Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Chinese Culture, Creativity, Culture, Devious Strategy, Effectiveness, Imagination, Innovation, Perspective, Planning
I’ve written about something I call ‘devious strategy’ for a long time.
In essence, it’s the art of giving people what they want but in a way where they give you exactly what you need from them.
While I’ve covered a bunch of examples in the past – from how Daniel Radcliffe stopped the paparazzi photographing him each night after his theatre performance through to how singer Grace Slick, got Chick-fil-A to pay the LGBTQ+ community to lobby against themselves – the reality is the ultimate Champions of this strategic approach are without doubt, the Chinese Government.
Their ingenuity knows no bounds.
Sure, some of the reasons for this is not great … but let’s be honest, how they ensure people ask for receipts in restaurants so they can ensure they can get the correct amount of tax due to them, is sheer genius.
But I recently learned of a variant of this approach that is less about ‘achieving a favorable solution’ and more about ‘making the problem more difficult for people to ignore’ … and funnily enough, it also comes from the evil genius brains of government.
This time, from local government in Glasgow, Scotland.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls … allow me to introduce you to Leverage Pettiness Strategy™, and before anyone tells me that’s bullshit, just remember our industry once gave an ‘effectiveness’ award to a supermarket chain for sales growth DURING COVID.
By that reckoning, changing the name of a road should win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Alcohol, Apathy, Asia, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Beer, Campaign Magazine, China, Chinese Culture, Content, Context, Craft, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Distinction, Effectiveness, Empathy, Environment, Fake Attitude, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Mediocrity, Perspective, Planning, Point Of View, Relationships, Relevance, Reputation, Research, Resonance, Shanghai, Singapore, Strategy
I have a history of working on clients I don’t really have a right to work on.
Sport.
High Fashion.
Female Haircare.
OK, so I have a real relationship with sport, but I think the reason I have been able to [even though I say it myself] be so successful with the other categories is that I get so into what I am working on. I get kind-of obsessed with learning and understanding everything about it and throw myself into reading all I can about the culture, history and category before I then interview everyone I can meet who is authentically connected to it.
No outsourcing to superficial focus groups … it’s about graft. Working with the people who create and push the category rather than those who simply buy the product.
It’s served me well – underpinned by clients who care about their audience rather than just see them as walking wallets and me being being self-aware enough to know my perspective is from an outsiders point of view, so I need to explore everything while assuming nothing.
I say all this because one of the other categories I’ve worked on that I shouldn’t, is alcohol.
Why shouldn’t I?
Because the last sip of booze that passed my lips was in 1985.
NINETEEN EIGHTY FIVE … so 39 years ago!
And yet over that time, I’ve worked on everything from Heineken, Guinness, Johnnie Walker and the development of Blackened, for Metallica.
Beer advertising in particular is fascinating because there tends to be 2 states:
Sponsored jokes or pretentious bullshit.
Now I get why it falls into these 2 states because client/agencies tend to either want to reaffirm their beer is ‘fun and social’ or ‘important and crafted’.
But for every Guinness Surfer, Carlton Draft Big Ad, John Smiths No Nonsense, DB Export Brewtroleum or going right back, Heineken Refreshes … there’s a whole heap of contrived, lifestyle rubbish.
Lazy headlines placed over generic Getty image photography.
One I saw recently was this from Tiger.
Now I appreciate the photo does not do it justice, but the headline reads:
Tiger Crystal.
Ultra Low Carb.
Extra Refreshing.
The reason this does my head in is two-fold.
First is you have to understand Tiger is very close to my heart.
Not only was it one of the first brands I worked on when I first moved to Asia, I also won the worldwide account – literally on my own – against 4 network agencies back in the early 2000’s.
Apart from that allowing me to work with some brilliant people on some brilliant assignments, it also resulted in Campaign Magazine featuring me on their front page in all my sweary glory, which is obviously a career high, hahaha.
But the other reason is that copy makes no fucking sense.
What the hell does ‘extra refreshing’ mean?
Oh I know how they’ll justify it …
With less carbs, the beer tastes even better to the drinker. Not literally, but emotionally.
And while there may be an element of truth to that … it doesn’t make it EXTRA refreshing. More drinkable maybe, but not extra refreshing. But here’s the thing, if it’s that good, why don’t they make ALL their beer like this?
Why don’t they bring their ‘extra refreshing’ premise to all their products?
I’ll tell you why, because it’s bollocks.
It’s lazy marketing … another example of vacuous superlatives being churned out to sound exciting without any thought, consideration or any excitement. An act of arrogance, demonstrating how important the brand thinks it is and how little they think – or understand – the audience they literally serve.
Now I appreciate some may say, ‘why does it matter, no one will pay much attention to it’?
And I get that … except that’s the point really.
Our job is to try and make people pay attention.
To give a shit.
They’re not going to think it changes their life, but they shouldn’t blindly ignore it.
It’s this sort of arrogance that demonstrates the lack of self-awareness that has permeated the industry. A blind belief that everything we do is great simply because we did it … despite the fact in the real world, all we’re doing is adding to the social landfill and social pollution of shit advertising.
Where is the pride in who we are, what we do and the intelligence of who we engage?
Where?
We’re so much better than this. And just to be clear, I’m not solely blaming whoever did this awfulness, it’s also the clients, procurement and ‘for profit’ research companies who created the environment where this ends up being deemed ‘worthy’.
I swear the biggest problem the industry has is every department and discipline has its own agendas and metrics for success.
There’s no alignment.
No agreement on what we want and need to make.
Just distain, distrust and self-interest.
Of course not everyone is like this – thank god – but if clients want to see the potential of their brand and agencies want to push the possibilities of their creativity, there has to be a moment where we stop hiding awfulness under the blanket of marketing justifiable rationales, because for all the NPS, system 1, best-practice approaches we may proudly shout about, there are two questions that trump all.
Is it true and does it make us give a shit?
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Chinese Culture, Wieden+Kennedy, Youth
I want to write about something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently.
I turn 54 this year and if truth be told, the life I have is more than I ever could have imagined.
While I’ve worked hard for it, I also accept that I’ve had more than my share of luck.
Right place, right time.
Meeting people I should never have met.
Having some disproportionally believe in me.
Mates who went on to become important in their job.
Basically, a bunch of stuff you can’t really plan for … though if I have any skill, it’s been to be able to run with it and invest in it rather than stop.
Which basically translates to working hard, staying in touch, always being interested in stuff and constantly looking or thinking for new ways to help them win better – even when they don’t want it – hahaha.
It’s a work ethic that frankly was driven by survival and ambition.
Survival … because I knew I couldn’t win on brains – especially having not gone to university – but I could compete on effort. And ambition … because I knew I wanted to see what was possible, even though I didn’t have a plan and didn’t have any idea what ‘the goal’ could be, would be or should be.
I say all this because recently I got asked what advice I would give to someone starting out who doesn’t know what to do and I realised I didn’t really have an answer. Part of it is because my context is about as different as it could be for someone starting out … but also because I wouldn’t want to give advice, I’d like to listen why they feel they don’t know what to do.
But that said, I think their attitude is kind-of brilliant.
Of course I appreciate they don’t feel that way – quite the opposite – but that’s more because of what society and social media has done to make them feel that if they don’t have a plan, then they’re lost … and not only is that shit, I think being open to stuff is the best way to approach life.
That’s not just because we no longer will have one career for our whole lives, but because if you’re open to everything, then anything can happen.
Frankly that last point is one of the driving forces behind everything I’ve done and hope to do … and while I appreciate there’s privilege in that approach and attitude, it is also about openness and comfort with a degree of uncomfortableness.
But I get it is scary.
It’s hard to think of things you may lose … but as I’ve said many times, the other way to look at it is in terms of what you will gain, and literally everything in my life – bar my relationship with Paul – is because of this.
That doesn’t mean it’s for everyone, but it might be for more people than who actually do it – but don’t because they are paralysed in this grip of feeling they should have certainty for their life when the real power is to embrace the lack of it.
I say all this because I was recently on a podcast about this subject called Work Without Borders.
It was a real thrill for me because it was founded by an old Wieden Shanghai colleague – Flora – and her friend, Calvin, which meant I got to talk about very special times in China and beyond.
Listening back to it, I realise how fortunate I have been.
From having parents and family who backed me and encouraged me, to companies being willing to take a chance on me … which is why I hope anyone who listens to it doesn’t think I am suggesting they should be like me, but to be be open to whatever the fuck speaks to them.
And while I appreciate some may be in situations where they have responsibilities that directly influences what they can/can’t do – which means what happens may be different to what they hoped it would be – I believe they will still end up with experiences and lessons they wouldn’t get if they simply followed what everyone had blindly – or meticulously – done before.
You may ask how I can say that … and it’s relatively simple.
Because what companies called ‘the great resignation’ was actually ‘the great reset‘.
Where millions realised the path they had been made to feel was the only path they could follow, was taking them to the exact same place as everyone else.
A place of conformity and pressure rather than curiosity and possibility.
And while there are no guarantees in life, fulfilment is born from openness, not closed mindedness which is why I will always love this quote by Peter Ustinov:
“People who reach the top of the tree are those who haven’t got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom”.
How good is that? God I love it.
Which is why if you’re worried because you don’t have a plan – remember this.
Some people have advantages.
Some people have a plan.
Some people have luck.
But we’re all making it up. Every single one of us.
So while clarity can be a powerful beast, not having it doesn’t also mean it’s bad.
In fact, if you embrace it, you may just find it can take you to even more amazing places.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Airports, Attitude & Aptitude, Business, China, Chinese Culture, Culture, Customer Service, Empathy, Experience, Fulfillment, Individuality, Management, Planes, Prejudice, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance
So as you know, I was in China recently and when I was flying from Chengdu back to Shanghai, my plane was 5 hours late for takeoff.
While that is a pain, what made it worse was it meant we didn’t even take off till nearly midnight.
Now the good news for me is I sleep on planes.
In fact I sleep better on planes than anywhere else.
I’m fast asleep before takeoff and tend to wake up on landing … and that’s what happened to me this time, aided by the late hour.
However what was different this time was I found a package and this note next to me.
Specifically this package and note …
Apparently the crew on the plane were worried I’d wake up hungry but didn’t want to wake me up as they could see I was fast asleep and it was very late so they made up that package and wrote that note.
While I am not sure if the food I received was worthy of that much care and consideration, that level of service – despite the note being written on a sick bag, hahaha – is ‘TV ad worthy’.
China gets a bad rap for customer service, however in my experience it’s miles ahead of most other nations [which suggests it’s driven by ignorance and/or prejudice] because this small act on a China Eastern flight between Chengdu and Shanghai shows what happens when you train your people to not just blindly follow a corporate, cost-efficientprocess, but to actually and actively care about your customers.
Thank you China Eastern.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, China, Chinese Culture, Comment, Hotels, Luxury, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail
So I recently went back to China.
If that wasn’t wonderful enough, I was put up at the Waldorf Astoria.
If I’m being honest, I still get a thrill at staying in hotels. As a kid, we NEVER stayed in one – in fact the closest was a B&B in York – so every time I step in one, I feel excited.
But this was something else.
Something I didn’t deserve or – if truth be told – felt comfortable with.
It was sooooooooo over-the-top because the Waldorf Astoria x China makes for the most ostentatious experience you could ever imagine.
They were so nice to me, even though I imagine that every time they saw me in my shitty jeans and t-shirt, they wondered how the hell I was there.
But there was something before my trip that showed that even those at the very top of their game, can make mistakes.
It was this …
What the fuck?
Put aside the fact they called me Robert. Put aside the fact they talk about cleaning/disinfectant brands. Put aside the fact that by mentioning they are part of the Hilton group, they immediately diminish the prestige of the Waldorf. But why in gods name would anyone talk about ‘hygiene’ in a top hotel when that is the minimum expectation and now you’re left wondering what the fuck may have happened.
Worse, why would anyone talk about hygiene and use the name of brands you pick up in the Supermarket as examples of their exemplary cleaning practices. Not that I have anything against Lysol or Dettol, but I don’t think of them as the best in industrial cleaning, more like the stuff you use every now and then.
Yes … I appreciate Covid is still recent.
And it is something that originated in China.
And the country is still in its early days of opening up to the World.
But why, oh why would they raise an issue than you would never have considered an issue?
Of course when it came to the actual stay, it was brilliant. The people were amazing. And being back in China was wonderful – because of all the special places I’ve lived, China is the most special to me.
However of all the great memories that trip gave me – including the utterly bizarre experience of being interviewed by Fashion TV [I know, I fucking know!!!] – there’s one that should serve as a very important lesson for anyone who ever feels intimidated to talk/deal with people they perceive as being more successful than them.
Being rich, doesn’t mean you’re clever.