Filed under: Advertising [Planning] School On The Web
… incase you missed it, click here and learn why you can breathe a sigh of relief.
At least for another 10 days or so.
So by Sunday morning 9am, Shanghai time, all entries into the A[P]SOTW assignment should be in.
However because I’m so kind, not to mention the fact I am going to be traveling for a week and a half, you can – if you need to – have until November 4th.
Yes, more time.
I know … I know … I’m so bloody generous aren’t I.
Of course, if you’ve finished & are happy with what you’ve done, send me the presentation [or link to your video pitch], otherwise we’ll close everything off officially on the 4th.
Definitely. Absolutely. Wholeheartedly.
And because I’m sure Northern will take the piss out of me for delaying the submission, let me tell you this will not adversely affect how long it takes to do the judging. Oh no. Ahem.
Filed under: Advertising [Planning] School On The Web
So after waaaaaaaaay too long, we finally have a new A[P]SOTW assignment.
Huge apologies for the delay, this has nothing to do with Gareth and Northern and everything to do with my slackness.
As I mentioned a while back, this assignment is about simplification.
Now, while that might sound easy, there’s a few things to remember:
+ Simplification is not the same as simple.
+ It takes a lot of hard work to simplify something while maintaining the ideas heart & energy.
+ Simplification is not an excuse to be bland, boring or generic.
So what is the actual challenge?
Well it’s something that many of us are exposed to, the RFP – short for Request For Proposal.
An RFP is a document many companies send out to agencies as part of their pitch process and are normally an absolute bloody nightmare.
The reason for this is because they’re often 70+ page documents that go into the minutest of details without ever saying anything at all.
In essence, they’ve been designed to appear informative while actually encouraging more questions than answers.
The good news is the RFP you will be using for this assignment is not 70+ pages long, mainly because I couldn’t be arsed to type up that many pages.
The bad news is it’s as contradictory and confusing as it’s longer-form versions.
So what do we want you to do?
Well, having read the RFP, we want you to:
__________________________________________________________________
1. Give a clear articulation of what you believe is the core objective of the RFP.
[Yes we know the RFP is full of contradictions, dead ends and goals – we’ve done it on purpose because sadly, that’s what so many of them are like which is why you have to decide what you believe is the real objective and – to a certain degree – explain why]
2. Create a strategy that achieves the objective you have identified.
[That means we need to see a definition of the audience, the insight/s driving your strategy, a clear articulation of what your strategy is and 3 examples of how it could be ‘brought to life’, outside of traditional advertising]
3. Write down the 5 key questions you wish you could ask the client.
4. Present your findings via a 10-25 page presentation OR an 10 minutes video pitch.
__________________________________________________________________
That’s it.
Easy eh!?
Ahem.
Well, to stop you freaking out [or – if you’re one of those super-confident types – help you look even more brilliant], we’ve created this assignment in partnership with those wonderful and knowledgable folk at Warc.
Warc – for those who don’t know – is a company that provides independent and authoritative global information on marketing, trends and new thinking. They’ve been around since 1985 so have shitloads of award winning, global case studies – all with in-depth analysis – so you can make decisions with greater confidence than crossing your fingers or using some random ‘factual’ charts you found on Pinterest.
Yes, I know this all sounds like some massive product placement – but it’s not – they just want to help the industry be better and perform better which is why they asked for absolutely nothing in return. The fools!
Anyway, to help with this particular assignment, Warc have kindly provided some free links to a bunch of their inspirational case studies so that you can understand and consider some of the market dynamics to enable you to forge a more informed, culturally provocative point of view.
What you use – if anything – is up to you, but it’s there to help.
However, before we get to all that, here are some things to note.
+ While in the real World, clients would answer specific questions you may have with the brief, we will not.
The purpose of this assignment is to simplify the RFP to what you believe is the key issue that needs to be addressed – and then justify your decision via your strategic response.
+ Make sure you answer the fundamentals of the RFP.
If you want to do more – or go further – that’s fine, but make sure you’ve answered the 4 key elements.
+ You should approach this as a competitive pitch, which means paying attention to how you say things as well as what you say.
+ Remember strategy is, at it’s heart, simply about getting from point A to point B.
With that in mind, any recommendation should be clearly defined and articulated. If it doesn’t make sense or is hard to understand, then you’re probably going to fail, regardless how brilliant you think your idea is.
When IBM took the unprecedented decision to sell off their hugely profitable PC business – a decision that had unbelievable implications for the business both in the present and the future – they articulated their strategy as simply ‘moving from computers to consulting’.
Obviously there was a ridiculous lot more to it than just coming up with a pithy line, but in terms of comprehension of the overall strategy … it was clear, concise and actionable.
In short, if a massive technology company can do it, then you should definitely be able to do the same.
+ You will be judged by seasoned veterans so make sure your response is interesting, exciting and challenging.
This isn’t just about coming up with something effective, it’s about being seen as the partner who can help them grow and go to places few could see, let alone deliver on.
So who are these judges?
Well there’s a few.
There’s me.
There’s Rodi, one of my wonderful colleagues.
There’s David, International Editor at Warc.
There’s Raj, regional head of strategy at MEC.
There’s Steve, a very, very senior executive at Virgin Atlantic.
There’s Simon, a very important and experienced marketer at NIKE.
And finally, one more Steve – who is one of the senior designers at Apple.
The closing date is October 28th, so there’s plenty of time to get on with things and as usual, the submission voted ‘the best’ by the judges will receive a prize.
Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me and I hope that people beyond just strategy have a go. There are no wrong answers, just different ways to approach everything – and while the ultimate decision will be made by people who have lots of experience in developing great ideas for great brands – that doesn’t mean they have the monopoly on everything that works.
Most of all, just have fun – as much as RFP’s can be unbelievably painful – if you rule them rather than they rule you, great things can happen.
Good luck and here’s the mad RFP and – as mentioned previously – some links, kindly supplied by Warc, that might help you be even more brilliant.
Warc Case Study Knowledge & Inspiration
1. Paper on how Uniqlo used digital marketing to build a global brand.
2. Focus on Puma’s after-hours athlete campaign.
3. Best practice paper on brand extensions.
4. Admap column challenging received wisdom about WOM/influencers.
Filed under: Advertising [Planning] School On The Web
… the fire is crackling, the tree is up, the presents are all nicely wrapped under the tree – begging to be opened – there is festive cheer all around.
What am I going on about?
Yes, the A[P]SOTW assignment is finally here tomorrow.
Rejoice.
Let’s just hope you don’t unwrap your present and find it’s another out-of-date, totally inappropriate, piece of crap from Auntie Mabel that you’ll be putting straight into the Salvation Army’s collection bag.
Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
Filed under: Advertising [Planning] School On The Web, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!
I have a lot of respect for the criminal fraternity.
Well, not all of them, but definitely the conmen.
Maybe it’s because I admire their ingenuity.
Maybe it’s because I admire their balls.
Maybe it’s because they remind me of 90% of adland.
Whatever, the intelligent conman is someone to respect and learn from because they know far more about influencing human behaviour than pretty much every planner and researcher out there.
But somethings happened to their profession as of late – at least in regards to the low level internet scammer – because it seems they have decided to go the same way as much of the marketing fraternity and that is to try and appeal to people’s lowest common denominator: flattery.
Couple of points …
1. To be fair, I hear that the amount of revenue they manage to get out of people is still – on a global basis – in the hundreds of millions so their ‘technique’ can’t be all bad.
2. I appreciate most of mankind is flattery operated, so there’s method to the madness.
However what bothers me is that we now are seeing a decided lack of flair, imagination and sheer chutzpah.
Gone are the days where you were randomly contacted by some African General’s cousin who promised you untold millions for simply “helping them get their money out of their countries soon-to-be-frozen bank accounts” and instead, we are faced with the sort of sycophantic ramblings last seen by Oprah.
For example:
“Hello there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok. I’m absolutely enjoying your blog, your topics about female viagra samples are amazing and look forward to new posts. ”
OR
“I accidentally came across your blog and I think it’s really good. If you’re not already a famous writer, you should be. I have a friend in the publishing industry so if you write to me, I will connect you up. Look forward to reading more from you.”
Seriously, even the most low self esteemed of low self esteemed would be able to tell this is a scam which has got me thinking, maybe I should set this as the A[P]SOTW instead?
Get planners to write a strategy on how to get people to part with their cash for something they don’t want.
Mind you, many people would argue that’s what they do anyway. Oh well.
Talking of A[P]SOTW, it’s almost done … finally have the brief sorted out … I just need to talk to 2 more people and then we can get it up and running.
Sorry for the delay, been a bit mad recently and no, it’s not because of free holidays thank you very much Andy, Doddsy and every other bugger out there who takes great delight in slagging me off.
Anyway, while I was joking that adland and the criminal fraternity are related, I was being genuine when I said that the art of the con can teach you a lot about human behaviour so next time you’re thinking of buying a book on strategy or insight or some other term the planning community like to bang on about, buy one of these books instead [1, 2, 3] … just focus on how they did it – and why people went along with it – not what they did, because I don’t want to be blamed when you’re in court charged with theft.