Filed under: Advertising [Planning] School On The Web
… the entry submission is April 20th.
Good news, that’s almost a week and the whole of this weekend.
More info on the assignment is here and some news that’s rather big [for me] is here.
My advice is you should stick to the former and ignore the latter.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Daddyhood, Goodbye China, Grand announcements, Jill, Love, My Fatherhood, Otis, Perspective, Pollution, Sentimentality, The Kennedys Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
So I have some big and exciting news. Well, it is for me …
On May 10th, I leave Wieden+Kennedy.
In addition to that, on May 16th, I leave China.
Given both have been my home for the last 7 years – one of the longest periods of my entire adult life – that means this is very big thing for me and I won’t deny it is bitter-sweet.
I’ve had an incredible time and leave with a bunch of memories, stories and learnings that I can honestly say will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Of course, I’ll miss so many things – the people, the culture, the colleagues the clients and the holidays* [ha] – but I still have a lot I want to try and experience and that just wasn’t going to happen if I stayed.
In addition, I need a place where my son can go out and play.
China is an amazing country, but the pollution means there have been too many days where he’s had to stay inside and that just isn’t what I want for him growing up.
That is very hard for me to admit, because I truly love and respect this country and would never want to speak bad of it because I’ll forever be grateful for how it embraced me, educated me and helped me thrive.
As for Wieden … well they have been awesome.
I thought I would stay at W+K forever but unfortunately, we’re a very flat structured, relatively small company, so there’s just not that many options easily available for someone like me. Everyone tried to make it work but as I have no desire to be an MD and feel I’ve achieved everything [and more] that I set out to do in Shanghai – and that I was asked to do in Shanghai – I came to the realization that for me to keep growing, I had to try something different.
That said, there is absolutely no doubt that I have enjoyed one of the most exciting and fulfilling times of my professional career [so far] but right now, I need to go and try some stuff that takes everything I have learnt – from Wieden and beyond – and mix it with a bunch of new experiences and lessons so I can see what happens in a totally different environment and situation.
I’m very excited about that but I’ll always be super thankful for the chance Wieden gave me, especially because they never asked me to be anyone else other than myself.
Even when it annoyed the fuck out of them.
To have done 7 years in the best agency in the World, in one of the most amazing countries in the World with some of the best clients in the World is an incredible honour.
To have earned their trust enough that they asked a planner – a bloody planner! – to start and run their creative talent incubator, The Kennedys, is extra special.
But to have them say you’ve done a good job and you should go and explore but never rule out coming back, shows how special – and mental – they are.
And they are. Very, very special.
And mental.
So what next?
Well, I’ll announce that soon however what I will tell you is I’m swapping one country with an evil government regime for another.
That’s right, I’m moving to America.
To LA to be precise.
I swear this is not purely because I can get away with wearing Birkenstocks the whole time.
But it helped make our decision.
I’ll reveal all soon, but I’m very excited about this next chapter in life.
It will hopefully challenge and teach me a bunch of new things while offering my family the sort of environment they absolutely deserve to enjoy – and I’m incredibly grateful I have the chance to do this, especially at this point in my life.
But it’s even more than that.
You see my parents always said they wanted me to live a life of fulfilment rather than contentment and if they knew their only son was going to have experienced life in America, Europe and Asia, they would be super-proud.
As I get older, I realise what is becoming more important for me is less about how high up the career ladder I go [though, as Harrison Ford said, I won’t undervalue all the work it has taken to get me to my current position] and more about how varied my life experiences are.
This move is another step to fulfilling that … or it will be when it happens. Until then, you’ll have to put up with business as usual, which basically means more ranty rubbish blog posts.
Onwards …
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* For the record, given many of you think I’ve done nothing over the past 7 years except go on holiday, you’ll be ecstatic to know I’ll be leaving Wieden just before I was going to be having my 6 week paid sabbatical. I guess you could call it ‘holiday karma’.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Comment, Communication Strategy, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Great Ads In History, Long Copy
One of the things that has always bugged me about adland is the ad ‘credit list’.
Sometimes you’ll read about a one-off print ad that has a longer credit list than a bloody movie.
Seriously.
Look, I get the importance of having your name on things – this is an industry obsessed with that – but it kind of gets ridiculous when people are mentioned because they put the stamp on the invitation for the client launch.
That’s why I always loved that Mother credited everything as Mother.
Sure, you could claim it robbed those involved in the making of the work from getting the credit they deserved – but I can tell you for a fact, there’s no way those people would be anonymous for long.
Of course the worst is when people take credit for things they didn’t really do.
Or big themselves up to make it sound like they were instrumental in what was created.
With that, I want to tell you a story that I heard from my friend – and creative extroidinatire – Kash Sree.
A long time ago – in the 80’s to be precise – there was a phenomenal writer called Richard Cook.
The creative director he worked for was notorious for not giving credit to the people who deserved it and had left Richard’s name off numerous previous pieces of well received work.
One lunch, the creative director handed Richard an ad and asked him to write some copy for it before he got back.
Richard – in a demonstration of his talent – wrote the piece over his lunch break.
It’s the ad at the top of this post.
The ad went on to win countless awards.
In an award-obsessed industry, Richard wasn’t exactly surprised that the creative director yet again denied Richard had anything to do with the work. So Richard unleashed his weapon.
He simply stated if anyone needed proof that he was responsible for the ad, they should read the first letter of every paragraph of the copy.
I’ll save you the bother. It spelled out ‘Richard Cook wrote this’.
Genius.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Corporate Evil, Crap Campaigns In History, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Embarrassing Moments, Marketing, Marketing Fail
Maybe it’s because I’ve broken the screen on my iPhone 7 three times.
Maybe it’s because I work in advertising.
Or maybe it’s because I’m a sad bastard …
But this ad bothers me a lot.
No … it not the terribly contrived ‘real life’ image.
Nor is it the fact 25% of iPhone 7 owners are clumsy fucks.
It’s the fact the company – Tech 21 – make such a deal of being iPhone 7 specialists AND THEN USE AN IMAGE IN THEIR AD THAT ISN’T OF AN iPHONE 7!!!
Why?
Seriously why?
Don’t tell me there isn’t a stock shot available because I did a quick look and theres loads of them.
No one behind this campaign comes out of this looking good.
The agency look like they were lazy bastards and the client looks like they don’t care.
Seriously, why should I trust a company about their iPhone 7 protection when they don’t even know what an iPhone 7 looks like.
This sort of thing drives me bonkers.
Literally bonkers.
It’s not hard to get this right.
It’s the least they should be doing.
If I was a competitor I’d absolutely jump on this.
Mind you, if I was at the agency/client behind it, I’d be jumping on people’s heads.
So come on adland, let’s not give people even more ammunition to question what we do and how valuable it can be for business. Seriously, get a fucking grip.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Comment, Communication Strategy, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Marketing
The ‘hijack’ strategy is now being used by so many brands that you have to ask if it’s even effective anymore.
OK, so when it’s done really well, it still has the power to impress … but so many brands are now doing it in such a half-baked way [often relying on the occasion to make the impact rather than the work] that a lot doesn’t even make a dent.
What’s even more annoying is this trend for brands to enter debates with no other purpose than to push their own agenda.
They don’t contribute to the debate.
They don’t add to the debate.
They don’t even care about the debate.
It’s all take, take, take … even though the media loves to claim “the brand is taking a stand about issues facing society”.
I’m looking at you Dove and your #AlternativeFacts ad … even though you’re far from being the only guilty party.
However there’s some brands who at least have the decency to make their exploitation amusing.
Sure, you could say Dove did that with the ad I’ve just criticised them for … but lets be honest, they’re not exactly known for going outside of their lane in terms of topicality and even though they could have easily turned this into a legitimate ad about their product credentials, they chose to go for the lowest common denominator. Possibly because it’s also award season soon. Possibly.
And that’s why I like this idea from Chinese teabag brand, inWE …
Yes, they are jumping on a bandwagon.
Yes, they are trying to gain free publicity from it.
But at no point do they try and claim it is some sort of political statement, which allows you to enjoy it for exactly what it is.
A bit of fun.
And the irony of this is it makes the brand far more likeable than all those others who try to hijack a cause or occasion to show they care.
Because most don’t, not in a way where they will sacrifice their profit for their cause.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of ‘brand purpose’.
But saying you care and committing to it are – sadly – very different things which is why it’s kind of refreshing to find a brand who isn’t trying to claim it’s saving the World but simply having some fun with what they do.
Which some would argue is a ‘brand purpose’ … but then they tend to also be the sort of folks that call humans, brands.
They’re not. They’re humans.