Some advertising resolutions we should at least try to keep this year

I’m sure everyone is diligently working toward keeping their resolutions. And personal goals are important.

But as January slumps toward February, I’m thinking that perhaps we could collectively resolve to create a better version of advertising than what we’re doing right now. (And yes, maybe I’ve already flamed out on my personal resolutions and now I need something new to focus on other than the yoga I’m not doing or the water I’m not drinking, but I also truly believe in what I’m getting at here.)

Here are a few resolutions I’d like everyone in our industry to consider making this year:

Think like a human

You know that moment when you’re trying to watch a youtube video and a pre-roll pops up and you groan and count the seconds until you can skip it while loudly proclaiming how much you hate ads?

this year, let’s resolve to remember that moment. Even when it’s our pre-roll we’re talking about. Especially when it’s our pre-roll, our product, our RTBs we’re trying to get across. Because the truth is, when you’re not thinking with your work brain, you don’t give a rat’s ass about ads. And neither do any of the people who see yours.

So as we review work over the next three-hundred-and-fifty-something days, let’s resolve to ask:

“If this weren’t my brand or my product or my ad, would I give half a shit about it? Would I watch it? Would I talk about it? Would I really, truly, even for a second, consider sharing it?”

And let’s not make anything unless the answer is yes.

Get out more often

If everyone you work with is a marketer, if every article you read is about advertising, if your social feeds are full of nothing but pr stunts and ad ideas that make you jealous and branded tweets from Moonpie, you are doing it wrong. (Except for Moonpie.You guys are doing it exactly right.)

This year, let’s give our brains more to chew on. Let’s follow new artists. Study up on industrial design. Read more books.

Let’s watch more weird-ass movies that don’t make sense but look gorgeous. Let’s fall into more internet holes. Let’s learn new stuff, just because it’s fun to figure out how to do something you didn’t know you could.

This year, let’s resolve to gorge ourselves on extra-large portions of all the inspiration we can handle. (Bonus points: less room for the carbs we resolved not to eat.)

Put data in its place

Uncertainty is scary. And we all have increasingly less tolerance for it. I mean, when we know exactly how long it takes us to get anywhere on earth, precisely how often we enter REM sleep every night, and exactly how many of the people we know or have known like the photo we just posted of our burrito, it’s hard to accept anything less than absolutely certainty in our work. But let’s not sacrifice our hearts to our heads.

As we get better at knowing exactly how, when, where, and who we’re targeting, let’s also ask ourselves why we’re there. And let’s resolve to bring a little magic with us when we show up. (and, please, at least once this year, let’s swing for the fences and do something so crazy we can’t begin to predict its impact. It’s good to be scared every once in a while, don’t you think?)

Quit chasing the shiny stuff

I’m not talking about awards (though I have many feelings about how large awards loom in our industry and I’d be happy to talk about those feelings, preferably on a yacht while sipping rosé and lounging beside a jenny-sized sack of golden statues).

I’m talking about the kind of stuff we flock to precisely because we think it’s going to win us awards. Or because a professional disrupter is talking it up on LinkedIn. Or because it seems like everyone else is doing it and we feel like the brand version of a pre-teen girl on Snapchat watching all of her friends at a sleepover she wasn’t invited to.

That’s not to say innovation is bad. In barely a decade, we’ve transformed from an industry that says things into one that makes things, one that does things.

Which is amazing.

Let’s keep kicking the tires on new technologies. And if one makes sense for your brand, by all means, hop in and jam the accelerator all the way down.

But let’s also resolve to take a moment and decide whether we really need an AI-powered roll of toilet paper that connects to your echo and donates a composting toilet to a small village in South America every time you eat a high-fiber granola bar – or whether something a bit less flashy might be just as effective.

Ban the 30-minute meeting

How many 30-minute meetings actually last 30 minutes? In my experience, they are almost always a 45-minute meeting someone decided to cram into 30 minutes in a misguided attempt to be “efficient” or because there wasn’t a whole hour open on the calendar.

Those 45-minute meetings squashing themselves into a 30-minute block are a disaster for all of us. They make us 15 minutes late for the next 30-minute meeting, and from there, it’s just a day-long death march from one conference room to the next. If we don’t even have time to go to the bathroom, how can we make space for the big, strategic thinking that moves our industry forward?

This year, let’s create a little breathing room. Let’s give ourselves a whole hour, even if we think we won’t need it all. Imagine what we could accomplish if we had a moment after each meeting to consider what just happened and to prepare ourselves for what’s coming next.

There’s a reason therapists block off an hour but kick you out after 50 minutes.

Let’s resolve to be less like an old Dilbert cartoon and more like a good therapist. (How does that make you feel?)

Practice gratitude

How amazing is it that we get to spend our days trying to make world-changing ideas? How lucky are we to get paid for the kind of stuff that, as kids, we were happy to do every day for free? Think about how many people toil their entire lives doing work nobody else even sees, much less cares about. While we lucky jerks get to create for a living.

We get to make things that people around the world will encounter, engage with and (come on, please, people around the world, we need at least 20 tweets for this case study video) even share.

We might not be artists, but we’ve got a canvas the size of the world and more tools than anyone in history. Let’s take a moment to appreciate our blessings. And this year, let’s resolve to express our gratitude by making things that don’t suck.

Have a great year. Let me know what resolutions you’d like our industry to tackle. And don’t forget to pack your gym bag for tomorrow. (it is still January, after all.)

By Jenny Nicholson, group creative director, Mckinney. Follow her @missjenny