Creative Business Wrap – April 2024

Dove gets real

I don’t want to read any more blog posts on the impact of AI on jobs in the creative industries , but I was interested to see that beauty brand Dove is creating a point of difference with competitors by pledging not to use AI-generated images in its advertising and communications. Dove’s new ad campaign titled The Code depicts women submitting prompts to AI image generators like “perfect skin” and “the most beautiful woman in the world”. The resulting stereotypically airbrushed images were all created by fundamental AI tools. What follows is a montage of pictures of women of different shapes, ages, and backgrounds made by adding the prompt  “According to Dove Real Beauty“.

Dove has also established a set of Real Beauty Prompt Guidelines that aim to help users of generative AI create more representative images. I wonder if women and girls will see this campaign as authentic  – remember, these people claim that their product you can use to clean your skin is not soap, it’s a “beauty bar”.

Studying music makes you a better employee
 
If you have trained as a musician you may benefit from highlighting this in your resume. According to Diana Tolmie’s nationwide survey of musicians who are either working full-time in the music industry or working in other jobs, the discipline of studying music can develop a wide range of valuable workplace skills and qualities. Among the 165 people surveyed, she found an impressive list of transferable skills: professionalism, punctuality, autonomy and self-direction, reliance, perseverance, and creativity. Respondents attributed these strengths to the discipline and focus required to learn to play an instrument and the intrinsic motivation needed to practice over a long period. Ensemble work also developed teamwork and deep listening skills. A musical career has many highs and lows; all respondents reported the ability to bounce back after failure and embrace ongoing learning. Many musos would add budgeting and managing on an intermittent income.

How The Bible turned green
 
How did Harper Collins save 245.6 million pages (the equivalent of 5,618 trees) from being printed, without readers noticing? Back in 2017, according to this article, they started by looking at that well-known massive bestseller, The Bible, which used to run 2,500 pages. Adjusting the layout and developing a new compact typeface called the NIV Comfort Print cut 350 pages from every copy. Then, they printed 50 versions of a 600-page novel using different fonts to analyse the space they took up, readability, and ink needed to print them. The result is a list of 15 eco-fonts, which will be their preferred type from here on in.

Publishing’s secret writers
 
I enjoyed listening to the interaction between veteran radio broadcaster Phillip Adams and author Liam Pieper, who has written 20 successful books that don’t have his name on the cover. Adams muses on the concept of the ghostwriter – do radio producers or speech writers fall into this category? I found it fascinating to hear about the relationship between the author (whose name does appear on the cover) and the ghostwriter and the sense of perspective he has gained while helping shape their memoirs of extraordinary people like Eddie Jaku’s The Happiest Man on Earth. As a novelist, he learned another important lesson in humility when his novel Sweetness and Light, a thriller set in the travel industry,  was launched the same week the pandemic lockdown began. His latest novel, Appreciation, is a satire about a cancelled celebrity forced to engage a ghostwriter to write a memoir to redeem his public image. Well, at least he said he wrote it.

Resources

James Clear’s book Atomic Habits is number 1 on the New York Times list of best-selling business books for 2024. I just don’t have time to read it but in this 8 minute video he gives a very articulate and concise summary of how to use tiny but habitual changes that deliver big results. I picked up these three points:

• Small incremental improvements accumulate over time to create significant results. 
• Change your identity not your habits. For example, instead of trying to write more often, set your intention to “become a writer”,
• Focus on habit-building systems rather than goals to make consistent progress.

Things to do this month

• Opportunities for grants, awards and prizes often come up at short notice. Set up a planning calendar to allow time to consult with funding bodies or sponsors and create a high-quality competitive submission. 
• Rising input and utility costs are impacting everyone in the business. Time to take a hard look at costs all along the supply chain and consider if your pricing needs to increase to maintain profit margins.
• Review all your subscriptions to journals, sites, and services. Are they still providing good value for your business?