No 14 – The Experience Superhighway

Welcome subscribers new and old.

Why have I named this week's newsletter the Experience Superhighway? Well, I’ve completed a LinkedIn Learning Metaverse and NFTs in Marketing course in the background and they mentioned the Information Superhighway and though that could be a thing to help explain the Metaverse and where we are as consumers and employees, or not. Plus, COVID. yes, I’m currently working at half speed and suffering from brain fog, but I had enough that I wanted to talk about to grab a Lemsip and power through.

On the plus side, this one should be a short one. (Expect typos) So, let’s jump right in and look at…

Purpose:

Congrats to Union Roasted for getting B Corp Status. This is exactly the type of company you’d expect to get B Corp and use it effectively to instigate change within the industry. I’ll be dropping an order soon!

Nespresso, on the other hand have also just gained B Corp status. Not the sort of company that on the face of should be a B Corp candidate. Not only do they have a non-sustainable business model, but they are also owned by Nestle, a brand that I dislike greatly due to the baby formula, and many other scandals over the years.?

However, B Corp status doesn’t mean that Nespresso have solved all their ills, it means that they are signed up to a framework and commitment of constant improvement and reporting. When you see it in this light and you see what they are trying to do to be better, then it makes a lot more sense. Still, Nespresso has a long way to go to remove it’s 14bn+ single use aluminium capsules from potential landfill. What’s better than recycling? Not making them in the first place.

Maybe, Musk should buy them and use the aluminium to make more SpaceX rockets?

B Labs do need to do a better job of explaining what their purpose is. There’s too much “How has this been allowed to happen?” in the comments, rather than “amazing, another company that’s going to be less douche to people and the planet in the future”?thanks to B Labs. Has Nespresso devalued the B Corp status? Or is it a good thing?

Sage, the British accounting tech titan that’s had an identity issue since before Xero came along has had a brand refresh, a long overdue one at that. From speaking to people inside and outside of Sage, it feels like a company that’s getting its stride back and even a bit of a swagger.

It always takes time for me to decide if I like new branding, but it’s definitely an improvement and they’ve backed it up with commitments. A rebrand (sorry refresh) isn’t just a new look or logo.

New look and feel to come to life through:

Sage Membership Masterclass proposition for customers. New sporting partnerships benefiting customers and communities. New services in the digital network, including Accounting and Compliance as a Service (ACaaS). New advertising campaign featuring Sage customers.

Xero by their nature were always clearer on their purpose and Sage after decades of acquisition and legacy wasn’t.?Sage CEO, Steve Hare has been in post for over 3 years and under his stewardship, they have done good job of making Sage relevant again, with much of that coming recently and will continue as they roll out the refresh.

Moving on to Customer Experience

This week I Googled my name to prove a point that it’s far too generic and failed as I’d been featured in The Drum. Career goal achieved? Well, I’d featured in the story about the dating app called Thursday that mentioned the other week and the apparent follow-up anger from creatives. “Exposure doesn’t pay the bills’: is Thursday’s crowd-sourced Tube ad exploitative?”.

You can make your own mind up, but as I put to fellow Drum featurer and idea genius Charlie, I don’t think getting creative ideas was ever really the point of George Rawlings post. Many of the ideas were probably not new, but I think it was far more about building community and awareness of the brand, plus a large dollop of fun. Fun you just wouldn’t get with a creative team sat on bean bags drinking green juice (See my recommendations of what to watch for the tie in).

Google is now letting users request to remove their phone numbers, physical addresses, and email addresses from the company's search results. Plus, Google’s new user controls let you limit ads about weight loss, parenting and more. A very welcome addition after watching the amazingly shocking and impactful Dove Toxic Influence advert where they use AI to put the words of toxic influencers into the mouths of mothers. Much more needs to be done by Meta, TikTok et al, but this is an impactful campaign by a brand with a clear purpose! Well done, Alessandro and the team at Dove.

I cannot leave this section without a mention of the legendary Scott Brinker and?Martech Day 3rd May 2022. A must if you've got an interest in the 2022 Martech Landscape, the State of Martech 2022 Report and Stackies 2022, the Marketing Tech Stack Awards.

And last but never least, Employee Experience

If you feel like working remotely permanently is an infinitesimal crapshoot because no one has made a discission on the future of work, then take heart from AirBnB who have announced that their staff can work remotely forever. Nice one, Lucius and the board for making a decision that your employees can feel empowered by and start to make plans for their future alongside their careers.

What to watch covers the EX space and mainly how not to do it.

This week, I watched Panorama – Post Office Scandal. It still makes me sick, but if you’re not aware. The Post Office is responsible for the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history over nearly two decades. It’s an example of how people put more faith in technology that their employees and tried to cover the whole thing up. This Panorama episode puts the people whose lives were destroyed face to face with the facts taken from thousands of emails and documents.

The other show I recommend is “the Dropout” on Disney+, this is the story of the scandalous and true story of Theranos and its green juice drinking founder Elizabeth Holmes. It’s a story of when people put too much faith in one person to deliver a miracle solution and her attempts to give herself enough runway to make it a reality. If the show is to be believed, her intentions, though not pure, were good but as time went on, she found herself falling further and further away from the truth to keep her dreams alive. In perticular, it was how she changes as a person and how she starts to treat her employees that really grabbed me. It’s a fascinating watch and great to see Stephen Fry acting again. Well worth a binge.

That’s a wrap. I’m off to sleep for the weekend and hopefully be red line free for bank holiday Monday. Have a good one whatever you’re doing and stay safe.?