We’re big fans of changing behavior over here at eat:Strategy and though it can be tricky and some would say impossible. It does happen from time to time. This article really delves into people, passion and how irrational we can really be as a society.

Adam Smith’s actors in The Theory of Moral Sentiments are driven by an internal struggle between their impulsive, fickle and indispensable passions, and the impartial spectator. They weigh out-of-pocket costs more than opportunity costs, have self-control problems and are overconfident. They display erratic patterns of sympathy, but are consistently concerned about fairness and justice. They are motivated more by ego than by any kind of direct pleasure from consumption and, though they don’t anticipate it, ultimately derive little pleasure from either.

Passage from the Journal of Economic Perspectives’s paper Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist.

Last week Martin Weigal, VP of Planning at W+K, was speaking about nurturing great creative.

The crux of his talk was about most research being useless, which happens because we do research to backup what we already think or we’re researching the wrong area to late into the creative process. However, one area he felt we could all boost was generating insights. Most people focus on consumer insights because that’s what clients pay us for and hold as currency.

Think of all the other areas we could look for insights that could create compelling campaigns that people actually care about.

1. Human
2. Category
3. Media
4. Technology
5. Cultural
6. Business
7. Corporate
8. Product

If we start thinking more laterally beyond consumer insights. We could create the next Old Spice, The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, campaign:

After all, this campaign was created on the human and cultural insight that women tend to buy the body wash in many households. If you’ve a few insights and plan to leverage them for your creative campaign.

Keep in mind that you want to understand and analysis the people you’re researching and what their response will be in the real world and the context surrounding that response. Research that is done in a vacum and not the real world won’t help you. There is lots of ways to gather insights and we shouldn’t get stuck on consumer insights when nurturing our next creative campaign.

Generating insights is not something that happens out of thin air. As much as we would love that to be the case in our profession. The team over at FutureLab has a piece saying that to develop contextual insights, one needs to be empathetic:

They list six habits of highly empathic people including:

1. Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities
2. Practice the art of conversation
3. Develop an ambitious imagination

Check out the piece for the other 3 habits of highly empathic people and a video on the subject.

If there is one discussion we can’t have enough of it is this. What is the difference between a strategy and a tactic? I’ve heard clients, CEOs and Heads of XYZ Department get it wrong. Beyond a great video from our conference last year.

I thought his handy chart from Jeremiah Owyang would be a great way to kick off the year: The Difference between Strategy and Tactics. There is no greater misunderstanding then what is a strategy and what is a tactic in our industry and it’s a topic that never gets old.

Brian Millar, strategy director at Sense Worldwide, has a great piece on 4 Secrets For Doing Gonzo User Research. He offers his tips, tricks and experiences to help you do your research faster:

1. Get Physical
2. Do Some Deep Hanging Out
3. Enlist Help (or Barefoot Ethnographers)
4. Start A Research Amnesty

Out jobs are rarely as easy as the list above, however, I feel we can find ways to do our jobs faster and reach the proper outcome. We don’t always have the time to do huge research dives and if you work in Canada, client’s don’t always want to pay for it.

Inventioni.st, out of Deutsch LA, has officially launched this month. The team is run by bud_caddell and has a pretty good mandate to invent brands for start-ups and large organization.

They recently put out a white papper, Emerging Trends at the Intersection of Culture and Technology, looking at the trends rising from the ashes that is SXSX 2012 and how that can help brands in the future. Their look at education, a hot area, government and healthcare was interesting in that it’s not typically what you’d see at SXSW.

Check out the white paper and see what startups are mentioned. Learn how Bud and his team are trying to invent the  future. Because the best way to predict the future is to invent it.

It’s that wonderful time of the year. And no I don’t mean Christmas. It’s time for another Planner Survey 2012 from the lovely @hklefevre.

Who should taje this survey? Anyone working as:

• Account/brand/strategic planner in any company or role
• Freelancers
• Unemployed
• Planning interns
• Students studying to become planners

What I love about the survey each year is its global view of our community. Understanding how each country views itself and as a freelance… how much money we are charging for our services. If you’re apart of our global community, then I encourage you to take the survey.

To be added to the list and receive the results directly, make sure to add your info here: http://eepurl.com/qV6l1

If you missed out on the chance to attend this year’s conference or want a reminder. Then I’ve some news for you! Our videos are now live.

Learn why 
”the ideas that 
help you survive may also 
trap you” from Mark Pollard, VP of Strategy at Big Spaceship down in New York. Or if you work at a large multi-national organization like Ryan Coleman, Innovation Catalyst at Bank of Montreal, then he can help you Get Innovaion Done. Just a small selection of vidoes from this year.

We’re really happy and excited to have videos from this year’s conference.