The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

“Just because you have the best piano doesn’t mean you can play the finest music”.

The reason why this is especially pertinent is that – as someone who is older than the planet and has worked pretty much all over it – the one thing I’ve learned is the very best clients don’t get seduced by hype, headlines, PR releases, agency models and processes, panel invites, network configurations, the promises and claims of ‘the power of the network brought together under one roof’ … they believe the work does the best talking.

Given we – as an industry – have always talked about the importance of communicating benefits rather than features, this shouldn’t be a surprise and yet, it’s happening more and more often. There’s a bunch of possible reasons for why this is happening, but I can’t help but feel some of the main ones are we’ve forgotten who we are, what we do, and what is valuable about what we create – which has manifested in us making choices and decisions that make us feel smart, but – as Lucille Ball once said – not very clever.

Of course, there’s a lot of clients – and agencies – who don’t care, or don’t have the talent, experience or knowledge to recognise what quality, craft or even a sustainable, distinctive, differentiated brand even means or looks like … which is why we will continue to see a bunch of them burn down their own house down while proclaiming to have the best chefs in town.

Sad.

Especially given the people running these orgs tend to be the ones with the loudest voices saying they ‘understand business’.

Though to be fair they do, it’s just that it’s the ‘demolition business’.

As the old adage goes, ‘anything is easy if you haven’t got to do it’.

And too many people in positions of authority don’t. And never have.