Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Confidence, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Design, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Imagination, Innovation, Insight, Management, Marketing, Perspective, Point Of View, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Respect, Rick Rubin, RulesOfRubin
When I read that Rubin quote, it reinforced why I hate when companies devalue creativity.
Focused on working down to a price rather than up to a quality ..
An expense, rather than an investment.
Even though they then expect it to work it’s socks off for them.
And while it would be easy to throw all this blame at the organisations who hide behind their procurement departments, the reality is – as I mentioned in an earlier post – the ad industry are equally complicit in this downturn.
Look, I get it … we’re fighting for our lives.
But selling the value of creativity down the river in favour of process and hourly rates seems to be an act of self sabotage. An act that has ended up handing power to a group of people who ignore context and quality and just evaluate on the comparison of unit prices. Who then demand agencies to accept work based on a price/output ratio not on quality/value.
And what this means is talent – real talent – gets pushed out for being too expensive.
Or too demanding.
Or too stubborn.
Adland has always had an issue with ‘experience’, but this approach is also affecting the new and the different.
The people with different backgrounds, new ways of doing things, looking at the world in unique ways.
And all because the price/output ratio the agency agreed to, won’t allow for any exploring.
Any anything.
Instead, they need to execute exactly what is wanted, efficiently. precisely and repeatedly.
And what is wanted?
Well, whatever the producer has determined can be done in the time/budget allowed … using previous work as the blueprint even though [1] the context is different [2] they don’t know whether that previous work, worked and [3] reducing creative minds to simply executional monkeys is the quickest way to destroy confidence, character and creativity.
Because what everyone seems to be forgetting is what it takes to make great work.
It’s not just about putting a brief in front of someone and – voila – it’s done.
Creativity is born from years of experiences, adventures, wins and losses, stories and songs, failures and fuck-ups.
Where every step of the journey has played a role in crafting that thing that will make so many people feel, think and do so much.
Ignoring that … devaluing that … not catering for that … doesn’t just mean you’re working against your own best interests, it means you’ve have failed to realise what you’re really paying an agency for.
It’s not simply to make an ad, it’s so they can hire the people who have the most interesting ways of looking at the world because of the experiences, ideas and imagination from the life you never had.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Comment, Confidence, Creativity, Culture, Design, Emotion, Empathy, Gaming, Marketing, Music, Social Divide, Social Media, Technology
The quote at the top of this page is what Frank Sinatra said about Elvis Presley.
If anything was going to turn youth towards the new musical force of the King, it was going to be comments like that.
But what I find interesting is the ad industry should understand this point more than most … however, I’m not sure we do anymore.
We appear to take more delight in being accurate than being exciting.
Now I appreciate this makes me sound like an old bastard but hang on for a second …
What I find interesting – at least where music is concerned – is that in the past, it was ‘the establishment’ who were frightened of the new and misunderstood, but that seems much less the case these days.
If anything, the establishment are bored nothing is scaring them.
Now there are some explanations for this …
Some of it is because of how the music industry has changed …
Rather than breaking new talent, they’re much more interested betting on certainties, because there goal is for lowering risk not pushing things forward. [Hence their appropriation of TikTok to flog back-catalogue tracks]
Some of it is because technology has allowed music to get ultra niche …
Thanks to music streaming platforms, people can now choose the genres they like and pretty much filter out everything else. What this means is we can kid ourselves into believing there’s less new dangerous music being created when the reality is we’re keeping it out rather than welcoming it in. Add to that the decline of radio – which was a central and universal place where a lot of music discovery took place – and we are actively cutting ourselves off from the new and uncomfortable.
Finally, some of it is because the power of music is not the cultural force it once was …
Don’t get me wrong, music is still ultra powerful, but in some ways, it seems to have gone from being at the forefront of culture to the background of it. Some will say that has always been the case – the ‘soundtrack to your life’ – but for people who have always lived for music, it was rarely just an accompaniment to whatever you were doing.
For me, a lot of the ‘danger’ that used to be synonymous with music has gone into gaming.
When Grand Theft Auto came out, it was almost like punk in the 70’s.
A game both universally loved and hated for what it represented.
Rather than trying to be something for everyone, it shamelessly wanted to be everything to someone … and because of the shifts in culture, technology, media, business model and price points, it meant it could be a very lucrative business to be in .
Of course, like all industries, too many companies simply try to jump on whatever bandwagon is cool in that moment … but for me, if you’re looking for the new rock n’ roll, it’s in gaming.
That does not mean dangerous music doesn’t exist.
But it’s power to change culture is not what it once was.
It’s more likely to be found in a game rather than us discovering a new artist.
Which reveals the dirty little secret about people.
The real reason people this there is a ‘lack of danger’ in music is because we’re lazy.
In the past, we would crash into it thanks to mass radio and media – but now, with everything at our command – it requires us to actively put ourselves out there to find it and frankly, we don’t want to.
For all the brilliant things technology can do for us, it has made us lethargically comfy.
We want everything on a plate.
We don’t want to lift a finger.
And while tech could also help overcome this, it’s been designed to satisfy not aggravate … which is why the only way you’ll find the dangerous edges is if you walk towards it rather than expect it to come to you.
It’s something adland needs to remember, because while some may say ‘exciting is indulgence’, it’s got more economic and cultural power than being ‘accurate’.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Brand, Brand Suicide, Comment, Confidence, Consultants, Content, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Dad, Design, Digital, Distinction, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Finance, Honesty, Imagination, Insight, Internet, Legend, Love, Loyalty, Management, Metallica, Money, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, Relevance, Resonance, Respect, Rick Rubin, Standards
I am a massive fan of Rick Rubin.
Actually that’s not quite right.
I am a massive disciple of Rick Rubin.
I think he is incredible. His ability to help others express their most powerful creative voice is amazing.
So much of this is down to how he see’s his role.
Not as a music producer, but as a sophisticated fan.
Someone who wants the band he loves to be their shameless best.
Protecting them from ever feeling they have to compromise on who they are or what they want to say because he fiercely believes the greatest return comes when you express your honesty and authenticity rather than play to be liked.
It’s why the artists he’s worked with reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the most culturally significant artists of their time.
Those who either defined a genre or validated it.
LL Cool J
Run DMC
The Beastie Boys
Slayer
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Rage Against The Machine
The Black Crowes
The Dixie Chicks
Johnny Cash
Look at that list. Look at it.
Hip Hop. Rap. Rock. Metal. Thrash. Blues. Country. Funk.
No one should be able to be so successful with that range of genre and artist.
It’s hilarious and yet there are so many more artists I could mention because for almost 4 decades, Rubin has helped artists not only express their truth but recognise the economic power from doing so.
He has created icons.
He has revived icons.
He has shaped, pushed and provoked culture.
He has influenced, shaped and changed music forever.
When we hear agencies talk about ‘creating culture’, most haven’t come anywhere close to what he has helped create.
But what I love the most about Rubin is how he decides who he is going to work with.
Basically his entire decision making process is based on one simple process.
Taste.
If Rubin likes what he hears, then he’s up for it.
It doesn’t matter whether it has any connection to anything he’d done before, he see’s it less about the music and more about the artist needing help to express … find … or rediscover their voice.
Not their singing voice. Their soul.
It’s not that far off what we as an industry say we do for brands.
Except we’re increasingly forgetting what brand is because we sacrifice it time and time again for the quick win.
I get it, we’re fighting for our lives … but in our quest to show we have value, we’re destroying what makes us valuable.
Oh I know we won’t admit that.
We’ll point to words like purpose, experience and membership as proof ‘we get it’.
We’ll say they’re representative of modern brand building and all else is old.
We’ll show 1000 page decks that show how our unique processes ‘guarantee’ success.
And some clients will buy this, which means we can go away thinking we’ve got it all sorted out and we’re legends.
Except we haven’t and we aren’t.
Yes, all those elements play an important role in building a modern brand … however they’re never the lead, always a supporting actor because …
Sales without distinction doesn’t build a brand.
Purpose without sacrifice doesn’t build a brand.
Data without understanding doesn’t build a brand.
User journeys without nuance doesn’t build a brand.
Eco-systems without an idea doesn’t build a brand.
Personalisation without being personal doesn’t build a brand.
Wanting to be something to everyone rather than everything to someone doesn’t build a brand.
The harsh reality is we’re dangerously close to confusing commoditisation with brand building. Of course this is not all our fault, but continuing to perpetrate it, most definitely is.
While I appreciate Rick Rubin didn’t mean the photo/quote that appears at the top of this page to be interpreted this way … he pretty much sums up how to build truly distinctive and definitive, culturally resonant brands.
And he does it in 10 words.
TEN!!!
And that’s part of Rubin’s magic.
He understands how to get to the simplest expression of his viewpoint, because he knows the simpler it is, the less obstacles to deal with.
Simple lets truth speak and rise.
Simple lets possibilities flourish.
Simple lets distinctiveness be expressed.
Simple is unbelievable power.
Now the irony of simple is it’s not easy to pull off.
Simple is definitely not simplistic. To be simple requires a hard work, experience and confidence … and while as an industry we have known this and advocated this for decades, we seem to have recently decided the opposite – where we celebrate complexity.
What the hell?!
Maybe it’s because we’re making more money from this approach. Or just feel more important. But the endless playbooks, frameworks, processes, tools and strategies we’re producing aren’t building better brands, just bigger obstacles.
Again, there’s a place for them. But the way they’re being used – they’re more like hammers than brushes – forcing them into the process, competing with all around them and ultimately leaving people lost with what they’re following, what they’re building and what they’re actually doing this all for.
As someone recently said to me – someone hugely successful in business – when companies make the solution more complex than the problem, they’re just creating another problem.
Please don’t think this means you skimp on standards or rigour.
If anything, it’s the exact opposite … but because everyone knows what they’re working towards [rather than doing their version of what they think everyone should be working towards], it means they can be sharp and focused and that means your work can be expressed in ways that lift things up rather than bogs them down.
I get some people won’t like this.
I get some people won’t agree with this.
I get some clients would never sign off on this.
But apart from the fact I doubt any of them will have come close to influencing, shaping or creating culture in the same commercially infectious way Rubin has, if they really believe selling the complexity of intelligence is a smarter way to operate, I’ll leave you with something my dad – who was pretty good on this whole intelligence thing – used to say to his lawyers:
“If you have to show how clever you are, you aren’t that smart”.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Confidence, Context, Creativity, Culture, Design, Distinction, Emotion, Empathy, England, Goodbye America, Imagination, Innocence, Innovation, Insight, Legend, Love, Marketing, Martin Weigel, Metallica, Paul, Perspective, Planners, Purpose, R/GA, Relationships
When I first started working in London – just as I was starting out in this industry – I commuted about 5 hours a day.
A DAY!
To be fair, that was of my own making because the company thought I lived in London because I’d given them my aunts address when I applied and got hird.
When they eventually found out I lived with my parents in Nottingham, they were livid.
And they had every right to be.
But as they were giving me the first of my long history of written warnings, I asked the question: “would you have hired me if you knew I lived in Nottingham?” … and didn’t hear a word back.
And while I knew I deserved it, what pissed me off was that I generally was always the first person in and last out. Driving up and down the M1 in my shitty Ford Fiesta with one wing mirror and a radio that couldn’t drown out the sound of my engine. But the fact was, I was a bloody idiot and as much as they probably wouldn’t have hired me if I’d be honest with them from the start, I was fortunate not to be kicked out of an industry I still love.
Well. Most of the time.
And while I was young and having a car felt amazing … even then I knew 5 hours a day – 25 hours a week on a good week – was too much.
Winter was the worst.
Bad weather meant it could take almost double the time to get there and back and many a time I slept on a friends couch or a motorway service station, in my car under a mountain of coats and blankets I kept in the boot ‘just in case’.
My parents were not happy about it, but I think because my Dad’s brother-in-law was travelling 8 hours per day [he was head of traffic control at Gatwick airport] it somehow made them feel a bit better about it.
What’s interesting is that after that job, I vowed never to be more than 30 minutes from work.
And I wasn’t.
Until, of course, I came back to London.
Even though I was in a much better position personally and professionally than I was the last time I worked – and eventually lived there – no one drives into Central London anymore. And while I genuinely enjoyed catching the tube or the bus – helped by the fact that the stations I got on at meant I generally always got a seat – it still was a 80+ minute journey each way, each day.
Given our house was only 7 miles from work, that made my old 2+ hour journey over 120 miles, look positively effective.
And this was life for me.
Out the house before the family woke up.
Back at home as the family – or at least Otis – was going to bed.
And while we made it work and weekends were sacrosanct, the fact I was spending a minimum of 13+ hours a week going to and from work was – and is – ridiculous.
So when COVID started and we all started working from home, I was – for the first time in my life – able to have breakfasts, lunches and dinners every day with my family and I can honestly say I found it pretty confronting.
You see I loved it.
Absolutely loved it.
It was – and still is – one of the most wonderful times of my life.
And while I enjoy working, I started to question what the hell I was doing spending so much time away from them just to get to and from work.
Then R/GA did the nicest thing they could do for me.
They made me redundant.
And while there are things I could say about how they did it and why they did it, the fact is, I’ll always be grateful to them for the opportunity they gave me to come back to England, develop the team I got to work with and then – at the end – hand me my redundancy so I could rediscover and reclaim my priorities, passion and creativity.
Right now, I feel more fulfilled and excited than I have in a long time.
I’m spending more time with my family than ever before while working on a range of global projects that are some of the most creative I’ve ever been involved with.
Mad, mental stuff – from ads to products to art installations – which involve some of the most talented creative people in their field … from an icon of dance/electronic music to the most notorious developers in the gaming category and a bunch in-between.
Then, of course, I have the brilliant excitement of NZ and Colenso to look forward to, too.
It’s all simply amazing.
While I appreciate I am in an exceptionally lucky and privileged position, I can’t help thinking about this quote:
“The problem with life is we sacrifice what we really want to do with what is available right now.”
We all do it.
We might have different reasons causing it, but we all do it.
And while there are many considerations, situations and expectations that push us down these paths, I hope if anything comes out of the craziness of 2020, it’s that we think why we’re doing it rather than just blindly following it.
Because it’s only when we question our choices can we start seeing where we’re going.
And then we have a little more control. Or choice. Or even peace. We all deserve that.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Cunning, Design, EvilGenius, Marketing, New Zealand, Standards
So recently I went to a semi-posh restaurant in Auckland with some clients.
I know this is too much info, but I needed the loo and off I went.
As I walked in, I saw this …
How brilliant is that?!
I bloody loved it and actually burst out laughing.
Fortunately I was able to take a photo without someone walking in and then rushing out to call the Police … but I can imagine Alpha Males seeing this and claiming it is a blatant attack on their human rights. Which – if you ask me – makes it even more perfect.
Of course, whether a restaurant should be happy one of their customers is raving over the interior design of their male loos rather than their food is another thing altogether … but hey, at least I’m raving about something of theirs.
Many companies talk about how brand experience, well … when you make sure your loo leaves a lasting impression on customers for all the right reasons, then you can say you really understand what experience really means.
Not many can.
🔎 🍆