The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

You know what it is, where a client is taken out – normally by someone in client management – and “entertained”.

Now the thing is, people would always say the word ‘schmooze’ as if it was dirty … the equivilent of cheating on your wife but buying her a bunch of flowers on the way home. From a petrol station forecourt.

Now of course I know there have been all manner of dirty, filthy, morally corrupt things done under the guise of “entertaining the client” … however I would still say they are the exception rather than the rule, especially in adland.

Schmoozing doesn’t mean being underhand. Nor does it mean being slimy … intact I’d go as far to say that schmoozing is a really important thing and planners should be doing it far more than they do.

I’m not talking about long lunches, strip clubs or games of golf … I’m talking about the simple act of having a meal together.

Now I appreciate that might disappoint some … however the simple lunch or dinner is an amazing weapon.

I don’t mean it because you can try to win favor by getting them pissed … I mean it because it allows you to talk to them in a neutral environment … where previously ‘sensitive’ issues suddenly lose their explosiveness … where you can talk about life, not just work and start to connect on a deeper level – at least more than the day-to-day interactions you probably normally manage.

You get to discuss the future … fears, wants, hopes and dreams … and then you can go back to the office and try and do something about making it happen … something that can open the door to mutual benefit and belief … something that can get you more influence and creativity over their approach … something that can get you to deliver them stronger and more meaningful results.

Something that let’s you both remember how powerful, effective and important the advertising business can actually be …

You might think this is all airy-fairy, but as I wrote previously, half the battle to getting good work is having trust, respect and understanding and if all your interactions are based around an office table, rather than a dining table – the chances of you being able to achieve that get seriously limited.

This is an organization that has been around for over 180 years and while having a ‘standard life’ was probably pretty aspirational to many people back then, has the advent of fame addiction [or should I say, infamy addiction], materialism and social climbing [at least from a monetary perspective] meant the brand has become inherently irrelevant to the masses … or is a name, simply a name and all these branding experts that recommend tens of millions of dollars should be spent on image and naming strategies talking out of their collective arse?

And if you say yes, does that mean you’d buy a house on Bland Avenue or Boring Lane?

I know there is no specific rule to all this, if there was then New York should just be called York by now … but that aside, do you think Standard Life have an issue – existing or potential – given their name seems to be the antithesis of what so many people want and seek from their life, even if for many, it might be much better than what they currently have.

Actually, let’s call it a mecca for products “inspired by” someone/something else, just incase any gang/government member is reading this.

Fashion
Film
Shoes
Jewelry
Bags
Food
Booze
Medicine

You name it, someone somewhere is selling it and buying it, either knowingly or not.

Now I could go into a big diatribe about some of the reasons behind why I think it happens so much in China … which goes way beyond someone just wanting to make a shitload of cash … however I know none of you could give a flying fuck about that, so instead I want to talk about one area that I find particularly interesting, and that’s the fake film market.

Throughout Shanghai are DVD stores that sell nothing but fake product.

From classics to British television shows that were only broadcast weeks earlier to movies that haven’t even come out yet … you are pretty much presented with a video wonderland everytime you step into one of these stores.

For about 50 pence, you can get a beautifully packaged product of high quality.

FIFTY PENCE.

OK, so sometimes the quality is uber-shite and the subtitles never bear any resemblance to what is going on the screen [which adds a comedy element to everything, even Schindlers List] however more often than not, what you get is a couple of hours entertainment for less than the price of packet of popcorn.

But here’s the difference between the pirated film industry and the rest of the pirated category.

You see where the fashion, jewelry, bags, food, booze & medicine fake categories are concerned, their goal is make things look as identical to the aesthetic as the original – however with the film category, they don’t feel the same need to match the requirements of the outer packaging.

Sure, some of that is because they are often dealing with situations where the ‘outer packaging’ hasn’t even been created yet … but what I find interesting is how they get around this.

Maybe it’s because they think at the prices they charge, people won’t mind buying the odd ‘shit movie’ [in terms of storyline, not production quality] … maybe it’s because they just want to take the piss … maybe it’s because they can’t actually read what they’re printing … hell, maybe they really give a damn about quality entertainment and don’t want you wasting your money and time on the sort of thing that will sweep the board at next years Razzies … but it is not uncommon to look at the back of a film you’re considering purchasing and seeing this:

[To see full size, click here]

Brilliant eh.

If only all movie reviews were so honest.

I can think of more than a few Hollywood ‘blockbusters’ that needed this sort of ‘real World’ promotion material attached to it.

Are you listening Michael Bay and your Transformers 2 fiasco?!

Oh hang on, I’ve just thought of another possibility of why they might choose to go with the ‘blunt honesty’ approach to movie labeling … maybe it’s because they know idiots like me will find this sort of review one of the most compelling reasons to buy the thing!

God I’m a sad bastard.

They’d asked for my view on planning in Asia because they’d just run a competition to identify – and celebrate – some of Asia’s best ideas and wanted a counter-perspective to the views written by one of the competitions main judges … the wonderful Gareth Kay.

The reality is that I wasn’t going to end up writing something that made Gareth’s opinion look daft because:

1. I’m not clever enough to do that.

2. He is stupidly smart and Worldly and summed up his views with clarity, not prejudice.

4. I don’t believe Asia is better than the West, I just don’t think it’s – as many seem to think, especially in adland – worse.

So with all that in mind, I wrote a little piece that – I hope – conveys what any planner thinking of coming to this part of the World should expect to find and what any planner currently working in this part of the World, should hope to deliver.

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In theory, planning in Asia should be no different to planning in the rest of the World. But it is. For both good and bad reasons.

The reality is planning is still a relatively new concept here – embraced as much for ‘agency fee justification’ as it is to help liberate new ideas, thinking and creativity.

There is a long way to go – of which nurturing and training local talent needs to be a priority – however in some areas, we’re miles ahead of our Western counterparts.

Whereas many planners in the West can find themselves spending months upon months fine tuning a few words to create the perfect brand pyramid, out here the pace of change – driven, admittedly by market opportunities that have been in the West for decades – means the gap between thinking and doing can be in the blink of an eye.

What this means is we not only have to be more entrepreneurial, collaborative and open minded in our approach, we also have to trust our gut more.

That might sound dangerous because what you feel in your gut might be the result of a dodgy meal rather than a great idea – but at a time where nothing seemingly happens unless it has been tested to within an inch of it’s life, it means we get to produce ideas that tend to be bursting with energy rather than sanitized by process.

Of course this situation isn’t exclusive to Asian planning and without doubt, there are many occasions where planners have contributed to the creation of blandness rather than colour – however, because of our need to truly demonstrate our value to clients [and colleagues] as well as keep pace with the speed of change across the region – we probably get to make more things happen more often.

What makes this exciting is that because Asian business [including Western brands in Asia] is only interested in action – rather than conversation – as long as you can make it make business sense, anything is possible which is why the planning community here tend to talk more about creation than the West’s love of discussing theory.