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Deep in north London under a heavily graffitied railway bridge, hidden away between a brewery and an unglamourous train station entrance, is a little coffee shop. So little, in fact, that you may very well miss it. If it weren’t, that is, for a small yellow sign. How can one simple sign so successfully capture the hearts (and wallets) of rushing daily commuters and achieve a consistently long customer queue trailing out of the door? As professional creatives and communicators we can sometimes get very wrapped up in trying to provide content which shows off our clever use of language or a ‘new’ approach. Innovative content is a key element of good copywriting, but that innovation does not have to mean complexity. The ‘coffee’ sign works so effectively because it isn’t trying too hard to be clever. As a passerby, I am immediately informed of something that may be of interest, and in a design style which cleverly mirrors street signage. It is beautifully integrated into its urban setting and its language is quick, immediate and accessible. In understanding their audience (busy individuals, likely mid-commute), this coffee shop has identified that its success probably lies in being a quick pit-stop en-route to somewhere else, not a destination in itself. The effectiveness of this sign reminds me of something a friend once said to me many years ago when I was considering whether I could make writing into a viable career. “The art of good communication is not just the ability to be understood, but the inability to be misunderstood.” It’s a thought well worth a moment’s reflection for all brand and marketing communications professionals, perhaps even over a quick coffee from your favourite coffee shop? If you’d like help communicating your brand story, please get in touch with us at DMA Partners. hello@dma-partners.com dma-partners.com

How many times do you walk past a sign on the street and read it? In other words, how much visual noise in our built environment has ‘stopping power’? Difficult to answer and quantify, we know, as we see, filter, read and retain information subconsciously from the thousands of messages around us every day. We exist in a highly visual culture, where every street corner is a communication touchpoint. There is pressure on brands to keep producing new content to be noticed. We feel it at DMA Partners. It’s one of the reasons why we maintain our regular blogs. Sharing content is a way for brands to connect with their audiences and make sure that when the services they offer are needed, they are on the radar for clients. But more content does not always equate to more engagement. So how exactly can your brand stand out? Shunning witty copy and clever graphics in favour of simplicity, one North London pub has created a sign which speaks to the pub ethos: simple, reliable, good. Their message is simple. “Under old management”. The copy is witty. In announcing proudly that things have not changed, and positioning permanency as its USP, the pub is cleverly attesting to a history of quality and giving people what they want. New does not always mean better. Sometimes what consumers are after is reliability and familiarity. This pub has managed to stand out by doing the opposite of what many others do. So maybe the next step in your brand strategy is not a radical re-design, but rather emphasising the quality of the features of your product or service that your customers truly appreciate. In an environment where there is constant pressure for innovation and novelty, perhaps it’s time to flip the narrative and look inward at what is already working well? To contact DMA Partners: hello@dma-partners.com

Since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has fast become an integral part of our professional lives. And with some (good old-fashioned) screaming media hype, it’s become impossible to ignore. Being human (and yes, this blog piece was written by a human, not AI), ignore was my first reaction, together with a little sulk in the corner as I read again and again about how ChatGPT will radically change the way copywriting is done, and de facto, how I and thousands like me may not be, ahem, ‘required’ any more. ChatGPT is a large language model trained by OpenAI with the ability to generate high-quality content quickly and efficiently. It’s a potential game-changer for professional copywriters facing tight deadlines and editorial pressure to produce persuasive, engaging content that resonates with their target audience. With natural language processing (NLP) capabilities it can generate content that is tailored to specific industries, niches and audiences, making it possible to create highly relevant and targeted content. It all sounds good, and it has many of us thinking (and fretting, too). But the more experimenting we’ve done, the less we’re fretting. ChatGPT can definitely help streamline the content creation process by automating some of the groundwork (or is that grunt work?). But I haven’t read much AI generated copy that is a delight to read, or surprising, or nuanced or subtle, nor daringly or beautifully written. And that is the kind of copy that, in our experience, reaches people. Because people are not just segments, targets and demographic groups. They have sophisticated, complex and nuanced capacity to read, feel, interpret and process information. Universities have survived Google, print publishing has survived iPads and Kindles, while hotel chains have survived (and are thriving) post AirBnB. Life is big enough to allow multiple and simultaneous truths. ChatGPT is a crazily powerful tool, and we can use it for some of our work some of the time, but at DMA Partners we are using it as a call to action, a rallying cry to continue doing what we do best - writing with spark, flair and with a genuine human connection to the people and world around us. Shakespeare never saw snowflakes framed and lit in the light of passing cars, nor nighttime NYC, nor the face of an intimate and distant moving image of smiling friends on a smartphone screen. Change, beauty and possibility are all around us. It is our most human characteristic to aspire and to reach for better. So how about if we do just that? hello@dma-partners.com dma-partners.com

“True alchemy lies in this formula: ‘Your memory and your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse’.” ― Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations. In today’s ever so slightly manic world, it can feel as if there’s a constant pressure to produce the ‘next big idea.’ That’s big with a capital B of course. And when the pressure to create is full on, we can easily just give up. So how to reconnect? How can we rediscover our creative flow? Perhaps we need to stop running, to stand still and just observe, to ground ourselves again in the world. Let’s call it trusting alchemy. Its potential is all around us in our everyday routines. PEOPLE Brandon Stanton mastered alchemy with Humans of New York, an interview series offering a glimpse into the lives of strangers on the streets of NYC. Stanton documents his connection with thousands of individuals in photographs and a subtle, narrative style that reads as an ode to the spirit and humanity of people. The result is a living collection of stories that has captured the attention of millions across the globe. NATURE Biomimicry is the emulation of nature to solve human design challenges. The clothing fastener VELCRO was invented after George de Mestral noticed the seeds of a burdock plant sticking to his socks and dog's fur on a mountain walk. Wetsuits are modelled on the thick fur of beavers; LED lights owe their intensity to the exoskeletons of firefly lanterns; and the most cutting-edge artificial limbs revolutionising medicine mimic the features of an elephant trunk. Nature can also be a muse to artists. Vincent Van Gogh’s devotion to the ‘language of nature’ gifted us some of the world’s most loved artworks. The Starry Night (1889) is one of the most transfixing examples of how our senses and memories can lead to magical demonstrations of creativity. Even during his darkest times at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, he repeatedly painted the view from his window, capturing nature bathed in sun, clouds, rain… and most famously, the swirling, glistening, cosmic drama of stars. MUNDANITY When Andy Warhol placed a symbol of mass production and everyday culture into an artistic context, he created the iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962). Warhol ate soup for lunch every day for 20 years. His mother also used to cut up tin cans and turn them into flowers, which he would then paint. An observer of consumerism and lover of bold advertising, Warhol used elements from his daily life, breaking down the division between art and life. Our inspiration really can be close at hand. Where do you see alchemy in our world? hello@dma-partners.com dma-partners.com Images by Getty: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/peace-in-the-city-royalty-free-image/1184877467?phrase=standing%2Bin%2Bfast%2Bcrowd and Wikipedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg#filelinks

Rebecca Bau Gaspar, Copywriter and Content Editor, DMA Partners It’s a slumberous Sunday in Australia and I’m swinging on a peach-coloured egg chair on my godmother’s veranda. There are plants in odd pots and jars. Lanterns and beads hang from wooden beams above me. My godmother and I are chatting dreamily about life, philosophy and humanity, the way you do in the warmth of a long, lazy afternoon. The conversation lulls into a happy quiet. “I’m not a creative person,” she suddenly declares. My godmother, who has built this backyard utopia, who crochets intricate, one-of-a-kind blankets for her loved ones, who could fill dozens of cookbooks with her kitchen experiments, and who has transformed my worldview with her insights into spirituality. I am stunned. Since that day, I’ve talked to many people about their understanding of creativity: an interior designer, a small business owner, a teacher… all with different perceptions of the word, and none of them seeing themselves as ‘creative.’ We eulogise over figures like Steve Jobs and label them ‘creative geniuses.’ We debate nature vs. nurture, left-brained vs right-brained, artistic expression vs utilitarian output. Our obsession with creativity is all over the place. Just as thinly spread and omnipresent, apparently, is our incomprehension of it. The changing definitions, the misconceptions, the grandeur, the buzz… I think many of us are left feeling alienated and overwhelmed. People can easily feel a cavernous disconnect between their perception of what’s accepted and lauded as creative in society and their own abilities. Creativity, though, is a nuanced phenomenon. That gives us room–the creative license–to take ownership of the label and call ourselves ‘creatives’ amidst all the noise. Maybe that simple act will empower us to truly connect with our creative selves, whatever that means for us. Call it placebo, imposter syndrome, manifestation, whatever you’d like. Or call it science. Dumas and Dunbar’s 2016 study on creative stereotypes shows creativity is a highly malleable product of perspective. One group of mixed college students were told to think of themselves as eccentric poets, another group as rigid librarians (the control group were let be). They each invented uses for ordinary objects like a fork and a carrot. The ‘eccentric poets’ came up with the most varied and unique ideas. Interestingly, the physics majors channelling their inner poets invented more uses than the art majors in the other groups! So, perhaps being creative is simply a matter of feeling uninhibited; free to channel our perception of creativity into who we are and see what we can make out of it. That Sunday in the Zen Garden, surrounded by beauty and small acts of creation, my godmother and I gave each other permission to call ourselves ‘creatives.’ And maybe that’s an important step for all of us to take to explore creativity in all of its colour and possibility. hello@dma-partners.com dma-partners.com Image by Freepik

Tell us a bit about your journey to get to the position you're in today. I studied Law at the University of Sydney and worked in the legal industry in Australia for 4 years, but I really began as an aspiring author when I was 6 years old. I spent my childhood writing stories, creating magazines and reading with a torch under the bed covers. That love of words has never left me. Since then, I've always been drawn to roles that allow me to work with stories and communication. I also have a business degree, and have worked in marketing, media and public relations as I couldn't resist the pull to the creative industries. I knew the copywriting position at DMA Partners would be the perfect way to continue my creative career. What has been the most exciting thing about working at DMA Partners? The learning opportunities definitely, with both the DMA team and clients. Everyone at DMA brings enthusiasm and expertise to their job. It's been great to see how the team combine their different skills and ideas for each project. There's a real sense of synergy that I'm grateful to experience as I learn about so many different elements of the creative industry. Our clients also have an endless wealth of knowledge that is continuously opening my eyes to the world. What do you do in your spare time? Does it influence your work? Arts & culture never fail to inspire me; I recently went to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona and took 126 photos, all of works that sparked an idea or feeling that I might return to later! I also love journaling and collaging, which is a fun way of experimenting with the interplay between words and visuals. That is to a large degree what we do as professional communicators. You need both. Are there any books or films you recommend to people in the creative industry? Whilst a controversial book for many reasons (including its religious and pseudoscientific undertones), I think many messages in The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron are timeless. Living a creative life encompasses exploring the world and people around you to uncover new sources of inspiration; allowing energy to guide your art; nurturing your artistic self with 'morning pages' and 'artistic dates'. It’s worth a read to re-energise, re-think and maybe have a few colourful conversations with friends.

Rebecca Bau Gaspar, Copywriter and Content Editor, DMA Partners “Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.” —Bruce Garrabrandt. I’ve always loved this quote. It makes the mundane seem magnificent and makes creativity feel accessible. But I have never connected with it more than last night. My parents are visiting me in Madrid, and one of the best perks is exclusive access to the bathtub in their hotel suite. Last night I spent a magical two hours floating. I closed my eyes and breathed in the bath salts swirling and dissolving in the water, no sound but the soft crackle of a candle. Within minutes, I entered a deep, trancelike state of relaxation and disconnectedness. A complete weightlessness. I felt entirely out of sync with the world outside and it was wonderful; just me and this timeless, cosmic space. After many moons lying in this warm, undisturbed place, my mind started exploding… with colour, scenes, melodies, thoughts oscillating and falling on top of each other… I was a film director, composer, writer and strategist - all at once. With hastily dried hands, I reached for my phone to record my ideas and sketch plans for the things they would turn into. After this almost cathartic outpouring, I felt more connected to my creative self than I have in a long time. I have the sense that post-pandemic, people are struggling to get back in touch with their light, inspired, energised selves, to truly enter their creative flow. Inundated with news of turmoil and suffering, we can feel weighed down by the world. A sense of lack of humanity overwhelms us and cleaves us from the parts of ourselves that dream big and live to make change and create beauty. For me, it turns out the solution was floating dreamily in a spa bath. Or perhaps it was the freedom to leave the chaos and the pressure, to leave myself. That’s when I felt invigorated - when I found creative flow in the infinite space behind my eyes. So maybe creativity is at its best when it’s weightless. Maybe people are their most creative in moments and places of freedom and fantasy. Here are the places where I find creativity; where I experience weightlessness: On a silk pillowcase in the space between awake and asleep. In the middle of a thunderstorm, rain battering against the window pane. In front of a fireplace, flames dancing and glowing. In the song of a piano. On a long drive, gazing at the soft hues of sunset. In the musk of a burnt-out candle. On an antique writing desk that smells of aged wood. In the playful colours of stained-glass windows. Where do you feel weightless? hello@dma-partners.com dma-partners.com

Tell us about your role with DMA Partners. My role is managing many of our day to day 'back office' functions such as invoicing, banking, payroll, purchasing, HR & company documentation. I also support the team with ad hoc requirements for bespoke projects and events which can vary greatly depending on the client and project. Working for a creative agency you never know what the next project may involve, it’s all part of the fun! What do you like most about the company? The sense of team and working with a great group of positive people. The way everyone has their individual roles & skills, their different personalities, working in various locations using a variety of languages and it all fits together to make a tightly knit team who all work well together to get the job done! I also like working for a business where decisions can be made quickly so changes can be implemented quickly if required. Each team member is important and everyone's opinion definitely counts. What do you do in your spare time? I’m an outdoors person, weather permitting! Weekends usually involve hiking or cycling, sometimes both. I always used to travel overseas for holidays but now enjoy campervan weekends in the British countryside, exploring, enjoying the scenery, climbing hills then heading to a country pub. Living in the north west of England we have easy access to the Lake District, Peak District, Yorkshire Dales and North Wales so are spoilt for choice. I also enjoy live music, preferably small venues or festivals. Sometimes we combine the campervan trips with live music events in the country. We do still travel overseas and like to go to new places. This year it’s Scandinavia, having been to Copenhagen in May with a trip to the Norwegian Fjords planned at the end of this month. When I was younger I used to love doing jigsaws and recently picked them back up again online which is great as I no longer need to take over the kitchen table for days on end. Ideal for when I’ve had a busy/active day and crave a bit of quiet time. Any books or films that have inspired you recently? My partner recently bought “Surrounded by Idiots”, “The Four Types of Human Behaviour and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business (and in Life)” by Thomas Erikson. The title alone is a conversation starter, but the book also provided quite a bit of material for a number of light-hearted discussions with friends and family. Erikson identifies 4 different personality types, most people are a mix of at least 2, then goes on to explain how different personality types function, why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people and how to improve this. I usually prefer to read fiction, crime or suspense novels to escape reality but this made good holiday reading. Identifying different personality types and recognising their traits was quite enlightening but also entertaining.

I remember it well. Too well, coming back from holidays in the car with my parents and sisters all those years ago when someone would say, “it’s back to school again next week.” , i.e. the fun stops now and it’s time to get serious. As we adults are all just little kids in bigger bodies, it can feel very similar as we return after the summer break. Most of us get a wave (or even tsunami) of melancholy when faced with that ‘back to work’ feeling. Despite all of the LinkedIn jabber about ‘passion’ for work most of us would frankly rather be on vacation, or at least for a few more days… wouldn’t you? So come on friends, how can we get ourselves back into it for the new term? Just like a new set of pens or a new rucksack for school it could be that we all need a few psychological triggers to ease us back in. Here’s my little plan. New music on Spotify. I’m branching out musically hoping that some new sounds will stimulate some new thoughts and feelings. I’m going to be listening to the complete Gil Scott-Heron discography (properly) for the first time ever. It’s time to shake up some neurological patterns. Caffeine is out. The time has come to make the definitive switch from coffee to herbal teas. It’s going to be good for the soul and if not, it will certainly be good for the nerves and sleeping. Early starts. This is a hardy perennial. I’m not talking loony gym sessions at 04:30am, but if I wake up early, which I often do, I reckon I should start working earlier and free up some late afternoon time for other ‘stuff’. More talk, less texting. WhatsApp, Slack and all the rest of our tech apps are great for practical, swift exchange but they can be lousy for the meaningful sense that comes from real, elastic and bendy human conversations, the ones when you can hear what people are saying and what they’re not. So my new term policy means a cut back on all that flying thumb and forefinger keyboard action. And maybe a few less of these??!! 😀 🙌🌱☀️☕️ I’ve just realised that this list reads a lot like a set of New Year resolutions. Perhaps that’s because for us professionals September is our January which I guess makes our January everyone else’s April. Which means that April is what then? Anyway. The point is, it’s September now and we’re all getting back to work, so let’s have some fun, try some new things and enjoy it. That’s when the best, most creative work happens and that’s what fires us up at DMA. All the best and let us know if you have some ideas of your own to get the energy pumping!

Do you just know what communication is going to work and what isn’t? That’s the question we were asked by a new client last week. A good question and it got us thinking. We have worked on literally thousands of creative and communication projects in the last nearly 20 years at DMA Partners. So yes, we have a lot of experience and yes, we’ve seen when client communication works well and of course, we see the patterns emerge, i.e. what great communication ‘looks like’. So what is the critical factor? Is it amazing creativity? Is it data-driven analytical marketing? Is it the size of the marketing budget? All of these are crucial but after a team tea and brainstorm the other day we decided that there is one other factor that is more important. Momentum. Yes. Momentum. We have worked with many clients in multiple industry sectors and it is universally true that what matters most of all is the sense of moving forward, of motion, of energy. Successful companies experiment. They try things. They test out campaign and communication ideas. If they work, - great. If not, they move on to the next one. They don’t allow the search for perfection to get in the way of good. That doesn’t mean settling for second best or being sloppy. It just means not getting stuck at the creative phase, tweaking and tweaking and tweaking and fine tuning and finessing messages and creative ideas and and and and… And at a certain point just failing to get the message ‘out there’. A famous athlete once said, “If you’re not in it, you can’t win it.” The same can be said of B2B marketing communications. Get your message out there. Test. Be brave. What doesn’t work can be changed and the experience will make you better. And momentum is a good thing. It’s so much easier pushing a car that is already moving rather than going from a standing start. It’s the same in marketing communications. Build your company’s momentum with bite-sized action and let the impact build up over time. For more on how DMA Partners can help you build momentum for your brand please contact us.

Flick through LinkedIn (go on, admit it) and you’ll find plenty of people gazing into their crystal balls and trying to predict life, business and communication beyond the pandemic. There are as many predictions as there are flavours of ice cream. From cosmic to prosaic, it is very difficult to make sense of it all and even more complicated to try and make some plans back in our real world of business and marketing planning. So what do we do? Where do we make your bets for marketing budgets? The digital tidal wave shows no sign of slowing down, so online and social media is going to be critical. Whether remote working stays the norm or not, we’ve all learnt that work can be done effectively on the road, in a kitchen, at a train station and just about anywhere. We’re unlikely to completely forget that experience. So B2B marketers need to understand and be skilled in video conferencing, webinars, virtual event management, podcasts, - i.e. bringing people together when they are not physically together. But. There is, we believe, a but. We’re talking to our clients every day about their plans for the future and we’re detecting a huge amount of pent-up demand for trade fairs, industry conferences and face-to-face client meetings. The simple fact is that we humans are sociable. We like contact with others. We like laughs, gossip, hotel mini-bars, dinners on a company expense account and ooops, of course, the business relationships. One year (or even two) of a pandemic is not going to change those thousands of years of human evolution. So whatever you do, don’t lose sight of how things may look a year or two, or even three from now. Don’t forget how to do business face-to-face and don’t imagine that all of your customers are going to be behaving as they are now. They won’t be. It’s actually the fun part of marcomms; tapping into what we know of human psychology and working out how to ‘reach’ people, whatever the circumstances, wherever they are. It’s just beginning to get interesting!

1. What brought you into the creative industries? As a child I was fascinated by the cartoonists in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor and I used to imitate them by drawing caricatures of my relatives. Studying Fine Arts at University felt like the natural path to follow. After experimenting with a variety of disciplines, from stone sculpture to opera set design, I finally settled on communication design. I was drawn to the combination of the pure satisfaction of creating visual aesthetic beauty and also the need to face and solve challenges. In my job I solve communication challenges through attractive eye-catching graphic design and sparky messaging. 2. What's the best thing about being an Art Director at DMA Partners? I can't think of a single thing, it’s rather the sum of several factors that makes my work so enjoyable: The mindset, culture and values that we have as a company. If you know DMA, you will know our motto: “It’s a love thing”. Putting your heart into what you do makes the difference. The diversity of projects that we develop and the variety of clients, industries, communication contexts and design languages that we use. Having the opportunity to learn about varied topics such as fintech or healthcare enriches my day-to-day. The people. At DMA we really do work as a team, so collaborating with talented, hard-working, witty and easy-going colleagues makes everything very easy! 3. Away from your professional life how do you get creative inspiration? I find photography very stimulating, especially travel photography. I love capturing the charm of landscapes and moments. I get very excited every time I add a new toy to my collection of photographic gear. I particularly like the simplicity of the scenery in the photo below of the famous Don Quixote windmills in La Mancha. For obvious reasons, for the past year I’ve had to rethink this hobby and adapt it to the new reality. With a limit on exploring new corners of the world, I’ve been focusing on finding interesting stuff around me that is worth contemplating in a new way. Some things as far away as the moon or as close as the iris of my eye! Take a look at some of my images here. You can see more at my personal website; www.melisadupre.com