Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Age, America, Art, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Context, Culture, Design, Friendship, Gifts, Jewellery, Music, Rosie, Swiftie
How the fuck is it October?
OCTOBER?
It was only February 2 weeks ago, wasn’t it?
How the hell are we going to be in 2025 in less than 3 months?
On the bright side, it does mean I go on my family holiday in less than 3 months – but October, already? Crazy.
What else is crazy is this ..
Someone sent me this.
I don’t know who it was, but I got it.
And the fact they sent it to my house, means they know me well enough to know my address.
But what messes with my head is that while the message in on point, the bracelet design and size is one that would be better placed on the wrist of a 13 year old Taylor Swift fan.
Was this deliberate?
Was this a mistake?
Did they know that regardless of its ridiculousness, I’d still wear it.
Is it a diss or a reward?
I am so confused – especially as my friends have form doing shit like this. Like the time they discovered my iTunes password and bought every Taylor Swift album – with MY CREDIT CARD – which I only discovered when all her songs started appearing on my iPod. The clever, evil bastards. [But not as clever or evil as this]
But as confused as I am, even that isn’t as confused as the people who see me now wearing it with pride … especially as it sits under a tattoo I’ve had done of my beloved Rosie, so it kinda looks like a fucked up cat-collar.
So to whoever got it for me – whether for love or for taking the piss – I love it, I thank you for it and I just wonder if it will last the few months until we hit 2025.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Content, Context, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Imagination, Planners, Planning, Play, Point Of View, Ridiculous, Stories
For all the talk of planners having curiosity, we rarely talk about imagination.
Of course, Martin, Paula and I talked about this back in 2023 at Cannes with our Strategy Is Constipated, Imagination Is The Laxative talk, but the reality is imagination is more than just a topic for consideration, it’s a muscle that needs exercising every day and needs rigor to enable it to reveal where its capable of going.
The good news is it’s easy to do if you put your mind to it, which is why one of the things I tell junior planners to do is to always look for the unintended stories that surround us.
It might be in a cafe.
It might be at a bus stop.
It might be a coffee cup on the street.
But the point is, look for things that allow you to imagine the stories or situations that led to what you see in front of your face.
Now I should point out that I may have stolen this from the great Russell Davies … but even now I still do it because when it comes to writing briefs, it helps me imagine where it could go before logic tries to dictate where I have to take it.
Recently I was out for a walk when I saw this …
On one hand, they’re just 2 kids shoes on a pavement.
Maybe lost as their parent pushed them along in their pram.
But there’s a whole lot of other stories that could be made from them.
Full of light or full of darkness.
For me, the first place they took me to was dark.
There was something about their placement and context that felt so unnatural that it suggests something bad has happened.
The shoes are too far apart, yet facing each other rather than pointing in the same direction.
They’re on a suburban street. On a Tuesday lunchtime. Yet no one is around and all is quiet.
Then there’s the fact both shoes are missing. One makes more sense … but both?
It all felt like the opening scene of a British Police drama.
Now of course there’s an alternative storyline … one filled with joy and effervescence.
A celebration of a kid being allowed to truly be a kid.
But wherever I could take it, it is much more than simply 2 shoes on the street and yet so often, we spend our time looking at briefs through the lens of the research, the focus groups, the competition. Stuff that confines our imagination to exist – at best – in a small corner.
Which is why if you want to grow your skills, stop blindly following the [financially self-serving and ego fulfilling] rules of Ritson, Cole and co and put more energy and effort into noticing and exploring what is around you. Because while the ‘lessons for profit’ crew will tell you what you should do [and just for the record, I do appreciate their experience and perspective, especially in terms of learning important rules in the fundamentals of marketing strategy] … it’s the street that will help reveal where you could go.
Filed under: Comment
… then sit back, read this and try not to piss yourself laughing.
It’s also a good reminder that the best stories are out there.
Waiting to be discovered.
All you have to do is put a little effort into it … something that your frameworks, ecosystems and optimisation processes can never come close to delivering.
See, suddenly Monday ain’t so bad.
You’re welcome.
Filed under: Comment
Being the head of a department is an interesting job.
Part coach.
Part councillor.
Part cat-litter tray.
Part umpire/judge/hitman/shoulder-to-cry-on.
But of all the things the job entails, I’ve always believed the main objective of any ‘head of department’ is their job is to help ensure when their people leave – which they always will do – they’re going to a better job/position than they imagined they’d ever get.
Not just because it’s available, but because the company in question specifically wanted them.
I should point out this is not because you should – or want – to take any credit for their achievements, but because your job is literally to help them elevate the talent they already have inside of them.
And generally, that’s worked out to be the case and I bloody love that fact.
Except at Colenso. Because frankly, so few of the team have left.
God, that’s just tempted fate hasn’t it? Damnit.
And while we’ve added considerably to the team, the vast majority are the same lunatics that were there when I walked into the place 3+ years ago.
Which probably helps explain how the ‘unique’ character and identity of the mob has evolved and developed.
But today, we see the 3rd person leave us – someone special to the team and to Colenso as a whole – the one and only, Amy Pollok.
Amy has been at Colenso for a long time.
And in that time she has gone from junior account person to planning director … winning everything from Grand Effie’s to Cannes Grand Prix’s for her work for Skinny, to name but one.
But as brilliant as that is, she has also gracefully dealt with getting over a pretty serious bike accident, becoming a fantastic Mum and dealing with the mischievous bullshit of her colleagues and pals.
While the gang at Colenso is blessed with smart, talented, creative characters – Amy is definitely one of its pillars.
Intelligent. Considerate. Never short of an opinion or a challenge. Just how I like people.
But the time has come for her to go on an adventure …
See what she is capable of being and becoming.
And while that’s bitter sweet, we’re all very excited for her … no one more than me.
So I want to use this post to say thank you.
Thank you for who you are.
Thank you for all you’ve done.
Thank you for your incredible Effie paper writing skills.
Thank you for your support, commitment and friendship to colleagues, clients and Colenso.
Thank you for forgetting to delete the slightly dodgy photo of you on Google so I could use it for this post given you managed to avoid all my instagram terrorism attempts for 3 years.
Thank you for putting up with me … especially when I made your salary end in weird, odd numbers to test a theory [which was correct, even though it pissed the finance team off]
In all seriousness, your new colleagues and clients at FCB are very lucky to have you and while you are technically now ‘a competitor’, you’re always going to be our respected and revered friend, as demonstrated by the fact we’ve got you literally the most thoughtful and personal leaving gift I’ve ever seen in 30 odd years of working in this industry.
And I’m not even being sarcastic. Who the fuck am I?
So go be brilliant Amy and have a shitload of fun.
See who you are and more importantly, who you can be.
You deserve it all.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Apple, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Communication Strategy, Complicity, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Culture, Design, Differentiation, Innovation, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Packaging, Perspective, Positioning, Pride, Purpose, Reputation, Respect, Steve Jobs, Technology, Values
I’ve written a lot about the bullshit of brand purpose.
Or should I say the hijacking of purpose by marketing departments and agencies.
Far too often, we see companies where their ‘purpose’ has no day-to-day impact on the operations or decisions they make beyond pushing their marketing messages and promotions. For these orgs, purpose is positioned simply as ‘something we hope might change’ rather than actively doing stuff that actively pushes it.
As they say in the UK, “the truth of the pudding is in the eating”, and a lot of corporate brand purpose tastes like bullshit.
That doesn’t mean the concept of purpose is entirely wrong.
Oh no.
However the reality is true brand purpose is born rather than manufactured – especially by a marketing department – so for every Patagonia, there’s a Unilever … which is why I find the easiest way to see who is talking truth versus shite is simply by exploring how much inconvenience they’ll accept and embrace.
Recently I saw an interesting example of a brand who not just embraced inconvenience, but demanded it.
An example which I imagine caused all manner of friction and tension throughout the company.
And yet, when you think about who the company were and – more importantly – who they wanted to become, you see it as absolute commitment to their beliefs and ambitions.
Take a look at this …
Now I appreciate some would read that and only see the problems … the costs … the disruptions … the impact on productivity … the C-Suite ‘bullying’. But they’re probably the same people who think purpose is about ‘wrapping paper’ rather than beliefs and actions … which is why I kinda-love this.
I love how much they were pushing it and how they pushed it.
It was important to them.
Not for virtue signaling, not for corporate complicity – though I accept there’s a bit of that – but mainly because a company can’t talk about technology, creativity and the future while asking your very own colleagues to embrace the cheap, the convenient and the conformist.
Just to be clear, this is VERY different to companies who mandate processes.
That’s about control and adherence.
A desire to keep things as they are rather than what they could be.
And to me, that’s the difference between those who ‘talk’ purpose and those whose actions are a byproduct of it.
Every day in every way.
Because as the old trope goes, it’s only a principal if it costs you something and the reality is – like strategy – too many talk a good game but will flip the moment they think they could make/save a bit more cash.
Apple may have a lot of problems, but fundamentally, they mean what they say and show it in their actions – both in the spotlight, but also in the shadows … where very few people will ever see – as exemplified by Jobs famous ‘paint behind the fence‘ quote.