NORTHERN PLANNER

For most people, there's no such thing as a favourite song. That's certainly true for me, maybe a list of ten, twenty maybe.

Although, if you held a gun to my head and I wasn't trying to impress you, I'd probably end up landing on Purple Rain.

Here's the legendary recording at First Avenue.

The reasons that matter are all about context – the time, the person etc. But there's something else.

Momentum.

It's a slow burn song that builds and builds and builds without you really noticing.

Invisible momentum.

Experiences that have pulled you along without you even realising. This song has it. It doesn't force you to notice, it just adds layer and layer of momentum until you're in it without realising.

It's almost like moonwalking. The direction of travel is disguised, you're going one way while kind of appearing to go the other.

 

Truly great films do this. I can't pinpoint the moment in Argo where I'm getting jumpy and nervous. The brilliance of the storytelling means it builds and builds like magic. You just wake up to find yourself on the edge of your seat.

 

Like those legendary nights out that seem to just emerge. You haven't planned a big one, in fact when you do it's usually an anti-climax. Those nights that feel sponteneous, where suddenly you're all having classic night and wonder how this happened.

Just like those conversations with a stranger, where you're not trying to plan the conversations, worrying if you're impressing them, not listening enough. You just relax and realise that, seemingly out of nowhere, you've made a connection.

Sometimes I think that's what brands and stuff should aim for a little bit more. Ideas and stories that seems to emerge naturally out of the cultural morass, stuff that seems to have momentum the first time you discover it, stuff that doesn't seem to try too hard.

That's authentic.

It's not the only way of course, shock and awe work bloody well at times.

 

Like this.

And this.

 

But this worked well becasue they'd already embedded it in the wierd cat video thing on Youtube..

 

This had masses of momentum before it ran just once at full length on telly (by the way this media thinking as much as creative thinking)…

 

But this is all about building invisible momentum….

 

Of course, this was all an excuse to mention Prince and Star Wars, but there you go