Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Authenticity, Comment, Confidence, Content, Context, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Home, Honesty, Insight, Mischief, Planners, Point Of View, Pretentious Rubbish, R/GA, Relevance, Research, Resonance
When I was at R/GA, I hired this brilliant planner called Joel.
It was weird how we met because it all started at a Google Firestarter meeting I was talking at.
At the end of my presentation, it was opened up to the audience for questions.
I couldn’t see who was asking anything as the lights from the stage were shining straight into my eyes. Anyway, there was one question that shone out from the rest of the questions of the night – basically challenging the London bubble of planning – and while I didn’t know who asked it, I wanted to find who did to say I liked it.
Alas I never found out who did.
A few days later, I got a message on LinkedIn from the person who asked the question.
His name was Joel.
I invited him for a coffee later that week and suddenly the person who asked the best question of the night was asking the best questions of the day.
But what made them extra good was he wasn’t doing it to show off or stand out, he was doing it because he was interested in the topics and interested to hear my perspective.
We talked about his background, his ambitions and then he did the one thing that almost guaranteed I wanted to hire him.
He called comprehensive school, ‘big school’.
BIG SCHOOL.
I hadn’t heard that since I was a kid in Nottingham and immediately I loved Joel for it. Because for all the time he had spent in London, he had not lost his Bradford realness … and then it became clear why he asked the question about the London bubble, why he was asking questions why culture rarely reflected how marketing department express it and why was the ad industry more interested in convenience than authenticity.
How could I not hire someone like that?
So I did.
And he never disappointed because apart from being culturally, creatively and strategically talented – with an obsessive focus on what life is really like for people, especially outside of London rather than the cliched, London bullshit a lot of marketing likes to portray – his greatest trait was he always wanted to learn.
Always.
Now don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t always the model student … he would push back, he would challenge, he would question … but what he doesn’t know is that was when I was the happiest working with him, because it meant he was believing his words rather than just following others.
And while we always have to be careful we don’t blindly think whatever we believe is the right answer, having confidence and conviction in your gut and your talent is an often underplayed, undervalued, under-encouraged skill in a strategist … which is why I was so happy to see when I left R/GA, Joel had a mug made with my face and my words on it.
Not because he missed my ugly face and lack of vocabulary, but to remind him to trust his smarts, his instincts and his authenticity … but never to be a prick about it.
If I was proud of him before. I am even prouder of him now.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Comment, Confidence, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Design, Fulfillment, Honesty, Perspective, Presenting, Relationships
One of the things I find really interesting is how adland has got into the habit of providing clients with multiple options for every bit of work.
Oh I get it.
Apart from the fact there’s always more than one way to answer any brief, we want – or should I say, we need – clients to be happy.
Except it doesn’t always end up that way does it?
We make alternatives that aren’t as good as the idea we think they should buy.
Clients demand diluted versions of the work we don’t really like in the first place.
We end up getting fired because the campaign they pushed us to make didn’t work as well as they wanted.
Who are the bigger idiots?
The people who don’t buy what the experts put forward or the experts that offer alternatives they don’t really believe in?
Which is why every single person should read the story of Paul Rand – the designer who Steve Jobs turned to, to design the logo for his NeXT computer company.
Not just because it’s a brilliant story.
Not just because he didn’t even bother to turn up to the pitch, he just sent a brilliant 100 page book with his idea in it.
But because when Jobs was asked what it was like to work with Rand, he said …
“I asked him if he would come up with a few options, and he said … no, I will solve your problem for you and you will pay me.
You don’t have to use the solution. If you want options go talk to other people.’”
How good is that?
+ I will solve your problem for you.
+ You will pay me for my recommendation, whether you use it or not.
+ If you want options, go talk to other people.
While some may claim that makes Paul Rand arrogant or petulant, I would say it shows someone who knows the value of their experience … their talent and their craft.
More than that, I think it shows someone who really thinks about what idea is the right one for their client and then puts only that one in front of them.
Not countless options.
One.
A single idea that has gone through hundreds of possibilities to get to that single recommendation.
Something that has been created and crafted to answer the brief, rather than simply executed to satisfy the clients taste.
And while the article itself states the NeXT logo might not be a classic … the style, approach and attitude of the presentation certainly is.
Adland should take note.
Read it here.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Brand Suicide, Business, China, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Content, Context, Corporate Evil, Crap Campaigns In History, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Design, Differentiation, Emotion, Empathy, England, Fake Attitude, Fulfillment, Hope, Imagination, Innocence, Innovation, Insight, Loyalty, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Only In Adland, Perspective, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, Premium, Professionalism, Relevance, Research, Resonance, Supermarkets
Above is a point of sale sign from a local supermarket.
Look at it.
LOOK AT IT!!!
What a pile of utter shite.
Noticeable for it’s stupidity rather than it’s inspiration.
The sort of stuff you would expect from a 5 year old writing jokes for a Christmas Cracker, than a company with well paid staff, responsible for the commercial growth of an organisation.
So who is to blame?
Well there are many who should feel a sense of shame – from ad agencies to research companies to clients – however when I think of who started this horribleness to begin, I can’t help but feel it was at the hands of the marketing department.
Of course even they are not totally to blame.
The C-Suite, with their demands and expectations have a lot to answer for … almost as much as the investors, who say they want the companies they invest in to be good companies but they better make increasing profits every quarter.
But what I found fascinating coming back to Western markets from Asian – specifically China – was how little ambition there really was.
Oh companies would talk about it – wax lyrical about it – but when you delved a little deeper, you saw there wasn’t much there.
Instead the focus was far more about defending rather than growing, corporate convenience rather than customer understanding, explaining rather than communicating and short-term conformity rather than long term change.
But of course, ad agencies need to take their blame for this situation as well.
Too many doing whatever clients want rather than what they need.
Profiting from process over creativity.
Celebrating speed over substance.
What makes it worse is some think this leads to good work.
Effective work. Using ‘proof’ that ignores the myriad of small, separate elements that combine to drive success so they can place themselves on a self-appointed pedestal.
But there are some who have a bit more self-awareness.
Who know what they’re doing is not as good as it could be.
Or should be.
But rather than face their responsibility in all of this, they blame others for how this came about … turning to questionable research that is based on a few tweets, a couple of chats around the agency or claims every single person on the planet can have their attitudes and behaviours characterised by a singular colour or some other bollocks.
And from this, they will claim the public don’t care about smart stuff.
That they ‘don’t understand’ good ideas and writing.
They they’re simply not interested in creativity and ideas.
Bullshit.
Bullshit.
Bullshit.
I’ve got to tell you, I’m absolutely over it.
I’m over the focus on the lowest common denominator.
Let’s face it, life would be pretty horrible and boring if that is how we really operated … and contrary to popular belief, we don’t.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t elements of predictability in what we do, but to ignore the nuance … to suggest everything we aspire to is exactly the same, delivered via an identical approach … is just plain bullshit.
But here’s the kicker, because more clients and agencies seems to be adopting this approach.
White labelling, phoned-in solutions with a cool sounding names that actively destroys any sense of differentiation and distinctiveness of their brand from countless competitors while also directly insulting the intelligence of the customers they rely on to survive.
I get it’s less hassle to just agree with clients.
I get that having income coming in right now is very important.
I get that a single point-of-sale sign is not going to change the world.
But when we are willing to allow our standards to be determined by how quick we can make money, then all we’re doing is ensuring the long-term value of our industry – and the talented people in it or wanting to be in it – dies even more quickly.
And that’s why I am also over people being quick to piss on anyone trying to do something different.
Claiming it’s self indulgent.
Labelling it a failure before it’s even run.
Saying it won’t appeal to the audience … despite not knowing the brand, the brief, the audience or how people actually think or act outside of some hypothetical customer journey / strategic framework of convenience.
And yet, when you look at the brands, the work and the agencies who consistently resonate deeply and authentically with culture and drive long-term loyalty, growth and profit – it’s the usual suspects and a few newbies, like Nils and the fabulous folks at Uncommon.
Yes our job is to help our clients achieve more than they hoped. Yes our job is to attract rather than repel. But our job is also to help build the future for our clients … influencing, shaping and – sometimes – forcing dramatic change even before the masses are quite ready for it, which means doing work that challenges and provokes for all the right reasons … sometimes asking questions of the audience rather than boring them into beige submission.
And while I acknowledge there are risks in all of that, I personally believe it is far riskier to dumb everything down to it’s lowest common denominator, because every single thing we love, respect and covet has come from someone or something doing something different.
Whether that’s an idea, a product, a story or a new way of looking at the World … it has come from people who understood who we are but take us further than we imagined, pushing the journey and the story with every new chapter of what they create.
They could have taken the easy route.
They could have focused on optimising the rewards.
They could have spent their time ‘removing friction from the transactional process’.
But they didn’t. Or at least, they didn’t just focus on that.
They embraced the risk to create something bigger and more unexpectedly resonant.
Or should I say unexpectedly resonant by those judging them, because they knew exactly where they were going.
And this is why the people who are so quick to dismiss anyone trying to do something new need to understand their actions say far more about who they are and what they value than anything else. And in an industry that is fighting for its life, I put my faith in those using creativity to change the game rather than those who just talk about violation of some old rules.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Apple, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Chaos, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Context, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Differentiation, Emotion, Experience, Imagination, Innovation, Insight, Management, Marketing, New Product Mentalness, Point Of View, Premium, Relevance, Resonance, Technology
Have a look at that article.
It’s not that long ago really is it, and yet the fortunes of Apple are beyond comprehension.
Probably even beyond what Steve Jobs imagined … though I doubt, if he was alive, he would admit that.
But while the iMac was much more successful than the journalist suggested it would be … its greatest achievements were re-introducing Apple to the world, positioning them as a real alternative to Microsoft and creating a platform for the brand and products to keep rising.
Now it would be easy to laugh at how wrong the journalist was with their article, but the reality is most people in the industry at that time thought that about Apple.
However the reason had less to do with the launch of the iMac and more about the recent history of the brand.
The choices.
The decisions.
The products.
But in doing that, they highlighted four of the great mistakes so many still make:
1. Immediately skeptical of anyone trying to do something new.
2. Believed the standard for success had been set by the market leader.
3. Evaluated products against current audience needs, not future audience needs.
4. Forgot how much truly great marketing can make people give a shit.
I say this because our industry often operates like this journalist.
Basing our point of view on ‘facts’ that reflect what has happened rather than what is going to happen.
Now I get why … what we do costs a lot of money and has a lot of implications and so clients rightfully want to minimise their exposure to risk as much as they can.
But despite this focus on certainty, we still see missteps and failures every single day, largely down to us – and clients – evaluating everything by the same 3 mistakes the journalist did towards iMac back in 1998.
This is not to suggest we should ignore what clients need.
Nor is it that we should disregard costs.
It is simply a reminder that if we only judge/plan/justify/execute through the lens of the rear-view mirror, the only thing we can be certain of is we will be going in the opposite direction to culture and success.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Cars, Comment, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Fulfillment, Insight, Management, Resonance, Service, Standards, Technology
So I have an Audi.
I know … I know … what a wanker.
Well as we all know, German cars are well known for their quality of engineering, but recently I saw something that showed me it’s not just engineering where they pay attention to detail.
Have a look at this …
Can you see?
It’s the colour of the screws.
Where most cars have 4 yellow screws in each corner of the rear number plate, Audi have used 2 – one black, one yellow – placed in the middle of the number plate and designed to make sure they perfectly match with the area they’re screwing into.
Black to match the colour of the letter of the registration number.
Yellow to match the background of the rear registration number.
It’s an incredibly small thing, but if they care about that, you can be sure they care about every detail in the car.
Which helps reinforce why German manufacturing is so highly revered.
Or said another way, why craft is proved by the small things, not just the big.