Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Cannes, Communication Strategy, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Data, Egovertising, Emotion, Empathy, Imagination, Innovation, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Martin Weigel, Relationships, Relevance, Research, Resonance
The big conversation in marketing right now is around data.
So it should be, it’s insanely valuable and important.
But the irony is, while it can absolutely help us have deeper understanding about our audiences behaviour and habits – information that can lead to more powerful and valuable creativity – it’s alarming how many companies who claim to be experts in this field express themselves in ways that are the opposite of it.
Here are 2 ads I saw in Cannes …
Really?
You think that is going to convince people the data and technology you have is going to lead to better work?
You think that represents the language of your audience?
Sure, I know it’s Cannes and so there is a certain sort of person who is attending there at that moment – but they’re still bloody human.
Quite frankly, this is more an ad for celebrating ‘the old way’ rather than the new.
As Martin and I said in our presentation – if companies think creativity can be reduced to an engineering problem, then they don’t understand how society actually works.
Sure … you want consistency if you’re doing surgery.
Or making rockets.
Or producing food.
But society as a whole, is a mish-mash of complications and hypocrisy.
A group where their passions extend to far more than what they transact with … but how it integrates with their life.
Their fashion. Their music. Their games. Their language and imagery. Their context.
If you remove this from the process, you are simply creating the answer you want, not the answer that actually stands a chance of moving cultural behavior and attitudes for the long term, not just the short.
Or said another way, making brands successful in ways culture wants to stick with.
As I said, data has a huge and valuable role to play in all this.
I’m fortunate to have an extremely good data partner at R/GA … someone who not only knows what she’s doing, but appreciates it means nothing if it doesn’t help create better work.
And that’s the thing … great data doesn’t want the spotlight.
I see too much work where the brief seems to have been ‘show this data point’.
Or worse, too many briefs where it is the data point.
Great data – like great PR – is, in a lot of ways, invisible.
It liberates creativity rather than dictates it.
Revealing opportunities to think laterally not literally.
Helps you make work that reaches audience in more powerful ways.
Whether that’s where you play or how you play.
Put simply, data is an incredibly important part of modern marketing but – and this is where many people fall down – it can’t do it all.
It needs help to help make great work.
It can guide … it can reveal … it can lead … it can do so much, but it can’t do everything.
For data to truly show its full potential, it needs the nuances of culture added to it. Not purely for scalability, but for resonance.
As I’ve said many times, we need to stop looking to be relevant and start wanting to be resonant.
Making work that feels it was born from inside the culture, not from an observer.
Or said another way, work that doesn’t patronise, condescend or bore people.
Are you listening IBM and Neilsen?
Data with culture opens up more possibilities for creativity.
Allowing ideas to grow and go in places we might never have imagined.
Ideas that feel so right to the audience rather than explain why they should feel that way.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Anniversary, Authenticity, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Embarrassing Moments, Emotion, Empathy, Love, Loyalty, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning
So last month, it was my birthday.
Because it was my first birthday in the UK for 25 years – not to mention R/GA – I decided to do something a bit special [read: daft] that culminated in me sending this all office email the day before my big day.
Yes, I really did buy that many Monster Munch and so while I thought I was going to have the last laugh on my birthday, my wonderful team decided to trump me by making me this cake.
What you are looking at is a Strawberry Jam Sandwich cake.
Literally layers and layers of jam sandwiches.
Despite having the sugar content that could bring all dinosaurs at once – it was strangely tasty – though I did only manage a slither, which the pricks took great delight in videoing.
And yet this act of evil genius was very moving to me.
While some might think I’m mad because what they did was an act of hatred – an attempt at murder – I see it differently.
Maybe it’s because in addition to the cake, I was given a bunch of cards and presents [Highlights include: Erika’s 1.25 liter of Diet Coke, Severine’s ‘Shut The Fuck Up’ bell, Ed and Rob’s test pressing of their new album and the teams ‘complaint letter’ to HR all about me ] … but even without any of those things, their act of birthday evil [or, as one person called it, the presentation of a white trash cake] was, for me, a demonstration of giving a shit which left me feeling very touched.
I’ve been super fortunate with the teams I’ve worked with.
Almost universally, they have been a bunch of brilliant people blessed with exceptional talent.
OK, not all of them … but overall, they’ve all been amazing even though they have also been mischievous shits. Which is why one day – and I appreciate no one would ever want this to actually happen – I’d love to have a party where everyone who has had the misfortune to work with me, comes along.
Not so they can compare war stories – though there would be a lot of those – but because in the main, they have made me a better person for the experience and I would want to thank them.
Even for Jam Sandwich birthday cakes.
Jesus, who am I?!!!
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Business, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Creativity, Culture, Insight
We all like to think we do work others appreciate.
Work that others are compelled to tell us how it affected them.
Whether that’s a word of thanks.
Or a pat on the back.
Or a nod of appreciation.
Well, I recently saw a ‘review’ that has to be the best show of appreciation ever made.
How about that then?
As compliments go, that is outrageously good isn’t it.
Especially the bit that says, “Above and beyond anything that is yet to be written”.
That’s right, the reviewer is saying this book is better than anything that we will ever read for eternity.
ETERNITY.
Even Donald Trump doesn’t have confidence like that.
Now we all know reviews – or positive word-of-mouth – are very important today, so the question is, did the best review of a book ever made make me buy the book?
Nope … because the irony is when someone is too positive about something, it’s more likely to make you suspicious of their tastes than desperate to investigate their passions.
And that’s why I still love planning after so bloody long … because part of it is investigating the madness of humanity rather than selling the sensibleness of robots.
Even if clients would rather it was the other way around.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Cannes, Chaos, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Martin Weigel, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Relevance, Resonance
As you know, the lovely fools at WARC asked Martin and I to talk at Cannes as part of our School of Strategic Arts.
That was mistake number 1.
Mistake number 2 was recording the entire session.
But if you thought it was impossible to make matters worse, they have done it by making mistake number 3 and putting it on their site for subscribers to watch.
Hahahahahahahahahaha.
Fools.
But wait, there’s more stupidity.
Yep, more than asking us to present … at Cannes … and recording our session and then putting it on their site for subscribers to watch.
They’re also allowing people to watch it for free.
FREE.
Which, if I’m honest, is the going rate for the standard of talk we gave.
Well … that I gave. Martin, as usual, was stellar.
Damn him.
Watch it here.
Send your complaints here.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Chaos, China, Chinese Culture, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Fashion, Love, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Otis
Of all the places I’ve lived, China is the one that has left the strongest mark.
Frankly I absolutely and utterly loved my time there.
Sure part of that was because of Wieden – I loved and will always love them – but it was more than just that.
It was the people, the madness, the history, the chaos, the energy, the values …
Yes there were some things that bothered me immensely, but overall, I was intoxicated with the place and will always be that way.
I believe you can tell how much a place gets into your soul by how you react when it’s under attack. Not by guns, but by media and politicians.
If I look back on my 7 years there, I was very quick to jump to its defense when Western media decided to take an isolated incident and claim it represented the beliefs, behaviors and values of over a billion people.
Were there some shit things that happened there when I was there?
Absolutely.
Were there moments of madness and sadness that will never leave my memory?
100%
Are there some terrible restrictions on people lives and opinions there?
Sure.
But these are not isolated to China … every country has bad people doing horrific things, every country is creating an increasing division between rich and poor and in terms of government, countries either are doing their own version of ‘inflicting their will on the people’ or wishing they could get away with the stuff the Chinese government get away with.
I’m looking at you UK, Australia and the land of ‘the free’.
And that’s why I can still truly love the place and feel privileged for the experience it gave me.
I have absolute pride my son was born there.
Whatever happens in his life, he was born in China and for me, that means our links to the country will always be strong.
And while I will always be passionate in the pursuit of changing Westerners perceptions about the Middle Kingdom, there are some things that I just stand back and accept will just reinforce certain prejudices.
Some – like Uncle Martian – are terrible, especially as it was a conscious decision.
Some – like this, below – are perfection, especially as they were done in innocence.
[And if not, that’s even more genius]
China, I love you.
Lose the bullshit but please never lose your beautiful madness.