Miracle in the Eternal City
I visited Rome recently, a city where civilizations are built one on top of each other, layer after layer, century after century. I had to get away from home, otherwise I would have gone mad, for various personal reasons. I found a cheap flight to Rome, a city I love and where I knew I could get to a better place.
The day I arrived, I posted a picture on a private chat group to show a sight that I thought the group would like. The response I got from a friend was unexpected. “You flew to Rome? What were you thinking? The world’s on fire, and you’re fanning the flames”, was the gist of the response. I duly felt the sting of Swedish flygskam, or flight shame. For some reason, I’d blocked it entirely from my mind.
I crossed the bridge towards the Castel Sant’Angelo towards Piazza San Pietro on a beautiful spring morning. I stumbled into an unexpected event—the Vatican’s Jubilee Year celebration and pilgrimage. Despite the inevitable coverage in global media, I’m ashamed to admit I had heard nothing about it until I wandered straight into it.
And yet, for thousands of Catholics, this event is the epicentre of their reality, a pilgrimage of deep spiritual significance. The disconnect was striking. Here I was, caught unaware of something profoundly important to millions – just as they are most certainly oblivious to the debates that I consume and the circles that I move in.
I met an English-speaking guide from Canada who patiently filled me in on all the details of the event and its significance. (Of course, a quick Google search and a ChatGPT exchange brought me up to speed on the present and the past Jubilee Years.) I asked the guide how she happened to be a volunteer.
She answered, “My daughter is studying in Italy, so I signed up a year ago to visit her and to take part in the Jubilee. But just last month, I was diagnosed with advanced brain cancer. The doctors said that it was imperative to remove the tumour, and that there was zero chance that I would rehabilitate in time to visit Rome, so they told me to cancel my trip. A week after the operation, I was on my feet, walking around and ready to travel. Clearly, it’s a miracle. This is my pilgrimage.”
For the guide, the miracle was a fact, as clear and undeniable as the fact that she was standing in front of me. Personally, I have had to process my own Portuguese Catholic upbringing, having grown up in capitalist Hong Kong, assimilated to England, and now living in secular Sweden. Miracles aren’t really part of my day-to-day life.
I sat by a fountain. I thought of my flight-shaming friend. The miraculously cured cancer patient, now pilgrim. I watched the waves of tourists, pilgrims, and locals moving through their own private worlds. Something struck me that I’ve been aware of but never felt more clearly: we are all living in separate bubbles of experience and information, and probably more so than ever before.
The New Multiverse of Awareness
This fragmentation of our awareness is amplified by social media, where algorithms ensure we remain surrounded by perspectives that reinforce our existing beliefs and keep us in them. Every day, people across the world wake up and react to entirely different digital realities. One person’s feed is flooded with climate activism, another’s with music, tech and science (mine), another’s with celebrity drama, and yet another’s with heated political outrage. Each of us is an island, receiving information that confirms what we already think we know, which is a natural human bias in the first place. It feels great to constantly get confirmation of our beliefs.
Meanwhile, back to Rome. In February, the city is another world compared to the summer months. It’s quiet and there’s plenty of restaurants with lots of space. As my wife and I headed out for dinner, we passed by a very small, unassuming restaurant with an unlikely queue outside. A young couple standing in the queue told us that the tiny place was trending on Instagram, hence the queue. We struck up a conversation with them, a Romanian and an Italian living in Milan. A table for four was offered, so we took it.
We were a real mix—a Hong Kong-born Brit, a Swede, a Romanian, and an Italian, all from very different professional and cultural backgrounds. Yet, instead of retreating into impenetrable corners, we were curious about our differences. We exchanged stories, laughed over the quirks of our respective countries, and left the evening with genuine appreciation for one another. It was a chance meeting that led to a strong, human connection.
I had another revelation. Open-minded curiosity – as opposed to entrenched positions – should be how all meetings begin. But opinions given on social media now tend to gazump most first meetings, getting in the way of constructive open-minded exchange. And then the pandemic changed our behaviour, perhaps forever. As online meetings and opinions dominate, we get more closed in, and face-to-face meetings slowly die away. This is a huge problem.
We have been running a cloud based agency since 2011. We’ve found that physical meetings are irreplaceable as forums for building mutual understanding - the foundation that’s necessary for far-flung people to work together. Online meetings are OK, but real cooperation and collaboration takes off only after people have met each other IRL first. Quite simply: meetings build trust.
Welcome to the Algorithm
The problem isn’t necessarily that we live in bubbles—it’s that these bubbles are increasingly rigid. Instead of seeing differences as opportunities to learn, many have adopted a stance of immediate opposition. We’ve become conditioned to believe that if someone does not share our worldview, they must be wrong, misinformed, or even dangerous. This is especially true in digital spaces, where performative outrage is exploited by the Algorithm to maximise reader engagement, illustrated so well by Youval Noah Harari in his recent book, ‘Nexus’. Consequently, the loudest, angriest voices drown out the thoughtful ones.
So as I write this, I realise that this article isn’t going to have a chance of being shared on social media. Everything we publish is subject to the Algorithm that ensures that outrage and sensationalism are promoted over measured debate and sharing viewpoints. Today we are all victims of it. Do we just accept it? I think the consequences will be disastrous if we do nothing.
I saw ‘A Complete Unknown’ yesterday, the story of the young Bob Dylan. He was permanently suspicious of the Algorithm of his age, the Establishment, trying to mould him, control him and make him do what it wanted him to do. His suspicion, which is still alive and well today, is healthy and a natural part of youth. So to Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, I implore you: don’t get misled and blinkered by the Algorithm. Question everything you read and watch. Be skeptical of everything until proven by something or someone who is unbiased. Even this article.
Traversing the Multiverse of Experiences
So I’ve found that real conversation—unfiltered, face-to-face, and open-minded—is an antidote to entrenched opinions. At the chance meeting at the dinner in Rome, we embraced something simple and vital: people are far more complex than the narrow labels and tribes we assign them. The world is not divisible into easy categories of ‘us’ and ‘them’—it is made up of billions of individuals, each carrying a lifetime of experiences that shape how they see things. Every person has their own truth.
If we want to break free from our bubbles, we need to start listening to voices that challenge our assumptions. Talk to people, face-to-face, with people you don’t agree with. It’s hard, I know. It’s not a pleasant exercise. So start with a friend or acquaintance where they will treat you with respect. Talk to people outside your industry, your country, your generation, your affiliation. And, most importantly, when you do engage, start with curiosity, not a combative mindset.
Because if there’s one thing I took away from Rome, it’s this: when I step outside of my bubble, I don’t just see the world differently—I become part of it, and more empathetic to it. I fight the Algorithm, and I’m better off for it. I start living again. And it’s not the slightest bit frightening.
What has all this to do with Branding?
Branding is essentially the art of connecting, and like any strategic tool, it can be used for good and for bad. Branding is essentially the way we tell stories about the world, the way we fit into people’s realities, make them want to join in, to belong, and to contribute. Branding offers the potential to change people’s minds about what they think, in a way that they find acceptable and best of all, attractive. They choose the brand because it will make their life better.
But before you can even hope to change people’s minds, you have to be curious about them. To experience thinking like they think. ”Walk around in their shoes”, as Atticus Finch said. And then you can imagine what they really want to be in the future.
Then the job is to define the vision, and welcome them to join in. No amount of combative argumentation will ever make your target audience change course. Getting into their shoes, speaking their language, and showing a better way, will.
A Campaign to Change Minds
In 2023, UP Germany created the ‘Bleib offen’ (Stay Open) campaign sponsored by Jenoptik based in Jena, Germany. The aim was to message the region of Thuringia that keeping the minds and the region open to new influences would help to grow the whole region – everyone wins.
Postscript
I picked up my dog from a friend who looked after him while I went to see ‘A Complete Unknown'. Her husband is clearly in a different bubble than mine. The chaotic Trump-Zelensky meeting had just been broadcast around the world. Needless to say, he had a very different view of what had happened than I had.
I was in his house and we’ve been friends for over 30 years, so I didn’t want to get into a bitter conflict. We had a long and balanced conversation. I’ve invited him out to dinner and a drink to continue talking to him. He said yes. It’s a start. I’m curious where it will lead.