Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audacious, Authenticity, Comment, Cynic, Devious Strategy, Differentiation, Distinction, Planning, Point Of View, Process, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance, Respect, Strategy
I’m back.
And – as usual – I found my heart in China.
I love that place so much. Literally love it.
It is arguably the only place in the World – and certainly the only place I’ve lived – where I feel I am able to breathe.
Obviously I mean that metaphorically [though they’ve sorted out the air, big time]… but the energy, the craziness, the extremes and the constant change bizarrely makes me feel calm, settled and at peace.
I don’t understand why – I get that’s bonkers – but it does and always has, and while I won’t ever live there again, I will find any excuse under the sun to keep going back.
For me, it’s more than a place I once had the honour and privilege of living … it feels ‘home’.
That does not mean I do like – or am not grateful – for all the other countries I’ve had the incredible opportunity to live in, but there’s something about China that I connected to on a level that is incomparable to anywhere else I’ve been. And while it is getting a bit too smooth, slick and convenient for my liking [haha] the people keep it real.
Amazing. Interesting. Dramatic. Smart-as-fuck.
I met some incredible people on this trip.
Not just old mates [who I kept bumping into on the street, which is something I’ve never done in Auckland, despite being a fraction of the population size and geography – haha] but some brilliant new people who I hope will become long-term new mates. And nothing sums this up more than the fact I was out all night.
ALL NIGHT.
TWICE!!! [Admittedly once was so I could listen to Forest play in Europe with the worst manager since Megson, Ange]
Jesus Christ, I’m 55 … I should be in bed with a Hot Chocolate by 8pm shouldn’t I?
But that’s the effect China has on me. I absofuckinglutely adore every single bit of it.
No doubt that statement will have my NZ/Australia/Singapore/HK residencies revoked, so we better move on … haha.
Not that long ago I wrote about a campaign we’ve just done for Delivereasy that reminds me of my beloved Viz ‘adult’ comic.
Well recently I got sent 2 photos of real-life businesses that seem to have adopted a similar approach …
First the most genuine ‘health and fitness’ ad in the history of health and fitness ads:
Quickly followed up by this masterpiece by a global – yet local – painter and decorator:
I love them.
Their magical and memorable.
Arguably more magical and memorable that many campaigns that have had millions and months of time spent on them.
Way back in 2007, I wrote about the power of ‘unplanned thinking‘.
Unplanned is when you go directly at the truth of a product – or audience perception – rather than play into the marketing hype machine. The point was that so many brands had stuck their head so far up their own pretentiousness arses, that rather than create aspiration with audiences, they were creating revulsion.
Unplanned killed that.
More than that, it killed it in a way that was refreshing, invigorating, distinctive and differentiated which – as a byproduct – meant it became more aspirational than an ad claiming a can of sugary fruit juice was in fact, a statement of discernment in a world of choice. Or some other bollocks.
And while I accept the examples above are one-offs, both are delivered in a way where I not just see the truth in them, I see the human in them as well – and as I’ve written a million times – the idea of interacting with real humans is far more interesting and enticing to me than engaging with yet another corporate monotone of a contrived mission statement.
Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Consultants, Contribution, Creative Development, Creativity, Dance, Devious Strategy
After the relatively heavy post of yesterday, let’s go on a tangent that I am pretty certain even a protractor wouldn’t be able to measure.
This is a post about dance.
That’s 6 words I am pretty sure you never thought you’d read on here.
But the reality is, I am pretty besotted with dance, just like I am pretty besotted with anything when the person doing it is not only good at it, but is committed to being their best at it, in the moment they are doing it.
That’s more than just talent, that’s a commitment to your own representation and recently I saw the incredible Farrah Ozuuna Wilson, perform a masterclass in giving your all.
It was this.
Now it is pretty obvious Farrah Ozuuna Wilson is – among other things – a professional dancer, but my god, I must have watched this clip of her a hundred times.
I love it.
I love the moment she ‘switches’ from casual to fully committed.
She’s all in, take-no-prisoners, fierce as absolute fuck.
It’s beautiful, frightening, inspiring and exhausting all at the same time.
And yet you come away from it in awe …
Not just at her obvious talent, nor to the obvious hours, months and years she has put into being brilliant at her art … but to her dedication to ensuring when she performs, she will leave nothing to be second guessed or misinterpreted.
You may not like it.
You may not understand it.
But you sure-as-shit are going to know everything she did was her choice and decision.
And yet, you are in absolute no doubt she is enjoying herself.
Both in terms of the control she has over her entire body and the power she can create, generate and express with every part of it.
This is an athlete performing at the peak of their powers.
Unstoppable.
Unquestionable.
Playing to win, never to just get by.
Michael Jordan was the same.
A relentless desire to be great at all costs.
Never phoning it in. Never accepting good enough. Never just being interested.
And while that didn’t guarantee he’d always win, it did guarantee he was always committed to the core. And demanded that of those who were around him – because as amazing as he was, he still knew he needed them to raise their game to stand a chance of getting the result his standards and ambition needed.
And that’s why I love how Farrah dances, because we are witnessing seeing someone who respects their art and themselves enough to always go all in on all they do.
So if a bald, white, 54 year old – who has no dancing talent or experience – can see it, you can be sure people can tell the difference between a brand who means what they say or is spouting ‘purpose bollocks’ in the mistaken belief people can’t tell the difference or worse, their marketing team don’t know the difference.
The reality is truth is more than just what you say.
It’s also more than just what you do … even if it is following the rules someone else has said needs to be adhered to.
It is – as in most things in life – always about how you do it and that is never impacted by place, time or occasion.
There’s a lot we can learn from Farrah, and it’s transcends her incredible ability in dance.
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, Attitude & Aptitude, Brands, Context, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Customer Service, Devious Strategy, Effectiveness, EvilGenius, Experience, Management, Northern, Perspective, Planners, Planning, Provocative, Relationships, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance, Standards, Strategy, Stubborness, Wieden+Kennedy
Maybe it’s because I’m British …
Maybe it’s because I’m naïve …
Or maybe it’s because I’m privileged …
But I’ve always been pretty shit when it comes to ‘negotiating’.
That changed quite dramatically when Metallica’s management taught me both ‘the value of value’ and how procurement is a game … but even now, there are situations where I feel weird to push back.
Ironically, the thing that snaps me out of it is not confidence, but disgust.
Recently a company sent me a bill that was 49% more than the previous year.
My situation hadn’t changed.
I was a long-term customer of theirs.
I had not used their services any differently than any time before.
And yet they sent me the invoice without explanation or consideration.
And I was pissed. Properly fucked off.
And while I could have just walked away, I wanted to play them at their own game.
I should point out my goal was not to get a price reduction; it was more so I didn’t feel a mug just blindly accepting their shit.
I wanted to feel I’d pushed back …
That I wasn’t a pushover …
And while I suspected they wouldn’t care – or maybe even notice – what I was doing, it was important for me that I did it.
Short story is I rang them up and ‘had a chat’ before ending up with all the price increase being removed.
Every last penny.
And while you may think that means ‘I’d won’, the thing is my definition of ‘winning’ had changed … which is why once I got the reduction, I informed the company I wouldn’t be working with them anymore and why.
Petty?
Sure.
Pathetic?
Possibly.
Pointless?
Maybe.
Unprecedented by me?
Errrrm, no.
But as my old Wieden boss – the great Jason White – once told some people, I’d asked him to meet,
“Be true. Be transparent. Believe they want to do the right thing with the right intentions. But if you suspect they think they’re hustling you … make sure you’re hustling them right back”.
Which is why, if you want to know the real art of ‘strategy’ – both in terms of effectiveness and creativity – don’t follow the methodologies or tools flogged by the never-ending list of Linkedin Pundits, study cats or petty bastards.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Clients, Clothes, Comment, Community, Consultants, Context, Corporate Evil, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Disney, Effectiveness, Egovertising, Empathy, Honesty, Innovation, Luxury, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Membership, Netflix, Perspective, Planners, Planning, Popularity, Process, Relationships, Relevance, Reputation, Research, Resonance, Respect, Social Divide, Social Media, Strategy, Stupid
Once upon a time, I was asked to help a client based in Thailand.
They were very successful – having made Thailand the most profitable market in the World for their particular brand.
Anyway, part of the project involved a workshop and part of that workshop was about identifying new variants for their product.
So far, so good.
Until I realized they weren’t looking at this to expand who could become a customer of theirs, but how to get existing customers to buy more of what they make.
Even that was OK, until it became apparent they believed their product was so loved, their customers would continually fill their shopping baskets with 3 or 4 different versions of the same product because they just liked the ability to consume it in more places at more times.
In short, they believed the more versions of their product they made, the more volume of products their customers would buy.
Every time.
Forget that people have a finite amount of money.
Forget that people have other bills, items, people to look after.
They believed, if you made it … people would just blindly buy.
It’s the same blinkered approach that some sales organizations have.
Where they believe if one salesman brings in a million dollars of revenue a year, hiring 11 more will mean they achieve 12 million dollars of revenue.
It’s both blinkered thinking and wishful thinking.
Or – as my father used to say – “the expansion of logic without logic”.
I say this because it feels companies are viewing the subscription model in a similar way.
Once upon a time, subscriptions were seen as the exciting new thing for business.
A new way to charge for your products and services … regardless that ‘direct debit’ payments had been around for years.
There were 3 key reasons why repositioning cost as a subscription was so appealing:
1 It lowered the barrier to entry, so it could appeal to more/new customers.
2 They knew that while customers ‘could’ cancel at any time, data showed most wouldn’t.
3 It could, in theory, allow them to charge more per month than their old annual fee.
And they were right, it proved to be a revelation … until it wasn’t.
Right now, everything is seemingly a subscription model.
Food.
Clothes.
Streaming.
Gym and health.
Car purchasing.
But the one that really is making me laugh, are phone apps.
It’s almost impossible to download anything without it being a subscription service.
And that would be OK, except the prices they want to charge are getting out of control.
I recently downloaded a recipe app that wanted $14.99 A WEEK. A FUCKING WEEK.
$60 a month just so I could send it healthy recipes I see on social media and have them all in one, easy-to-access place.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Sure, it had some features that would make it more convenient than just putting it into a saved folder on instagram … but it sure-as-shit isn’t worth me paying more than it costs me for Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify PUT TOGETHER.
I appreciate everyone thinks their product is the best product.
I acknowledge it takes a lot of hard work and money to make a new product.
But the removal of any ‘human reality context’ – ie: how much money do people actually have available to spend, and the hierarchy of importance they place on the things they spend – is not just stupid, it destroys the potential of good ideas.
Of course, part of the reason for this is because of how tech investment works.
Basically investors want big returns, very fast … so this pushes developers to build economic models based on a ‘perfect scenario’ situations.
For perfect scenario, read: not real life.
So they show things like:
The economic value of the health industry.
The impact of social media on diet choices.
The rise of health-focused products and services.
And before you know it, they’ve extrapolated all this ‘data’ to come up with a price point of $60 per month and said it not only offers good value, but will generate huge returns on the investment in collapsed time.
Except …
+ All this is theory because they haven’t talked to anyone who would actually use it.
+ They probably haven’t identified who they need to use it beyond ‘health seekers’.
+ And they absolutely haven’t understood it costs a lot of money to be healthy and so an additional $60 subscription for the average person is a cost too far … especially when things they use ALL THE TIME – like Netflix [which they already think is too expensive] – is a quarter of that cost FOR THE MONTH.
I get no one likes to hear problems.
I appreciate anyone can find faults if they really want to.
But being ‘objective’ is not about killing ideas – when done right – it’s about enabling them to thrive, which is why I hope business stops looking at audiences in ‘the zoo’ and starts respecting them in ‘the jungle’ … because not only will it mean good ideas stand more chance of becoming good business, it also means people will have more access to things that could actually help them, without it destroying them in other ways.
As perfectly expressed by Clint, the founder of Corteiz …