I’m back.
Did you miss me? No ….
Well, there is someone who did … Bonnie.
So we got Bonnie a month ago today.
Just 4 little weeks.
But just like a brilliant spy, she has used that time to completely and utterly infiltrate all aspects of our lives. Not only ensuring she is a focal point for our love and attention, but also ensuring she can influence our choices, decisions and behaviours.
Hell, even Sky-the-Budgie feels loved, whereas with Rosie, she simply felt tolerated.
But it’s what she has done for Otis that is mind-blowing.
She has helped him be comfortable with certain things that he has struggled with his whole life.
But more than that, she has forged a bond with him that has revealed a side of him, even we hadn’t seen.
He’s always been a good, caring, loving kid – but Bonnie has raised this to new levels and heights.
Of course, dogs do it in very different ways to cats.
Whereas our beloved Rosie adopted the stance of ‘treat them mean to keep them keen’, Bonnie has done it through affection.
The other side of the same coin.
It’s equally as effective …
It’s just that one gets there by making you crave – and work for – any sort of praise, whereas the other is simply about overwhelming you with overt demonstrations of gratitude.
Obviously, given I work in advertising, I find the latter more difficult to accept than the former.
But I do like it … even if Rosie would be disappointed/disgusted at how quickly all her hard work has gone out the window.
Miss you Rosie.
Love you Bonnie.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Auckland, Bassot, Career, China, Colenso, Colleagues, Comment, Contribution, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Effectiveness, Emotion, Empathy, England, Experience, Friendship, London, Management, Planners, Planning, R/GA, Wieden+Kennedy
I have always taken hiring people very seriously.
For me, it’s more than professional … it’s personal.
A sense of responsibility to help whoever comes on board discover who they can become, rather than just do the job that needs to be done.
Part of this is because – as I’ve written many times – I believe my role is to ensure than when they leave [as all people eventually do] they go to a job they never thought they could get.
Where they’re hired for who they are, not just what they do.
For what they’ve made, rather than just what they know.
For how they see the world, not just for how they do their job.
And how do I do that?
By helping create the conditions and the opportunities for them to be great.
That’s it.
My attitude is that the talent is already inside of them – otherwise they wouldn’t be hired in the first place – and my job is to help them see it, believe it and do things with it.
That said, talent is only half the equation … the other is character.
Who they are.
How they act.
How they interact.
As I’ve also written before, I believe in having a gang rather than a department.
A team full of different experiences, mindsets, backgrounds and ideas … but united through their values, standards and love of the work.
Because of that, it is important that anyone who joins has the character to add to the identity of the team rather than just duplicate it.
Or said another way: they need to be someone people enjoy being in a room with, even when we’re discussing, debating and arguing.
Which we do, a lot.
I suppose this is why I feel such a genuine sense of gratitude when someone agrees to be part of our team.
For me, it’s a big demonstration of faith in me/us and I don’t take lightly … which is why the only thing that beats it is when someone agrees to join me for a second time – even though I then worry about their sanity.
What is this all about?
Well, it’s a very convoluted way to write about Martin Bassot.
Back in 2017, I worked with Martin at R/GA London.
In fact, he was the very first person there to tell me to “fuck off”.
I should point out he didn’t say it aggressively, more a response to some cheeky-shit thing I probably did/said, but the moment he said it, I was in ‘HR appropriate’ love.
I know that makes me sound slightly unhinged, but it meant he was comfortable enough with me that we could debate freely and never let it get personal … and that’s a big thing for me.
But it only got better … because over the following months, I got to see someone with real talent and character … someone who could make a real difference to the ideas and craft, which is why I was both proud and sad when he told me he was off to join my ‘other family’, W+K London.
Zoom forward a few years and I’m in New Zealand at Colenso and rang him up.
“Hey …” I said, “… you know how you talked about always wanting to live overseas, how about coming to NZ?”
There was a pause before he replied, “I was thinking somewhere more like Amsterdam”
But he still came.
Uprooted his – and his partners life – to come to the other side of the World.
For me.
Well, not FOR me, but also not excluding me.
And he has been brilliant. Even better than I knew he would be … and I knew he’d be great.
He developed into a really great number 2 for me … helping lead some really great work, develop some really great people in the team and help achieve some really great results for the clients we work with.
I use the past tense because after 2½ years, he is going home. Again.
I was tempted to use the same post I wrote about him last time he left me, but he deserves more than that. Probably. At a push.
In all seriousness – and without wishing to sound an old, old bastard – I am very proud of him.
What he’s done.
How he’s done it.
And most importantly, who he is.
He’s left an indelible mark on the team, the agency and the work.
And in the time he’s been here, we’ve hopefully done the same for him because he leaves with memories, experience, fans, work, Cannes Grand Prix’s, LBB Immortal Awards and Agency of the Year titles and a lot of empty crisp packets.
And I mean, A LOT of empty crisp packets.
So all in all, it’s not a bad set of achievements for little over two years.
Back when I pitched the idea of NZ to him, I said “Come for an adventure and go back better and more experienced than you’d be if you stayed in London”.
I think it’s fair to say we both did what we hoped and promised each other.
And while I’m obviously sad he’s going, I’m very excited about his next adventure.
The agency who has hired him – and there were many who wanted to – are very lucky, but they’re also very smart … because they saw him for who he is today rather than who he was 2+ years ago. What that means is they not only took the time to properly understand who he is and what he can – and wants – to do, they shaped the role to enable it rather than just hire him and then ask him to fit in with what they have.
For someone who will always deeply care about Martin, it makes me very happy that is the environment he’s heading into.
Doesn’t mean it will be easy.
Doesn’t mean he won’t have to work fucking hard.
But it does mean he’s been set up to win not just to fit in.
I suppose the best compliment I can give Martin is this.
Despite working together twice before, I really hope I get to work with him again.
Even if next time, it’s far more likely I’ll be working for him rather than the other way around.
But even then it would be a pleasure.
So thank you Martin, for everything.
At the end of the day, the best thing you can hope you can do in a job is make a difference and you did that and some. [Though I must admit, one of the things I’ll remember most about your time here is the lunch we had in some weird Chinese restaurant in the middle of Canada, as we listened to Forest beat Palace in the last minute. That and Colenzob-do, of course]
So know you’re going to be missed, respected and always adored.
And with that, it just leaves me to say, fuck off Martin.
Said with love. Always and forever.
[There’s no more posts for over a week, not just because I need to get over Martin’s departure, but it’s a holiday and then I’m off to China … so see you in a week and please pray with me that Martin’s plane home gets delayed for about 12 more months, haha.]
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brazil, Colenso, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Food, Kev, OnStrategy, Planners, Rio, Wieden+Kennedy
So last month, I said that Fergus – the founder, host and owner of the most honey-dripped voice in history of OnStrategy – was coming to Auckland to do a panel at Colenso’s offices.
Well today is the day and I’m excited.
I don’t mean because I’m one of the panel – don’t get me wrong, that’s lovely – but because I get to meet the big man in person.
He’s going to get a big hug.
That might not be very professional. That might be the last thing he wants. But he’s going to get one because he’s a good human and I like having those more and more in my life.
Recently, I met someone else who has been in my life for years without being in my physical proximity – albeit we had met once before.
In Rio.
In a meeting room.
That was underground.
Despite literally being opposite Cocacobana beach.
It was the one and only, Kevin Chesters.
I love Kev. He’s a tall, bald, charismatic and clever bastard.
We met in Rio because I basically guilt-tripped Dave Luhr – Wieden’s Global CCO – into letting us have a ‘head of planning’ get-together because every other bloody department at Wieden seemed to be having one every second week.
Dave was always great to me and said yes … so we chose Brazil, mainly because we could.
And yet, for reasons I can’t quite remember, we ended up choosing the only hotel in Rio where the meeting room was underground.
With no natural daylight whatsoever.
Unsuprisingly we didn’t spend long down there – I think just long enough for the video call with Luhr – mainly so he would think we were ‘hard at work’, rather than hard at chatting and sightseeing.
It was a crazy trip which I remember mainly for eating the biggest and best piece of mozzeralla of my life, accidentally walking through a favela on my own at 1am and then having a 42 hour flight home.
Anyway, since then, Kev has started his own management/training company and it’s epic.
Insightful yet practical advice on all manner of subjects from how to better deal with time, how to have a constructive argument and what you can learn from gangs.
We’ve been using him at Colenso for a while and were able to manipulate a situation that brought him out to us from the UK.
Which is why I got to see him again after 12 years.
And he got a big hug too.
Which for me, highlights one of the best things about this industry.
Because while it may be global, it’s really a village … and so getting to hang out with people you feel you know – but rarely meet – is a wonderful, special thing.
In many ways, it’s one of the best reasons to go and live/work overseas, as well as, bizarrely, go to Cannes.
Because for all the talk of adland being a service industry, it’s really a human industry – and while technology can enable great things to happen, it will never achieve what connections, collaborations and communication can achieve.
So welcome Fergus.
And hello again, Kev.
I’m posting this early to distract me from the must-win game Forest are currently playing against Tottenham, in London. I don’t think it’s working, but it’s all I’ve got right now – especially as I have already walked 10km this morning and it’s only 7:20am.
Talking of walking …
18 months ago, I didn’t like walking from the bed to the bathroom.
Now I have walked the equivalent of a marathon.
A fucking marathon!
OK, I didn’t do it in one go and it took me over 6 hours … but it’s still a big thing for me.
Mind you, given the amount of Easter Eggs I scoffed – hey, it’s a once-a-year-deal – it probably still wasn’t enough.
Crap post I know, but the next few days are going to be a real rollercoaster for me, so I just couldn’t be bothered. Not that you’ll be able to tell the difference, hahaha.
Let’s see tomorrow … don’t hold your breath.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Education, Government, Marketing, Marketing Fail, New Zealand
After the recent emotional rollercoaster of posts – with the wonderful Fergus coming and the brilliant Martin going – let’s get back to some cynical musings, as the name of this blog supposedly ‘promises’. Or something …
So I was going for my daily walk when I passed a school in a posh part of Auckland.
By the gates, I saw this ad …
Now on one hand, I was quite impressed by the smarts of the real estate agents.
Putting an ad for a pricey home by the gates of the school pick-up zone is clever thinking.
As rich parents wait for their lucky kids, they have a captive audience to try and flog them another symbol of success.
But it’s also pretty appalling.
Not by the school – because even though it’s located in one of Auckland’s richest locations, its state run so likely needs the money like every other state school – but by the real estate agents.
Now I appreciate this may be a an ‘added benefit’ of them already donating money to the school. Plus, I acknowledge if they think the parents of the kids there can afford a piece of land – like the one on Waiheke Island – then maybe the school should be asking parents to contribute more to the education of their kids. But the fact Martin and Charles at Kellands Real Estate obviously negotiated this shows they don’t really care about the education of the kids, just the wallets of their parents.
I get this is how business operates these days.
I get it’s a very competitive market.
But just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should.
But this is how we operate … where everyone and everything is seen as a commodity waiting to be exploited by someone for personal gain.
No where demonstrates this as much as Linkedin with its endless unrequested ‘messages’ from strangers offering services that have nothing to do with what you do … but you kind-of expect that now, whereas this school ad caught me off guard.
Of course, the real people we should be aiming our anger at are the governments who continually under-invest in state education.
Conveniently forgetting that a smart nation is a strong nation … though some will claim that’s a very conscious reason why politicians do it.
Education and health are two of the most important things a nation can do for its people … that it’s become a pawn in the battle of politics is everything wrong with politics.
Which reminds me of the time someone said, “Democratic governments should be scared of its people. Ensuring they never forget who they represent and serve. When is the other way round, that’s when a nation has a problem”
While a real estate ad at a school in Auckland is something – in the big scheme of things – very small, in many ways it reveals, we have a problem.
Not an end-of-the World problem.
Not a call for revolution kind of a problem.
But a problem … because the focus is far more making a few people rich today, rather than helping an entire nation be better off tomorrow.
God, that’s waaaaaaaay too political for this blog. And on a Tuesday, no less.
I can assure you that tomorrow, things will be back to their bollocks best. Sorry.