Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Empathy, Experience, Relationships, Relevance, Reputation
Recently I got an email from a headhunter. It said this:
I am XXX and I work as a Recruitment Partner for XXX. I hope you don’t mind the outreach.
I found your profile on LinkedIn and it looks like you’ve had some great experience in your career which is what compelled me to email you. I’m currently looking for a person with similar experience and skills as yours to fill in a fortune 500 company in NZ.
If you are interested in the opportunity please forward me your updated CV. If you’d like to know further details about the position kindly send me your contact number and I’d be happy to make a call at a time convenient for you.
Vague, non-descriptive, asking for my resume despite saying that the experience listed on Linkedin had ‘compelled’ them to write to me.
Now while I’ve blanked out their name and the company they work for, the fact is the email they wrote to me, did not match the email of the company he said he was from.
So even if this is real, it’s hardly a good way to show I should put my faith in them.
And I shouldn’t, because frankly – a vast amount of headhunters are simple sales people hiding behind a job title.
They don’t give a fuck about you.
To them, you’re just a commodity they can make some money off.
It’s a numbers game, where as long as you have some key words in your resume or social media profile, then you ‘qualify’.
And what’s worse is these people tend to focus on the individuals who either know no better or are in a situation where they are in desperate need. Knowing all they have to do is make you consider leaving and they’ve got you in their clutches to mess with.
Now don’t get me wrong, there’s some brilliant headhunters out there … informed, interested, connected and with genuine knowledge of the industry you’re in and a true desire to find a mutual fit, where everyone benefits.
But they tend to deal with more senior people, and while I totally understand why, it still leaves this gap at the lower end of the market where people are on their own.
Of course there are some recruiters out there who do care about that level.
I was incredibly fortunate with Lesley Cheng in Australia, who took me under her wing even though I was worth sod-all to her.
She even rang some ECD’s and HOP she knew at home, telling them they should meet me … and they did, because they trusted her, despite the fact I didn’t even qualify to be called a junior.
Which got me thinking – and I have no idea if anyone would even be interested in something like this – but I’d love to set up an ‘advice night’.
Where some senior advertising people and some really good headhunters come together and once-a-month, someone is chosen where they come and get advice or answers to the questions/challenges they’re facing.
Of course these people would have to be quite young to the industry because anyone they’re the one’s often left to their own devices … but also eager to learn and grow or be seen and heard.
I have no idea how this would physically happen.
I have no idea if anyone would want this to happen.
And I have no idea if anyone would like to help me make it happen.
Plus I appreciate it sounds a bit like a creative portfolio night … except this would be for people beyond just the creative department. But if you think it’s a good idea, let me know and I’ll see what I can do … because quite frankly, the way a lot of the recruitment industry works, at least in advertising, isn’t helping people – or companies – it’s designed to just help fill the bank account of the recruiter.
I daren’t imagine how many people and businesses who have been burned or had their potential shafted because they fell foul to trusting someone who said they could help but all they did was send standard, random emails out to all and sundry until someone bit.
So if you think it could work – or you’re up for getting involved – let me know here. Ta.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Cannes, China, Comment, Complicity, Context, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Differentiation, Distinction, Effectiveness, Honesty, Imagination, Marketing, Martin Weigel, Metallica, Nike, Paula, Planners, Point Of View, Provocative, Succession, Uncorporated, Wieden+Kennedy
When Tiger and Nike recently ended their relationship after close on 3 decades, there was a lot written about why.
Hot takes.
Wild ideas.
Conspiracy theories.
But among them all was a post by Tom Bassett – a brilliant ex-Wieden strategist who was there when so much of what became Nike folklore was written.
The reason his voice stood out is because it wasn’t WHY the relationship ended, but why it started.
At the heart of his story was the brief Phil Knight gave for NIKE Golf.
He said: “Get NIKE to be #1 in golf or we get out the category all together”.
Having had the errrrm, pleasure(?) to meet and present to Mr Knight a few times, I can literally hear him saying/barking this … and what I love about it is the stubborn, blinkered ambition.
We seem to live in a world where the majority of conversation is around optimization … efficiency … brand assets … and basically how to get the most out of what you’ve got.
There’s nothing wrong with that, except it’s all about not being wrong than being as good as you can be.
Or said another way, being comfortable with what you’ve got as opposed to being impatient for what you want to have.
Get to #1 is a proper goal. One where the evaluation criteria is very fucking simple.
No hiding behind incremental growth or internal metrics … #1 is a criteria that dictates decisions and investment rather than the other way around.
Sure, there are ways #1 could be reframed in an attempt to look like you’re doing better than you are . Let’s face it, we see this sort of shit in the ad industry all the time, especially around award time … but Phil Knight wasn’t about skewing results but going right at them … which is why he didn’t place any additional burdens on how to achieve goal, other than demand it was true to the sport and how NIKE see’s the athlete.
Sounds easy, but it isn’t.
To do that takes a lot of confidence.
Confidence in who you are … confidence in your team … confidence in what your company stands for and confidence your company is full of people who know what that translates to in terms of behaviour, consideration and action.
And that’s why we often undermine the value of confidence and right it off as bravado.
Of course it can be that, but it is also about trust, experience, knowledge and openness.
As a chef once told me when we were doing Tobasco research at W+K, “the more confident the chef, the less ingredients they use”
And that’s why I love the clarity of Phil Knight’s objective.
He could have added a million mandatories, but he knew that would add a million reasons why his objective would then be almost impossible to achieve.
At least in a realistic timeline.
Which is why, as difficult as the objective was, he increased its chances of success by being clear as fuck and – to a certain degree – open as fuck. Enabling the team to not just tackle the project head on – rather than tap-dance around politics and restraint – but to also place responsibility back on the company in terms of what it needed them to do to help make it happen.
Not just in terms of money, but action and change.
It is one of the many reasons why I loved my time in China … why I loved Branson’s brief for the Virgin lounge … why I love working for Metallica and Mr Ji.
Sure, in China’s case, it was often more the ambition and scale than the clarity … but for the others, it is/was the single-minded, stubbornness of their objective, the trust they placed in the people they were asking to help them do it, the commitment of the whole organisation to give it the best chance of making it happen and the willingness to walk away rather than accept a poor substitute of what they wanted to change.
We need more of that.
Creative work would be more amazing for that.
Effectiveness would be more powerful for that.
But sadly we’re in a world where it’s all about hedging bets, outsourcing responsibility and managing internal politics rather than being focused, fierce and open on creating change.
Proper change.
Real change.
Massive change.
It all kind of ties in with the ‘Strategy Is Constipated, Imagination Is The Laxative’ talk Martin, Paula and I did in Cannes last year.
The obsession with playing to the process while being continually outsmarted by those who are focused on enabling the possibility.
And while some claimed we were being irresponsible, unrealistic and even unprofessional in what we were saying, the reality is we have – and are – in the incredibly fortunate position of working with brands/people who prove the most responsible way to create powerful and lasting change is not by hedging your bets, but being willing and open to fight for it all.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Colenso, Comment, Confidence, Culture, New Zealand
Late last year, I talked about a photo I was sent from when I was much younger.
I talked about how I looked like the mass murderer Chopper Read and that it scared the hell out of me because while I never was a looker – bar the photo above, on my first day at ‘big school’, albeit with a ‘school badge’ on my jacket that was the size of Africa – I never realised I was that visually challenged.
On one side that is to be expected, because there is a huge amount of research that has identified that our brain is designed to protect us from harmful truth – hence ‘rose tinted glasses’ is not purely delusional, but also biological – but still, it was pretty confronting.
However, once the initial shock passed, it was kind-of liberating because when you know that your youth wasn’t your golden age, you don’t really care about all that stuff and then you can embrace who you want to be rather than feel oppressed by who society expects you to be.
Which is my way of explaining – and justifying – why I recently went to work dressed like this …
I should point out that I thought I was going as Patrick Star … a character from SpongeBob SquarePants, however seeing this photo, I realise I went as the Pornhub version, because I am a giant penis.
I appreciate many of you have long thought I was a dickhead, but my god – this is bad.
HR violation bad … made worse by the purple ‘cow print’ lower half which, in a certain light, looks a big like old man testicles.
That said, I went to great effort to colour code my footwear to my outfit with pink socks and yellow Jordan’s, which may be the first time in my history I have been so co-ordinated. Just a shame I decided to save it for the time I dressed as the biggest dick since Elon Musk.
So to my colleagues, I wish to publicly apologise and – in my defence – point them to this post, to explain how they are really all to blame for this alarming lack of judgement.
Have a good day … that is, if you can burn that image from your mind.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Comment, Communication Strategy, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Family, Fashion, Fulfillment, Happiness, Health, Individuality
So as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, my health situation has had a profound affect on me.
Not just physically, but emotionally.
From actually liking myself a bit to suddenly being interested in clothes – simply because now I feel I have access to choice, whereas before I was left behind by it.
I know that might sound weird for a person who has seemingly only ever worn shorts/jeans, black t-shirts with weird logos on them and Birkenstocks … but while I love those items and still wear those items, I have to acknowledge some of this may have been influenced by their accessibility to me.
But now a whole new world has opened up.
Different shapes, different styles, different colours and different brands.
Admittedly, part of this has been helped by having a client who is the Godfather of Street Culture Fashion and who keeps sending me clothes from the brands he’s started/bought/owns … but maybe, for the first time in at least 3 decades, I not only can explore and experiment with fashion, I want to.
It’s stark, raving, bonkers.
And you know what else is crazy … they’re not too bad on me.
OK, I know I’m never going to be Mr Stylish, but I’m also not Mr Blobby anymore either.
It’s made everyone happier.
Me.
My family.
My friends.
My colleagues.
My clients … especially the fashion lot, who – maybe for the first time – are happy to be seen with me rather than just work with me.
But there’s one item of clothing that has now entered my life that really highlights the impact of this healthier lifestyle.
Again, part of it has been influenced by freebies – which in this case, the copious amount of NIKE’s I’ve been given over the years – but I’ve started buying socks.
FUCKING SOCKS!!! Who the hell am I?
But it gets worse, because they’re not the cheap, ultra-thin, black sock shit from the local supermarket that I’d have grabbed in the past [unless NIKE gave me some] … they’re socks like this:
Yep, designer-ish socks.
OK, so these are sweary socks – or KFC fan socks, depending where you look – but I have loads of different ones. In different colours. With different imagery and messages.
And I bought them.
With my own money.
And why did I do this?
Because – get this – I CAN COLOUR CODE THEM WITH WHAT I’M WEARING.
I find this both sickening and hilarious all at the same time. But I’m here for it, because it is a symbol that I am starting to care about myself in ways I never cared about myself. Not in some desperate need to look stylish – because we’ve already acknowledged I’ll never be that – but to remember than my health has given me choice.
Now I appreciate this sounds stupid.
And I appreciate most people have been this way for decades.
Plus – as a mate recently said – I acknowledge I’ve swapped one daft fashion addiction for another.
But for 53 years, I’ve never had a chance to explore this side of my character and so it’s all new, intriguing and fascinating. At least right now.
Of course it doesn’t mean I’ve ditched the birkies.
Or the jeans/shorts.
Or the black tees with weird logos on them.
It just means they’re more of a choice than a necessity and while there is a disgusting amount of superficiality behind what this has ignited within me, it’s quite an infectious feeling. Which is why I want to thank my family, friends, colleagues and clients for all their support and encouragement on this journey, because I couldn’t have done it without them. I should also thank them for not raising their eyebrows too much at some of the things I am turning up in each day, hahaha.
Hopefully you can tell from how much I’ve written about this subject in the last 4 months, that this has been an incredibly powerful and liberating experience for me. I may muck up in the future, but how I feel because of it is too strong for me to completely forget.
Which is why I can’t work out why health companies have not talked about this benefit in their advertising. Some may have mentioned it – albeit in very contrived and superficial ways – though most tend to either be utterly rational or all about body shape.
Now while I am sure those approaches connect to some audiences, from my perspective the most surprising and enjoyable benefit has been feeling I have been welcomed back into life. That I have choice. That I have a way to explore and express who I am and who I can be.
Or said another way, I get to play dress up, but for adults. And not in a weird way.
Well, not in the weird way some people could read that.
And while that may not sound exciting in words, for those experiencing it, it’s about as uplifting as you can get. Because you’re not just living life, you’re rediscovering it … but with all the experience and lessons from the years before. [But sadly, without the ability to exploit history to make loads of cash … damnit!]
As I’ve said before … should anyone be interested in knowing what I did and how I did it, just let me know. I’m no expert – and I still have a way to go – but I found a way to make it work for me and if it can help you, I will be happy to share.
No judgement. No expectations. And no recommendations on socks. Promise.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Marketing, Names
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a male scent that was based on the movie, Friday The 13th.
In the post, I’ve waxed lyrical about how the scent category makes absolutely no sense and yet [1] it kinda does, given what it’s ultimately selling and [2] as much as I laugh at it, I also kinda love it.
I say that because recently I saw the name of a Tom Ford scent …
Noir Extreme!
NOIR EXTREME!!!
Hahahahahaha …
When I saw it, I couldn’t help think of this scene from the mockumentary, Spinal Tap.
I can just imagine the scene at the naming meeting.
Boss:
“We need it to sound dark and mysterious”.
Overly keen exec:
“What about ‘noir’ … that seems it fits the bill”.
Boss:
“Yes, but we need it to be more emotive … more masculine … more dark”.
Overly keen exec:
“What about Raw Noir?”.
Boss:
“Not dark enough”
Overly keen exec:
“What about Noir Noir?”.
Boss:
“Sounds too much like an 80’s pop band”.
Overly keen exec:
“I’ve got it … I’ve got it … what about Noir Extreme?”.
Boss:
“I love it … there’s nothing more noir than extreme noir”.
Which is why as much as strategy likes to talk about ‘laddering’ … to get to push ideas to new places, there’s no one more adept at it than the scent industry. Which is why it can only be a matter of time before we can look forward to a range of male scents with names like ‘Vicious Death’, ‘Hardcore Evil’ or – potentially the most extreme of all – ‘Pong Like Putin’.
You heard it here first. Ahem.