Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Art, Creativity, Culture, Planners, Planning
Well, hello again …
How are you?
I had a pretty spectacular and wild time and do you what was one of the most amazing bits …
The people I met didn’t talk about Cannes once.
In fact, they probably don’t even know what it is.
And what makes that even more amazing is their work – stuff they personally created – has creatively, culturally and commercially made more impact than arguably everything and everyone who appeared at Cannes this year.
That’s not meant as a diss at Cannes – or the people there – but for a festival about creativity, it seems a lot of it is more about ‘looking’ creative than ‘being’ creative.
And there’s a huge difference … because where a lot of the stuff around Cannes was desperately and obviously trying to look like it was wild and original [Heinz/Heineken anyone], the people I met over the past few weeks are inherently creative in every aspect of how they live, so the end result is they don’t have to show it because they’re just it.
It was incredibly inspiring and hopefully it spilled over into my talk in Berlin … because while I was scathing about where we – as a discipline are heading – I want us to succeed.
I need us to succeed.
Not just because I care deeply about our industry.
Not just because I know there is incredible talent scattered throughout our discipline.
But because when we are allowed to embrace independent thought – rather than just follow a set process with set outputs, designed by people who have never made work and have a financial interest in getting companies to follow their methodology – we can do things that can genuinely change outcomes in amazing ways.
Or as I ended my presentation:
Our discipline cannot afford to dismiss or ignore strategy built on independent thinking.
Because it’s not an alternative to frameworks, but because it creates the breakthroughs frameworks willnever see, but will always follow.
It’s good to be back.
See you tomorrow.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, AI, Attitude & Aptitude, Confidence, Conformity, Craft, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Independence, Individuality, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Strategy
One of the many things I love about China, are their proverbs.
Whatever the subject, there will be an expression that captures the issue in a brilliant, wonderful way.
And there’s so bloody many of them … and each one not only makes you nod your head in agreement, but also makes you think and then look at things differently afterwards.
Anyway, I heard one recently that I love.
In fact, I love it so much I’m going to use it as the ‘final lesson’ in a presentation I’m writing for a talk in Berlin – more of that in tomorrow’s post.
The quote is this:
I love it.
I love it for a load of reasons.
One of them being that China tends to encourage conformity rather than individuality – so this is beautiful for simply challenging that convention.
But the other reason is that it sums up the heart of the presentation I’m writing.
Especially in a world where so many people are – rightfully – worrying about the impact AI will have on their job, career, livelihood.
Because to take that quote one step further …
If you spend years doing all you can to become a perfect, straight tree …
A tree who stands perfectly with all those other perfect straight trees …
Not only could you find yourself being chopped down and turned into boards, you may discover that’s all you were ever going to be allowed to be.
Or said another way:
When you blindly follow someone else’s definition of ‘best practice’, the result isn’t just that you get turned into boards … it’s that your career is spent being walked on and walked over by people who never cared what you could become, only what they could become.
Which is why if you want to increase the odds of living a bigger life, be the wild tree.
Because while others may mock your shapes, bends and scars … you’ll know they’re signs of a life well lived, not a life walked upon.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Collaboration, Colleagues, Content, Context, Creativity, Culture, Curiosity
Dear clients, companies, managers and network CEOS …
If you want the creative people you employ/hire/work with to be 100% effective, you need to allow them to be 20% ineffective.
Doesn’t matter whether that 20% is spent going down dead ends, rabbit holes or absolutely nowhere at all … the reality is rest/distraction/experimentation fuels creative freshness and effectiveness rather than it being a barrier to it.
Or said another way: Space creates new ways to overcome old problems.
I totally get the temptation to ‘keep people busy’.
I totally get the supposed logic of putting people on new projects as soon as they’ve finished old ones.
I totally get companies love to give their creative partners ‘sprints’, because they think that makes things ‘more efficient’ – albeit financially rather than for the work.
Hell, I even get the temptation to outsource work to machines when they don’t need any ‘productive ineffectiveness’ whatsoever.
However, while all these approaches may give the illusion of certainty and control to clients/procurement/finance/management, the reality is not only is that bullshit, they often end up undermining the potential of what could have been achieved.
Oh I know you’ll hear differently from a whole range of Guru’s/Consultants/Agencies/Research Companies etc …
And – to be fair – many of the methodologies they are flogging absolutely decreases the odds of screwing things up badly.
However the irony is, when you blindly adopt their practices, you also end up decreasing the odds of achieving something truly special.
And while that would be OK if that is what companies/procurement departments said they wanted, how many actually say that?
Oh no …
They demand more output.
More effectiveness.
More productivity.
More hours.
More magic.
So while maximizing every second of every creative persons time may sound an effective use of their time, you’re just screwing yourself over … because this approach ends up creating something worse than exhaustion – it encourages monotony, complacency and repetition.
Or said another way … it destroys the opportunity for creativity to redefine – in your favor – the rules and outcomes of logic, history, money and/or distribution.
So while every person benefits from having time to think, rest or experiment … for the creative mind, fuels their power where everyone around them also benefits.
Hence if companies want to benefit from the full power and potential of creative effectiveness, it requires you to let people be a little ineffective on the way.
Explore.
Experiment.
Educate.
Fail.
Try.
Collaborate.
Contemplate.
Have a bit of a fucking rest before the next ‘urgent job’.
And while I appreciate that may still sound like twisted logic to some, so is outsourcing the reputation of your brand to the procurement department who only care about who can do/make things for the lowest price while still expecting your customers to want to pay a premium for it.
You’re welcome.
Filed under: 2026, Advertising, Airports, Attitude & Aptitude, Birthday, Brand, Brand Suicide, Creativity, Culture, Customer Service, Effectiveness, Experience, Loyalty, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Privilege, Professionalism, Reputation, Travel, Trust, Uncommon, World Cup
The next few weeks are big for me.
My birthday.
Jill’s birthday.
Paul’s birthday.
The World Cup starting.
Trips to LA, Milan, Berlin, London and Amsterdam.
Meetings and dinners with legends of film, fashion and music.
And a bunch of lovely planners in Germany, hahaha.
I’d love to pretend I’m nonchalant about it all, but that would be a massive fucking lie as I’m exited to fuck about it all – bar my birthday.
But this post isn’t about my impending weeks of mega-madness, it’s about the madness of dealing with British Airways.
I am in the incredibly lucky situation of having someone pay for all my flights.
Better yet, they are paying for them to all be Business Class.
I booked on Air New Zealand, who – because of the flight itinerary – also scheduled some of the flights on BA.
So far. So good.
Having chosen my seats on Air NZ, I went to BA to do the same with them … except my booking reference didn’t work.
I then tried logging into my British Airways Frequent Flyer account, but got the same response.
No problems, maybe they use a different booking reference, so I contacted Air NZ to ask – and they told me, they use the same number and so it should work.
So I tried again. Nothing.
So I tried calling. No answer.
So I tried their chatbot. No reply.
It was getting frustrating so I went on the website to see if there was another way to contact them and there was.
A customer service contact button. So I clicked on it and what did I find when I did that …
A postal address.
A fucking postal address!
They want me to write – from New Zealand – to work out why my booking reference number doesn’t work. Mind blowing.
But it gets worse …
You see, I went back to Air NZ and told them the situation and they said they would talk to BA on my behalf. And they did.
So after 3 attempts for the website to accept my login details, I go on there to choose my business class seats and what do I find?
Yep, they want to CHARGE ME for choosing a seat.
This on top of the fact it has already cost a fuck-ton of cash.
Now I appreciate this is a first world problem.
I totally get I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to experience this.
But it blows-my-fucking mind that BA wants to charge me even more money to choose which seat I fly in – especially when airlines like Air NZ, let you do it when you fly economy.
Now I should point out BA have said once check-in is open – ie: 24 hours before the flight leaves – I can choose my seat for free, but apart from that still being bollocks, I am pretty sure when I try to do it, they’ll tell me I have to mail in my request by post.
Uncommon have done some amazing work for British Airways.
They have elevated their standing and prestige with some beautiful work.
And the line they created – A British Original – sounds great, until you remember that the British Leyland Mini Metro and also one of those and was a fucking shit experience as well.
Filed under: 2024, A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Clients, Collaboration, Comment, Complicity, Conformity, Consultants, Culture, Marketing, Marketing Fail, New Zealand, Outdoor, Planes, Professionalism, Research, Strategy
So yesterday I wrote a post about Air New Zealand’s frequent flyer ‘air points’ promotion.
I pointed out how I don’t think they understand the real needs, wants and motivations of their top tier passengers and that it doesn’t matter how much data you have, if you don’t understand what it’s really saying, it’s useless.
Worse … it’s commercially dangerous.
Especially if you choose to ignore 2 consistent ‘hidden’ traits of humans:
1. All of us have areas of hypocrisy.
2. Most people tell you what they think will help protect their beliefs rather than reveal them.
I ended the post asking how the hell could they get so many key elements wrong for such an important relaunch … suggesting the research company they used looks like they spent too much time with the data and not enough – if any – with actual customers.
So imagine my surprise – and delight – when last night, I received this:
Not sure this is the best ‘ad’ for Kantor.
Or the research industry, to be honest.
And just before I get any hate, I have a lot of time and respect for the research industry – when it’s does properly and well. But frankly, we’re witnessing far too many focusing their efforts on how to ‘optimise’ their efficiency [read: using AI and bots] and redefine their position [read: being consultants rather than informants] the the work coming out ends up – ironically – making us ask more questions than have greater understanding.
Don’t get me wrong, I know research is not perfect – what the hell is?
I also appreciate that any research is better than none.
However when companies act like they – and only they – have all the answers, then they better be OK with owning their mistakes … because if they don’t, they’re no longer valuable to business, they’re a danger to it.
I get we live in a time of corporate hutzpah – where no one must show any weakness or vulnerability – but what that also means is we’re living in a time of Emperor’s New Clothes and we all know how that turned out.