07 | Where a Brand Shows Up

The tip came early in our residence here, from an (eventual) subscriber of this letter — a bearded, cheery recruiter named Matt Ragsdale, who raved about it.

Amsterdam’s Canal House Museum is not in the top ten lists. That’s fine. Screw those mindless regurgitations anyway. Matt was right. The museum delivered: in 45 minutes and five rooms, I emerged ready to impress at dinner parties with insights on waterway dredging, 17th century construction, and design equality. (This opportunity has yet to arrive)

But the focus this week isn’t on those Stone Cold conversational gems, but the way in which they were revealed. Each visitor gets a little audio device to hold to their ear as they walk through the rooms. On nicely designed dioramas and models, images and video are projected that show history unfolding as the information is piped into your ear. The second room is most striking: maps hang on the wall but everything is darkened to focus on a table around which six chairs are arranged, each representing the decision-makers responsible for Amsterdam’s great 17th century expansion.

A spotlight shines on the chief architect’s chair as the audio delivers a voice actor’s rendition of his argument for designing the canal streets a certain way, the military advisor interjects, then the mayor, and so forth. Only when the audio is done, does the room lighten to allow us to peruse the maps, before the next room beckons.

Each insight adds to the next, with visuals that show what the audio is telling. Context through content. A user journey set up with deliberation.

We spent the halcyon days of content creation (the 2010s) producing content at great expense to blast across all the new channels available (How’s it been, Facebook Live?). Better analytics meant we could pick and choose our spots, run experiments, and measure effectiveness. Then purse strings tightened (understandably) and those channels got more costly and CPMs ticked steadily upward.

So it got me thinking about customer journeys and where and why along those well-trodden paths content (a ghastly word — everything from product rebates to artist interviews) can and should appear.

At best, the content is educational, or inspirational, and appears when you need or want it most: Newsletter software companies like Beehiiv sending you helpful tips and case studies via email; the brand “indoctrination” by Patta featured in this letter. At worst, it hides, tucked away in random URLs, rarely encouraged into the light of day (luxury baggage-maker Rimowa’s otherwise nicely designed downloadable travel guides).

Casting about for examples this week, I was drawn again and again to travel. It covers both education and inspiration. Every hotel or travel web site seems to feature curated lists and guides. But those so often get lost in the digital clutter and distraction of our browser tabs (and the graveyard that is my iPhone’s Notes app). I also wanted to steer clear of the social platforms that have an uncanny ability to serve up content just as we’re searching, or talking about it.

So below, a couple of examples of inspiration or education that surfaces at the right time in our journey. One, a tool all of us use every day. The other, a nice piece of printed matter.