Welcome to The Spark, home to everything Team Mission Drive has found fascinating this month.
We want to share our world with you – from ideas and concepts we’ve chewed over with friends, to thoughts we’ve had at 3am (only the good ones – promise), to books, TV, and even Tik Tok recommendations.
It’s not a regular newsletter or marketing round up (you can check out and subscribe to our weekly digest Little Missions for that lovely stuff). It’s a bit more personal.
Why? Well, yes we are a marketing team. But first, we are people. The diverse and unique ideas that make us individuals, are also the glue that connects us as humans. So if you’re a human too – we think you might like this.
This month’s Big World Stuff
BRAAM! Where do creative ideas really come from? BRAAM!
You may not know what BRAAM is. But if you’ve seen an action or sci-fi film trailer in the past decade you’ll have experienced it. BRAAM is a loud, assonant noise, a stab of brassy synthesiser, often followed by a moment of silence. Then maybe another BRAAM seconds later. It’s designed to elevate your stress levels, making you pay attention and feel excited.
Where BRAAM came from is a bone of contention, but many point to Neil Blomkamp’s 2009 film, District 9, and Christopher Nolan’s Inception as the films that made it mainstream. Since then, BRAAM has got bigger, bolder and harder to avoid, to the point where it’s almost a cliche. BRAAM caught on because it does a job in trailers that composers might otherwise find hard to do – it focuses our famously short attention spans.
As well as showing what a difference music makes to a visual experience (see the gulf between our original Mission Drive ident and a BRAAM based one we made for giggles – #SoundOn), BRAAM gave producers a new tool to play with, particularly when it came to marketing.
Grabbing attention, and triggering emotion is the heart of great marketing. Sometimes we think this means finding something new. But not so. In fact, jumping on a trend like BRAAM helps an audience connect more easily – because there’s a degree of familiarity.
My first marketing mentor often said that R&D in advertising doesn’t really stand for ‘research and development’ but ‘rip off and duplicate’. And that’s ok. Trends are a good thing. And BRAAM just shows that here’s nothing wrong with jumping on a bandwagon if it gets you where you need to go.
The insanity of infinite growth
Lately I’ve been thinking about the insanity of infinite growth. It sounds arbitrary, but a few things transpired to kick this thought process off: our mad heatwave, the increasing lunacy of fossil fuels, hanging out with some wealthy acquaintances who love to acquire (and show off) Stuff, and my own foray into the ‘good life’ – attempting to grow vegetables, buy less, and go back to my grandma’s era of cleaning products (vinegar and bicarb for the win).
This article in The Conversation came along by chance, and just so happens to echo where I’m at. All about degrowth, it sounds big-timey, economy-heavy, big-read-stressful. But actually it’s not. And it has a pretty simple message at its core that I’ve been musing (and privately championing) for a while. The idea that we as (privileged) individuals have enough. That we don’t need anymore ‘stuff’. The curious human obsession with acquiring objects / clothes / things beyond what we need, only for the dopamine hit or possible perceived status (the latter often being subconscious for many of us).
Have a read. And when you’re done, I’ll see you down at the allotment for some potato harvesting.
If you could meet your future self… would you want to?
Paper Girls is an American Sci-Fi TV series based on the comic book by Brian K. Vaughan. It tells the story of four 12-year-old girls who get into a conflict with time-travellers, sending them on an adventure through time, during which they meet versions of their future selves. But when Erin meets her future 40-year-old self, she’s disappointed. She had so many dreams and aspirations that came to nothing. It was heartbreaking watching her meet her older self and… hate her. It got me thinking. Would I want to meet my future self?
I may not be as young as Erin, but I’ve still got some time before 40, and the same optimism about the future as my younger self. I have career and personal goals, and the thought of not accomplishing them fills me with fear. I’d want to know why it all went wrong. What decisions did I make that turned everything upside down? After all, we’re always one decision away from living a completely different life.
It’s not so much the big things I’m worried about – the ‘dream’ job or house. I care more about the ‘little’ things (which, if you think about it, are the big things). Am I happy? Am I living my real, true, authentic self? Do I have good friends? How is my health and my family?
I don’t know what my 40-year-old self will look like, but there’s some comfort in knowing that 12-year-old me would certainly be proud of 20-something-me, and how far she’s come.
Despite all our plans, I think it’s always important to reflect on how much we’ve already accomplished. Should I ever meet my older self and be disappointed, I would remind myself that we don’t always get the dream house. But we do get pretty damn close.
Paper Girls has not been picked up for a second season by Amazon Prime, but it’s still worth a watch, and who knows maybe it'll get commissioned by someone else in the future…
Lazy days on waterways
Among the Reed - A poem by Hannah K Cottrill
The sun drops behind a cloud….
It’s so peaceful, I can’t hear a sound
Other than the drift of the rippling lake
What a delightful way to take a break
I sit companionless in my canoe
The water before me oranges from blue
As tranquillity I float among the reed
Having no desire to proceed.
The simplicity of canoeing hits the mark for me – to recharge, reset, and forget. Looking on to the land from the river gives a whole new perspective. It’s like an instant reset. The perfect meditative canvas. Dragonflies and lilypads, incredible cloud reflections, a pair of falcons on the prowl. Next stop, Wales. And next time I might write my own poem.
This month's Big Recommendations
Books to borrow
Lessons in Stoicism – John Sellars.
Stoics sometimes have a reputation for being dour and emotionless. But what inspires me about stoicism are the concepts of focusing on what you can control, behaving generously to everyone, and living in harmony with the natural world. All of which are still applicable today. This book is an easy to digest introduction to the classic stoic philosophers and how we can apply their wisdom today.
The Mountain is You – by Brianna Wiest
This book about transforming self-sabotage into self-mastery was gifted to me by a friend. It’s always important to recognise self-sabotaging behaviours, why we do them, and perhaps most importantly how we stop doing them. One example being perfectionism, which often holds us back simply because we’re afraid of failing. The Mountain is You provides wonderful insights on emotional intelligence and self-transformation.
Better Allies – by Karen Catlin
Better Allies is a book about creating a more inclusive culture in the workplace, in particular when hiring and retaining talent. I’m only half-way through, but what’s clear is that allyship is a process. Even folks with wide open minds are constantly learning how to leverage their privilege, and support people who are different from them. The ally journey is perpetually ongoing – but it’s an enlightening, and highly worthwhile road to take.
TV to talk about
Alone is an American reality game show. It follows 10 contestants as they survive totally alone in the Canadian wilderness for as long as possible, with limited survival equipment. It’s nail biting stuff (if you like to bite your nails slowly and thoughtfully). It’s also incredible how resourceful these folks are. From snowstorms, to black bears, to frostbite and parasites – how they survive a day is beyond me. Every season the main takeaway from each contestant is not that they did or didn’t win – but that they’ve unearthed a renewed sense of what matters: family, friends, and love. Perhaps we should all go on Alone (there’s a British version coming soon!)
Westworld is a dystopian sci-fi series, loosely based on the 1973 film by Michael Crichton. The series is bold and big budget, but the reason it’s so well-liked by sci-fi buffs like myself is because of the simple yet effective premise – what if machines were conscious? It constantly brings you back to the struggle between man and machine, showing you the spectrum of humanity, whilst suggesting humanity itself could be mirrored in these sentient machines. All frighteningly similar to their human counterparts…
This three-part documentary on Netflix, delves into the revival of Woodstock 1969, a peace and music festival enjoyed by all. The ‘99 resurrection however, is quite the opposite, featuring rage, drugs, sex – and greed. The documentary features interviews from organisers, attendees, and journalists and you get a nagging sense of dread the more you watch it. Needless to say, there hasn't been talk of a new Woodstock since!
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Take care and we’ll see you next time,
The Mission Drive Team
