Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Relationships, Respect, Trust, Truth
Recently there has been a number of cases where we’ve sadly seen companies take creative ideas from one agency and have them made, without acknowledging the original creator, by someone else.
We saw it with the Coinbase Superbowl spot and I saw it with an ex-client of mine.
What is especially amusing is that when these people are called out, their first inclination is to try and bluff it out … despite you being able to prove it was your work thanks to specific dates, presentation materials and information about who was in attendance.
In my case, the individual in question literally asked “what’s your problem?”
With a comment like that, they were either being deliberately ignorant or, well you get it …
So we launched legal action against them.
At the time, some said this was sour grapes.
That we were being petty and alienating future business as it would make companies want to keep away from us.
But they were wrong.
Because this was never about the specific piece of work they took from us had gave to someone else – while not paying or acknowledge us for the origination, it was about respecting relationships and valuing what you do.
It’s fine to have differences of opinion.
It’s fine to realise a relationship – regardless how long and fruitful it has been – should end.
But that doesn’t mean you can act like the relationship never happened and you can do whatever you want with the things you did together.
Creativity is hard enough without all the commercial obstacles it needs us to jump over.
Brand assets.
Processes.
Eco-systems.
Appropriation.
Corporate politics.
Pre-testing.
Post-testing.
Measurement criteria.
Short timelines.
The last thing the industry needs is to have to start worrying about the integrity of the people you’re working with/for … which is why we took legal action, because our view was if we didn’t, we would be complicit to it when it happens again in the future.
Maybe not to us. But to someone.
And for the record, while they didn’t let it go to court, we were recompensed fully and it never did us any harm in winning other business. Quite the opposite in fact.
Now doing this doesn’t mean you have to it with public fanfare and maximum embarrassment, we didn’t – though I should point out I think what Kristen did with CoinBase was both brilliant and utterly justified – but it also doesn’t mean you should just forget about it and put it down to ‘experience’.
Whatever way you look at it, this is NOT how business works and nor should it.
Look, we all make mistakes.
Some can be bloody massive ones.
Hell, I’ve made bloody millions.
But how you deal with those reveals who you really are and sadly, the industry is seeing quite a few people who don’t seem to believe this sort of behaviour is in any way wrong.
Sure this attitude might work for them in the short term.
Sure they can try and deflect and deny blame for as long as they like.
But while I was going to end this post about the more transparent the relationship, the better the work … I decided it would be better to end with two [paraphrased] pieces of advice I got from Dave Luhr, the now retired Chief Operating officer of Wieden+Kennedy.
For those people who know who I’m talking about, you will hopefully hear his voice as you read it … though in conversations with me, he would always start with “Campbell …”
“Anyone who thinks they were successful by themselves is an asshole”.
“No one does their best work for assholes”.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Brand Suicide, Comment, Communication Strategy, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Creativity, Culture, Egovertising, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, New Zealand
Love it or loathe it, but Wordle has captured the world’s attention. Whether it will continue to do that now the NYTimes has bought it, is anyones guess, but right now, it’s peak popularity.
Hell, even I love it and I HATE word games.
Crosswords? Hate.
Scrabble? Hate.
And yet whether it’s the last thing I do before I go to sleep or the first thing I do when I wake up, I’m playing the days challenge. And I’m brilliant at it. Hahaha.
Anyway, I was on Twitter when I recently saw this from Air New Zealand.
Look, I get it’s a competitive world.
I get brands are looking for anything that can help them stand out.
And I get ‘hijacking culture’ is a cheat way of doing this.
But there’s 2 reasons why this approach is tragic rather than magic.
First is it’s Air New Zealand.
Of all the airline brands out there, they are a pioneer. An innovator. A leader.
They’ve created, influenced and changed the airline industry in ways few have come close.
From being the first to make ‘in-flight safety videos’, entertainment to creating economy seats that turn into beds.
Ripping off Wordle doesn’t represent any of this.
If anything, it does the opposite.
But then, when I see the work they are putting out these days, maybe it all makes sense.
When a nation that prides itself as explorers and adventures has their National Airline promote their role in a post-covid world as being ‘we fly for you’ … you have to question if they realise what they’ve done or if they made a conscious effort to ditch the approach that made them great and forward thinking in favour of the sort of bland, contrived, unrealistic and meaningless twaddle of big corporation 90’s advertising.
Like this.
From 1991.
God I hope not. They are better than that and NZ needs them to be better than that.
Which leads to the other reason.
Hijacking culture.
What’s interesting is that so many brands do it.
As I said, I get why … but 99% of them have failed to understand how it really works and so we now live in a world where the approach is so common, it doesn’t surprise anyone.
If anything, it un-hijacks culture.
So how does it really work?
Well having worked with the brand and agency that arguably created the approach – or at least mastered it – the secret is to do something that adds to culture, not just steals from it.
Which means having an actual right to be there.
Then do something that opens things up, not just repeat what’s already happened.
Adding a point of view to the situation not just adding more noise and clutter to it.
Of course, even with all that, it still doesn’t mean it will work … but its definitely going to be better than the desperate amateur hour that so many brands favour.
Who think it makes them look cool but forgetting if you’re trying to be that, you’re definitely not ever going to be that.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Creativity, Effectiveness, Insight, Planners, Planning
I posted this on LinkedIn a while back, but I thought I’d post here too. Not because I couldn’t be bothered to write an original post [when have I ever done that?] but because I think it is actually valuable for anyone working in addend.
If you work in an ad agency – especially in the planning or strategy department – you’re going to have a time in the year, where you’re writing award submissions.
Effies.
Warc.
You name it, you’ll be writing it.
And while I often judge these awards, the purpose of this post is not so I have an easier time reading the countless submissions … it’s so you can see how to make your case more persuasive.
The basic rule is this.
When you’ve written your paper and think you’ve got it “just right” …
I want you to read this article and then start again.
Yes, it is a food review.
Yes, it’s from the Birmingham Mail newspaper.
And yes, it’s from someone who describes herself as ‘common as muck’.
But when you read it, you’ll learn what wonderful writing, proper insight, real appreciation of the role of creativity and actual honesty looks like.
It’s a magnificent article.
One filled with appreciation and wonder when it could so easily have been a judgemental hatchet job.
I was so taken by it, I even wrote to the journalist offering to pay for their meal … and I don’t even do that for my team.
[For the record, she replied and said she couldn’t accept it. So I asked for her charity of choice and made a donation under her name instead. It was this one if anyone else feels inclined]
So if a food review in the Birmingham Mail newspaper can do it, you can do it too.
I’ll be watching.
And judging.
Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand, Brand Suicide, Comment, Confidence, Content, Context, Creativity, Culture, Insight, Loyalty, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Relevance, Resonance
A few weeks ago someone sent me this picture …
Yes, it’s funny, but it’s also right.
At least to a certain audience group.
Which seems to be a thing we’re increasingly forgetting.
Quite a lot of the time, it feels like we experience some sort of group deliberate ignorance. Preferring to suggest ideas will appeal to everyone because we live in a world where the slightest whiff of ‘niche’ is immediately dismissed by clients.
It’s why we have target audiences that are 25-54.
It’s why we have ads that are about people rather than for people.
It’s why we pretend entire generations THINK AND ACT EXACTLY THE SAME.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic. Especially when think about the huge amounts of money being spent on research to ‘know our audience better’.
Great brands sacrifice.
They want to mean everything to someone rather than be something for everyone.
Which is why they know who they are. Know who they matter to. And know what to focus on.
That doesn’t mean they are limiting their success … they’re growing it.
Valuing who they are as much as what they earn and building scale from leading change rather than blindly chasing popularity.
It’s the foundation of why they charge more, sell more and are desired more. Especially compared to the product amoebas who spend their millions communicating to anyone about absolutely nothing..
So while people in our industry may smugly question the intelligence of the people who wrote that sign on the back of the ute … if we were to invite them to look at what our industry says and does, I’m pretty sure they’d think we’re the bigger joke.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Communication Strategy, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Education, Insight, Internet, Northern, Planners, Planning, Point Of View
Ad blogging was once a rich, vibrant community.
It was amazing how much people looked out for each other.
A lot was driven by Russell Davies … but the effect of it was something pretty special.
I met a lot of people because of that community … some, still even come on here.
Occasionally.
But when you compare it to the toxic, ego-filled bullshit of ad twitter … I can’t help but feel the blogging community was a much more valuable and positive resource for adland.
Especially if you were a junior.
While there are many positives of social media, learning the strategy discipline through 280 letter tweets is not really going to drive the craft forward.
Nowadays there seems to be only 2 people still blogging.
Martin and me.
Or said another way …
Nowadays, only Martin writes a blog that has real value and depth for the industry and discipline.
One of the people I am saddest at having stopped blogging is Andrew Hovells. Better known as Northern Planner.
I’ve written about him a lot in the past.
From how much I respect him to how much I liked trolling him by sending him to see Queen in concert, when he absolutely hates the band.
But I revisited his blog recently and there’s just so, so much amazing stuff on there.
Stuff for people curious about planning.
Stuff for people just starting planning.
Stuff for people having a career in planning.
Stuff for people leading work and teams in planning.
Stuff for every level and need in planning.
And while there are many other resources for this sort information on the internet, Northern Planner’s is especially good for 3 reasons:
1. It comes from someone who could have worked at pretty much any of the best agencies in London, but didn’t and instead chose to stay ‘oop North’ and bring the planning discipline to a part of England that [i] didn’t have it and [ii] needed a lot of convincing to see it’s value. Not only did he achieve that – and validate the discipline for more people in the region to become a part of it – his work gave the supposed London ‘superstars’ a run for their money.
[He also turned down coming to cynic, which still devastates me, because he would have made such a difference to us. But it also shows how smart he is. Unfortunately]
2. He doesn’t give you a process to follow, he gives you a way to look at the discipline and the roles within it. Meaning you’re developing your own planning style and voice … not regurgitating someone else’s.
3. All of it is free. Every last bit of it.
Given the amount of amateurs ‘flogging’ their questionable, superficial and inauthentic courses that don’t have the right to even be in the same universe – let alone industry – as Andrew’s generous, considered and carefully explained lessons and insights … I know who I recommend people spend their time learning from.
I really miss Northern and his blog.
But the planning community should be missing it even more.