Fully occupied

Are you busier than a marketer in 1982? Objectively, yes. Subjectively, I’m not so sure.

Take the Australian TV landscape back then. There were only three commercial TV stations (channels 7, 9 and 10) and one public service (channel 2).

So the marketer’s job must have been easy, right?

They only had three networks to choose from when it came to ad placement, and a captive audience who wasn’t flicking between multiple screens.

But it’s a mistake to judge yesterday’s world by today’s experiences. In 1982 those marketers were fully occupied by the demands of their job and making decisions of high consequence. Just like us now, they were anxious to get it right.

So while objectively things are busier, noisier and more fragmented, subjectively, we’ve always felt and will always feel busy, torn between options and desperate to balance risk and reward.

That’s what interests me most about behavioural science: Knowing what doesn’t change.

Once you have this clarity, everything DOES become easier.