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Writing your future case studies

By June 4, 2020June 9th, 2020Case Study


The nature of business and communications is that things are always changing fast and what was a shining example of state-of-the-art best practice just a couple of years ago can now look stale, tired and so last millenium.

This is always a problem when curating and re-writing your case studies. But there is a way around it.

You can use the past to engineer what your present or future offerings are, in a process you might think of as back to the future.

One very good demonstration of this can be seen on Mad Men. Agency creative genius Don Draper, played by John Hamm, narrates his moment of brilliance, a discussion with an ‘old pro’ called Teddy who tells him about the significance of nostalgia as a potent marketing tool. Draper shows the Eastman Kodak marketing team how he will (note future tense) make their brand famous using a technique from the past. That’s if his agency is lucky enough to win the Kodak business.

So it’s a sort of case study narrated for the future, for the purposes of winning the pitch.

Draper: “Teddy told me that in ancient Greek, nostalgia is the pain of ancient wound”

Strategy: We’re going to use a little known approach (nostalgia) to do the opposite of what everyone else will do. Hence giving us a market advantage.

Draper:” It’s not called the Wheel, it’s called the Carouselle,”

Strategy” It’s not about adult technology or sophistication, it’s about a return to childhood simplicity”