How to add Spectacle: Where's the battle scene?
It doesn’t matter whether you design vacuum cleaners or brief in sales videos, every now and then you should ask yourself the question, “Where is the battle scene?”.
A dramatic reenactment of Spartacus fighting Romans.
⚔ When Stanley Kubrick was directing Spartacus, he said, "You can't make a spectacle movie and not have a battle scene in it."
Kubrick was referring to the fact that he’d inherited a film script that had missed the point completely. It’s a film about a slave army who battled the Roman army for their freedom, and there was no battle scene!
It’s human nature to become blind to a story when we’re working very hard to produce it day in and day out. For most of us, we’re telling stories about the organisations we work with and those can too easily become pointless.
I think speed and efficiency are key but generally easier to do since you’re basically removing obstacles to help water run downhill faster.
Spectacle needs more. It doesn’t matter whether you design vacuum cleaners or brief in sales videos, every now and then you should ask yourself the question,
“Where is the battle scene?”.
How to add Spectacle: The power of a lobster
🦞Salvador Dali understood the power of a lobster to make a dull telephone absolutely memorable.
Image from tate.org.uk. Art by Salvador Dali
🦞Salvador Dali understood the power of a lobster to make this dull telephone absolutely memorable.
Lobsters may not be your style, so think of a small element you can add to usually humdrum work stuff that will create useful cognitive dissonance (i.e. get some good attention). It can be as simple as a hit of colour in your PPT, or a well devised metaphor in a speech.
Courtesy of the artist Michael Keith Chapman
If you’re not sure where to start, Ivan gets his lobsters here.
Katharina Wittgens uncovers the truth about fluffy towels, eye implants and brand purpose
Katharina is a Business Psychologist and chatted to Alex about the difference between truth and purpose, the importance of getting your values right from the beginning, the facts about fluffy towels in travel plans, and eye implants.
Katharina is a Business Psychologist and the Managing Director at InnovationBubble. She chatted to Alex about the difference between truth and purpose, the importance of getting your values right from the beginning, how fluffy towels effect your travel plans, and eye implants.
The InnovationBubble are a business consultancy who use behavioural science to understand how organisations and brands really work.
She’s advised companies like Virgin Atlantic, Beauty Pie and Habito on finding the hidden psychological influences that affect their business strategies.