Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Chaos, Comment, Communication Strategy, Culture, Cunning, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Planning
So I know that the first reaction most people will have reading the title of this post is, “Pot. Kettle. Black.”
And I get it, I can talk. A lot.
But the thing is, in actual client meetings, I’m much more surgical.
There’s a couple of reasons for this.
The first is I am genuinely interested to hear what others in the room think.
The second is it allows me the time to truly consider my point of view in consideration of all we’ve heard.
And thirdly, I can ensure my POV has the opportunity to be shaped by others perspectives that I may not have considered.
However there are 2 occasions where I don’t follow these rules.
The first is when the room requires some sort of ignition to commence debate.
I know we live in times where everyone seems to have a point of view on everything, but there are occasions when silence happens and when it does, my role is to kick things off so a topic finds its natural rhythm and momentum with the rest of the attendees.
The other time I enter the fray earlier is when we have the self-appointed expert.
Now as I’ve said many times, I’m a huge fan of ‘intelligent naivety’ … people who experience/situation affords them a unique perspective on a subject matter, despite not being employed or trained in it.
For example, years ago when I was working with Dreamworks to define what ‘entertainment’ was, one of the people we invited who had a fascinating perspective, was a mother of 8 kids who regarded anything that kept her kids quiet and still for 15 minutes was the pinnacle of entertainment.
But I’m not talking about these folk.
The beauty of them is they tend to speak very much from their personal perspective, situation and experience and never try to claim their opinion is valid for a different set of circumstances.
I’m talking about the people who don’t understand that their perspective is simply their perspective rather than something that is universal and can be transported to others.
The millionaires who talk about what it’s like to be a kid in a low income home, based on what their kid likes.
The ad folk who talk about what life is like in the suburbs because they read an article about it in The Guardian.
The white guys who talk about understanding what it’s like to be an African American because they aren’t racists.
The men who tell women what they want because “my Mum was one”.
The businessmen who talk about what an ad should look like because they know business.
And while those people absolutely have a right to an opinion, they need to be reminded it’s just that – an opinion, not a fact – because if you let them talk incessantly, they don’t just have the ability to derail a meeting, they have the ability to get otherwise sane people to agree to decisions that are utterly car-crash. Remember Pepsi?
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Innovation, Insight, Marketing, Planners, Relevance, Resonance
One of adlands favourite things is the ‘positioning statement’.
A statement that informs where a brand fits within its category.
It’s been a successful way to do things for decades and many brands continue to embrace to this day.
But it’s limiting.
It stops a brand from having a bigger role in culture.
It leads to those painful annual ‘brand relaunch’ campaigns.
It can become out-of-date in the blink of an eye.
It is for this reason I’ve always believed in the importance of a brand ‘point of view’.
A point of view transcends the category rules.
A point of view can adapt and flow with the times.
A point of view lets creativity flow, not be stifled.
Of course, to do this, you have to start with knowing who you are, who you want to be and what you stand for … but in my experience, expressing this as a point of view means you can make work that resonates with culture rather than tries to be relevant to it.
For those who don’t think resonance vs relevance is a big difference, I would say you’re missing a valuable shift in culture.
With so many brands talking at culture or making innovation that they want them to like rather than what they want, a brand that shows it truly gets it’s audience is more differentiated than any amount of brands who spend all their time trying to create a widget no other brand has, but no person actually wants.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Culture, Daddyhood, Emotion, Empathy, Family, Innocence, Insight, Jill, Love
So recently I saw that the movie, Fame was 38 years old.
While I didn’t see the film, the memory of the TV show is burned into my mind.
I remember seeing trailers for it on TV earlier that week and wanting to watch it … however when it aired, I was out with my friends playing football – it was summer – so when I finally walked into the house [via the back garden, as I’d gone to talk to my Mum and Dad who were enjoying the late evening sun] the show was half way through the episode.
But I was hooked from the beginning.
The idea of a school that taught creativity in a way that wasn’t stuffy was infectious to me.
Previous to that, I didn’t even know those things could exist but the fact there was a TV show about it, meant it must do. Somewhere.
To be honest, at that point in my life – 1982 – I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but it’s now obvious to me that part of the appeal of the show was because I wanted to go down that path, I just didn’t know it before then.
It might sound a bit of a leap, but the show might be one of the reasons I picked up the guitar about a year later and went on to spend a big chunk of my life between the ages of 17-24 making, earning and traveling because of music.
I always wonder if I’d have tried to get into a school of the arts if there had been one available in the UK at that time.
There were acting schools, but nothing like the one in Fame.
Of course, the school on Fame was fictitious, but the schools it was based on represented a very different feel and place of learning that the UK equivalent.
I personally think these schools are incredibly important.
At a time where education seems universally focused on academic subjects, the value of ‘the arts’ seems to have slipped down in importance.
I get why, but I can tell you, if Otis wanted to go to one when he is older – I’d be thrilled.
Sure, you could argue a degree in dance or music or acting is going to be harder to turn into a good income down the line, but apart from the fact you could say that about most degrees in general these days … the role of education is not just to better the individual, but for that individual to help better the country they live in.
It’s for this reason I’m so vehemently opposed to education-for-profit.
Not just because it has resulted in universities lowering their qualification standards to increase admission, but because a highly educated population adds huge commercial value to a country.
Smart people do smart things.
Whether that is creating things or attracting things, a highly educated workforce creates more opportunities for others … be that people, communities, companies or countries … and it’s for this reason I passionately believe governments should keep standards insanely high but the cost of insanely low.
But sadly few look at it that way – preferring to take the money rather than make the investment – resulting in too many people going to university in the hope of getting a great future but finding out they got sold a great lie.
Education is an amazing thing – regardless what you study – but with degrees fast becoming worth less than the paper they’re written on, I hope if Otis does choose to advance his education, he follows the path that leads him to emotional fulfillment.
I don’t care what that is … art, music, accountancy or tech … but for me the key is he does it for his happiness, not purely for his career because in a World where everyone seems to do stuff to get ahead, there’s something amazing in following a path for the sheer joy that you enjoy it and that’s something I would love for him to do.
As my parents taught me, at the end of the day, feeling fulfilled is more important than simply being content.
Wow, this is quite a leap from a 1982 TV show about kids dancing in the streets of NY isn’t it.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Daddyhood, Emotion, Family, Rosie
So on the 1st July, the cat above is 11 years old.
While she can drive the patience of a saint with her demanding ways, I absolutely adore her her madly.
I’d never really had a pet before – unless a goldfish and a cactus counts – and while there were some initial complicated moments, Rosie has given me nothing but utter joy.
I bloody love that cat.
What else would explain me building her a cat penthouse so she can survey her kingdom without having to venture outside [something she’s never done] or buying her a plane seat so she can be with us when we moved to LA.
For a street cat from Singapore, she lives a pretty pampered life.
Not that she thinks that.
Oh no.
I swear if she could talk she would list all the things she believes she’s hard done by.
Not having constant access to Friskies cat treats.
Or not being allowed to go behind the Televisions.
Or not getting brushed 24/7.
And yet – ironically – for all her desire for even more pampering, I swear that she thinks of herself as this …
… because when birds – or another cat – comes into her vision, she reacts like Russia has just invaded another nations airspace, but if she was actually allowed to go and ‘defend’ her land, she’d be utterly rubbish, because underneath it all, she is 100% this.
And I love her even more for that.
Even though it took her 3 years before she sat on our knee.
So to my beloved Rosie, happy birthday you beautiful but cranky purr monster.