Welcome back.
How was it?
Full of festive cheer or headaches and disappointment.
Bet you’d swap it all again for today wouldn’t you.
Even when you like your job, coming back to work after the holidays is hard.
Getting up early.
Transport hell.
Going through the same conversations with everyone at work.
Thinking about what you were doing at that time just a few days before.
Why do we do it to ourselves? Oh I know … to pay the bills.
Well fortunately not only did I have a lovely time in Australia, I ended 2019 winning the inaugural R/GA London Planner Pie-Off competition with my [surprisingly] delicious Great British Bake Off Fry-Up Pie, so you’ll understand why I have high hopes for this year – with one of the biggest hopes being we might actually move into our new home after 6+ months of legal nightmares. We shall see.
But as we are back at work and no one wants to be here, I thought I’d start by writing a post that captures a sense of optimism for the new year.
It’s 2020.
TWENTY TWENTY!!!
That means we are post Blade Runner times … which has to be cool, doesn’t it?
No.
Don’t blame you … just typing that is enough to give me heart palpitations and it’s only Monday. So to calm us down and to get back to an issue I’m passionate about – especially in these client optimization obsessed times – here is why brand building is not a luxury, but a critical investment in building a sustainable future, especially in these highly competitive, increasingly turbulent times.
Or to quote a Chinese proverb, “a successful farmer plants their seeds and nurtures them in the knowledge that when it comes time to harvest, their crop is bigger and healthier. It takes time, but it is always worth it.”
Said another way … if you’re always trying to harvest, there won’t be anything left to grow.
Given the amount of brands who are openly admitting their focus on short-term sales has hurt their long term business, there may be hope for us all to get back to making work that builds rather than just takes.
See, 2020 isn’t so bad so far after all …