Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Confidence, Consultants, Effectiveness, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Research, Respect, Standards
A company in the UK was recently invited to be part of a big pitch in China.
A very big pitch.
Because I know the founder of the company – and she knows my history with China – she asked if I could cast my eye over what they were proposing.
She’s a good friend so I said yes.
So over a few hours on zoom, they took me through all their work.
They’d been very busy …
Huge amounts of research.
Huge amounts of analysis.
Huge amounts of thinking.
It was really good, there was just one problem.
It was all wrong.
Not because what they’d discovered wasn’t true or accurate, but simply because they’d fallen for what I call, the planners achilles heel: What you think is interesting and new, isn’t interesting or new for the audience you want to engage’.
Look around and you see it happening everywhere.
From people who think they’ve discovered a new brand that’s been around for years, to consultants who proclaim they’ve invented a new business model that other industries have been using for decades to adfolk spouting theories their predecessors were applying before they were even born.
And while I get there can be innocent reasons for this happening, the inconvenient truth is it’s driven by a pinch of arrogance here … a sliver of laziness there … and a big dollop of the issues that continue to undermine the value and potency of the discipline of strategy within business and agencies.
There is craft in what we do.
A set of practices, standards and values that are designed to help us do better and be better.
Practices, standards and values that were developed over time by brilliant women and men.
Now that doesn’t mean we can’t add to it … play with it … challenge it or reinvent it …but it seems the goal for many is less about what is created and more about how they appear.
Hey, I get it …
We all like recognition and right now, the industry rewards that more than it rewards those who create the work that gets the recognition. Which is utterly terrifying.
But while I would never want to stand in the way of people making a truckload of cash, the desire to satisfy our ego is having an adverse, negative effect on the work we make and the audiences we serve.
Put simply, we’re boring them to death.
Because what we think is cutting edge innovation – whether in creativity or consideration – has been seen before, done before, known before and replaced before.
Or said another way …
Regardless what we want to believe, dDuplication is not innovation and degrees of change is not revolution.
I genuinely believe this industry can be great, innovative and valuable.
But it won’t happen if we continue to ignore rigour and reality in favour of believing if it’s new to us, it must be new to everyone.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Individuality
A few weeks ago I did a presentation to a bunch of advertising students in London.
While I enjoy this sort of thing, I also appreciate I’m a ‘senior’ old white man … so I’m very conscious of the privilege I have – and had – throughout my career.
With that in mind, I wanted to ensure whatever I said was about as usable as it could get … regardless of where you come from, what you do or whether you lived in London, Liverpool or Lima.
Note I said ‘usable’, because sadly – for all the talk the industry goes on about with D&I policies – there still remains prejudice, whether conscious or not.
So in the end, my talk consisted of 3 slides … of which the one below was not only the most well received, but probably the most important.
Despite the headwinds it faces, this industry can be great.
It has a wide range of brilliant, talented, creative people.
Unfortunately it also has a bunch of bitter and jaded, self-appointed ‘gods’.
People who have achieved a level of ‘industry fame’ based on what they say, rather than what they’ve done. And by that, I mean what they’ve said on Twitter. Yet despite this, they seem to believe it has elevated them to a level of ‘sage’, that means the entire industry exists to impress them.
Of course everyone is entitled to an opinion.
And all experience is experience.
But if you’re starting out, you’re incredibly vulnerable to ‘experienced people’s’ judgement and that can have the effect of either conforming you to doing what they like or undermining your belief in relation to what you like.
Now don’t get me wrong, having your work – and eyes – opened to the views of people who have achieved at the highest level, is incredibly valuable to your growth and development.
But the emphasis is on highest level.
That’s not about someone’s job title.
Not the length of their employment.
But what they have created.
That’s literally it.
And while everyone thinks they have done stuff of note – and in their own way, they likely have – the reality is standards are a bit like Twitter. Your view of the world is in direct proportion to the people you follow … so while there are people on social media and industry blogs who have genuinely learned from the best and created the best, there’s a whole lot more people who have not. They just don’t realise it. Or their ego won’t accept it.
Again, that doesn’t mean they won’t offer some value, but it does mean their view is tainted by the limitation of the work they’ve actually created.
Which is why the best advice for anyone starting out in the industry is to do your homework.
Don’t like an agency or an individual for what they say or how popular they are.
Explore what they’ve actually done.
Was it a one off or has it been consistent?
Have they set standards or just followed others?
Do they push boundaries or just talk about doing it?
Have they done interesting stuff or just know interesting stuff?
This is an amazing industry. It can offer a huge amount. But if you want a career – a good career – you need to find and forge your own voice and you can’t do that if you let popularity silence your individuality or force their words into your mouth.
And that’s why if you face that, especially from people who have never done stuff that is creatively interesting – regardless of their title or experience – then there’s only one course of action to take.
Fuck ’em.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Communication Strategy, Corporate Evil, Crap Products In History, Creativity, Culture, Devious Strategy, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Premium
Artisan.
A relatively recent addition to the marketing lexicon.
The attempt to make an everyday product sound special.
The goal to appear you are offering individual craft and care.
The ambition to charge a premium for the smallest possible addition.
And that’s why we now have artisan burgers, cakes and now fucking peanuts … even though the reality is one has swapped a bread roll for a [bought] brioche bun, the other has put some hand-piped icing on the top of some cupcake and a packet of peanuts have had some salt and pepper chucked on top of them.
They’ll be claiming the artisan experience extends to the lorry drivers who chuck boxes of nuts in the basement of the local shop. Though they’d describe it as ‘our highly trained delivery operatives gently hand deliver our artisan nuts to establishments of repute, allaround the country, to maximise the taste experience and customer accessibility’.
This sort of shit does my head in.
What’s worse is it works. At least for some people and brands.
Not because people believe it’s really an artisan product, but because they want to believe they’re special and worth the ‘extra’.
Which says as much about the state of humanity as it does the state of marketing.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Film
First of all, as today is 11.11, I want to acknowledge all the people who paid the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the world had peace.
Given the state of where we’re all at, there is the potential it was all in vain, so I hope sanity prevails and tyrants are dealt with.
OK, now I’ve done the mature bit, I want to talk about Bob Hoskins.
No … not because I have more than a passing resemblance to him … but because I read something recently that reinforced why I liked him so much.
For those who don’t know who he is, he’s the now deceased British actor famous for his roles in movies such as, The Long Good Friday, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, TwentyFourSeven [by my mate Midlands mate, Shane Meadows] and errrrrm, the iconic tragedy that was Super Mario Bros … the first ever movie based on a video game and notorious for how terrible the filming was, let alone the final product.
[More on that last one in a minute]
However where my appreciation of Bob started was not in a movie but in an interview.
He was on a chat show and they asked him …
“How hard is it to film back to back movies?”
He could have gone on a rant about the demands it takes out on him.
Not seeing his family.
Not being home.
The physical and mental exhaustion.
But he didn’t, he said this:
“I’ll tell you what’s hard. Nurses jobs are hard. Single parents lives are hard. Working in a factory is hard. I’m well looked after and well paid for pretending to be someone else on a screen, My life isn’t hard compared to those people. They’re the one’s who deserve the adulation, not me”.
And he meant every word, because not only was Hoskins notoriously self aware, he also found the Hollywood machine very uncomfortable. He loved acting but he hated the fawning.
Nothing sums this up more than his involvement with the movie Super Mario Bros.
The full disaster of the filming can be read here or here … but this quote by Hoskins probably sums it up best:
“The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Bros. It was a fucking nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks, their own agent told them to get off the set! Fucking nightmare. Fucking idiots.”
However after the movie he said something that not only summed up his love of his children and his chosen career, but captured why the advertising industry – for all its faults – can still hold magic.
Sure, not what it once was.
Sure, with it having huge implications on its future.
But something that I can’t imagine many other industries having.
And while we strive to be taken seriously as a discipline in the world of commerce, it might be with worth us remembering its the ridiculousness that made/makes us special. For the work it lets us create. For the influence on culture we can shape. For the way we can make brands something people want to know more about rather than just ignore.
It may be stupid.
It may not always make sense.
But at our best, it’s the ridiculous ways we see and operate in the world that can help business achieve – and mean more – than they ever imagined.
It’s time we remembered that.
It’s time companies remembered that.
Because when you see the vast majority of work put out at enormous expense – researched to within an inch of its life and judged by ‘gurus’ who generally have never actually created anything in their life [other than their own sense of self-importance] and have a limited view of what creativity is and can do, you can’t help but wonder if it is there to push us away rather than pull us in.
Have a great weekend.
Make it a ridiculous one.
Be more like Bob. Hoskins, not Campbell.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Black Lives Matter, Context, Creativity, Culture, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Prejudice, Racism, Social Divide
I write a lot.
It may be rubbish, but I still churn it out.
Every week day, coming up to TWO DECADES.
Jesus Christ.
And yet despite that, a lot of it seems to be popular.
Or should I say popular in relation to the quality of the writing and what I deserve and expect.
Now over the years I’ve written about all manner of topics.
The impressive standing of my best friend’s penis.
You name it, I’ve probably written some rubbish about it.
And yet for all the stuff I put out, there’s one topic that never seems to capture the imagination like all that other stuff … and yet it is arguably, the most important and serious stuff I write.
It’s about diversity and inclusion.
Or more specifically, how we can, need-to and should do more.
Whenever I write about that, there is a noticeable decline in ‘engagement’.
Not just in terms of people commenting, but reading.
I find that fascinating and terrifying.
Why is this happening?
I may understand a lack of commentary but a lack of reading?
+ Is it that there’s so much on this topic that despite the changes not happening fast enough, people are over it?
+ Is it that people know they’re not doing enough and don’t want to read something that reminds them of that?
+ Is it that people think I’m trying to position myself as some sort of expert and don’t respect my opinion?
+ Is it that people think I’m just trying to be ‘woke’ and don’t want to encourage me?
+ Is it people just don’t give a fuck?
A few years ago my beloved friend, Chelsea, noticed this also happening on my instagram.
Same situation as this blog …
More likes/comments than I deserve up until I post something serious about race.
Then – at best – a murmur and – at worst – silence.
I don’t know the reason for this, but it is happening.
It even happened recently on two articles I wrote for Little Black Book, promoted on Linkedin.
The first – about the process of strategy – received a combined 1121 likes, 99 comments and 55 shares. But the other – promoted exactly the same way, but about the importance of making space for People of Colour to be themselves and respecting that value that brings – received 17 likes and 2 comments.
SEVENTEEN!!!
A topic far more important than how strategy is up its own arse got seventeen likes.
I am not an expert in this stuff.
I’ve made – and make – more mistakes than I should.
But I am committed to change and creating change and for all the talk of the industry wanting to do the same, it seems it only suits when they decide it suits. Of which there is no better definition of privilege.
None of this will surprise People of Colour.
They face this two-faced bullshit everyday of their lives.
I don’t care if people think I’m being woke.
I don’t care if people don’t read what I write.
I don’t even care if people don’t respect me.
This is about people talking a lot about the most serious issue facing our industry but doing practically nothing. Or worse, doing a small thing and then deciding it’s a big thing because it suits their agenda, even though they haven’t once asked the people it’s supposed to be there to help. It’s pathetic. Fucking pathetic.
I’d rather hear people say they don’t care or believe in D&I than talk earnestly about its importance but don’t do anything about it. Not even use their platform or position to keep the topic, top of mind.
The problem with our industry is it’s increasing lack of relevance and resonance with business, creativity and culture. The great irony is the most influential, interesting, and commercially powerful things in business, creativity and culture are born from People of Colour communities, especially Black/African American culture.
At the very least white culture should care because it can keep them earning a living.
But no. They think they are good enough to do it. Good enough to understand things they can never quite grasp as it comes from a lived experience they have never had to face. So they miss the nuance, the heritage, the soul.
Or maybe it’s not that at all.
Maybe it’s something else.
Fear.
Fear of being left behind by the knowledge, understanding and context of People of Colour.
Because unlike them, People of Colour see culture from the inside, the outside and deep within its creative soul. This not only helps them understand what’s influencing culture better than most white people, it means they understand white people better than white people.
So they can offer more insight and understanding.
More creativity and opportunity.
More openness and authenticity.
Giving them knowledge that not only puts most white people to shame, but can put most white people out in the cold.
That’s probably the reason.
White people want to keep People of Colour down.
Not all. But that doesn’t matter … because that many do creates this situation.
Continues this situation.
And while I’m not saying everyone who reads my posts – or should I say, doesn’t read them – are racist, I am saying maybe we all need to think about what we’re doing … because we can’t say we don’t know about the issues regarding diversity and inclusion just because we avoid reading about it.