The power of collective wisdom

Jack Soll at Duke analysed 28,000 forecasts from professional economists

The best economists outperformed average economists by 5pc

But the average prediction of the best economists outperformed average by 15pc

In Rebel Ideas

John Cleese on perspective blindness

In the excellent Rebel Ideas

Once off the biggest problems with group effort - social loafing

Via Matthew Syed in The Sunday Times

Unfortunately, many brands seem to have taken John Lyon’s joke about generating taglines seriously

In Hey Whipple Squeeze This

The power of an inventive product demonstration

In a one day stunt in Vancouver, 3M put a load of cash behind their security glass and say anyone who can smash it open it (by kicking) can have $3m

Luke Sullivan on how to judge outdoor ads

A far more realistic approach than poring over them for half an hour in a meeting room

In Hey Whipple Squeeze This

In his book Making Decisions ⁦Ed Smith
argues progress often comes when you’re prepared to accept a decline in a metric that others aren’t

He specifically mentions Rio Grande Vipers, one of 1st teams to try for more 3 pointers in 🏀. But the idea extends to business

Michael Foot on the art of a good presentation

Via The Week

In our latest podcast exploring the behavioural science secrets of the world's best brands MichaelAaron Flicker and I look at Red Bull

And how they draw on ideas like the pratfall effect and price relativity to power their success youtube.com/watch?v=DKwBvm…

Double Nobel prize winner, Linus Pauling, on the best way to a good idea

In Hey Whipple Squeeze This

Lovely analogy from Ken Haemer on the importance of tailoring a presentation to the audience

In the excellent How to Win Every Argument by Mehdi Hasan

Keen to apply behavioural science to marketing?
If so, I've created a comprehensive video based, self paced course.
It's focussed on the practical and creative applications of the topic. The fist cohort of the year opens today and we'll take booking till the end of April.
Any…

If a basic design requires written explanation, there’s probably something wrong with the design

Annie Lamott on writer’s needing to be OK with crappy first drafts

In Hey Whipple Squeeze This

Marketers often have an unhealthy obsession with efficiency - in many circumstances the Principle of Redundancy might be of more value

In the excellent Why Does the Pedlar Sing by Paul Feldwick

Perhaps British Gas could take a leaf out of ScotRail’s book

British Gas. Gas for Britain

The generation effect is the idea that if you get the audience to put a little processing effort in, it’ll make the message more memorable

Nicely applied by Aviva (Adam & Eve) - their campaign features 30 different executions targeted to the crossword / puzzles sections

Maurice Saatchi on simplicity

In Hey Whipple Squeeze This

Bill Bernbach on brands not being different just for different’s sake

In Hey Whipple Squeeze This

Martin Weigel on the poor psychology of expecting clients to buy 'brave' creative work