I wonder what your favorite story was
when you were younger perhaps it was a
story that your parents read to you over
and over again well mine was The Very
Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle you see
it’s a story that evokes emotion in me
because it’s the book that my mom used
to read to me over and over again you
know back in the day when we actually
read books but if you’re familiar with
this book you’ll know that as the name
suggests the caterpillar is indeed born
very very hungry and he actually eats
really well for the first week of his
life Monday he ate through one Apple
Tuesday two pears Wednesday three plums
etc but then if you’re familiar again
with the story you’ll know that on
Saturday tends to splurge just a bit and
I think it’s really cute at the bottom
it says that night he had a stomachache
now a good story is one that you can
identify with and I identify with the
protagonist of this book you see
sometimes I’m like I’m gonna eat really
healthy this week it’s gonna be awesome
and then it gets to a certain point in
the day or it gets to the weekend and
you kind of ate everything that you can
see but all this is to say I guess that
we again identify and some of you might
not identify with this you might be
really disciplined so I thought perhaps
for you it could be that we could maybe
create an adaptation of this book and
maybe we could call it The Very Hungry
Caterpillar because I’m sure a lot of us
have felt that emotion at one time or
other in our lives but all this is to
say that stories are extremely powerful
well my name is Ashley Phil and I’m the
head of communications at Macrina
research we are a Sydney based research
agency now I bet you’re wondering what
does research have to do with
communications and I have been asked
this question before in my life when I
studied a Bachelor of Communications
and any arts degree students out there
will understand my pain I think we get a
bit of a bad rap sometimes but I just
want to say in our research there’s we
discuss a lot about the future of work
in the future workforce and what’s going
to happen with digitalization and
automation and things like that and a
lot of that focus is on the STEM
subjects the science technology
engineering and math and while I don’t
want to undermine what these amazing
students do our research has shown that
it is those that have the soft skills
the interpersonal skills the
communication skills leadership that are
going to have a really great chance of
withstanding automation when the robots
come and things like that so I was
thinking we’ll let the science students
have the stem and I reckon us art
students will just will take the class
arrogant but really communication
what does communication have to do with
research well and our research we deal
with a lot of data that looks like this
quantitative survey statistics numbers
etc we also deal with qualitative data
which is long and wordy research and
findings from surveys and in-depth
interviews and focus groups we also deal
with the ABS not sure if anyone’s had
any experience with that but we we
analyze this data because frankly not
many people wake up wanting to pour over
spreadsheets every single day so that is
what that is our job that’s what we do
we analyze the data we analyze this kind
of data and we turn it into this we turn
it into infographics and this is our
passion this is we are all about
bringing research data to life you know
important research sitting in statistics
and Excel spreadsheets isn’t going to
get the kind of cut through that it
needs to get in the world that we live
in because our world is changing you see
we’re living in a time of great change
in Australia today in the in the
generation that we live in you know our
our education our learning styles are
changing our classrooms are changing we
live in a world where the concept of
sharing has changed we live in a world
where the concept of a story has changed
and even for us young adults out there
so much so
that we’re living in an age of digital
disruption we are living in what we call
the great screen age you see we are
spending more time on our devices than
we ever have before and it was two
decades ago in the year 1997 that the
amount of time we spend on electronic
media surpassed the amount of time we
spent in face-to-face interaction and so
in this great screen age not only are we
spending more time on technology but our
attention spans are getting shorter just
to depict to you visually what is
happening in our world today so this is
in 2005 outside the historic location of
the Sistine Chapel people gathering for
the inauguration of Pope Benedict do you
note the small Nokia phone in the bottom
right hand corner fast forward eight
years later to the inauguration of Pope
Francis in the exact same historic
location and this is what it looked like
we are living in technologically
integrated times it’s almost as if we
are filtering the current through the
technological lens this is the world
that we live in our world is changing
and as I mentioned our attention spans
are contracting the ABC content rich
website with multiple news programs and
and all that kind of thing the average
visitor is spending just three minutes
and 55 seconds and that’s one of the
top-rated sites you know YouTube and
Facebook up that average but for content
rich sites it’s just three minutes and
55 seconds per day for the average user
but how much has this changed for my
generation for your generation you know
if you are a uni student and you’re aged
under the 23 you kind of age then you
are classified as Generation Z and I’m
just above that I’m Gen Y and these are
some of the other labels given to the
emerging generations Ed’s the digital
integrators the screen ages the
generation connected they’re the i gen
digital natives comm kids generation
gamers and the click and go kids
what is the one central theme in all
those labels the technology isn’t it and
it’s interesting because we know that
generations ed and all of us were global
now
connected as well as digital social
mobile and visual and our biggest fears
globally are no longer spiders snakes
and Heights but rather we fear low Wi-Fi
we fear the buffering circle and most
importantly we fear the low battery
symbol when all forms of communication
and connectivity cease to exist you see
we are living in times of message
saturation and information overload this
is the world that we are living in but
the key to understanding effective
communication and cut through isn’t an
understanding of how the brain works you
see the brain responds to visuals which
makes sense because we live in a visual
world if we think about how we retain
information and how we store it you know
data like this isn’t going to cut it
anymore if it has an important story to
tell which we believe as researchers
that it does then communicating it like
this is no longer possible it’s just not
going to get cut through we know that
the written word text goes into our
short-term memory where we can retain
around 7 bits of information whereas
visuals go straight into our long-term
brain where they are indelibly etched
and so it’s important to know that 90%
of information transmitted to the brain
is visual and will process visuals
faster in fact 60,000 times faster in
the brain than text and of course as
data analysts as researchers it’s more
than just about creating an effective
fun colorful story like The Very Hungry
Caterpillar
it’s about meaning and data accuracy and
it’s interesting you know the Oxford
English dictionary’s each year releases
its word of the year and it summarizes
kind of and depicts what has happened in
the year before in 2013 the Oxford
English dictionary’s word of the u.s.
hashtag it’s not even a word it’s a
symbol and it’s where we we find you
know what’s trending we don’t go to new
sites we just search what’s trending on
on Twitter and Facebook in 2014 it was
selfie possibly by this quite famous
here again we’re trying to show our
lives through technology what’s
happening who we’re spending our time
with the concept of sharing in 2015
again not even a word but an emoji
specifically the face with tears of joy
isn’t this just depicting that we
communicate visually our facial gestures
communicate how we feel or they don’t
you know so it’s it’s we’re trying to
show in our text messages how we feel
and I’m sure you’ve all been there but
if in doubt you’re not sure what the
tone your text is taking just put in a
little smiley face like everyone does
that but this was the Oxford English
dictionary’s word of the year in 2015
and the and the word of the year last
year for 2016 was post truth in a world
of brixon and trump and all of that it
was post truth and so for us as
researchers as academics as those who
really believed in the integrity of the
data it’s important that the data we
communicate has meaning we as
researchers as as data analysts we also
consider ourselves as research
visualization experts we turn complex
data and we analyze that complex data
and we maintain its integrity and then
we communicate it with visuals that are
simple that get cut through that can be
shared online this is the way that
information is moving forward and it’s
so important even more so in this
technologically integrated era that we
are living today it’s interesting when
you think about the concept of a story
because a story is visual even without
the use of pictures let me explain what
I mean by that have you ever read a book
and then a movie adaptation of that book
has been released well my favorite book
at the moment you’ll be pleased to hear
it’s no longer the Very Hungry
Caterpillar is actually Pride and
Prejudice I’m a walking cliche for that
but when I read that book I loved it and
then I saw the film adaptation and I was
like that’s not what mr. Darcy looks
like he just looks an awful lot like
Colin Firth
and you know that is how how good
stories are inherently visual because
even without the use of pictures our
brain reconstructs that when when they
have a narrative and and we move through
that story stories are extremely
powerful and engaging stories have what
we call the four eyes engaging stories
firstly create our interests they
maintain our attention we want to see
what it’s about we want to keep reading
great stories instruct us they have
meaning great stories involve us and
most importantly great stories inspire
us don’t they and we know that the brain
even though it’s it’s able to understand
and commute complex data it’s relatable
data and are hopefully airing for
graphics like quite serious data is
displayed in fun visual ways that people
can engage with it’s important that
visuals and data today inspires us and
connects not just with the eyes of our
brain but with the eyes of our heart as
well and that’s what a good story does
this is what we do this is a bit of the
breadth of what we do we take that
complex data we analyze it and we
distill it and we communicate it with
visuals and we hope and we believe that
research is at its best when it tells a
story and that is how it can have an
impact and how it can can be spread out
there a good story also has these three
components it has color it has picture
and it has movement you know in the
hungry The Very Hungry Caterpillar the
colorful colorful pictures that are
involved and the moving pages in the
storyline great stories have these three
components this is a photo of my husband
he loves camping me not as much as he
does but we’ve been camping we recently
got married we’ve been camping over the
Anzac weekend one weekend we went up to
the Blue Mountains and if you’ve ever
been camping you’ll know that when you
go camping building a fire is crucial
isn’t it you need it for heat you need
it for cooking food if you’re doing
roast things like that it’s crucial but
if you’ve never been camping this crazy
things happens when you all get together
and you all just sit around the Kim
fire for hours and you just stare at it
it’s bizarre maybe because there’s no
Wi-Fi and that’s that’s all we can do
but we all sit around the campfire and
we stare at it a great campfire has
color it has picture and has movement
the crackling burning red orange flames
it engages our attention like a good
story does and I kind of liken it to
what we’re all doing here today like
this conference is like a 21st century
fireplace we’re all gathered here we’re
all engaged we’re all listening were
attentive and we’re sharing our stories
we’re sharing our learnings our
expertise and this is what we are doing
here today and it’s just like a good a
good story and so this is my parting
wisdom to you I hope that this
presentation today has encouraged you
that when you have an important story to
tell especially when it involves data
that you can tell it using visuals that
you can create interest and intrigue
that you can maintain the meaning of
that story and that hopefully then you
can get cut through in these
technologically integrated times that we
are all living in today thank you
[Applause]
when you were younger perhaps it was a
story that your parents read to you over
and over again well mine was The Very
Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle you see
it’s a story that evokes emotion in me
because it’s the book that my mom used
to read to me over and over again you
know back in the day when we actually
read books but if you’re familiar with
this book you’ll know that as the name
suggests the caterpillar is indeed born
very very hungry and he actually eats
really well for the first week of his
life Monday he ate through one Apple
Tuesday two pears Wednesday three plums
etc but then if you’re familiar again
with the story you’ll know that on
Saturday tends to splurge just a bit and
I think it’s really cute at the bottom
it says that night he had a stomachache
now a good story is one that you can
identify with and I identify with the
protagonist of this book you see
sometimes I’m like I’m gonna eat really
healthy this week it’s gonna be awesome
and then it gets to a certain point in
the day or it gets to the weekend and
you kind of ate everything that you can
see but all this is to say I guess that
we again identify and some of you might
not identify with this you might be
really disciplined so I thought perhaps
for you it could be that we could maybe
create an adaptation of this book and
maybe we could call it The Very Hungry
Caterpillar because I’m sure a lot of us
have felt that emotion at one time or
other in our lives but all this is to
say that stories are extremely powerful
well my name is Ashley Phil and I’m the
head of communications at Macrina
research we are a Sydney based research
agency now I bet you’re wondering what
does research have to do with
communications and I have been asked
this question before in my life when I
studied a Bachelor of Communications
and any arts degree students out there
will understand my pain I think we get a
bit of a bad rap sometimes but I just
want to say in our research there’s we
discuss a lot about the future of work
in the future workforce and what’s going
to happen with digitalization and
automation and things like that and a
lot of that focus is on the STEM
subjects the science technology
engineering and math and while I don’t
want to undermine what these amazing
students do our research has shown that
it is those that have the soft skills
the interpersonal skills the
communication skills leadership that are
going to have a really great chance of
withstanding automation when the robots
come and things like that so I was
thinking we’ll let the science students
have the stem and I reckon us art
students will just will take the class
arrogant but really communication
what does communication have to do with
research well and our research we deal
with a lot of data that looks like this
quantitative survey statistics numbers
etc we also deal with qualitative data
which is long and wordy research and
findings from surveys and in-depth
interviews and focus groups we also deal
with the ABS not sure if anyone’s had
any experience with that but we we
analyze this data because frankly not
many people wake up wanting to pour over
spreadsheets every single day so that is
what that is our job that’s what we do
we analyze the data we analyze this kind
of data and we turn it into this we turn
it into infographics and this is our
passion this is we are all about
bringing research data to life you know
important research sitting in statistics
and Excel spreadsheets isn’t going to
get the kind of cut through that it
needs to get in the world that we live
in because our world is changing you see
we’re living in a time of great change
in Australia today in the in the
generation that we live in you know our
our education our learning styles are
changing our classrooms are changing we
live in a world where the concept of
sharing has changed we live in a world
where the concept of a story has changed
and even for us young adults out there
so much so
that we’re living in an age of digital
disruption we are living in what we call
the great screen age you see we are
spending more time on our devices than
we ever have before and it was two
decades ago in the year 1997 that the
amount of time we spend on electronic
media surpassed the amount of time we
spent in face-to-face interaction and so
in this great screen age not only are we
spending more time on technology but our
attention spans are getting shorter just
to depict to you visually what is
happening in our world today so this is
in 2005 outside the historic location of
the Sistine Chapel people gathering for
the inauguration of Pope Benedict do you
note the small Nokia phone in the bottom
right hand corner fast forward eight
years later to the inauguration of Pope
Francis in the exact same historic
location and this is what it looked like
we are living in technologically
integrated times it’s almost as if we
are filtering the current through the
technological lens this is the world
that we live in our world is changing
and as I mentioned our attention spans
are contracting the ABC content rich
website with multiple news programs and
and all that kind of thing the average
visitor is spending just three minutes
and 55 seconds and that’s one of the
top-rated sites you know YouTube and
Facebook up that average but for content
rich sites it’s just three minutes and
55 seconds per day for the average user
but how much has this changed for my
generation for your generation you know
if you are a uni student and you’re aged
under the 23 you kind of age then you
are classified as Generation Z and I’m
just above that I’m Gen Y and these are
some of the other labels given to the
emerging generations Ed’s the digital
integrators the screen ages the
generation connected they’re the i gen
digital natives comm kids generation
gamers and the click and go kids
what is the one central theme in all
those labels the technology isn’t it and
it’s interesting because we know that
generations ed and all of us were global
now
connected as well as digital social
mobile and visual and our biggest fears
globally are no longer spiders snakes
and Heights but rather we fear low Wi-Fi
we fear the buffering circle and most
importantly we fear the low battery
symbol when all forms of communication
and connectivity cease to exist you see
we are living in times of message
saturation and information overload this
is the world that we are living in but
the key to understanding effective
communication and cut through isn’t an
understanding of how the brain works you
see the brain responds to visuals which
makes sense because we live in a visual
world if we think about how we retain
information and how we store it you know
data like this isn’t going to cut it
anymore if it has an important story to
tell which we believe as researchers
that it does then communicating it like
this is no longer possible it’s just not
going to get cut through we know that
the written word text goes into our
short-term memory where we can retain
around 7 bits of information whereas
visuals go straight into our long-term
brain where they are indelibly etched
and so it’s important to know that 90%
of information transmitted to the brain
is visual and will process visuals
faster in fact 60,000 times faster in
the brain than text and of course as
data analysts as researchers it’s more
than just about creating an effective
fun colorful story like The Very Hungry
Caterpillar
it’s about meaning and data accuracy and
it’s interesting you know the Oxford
English dictionary’s each year releases
its word of the year and it summarizes
kind of and depicts what has happened in
the year before in 2013 the Oxford
English dictionary’s word of the u.s.
hashtag it’s not even a word it’s a
symbol and it’s where we we find you
know what’s trending we don’t go to new
sites we just search what’s trending on
on Twitter and Facebook in 2014 it was
selfie possibly by this quite famous
here again we’re trying to show our
lives through technology what’s
happening who we’re spending our time
with the concept of sharing in 2015
again not even a word but an emoji
specifically the face with tears of joy
isn’t this just depicting that we
communicate visually our facial gestures
communicate how we feel or they don’t
you know so it’s it’s we’re trying to
show in our text messages how we feel
and I’m sure you’ve all been there but
if in doubt you’re not sure what the
tone your text is taking just put in a
little smiley face like everyone does
that but this was the Oxford English
dictionary’s word of the year in 2015
and the and the word of the year last
year for 2016 was post truth in a world
of brixon and trump and all of that it
was post truth and so for us as
researchers as academics as those who
really believed in the integrity of the
data it’s important that the data we
communicate has meaning we as
researchers as as data analysts we also
consider ourselves as research
visualization experts we turn complex
data and we analyze that complex data
and we maintain its integrity and then
we communicate it with visuals that are
simple that get cut through that can be
shared online this is the way that
information is moving forward and it’s
so important even more so in this
technologically integrated era that we
are living today it’s interesting when
you think about the concept of a story
because a story is visual even without
the use of pictures let me explain what
I mean by that have you ever read a book
and then a movie adaptation of that book
has been released well my favorite book
at the moment you’ll be pleased to hear
it’s no longer the Very Hungry
Caterpillar is actually Pride and
Prejudice I’m a walking cliche for that
but when I read that book I loved it and
then I saw the film adaptation and I was
like that’s not what mr. Darcy looks
like he just looks an awful lot like
Colin Firth
and you know that is how how good
stories are inherently visual because
even without the use of pictures our
brain reconstructs that when when they
have a narrative and and we move through
that story stories are extremely
powerful and engaging stories have what
we call the four eyes engaging stories
firstly create our interests they
maintain our attention we want to see
what it’s about we want to keep reading
great stories instruct us they have
meaning great stories involve us and
most importantly great stories inspire
us don’t they and we know that the brain
even though it’s it’s able to understand
and commute complex data it’s relatable
data and are hopefully airing for
graphics like quite serious data is
displayed in fun visual ways that people
can engage with it’s important that
visuals and data today inspires us and
connects not just with the eyes of our
brain but with the eyes of our heart as
well and that’s what a good story does
this is what we do this is a bit of the
breadth of what we do we take that
complex data we analyze it and we
distill it and we communicate it with
visuals and we hope and we believe that
research is at its best when it tells a
story and that is how it can have an
impact and how it can can be spread out
there a good story also has these three
components it has color it has picture
and it has movement you know in the
hungry The Very Hungry Caterpillar the
colorful colorful pictures that are
involved and the moving pages in the
storyline great stories have these three
components this is a photo of my husband
he loves camping me not as much as he
does but we’ve been camping we recently
got married we’ve been camping over the
Anzac weekend one weekend we went up to
the Blue Mountains and if you’ve ever
been camping you’ll know that when you
go camping building a fire is crucial
isn’t it you need it for heat you need
it for cooking food if you’re doing
roast things like that it’s crucial but
if you’ve never been camping this crazy
things happens when you all get together
and you all just sit around the Kim
fire for hours and you just stare at it
it’s bizarre maybe because there’s no
Wi-Fi and that’s that’s all we can do
but we all sit around the campfire and
we stare at it a great campfire has
color it has picture and has movement
the crackling burning red orange flames
it engages our attention like a good
story does and I kind of liken it to
what we’re all doing here today like
this conference is like a 21st century
fireplace we’re all gathered here we’re
all engaged we’re all listening were
attentive and we’re sharing our stories
we’re sharing our learnings our
expertise and this is what we are doing
here today and it’s just like a good a
good story and so this is my parting
wisdom to you I hope that this
presentation today has encouraged you
that when you have an important story to
tell especially when it involves data
that you can tell it using visuals that
you can create interest and intrigue
that you can maintain the meaning of
that story and that hopefully then you
can get cut through in these
technologically integrated times that we
are all living in today thank you
[Applause]
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