello.
It’s been at least six weeks since I’ve been able to find time to write to you and, well, what can I say other than I’ve missed you. I’ve missed the words. I’ve missed this.. interface. I’ve missed having the time to dedicate to pour this newsletter out each and every week… I’ve missed all of it. You see, this time of year gets a bit busy, generally, and work-wise things have also been a BIT cray-cray.
Back-to-back Halloween and Christmas campaigns - one I can tell you about (see bonuses, later), one I can’t (well, nearly) have meant early morning starts, later finishes, and barely a moment to rest inbetween. When you’re getting to the end of doing the hours (95% of them WFH), the idea of opening your laptop on the same desk for another couple of hours to write a newsletter (when you could be cooking, walking, playing with the kids) - well, the maths don’t quite add up.
This isn’t an apology. One of my quieter rules about this thing is that I never say sorry for it being late (Five things on Friday arrives exactly when it wants to) but it’s more …an explanation.
And hey, I would’ve written a shorter one, but I didn’t have the time.
What else can I tell you?
Oh, how about a timely reminder that yes, I too am on Bluesky.
I’ve figured how to do the verification thing with whatleydude dot com (which is why there’s no bsky.social in my username - so fancy), so if you haven’t clicked on the link above you can instead search for @whatleydude and you’ll find me. The website verification thing is also a good way to know it’s actually definitely the person/company you’re talking to (you can find out how to do that here - shout if you need a hand, you’ll need access to your domain’s control panel).
OH, and in case it’s useful I went ahead and made you a starter pack of interesting people.
If you like it, share it x
EDIT: BREAKING NEWS: HOW AWESOME IS THIS?
FIVE DAYS AGO I ASKED ‘HOW CAN YOU EMBED BLUESKY SKEETS INTO BUTTONDOWN?’ AND BUTTONDOWN REPLIED MADE IT A FEATURE.
LOOK!
https://bsky.app/profile/whatleydude.com/post/3lc65phskq224 this is how [contains quote post or other embedded content]
— Buttondown (@buttondown.com) 2024-12-05T21:17:50.551Z
Round of applause the amazing folk at Buttondown for this level of service. Hooray!
/EDIT
-
Finally, perhaps as an adjacent point on this social platform section of the intro, given everything going over at X/Twitter these days (waves hands vaguely), I’m reasonably close to nuking my entire Twitter account. I’ve not posted there since July last year and I think my dormant account still being alive is starting to bother me. We’ll see how we go.
For those that want to, this is a good guide for doing it properly.
-
Right then, where were we?
Ah yes, Five things on Friday #389. it’s one of those editions where I’ve no idea what’s the under the #5things tag in my inbox.
Cross your fingers we’ve got some good stuff down here, huh?
Shall we?
—
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. AWE AND THE ELASTICITY OF TIME
This is gorgeous.
Becca Caddy writes:
I once felt time stand still.
It was midnight, and I was on a tiny boat off the coast of a tiny island, which itself was off the coast of a slightly larger island, just west of Cambodia. I climbed over the edge of the tiny boat, melting into the dark water, wearing a rapidly deflating life jacket. Others aboard did the same, silently submerging their shaking limbs with wide eyes.
I kicked my legs. Telling myself to focus on the cool, velvety sea water and not my barely-there life jacket or the definitely-not-there coastline—it had taken a long trip away from the shore to get us here, after all. I wondered how tall a building would need to be to fit between the soles of my feet and the sea bed, hundreds of metres below. Then, a warning cry. The light at the front of the boat that had guided us from land was switched off. Suddenly, complete and utter darkness.
But only for a second, because the sky exploded into view. I threw my head back to see it was illuminated by stars. More stars than I thought possible. It felt electric to realise that I could see the hazy blue band of the Milky Way arch like a great arm overhead, even trace the faint smudge of Andromeda, our galactic neighbour, my eyes darting through the dark depths. It felt like I spent hours not mere moments analysing each patch of sky, hunting for more cosmic treasures.
Sometimes a piece of writing grabs you from the get go. Becca’s words did that to me on this one. And from what starts out as a story about an incredible travelling experience turns out into a dance of exploration into what it means to be truly in awe of something - and why that matters.
Life is for living.
Be in it. Now.
THING 2. SILLY SEASON IS HERE
In advermarketingpr*, ‘silly season’ is when:
You find yourself counting the days down until you break up for Christmas.
Clients get taken out by multiple agencies. Existing to say ‘Thanks for the work, Merry Christmas, etc’, and prospective future partners to say ‘Sack those other ones, we’re much nicer; here have some more wine’.
Agencies have multiple clients to take out - new ones, old ones, prospective ones. Lunch after lunch after lunch.
Senior players on both sides have their even fancier ones, led by top brass.
All of the above have their own respective Christmas parties to go to.
Other parties of note will also be happening.
Oh, and there will almost certainly be ‘One last push for the work’ - on a pitch, a campaign, or something else.
Point is: it’s called silly season for a reason.
You’re lurching from a lunch to a dinner to an awards do to a lunch… did I mention how silly it gets? Side: a handful of winters ago The DMA Awards were on the same night as the Digitas Christmas party - we went to the former, ate the first course, won gold (natch), necked a bottle of fizz, and then got a cab to the party - half-cut, half-dressed, but arriving with our award in hand…
Silly.
ANYWAY, that’s rather a lot of pre-amble to say: at some of these reasons for coming together, YOU might be expected to network, or to meet NEW people - which, even for extroverts, is sometimes difficult.
So here’s master-connector extraordinaire, one Oli Barratt, with some genuinely excellent tips on how to approach networking situations this Christmas.
‘Get better at saying hello’ - is a tremendous piece of direction.
-
(*copyright, Matt Muir)
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN… GAMING
Quite a few gaming and gaming-adjacent things this week… and, while you read it, why not enjoy this hour-long YouTube playlist of some of the best Jungle music to ever appear in video games?
For this section I want to talk about three things:
Games NOW.
Games THEN.
Games NEXT.
GAMES NOW: HOW TO BRIEF FOR TRAILERS IN VIDEO GAMES
A few weeks ago I saw this excellent trailer briefing guide from well-known game trailer editor, Derek Lieu. In it, Derek steps through what he describes as the best way to write a ‘creative brief’ for game trailers.
If you’re a budding developer and you’re trying to make the best of what you’ve got with gameplay, this is an excellent place to start.
However, while I don’t doubt for a second that the trailer is a key part of the games marketing process, I would perhaps push back slightly on the differences here between an execution (a game trailer) and a creative idea (a concept).
To me, a creative brief is about getting to an idea first and then figuring out how to bring that idea to life.
I appreciate tHiNgS aRe DiFfErEnT iN gAmEs but I also know how advertising works. And actually some games have done a very good job of getting to a conceptual piece of creative first before then going down the traditional/boring announcement beats of: REVEAL! GAMEPLAY! RELEASE DATE! (yawn).
And so because I can’t help it when things need to be written down, I put a whole bunch of this thinking into a mega-thread on Bluesky earlier this week - along with some good examples of what a conceptual creative ad is vs a gameplay trailer (with more coming in).
Mainly: how to use a consumer insight (or at least make an attempt at finding one better than ‘these people bought our game last time’). But still, the thread contains some of my favourite examples of games that did this right.
NB: Trailers I've briefed to be edited: 0. Award-winning ad campaigns that have gone on to be mega effective: lost count.
Believe who you want x
—
In a break from tradition, this week’s TWIG (not as catchy as VGIM, but then, not as well written either so you gets what you pay for) kicks off with:
GAMES NOW: WHAT IS JAMES PLAYING?
Because honest-to-goodness, since I completely crumbled to the march of capitalist consumerism and ended up buying a PlayStation 5 Pro, the only game I have spent any real time playing is the-freshly-updated-and-full-4K/60fps-showing NO MAN’S SKY.
I’ve talked about this game before. So many times. And to be fair, I was gently getting back into it before the PS5 Pro arrived but, making the switch between consoles, on a proper 120hz screen… I gave a ‘Wow’ out loud and, well, haven’t looked at another game since.
Yeah, I’ve booted up Spidey and Horizon, just to check those ones out. Hell, even STAR WARS OUTLAWS has had a fairly hefty lift from the Pro benefit… but NMS is where it’s at for me.
Nothing else comes close.
Now excuse me, I’ve got a few expeditions to catch up on.
Minor update: I wrote the above earlier in the week, since then Marvel Rivals has arrived (today), Space Marines 2 launched a free trial, and a code for Rise of the Ronin landed in my inbox - so… a weekend of gaming then?
GAMES THEN: RETRO QUICK HITS
So much goodness, so little time. These are quick hits of retro game news that I couldn’t bear to ignore:
N64DD-D-D-D-DEV KIT
Way back in the late 90s, Nintendo announced and [eventually] launched exclusively in japan the Nintendo 64DD; an attachment peripheral for the N64. Well, somebody got their hands on a dev kit for one last month and UNBOXED THE BEAUTY. That’s it, that’s the news.STREET FIGHTER 2 ON THE SEGA MASTER SYSTEM
Yes it existed. Yes it’s real. Yes, a Brazilian game company tricked Capcom into approving it with some actual magic and wonder (this ten minute YouTube video explains how).
GAMES NEXT: NEWS BITES ABOUT STUFF WHAT’S COMING
(this is tenuous at best)
Is the end of the GAME high street store nigh? Well, if it is - here’s how that’s happened.
REJOICE! PlayStation made a good brand ad! Well done to all involved (extra special well done for all the 30th anniversary stuff too). Look out for it on the telly.
BIG POKEMON TRAINER NEWS! No, really. Turns out, actual Pokemon Go players have unwittingly submitting their activity to train AI (because of course it is). Putting this here because the opening qualifier could pretty much be swapped out for anything you've ever put online.
Photos of your kids? Used to train AI.
Posts on Bluesky? Used to train AI.
This newsletter you're reading, almost certainly scraped and used to train AI.
The lack of opt in (let alone any attempt at an opt out - lol, imagine) on ANY of this does make me feel more than a little bit sick. Regulation when?THE GAMING WRAP UPS ARE COMING! The Xbox one is out, the PlayStation one is due on the 10th, and Nintendo’s.. well, that’ll come whenever they decide to do it. Point is: I get to do my data sheets again. Here’s last year’s:
I’m v excited about this… Games! Data! Wrapped! It really is gaming strategist Christmas…
And that’s it for GAMES STUFF right now.
Onwards.
THING 4. JUDGING THE EUROBEST AWARDS
Look at this lovely lot.
A few weeks ago, after some significant online sorting, the brilliant, talented and may I say (on average) achingly cool judges (look at them! ignore the other guy - look at them!) for the Entertainment category at the Eurobest Awards met IRL to deliberate over the final shortlist and, between us, agree on which work wins metal this year.
I’ve already written a fairly gushing Linkedin post about how great literally everything about the process has been but what I will do is direct you to the shortlist which has some fantastic work from all across the region.
Good luck to all involved - final awards are announced on Dec 11th.
THING 5. ONE MORE THING ABOUT AI
A healthy reminder:
‘There is no ethical way to use the major AI image generators. All of them are strained on stolen images, and all of them are built for the purpose of deskilling, disempowering and replacing real, human artists’
-Molly Crabapple
BONUS SECTION
THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.
ENJOY.
My first campaign for The LEGO Group was THIS. Halloween! Influencers! LEGO Fortnite Islands!
Fun fact, I rewrote the opening from THRILLER and read it out to the creatives - in complete darkness - as the opening to the brief. Yeah. You wanna go do ya?Additionally on the work front, the monster OOH campaign for the launch of STAR WARS HUNTERS that I led the pitch and strategy for picked up a Silver at the Entertainment Clios. So proud of the team that worked on this. A huge shout to my old junior strategist, Zoe Mann, one of the first campaigns you worked on from start to finish and WHAT A HIT! Congrats pal :)
With all the flurry of movement from Twitter/X over to Bluesky et al, you might be a) on the fence or b) worried about your communities. I wrote about that a while back and it might still be relevant.
My amazing talented friend, Marshall Manson, was asked by The FT to write A Diner’s Notebook piece on ‘The eternal search for a good table’. It’s brilliantly written, with a lightness of touch - and a wry smile throughout. I hope you like it.
I went to a secret dinner and learned a secret about Brussels sprouts.
The history of the power lunch (without men). This is a delightful read. More please.
In news that stunned absolutely no one / everyone (please delete depending on how much BS you’ve either read or spout on the topic), Nike is shutting down its $1bn dollar web3 darling purchase, RTFKT, to move onto a ‘new chapter’. Riiiiight. Look, I’m not saying please expect dot swoosh to be reshaped and reformed (especially under the new CE) as a cool clothes-in-gaming thing but I’m also not not saying that. Oh, and can you hear that? That silence? That’s the sound of tens of Web3 nutters not writing about how badly they got this wrong.
'Why are UK trains so bad?' WELL.
Work in social? Here's the RNIB's official guide on how to make accessible social media.
Meeting deadlines, a poem.
I asked Threads what I should get my sister for her birthday. Threads was VERY THREADS about it, so I turned the replies into a birthday card.
Colin Farrell's actual voice coming out of The Penguin's mouth (Threads link).
A candid chat about video games and hate campaigns with Abukabar Salim
‘Her father left her 10,000 records. Sharing them online helped her grieve – and get to know him’ - there is something quite beautiful about this.
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
I turned 45 a week or so ago. It was lovely. Chilled with the kids on the day (and the day after). A handful of friends round for a whisky tasting at the weekend (and OK maybe some bubbles and a spot of dancing in the kitchen disco). A quick child-free trip to the country (accidentally extended by some good fortune with Storm Bert) and just a lovely long week of gorgeous happiness.
Made me feel extremely grateful for what I have. We’re not here that long you know. Make it count.
Until next time,
Whatley out x
Five thing on Friday will always be free.
However, if you want to chuck a couple of quid directly to the running costs then you can do that at these links:
You can sign up to an annual sub (no minimum amount required - people have dropped £20-£50 on this link, which is nice).
Or a one off pay whatever you want donation right here.
100% of all your dollar will go on Buttondown fees (and anything left over at the end of my first year with Buttondown will go direct to men’s mental health charity, CALM). Promise.