Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Comedians, Comment, Content, Context, Craft, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Documentary, Entertainment, Immaturity, Mischief, Netflix
Congratulations on surviving the first week back of this blog.
Remember, the good news is there’s no more posts till next Tuesday thanks to yet another holiday in New Zealand. If I knew I’d be having this big a break at the start of the year, I’d have moved here 6 years ago when I first had the chance.
It’s utterly mad, which is the perfect segue to another example of madness.
Have a look at this:
That, my friends, is apparently a genuine tweet.
Someone believes a video made by Mr Beast somehow proves the creator community is the ultimate in power, influence and success because – according to them – it got more views in less time than the original Netflix show.
How many flaws can we spot in that statement?
Look, I’m not doubting the creator community can have incredible influence over culture.
I’m not doubting the creator community can attract incredible amounts of ‘views’.
I’m not doubting the creative credentials of Mr Beast [who I do enjoy following].
But apart from the fact the Mr Beast video actually took 10 years and 7 weeks to make as it required Squid Games to be written, produced and streamed prior to Mr Beast being approached by a company to ‘re-create it’ for his channel … not to mention it didn’t make nearly as much money, or have as great an impact on sales of Van’s as the original … literally copying something someone else created is the absolute opposite of what ‘creator community’ is supposed to mean.
Don’t get me wrong, the creator community is a brilliant thing.
I genuinely love it.
But there are millions of people who are putting in so much effort to make ‘content’ and often only end up with a few likes rather than real revenue. And even those who do make it big, still earn less than the biggest stars of ‘traditional’ film making – so the promise of the community may not be as bright as some think it is.
At least right now.
I’ve blanked the name of the person who wrote the tweet to protect their delusion, but it kind of reinforces my post from last year about the fine line between entrepreneurs and parasites.
In the 80/90’s, a number of UK up and coming comedian created a group called ‘Comic Strip ‘.
The comedians were Rik Mayall, Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, Jennifer Saunders and Alexei Sayle.
So basically the foundation of British comedy television for the next 30+ years.
Anyway, Comic Strip was basically a creative vehicle for them to make a bunch of programs for Channel 4.
One of them was called Bad News, a ‘rockumentary’ about a fictitious heavy metal band trying to hit the big time. Yes, the premise sounds awfully like the movie ‘Spinal Tap’ … however Bad News came out the year before that seminal movie, so it’s just a bizarre coincidence.
So in the show, the guitarist, Vim Fuego – played by Ade Edmondson – tells the interviewer that he is a better guitarist than Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.
His reason for saying that is because he could play the solo to Stairway To Heaven when he was 13 but Jimmy couldn’t even write the song until he was 26.
Later in the program, he said John Lennon had visited him in a dream and gave him a song. He decided to call it Imogen. And when the interviewer said the name – and the melody – were suspiciously like the Lennon classic, Imagine … he claimed he’d never heard of it.
Of course, all of this was supposed to be great comedy, but with views like the twitter writer above, apparently it was simply an example of future human delusion.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Creativity, Culture, Documentary, Emotion, England, Football, Love, Loyalty, Management, Professionalism, Relevance, Resonance
I recently watched the Netflix documentary on Bobby Robson.
While I had followed his career as a manager – especially during Italia ’90 – I didn’t know many of his life’s details.
He had always come across as a kind, considerate man … maybe too kind and too considerate … but given his achievements in the game, it’s fair to say it worked for him.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary, there were two things that really hit me in it.
The first was the people who went on camera to speak about him.
I’m not talking about his lovely wife and son, but football elite like Sir Alex Ferguson, Mourinho, Shearer, Lineker and even Gazza.
All to a man, talked about his character … integrity … compassion and humility.
For that to happen means you had to be something special.
But it’s the second part that led to the title of this post.
You see Bobby Robson went on to manage Barcelona.
Apparently he had previously turned them down twice due to his loyalty to the teams he was managing before, but on the 3rd ask – he said yes, even though it meant he had to follow in the footsteps of the great Johan Cruyff.
To be honest, this added a huge additional amount of pressure on him and fans were initially very skeptical about his tactics and style of play. But he won them, because he showed he loved the club and the region, he desperately wanted them to win and he conducted himself with nothing but compassion and dignity.
And this all turned into some iconic achievements and actions …
He brought Ronaldo to the club and turned him into the most famous player of his generation.
He won the Copa del Rey, Supercopa de España and European Cup Winners’ Cup all in one season.
He offered to pay part of his salary to cover the cost of his assistant manager, Jose Mourinho as he wanted him there so much.
He turned down approaches from other clubs because he loved Barcelona and wanted to honour his contract.
And then, just as he was ready to use that season as a launchpad to achieve even more, he discovered the Barcelona chairman only ever planned for him to be manager for one season.
ONE.
Like a buffer manager between Johan leaving and the next dynasty of Barcelona.
Imagine discovering that.
That you’re only seen as a ‘stop gap’.
To make it worse, they weren’t going to get rid of Bobby, they were going to ‘move him upstairs’.
Oh I am sure they thought that was a sign of respect, but it was anything but … especially with how they did it.
You see the manager they brought in was Louis Van Gaal.
Without doubt, an excellent manager … but not only was it a smack in Bobby’s face, they made Bobby attend his unveiling.
Like attending your own funeral.
And while I accept Van Gaal wanted to assert his arrival to the press, the way he did it was both arrogant and disrespectful … especially given the manager he was taking over – a manger who neither failed or was fired – was sitting to his right.
While Bobby was too nice to say anything, his face said it all.
But here’s the thing, Barcelona – or at least the top management – couldn’t care a less.
They got what they wanted.
And by keeping Robson onboard, they had – in essence – bought his complicity.
Or so they thought.
I’ve experienced these kind-of situations in my time.
Albeit a very loose version of these situations.
Being hired because we thought the client valued what we did and how we did it.
Then discovering it was really about PR because their intention was to make us complicit. That they deemed all the experiences and viewpoints we could bring to them, as unnecessary. Because they just wanted to be seen to be doing something without actually doing anything.
And that reveal was horrific.
Initially written-off as ‘teething problems’ before realising it’s fundamental problems.
And while money can make you temporarily complicit, in the hope you can find a way to make it work, if someone is not transparent from the start, it means you can never get to a better place.
And that’s when you discover that regardless of how much money a client – or a job – is paying you, it’s never enough.
Not because you want to be disgustingly rich, but because you determine your value beyond money, but the work you do and the people you do it with and for.
Some out there will never understand that.
They evaluate success with the money they have. Or the groups they are a part of.
But some will.
The ones who remember that what you have isn’t as important as how you got there.
Anyone can win, but only the best want to win well.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Culture, Documentary, Film
So I recently watched the above documentary.
I bought it because quite frankly, there premise was utterly amazing.
Amputee, John Wood, finds himself in a battle to reclaim his mummified leg from entrepreneur Shannon Whisnant, who found it in a grill that he bought at an auction.
No, it’s not a pisstake, it’s utterly real.
But what follows is an amazing story that deals with issues of love, loss and the quest for meaning in your life.
It’s utterly brilliant and if you can find it, I cannot recommend watching it enough … because apart from it being an amazing story, it is a wonderful reminder of what my parents drummed into me – everyone has a story.
Here’s the trailer …
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand, Brand Suicide, Collaboration, Colleagues, Comment, Communication Strategy, Complicity, Context, Craft, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Documentary, Emotion, Empathy, Equality, Management, Marketing, Music, Perspective, Provocative, Purpose, Relationships, Relevance, Reputation, Respect, Standards, Strategy, Stubborness, Stupid, Success, Teamwork
A while back, I did some work for the rock band Journey.
The ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ mob.
Anyway, without going into too much detail – though a lot of what I’m going to say is common knowledge so I’m not contravening my NDA, and trust me, I asked – it was a rather tension-filled experience.
Not Red Hot Chili Peppers – or should I say Anthony Kiedis – levels of tension, but definitely not chill, put it that way – hahaha.
This time though, it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with 2 of the band members being at loggerheads.
As I said, the fracture in their relationship has been well documented – and I had been warned before hand – but by the time I was involved with them, it was bordering on toxic.
At this point I feel I should point out they were nothing but kind and considerate to me, but like a guest at a dinner party hosted by a couple who had obviously had a major row prior to your arrival – you could feel the tension in every interaction.
But this is less about that and more about the management teams amazing ability to facilitate and negotiate a truce.
Obviously I can’t go into the specifics, but I watched something magical literally unfold in front of my eyes,
Think of it like a cross between the lessons in the hostage negotiation book, ‘Never Split The Difference’, and Kim Papworth.
For those who don’t know who Kim is, he’s the brilliant ex-ECD of Wieden+Kennedy London – and longtime partner to the brilliant-but-bonkers Tony Davidson – who had this incredible ability to keep ideas he believed in on the table … even when clients were initially protesting against them. But here’s the thing about him that was so good.
It was never through bombastic actions.
Never through threats or intimidation.
Never through pandering or false promises.
But always through listening, then gently providing context, clarity, understanding and perspective.
Nudging them forward, rather than pushing them back.
This is similar to what I saw with Journey, with the result of this approach being this:
I have to say the ability to achieve this outcome was inconceivable to me..
Let’s be honest, you can tell from the tweet that it was not something that was easy. Hell, you can tell from the tweet it was not something even the band members expected to achieve.
But it happened because of the work of the management team – who happen to also be Metallica’s long-term management, so are well versed in knowing how to deal with ‘human differences’ as well as musical ones.
Anyway, having seen this happen up close and personal, I can tell you it is more than a skill, but an art. Well, that and starting the whole process with the steadfast belief there was a solution to be found, even if it no one knewwhere, how or when it would happen.
[I wrote another post about this sort of mindset, also involving hostage negotiator, here]
But it is these two criteria that allowed them to help take opposing forces on a journey they likely never imagined they could go on, let alone initially want to. But to achieve that and then get them to be thankful for it while never feeling pushed, cornered, provoked or bullied … is, to put it bluntly, fucking incredible.
I say all this is because I feel too often the way our industry deals with conflict is with more conflict. Or, alternatively, just putting our collective heads in the sand.
Sure, there are occasions – and individuals – where you have to be aggressive.
As Gloria Allred – the powerful US lawyer, of which there is an interesting documentary about her – once said: “Sometimes, power responds to power”.
But that has to be the exception rather than the rule.
In the vast majority of cases, the goal should never be one person gets battered into submission by the other. The key objective has to be ensuring you have properly listened and understood the issues causing the friction … because with this, you can then help both sides appreciate, value and identify what a mutually advantageous outcome could offer for both parties so they feel positive about taking a step closer towards each other.
I say this like you are an intermediary, but I also mean it when you are the one in the conflict.
Now of course this approach won’t always work, but too often our default setting is ‘submit or savage’ and frankly, no one really wins when we adopt either stance.
I appreciate for some people reading this, they’ll be thinking I have a hell of a nerve writing all this when I can have an argument in an empty house – however, over the years I have [slowly] learned that if you want to increase the odds of making great work actually happen, it’s not just about being good at your job … or having taste … or identifying and valuing a good idea you fine tune with craft … you need to know how to deal and address conflict.
Doesn’t matter what job you have.
Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it.
Doesn’t even matter what level of role you’re in.
The fact is, great opportunities are born more from unity, than friction.
So if you want to ensure you keep the tension in the work, rather than the relationship … learn the art of conflict resolution, because that will do more to help you actually create great work, brands and careers than any marketing process or ‘alleged’ mini MBA.
There’s no blog posts till Monday as there’s another holiday in NZ [I know, I know] … so have a great weekend and try not to get into any trouble.
Or if you do, use the context from this post to practice getting out of it, haha.