Filed under: Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Chinese Culture, Comment, Crap Campaigns In History, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Deutsch, Devious Strategy, Egovertising, Family, Goodbye China, Marketing Fail, Planners, Planning, Talent, The Kennedys, The Kennedys Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
After 7 years, today is my last day at Wieden+Kennedy.
Just as traumatic is that in 6 days, it will be my last day in China.
Or said another way, it will be my last day living in Asia-Pacific after 22 amazing years.
There’s honestly too much to say.
Too many memories to write about.
Too many people to thank and talk about.
So instead I’ll just say it has been the time of my life.
An amazing, spectacular, wonderful adventure both personally and professionally.
From marriage and babies to being part of work that defined World Cups and Olympics.
Wow.
It’s absolutely fair to say I will miss every bit of it but I’ll take the memories because it means I had the experience and for that I am truly grateful.
Now, because we’re in the middle of mad moving mode, this blog will be on a little hiatus for a few weeks.
Probably about a month. [Though we all know there’ll be the odd post here and there]
On the bright side, when it’s back – probably sometime in June, in time for my birthday [ha] – you’ll get to read posts that won’t just be about planning, but how I don’t understand how to make anything in America work.
I honestly think I’m going to find it harder to acclimatise to America than I ever did to China.
Hell, I can’t even order a cup of coffee without getting confused about their cup sizes.
So with that I want to sign off with a few little thank-you’s.
The reality is a huge amount of people made my time here amazing, however there’s some who had an even bigger influence and I want to call them out because the adventure I had – and am about to embark on – literally wouldn’t have been possible without them.
My wonderful planning team. Past and present. Every day was a genuine fucking honour. The awesome Kennedys. It was seriously the professional highlight of my last 12 months. Thank you. And that definitely includes you Juni. Kel Hook. For hiring me. You changed my life and I’ll never be able to thank you enough. Jason White. Thank you for supporting me even when I caused destruction. John Rowe. For being brilliant in every possible way and making my time at W+K Tokyo so good, I never wanted to leave. NIKE. I know that might sound corporate toady, but as I have nothing to gain from saying it, it means it is true. 99.7% of every person I met or worked with at Wieden+Kennedy worldwide … whether they are still here or long gone. Martin Weigel. You’re a cantankerous, warm hearted, brilliant man. Just propose to Mercedes and get on with it. Whiteside. Because you’re awesome and funny and humble and deserve so much and yet are happy with what you have. Clare Pickens. I love you. I literally fucking love you. [But stop cutting your hair because it makes you look shit] Sandi Hildreth. For being awesome and gorgeous and loving the same sort of rubbish music as me. Claudia Valderrama. For looking out for me even though you told me I was a “pain in the ass”. W&W, Azsa, Arlene and Max … for making sure I stay excited – and in awe – about the birth of amazing ideas. Gerber, for somehow – and I’m not sure how – influencing me to get tattoos. I came here with none, I leave with not enough. Simon Pestridge. Thank you for everything. In many ways, you changed my career and opportunities. You’re more than a great client, but a friend. Kim Papworth. For that talk that was totally worth the wait. Luhr. For being Luhr. Stech. For making your 6 months here, the most exciting 6 months for me full stop. David Terry and Paul Colman for trying really hard to be ‘alpha-males’ but actually being fucking sweethearts. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Joe Staples. He won’t understand why, which is why. MJ. No, not Micheal Jackson or Michal Jordan, but Matthew Jung … for being a phenomenal Nike and Converse client who backed us to do the best work we can do every-single-time. Karrelle. For pretending to still be British when he’s basically American. Steve Tsoi for still welcoming me to the table even though I never made life easy for you or your team. Scott Silverman. You had nothing to do with China, but if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had the chance to be here. Chris Jaques. You also had nothing to do with China, but if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had the platform to show others what I could do. What I could be. Dan Wieden. For not actually firing me even though you said, “You’re fired” every time you saw me. And starting a place that is so special amongst special companies. Xiaoli. For everything you have done for us, but most specifically for the love and care you have shown my son. China … for being so important to global business that you gave me access and exposure to the sort of senior leadership few in the World will ever get to experience. The amazing, warm, slightly crazy people of China. I will absolutely miss everything about your unique ways. Except the spitting and the plane delays. And finally – and most importantly – my beloved Jill, Otis and Rosie. Without you guys, none of this other stuff would have mattered.
OK, the Gwyneth Paltrow bollocks is over … and to prove it, have a look at this.
Do you know what it is?
That’s right, it’s one of the 600 stickers I have had made that I have spent the last 5 weeks hiding throughout the refurbished Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai office. And I mean ‘throughout’ … including various W+K hangouts, like Baker & Spice, Jamaica Blue and Little Catch.
That should make their life a pain in the ass for a few years.
It will be like I’ve never gone.
And with that, it’s time to go.
It’s been a lot of fun. Time for an adventure in LA. God help us all.
Filed under: Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Goodbye China, The Kennedys Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
So this is my last Friday at Wieden Towers.
That’s it in the photo. With the storm clouds circling overhead.
While I’m super excited about my next chapter, the fact is I’m a sentimental sod, so I’ve been spending the last few weeks trying to take in everything around me so I’ll remember it when I’ve gone.
Part of this is because I spent 7 years here … so the ties are very strong, however the other part is because I know I will never live here again.
I know you should never say never … but I’ve gone back to live in a country that I’ve previously resided in, though I must admit, China is the one where that realisation has hit me the hardest.
That said, I will come back for visits.
Not just because I am fascinated to see the incredible changes that I know will occur, but because I want to show Otis where he was born and where he spent his first few years of life.
Now as you all know, I started and ran The Kennedys Shanghai this year.
It was a great honour for me. Not just because it is something this office has talked about for 12 years, but because I am a planner and being entrusted to develop Wieden’s creative talent incubator was a great honour.
As I’ve written before, I gave them all manner of shit in their quest to find their creative voice … and while they took it all with [relatively] good grace, they recently presented me with a video they’d made that was designed to get to my very core.
Not because its mean, but because it’s bloody lovely.
Those cunning, beautiful, evil bastards.
Given they waited till the very end to give this to me, it appears they subscribe to the belief ‘revenge is a dish best served cold’.
I’ve obviously taught them well.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Chinese Culture, Comment, Communication Strategy, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Design, Innovation, Marketing, Packaging, The Kennedys Shanghai
In Asia, hand cleanliness is almost an obsession.
People even eat their sandwiches and burgers with knives and forks to avoid having to pick them up.
OK, so maybe that’s the case everywhere and I’m just showing my common Nottingham roots … but I still find it fascinating.
Everywhere you go, there’s hand sanitisers.
I’m not just talking in hospitals, I’m talking restaurants and all sorts of other places.
Recently, I saw this on my wife’s bag.
Yep, it’s a portable hand sanitiser.
But I’m not saying this because it highlights how long we’ve been in Asia, I’m saying it because making a product that can attach easily to a bag is an act of simple genius.
For a culture that doesn’t want to just wash their hands, but have them truly germ free … this little idea has big appeal.
Sure, there’s other products on the market that do a similar thing, but having something that attaches to your bag gives a peace of mind that wipes hidden in your bag, just can’t do. Plus being permanently on display helps advertise the brand to all who see it. Nice.
I’ve said for a while that I feel designers are doing things in more interesting ways than ad agencies and ultimately that’s down to one simple difference of approach.
Designers want to solve problems whereas ad agencies want to communicate problems.
Not all agencies are like this.
Not all agency employees are like this.
But right now, the design industry is kicking our ass and I swear it’s because we are holding on to remuneration models that reward ‘the old ways’ rather than finding ways to get paid for what we are truly capable of if given the freedom to do it.
[That and the fact adlands creative department hiring policy is still primarily based on art and copy rather than embracing different types of creative people/thinkers/doers]
We will have to wake up soon, otherwise the bullshit we churn out for Cannes – that we claim is ‘creative problem solving’ will become the benchmark for our standards and when that happens, we may as well pack up and go home.
But I have faith it can be done, if only because I saw The Kennedys Shanghai consistently solve problems in imaginative and innovative and intriguing ways for 9 months.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Daddyhood, Goodbye China, Grand announcements, Jill, Love, My Fatherhood, Otis, Perspective, Pollution, Sentimentality, The Kennedys Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
So I have some big and exciting news. Well, it is for me …
On May 10th, I leave Wieden+Kennedy.
In addition to that, on May 16th, I leave China.
Given both have been my home for the last 7 years – one of the longest periods of my entire adult life – that means this is very big thing for me and I won’t deny it is bitter-sweet.
I’ve had an incredible time and leave with a bunch of memories, stories and learnings that I can honestly say will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Of course, I’ll miss so many things – the people, the culture, the colleagues the clients and the holidays* [ha] – but I still have a lot I want to try and experience and that just wasn’t going to happen if I stayed.
In addition, I need a place where my son can go out and play.
China is an amazing country, but the pollution means there have been too many days where he’s had to stay inside and that just isn’t what I want for him growing up.
That is very hard for me to admit, because I truly love and respect this country and would never want to speak bad of it because I’ll forever be grateful for how it embraced me, educated me and helped me thrive.
As for Wieden … well they have been awesome.
I thought I would stay at W+K forever but unfortunately, we’re a very flat structured, relatively small company, so there’s just not that many options easily available for someone like me. Everyone tried to make it work but as I have no desire to be an MD and feel I’ve achieved everything [and more] that I set out to do in Shanghai – and that I was asked to do in Shanghai – I came to the realization that for me to keep growing, I had to try something different.
That said, there is absolutely no doubt that I have enjoyed one of the most exciting and fulfilling times of my professional career [so far] but right now, I need to go and try some stuff that takes everything I have learnt – from Wieden and beyond – and mix it with a bunch of new experiences and lessons so I can see what happens in a totally different environment and situation.
I’m very excited about that but I’ll always be super thankful for the chance Wieden gave me, especially because they never asked me to be anyone else other than myself.
Even when it annoyed the fuck out of them.
To have done 7 years in the best agency in the World, in one of the most amazing countries in the World with some of the best clients in the World is an incredible honour.
To have earned their trust enough that they asked a planner – a bloody planner! – to start and run their creative talent incubator, The Kennedys, is extra special.
But to have them say you’ve done a good job and you should go and explore but never rule out coming back, shows how special – and mental – they are.
And they are. Very, very special.
And mental.
So what next?
Well, I’ll announce that soon however what I will tell you is I’m swapping one country with an evil government regime for another.
That’s right, I’m moving to America.
To LA to be precise.
I swear this is not purely because I can get away with wearing Birkenstocks the whole time.
But it helped make our decision.
I’ll reveal all soon, but I’m very excited about this next chapter in life.
It will hopefully challenge and teach me a bunch of new things while offering my family the sort of environment they absolutely deserve to enjoy – and I’m incredibly grateful I have the chance to do this, especially at this point in my life.
But it’s even more than that.
You see my parents always said they wanted me to live a life of fulfilment rather than contentment and if they knew their only son was going to have experienced life in America, Europe and Asia, they would be super-proud.
As I get older, I realise what is becoming more important for me is less about how high up the career ladder I go [though, as Harrison Ford said, I won’t undervalue all the work it has taken to get me to my current position] and more about how varied my life experiences are.
This move is another step to fulfilling that … or it will be when it happens. Until then, you’ll have to put up with business as usual, which basically means more ranty rubbish blog posts.
Onwards …
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* For the record, given many of you think I’ve done nothing over the past 7 years except go on holiday, you’ll be ecstatic to know I’ll be leaving Wieden just before I was going to be having my 6 week paid sabbatical. I guess you could call it ‘holiday karma’.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, China, Comment, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Deutsch, Differentiation, Food For Thought, Goodbye China, Hello America, Insight, Internet, Interviews, Marketing Fail, Martin Weigel, My Fatherhood, Otis, Paul, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, Pretentious Rubbish, Relevance, Resonance, Social Media, Standards, The Kennedys, The Kennedys Shanghai, Unexpected Relevance, Unplanned, Unprofessional Professional, Wieden+Kennedy
How is your 2018 going so far?
I know it’s still early days – but is it looking good or bad?
Well, if it’s looking positive, I’m about to ruin it for you and if it is looking dodgy, I’m going to help you solidify your opinion.
Why?
Well, a few weeks ago, a nice guy called Paul McEnany asked if he could interview me about my career.
While I’m sure his reasoning for his request was to help planners learn what not to do, my ego said yes even before my mouth did … and while the end result is the bastard love child of rambling randomness and base-level swearing, it’s the perfect way to justify your pessimism for 2018 or to ensure your optimism for the new year doesn’t get too high.
So go here and errrrrm, enjoy [if that’s the right word for it, which it isn’t] and after you’ve heard my crap, listen to the brilliant interviews with people like Gareth Kay, Russell Davies, Richard Huntingdon, Martin Weigel and the amazing Chris Riley because apart from being hugely interesting and inspiring, you’ll get the added bonus of [1] undeniable proof I’m a massive imposter and [2] the knowledge that if I can have some sort of semi-successful career in advertising, you certainly can.
You’re welcome.