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Thanks to the fact my predecessor was [well, actually ‘is’ as he’s still here, just now as an ECD] such a good planning director, I’ve inherited a good bunch from him.
The thing I like the most is not that they’re all talented, but that they’re so bloody diverse.
I’m not just talking in terms of nationality [though there’s everyone from Russian, Taiwanese, Singaporean, Thai, English &, of course, Chinese] but interms of their interests, approaches and opinions.
I genuinely believe planners should be less about advertising and more about life – and my lovely team embrace that view perfectly.
The reason I am such an advocate of this approach isn’t just because it allows their creative mind to identify much broader ways to influence change, but it allows them to take lessons and learning’s from one area and adapt it to another … which often can create results that go way beyond normal category conventions and yet maintain relevance, resonance, interest and motivation.
That is one of the reasons why I don’t like anyone only ever working on one account … even if that account is made up of multiple categories. The other reason is that if you spend all your life with just one client, you can lose your sense of objectivity and that is almost as an important tool in the planners arsenal as things like empathy,curiosity, imagination and insight.
I have some plans for my team which I’ll be discussing with them in the coming weeks, but funnily enough, it’ll be more to do with broadening their experiences and understanding than honing their planning chops … because for me, I’d rather have smart, adaptive & worldly than smart, solid & myopic.
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id stop with the fucking planner posts if i were you. ive just seen some very fucking disturbing photos of you on faceshit and theres no fucking way you are going to be able to walk away from them with any cred whatsofuckingever.
hair.
ties.
fucking paisley braces.
some sad 80’s metal pout and the fucking gayest gay photo ive ever seen since i accidently copped a pic of your beloved fucking freddie getting papped while he was getting a blowie off some rent boy in heaven fucking nightclub. what the fuck were you doing? thinking? reasoning?
i know (or hope to fuck) theyre just out of fucking context pisstake photos brought out from your history dungeon by a mate who wants some revenge for all the slurs youve chucked his way over the fucking years and he needs applauding for that but what bothers the shit out of me is that i have a horrible fucking feeling i knew you back then and that makes me question why the fuck i started a business with you when one look at that garb should of made me run the fuck away.
normally a planner post would bore the fuck out of me but my eyes have been burnt by those fucking images and my brain has been permanently scarred so ill just go and drink myself to oblivion and question why the fuck i partnered a gay pouting paisley tie wearing twat.
its amazing i could say this campbell, but you look better now than then. but then you dead after an 18 wheeler rolled on your head would be better than you back then.
PS) back to the post. any hotties? and i dont mean men.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 6:18 amI guess Paul has finally realised how good revenge is. The bastard – but I do have to applaud his bombastic approach to it all.
Comment by Rob July 21, 2010 @ 7:58 amSorry to tell you this Rob but Andy has just sent everyone a link to those “interesting” photos of yours and we all agree everything he said was right. Don’t suppose you care. After writing a post about how you worship your best friends penis, nothing is really going to embarrass you is it?
Quickly moving on I really like this post. Yes it’s a “planner” post but I don’t see why that’s such a bad thing. It’s great you have inherited a good and diverse bunch but the real value of what you say is in the explanation why you want people with diverse lives rather than just oodles of advertising and planning experience. I have to say when I first joined you guys i found it weird you partnered me with an ex bed designer but after I put that aside and focused on the fact he was a really smart thinker and doer with different thoughts and ways to tackle what I felt were everyday advertising tasks, I really saw the benefit and value in the approach.
Great post and I hope your new team embrace what you’re going to do because they’ll be all the better for it but I guess they don’t have a choice in the matter. LOL.
Comment by Pete July 21, 2010 @ 6:35 amyawn yawn yawn yawn yawn.
you wouldnt know why the rest of us think planner posts are as boring as shit because youre one of those boring as shit planners.
how you bagged your hot wife is a question that is being discussed in universities and parliaments all around the fucking planet.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 6:49 amI fear it’s because I might be one of her research projects.
Comment by Pete July 21, 2010 @ 7:12 amadmitting reality is the first step to peace.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 7:13 amnot just gay. fucking student gay.
Comment by Billy Whizz July 21, 2010 @ 6:36 amfucking fucking student gay.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 6:50 am“Planning magpies” is more than just another pithy Campbell headline, it’s a guide to being a better planner.
Because I started with you guys, it never crossed my mind that working with ex hackers and gamers was weird until I left and went to an organisation that believed in a more traditionally defined expert and they were at a disadvantage for it.
That situation is different now and I agree with Pete that your new guys are in for a scary treat. Great post and I’m glad to hear you’re still happy and you’ve got a good bunch. Not as good as the class of 2006 though.
Comment by Bazza July 21, 2010 @ 6:43 amcould you and pete get a fucking room? fuck me, its sickening. and the best fucking diverse background person we hired was our lovely ex centrefold maxim girl and she was a lot fucking nicer to talk to than the rest of you fucking down and outers i got bullied in to paying a fucking fortune to.
ill be serious for once. just once. adland was a fucking exciting place when it had misfits in it. not because they made getting pissed at 11am sound sensible but because they pushed boundaries by having different views on shit. all these kids coming out of uni having studied some fucking advertising course dont know shit. its all post rationalised one dimensional views without any fucking understanding the ads they covet worked as much for the time they came out as for their fucking awesomeness.
the freaks arent the weird fuckers who used to be in every agency up and down the fucking land. the freaks are the people who have only dreamt of a career in advertising and spend all their days living and breathing it without ever once fucking realising we trade in understanding and touching lives not making stuff to be featured in campaign.
i might think a lot of planners are full of shit, but my planners were fucking interesting bastards.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 7:02 amI like it when you’re serious Andy.
Paragraph 2 onwards are great points, especially what is/isn’t a freak in the advertising industry.
Paragraph 4 is touching. I never knew you had that in you, I’m touched.
Paragraph 1 is a fair point we’d all agree with you on.
Comment by Pete July 21, 2010 @ 7:06 amNice commentary there Andy – but again, you’ve let your cleverness show and you know how you hate to do that.
Comment by Rob July 21, 2010 @ 8:02 amparagraph 2.
of course it fucking is, i said it and im smarter than all you fucking planners put together.
paragraph 4 i take back.
your fucking contrived humbleness reminded me what a bunch of emotion hacks you planners are and i cant be arsed dispensing compliments to a group of people who basically stripped my bank account so they could go and find out why women like fucking perfume or kids like paper or some other bollocks.
paragraph 1.
there would be no fucking point denying it.
nb) buy me a liquid lunch on sat and ill take back what i took back.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 7:10 amThey’re in the fridge waiting for you.
Comment by Pete July 21, 2010 @ 7:11 amjust one fridge? tightass.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 7:14 amWorst daisy chain ever.
Comment by John July 21, 2010 @ 7:55 amAnd your point is?
Comment by Rob July 21, 2010 @ 8:05 am“we trade in understanding and touching lives”? really? andy!!
Comment by lauren July 21, 2010 @ 8:45 amyou’ve fucking changed man.
i thought it was april fools day.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 9:50 amSo did we when we asked you to be a partner.
Comment by Rob July 21, 2010 @ 9:58 amfuck.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 10:03 amyou.
and the joke was on you because i fucking took it. or does that mean the joke was on me? who fucking knows or fucking cares so see my above comment.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 10:05 amOn the bright side, you’ve just proved to Lauren your sensible comment was just a blip.
Comment by Rob July 21, 2010 @ 10:52 ami never suggested it was sensible. in fact, i’d say it was a massive pile of rotting bollocks. i’m just sayin…
Comment by lauren July 21, 2010 @ 1:58 pm😀
Comment by lauren July 21, 2010 @ 1:59 pmrotting bollocks? stop talking dirty you naughty minx.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 9:25 pmYour friend Paul is one evil bastard. I was on Facebook while he was posting them. They kept appearing, as if by magic.
The one of you with the braces looks as if you may be tipsy, and on a barge. Was it taken the day before you started drinking diet coke (and only diet coke)?
Comment by Marcus July 21, 2010 @ 2:00 pmSadly I wasn’t tipsy as I was about 19 when it was taken and I stopped drinking at 15 … and it was taken while Paul and I were staying in his parents caravan in Bath on a week away.
And no, nothing gay happened, but he did get caught doing something unsavoury in the caravan site toilets by a family,
Comment by Rob July 21, 2010 @ 4:32 pmIf someone can’t adapt then for me they aren’t a real planner. Nice post, he says concisely as opposed to the bizarre photoshop arguments going on…
P.s.: You do look a bit of a tit though.
Comment by Rob Mortimer July 21, 2010 @ 4:32 pmis that guitar made of waffleboard? what the hell was that?
Comment by lauren July 21, 2010 @ 7:27 pmPlywood? Fucking plywood. That’s a custom made, hand made Hugh Manson … and whilst you probably don’t know who that is, it’s safe to say plywood isn’t he usual material of choice. Plywood. Amazing.
Comment by Rob July 21, 2010 @ 8:04 pmi love it when you’re patronising baby.
of course i know it’s not fucking plywood, i’m not a moron. it’s just so fucking ugly that i had to tease you about it.
note to self: rob is super sensitive about his instrument.
Comment by lauren July 21, 2010 @ 10:06 pmnice lauren. fucking nice.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 11:11 pmI agree with Andy – It’s not just about planners with diverse lifes , but rather everyone
Comment by bhaskar July 21, 2010 @ 8:44 pmfinally someone speaks some fucking sense around here.
and why have you got a title about magpies and a picture of a sheep? sure youll have some planning bollocks justification but itll be some planning bollocks justification.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2010 @ 9:23 pmIts an unjustifiable mixing of metaphors creating a blurring of the intended message – I’m sure you’ve seen this in briefs you’ve had to turn into gold.
Comment by John July 22, 2010 @ 12:13 amherd sheep wool eyes
magpie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pica_pica1.jpg 😛
Comment by mocking bird July 22, 2010 @ 2:40 amits wank, thats all we need to say.
Comment by andy@cynic July 22, 2010 @ 6:24 amI don’t know what it is about this post that I like so much – and I don’t completely agree that ‘diverse’ has to stem from the ‘professions’ someone’s had and the other that it’s restricted to planners or impacts them more. I think it’s more about living through different things in one go [ lives].
Comment by bhaskar July 22, 2010 @ 11:23 amCreatives spend 12 hours in office [and get pulled in on weekends when there a pitch!] and their only window to the world seems to be the internet, and when they get time I see them in the pub – how the hell are they gonna fill or [inspire] their mind with ‘imagination’ – it’s gotta come from somewhere. Your impression of the world can’ just be formed by content off the screen, at times i think they’re the most disconnected from life! It scares me -Maybe thats why I agree with Andy ! ha!
BTW ‘your’ in the above coment referes creatives not you Rob 🙂
Comment by bhaskar July 22, 2010 @ 11:24 am