Filed under: Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Corona Virus, Culture, Cynic, Diversity, Emotion, Experience, Imagination, Immaturity, Innovation, Insight, Love, Loyalty, Management, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, R/GA, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Wieden+Kennedy
So if the title of the post didn’t give you a clue.
And if the photo above didn’t make what this post is about, obvious.
Today is my last day at R/GA.
Sadly my role has been made redundant. Thanks a lot COVID!!
And while it’s sad, I am glad it’s a senior, white, male who is being impacted rather than someone young or female or a person of colour who are often the ones who get hit first across the industry.
But while there will plenty of things I’ll miss, the biggest will be my team.
I’ve always been so lucky with the planners I’ve worked with and this lot are no exception.
They’re great. A talented bunch of creative fools who made me laugh, debate and rethink stuff every single day.
They were an honour to work with and they will continue to be epic in all they do.
They better be, because I’ll be watching them. Closely.
So thank you Lachlan, Nic, Rach, Anna, Joel, Amar, Erika, Laureen, Bassot, Ed, Megan, Nicole, Divya, Arda, Amelia, Severine, Marissa, Insa, Toby, Ben … and the others who helped make my time – and the gang – so much fun, including Anne, Valia, Eduardo and Michael.
So what next?
Well there’s a bunch of things.
We bought a house which we still need to move into.
I have my projects with the Metal Masters I need to deal with.
And I recently got an assignment with the Chilli’s, by which I mean the band rather than the food – which will be fascinating. Or headache inducing. I’ll let you know which, later.
Then I’ve registered a company I now need to work out what the hell I’m going to do with. I’ve got some ideas and I’ve even got some backers, but I owe it to my family to give it a bit more thought rather than just run full-speed to wherever my excitement orders me to go.
But for right now, all I’m going to do is take a couple of weeks off to enjoy being with the family and no zoom calls – which means you also get a week or two off – so all that leaves me to say is thank you to R/GA for the adventure and the airmiles … my team for their brilliance and their trouble making and … my wife, son, cat, clients and mates for their love, support and sarcasm.
Last thing.
Let’s be honest, these situations suck.
If people had the choice between having a job and not, the job is pretty much always going to win, especially at my age.
However not only am I absolutely fine, I’m strangely optimistic.
There are many reasons for this, but the main one is the last time this happened to me, it resulted in some of the best times of my career.
From starting and selling cynic and Sunshine to then working at Wieden+Kennedy and R/GA through to living, exploring and working all around the World.
Or said another way … when my role was made redundant, it was instrumental in helping me do stuff at the highest levels of creativity, culture and client all around the World.
From helping launch brands like Spotify in Japan to partnering with NIKE to create sport culture in China to inspiring Virgin Atlantic to build an airport lounge that people want to miss their plane to stay in to finding ways to redefine the rules of luxury which led to SKP-S building an experience specifically designed to look/feel like life on Mars to helping Metallica do all manner of weird and wonderful stuff from connecting deeper with fans to opening new ways to connect with the band. And a bunch of other stuff, from the small to the huge to the ridiculous.
I absolutely, unapologetically, love this stuff with all I’ve got.
Now whether any of this can happen again is anyone’s guess, but it is possible … and given the challenges and competitive nature of the world today, I feel my history of provocative and intriguing creativity to help brands around the world define their position in culture – and business – still gives me a strong and valuable role to play.
I guess this is all my convoluted way of saying if you’re an agency or a company – anywhere in the World – who is ambitious to grow or change or reimagine who you are or considering new markets [ie: Asia/China] or stuck on a mindfuck of a problem or want advice on building a cohesive, potent strategy gang or just want to win better … then give me a shout, because whether it’s about leading something, collaborating on something or just chatting about something … I’m going to be officially available for all of this very soon and I’d bloody love it.
Right, now my Gwyneth Paltrow Oscar speech is out the way, see you in a few weeks.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Confidence, Creativity, Culture, Digital, Embarrassing Moments, Emotion, Empathy, Entertainment, Immaturity, Innocence
In these days of working at home, the possibility of making a video-conference disaster are quite high.
I’ve already had some ‘incidents’ …
For example I was on a concall recently and Rosie – our cat – decided that would be the perfect moment to release the World’s biggest hairball right by the microphone of the laptop.
That went down well.
Then there was the moment Jill and Otis thought it would be fun to fire water pistols against the window I was working from. What they didn’t know was that I – you guessed it – was on a concall again.
The photo at the top of this post captures that moment.
Then there was the second ‘cat’ incident.
I was on a video conference with a client when I noticed them smiling.
“Hey Rob …”, they said, “… your cat seems to have climbed your wardrobe”.
Now given Rosie is so old she won’t even jump on my lap, I looked behind me to see what he was going on about.
“Oh,” I replied, “that’s not my cat, that’s a cuddly toy”.
The client laughed and said, “Wow, it looks very life like” to which I responded …
“I hope so, I paid a fortune to have it made to look exactly like my cat”.
He quickly changed the subject, but he had that unmistakable look in his eye … the look of, WHY HAVE I LET THIS LUNATIC WORK ON MY BRAND?
But for all those incidents, nothing – absolutely NOTHING – compares to this …
Do I feel sorry for ‘Jennifer’?
Sure. But my god, it made me laugh.
I know for a fact if I was on a zoom call and did this in front of my team, not one of them would say a word.
Not because they would be wishing they were blind, nor because they’d be vomiting on sight … but because they’d be busy instagramming the shit out of it.
And I don’t mind telling you, I’d be very proud of them for their evil genius.
Then I’d release all the bad instagram photos I’ve taken of them.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Corporate Evil, Crap Products In History, Culture, Egovertising, Fake Attitude, Immaturity, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Pretentious Rubbish
So as you read this, I’ll be in Sweden and not back till Wednesday.
As I won’t be writing a post tomorrow, I thought I’d write a post today where the impact of it would easily last 48 hours/
So have a look at that picture.
A close look.
Seriously, isn’t it terrible?
It looks like it should be the poster for a porn movie rather than a show about an international actress who is appearing on an international streaming service.
And then there’s that line.
Christ almighty …
Do they think we don’t get what the image is supposed to reflect?
But then Gwyneth doesn’t do subtle does she …
I’m not just talking about her over-the-top Oscar speech or her ‘conscious uncoupling’ pretentious divorce language … I’m talking about this.
Yes, the candle that smells of her vagina.
From Goop, her company that makes up complete medical lies.
And while it would be easy to laugh at all this stupidity, the fact is that candle has sold out and Goop is supposedly worth $250 million which has led me to 3 conclusions.
1. Brands need to stop thinking humans are logic operated.
2. Market valuations are about as trust worthy as politicians.
3. I’m losing my faith in so much of humanity.
See you Wednesday. If you’ve recovered in time.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Creativity, Immaturity, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless
Yes I know I wrote about this just a few weeks ago … and this is my attempt to ease us back into working life … but the wonderful Mr Weigel misguidedly sent me a photo [he was jet lagged, so he forgot how stupid an idea this was] that highlights how the downturn in traditional adspend is having an impact on the entire industry.
This …
Let’s face it, when one of the best agencies in the World is diversifying to make some coin, it must be bad.
On the plus side, when my mates at Adam&Eve see this post and tell me to go “screw myself”, I’ll interpret that as them offering me a solution, not being angry. Perfect.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, China, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Content, Context, Creativity, Culture, Entertainment, Fake Attitude, Imagination, Immaturity, Innocence, Innovation, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Packaging, Planners, Relevance, Resonance, Standards, Wieden+Kennedy
Yes it’s real.
Yes, it has been out for at least 4 months.
And yes, there are so many things I could say about it … but I’m relying on you do it for me.
I will say this however …
When I worked on Old Spice at Wieden – which was only for Asia and had little to do with the great work from Portland – we were adamant that while the creativity should be allowed to explore all manner of mad worlds, the packaging/fragrances had to communicate stability because otherwise there was the danger the whole brand would look like one giant joke.
Or said another way …
The product had to allow madness around it rather than try to compete with it.
I’ll leave it there, over to you …