Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Content, Context, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Distinction, Effectiveness, Management
Running a company is hard.
There’s so many things that influence and shape how it runs, it’s no surprise they end up being such complicated beasts.
Different departments.
Different responsibilities.
Different requirements and budgets.
A bunch of different planets all operating by their own gravitational pull.
But here’s the thing … they shouldn’t be.
Because while each of those planets needs to circle the sun.
To be part of something bigger than themselves.
In our industry, the sun would be the creative work.
Or said another way … each and every department in an agency is there to enable the best creative product to be consistently created.
That’s it.
Doesn’t matter if you’re in Finance, HR, IT, Production, Planning or Creative … your purpose is to assist the creation of great work.
And while there are people who are more directly involved in the creation of that work, I don’t mean them …
I mean the end result.
The thing all that energy, tension, time, thinking, travelling, hiring, accounting, system managing, fee negotiating and creative developing has produced and will be judged by.
But sadly that is happening less and less … because on top of there often being a lack of clarity on what ‘great work’ is, as infrastructures grow, different departments end up believing they’re the sun.
The most important ingredient.
The element that decides failure or success.
And while we cannot deny each discipline plays an important role in the operational ability of an organisation … when they think – or are allowed to think – they’re the single most critical part in the whole process, that’s when it all goes to shit.
Which is another reason why independent agencies have a huge advantage over corporations.
Because they have the power to ensure their business is designed to specifically serve the work … ultimately driven by the belief great work delivers great profit whereas a focus on profit diminishes the value of the work.
And it’s true … though that doesn’t mean all independent agencies live up to that – just like not all corporations are ignorant to it – however in the main, that’s generally how it turns out.
Which is why I keep going back to what the film director Michael Mann told me about producing excellence.
He said that when he starts a movie, he talks to everyone in the production team.
Everyone.
He explains his vision for the story … his goal for it … what will be really important to him.
Then he tells them he needs them.
That they all play a critical part in the fulfilment of quality.
That he wants them to help make his vision even better than he could imagine.
But – and it’s a huge but – its about what HIS vision for the movie is, not theirs.
And that’s the key.
Freedom within a vision.
Planets going around the same sun … not going in whatever direction they want.
Remembering your role is to help make something bigger than you better, rather than just caring about how you look.
Working to enable your colleagues to succeed rather than get in the way with needless process or ego.
Making decisions based on what helps serve the ultimate goal, not just your personal preference.
And while I accept protocol and policy will impact our lives and jobs, that’s where leadership comes in.
Ensuring the things that are adopted – or have to adopted – don’t get in the way of what you’re all there to create.
Or said another way, it’s asking one simple question: Will it make the work better?
And that’s why who you hire is so important.
Not just in terms of ability … but in terms of their standards, values, vision and focus.
Because your goal is to build potency not simply capability.
Because the reason a focused company is often a better company is simply because people don’t waste so much of their energy dealing with the internal bullshit of departments who have been allowed to believe they’re the sun, rather than a planet.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Individuality
A few weeks ago I did a presentation to a bunch of advertising students in London.
While I enjoy this sort of thing, I also appreciate I’m a ‘senior’ old white man … so I’m very conscious of the privilege I have – and had – throughout my career.
With that in mind, I wanted to ensure whatever I said was about as usable as it could get … regardless of where you come from, what you do or whether you lived in London, Liverpool or Lima.
Note I said ‘usable’, because sadly – for all the talk the industry goes on about with D&I policies – there still remains prejudice, whether conscious or not.
So in the end, my talk consisted of 3 slides … of which the one below was not only the most well received, but probably the most important.
Despite the headwinds it faces, this industry can be great.
It has a wide range of brilliant, talented, creative people.
Unfortunately it also has a bunch of bitter and jaded, self-appointed ‘gods’.
People who have achieved a level of ‘industry fame’ based on what they say, rather than what they’ve done. And by that, I mean what they’ve said on Twitter. Yet despite this, they seem to believe it has elevated them to a level of ‘sage’, that means the entire industry exists to impress them.
Of course everyone is entitled to an opinion.
And all experience is experience.
But if you’re starting out, you’re incredibly vulnerable to ‘experienced people’s’ judgement and that can have the effect of either conforming you to doing what they like or undermining your belief in relation to what you like.
Now don’t get me wrong, having your work – and eyes – opened to the views of people who have achieved at the highest level, is incredibly valuable to your growth and development.
But the emphasis is on highest level.
That’s not about someone’s job title.
Not the length of their employment.
But what they have created.
That’s literally it.
And while everyone thinks they have done stuff of note – and in their own way, they likely have – the reality is standards are a bit like Twitter. Your view of the world is in direct proportion to the people you follow … so while there are people on social media and industry blogs who have genuinely learned from the best and created the best, there’s a whole lot more people who have not. They just don’t realise it. Or their ego won’t accept it.
Again, that doesn’t mean they won’t offer some value, but it does mean their view is tainted by the limitation of the work they’ve actually created.
Which is why the best advice for anyone starting out in the industry is to do your homework.
Don’t like an agency or an individual for what they say or how popular they are.
Explore what they’ve actually done.
Was it a one off or has it been consistent?
Have they set standards or just followed others?
Do they push boundaries or just talk about doing it?
Have they done interesting stuff or just know interesting stuff?
This is an amazing industry. It can offer a huge amount. But if you want a career – a good career – you need to find and forge your own voice and you can’t do that if you let popularity silence your individuality or force their words into your mouth.
And that’s why if you face that, especially from people who have never done stuff that is creatively interesting – regardless of their title or experience – then there’s only one course of action to take.
Fuck ’em.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Communication Strategy, Corporate Evil, Crap Products In History, Creativity, Culture, Devious Strategy, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Premium
Artisan.
A relatively recent addition to the marketing lexicon.
The attempt to make an everyday product sound special.
The goal to appear you are offering individual craft and care.
The ambition to charge a premium for the smallest possible addition.
And that’s why we now have artisan burgers, cakes and now fucking peanuts … even though the reality is one has swapped a bread roll for a [bought] brioche bun, the other has put some hand-piped icing on the top of some cupcake and a packet of peanuts have had some salt and pepper chucked on top of them.
They’ll be claiming the artisan experience extends to the lorry drivers who chuck boxes of nuts in the basement of the local shop. Though they’d describe it as ‘our highly trained delivery operatives gently hand deliver our artisan nuts to establishments of repute, allaround the country, to maximise the taste experience and customer accessibility’.
This sort of shit does my head in.
What’s worse is it works. At least for some people and brands.
Not because people believe it’s really an artisan product, but because they want to believe they’re special and worth the ‘extra’.
Which says as much about the state of humanity as it does the state of marketing.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Film
First of all, as today is 11.11, I want to acknowledge all the people who paid the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the world had peace.
Given the state of where we’re all at, there is the potential it was all in vain, so I hope sanity prevails and tyrants are dealt with.
OK, now I’ve done the mature bit, I want to talk about Bob Hoskins.
No … not because I have more than a passing resemblance to him … but because I read something recently that reinforced why I liked him so much.
For those who don’t know who he is, he’s the now deceased British actor famous for his roles in movies such as, The Long Good Friday, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, TwentyFourSeven [by my mate Midlands mate, Shane Meadows] and errrrrm, the iconic tragedy that was Super Mario Bros … the first ever movie based on a video game and notorious for how terrible the filming was, let alone the final product.
[More on that last one in a minute]
However where my appreciation of Bob started was not in a movie but in an interview.
He was on a chat show and they asked him …
“How hard is it to film back to back movies?”
He could have gone on a rant about the demands it takes out on him.
Not seeing his family.
Not being home.
The physical and mental exhaustion.
But he didn’t, he said this:
“I’ll tell you what’s hard. Nurses jobs are hard. Single parents lives are hard. Working in a factory is hard. I’m well looked after and well paid for pretending to be someone else on a screen, My life isn’t hard compared to those people. They’re the one’s who deserve the adulation, not me”.
And he meant every word, because not only was Hoskins notoriously self aware, he also found the Hollywood machine very uncomfortable. He loved acting but he hated the fawning.
Nothing sums this up more than his involvement with the movie Super Mario Bros.
The full disaster of the filming can be read here or here … but this quote by Hoskins probably sums it up best:
“The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Bros. It was a fucking nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks, their own agent told them to get off the set! Fucking nightmare. Fucking idiots.”
However after the movie he said something that not only summed up his love of his children and his chosen career, but captured why the advertising industry – for all its faults – can still hold magic.
Sure, not what it once was.
Sure, with it having huge implications on its future.
But something that I can’t imagine many other industries having.
And while we strive to be taken seriously as a discipline in the world of commerce, it might be with worth us remembering its the ridiculousness that made/makes us special. For the work it lets us create. For the influence on culture we can shape. For the way we can make brands something people want to know more about rather than just ignore.
It may be stupid.
It may not always make sense.
But at our best, it’s the ridiculous ways we see and operate in the world that can help business achieve – and mean more – than they ever imagined.
It’s time we remembered that.
It’s time companies remembered that.
Because when you see the vast majority of work put out at enormous expense – researched to within an inch of its life and judged by ‘gurus’ who generally have never actually created anything in their life [other than their own sense of self-importance] and have a limited view of what creativity is and can do, you can’t help but wonder if it is there to push us away rather than pull us in.
Have a great weekend.
Make it a ridiculous one.
Be more like Bob. Hoskins, not Campbell.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand, Brand Suicide, Business, Comment, Consultants, Context, Creativity, Culture, Distinction, Effectiveness, Individuality, Innovation, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail
I was never a fan of Seinfeld.
Then I’ve never been much of a fan of Jerry Seinfeld either.
I always found him a bit of condescending, self-righteous prick.
Oh I get he is smart.
His observational skills are almost unparalleled.
But you can be a genius and still be an asshole. Step on down Elon Musk.
However recently I read something Jerry said that made me dislike him less.
Not simply because he didn’t know who McKinsey were, but because of what he highlighted is the problem with them. Or more specifically, the problem companies who use them, have.
Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate this paints Jerry as a control freak.
And I also acknowledge that many companies hire McKinsey because they think the challenge they face is hard – rather than easy.
But what I do like about what he says is he won’t outsource his responsibility.
Sure, he could trust those around him more … and sure, his words smack of egomaniac … but to be fair to him, the product he sells is himself – his personality, his character, his humour – so it makes perfect sense he is obsessive about what goes out under his name because he cares deeply about his reputation, values and his quality control.
And that’s a major problem these days.
Too many don’t.
Oh they’ll say they do.
They’ll run internal and external communication that reinforce they do.
But then they’ll go and outsource their responsibilities and decisions to ‘for profit’ external organisations. Either because they don’t want the pressure … the issue is beyond their abilities … or they want someone to blame if things go wrong.
And the issue with this is the external organisation who are now responsible for answering this challenge, often do it with little to no consideration of who they’re doing it for.
How their clients look at the world.
The nuances and quirks that define who the company is and how they act.
So they provide a solution that does exactly what has been asked of them and nothing more.
Solutions agnostic of client values, beyond some superficial characteristics.
And this has resulted in a world filled with identikit functional solutions. Solutions that answer the issue, but at the cost of commoditisation. And all because senior people – who are paid handsomely to be responsible for their organisations wellbeing and growth – decided to outsource their responsibility to another organisation, even though they know they will never care as much about them as they should care about themselves.
Of course not everyone is like this.
Some are as committed and obsessive about how they do things as what they do.
But there are far too many who look for quick wins.
Easy answers.
Less pressure or responsibility.
Which is why I have always thought whether you are a shareholder or an employee, knowing how much the most senior people understand, value and protect the standards, nuance and quirks of the company they represent – not simply the balance sheet – acts as a good indicator you’re with a company who respects the value of their own value.
Not simply in terms of profit.
Nor in reputation.
But in the standards and values that drives all they do and create.
Which is my way of saying that while I still think Jerry Seinfeld is a bit of a dick, I now respect him for knowing where his responsibilities lie.
To both himself, his future and his fans.
Now if only there were more companies and brands who lived by the same mantra.