From Tunbridge Wells with love

What is that one phrase that makes you think? What is that one phrase that makes you smile? What is that one phrase that makes you stop what you are doing and focus on the person who said it?

I love you.

Think back to the first time you heard that said to you. 

Think about where it was. 

Think about how it made you feel. 

Think about how many times you’ve heard it since.

Thought about it? Good. 

Like how your attention has been nicely diverted whilst reading this blog post? Well the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has done the same with their road work’s messaging on the A21.

The message is “Someone loves you”.

Now this is supposed to make you drive carefully through the road works so you can return to your loved one/s. However, it completely distracts you from driving. It makes you think about something other than driving. It does the exact opposite of what it was meant to do.

The TWBC has clearly tried to use emotion to force safer driving. But if they had read a bit further into behavioural economics they would have seen that “emotions can act as triggers of other mental states (stored memories, new beliefs, new preferences, and the like)” (Cecchi, 2015). Stored memories is what I am really trying to drive home here (excuse the pun). If you are accessing stored memories you are not focusing on the job in hand. And that job is driving.

Happy to hear your thoughts on this too, so please leave a comment.

Whose responsibility is it anyway?

A particular topic which has really galvanised readers of our Brand Inside Report was the question of who has responsibility for employee engagement inside an organisation.  One reader observed that the answer lies with the CMO in that if we can "unleash the power of the brand inside then mountains can be moved."


Another agreed that best practice must be led by the Board with "HR and Marketing working much more collegiately, dispensing with the conflicting agendas and silo approach to ensure employee engagement is a shared responsibility."



So a challenge to all brand marketers out there - are you prepared to make the necessary changes in skills, priorities and budgets to unlock the immense power your brand has to engage not only with your external audience but your internal one too?


If you're not - why not? The topic is increasingly coming to the top of the CEO/boardroom agenda and they will be looking to you as the guardian of their brand to answer for your stewardship.  With rising demands for better value returns all the time, diverting just a small part of your brand investment this way makes good, good sense. 


Let us know what you think and if you're an HRD or marketeer tell us what help you need to drive this change in your business and really create a brand-hearted culture inside. 


Of course if what's holding you back is knowing how to go about it, then the team at Woodreed would be delighted to lend you a helping hand.