The work nobody screenshots.
A letter about the invisible decisions behind marketing that actually gets somewhere.
Hi,
Let's talk about the least photogenic part of marketing: deciding.
Not ideation. Ideation photographs beautifully. Whiteboards. Colourful sticky notes. A room full of people saying “What if?”
I mean the part that comes after. When someone has to say: We're going with this. We are not going with that. Here's why.
The thing I've been noticing
A lot of marketing gets judged by what can be shown: the landing page, campaign film, calendar and presentation. But behind the most useful work, somebody usually noticed that the audience was asking a different question than the brand was answering.
They listened, made a call, convinced people and built something that could actually work.
The visible thing is the output. The invisible decision is the work.
One question for the week
Think of a project you've just finished. Instead of listing its assets, write down three decisions that changed the direction: What did you stop? What did you prioritize? What did you learn?
Those decisions are often the most interesting part of your story.
— Swati, out loud.