Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Apathy, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Corporate Evil, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Fake Attitude
I love new business.
I love the thrill of getting stuck into something new.
The inquisition into how a business runs.
The exploration of how others see it and the category it plays in.
The history of why it started not just what is is doing.
All coming together to help formulate a point of view for the discussions you’ll have.
I’m not saying it’s easy. And in this economy, it will not only be harder to encourage new ways to tackle old problems … they’ll be more companies trying to do the same thing, often using price as their leverage rather than rigour.
Oooooh, look at me being all judgemental. But I’ll stick with it.
Anyway, the point is, new business is the lifeblood of all business.
What you do and how you do it may alter, but bringing in new clients and projects is oxygen. Not simply for the financial strength of the company, but the ability to reinvent who you are with every assignment.
Now there’s lots of ways people and companies approach new business but one I loathe is the speculative letter. Blanket and blind correspondence trying to make you care about something that you didn’t ask for and don’t really want to consider.
But as bad as that is, there’s now one that is even worse.
The blanket and blind lazy letter.
I know … I know … what could be lazier than blanket and blind?
Well, I’ll tell you, this …
Everything about this is hateful to me.
+ The suggestion they know someone who has told them what I am looking to do at work.
+ The blatant disregard for who I am, what I do and what my company does.
+ The claims of experience and reputation, despite their previous sentences proving otherwise.
+ The idea that the only difference between finding entry level talent and senior level talent is simply the payment of an additional $15 an hour.
+ The desperate attempt to close with a call.
Does this approach work?
Does anyone take them up on this scam?
What makes it even more of a joke is the Clustox website claims they ‘build software that grows businesses and startups’.
What software is that exactly? Spam software.
I tell you what would help you Clustox … know who the fuck you are talking to.
It’s not hard.
At the very least, make sure the person you’re writing to has some relevance to what you’re flogging. Has some connection to the industry you claim to serve and can assist with.
In fact the only effective thing this piece of unsolicited communication has done is ensure I will never work with you – even if I suddenly want to hire oodles of tech engineers.
And that’s exactly what I’ll tell Patricia when we talk next week.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Confidence, Culture, Education, Emotion, Empathy, Equality, Honesty, Leadership, Legend
I hate losing.
Absolutely hate it.
But I also understand there are benefits to it.
Well, if you lost despite giving your all.
Because losing is a lesson.
It forces you to take a long hard look at yourself.
What you did.
What you didn’t.
What you can improve.
What you need to improve.
What you can take forward with you.
And while there’s the famous Vince Lombardi quote:
“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser”
… I’ve found those who take loss on the chin aren’t necessarily doing it because they don’t care, they’re doing it because they do.
But recently I found incredible quote from Muhammad Ali.
A new way to look at the role of losing … and I love it.
What a way to own loss …
Turning the narrative from despair to character.
Changing judgement into inspiration.
And to do that when you’ve lost the ‘fight of the century’ … incredible.
But then Ali always knew the role and responsibility he held.
He may not have wanted it, but he was not going to close the door on those who needed it.
Needed him.
Needed his direction, inspiration and articulation.
Needed to know there was a chance of a better life than the one others wanted them to have.
Which is why it makes everything even more perfect that he then went on to win that fight.
Twice.
Because honour in losing was just preparation for his honour is victory.
In a World of white, toxic machismo … how we could do with Ali’s majesty right now.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Innovation, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Technology
A few weeks ago, a client of mine at Google posted this on Linkedin …
Fortunately, due to its lack of swearing and use of bullshit terms like Gen-Z – not to mention the fact it was more professional than I’ve ever been in my whole life – it was pretty obvious no one was going to mistake this for me.
Which means my job – whatever it is I do – is safe.
For now.
And I say now because it’s only going to get better.
That should be obvious, but the amount of people who judge new ideas by the standards of established ideas is insane.
Of course that doesn’t mean every new idea is going to be successful, but it does mean every new idea has more places to grow and go than established ideas and for that alone, we should keep an open mind rather than – as this industry loves to do – make grand declarations about the impending doom of anything we don’t understand, don’t like and/or don’t want it to destroy what you’ve spent years trying to build for yourself.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Colleagues, Comment, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Dad, Honesty, Insight, Management, Mum & Dad, Parents, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View
When I was about to begin working for the first time, my Dad sat me down and said, “be generous, be kind, but never be a pushover”.
What he was basically telling me was I should always listen and learn … but I shouldn’t blindly follow what someone has told me without asking questions and exploring or voicing my own thoughts and ideas.
Nothing reinforced this than my first ever client meetings.
I was 19 and in a room with very senior and experienced clients.
After it happened, my boss called me in to ‘have a chat’.
He wanted to know why I’d been so quiet throughout the meeting when normally – as my Dad had told me – I kept asking questions as I wanted to learn more and to start to form my own perspective on things.
I told him I was worried I’d say something stupid so felt it best to keep my mouth shut … and that’s when he gave me 3 pieces of advice that not only changed my career, but that I pass on to anywho who feels in a similar situation.
1. When you’re young you’re not expected to have answers so you should exploit the chance to ask whatever you want while you’ve got it.
2. You’ll find out if your views are stupid or valid by speaking up … and you’ll find out from the most qualified people in the room, which is worth its weight in gold.
3. Remember you were hired because we believe in you. So while you might not always be right, we trust any question or opinion you have comes from the right place and with a desire to be useful and make a positive difference.
And while I’d like to think that the response I got is what everyone would get, you just have to read the stories on Corporate Gaslighting to realise what I was being encouraged to do – by my boss and Dad – is not what many are encouraged to do.
In fact, I’d go as far as to say in many cases, it’s not even tolerated.
You’re called a trouble maker.
Not a team player.
A maverick.
Which, of course, is all kinds of rubbish [not to mention debilitating in terms of personal development, standards and reputation and quality of work] but it seems to be what a lot of modern corporate culture often expects – no, scrap that – demands.
But there is good news.
Because if you find yourself in this exact position, you can either read this post I wrote years ago about how to be Freddie Mercury in the boardroom orread the letter below and see how 97 year old Mary Grant proves it’s never to late to change.
We never needed more Mary’s.
Filed under: Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Childhood, Comment, Communication Strategy, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Design, Differentiation, Distinction, Effectiveness, Emotion, Football, History, Individuality, Legend, Nottingham, Nottingham Forest, Resonance, Respect, Sport
Over my career, I’ve had a lot of ‘annual reviews’ and in all that time, there’s been a couple of topics that have made regular appearances in my bosses observations.
I am sure you can guess a lot of them, but one is that I approach every brief like a chance to change or impact everything.
Sometimes it was said in a positive tone.
Sometimes it was said in a less than positive tone.
And they were right.
They still are.
Because whenever we/I get a brief, my starting point is ‘what excites me about the brief’ … quickly followed by ‘how insanely big could we make the idea’ … quickly followed by me getting ridiculous excited about the potential, totally ignoring the fact that all they wanted was a shelf wobbler. Or something.
You think I’m joking don’t you? Well I am, but only just.
My strength/weakness is I always dream massive. Proper massive.
Sometimes it’s paid off – creating the first 4×4 on 2 wheels for Peugeot Mopeds in Vietnam.
Sometimes it’s been a total and unmitigated disaster – trying to get Porsche to bring rally car culture to China.
But pretty much all the time I’ve been able to look in the mirror and know I gave them what they needed, albeit in bigger, more provocative ways than they may have wanted … imagined … or expected.
And you know what, I’m good with that … which probably explains why the quote from the KLF – ‘Don’t give them what they want, give them what they’ll never forget’ – resonated with me so hard.
Anyway, the reason I say this is because waaaaaaaaay back in 1973, this ad appeared in the good, old Nottingham Evening Post.
It was an ad to design the Nottingham Forest Football Club badge.
If that sounds strange, wait till you hear the reason.
Originally, the Forest badge was the Nottingham Coat of Arms … it’s the emblem featured in the middle of the ad.
After discovering they could not copyright it, they decided they had to come up with a new badge and – for reasons no one has really got a good answer for – they decided to run a competition in the local paper, recruiting two lecturers in art and design as advisers.
Despite this being before the glory years of the Clough era, and a prize of just £25, the response was massive.
There were 855 entries from as far away as Australia and Germany … with one man submitting 27 designs.
After a judging process, David Lewis was crowned the winner with this …
David was 29 at the time, working as a graphic designer and lecturer at Nottingham’s College of Art.
He was a football nut and fancied a shot at winning the cash, but there was one problem … one of the judges, a man called Wilf Payne, was the head of the department where he worked.
David said …
“I didn’t think that any design I entered could have been judged fairly if he knew it was mine, and I also didn’t want to embarrass the judges. I did want to enter, though, so I decided to use my mother’s maiden name to hide my real identity. My mother’s side of the family were Italian immigrants and her maiden name was Lago. So I submitted my design as Lago and it wasn’t until afterwards that the judges found out my real name.”
Thank god he did that, because otherwise he may not have won and football – not just Nottingham Forest – would have missed out on one of the most beautiful and distinctive football club logos of all time.
Simple, yet powerful.
Accessible, yet iconic.
Universal, yet truly Nottingham … thanks to the tree representing Sherwood Forest, the wavy lines reflecting the river Trent [where the City Ground stands next to] and the red/white colour formation to reflect the club colours.
Forest’s badge has remained unchanged ever since David’s design – except for the addition of 2 stars to celebrate Forest’s back-to-back European Cup triumphs in 1979 and 1980.
Hell, the club is known to fans as ‘the tricky tree’s’ thanks to the logo.
And a few years ago, an American magazine ran an article on the most memorable and liked sports logos across the world and Davi’d design was in the top 10.
THE. TOP. TEN.
The point is, David Lewis could have approached the competition ‘pitch brief’ as many approach real pitch briefs.
Giving them exactly what they ask for in ways they would expect or feel comfortable with … which in this case would be a badge that represents Nottingham Forest and takes design cues from the existing logo.
But David thought bigger than that.
He wanted to create a design for Nottingham Forest that would be known, respected and revered across all sports and across all countries. A badge that could play outside the lines of the game and into culture.
A designer badge. Literally and figuratively.
And he did it. Beautifully and brilliantly.
Which is why the next time you get a brief – whether for a pitch or an existing client – just remember this story, because the whole industry could do with being more David Lewis.