Force of Habit!

The other night, one of our dogs got into bed with us and I watched him turn around several times before he finally laid down. Of course, this is because some several million years ago, when dogs actually lived in the wild, this was how they trampled down the ground to make a nice resting place. Now, we're pretty good to our dogs and they've always lived indoors. And I've now watched him for a couple of days and he does it every time he lies down. Even on the wood floor, where he would need to circle for a few years to have any real impact there!

It made me think about the ad industry and our need to walk in circles to mat the ground down just because that's they way it's always been done. That's why we continue to spend so much time looking at reach & frequency and tactics that work because the audience is captive. Hopefully one day we'll stop all of the old habits that exist just because they are habits and start doing things that create truly engaging experiences!

The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." -- Samuel Johnson