ALL THE HUES THAT'R FIT TO PRINT

Our penchant for Variety-like headlines got inspired by the latest publishing news.

Which is that coloring books for adults have reached the 15 million mark in sales last year (from one million 12 months earlier).

Why the rebirth?  Psychologists position it as a form of mindfulness, even a block to distraction.  [Coloring inside the lines does, after all, take a lot of concentration.]

Others talk about its inherent creativity, pointing to completed pages posted on Facebook and Pinterest.

And a third group cites all things nostalgic, satisfying a yen for childhood stuff.

[Of course, there are detractors.  One calls it the sign of an infantilized culture.]

Regardless, this not-so-new trend has many pluses for us communicators and marketers, especially its work application.   It’s clear that our world today lives in the eye (and, yes, the “I”).  After all, most audiences prefer to receive visual communications, whether an infographic, a video, or a great series of photographs.  So adopting the ready-to-color book seems to be the next best thing to a business-focused graphic novel.

Some top-of-mind ideas:

• Why not, for instance, promote family-friendly products/services through a generation-spanning coloring book? 
• Or hold an internal contest (with a company-sponsored book) awarding prizes for children of employees?  
• Even educate new hires about the business using a series of illustrated, black- and-white outlined pages? 

It’s what we call down-to-earth doodling, for profit.

A NEW FOUR-LETTER WORD

They’re everywhere.

Kindles fingered during el trips.  Dog-eared library books read on buses.  Even standing commuters, somehow, managing to peruse a page or two in before business starts.

More than occasionally, books sneak into the workplace. 

There’s a tongue-in-cheek app that disguises tomes in PowerPoint presentations on desktops, ready to close when a manager appears. 

More seriously, a number of companies today boast book clubs, voluntary associations of employees who read and review and discuss selected volumes. 

There’s even an Ohio-based Books@Work nonprofit that deliberately matches nearby college and university professors with companies that want to start, not a book club, but an employee development and idea-sharing habit.

For those of us who devour the word, digital and printed, somehow those ideas aren’t enough.  Sure, we all have to put in eight to 12 hours a day getting stuff done.  And time to squeeze in a book chapter can’t always  fit into the schedule.  At night and on weekends, there’s so much to do that reading – whether literature or business – loses.

But why not dedicate a business hour or two each week to reading?  Not just magazines and news, but literature and non-fiction that will make a difference.  Asking employees to skim and discuss a tome can begin to create the kinds of environments we thrive in, develop the types of colleagues who are curious and communicate well with others, build teams that step up to those big hairy goals we all strive for. 

It’s not too much to ask of a book, is it?

MARATHONING IS GOOD FOR YOU ...

We can’t wait to dig into the second season of “Orange is the New Black.”

And according to Netflix (a blame-worthy originator of the trend), 61 percent of its subscribers admit to similar yearnings for serial sessions.

Practicing binge-viewing is simple:  Download or stream TV seasons from your favorite purveyor, and watch for two to three hours.  And despite Newton Minow’s criticisms of the tube as a vast wasteland, a number of psychological professionals claim it’s no longer just a dreadful self-indulgence.

Think about their reasons:

• It’s a social experience (i.e., we usually watch with others)
• We watch one show, much like the way we’d read a top-flight novel … in sessions.
• The shows are actually good.  [Okay, okay:  We know folks who don’t like Breaking Bad.  But who could argue with House of Cards?  Or Mad Men?  Or … ?]
• It’s our selection, one not fueled by advertising or specific time slots.

In our heart of hearts, though, we wish one thing:  That we could transfer the experience of eyeballing the screen to eyeballing a book.  Our volunteering experiences with grade-schoolers have uncovered some incredulous-to-us issues with reading, even spelling out words.  It’s not just limited to kids either.  About half of US adults can’t peruse an eighth-grade level book.

Those stats impact everything we do.  The question then becomes, “how do we best entice employees and consumers and other constituencies to not only keep up with and understand our messages, but also actively enjoy the experiences?”  Ideas more than welcome at cbyd.co.