Filed under: Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Corona Virus, Culture, Cynic, Diversity, Emotion, Experience, Imagination, Immaturity, Innovation, Insight, Love, Loyalty, Management, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, R/GA, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Wieden+Kennedy
So if the title of the post didn’t give you a clue.
And if the photo above didn’t make what this post is about, obvious.
Today is my last day at R/GA.
Sadly my role has been made redundant. Thanks a lot COVID!!
And while it’s sad, I am glad it’s a senior, white, male who is being impacted rather than someone young or female or a person of colour who are often the ones who get hit first across the industry.
But while there will plenty of things I’ll miss, the biggest will be my team.
I’ve always been so lucky with the planners I’ve worked with and this lot are no exception.
They’re great. A talented bunch of creative fools who made me laugh, debate and rethink stuff every single day.
They were an honour to work with and they will continue to be epic in all they do.
They better be, because I’ll be watching them. Closely.
So thank you Lachlan, Nic, Rach, Anna, Joel, Amar, Erika, Laureen, Bassot, Ed, Megan, Nicole, Divya, Arda, Amelia, Severine, Marissa, Insa, Toby, Ben … and the others who helped make my time – and the gang – so much fun, including Anne, Valia, Eduardo and Michael.
So what next?
Well there’s a bunch of things.
We bought a house which we still need to move into.
I have my projects with the Metal Masters I need to deal with.
And I recently got an assignment with the Chilli’s, by which I mean the band rather than the food – which will be fascinating. Or headache inducing. I’ll let you know which, later.
Then I’ve registered a company I now need to work out what the hell I’m going to do with. I’ve got some ideas and I’ve even got some backers, but I owe it to my family to give it a bit more thought rather than just run full-speed to wherever my excitement orders me to go.
But for right now, all I’m going to do is take a couple of weeks off to enjoy being with the family and no zoom calls – which means you also get a week or two off – so all that leaves me to say is thank you to R/GA for the adventure and the airmiles … my team for their brilliance and their trouble making and … my wife, son, cat, clients and mates for their love, support and sarcasm.
Last thing.
Let’s be honest, these situations suck.
If people had the choice between having a job and not, the job is pretty much always going to win, especially at my age.
However not only am I absolutely fine, I’m strangely optimistic.
There are many reasons for this, but the main one is the last time this happened to me, it resulted in some of the best times of my career.
From starting and selling cynic and Sunshine to then working at Wieden+Kennedy and R/GA through to living, exploring and working all around the World.
Or said another way … when my role was made redundant, it was instrumental in helping me do stuff at the highest levels of creativity, culture and client all around the World.
From helping launch brands like Spotify in Japan to partnering with NIKE to create sport culture in China to inspiring Virgin Atlantic to build an airport lounge that people want to miss their plane to stay in to finding ways to redefine the rules of luxury which led to SKP-S building an experience specifically designed to look/feel like life on Mars to helping Metallica do all manner of weird and wonderful stuff from connecting deeper with fans to opening new ways to connect with the band. And a bunch of other stuff, from the small to the huge to the ridiculous.
I absolutely, unapologetically, love this stuff with all I’ve got.
Now whether any of this can happen again is anyone’s guess, but it is possible … and given the challenges and competitive nature of the world today, I feel my history of provocative and intriguing creativity to help brands around the world define their position in culture – and business – still gives me a strong and valuable role to play.
I guess this is all my convoluted way of saying if you’re an agency or a company – anywhere in the World – who is ambitious to grow or change or reimagine who you are or considering new markets [ie: Asia/China] or stuck on a mindfuck of a problem or want advice on building a cohesive, potent strategy gang or just want to win better … then give me a shout, because whether it’s about leading something, collaborating on something or just chatting about something … I’m going to be officially available for all of this very soon and I’d bloody love it.
Right, now my Gwyneth Paltrow Oscar speech is out the way, see you in a few weeks.