Filed under: 2025, A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Anniversary, Attitude & Aptitude, Career, China, Colleagues, Creativity, Friendship, Love, Loyalty, Management, Planning, Professionalism, Relationships, Resonance, Respect, Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
One of the most special times of my life – not just career – was working at Wieden+Kennedy.
Specifically Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai.
Of all the adventures and experiences I’ve had in my life, it stands out highest simply because I feel a deeper sense to China and its people than any other place I’ve ever lived.
It helped that I was there during a time where the World needed China more than China needed the World – so I found myself invited into meetings and situations that frankly, few people – let alone strategists – would ever get to experience.
Wieden were amazing to me personally and professionally but I paid them back in droves.
But that said, leaving was very difficult.
They wanted me to stay.
A big part of me wanted to stay.
But I’d been there for a lonnnnnng time, I’d done pretty much everything that could be done – including starting and running The Kennedys – plus I had a young boy who needed a different environment to grow up in.
So with very bitter sweet tears, I said goodbye to a magical place in a magical country. Except I said it in a way where they would forever remember me. Specifically as the pain-in-the-fucking-arse I’d been to every single person in that place for seven fucking years.
You see about 6 weeks prior to leaving, I had 600 of these stickers made.
I then proceeded to spend the next 5 weeks hiding them everywhere.
From the – then – refurbished Shanghai office to all the local W+K hangouts, like Baker & Spice, Jamaica Blue, Little Catch and, of course, Nike HQ.
It made some people furious. Specifically one person. Which made me especially happy because in terms of making a final decision whether to stay or go, they were the determining factor on why I left.
And over the years, people would send me a photo where they had come across one or two.
And despite it now being 8 years … there’s still some there.
In fact, there’s now more than just some.
You see a few weeks ago, I was in Shanghai and was invited to visit the office.
I had not been in the place since I left … but given I’d now been away longer than I was there, it felt OK to go in.
And it was lovely and familiar.
But then it was a place where I did a lot of growing up.
And made a lot of friends … friends who are with me for life.
Which is why it was extra special for me to see some familiar faces from my time there.
And because of this, I wanted to honour the place and give them something new to show my gratitude and love.
So I gave them this:
That’s right, I made a new sticker to accompany the old ones.
“But how many stickers?” I hear you cry.
Well I couldn’t possibly divulge that information because it would ruin the fun of finding all of them, but in the interests of friendship, here’s a clue:
Now I fully appreciate this act of ‘love vandalism’ may result in them never inviting me back, but I do hope they see it as my own special way of showing my deepest and sincerest respect to a place and country I truly love.
Because Wieden Shanghai and China wasn’t just a place I lived and worked …
It was where I was reborn.
Filed under: 2025, A Bit Of Inspiration, Airports, America, China, Creativity, England, Experience, Great Ads In History, Legend, New Zealand, Planning, Respect, Royalty
So this is my last post for just over a week.
I know, I know … I just did that a few weeks ago.
But while any trip overseas is a privilege, this is almost indescribable in its beautiful madness.
Or it would have been, until plans got slightly changed.
ARGHHHHHHHHH.
I must admit, I was devastated when I first got told because as I hinted on my 1st Oct post … it was going to be one of the most insane, wonderful, special, magical and utterly, utterly bonkers trips and experiences of my entire life.
ENTIRE. LIFE.
And I was happy so say that, even if it turned it into a total fucking disaster.
But alas, things got changed and delayed so while I am going away, it’s to a different place for a much shorter time and to meet a rep of the individual – rather than the actual individual, which will now happen in late October and then a big event thingymajig in early 2026. So while that’s a bit disappointing for me, it’s still great news for you because while I’ll now be back in NZ for some of next week, there will only be a few posts over next week.
You’re welcome.
So with that, I wish you all a good weekend … and to say goodbye, I can’t think of a nicer way to do that than leave you with the great Dolly Parton singing a song that perfectly sums up my week ahead.
Have fun. Take care.
Filed under: 2025, A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Ambition, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Career, China, Clients, Colenso, Colleagues, Comment, Community, Context, Contribution, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Curiosity, Effectiveness, Emotion, Environment, Family, Fear, Honesty, Hope, Imagination, Individuality, Katie, Love, Loyalty, Luck, Management, Martin Weigel, Metallica, Miley, Mr Ji, Paula, Perspective, Planes, Planning, Relationships, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance, Respect, Standards, Strategy, Success, Wieden+Kennedy
Once upon-a-time, I hired a head of planning for NIKE at Wieden Shanghai.
They’d come to my attention via a colleague who’d worked with them in the past.
On top of that, they had a good pedigree of work and – just as importantly – they loved sport.
I was excited to welcome them into the team and everything was good … until it wasn’t.
One evening, I received an email saying they’d thought about it and didn’t want to do it.
I understood the cold feet, they were US based and I was asking them to move to China … but we had spent a lot of time discussing this and they had assured me they were up for it.
And they probably were – when it was theoretical.
Everything is fine when it’s theoretical.
The problems always lie once you move to reality.
What bugged me was this person refused to get on the phone to discuss it. They sent their email and in their mind, that was the only correspondence they were going to enter into.
Was I pissed?
Yeah, initially I was … because we’d invested a lot of time and effort into helping this person get a good taste of what the opportunity was, what life was like here and what we’d do to make their move as easy as possible. Add to that, I always take huge responsibility when bringing people over from another country and it all felt like they had just wasted our time a bit.
But by the emorning, I was fine with it.
In fact, I was bloody happy about it.
Because if they didn’t want to come to us, I sure as hell didn’t want them to be with us.
Now I appreciate that may sound cold as hell – and I was grateful they made the call before they actually moved here – but I haven’t got the time to waste on people who aren’t excited about what they could be doing and learning and who only want to repeat or surround themselves with the stuff they know and have done.
We used to have a lot of those people apply to be at Wieden Shanghai.
Same with Colenso, albeit to a lesser degree.
People who want to work at the agency, but don’t want to move for it.
Oh they say all the right things.
They complain about all the right things.
But then you realise they don’t want to change any of the things.
They prefer to be a blame thrower rather than an opportunity grabber.
I find that bonkers … especially for strategists … but it happens more than you could ever imagine. People only focusing on what they lose rather than all the things they gain.
And you gain a lot. In every single possible way.
But that’s not what this post is about …
Because the person I hired to replace the person who walked away, was the brilliant Paula Bloodworth.
THAT Paula Bloodworth. The fucking weapon of strategy and creativity.
A person with a reel that is better than entire agencies, let alone strategists.
And while I take absolutely no credit for all she has gone on to achieve, I do express my gratitude to the person who pulled out the job.
Had they not done that, Paula would not have entered my life … and given she is one of the most important people in my life – not as a colleague, but a full-on friend – that is something I feel eternally grateful for.
In many ways, my job at Colenso followed a similar story.
They’d hired a CSO from Australia, but before they could move, COVID happened and they realised they didn’t want to leave where they were.
It was at that point, Colenso saw I’d been made redundant from R/GA and – having almost got together in 2015 – they put in a call.
Had that not happened, I’d likely still be in the UK or back in the US … rather than at a place that is increasingly more special to me with each passing year.
‘Accidental Luck’ is everywhere …
Hell, we’re in talks with someone who embodies this on steroids.
Where they sent a VERY speculative email at the very moment a candidate we were talking to, pulled out.
OK, it helps they’re talented and have a ton of potential we see and can/will grow … plus there’s the good fortune we have a new client who is not only based in the very country they’re from, but also works in the same category they’ve been focused on for the past few years and they want to become what they want have always wanted a brand in that category to be … but suddenly a person we may never have known – let alone hired – could be someone we get to call a brilliant new member of our strat gang soon.
Hopefully.
For fucks sake, hopefully, hahaha.
[And if they don’t, they don’t – we all move on – however the real lesson they need to understand is what I write about next in this post … that is if they read this blog, which they don’t. Which is another sign they’re smart … haha.]
Which goes to the point of this post.
We can plan our careers to within an inch of their life.
We can study and follow the latest theories and systems.
We can spend time looking at every possible permutation.
We can demand every part of the job is described in minute detail.
Hell, we can even write 20 Linkedin posts a day, every single day.
But none of that – absolutely none – matters as much as being ready to act when the opportunity strikes.
Yes, it’s nice to think you will always have companies come to you.
Yes, it’s nice to think you will always have options and choices.
But often, the best thing you can do for your career is be ready to go when someone else isn’t.
If I am being honest, I owe pretty much everything I have ever done to the fact I’ve always been willing to move to wherever the best opportunities was located and then work my ass off to make great things for them.
Or said another way, if I heard of something exciting [and credible] was on the table, I was on the plane.
No if’s.
No buts.
No umming and ahhing.
I was sprinting towards it.
Doesn’t matter if it was an agency in China, an artist in America or a fashion designer in Italy … if it is interesting, intriguing and scary-as-fuck, I am there.
Now of course I appreciate not everyone has the ability to do this.
I also understand that ‘moving countries’ for a job has become infinitely harder.
And I get that there are occasions where opportunities can turn into fucking nightmares.
[Though that’s very rare as long as you stick to the rule that is detailed a bit further below]
But this isn’t really about your willingness to move countries – though that can help – it’s more about your hunger to go after what excites and interests you …
That doesn’t mean a role has to be perfect.
Frankly, when companies say there are no faults, that is ALWAYS a red flag … it’s more about whether the opportunity excites you and if the company and the person who will be your boss have a track record of consistently doing good shit. Maybe not pulling it off every time, but always pushing to do interesting things and having a on-going history of doing it.
It’s how I ended up working at Wieden … which definitely isn’t perfect.
It’s how I ended up working with Artists … who definitely aren’t perfect.
It’s how I ended up working with amazing creatives … who definitely aren’t perfect.
It’s important, because for all the good things the Bloodworth’s, the Weigel’s – and dare I say it – the Campbell’s have achieved, one of the biggest reasons for it is whether it’s a boss, a team, a company, a client or even a creative opportunity … we never, ever, ever look a gift-horse in the mouth.
Filed under: 2025, Birthday, Childhood, Dad, Death, Immaturity, Mum, Mum & Dad, My Childhood, My Fatherhood, Old, Parents
So it’s June.
That means we’re 6 months into the year already – WHATTHEACTUAL?!
It’s going to be a big month for me …
I’ve got a bunch of big meetings, a bunch of big travel, the small matter of giving a talk – with Paula – at Cannes and turning FIFTYFUCKINGFIVE.
Jesus Christ … I am now, proper old.
I appreciate the difference between 54 and 55 doesn’t seem massive, but let me tell you it is.
You see over the past few weeks, I’ve been receiving letters from the UK about my pension.
I’d never really received these before so it seemed a bit strange … strange enough for me to call them to find out what the hell was going on. And that’s where 2 things happened that shook me to my core.
The first was that they were letting me know that I was approaching a time where I could either ‘cash them in’ or move them into a different scheme. Given I’ve not lived in the UK for most of my adult life, there’s not much in there so I’ve never really paid attention to it.
It was at this point I asked how could I cash it in if I chose to … to which the very kind woman on the end of the line said:
“You just contact us 6 weeks before you turn 55 and we make it happen for you”.
I paused for a moment before replying,
“We are 6 weeks before I turn 55”.
And let me tell you, she was as shocked as me with that news – albeit her shock was because she hadn’t checked my date-of-birth whereas my shock was I could cash in – should I choose – my fucking pension.
How was this possible?
Pensions are for when people are ancient.
A 1000 years into the future. How the hell am I eligible for mine now?
But I guess I am … because I am ancient.
So ancient, I’m only 5 years off when my Dad died – which is terrifying for a whole host of obvious and less obvious reasons.
Except I don’t feel 55.
In fact, I feel younger than I have in decades. I am healthier too.
But despite that – and the fact my maturity level still resides around 14 years of age – you can’t stop getting older however hard you may try, so no doubt I am on the path to playing bowls each afternoon, complaining about the kids in the neighborhood ‘for making too much noise’ and smelling of wee. Or something.
And just remember before you all take the piss out of me.
You’ve got all this coming … so don’t be too cocky, because the one good thing about getting old, is you don’t give a fuck about keeping your mouth shut.
Not that I’ve ever had a problem with that – which I’ve literally just realized why Rupert Howell used to say I was the youngest old person he had ever met.
Oh God, as Monday’s go, this one sucks balls.
Happy fucking June.
Just when you think the World couldn’t get more batshit crazy, it has.
Of course, at the heart of it is mainly privileged, old, white men … but it is reaching new levels of insanity.
First there was this:
The President of the United States said this.
And then the Whitehouse reposted it.
What the actual fuck?
That’s the sort of shit a tinpot dictator would say. Or a criminal.
Which kind-of is perfect given he’s both.
Using lies and excuses to justify his own ego and control.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous, but after basically sending his puppet, Vance, to tell Europe they are a greater threat to the World than Putin … you can see we’re in for a very rough period-of-time. And yet we will continue to see the Republican party back his every move because for all their claims of being ‘American patriots, they will always choose power over truth.
Don’t get me wrong, the Democrats have a lot to answer for all this too given they had years to get their shit together and yet couldn’t be bothered – signaling they were either complete delusionists or egotists.
I’m just waiting for Richard Nixon’s estate to demand a pardon for Watergate under the guise he was simply trying to protect his country and it is only because the rest of the country were too stupid to realise it, that he went down for it.
And if you think that’s not mad enough, then there’s this.
Yep, the Daily Mail – who continue their claims of being a newspaper – wrote this.
Hell, even The Onion wouldn’t try and pull that off, but here we are …
What’s scarier is they’re not even doing it under the banner of ‘alternative truths’ … under Trump, they feel they can just state it as truth.
We not live in a time where we value:
Dogma over facts.
Force over fairness.
Ego over consideration.
Which begs the question, ‘what the fuck is the point of having strategists these days, when anyone can just say or do whatever they want?’ Same with market research. Then there’s more important shit like scientists and law.
Of course we are, in some way, all complicit to allowing this situation to happen.
It wasn’t something overnight, it has been building up for years and years.
I just hope that the wake-up button isn’t what has been required in the past … not just because I don’t want even more suffering, but because I don’t want to see countless posts on Linkedin from people saying:
’10 things you can learn about negotiation from war’.