March 2023
Focusing on what matters
When the economy is rocky and times are uncertain it’s easy to take a scattershot approach. You think, “If I take a hundred shots, some are bound to score.” But that’s just not how it works. Shooting randomly is a waste of energy, and only the shots on net have any chance of turning into goals. This is where focus comes in, and it’s the theme of this month’s newsletter.
It’s tough to stay focused when you’re a full-service creative agency like Camden. Every client is different. Every project is unique. To succeed, we have no option but to stay laser-focused on strategizing, managing and delivering to the very best of our ability. We also take inspiration from stories like the ones covered below. So enjoy a few minutes of staying focused in our company.
MUST-READS
Automating away creativity?
According to Adobe’s 2023 Digital Trends Report, over 40% of Asia Pacific marketers are considering automating content creation because a lack of time prevents them from coming up with effective creative work. As audience expectations soar with regard to digital experiences, is automation the best way to engage people? In our humble opinion, marketers should consider the true ROI of hiring a creative agency, ideally one that combines local knowledge with global expertise. As we’re seeing with AI tools, churning out tons of average work is easy. But only the ability to focus unique insights can produce the unexpected ideas that connect with customers in a meaningful, lasting way. And that takes an agency.
Prebunking helps focus on facts
While the word “debunking” has been around for decades, Google has coined a variation for the fake news age: “prebunking”. The term refers to a series of videos created by the tech giant that aim to inoculate viewers against disinformation by giving them tools to spot false claims online. The basic idea is that prevention is better than cure, and following a pilot campaign in Eastern Europe, Google now plans to roll out videos in Germany and India on Facebook, TikTok and, of course, YouTube.
A European light sanctuary
Not only does light pollution have a negative impact on many ecosystems, it also prevents astronomers and regular folk from focusing on the stars and planets that cover the sky on a clear night. The International Dark Sky Association has just designated Bardsey Island in Wales as Europe’s first Dark Sky Sanctuary, one of only 16 in the world. Here’s hoping that the designation doesn’t attract too many visitors pointing their mobile phones up at the heavens...
SNAPSHOT
Pro focus
Canadian actor Olivia Gudaniec’s recent photo shoot for Camden client Transitions lenses demonstrates how planning, preparation and performance in front of the lens are key to creating professional content.
BY THE NUMBERS
145 million
At Camden, we’re tuned into AI tools and the ways we can use them to improve workflow or help our clients. And while we focus on working in English and French for our clients in North America and Europe, we also do work in Chinese at our Hong Kong office. So we were fascinated to learn that Chinese companies are developing their own generative AI models to compete with ChatGPT and DALL-E. One, owned by Baidu, is called ERNIE-ViLG, and has been trained on 145 million Chinese image-text pairs.
Source
EARWORTHY
Perfectionism. Good or bad?
Focusing on an ideal outcome rather than the pleasure of being in the flow of work sometimes gets a bad rap. Perfectionism can be seen as an excuse for procrastination, an over-expenditure of energy, or even as an unhealthy mental habit! But in this episode of LinkedIn’s Hello Monday podcast, author and psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Schafler discusses how to accept who you are and how to manage life’s biggest challenges.
