Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, China, Chinese Culture, Comment, Context, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Insight, Nike, Otis, Point Of View, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
Many years ago, we were working on a NIKE project about inspiration for China.
China and sport had a weird relationship because it was either seen as a distraction to academic success or a ruthless and relentless act to achieve a pre-determined goal.
I still remember spending hours looking for any photo where we saw a parent or a teacher or a coach encouraging a kid doing a sport … but it was hard. Not because adults didn’t care about the kids in their charge, but because there was this attitude that encouragement encouraged laziness.
Tough love indeed.
But when we talked to kids who loved sport for no other reason than loving sport, the thing we found fascinating was how one of their great inspirations was a wall … or a court … or a park somewhere near where they lived.
This would be where they could kick, throw, hit, head or play against hour after hour … day after day.
This was where they could play without judgement or expectation … but with plenty of competition.
Because walls don’t get tired.
They don’t show sympathy.
They’re always ready to play.
We all have a wall.
They may look like others.
But there is one that is yours and yours alone.
For me, it was the wall of a Church opposite Erika’s sweet shop at the Top Shop.
It was up the road from my childhood home.
I would go up there every night over summer.
Sometimes by myself. Sometimes with friends.
And that would be the arena and the competition for all manner of games.
From playing footie with empty cans … playing cricket by throwing tennis balls as hard against the wall as we can to just practicing our skills of tennis or keepie-uppie. And then on a Friday evening – after school – a bunch of the kids from where I lived would gather by the field next to the church and play a massive game that drew all the girls from school to watch us.
That wall was a major part of my childhood. Of my love of sport. It helped me connect to where I lived, to the people who lived there and just what I wanted to do.
Sport was deeply entrenched in the place I grew up.
Not in terms of a formal team – though we had that and we also had Nottingham Forest doing well at the time – I mean as an outlet for kids to do shit.
Now I’m not sure if that is still the case.
We live in gentrified times.
Where noise is challenged with authority.
Where parks are placed on the outskirts of towns, not the centre,
Where sport is becoming more about the quest for fame rather than enjoyment.
It’s one of the biggest thrills of living in New Zealand.
It’s still an outdoor culture.
Otis has done more running around and visited more parks here than he ever did in the UK. Which has helped him meet more friends than he could ever have hoped to in his time here.
Given the year he had in lockdown, the impact on him has been huge.
And that’s why we should encourage sport to be played as much on the streets as in the parks and schools. Because sport adds to communities in ways that makes communities.
Let the wall be culture’s best inspiration and competitor.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Apple, Attitude & Aptitude, Australia, Authenticity, Charinee, China, Chinese Culture, Colenso, Comment, Confidence, Context, Creativity, Culture, Distinction, Diversity, Education, Emotion, Equality, HHCL, Insight, Management, Marketing, Perspective, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Respect, Shanghai, Uncommon, Uncorporated, WeigelCampbell, Wieden+Kennedy
A career is a funny thing.
I mean literally, as a concept – it’s quite bizarre.
The idea of working in one industry and hoping to move up a fictional ladder and somehow hope that by the time you’re pushed off it – and we’ll all be pushed off it at some time – you’ve built up enough reputation or cash to keep you going through till the bitter end.
Hahahaha … Mr Positive eh!?
Anyway, by hook or by crook I’ve somehow managed to have what I’d call a career.
Admittedly, I fell into it – but overall, I’ve had a pretty good one.
I’ve worked at some amazing places.
I’ve got to live literally all around the World.
I’ve met people who have literally changed my life.
I’ve been part of work that still excites me years later.
And somehow, I’m still doing all those things, which is insane.
But as wonderful as all that is, one thing I am particularly proud of is how many of my old team mates are now at some of the most highly regarded creative companies in the World doing all manner of interesting things.
Of course, I had little to do with it – it’s all their talent – but the bit that makes me proud is that they are forging their own careers based on their own ideas and their own opinions and their own voice.
About 2005, I realised how lucky I had been with previous bosses.
All of them encouraged me to find my own voice rather than duplicate someone else’s … and while that often got me in trouble, they never strayed from their path of encouraging independent thought.
Now I appreciate a lot of companies say this, but this wasn’t some PR bullshit they could spout in a magazine, they lived it – openly and actively welcoming, encouraging and igniting debate.
And they never ‘pulled rank’.
It was always a discussion of equals – which was one of the most empowering and liberating professional feelings I ever had.
It showed trust. It showed respect. It showed value.
And even though I’m an old fuck who has done OK in my career, I still get that same feeling when I am working with others who embrace the same value.
As much as rockstars and billionaires may have a reputation for demanding diva’s, I can honestly say the ones I’ve been working with have been amazing in welcoming opinion. They may not always like what is said, but they always value why it has.
And that’s why, when I saw a shift in planning from rigour to replication … challenge to complicity … and individuality to impotency [driven by the global financial crisis of 2008] I realised the best thing I could do is encourage my team to be independent in thought, voice and behaviour.
I should point out this was not selfless. By having great creative and cultural thinkers in my team, they would help make even better work and that would have a positive effect on me too.
I know, what a prick eh.
And of course, I acknowledge not every planner was following the replication path. Nor was every agency. But it was definitely happening and arguably, this is why Australian planners have risen in position more than those from other nations [ie: Tobey head of planning at Uncommon, Paula global head of Nike planning at Wieden, Andy head of planning at Wieden Portland, Rodi, head of strategy at Apple South East Asia and Aisea MD at Anomaly LA to name but 5] because – as much as the Aussie government may like to say they suffered – the country was largely unaffected, which meant training continued, standards continued, creativity continued.
So while there was a bunch of other values we continually encouraged and practiced, the desire to develop independent thinking, openness and debate were a real focus of mine and have continued to be.
Whether I was successful is up to the people who had the awkwardness of dealing with me, but I distinctly remembering being in a meeting at Wieden in Shanghai after Sue, Leon and Charinee had just challenged a bunch of things we had just talked to the agency about.
One of the global team was there and said, “they’re very outspoken”.
And while normally that could be read as a diss, it wasn’t … it was more of a surprise because many people in China – especially the young – tend to keep very quiet, especially in front of people who are at a more senior level to them and this mob had gone to town.
To which I replied, “I know. It’s a wonderful headache to have”.
And it was.
And it is.
Which is why I will continue to believe the best thing any head of planning can do is encourage independent thought and respect for debate and rigour … because while it can creates moments where it’s a right pain in the arse, the alternative is far more disagreeable.
Have a great weekend.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Apathy, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Colenso, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Differentiation, Distinction, Emotion, Empathy, Innovation, Insight, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Metallica, New Zealand, Point Of View, Positioning, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Respect, Uncommon, Wieden+Kennedy
I was talking to a couple of mates recently.
Both of them are a couple of incredibly talented, highly regarded, multi-award winning creatives and they were asking me what it was like working in NZ.
As we were chatting we came to a revelation about what was causing the decline in advertising standards.
This is a topic that has been debated a lot over the years with a myriad of possible causes. But with the experience I have seen in NZ – plus the experience I have working directly with a number of famous bands and billionaires – we realised there was actually an underlying cause that trumped all other considerations.
It’s not digital.
It’s not consultants.
It’s not holding companies.
It’s not eco-systems or playbooks.
It’s not the wild inflation of strategists.
It’s not cost.
It’s not effectiveness.
It’s not in-house alternatives.
It’s not direct-to-consumers.
It’s not data.
It’s not rational messaging.
It’s the layers within companies.
The multitude of people everything has to go through and be approved by.
Might be on the client side.
Might be on the agency side.
Might be on both sides … but each layer is like a mini-focus group where ‘success’ is when the representative of that particular layer feels something can then be passed on to the next person in their group without it making them look foolish for their decision or choice.
And as the work passes each layer, the work gets diluted or chipped away until the ultimate decision maker gets to see something that is a pale shadow of what was originally intended.
An object that is a trophy to self preservation rather than potency and truth.
And as companies and agencies have grown in their complexity, the work has faced more layers and opinions. Doesn’t matter if you’re independent or part of the most networked agency/company in the history of networked agency/companies … the decline of creative standards is down to the number of organisational layers that now exists within companies.
And why has this happened?
Well, part of it is because of complexity, but the main part is because companies have got into this mad position where the only way they can grant a significant payrise is if the person is promoted.
So we’re in this mad situation where we have increased layers, headcount and complexity simply because we have viewed money as something commensurate with promotion rather than quality.
Now I appreciate you could argue promotion is a sign of quality – but I don’t think that’s right.
Being good at something doesn’t automatically mean you will be good at something more senior. Hell, there’s a lot of people who don’t even want to do something else. They just want to do what they love and they’re happy at.
I remember at Wieden where – for one mad minute – they thought I’d make a good MD.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
They didn’t come to their senses even when I told them I wasn’t even the MD of cynic … and that was a company I actually founded.
I didn’t want to be an MD.
I wasn’t interested in being an MD.
I just wanted to do what I loved and was good at.
And while they finally came to their senses [good call, Luhr, as usual] the reality is a lot of companies have a bunch of layers simply because they needed to promote someone to justify a payrise.
And before you know it, every task has to go through multitudes of layers … where most are designed to dull an idea rather than sharpen it.
While I don’t know this for a fact, I would guess the companies or agencies who are doing the most interesting work … the stuff that attracts culture rather than chases them down then beats them into submission … are the ones where they deal with the ultimate decision maker.
We get to do a lot of that in NZ.
I definitely get to do that with Metallica, Gentle Monster and the GTA team.
And the difference is huge.
Because while some of these clients are genuinely exceptional – especially when I’m talking to the founders of the organisations because that gives them a level of power and authority most other clients could never hope to get – I imagine a lot of the others are no different to the clients everyone who reads this blog deals with in London or New York or Tokyo everyday.
It’s just the big difference is instead of work having to appease the comments and judgement of 20 different people, it only has to agree with 4 … so the idea that gets made resembles the idea on the table to a much greater extent.
So next time you have a client that talks about wanting great work, don’t talk to them in terms of what processes, systems or people you can add to the mix, talk about what both parties need to take away.
Because if you want the work to be potent, kill the layers of filtration.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Confidence, Context, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Equality, Experience, Love, Mum, Mum & Dad, Relevance, Resonance
Contrary to the quote of Oscar Wilde above, I don’t think the young think they know everything.
Sure there’s some … but the vast majority seem to simply be curious to explore and learn. It’s why I have far more faith in the future of the planet in their hands than my peers.
In fact, I meet far more older people – normally white men – who have the attitude of being the font of all knowledge.
In fact, they all fall into one of 3 distinct groups …
Those who think they know everything.
Those who know they don’t know everything,
And those who do know everything.
Given the last group consists of one person – Mr Martin Weigel – that means the vast majority fall into one of the first 2 camps.
The scary thing is that there seems to be far more who think they know everything versus those who are open to keep learning. I do sort-of understand. A life lived is a life experienced. Except it isn’t … plus life is constantly moving and evolving so to come in with some condescending, self-important. “I know it all” attitude is literally the worst thing you could do.
And yet so many still do it.
The funny thing is, because they come in with an attitude of forcefulness, they rarely have people speak up against them so they go off thinking they’re right while everyone around them whispers how stupid they are.
My Mum – as usual – had it right.
She was always open to the new.
It didn’t mean she liked it.
It didn’t mean she understood it.
But she felt if it mattered to them, it should matter to her.
And that’s why she went out of her way to watch, listen and learn.
What’s even more wonderful is that people who saw her being interested in them were then interested in her.
She loved the idea that she could mess with the expectations people had of an elderly Italian woman.
Not so she could pretend she was young, but so she could feel she still was an active member of society. Someone who still had something to offer, even if that was to stop older people blindly discounting what was emerging in culture.
God I miss her.
Which is why her, “be interested in what others are interested in” should be something we all follow. Young, old, rich, poor … because the more we understand, the more we can actually create change rather than conflict.
Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Communication Strategy, Context, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Differentiation, Distinction, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Perspective, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Professionalism, Relevance, Resonance
No matter how well planned you think you are.
How detailed you’ve been.
How many case studies you’ve watched.
How many focus groups you’ve sat in.
How logical your argument is.
People will always do what works for them, not works for you.
So think about that next time you try and claim your comms plan/user journey is a true reflection of how all people engage with brands and make purchase decisions.
For the record …
I get the role and value of comms plans/user journeys.
I have no issue with them. In fact they can make a real difference to the work.
Where I get pissy is when they’re presented as ‘fact’ rather than a guide. Acting like they represent how ALL people behave – while ignoring factors like personal situation and circumstance as well as competitive activity.
Of course this attitude of ‘unquestionable, unbendable, superior intelligence and logic’ is prevalent in many planners … probably driven more by clients wanting certainty and consistency than personal ego … however by refusing to acknowledge we’re dealing more in frameworks than blueprints, we’re not just undermining our discipline and inadvertently placing barriers on new approaches and experiments, but ultimately selling generalised convenience rather than personal intimacy which means it’s set up to be average from the outset.
Madness.
As I said to a client recently about insights …
They’re not perfect.
They’re not infallible.
They’re not all encompassing.
But when done right, they increase the odds of good things happening because they reveal the ridiculous truth behind people’s beliefs and behaviours … and I swear if we all adopted this attitude towards what we do, we may just end up making things that are more interesting and more effective as well.
We won’t. But I just like to think we might.