Five things on Friday #370
This week we explore 3mths with Buttondown, Baby Reindeer, some interesting links from adland (and more).
Things of note for the week ending Sunday May 5th, 2024.
INTRO
Happy [belated] STAR WARS Day to those of you that celebrate.

This week’s edition of FToF is dedicated to the brilliant Nicholas Butler (of Reduced Hackers fame) who, in spite of Dreamhost, Google Domains, Squarespace and Wordpress conspiring against me, swept in to save the day for my long-time home, whatleydude.com.
Nik's been managing my website ever since I had one and as an original Tuttle Club member, it's astonishing how the loosest of ties hold firm when they need to. So thank you, Nik. You’re a hero.
What else can I tell you?
Morning gang. As I write to you now, it’s 10:50am on Saturday May 4th. The sun is beaming and I’m on my second cup of coffee.
50% of the fam are poorly (annoyingly the most responsible members - the mrs and the eldest) and there is a lot going on.
Work-wise:
LEGO is proving to be super fun (see above) and everyone at the office ridiculously lovely.
Outside of that, I’ve accepted two advisory role positions (one I can tell you about, one I can’t (NDAaaaaays), and I’m also locking in some speaking engagements for the year ahead - one of which is mega exciting (you know who you are). So yeah, here we are in May and I’m making plans for August and September.
Newsletter-wise:
We just hit three months of Buttondown so I’m going to tell you about that with thing one… oh wait, I’m doing THE THING now aren’t I?
Shall we just get right to it?
LETS.
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. ONE MONTH OF BUTTONDOWN
So yeah, let's talk about Buttondown. This week's edition marks three months since I moved off Substack (refresher: here’s why that happened) and so far the results have been… pretty, pretty good.

And hey, while a 62% OPEN RATE is certainly not something to be sniffed at (lol - insane), it’s not all sunshine and roses.
I lost about 200 odd subs (hang on let me check.. Yeah, Substack topped out at 4195 and Buttondown is currently at 3925) and the growth rate has slowed but that’s OK. While Substack was good for growth, what with its recommendations and suggestions combined with the general ‘are you a subscriber or are you a follower’ murkiness of it all (maybe that's why the nazis liked it?), it seems at Buttondown, quality is better than quantity.
That open rate has gone up by about 13%.
Which is nuts.
But the way I see it: those of you that are still reading FToF REALLY WANT TO BE HERE and those of you that don’t - well, you’ve gone. And that’s OK.
So thank you for that. Feels good :)
In the long term, Buttondown… isn’t free. But hey, as they say ‘The truth is paywalled but the lies are free’ - so that’s OK. Some of you contribute to that cost - and that’s nice and validating (details at the end of the newsletter). It’s also great to know that by paying for something you know you’re. .. well, paying for something.
‘If the service is free then you are the product’ etc. Whatever. That’s easy for me to say this side of giving up a free service (but still using Blue Sky, Mastodon, Reddit, Threads etc). The point is, I don’t regret moving at all. So you’re thinking about doing or moving a newsletter - then do consider Buttondown. It just feels good?
On a related note, I'm thinking about a reader survey (there's a first time for everything) but then again, I’m consistently surprised by the variety of replies I get back from you - and frankly, I quite like not knowing.
So hit reply and surprise me eh?
PS. If you're an occasional newsletter writer like me, and you're looking for a good Substack alternative, then please use THIS REFERRAL LINK to get $9 off your first month (and I get the same kick back too) x
THING 2. BABY REINDEER
I don’t really know what to say about this. I’m guessing most of you have seen it already and, if not, are maybe about to or are halfway through it already.
For me, it’s something about the authenticity. The writing. The addressing of one’s own shame. The point of view of someone who has not only been through a lot but also gone about dealing with it with therapy, comedy, creative expression…
In life, in work, in times gone by - you might hear the words ‘It’s nuanced’. And with Baby Reindeer, I think those words have never been clearer.
It is nuanced. People are at fault. People aren’t perfect. Hurt people hurt people. Breaking the cycle of hurt is hard - but not impossible. And it takes a lot.
Of therapy probably.
So yeah, if you’ve not seen it - then please, do, watch it. If you have seen it, then please, do, write to me and tell me what you thought of it.
Related links:
Richard Gadd at the 2011 Chortle Student Comedy Awards - thanks Robbie for that find.
Spoiler alert: Richard Osman says everyone knows who [redacted] is. Rough.
Of course, when a story this true and this authentic, in a VERY ONLINE world (for a series on Netflix of all places), then of course there will be blow back.
3.THIS WEEK IN... ADLAND
In a change to our normal programming, Advertising has stepped up to be our weekly deep dive this week and, after last week's GAMES MARKETING kerfuffle, (honestly, Thing 3 last week was very much a hoot) I’m not surprised.
Genuinely, after that whole thing I had a decent handful of you email and ask for a few more tips and pointers on how to gen up on marketing (I was also reminded of this post from September last year talking about games on social). MY GOD that's reassuring to know. There’s only so many times you can read ‘oH tHe mArKeTeRs ArE aNgRy’ before you realise the ones saying it are not marketers… Sigh.
So this week I’m sharing a bunch of useful advertising things that should help budding marketers (remember - advertising is only one of your four Ps, not all of them):
Sarah Newman on planners being wonderful is… well. Wonderful.
I always love a good strategy diet interview.
Sticking with the APG for a minute, here’s the APG’s noisy thinking perspective on ‘What is an insight?’
Related: Insights vs observations.
In other adland-news-shaped things, my old boss’ boss’ boss, Dame Annette King has finally got her feet under the table at Accenture Song (that name tho) and has, of course, got to work; this is a great interview.
WFHo no you didn’t
Back in January this year, I attended the [actually very good*] Campaign Mag ‘Year Ahead’ event. Looking back over my very rough notes from back then (Jan 10th, to be precise), I wrote the following:
‘Year ahead for Agencies: in stunning news, chief execs want people in the office. But it’s not a one size fits all solution’
Well, as it turns out, when you actually ask the people that do get monitored on their actual attendance and, let’s be honest, probably have less ‘help’ at home, the answer is quite different.

That’s right, in earth-shattering news that I am sure will shock you from your weekend slumber…
“The most popular weekly working pattern among adland employees is two days in the office with three remote, according to the latest analysis of the Advertising Association’s All In Census.
A third (34%) of respondents to the study said two days in the office would be their preferred balance, followed by three days (favoured by 23%), one day (22%), none at all (10%) and then four days (8%). Five days was the least popular option (3%).”
19,000 respondents.
In the same report, it shows that a “lack of work/life balance” was the reason for leaving their employer when they spent more days per week in the office.
In the past fortnight ALONE I've had conversations with three different people from three different (and well known) agencies, all ready to leave, because of the over-worked, underpaid, and utterly thankless conditions of their respective workplaces.
One of the three has been signed off with poor mental health (caused by work). One over-booked on projects by over 100%. Another looking at borrowing money from their parents so they can literally afford to work in London (note: less than two thirds of the agencies featured are London Living Wage accredited).
I wonder if you could do a data pull on headcount across the ad agencies featured in the Campaign School Reports, how the headcount numbers look as a percentage (up and down) and how much of that is related to mental health…
But hey, if some agencies aren’t even ready to disclose their D&I data then alas, I am not hopeful.
-
*tellingly, when the Editor-in-chief ends the session by saying ‘we like this event as it’s the only event of the year that isn’t put together by the sales team’ you suddenly realise you’ve not spent two hours listening to men in jeans and blazers telling you about CPMs…
THING 4. DEEP
Here’s a fun fact the Taam Ja' Blue Hole in Mexico's Chetumal Bay may well be the deepest deep hole in the world.

More than 450 metres deep. Possibly 500m. They just don’t know. Incredible.
THING 5. YOU THOUGHT YOU’D MISSED THE GAMING STUFF THIS WEEK, HUH? WELL SURPRISE, MOFOS, IT’S GOING IN THING 5. GOTTA KEEP YOU ON YOUR TOES
Sorry. I have no idea what just came over me.
Yeah, it was my plan to skip it this week but by the end of my reading I had a few things that I thought would be worth sharing and… here we are.
I’ll keep it brief.
STAR WARS is now in LEGO FORTNITE. Not just for May 4th but for good. With the Rebel Village promised to stay as a long-term feature for the game. We’ve been playing the hell out of it this weekend - and it’s definitely worth a look.
Redundancies in the games industry are a sad indictment of post-covid greed catching up with poor management but this one specifically, regarding the closure of the BAFTA-award winning studio Roll7, sure does sting. For all the reasons why.
Ever play Titanfall 2? Someone who wrote this new Netflix movie sure did.
Akuma is coming to Street Fighter 6. I had no idea I would be getting back into this game so quickly.
STAR WARS HUNTERS (iOS, Android, Switch) has been given a launch date. Pleased to say my old strategy team (RIP) and I developed the cough pitch-winning cough creative strategy for the launch of this title and I can’t wait for you to see what’s coming nearer the time… 👀
Sony inventing/launching/announcing a new way to speed up players being able to join each other’s games sure is interesting. Worth a read.
BONUS SECTION
THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.
ENJOY.
For those paying attention, about ten issues ago I said I would write up the third of my three-part writing brief: On Writing, On Gaming, and On Figuring Stuff Out. Well I’ve done that now and it’s now live on whatleydude.com - the other two are linked there too.
Daniel Radcliffe being Daniel Radcliffe.
On this day of days, there’s never a bad time to rewatch ‘Seagulls!’ - a bad lip reading of Empire Strikes Back.
And hey, for balance.
Speaking of balance, I’ve often given links to Jerry Seinfeld’s good interviews, here’s a link to a rare bad one (Stu Heritage is good on this).
‘Green Wing’ revival (coming as an audio series)
There’s never a bad time to reshare the Deck of Brilliance.
Taylor Swift interviews are ‘unsafe’ for brands, apparently (this is so broken).
Millennials and Gen Z: communicating in the workplace. Fun reading.
Sticking with generations, SVP of Digital Consumer Engagement at LEGO, Anna Rafferty, here on why ‘It's time to have a serious conversation about children’s well-being in the digital age’
Another day, another waste-of-time AI-based bit of hardware - ‘Barely reviewable’ - harsh scores indeed for what is ostensibly an a dressed up Android app.
Conversely, sometimes I lay awake thinking about the helicopter we flew on Mars.
With an update/refresh/revisit of all things on my OG website, I was reminded last week that I had work in Saatchi gallery.
This week I learned about David’s nose, as chiselled (and unchanged) by Michaelangelo. Fun.
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
As I close this edition of FToF it’s now 832am on Sunday (yesterday’s writing got completely derailed by an expected invitation to a Star Wars party in next door’s garden - eight beers later I didn’t feel like I was in a fit state to finish this thing off so ended up staying up late with Rise of the Planet of the Apes and then the original Highlander on the telly).
April showers are continuing well into May and so, while we wait for the sun to return, I will cook potatoes.
The kids are playing Cult of the Lamb and I might make some coffee.
Wherever you are in the world reading this, whatever struggles your facing, no matter how you’re feeling - keep going, please.
You matter.
That is all.
Whatley out x
Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Five things on Friday. This newsletter will always be free.
However, if you want to chuck a couple of quid directly to the running costs then you can do that at these links:
You can sign up to an annual sub (no minimum amount required - people have dropped £20-£50 on this link, which is nice).
Or a one off pay whatever you want donation right here.
100% of all your dollar will go on Buttondown fees (and anything left over at the end of the year will go to men’s mental health charity, CALM).