Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Context, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Culture, Cynic, Differentiation, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Finance, HHCL, Imagination, Innovation, Insight, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Meetings, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, Premium, Professionalism, R/GA, Relevance, Resonance, Standards, Wieden+Kennedy
A while back I wrote a post about the best bit of advice I’d ever had regarding solving problems.
Or should I say, on how to present how you are going to solve a problem.
But this is dependent on knowing what is the right problem to solve … and quite often, it ends up being the problem we want to solve versus the problem that needs solving.
Now of course, we can only solve the problem that relates to our particular discipline.
For example, as much as adland likes to claim it can solve everything, we can’t build a car.
[Trust me, I’ve tried]
But that’s not what I want to talk about.
Too often, when there is a huge piece of business on the table, our goal is to get all of it.
Every last piece.
Doesn’t matter if it’s not our core expertise.
Doesn’t matter if the work won’t be interesting.
We. Want. It. All.
Now there’s many reasons for this – mostly around money – but what it often ends up doing is destroying everything we’ve spent decades trying to build up.
It burns out staff.
It undermines the creativity of the agency.
It forces quick fix solutions rather than ideas that create sustainable change.
It creates a relationship based on money. rather than creativity.
It positions the agency more as a supplier than a partner.
Now don’t get me wrong, money is important, but when you let that be the only focus – it is the beginning of the end.
Before you know it, the money becomes the driving factor of all decisions and – because you have had to scale-up to manage the huge business you’ve just won – you end up looking for similar sized clients to ensure the whole agency is being utilised rather than chase the business that can elevate your creative reputation.
Oh agency heads will deny this.
They’ll say they still value creative, regardless of the size of client they work on.
And maybe I’m utterly wrong.
But as I wrote a while back, we had a [small scale version] of this situation when we had cynic … and while we were making more money than we had ever earned, it had made us more miserable than we’d ever been.
Thank god we noticed in time, because we were in danger of seeing more economic value in the processes we were creating for the client than the work and then that would be it.
People would leave.
Our reputation would be damaged.
We’d have to pay more to bring people in to deal with the situation.
The profit margin money we were making from the client would be impacted.
Soon we would be doing work we didn’t like without even the excuse of making tons of cash.
The client would call a pitch.
We would have to do it because we were so dependent on them financially.
They’d pick someone who would do things cheaper.
We’d crash and burn.
We would hate ourselves.
OK … OK … that is a particularly bleak possible version of events and I know there’s a lot of big agencies that have found a way to manage doing work for big clients while marrying it with maintaining their creative credentials [but not as many as they would like to admit] but I am surprised how few agencies say which part of a big job they want to do.
I get why, because there’s fear the client will write you off because they want a simple solution rather than a complex.
But if you’re really good at something, then you have the power to change that mindset from complexity to effectiveness.
Of course, to pull that off, you have to be exceptional.
A proven track record of being brilliant at something few others can pull off.
Which means I’m not talking about process or procedures … but work.
Actual, creativity.
In my entire career, there’s only been 3 agencies I’ve worked at – and one of those I started – who have told clients they only want a slice of the pie rather than the whole thing.
More than that, they also told the client how they believed the problem should be handled rather than simply agreeing to whatever the client wanted in a bid to ‘win favour’. Of course, the slice they focused on was not only their core area of brilliance, but also the most influential in terms of positioning the entirety of the brand – the strategic positioning and the voice of the brand – so what it led to was a situation where the benefits for the agency far exceeded just an increase in revenue.
They had the relationship with the c-suite.
They set the agenda everyone else had to follow.
They were paid for quality rather than volume.
They made work that enhanced their reputation rather than drag them down.
They were more immune from the procurement departments actions.
All in all, they ended up having a positive relationship rather than a destructive one.
Now, I am not denying that in all 3 cases, the relationship lasted less time than those who were willing to take everything on. In many cases, once the initial strategy and voice work was done, many companies felt we were no longer needed. Not all, but a few.
And while many will read this and say my suggestion to choose the part of the work you want rather than take it all on is flawed … my counter is not only did all 3 agencies enjoy a reputation, relationship and remuneration level that was in excess of all the other agencies they worked with – and often delivered in a fraction of the time – but they ended up in a position where they attracted new business rather than had to constantly chase it.
In all business, reputation is everything.
Don’t make yours simply about the blinkered pursuit of money.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Customer Service, Devious Strategy, Differentiation, Emotion, England, Experience, Food, Food For Thought, Football, HHCL, Insight, London, Relevance, Resonance
… is know your audience.
The second rule is let them know you know them.
For all the millions spent at agencies and consultancies, this food vendor at the recent Chelsea v Everton match. shows they get it more than most.
Now you may think, ‘who would shop at a place that publicly identifies them as a chubby’?
And I get it …
In these highly visual times, no one wants to associate with anything deemed socially negative.
But apart from the fact there are some people who take great pride in their unhealthiness, the reality is there’s something incredibly lovely about that name.
If you’re hungry.
If you need something to eat.
If you want something that’s going to make you full.
What better place is there than a food cart with the name Chubby’s.
Chubby’s suggests big portions. Lots of flavour [read: fat] Value for money.
But it’s more than that.
This is a food cart at a football match.
Food and football is never supposed to be fancy.
It’s supposed to be piping hot and insanely substantial …
This means even the most healthy minded individual can justify buying from there.
“It’s just this once” … they’ll say.
“It’s part of the footballing experience” they’ll claim.
And then, to make themselves feel less greedy, they’ll do what was the basis of one of my favourite ever campaigns – a bloody radio ad no less – they’ll go and order a Diet Tango to wash it all down with.
The weak and delusional fools.
[Cue evil laugh]
So while I doubt any naming consultancy would ever come up with such a choice of name for a football food establishment, I would say the owner of this cart is a better marketer than most of the agencies and consultancies put together.
And his hot dogs were a delight.
That is not a euphemism.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Campaign Magazine, Confidence, Content, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Differentiation, Embarrassing Moments, Experience, HHCL, Innovation, Insight, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Perspective, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Prejudice, Professionalism, Resonance, Social Divide
For reasons I don’t understand – but I do like – I occasionally get asked for my opinion in industry magazines.
While I absolutely take what I do seriously, I have realized that if I was to compile all that I’ve said that has been printed, I would look a bit of a maniac.
For example, there’s this. Or this. Or even this.
And just recently I was asked ‘what Star Wars character would I be’ and this was my answer …
But here is the thing …
While many may think I do this because I need psychiatric help or have a career death wish, there’s another reason behind it and it’s about comfortableness.
You see when I was a youngster in the industry, I was surrounded by super-smart, super-senior people who were full of opinion, personality and provocation.
While I didn’t agree with everything they said, they helped me realise that ‘just because you take your job seriously, doesn’t mean you have to take yourself seriously’.
What this did was let me feel comfortable in taking to any of them about any madcap idea I had … let me talk to clients about subjects that may otherwise seem ‘off limits’ and let me work with colleagues without thinking it made me look weak or incapable.
In essence, cheekiness has enabled me to do – or be part of – things that I may not otherwise never have been able to do.
From work I’ve been a part of … clients I’ve worked with … agencies I’ve worked at and countries I’ve lived in.
Now of course, mischief is in my bones so it wasn’t exactly hard … but being encouraged to embrace my truth rather than oppress it had a huge benefit to my career and so while a bunch of what I say and do is because I’m a bloody idiot, there is a part of it that is intended to create the space and atmosphere to enable my colleagues and clients feel comfortable with being vulnerable … whether that’s expressing their ideas, their fears and ambitions or simply realizing that if I can have a career while still being a sweary fool, then they – with all their talent – surely can.
You might think this is a load of bollocks – and I totally understand get why – but it’s true.
The future of adland is not going to come from more processes, it’s going to come from more people being able to express or explore their ideas without fearing they will be judged, shot down or ridiculed.
And if you think that’s a dramatic statement, just go on twitter and see how the masses react to any idea that challenges the belief system they have bought into, even though they know for a fact that the very small amount of people who succeed – which are mainly white men – are generally the ones who reinforce the cliche rather than push or break them.
Happy Monday.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Chaos, China, Colenso, Comment, Confidence, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, HHCL, Imagination, Innovation, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Martin Weigel, Perspective, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Relevance, Resonance, Shanghai, The Kennedys, The Kennedys Shanghai, WeigelCampbell, Wieden+Kennedy
A while back, I did a presentation for the Brazilian APG about the dangers of perfect.
Or more precisely, the boredom of it.
It was my usual rambling mess of random pictures that goes off on tangents a protractor would find hard to calculate … but I still liked the underlying point that perfection stops possibilities whereas acts others may view as stupid … creates them.
[If you’re mad, you can see a static version of the presentation here]
I say I liked the underlying point until I saw this.
I really, really like this.
I love the idea that flaws help us connect.
I love that imperfection can make us feel normal. That it is something to aspire to.
Of course, the reality is perfection is just an illusion.
One persons definition of what is the ultimate expression of an idea.
A temporary moment, where they believe nothing better has been explored or revealed.
The problems start when that definition starts being challenged.
While some embrace it – seeing it as a way to push the boundaries of what they thought was possible – many fight it.
Using their definition to control, limit or devalue the work of the challengers.
Sometimes it’s due to ego.
Sometimes it’s due to money.
But everytime it aims to oppress rather than liberate.
It’s happening everywhere.
From technology processes to agency ‘proprietary’ tools.
And while there is a lot to be said for being proud of what you have done, when you use it to stop people creating their own version, it’s not.
I’ve seen too many people in too many companies follow the orders of their bosses simply because it’s easier to do that. Where they know expressing a different point of view will be seen as an attack rather than an attempt for everyone to be even better.
So while perfect might be nice and shiny and make you feel good, it also has the power to stop progress.
Or as the brilliant chart at the top of this post states, stop feeling you can relate.
Not because it’s so far ahead, but because of the speed society evolves, it’s too far behind.