Northern Planner

The Rules updated

1. Follow the damned rules

2. Never help others break the rules

3. Help guide those who don't know any better

4. No matter what your excuse is for breaking the rules, it isn't good enough

5. It's all about the work. The only point of any strategic set up (and try showing the creative, the plan, or the content idea etc first and then show how you got there) is to help the client understand why you're recommending what you are recommending. Take the time to write less, they like value being added, you should be giving them insight they haven't considered, or reframing the brief in an inspirational way, but mostly, when they have 20 agencies, research partners and God knows what else, whatever agency you're in, it's more about helping them see the wood for the trees and compressing the hurricane of information they're flailing in, down to one clear task, or three clear principles. No one is sitting there thinking 'I can't wait to see the strategy' they want to see the work/the plan/the content etc. That goes for a strategic presentation too, they don't want chart after chart, they want you to get to a proposition/organising thought/task for communications quickly - that's the 'work' too. It's all about the work. Anyone who says otherwise is either and brandbabbler (as Ad Contrarian would say) or someone who charges a lot for process, rather than ideas and results.

6. Toughen the fuck up.You will sometimes have to work late. You will sometimes have to work on a weekend. You will sometimes have to get up early. Your finest work will get rejected. Your finest work will get approved and then killed when budgets get cut. The occasional long hours are the job. The unpredictability and rejection are just business. Your clients answer to a board who don't care about ads and think marketing isn't that difficult. Their business is subject to market fluctuations therefore so are you. A booked media plan will get canned, an ad will get banned unfairly, a client will change their mind. It's called life, no, it's called business. That said, presenteeism is even worse, see Rule 83. 

7. Toughen up even more if you're a planner. 90% of creative's work gets rejected, this makes them slightly sociopathic, if you want crazy great ideas, working with weird folks is one of the things you have to deal with. Creatives deal with rejection all the time. Suits want stuff off their desk and deal with the sharp edge of client business. You always run the risk of being a barrier to the work a creative wants doing, or a suit getting stuff done on time. Few love a planner, the best you can hope for is being tolerated. Get hard.

8. Suits must toughen up even more. See above. No one likes you unless you get them extra budget, defend them from the client, get the travel stuff sorted our or make the tea and coffee. To quote Gordon Gecko, if you want a friend, get a dog.

9. Workshops should never, ever last more than four hours. After that, everyone is silently praying all this will end.

10. Workshops are a waste of time. Trojan horses of mediocrity to quote Adliterate. These are a way for people with bad ideas and little imagination to get really, really smelly ideas into the mix. Only workshop when you have no choice. And if you must have one, employ dirty tricks to get what you need out of it (see Rule 11)

11. Use workshops as major tool for dirty planning. If you have the kind of client, or stakeholder group who never approve anything unless it's their idea, it's time for a workshop. Just make sure you know what the answer is and structure the day and your moderation on helping folks think for themselves.

12. Creatives must reject the brief in all cases, no exceptions. Usually, it's because the brief is crap. Sometimes, it's because it's really great, but no creative will acknowledge this. A creative lives or dies by their ideas, that includes anything sort of strategic. Even if the brief is good, creatives must use the first review to make it look like a good strategy was their idea in the first place.

13. Ignore everything a social strategist says.

14. Media Owners and content partners must ignore the brief at all times. Three rounds of research the client has payed through the nose for, then going back and forth over the comms strategy, the usual tussle between agencies, the three rounds of creative. None of this matters because no one gets content like a media owner, no one else knows how to surprise and delight people like they do. So every presentation needs to have a major piece of work done by a strategist, with a killer insight, such as 'people look up to sports stars' or 'men like driving cars to escape'. Then the brand needs to be reinvented. All this needs to be wrapped up in mediawank language and take forever before you get a re-writing of the creative lexicon with stuff like 'lets go behind the scenes of sports stars training'. Or even better 'tell stories about why men have always loved driving'.

15. Anyone who isn't a media owner should always treat media owners with extreme caution. Never let them present straight to the  client without leaving at least two weeks between you seeing it first and the presentation date.

16. If you work in media agency, take every opportunity to make a creative agency work with a media owner of other content partner. It will complicate everything, but the comedy you will see unfolding totally makes up for it.

17. Ignore everything a brand consultant says. Everything. They get paid to come up with a hallowed document that will change everyone's fortunes, only for you to find it's just a few words in boxes that no one can get any decent work or direction from.

18. If you are short of money, get into brand design. Getting paid thousands to change the pantone reference of the logo, or change one word in a strapline no one cares about is perhaps even easier money than brand consultants.

19. Just call yourself a planner. A strategist, provocateur (really!!!), The Invention team.....it's a stupid title, but let's not look like brand consultants when it comes to branding ourselves.

20. A planning type must put deliberate mistakes in every piece of work. No one likes a smart arse, and by definition, a planner is a smart arse. Also, people are always more likely to like something if they think they helped make it. So put a deliberate mistake in the brief - media/creative/media owner/cross agency whatever and the TV buyer/creative/overpaid 'strategist (hahaha)  at Channel 4 even more overpaid 'strategist at the social agency will happily correct you and think they own the damn thing. Same principle in client presentations.

21. Anyone using the following words in any situation will be henceforth known as a complete dickhead. Ideation. Interface. Visioneering. In fact anyone caught using overlong words will have a drink spilt in their lap. The more complex your language, the more people think you're a complete twonk (and less intelligent).

22. Never ever comment on another agency's work in cross agency meeting. If you are asked, always be positive, or if you are good at damning with faint praise, do so with caution - for example, 'I love the idea of a partnership, it's great when we all have to roll our sleeves up and work with a new partner, that's the thing about really great campaigns, you can't get around having to do more work, but it's well worth it'. Of course, in private, it's tempting to slag them off but clients really can't be arsed dealing with agencies that can't get along, who are always trying to get more work at the expense of someone else. By all means, stab people in the back, but don't let ANYONE know that's what you are doing.

21. Whatever time you want to give the client to approve stuff, double it. That's life.

23. Creatives/media buyers and anyone in production can lose it as often as they like. Planning and account handling folk can never lose their temper and slowly simmer. If you need to vent spleen, take up an active sport, buy a punchbag or, even better, just deal with it. This is just the way it is.

24. Never ever wait until the day before the presentation before you show the stuff to your boss/CEO or whoever. In fact, don't show them it unless you really must. They'll change something just because they can - and since they are now better at bean counting, dealing with politics and cooking the books, they won't be any good at actual advertising any more. Just use them to charm the client now and again and make sure they don't say anything daft.

25. Be nice to the head of client services. They have been put there to keep them quiet and pacify them for the fact they'll never make CEO or MD. In fact, the only reason they are still here is because their one skill is making clients like them.

26. Give up the suits. Of course, creatives should never wear suits, but strategy types shouldn't either - just never look as casual as creatives. Suits should consider giving up the suits too, clients really don't care that much. Of course, one or two do, but with these exceptions to the general rule, only the suits should worry about wearing suits. It's just the way it is.

27. Never ever cut corners with coffee or tea. Obviously, this goes for client meetings. Tea made in the pot, coffee in a cafetierre is a minimum, but respect each other too and make the effort to do it right. No fucking instant coffee, no substandard tea bags. Never pour any tea or coffee unless it's brewed for at least three minutes. If you want weak tea or coffee, just get some hot water, as weak tea or coffee are just water pretending to be something else. Warm the milk if you're making coffee, never warm the milk if it's tea.

28. Surround yourself with quality. This relates to the quality of the hot drinks, but also your sound system, your books and so on. Quality stuff will rub off on you.

29. Get out of the bloody bubble. Marketing folk are not normal. It's not normal to want to make transient stuff that makes people want to buy stuff they don't need. But the folks we're trying to persuade to buy stuff they don't need, they require us to understand them. So get the fuck out of your office, out of SOHO, Brooklyn, Madison Avenue, The Northern Quarter or whatever cool postcode you're in and go be with real people. As a minimum, once a month: Go to a popular shopping mall and a supermarket. Consume some popular media you think is beneath you. Go to where your target customer is and try and talk to some of them.

30. Do not believe any research that was done anywhere but where people are buying or using what you are selling. People lie, they lie to themselves. The only useful research is done in real time, in the jungle rather than the zoo.

31. Get better at traditional research than researchers. Know thine enemy.

32. Make friends with traffic if you're in a creative agency. Make friends with all the PA's. They know everything that is happening. Everything.

33. Don't count the powerpoint slides. Sometimes 100 slides is okay, sometimes 5 is perfect. It depends on your pace,style and what you need to deliver. Rehearse and time the presentation, rather than count slides.

34. Never get so pissed on a works do you can't remember what you have said. Trust me on this.

35. If you must have to drink with the client, stay at least two drinks behind. Never go home before them, unless you're a lightweight. Better to be thought of as no fun than try and sleep with them, tell them how much you hate your spouse, or call them a c***t.

36. Edit everything you do three times. It will be too long and not watertight first time. It will be better next time around. Only at the third round will it be acceptable. It's just the way it is.

37. It never gets easier, you just have more to deal with. The more important you get, the more shit you have to deal with. If you're a junior, an account director should make it look easy because they need to instill confidence in you and their clients. They will be crying inside close to a deadline as much as you, they just get better at dealing with it...and deal with more.

38. If you're under 30 stop moaning about how much money you are not making. No one makes much until they reach 30, and even then, they won't be paid as much as a lawyer or banker. If you want to make serious money, start and agency and plan to sell it (and you're soul).

39. The size of an agency is inversely proportioned the quality of its I.T. That's just how things are.

40. Look at your job very hard every two years. if you're bored, if you're stagnating, or if you are underpaid, consider looking elsewhere. Never move for the money alone, I know too many people who left a great job to become highly paid malcontents in places that weren't right. If you're bored or stagnating, see if there is something you can do about it, if not, jump....your bosses will probably be wondering why you are still here anyway.

41. Respect the past. It wasn't much better, but most of what you think is the latest thing has been done before and better.

42. Ignore awards papers. In awards land, everything works, the process is simple, there is always a catastrophe and a flash of insight that came from nowhere. Awards papers never reflect what really happened, not even the original strategy. IPA papers are just the ones where the client would pay for econometrics. Creative awards are designed to impress creative directors, not real people. So when you get a case study that says the strategic leap was imagining the brand was a woman, rather than a man, you know what to do don't you?

43. Don't become mired in the past. Culture changes, markets change, the trick is to move with the times and keep what was great about the past. Every great brand (agency brands too) tends to fail when they stop moving forward, or forget what made them great in the first place. Yes, that is a contradiction, deal with it.

44. It isn't the death of TV.

45. It's not the age of whatever you think it is.

46. If an agency with a reputation for being ruthless, formulaic or really dull wants to hire you, if that kind of thing suits you, fine. If not, run for your life, they will never, ever change.

47. If client wants you to shake thinks up and challenge them with more original thinking, yet have a past of more 'hardworking' ideas (insert euphemism here), unless there is a new CEO or CMO, run for your life if it's a pitch. They will never ever change. If it's an existing client, make sure you have a formulaic plan B, that's what they'll buy in the end.

48. If you work in a media agency you need to be able to drink. This is just the way it is.

49. if you work in a social media agency, you need to be able to sell snake oil.

50. if you work in a creative agency, you need to be OK with drinking yourself to sleep occasionally.

51. Everyone who doesn't work in marketing thinks they can do your job. That's just the way it is.

52. All deadlines, no matter how long you have, shall be ignored up until the day before when everyone shall spring into action and do two weeks work in two days.

53. The senior person buys lunch. Always.

54. Never, ever, sleep with a client. It always ends in tears. Trust me on this.

55. Work is to be measured by quality, not quantity. That goes for how long your hours are, the length of any document, the number of slides or any work you are doing.

56. The purpose of pitching is to win. It's not a time to tell the client their brief is wrong, or stick to your guns on challenging work. You don't know them yet. Read the brief, follow the brief, give them what they will want to buy. It won't be what eventually gets bought or booked anyway.

57. Marketing books should be read with caution. Marketing books are usually written by people wanting to sell their services and based on bad evidence, or evidence that supports an argument that sells books rather than client products and services. Always have your own point of view and read stuff about what your clients are selling. That should always include the annual report.

58. Follow the money. Get to know the clients finance officer, they know more about what the business thinks it needs. And find out who really makes the decisions, in one case for me, it was the CEO's son. Once you know who it is and what they like, shape your sell to this person. The greatest work you ever did was probably something that never got bought.

59. A great idea is a great idea. Legend has it, the Cadbury Gorilla was in a creative's draw for years, waiting to be post rationalised for the right brief. Always keep great ideas on file, you never know.

60. Post rationalisation isn't a crime (as Russell Davies would say) it's a valid way to get great ideas made. Never sell great ideas if they are not right for the brief, but if it's great and it's right, no one cares if the strategy came before or after apart from the strategist.

61. Process is a smokescreen. Any kind of agency flails around, drinks lots of caffeine, panics and eventually something good emerges and it gets developed just in time. A process is to to give clients the illusion of professionalism, it never works like that in real life.

62. The only way to get a good idea is to work hard. Flashes of inspiration are rare, great work usually comes from getting a bad idea quickly, and then working out what is wrong with it.

63. Never kill an idea by speaking before thinking about it. Our industry is supposed to be about originality, and our first reaction to new stuff is fear and rejection. You're first response will be wrong, live with it for awhile - and shut up.

64. Never encourage anyone to kill your ideas before they have chance to think. You present something, you're desperate for approval like a little puppy , bouncing up and down, desperate for appreciation. But if you ask someone what they think, before they have had chance, they'll say something they don't mean, and to keep face, will stand by it through thick or thin. Well done, you've just killed your own work.

65. Have the courage to change your mind. We're all wrong sometimes. It's not weak to admit you're wrong, but agencies can be very macho and all about winning the argument. Don't win arguments, win pitches, do great work, go home.

66. Have the courage to stand your ground. Sometimes you know you are right. Just know when you want to pick your battles. A client I trust once told me what they want is to be listened to, to have their feedback taken on board, but also for agencies to have the courage to say what they think and recommend what is right, but be aware the decision is the clients at the end of the day.

67. The start time of a day is fluid, just as the end is. That's just the way it is.

68. No one cares about the 'brief' as much as it's author. The creative director cares a bit, because it's make them feel like they still matter when they insist on changing a word in the proposition. The client likes to sign off the brief sometimes to make them feel creative. The planning director likes to sign off the brief because they can change another word and claim the thinking if it becomes next year's award winner. Creatives like arguing over the brief because it's fun toying with you before they ignore it completely. The TV buyer likes you doing a brief because they can refuse to work until they've got said brief,  and recover from the heavy night out with Channel 4 (which is why the brief will get ignored if they can't put Channel 4 on the plan). The suits like a brief because they like the illusion of holding creatives/media buyers/media owners to account. Of course, everyone ignores the brief and does what the hell they like. Which is why you should write one brief for the briefing and another after the first review, based on the work people like. No one will notice, they hardly read the brief anyway.

69. Have fun for Christ sake. You're not in an agency for a quiet life. You're not in it to be super rich. You're there because this is what suits your talents and, more importantly, you like being around interesting people. If you're not having fun, the hard work will get too hard. If there is no banter or good conversation, what the hell are you in an agency for?

70. Develop a thick skin. Agencies get through the day with a very sharp humour and wind each other up mercilessly. It's just the way it is.

71. if you work in a media agency, you'll find everyone swears more than they should. Get used to it.

72. Be nice to everyone. It's too hard for politics as it is, but more importantly, the industry is too small and an enemy will probably end up as your boss or your client.

73. Lighten up. We are not doctors, none of this really matters.

74. Forget the babble. Reach as much of the market as you can, as often as you can, say something about what you do or sell in a way that cannot be missed, try and get talked about, continually remove reasons not to buy.

75. You are there to sell things. You are not there to build brand meaning or change culture, these things MAY be a means to sell things sometimes. If you want to make people laugh, be a comedy writer. If you want to do culturally significant stuff, work for HBO. You do need an appreciation of what makes people laugh, what moves people, what they like, what they hate. But all this is in service of making people want to buy things......which tends to be as simple as being the one they've heard of that sort of feels right. And no one cares about the brand positioning apart from brand babblers.

76. Celebrate the introverts. The people who rise to the top in fast paced, sink or swim agency life, tend to be the charismatic people who are super confident and own the room. We support their decisions because we want to believe them. But while there is merit in acting quickly and then refining as you go along, their is little room for the quietly spoken, the ones who don't win by speaking first or being the loudest, the ones who think a little more, question things and don't naturally think they are right. Let everyone speak and bloody listen to them. The job is more complex than ever, don't fall in love with your first idea, listen to everyone, the more eyes you have on a project, the better it will be...as long as their is a benign dictator overlooking everything.

77. All agencies will try and fight over the core comms planning. That's the way it is......and can be healthy if everyone listens to each other.

78. Creative agencies can't do media. They just can't. If you want to do media, start a media department.

79. Media agencies can't do creative...but think they can.

80. Digital agencies will never be unbiased, only let them do digital.

81. Media owners can't do ads, yet. They think they can, but do not them do comms strategy or creative strategy.......just brief them right based on a good idea.

82. The term 'native' shall henceforth be banned..........it's a bloody advertorial.

83. Hard isn't the point, the point is great work. I once had a boss who told me she liked recessions because she could push staff harder. If a company is making profits through their people doing 14 hours days, it's not a business, it's a workhouse. Don't fall for long hours and bleeding for your craft as a badge of honour - tired us stupid not genius. Don't impress people with how tired you are, wow them with you work.

83. That said, don't pretend is was easy. We judge quality by effort as much as outcome - so show you've cared and put the work in. You'll be doing a favour to your industry, good work is hard, the more we pretend it's easy the more we make others feel inadequate.

84. Keep the mute button on. It's always wise to think before you speak, having to push the off button first gives you a precious few seconds to avoid saying anything stupid. Ensure one meeting in three you talk with the button still on, it makes the people who can't work out the difference between on and off better about themselves. 

85. Never belief agencies who say they are a great place to work, even the ones who have won awards. The ones that shout the loudest tend to be covering up the most problems. Talk to as many people who worked there or work there, get a true picture before it's too late. You may find the number of Nespresso machines, team lunches and away days in inversely proportioned to the day to day enjoyment of the actual job.

86. The same for agencies with lots of PR for diversity. You'll probably find behind the smokescreen lots of hierarchy and 'we always done it this way'. 

87. There are only three questions to ask in a creative review. Is is on brief? Does the work make us rethink the brief? What is the ideas. This depends on a decent brief in the first place and creatives who can have ideas instead of visuals.

88. Always speak last whenever you can. Let the loudmouths speak before they think, give yourself time to work out what you want to say - the final work is always more powerful. Also, if you've nothing to say, you can go with 'What she said'. Don't be fooled by senior people asking the team to first. They're not being collegiate or kind, they just don't know what to say yet. 

89. Don't take any LinkedIn guru seriously unless they've actually done the job they claim to be an expert in. By all means, break the rules and all that, but you need to understand the rules before you break them, even these rules. 

89. Obey the rules

The only 3 questions you need in a creative review

1. Is it on brief?
2. Does the work make us want to re-think the brief?
3. What is the idea?
It’s amazing how often reviews are chaos.
Too many routes, discussions about liking the work before discussing if the work will actually work.
But then, great ideas can die because we forget a brief is the start of a discussion, not the final word.
Post rationalisation is the friend of great work, but ego is the enemy of greatness.
More and more thought, we’re seeing ideas that are a line, or a great Mac visual. Ask creatives what the idea is. Not only will you find out sometimes there isn’t one, you may find a great idea hidden behind a plonky line or Polish director’s reference.
Oh and before a review, watch a video you know the audience will like- you’ll have a better feel for what will strike a chord with them rather than the adland bubble.

When even Darwin didn't have an original idea alone, planners should put less pressure on themselves

I'm sure you know that Darwin wasn't the only one to come up with the theory of natural selection, he just published it first.

It's no coincidence he and Wallace had the same thought, they were building on the previous work of others.

The insight came from their killer intellects - but lighting only struck because of the ideas of earlier thinkers.

That's right, maybe the best idea ever didn't come from one person.

Not even the two who had it.

It was the final result of years evolution (see what I did there)

Most ideas are like this.

Great Pixar movies emerge kicking and screaming from daily crit sessions. 

Great strategy emerges from lots of false starts, cutting out the crap and, in many cases, many conversations.

So make it easy on yourself.

Start early, with the courage to fail - and then build. 

Create lots of conversations around the project.

And the best work will emerge. 

As long as you put the work in. 

Maybe planner is the wrong name, maybe we're shapers. 

 

We only see what we look for

I always loved this video

The fact we only see what we look for is sobering thought for planners

Those that have to work using a rigid agency process and have to look for answers that fit the agency way

Often end end missing pure gold because they're not looking for it

Thinking about one in particular, looking to Disrupt a category often means you miss the truth behind it

So if you're working to a process, remember it's the result that matters, try get there using a new route that opens your eyes.

Then post rationalise to make it fit

 

Then there is the danger to have the answer too soon

You may have a something you've always wanted to do, and you see an opportunity on a brief and then try make it fit

You may have a really good thought early on, and want to hold on to it

You may even have decided what research will tell you before it's even started

Naturally, you have to start somewhere and a working hypothesis certainly helps

But if you only look to justify your early thoughts, you've missed chance after chance to find something better

So by all means have a first pass, but it's worth looking for what's wrong with it

Look through other's eyes by talking it through

But basically, refuse to commit until you absolutely have to

Try not to look for anything too specific early on.

 

Most importantly, try and avoid the agency addiction to cool and shiny

Because if you only look for the cutting edge, you miss the sheer brilliance of real life

As do most brands

Some of the very best work is amazing because it SEES people more

The planner has looked harder for what is really going on in people's lives

How they relate to the category or the brand

One of my favourite ads here,  simply understands the eccentric British more than most

A classic example of seeing what's under your nose

 

So because we only really find what we're looking for, try not to look too hard for anything. 

Why brands (and the job) can be like maths and tea - it's the little things that give you away

My kids are at school and hate how in maths they have to show the working out, not just the answer.

Well, just as effort get's you marks in maths, it does in life. 

Now you may know I like tea a lot. 

You may also know I'm a stickler for making tea properly.

It's number 27 in  my agency rules- you always know what a company is like from the way it serves hot beverages. 

 

It's part of a simple truth.

We sign more quality to things based on the perceived effort that went into them, not the outcome. 

Or....it's the little things that really give you away. 

So if you have a brand on your hands with  a good story or a strong culture - but not that superior (come on, which ones really are these days).

Go nuts bringing that story to life.

Like these. 

 

And when it comes to the job. Don't fall for the seamless, effortless planner archetype.

Those moments your brain finally saw a way to crack the brief when you weren't working, so you scrambled to get your notebook to get it down.

The wrong turn, where you threw all the work in the bin and started again.

The terror you always feel when you get a 20 page client brief.

Show the real work that went into it.

 

No one likes a supercilious smart arse planner anyway.

In fact, on the effort thing. Put mistakes in you work, let others correct them, because of THEIR own effort, they like your work more now.

 

I'm going to assume you're work is great anyway.

But with clients, creatives, whoever. The more you show you cared, the more they'll appreciate it.

Which means typos are a point of contention.

Either a signal you don't care enough, or a cunning plan to involve your audience!!

(By the way, I'm really not saying presenteeism. I mean infections enthusiasm)

 

The more you put in, the more others think they'll get out. Simple really but the best things usually are no?

Why brands (and the job) can be like maths and tea - it's the little things that give you away

My kids are at school and hate how in maths they have to show the working out, not just the answer.

Well, just as effort get's you  marks in maths, it does in life. 

Now you may know I like tea a lot. 

You may also know I'm a stickler for making tea properly.

It's number 27 in  my agency rules- you always know what a company is like from the way it serves hot beverages. 

 

It's part of a simple truth.

We sign more quality to things based on the perceived effort that went into them, not the outcome. 

Or....it's the little things that really give you away. 

So if you have a brand on your hands with  a good story or a strong culture - but not that superior (come on, which ones really are these days).

Go nuts bringing that story to life.

Like these. 

 

And when it comes to the job. Don't fall for the seamless, effortless planner archetype.

Those moments your brain finally saw a way to crack the brief when you weren't working, so you scrambled to get your notebook to get it down.

The wrong turn, where you threw all the work in the bin and started again.

The terror you always feel when you get a 20 page client brief.

Show the real work that went into it.

 

No one likes a supercilious smart arse planner anyway.

In fact, on the effort thing. Put mistakes in you work, let others correct them, because of THEIR own effort, they like your work more now.

 

I'm going to assume you're work is great anyway.

But with clients, creatives, whoever. The more you show you cared, the more they'll appreciate your work.

Which means typos are a point of contention.

Either a signal you don't care enough, or a cunning plan to involve your audience!!

By the way, I'm really not saying presenteeism. I mean infections enthusiasm.

 

The more you put in, the more others think they'll get out. Simple really but the best things usually are no?

If you want better answers, ask less questions

If I was any good as maths, I would have been a physicist instead of planner. Such is life.

That said, I've always kept a passing fascination for the subject, especially particle physics.

There's a weird phenomenon when things get very, very small, which blows my mind.

You have to assume tiny particles are in multiple places at once, yet if you actually observe them, you affect their behaviour and they appear in one place.

In other words, the more direct questions you ask a tiny particle like an electron, the less reliable the answers you get back.

Researching real people is like that. 

Make them feel watched in a focus group and they'll tell you what they think the rest of the group wants to hear (or agree with the loudest mouth).

Even when you talk to then one to one, without knowing it, they'll won't tell you how they really feel or what they'll do.

Partly because they can't help telling you what they think you'll want to hear.

Partly because the mind plays tricks, the further away they are from the experience they're talking about, the less they'll remember or predict it right.

You could ask them questions in the wild, where the experience happens, this is much better. 

You'll still get a bum steer though, because the problem isn't just where and how you ask the questions.

It's asking the questions in the first place.

Asking questions about brands, new behaviours and most categories, like it is with electrons, changes their natural state.

Which is to not to give a flying fuck.

By asking questions, you're getting then artificially interested in things they usually just don't care about.

You're asking them to think about things that normally happen on autopilot, or not at all.

Even worse when we test creative and ask them what they think.

No one wants to think about advertising apart from the people who make it.

The first task of advertising is getting noticed in a busy world, yet most research forgets this.

Asking questions in research creates false interest and consideration.

Which leads to false answers.

So most research is a waste of time. Sorry.

If you want to know, don't ask. 

Resisting the tyranny of perfection and doing more strategy in Goblin Mode

Goblin Mode was the alleged word of the year in 2022, roughly about rebelling against the tyranny of perfection, rejecting social pressure to be flawless and embracing your odd, weird and crap self.

As someone who is fundamentally uncool in real life, and a strategic cynic of the transient and faddy, it's rare to find me jumping on any kind of bandwagon. Nevertheless, what follows is a plea to jettison the pressure of perfection in planning, to work in Goblin Mode more. 

Because Goblin Mode isn't really a trend, it's pretty fundamental. In strategy and real life, which, of course, is what strategy should really be about. 

Let me begin with Star Wars. 

When I was young, I used to be obsessed with painting and drawing and, since I was born in 1974, I was primarily focused on creating likenesses of Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones and, in secret, Princess Leia in that gold bikini.

Art got beaten out of me in secondary school by a horrible teacher, which may have something to do with me ending up as a planner - when you think about it, much of the job is commissioning and assessing art - creativity without getting your hands dirty.

Anyway, before I hurled my watercolours in the bin, I used to get into mini rages when little pieces of work went wrong. Even the ones that avoided being chucked away were never really finished, I tinkered with them constantly. 

It's the same now with strategy stuff, be that a deck or a brief, especially a brief, and I know I'm not alone. At the level of a good strategy, there is the nagging doubt, the worry there was something even better you missed. With a deck, more to distill, a pithier headline. With a brief, the fear that one word on a proposition could transform things.

Why is this? 

Firstly, just as creatives tend to do work that resonates with creative directors rather than real people, it's always tempting for planning types to fall into the trap of being a smart arse.

The sheer weight of the case studies, the decks and papers you've seen that are beautifully written, with seamless simplicity, where it all hangs together and words can gently fall like petals or wallop you in the gut... they're always in your subconscious, driving you to create a piece of flawless wonder. 

There is immense pressure on some fronts to be clever.

There is a relentless expectation for beautiful simplicity.

Now, of course, our job is about clarity, direction and seeing things others don't. 

But.

You must resist the tyranny of perfection at all costs. 

Because it makes you less likeable and approachable. 

Because it means your work is MORE likely to be rejected or ignored.

Most importantly,  the real people in the real world you are supposed to be prioritising, they reject perfection also. 

 

Being Likeable

Most folks see planners as necessary evil. Much of what you're doing is trying to be indispensable, so people NEED you there rather than tolerate you.

So that strategy isn't just a process to followed to invoice more fee.

Rather, a source for guidance and, well, making work actually work.

It starts with people actually liking you and no one likes a smart arse.

I've known planners who can be intellectually intimating and MUST be right.

Everything watertight and unanswerable. 

People don't like to be around people they don't like. As soon as they fucked up, and we all do eventually, they were on their own. 

If your a planner you're probably dabbled in behavioural economics, so you should have heard of the pratfall effect.

In case you haven't , being vulnerable and making little mistakes makes you more likeable. 

It makes people less defensive, makes you more relatable.

Like this 

 

Be a bit crap. 

 

Not getting work rejected

You should know about the IKEA effect too, we value things we think we have made.

Try inserting imperfections into decks and briefs, showing you don't have all the answers - letting people help you finish and get the answers.

They'll feel part of it so, not only will they want to approve it, they'll want to defend it. 

What's more, it's been pretty much proven that the best work comes from iteration. Start quickly, toss something in some of the way there and constantly get feedback from as many people as you can. 

It's hard for smart arse planners to accept, but great thinking is chaos, messy and really is not a solo sport.

First passes are always most productive than final words, sorry.

 

Work that Works in the Real World

Finally, another film reference sorry. Moving on from Star Wars, we have the Matrix.

They tried to make the first Matrix perfect, where everyone was totally happy. No pain, so suffering.

It failed miserably because humans rejected the absence of pain and suffering.  

This is totally true. On average no matter what our circumstances we'll score our happiness 7 out of 10. 

We may get an initial kick from winning the lottery, landing that dream job, getting a pay raise.

But then we get used to it and we're back to square one.

We're just not happy unless we have something to moan about, an in built rejection of perfection.

So to really cut through all the manufactured perfection on social media, not to mention the ads shot in some alternate universe, your best bet is to resonate with messy, scary, wonderful, imperfect real life.

Think about the creative work you really love - how much of that has projected a perfect world?

I doubt much. It just doesn't connect, as much as shining a light on the tensions in real life.

This is one my favourites, it's about many things, mostly though, it's about the endemic tensions between the older generation and the one that follows

 

Maybe the best insurance advertising ever simply admits shit happens.

 

 

So yes, be careful of perfection. Be a bit more goblin mode.

Your colleagues will like you.

Your work will get through.

It will be better.

It will work.

 

Because goblin mode isn't really a trend, it's just humans allowing themselves to be human. 

 

 

 

All agency meetings - how to get out of politics and back into problem solving by being like Tom Hanks in Big

I've often in my adult life felt like Tom Hanks in Big. I suspect we all have. 

However, embracing this a bit in all agency meetings could improve your experience greatly. 

If you are fortunate, these are meeting of the best minds, the broadest experience and nicest people. All in order to bounce off each other, pool knowledge and solve client problems in the most amazing way.

In most cases, we are rarely that fortunate. They tend to be regular sessions of point scoring, back stabbing and deviousness. Regular skirmishes in a cold war fought with icy politeness, ruthless charm and merciless precision, all for share of budget, owning the idea and leading the strategy.

To quote Tsun Zu, the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

I have often found myself wondering if some clients enjoy the polite conflict playing out in front of them, or if some are wonderfully oblivious. I suspect it's both. 

Of course, great clients don't have the time or patience and people who don't play nice don't last long. 

Yet, even if it's the passive aggressive point scoring scenario, even if you're shy planner like me, all is not lost.

First thing to remember, no one cares if you're right. I've seen the nicest, most serene human beings fall apart because their watertight argument, there eloquent delivery or whatever falls not only on deaf ears, it's slayed through charm, off the cuff remarks and people the client simply likes more than you.

You will never win through guile and cunning, there is always someone more devious. Guile and cunning are in the job description of Account Directors, or should be. Make sure you have a great one with you, make sure you're gone through what you need out of their meeting and let then work their black magic. 

Or you can forget guile and cunning and be generous. 

Let me explain. Others will always be more slick, more eloquent and clever than you, however, the thing that kills charm  is enthusiasm. 

Like Tom Hanks in Big.

 

 

The trick to being a great planner is to genuinely care about what happens to the client, their business and their customers. Interested people are always more interesting, you'll naturally know more about every aspect of the client's business and it will show. Your enthusiasm will be infectious, clients will feel and WANT you to do well in these meetings.

Weirdly, it rubs off on your previously stand-offish colleagues too. Not only do they see you're more interested in everyone doing well through the client doing well, so you become less of a threat. You become simultaneously become more of a threat by exposing them as see you next Tuesdays. They play nice. 

The deeper knowledge, the palpable care enables you to cut through the bullshit with the brutal honesty only afforded the nice. Who can fault someone who wants the the best, not to win?

It also liberates you to ask the dumb questions no one has thought off or dares ask. Like what is the actual objective? 

And when you're not second guessing every move from people around the table, you're free to use your most powerful weapon, your ears.

Because when they are not being petty, other agencies are amazing practitioners too. You can be enthusiastic about THEIR work build on and., most wondrously, steal it for your own stuff another time.

I had the misfortune to work with a well known London agency, clients use to call them Motherfuckers, because they were brilliant, but arrogant. As soon as they messed up, they were fired. But I learned a lot of new ways to think about strategic leaps and deliver presentations that were stories, not decks. Watching their CEO deliver a creds deck was like watching Federer hit a forehand. 

The more approaches, ideas and frameworks you absorb, if you would just listen, the more you can breathe out at the right time. 

But it's hard to listen while you preach. 

 

Ultimately though.

No one wins unless the client wins.

To quote Morrisey, it's not easy to love, it's so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind - but it's worth it. 

Follow that through, care more, be generous, be kind do the work. 

Be more Hanks. 

 

Mum

My Mum died 14 months ago very suddenly. I remember the moment I found out vividly.

I was driving to the tip to get rid of some accumulated crap and, just as turned off the main road onto the trading estate it was situated in, my sister called to let me know. 

It was like a kick in the heart.

Then I calmly finished the journey, unloaded the rubbish and drove home. 

From that moment until last week I never understood why I never felt as much as I thought I was supposed to feel. I got though the planning for the funeral, the day itself, the aftermath, the pain of untangling my life with my ex-wife that was happening at the same time, without any out-pouring of much emotion.

What on earth was wrong with me? I wasn't prepared to try and feel how others maybe thought I should, but it was weird. People who know me understand I'm not afraid to show my feelings, I'm lucky to have friends, who share, who talk.

Not a thing.

Then a few weeks ago, my nephew had his first child and a picture of my Dad, with the tiny bundle of joy, without my mother, made me feel something different.

For a week I didn't know why, then I realised the absence of my Mum in that picture had finally hit home, because it made me think of my time with her as a little boy.

Then, like some mental pinyatta split open, visceral memories tumbled out. 

My way of dealing with the death of my mother was to block out all those wonderful memories. 

How we used to cuddle on the sofa watching finger bobs after playgroup.

Her teaching me know to make lasagne.

The way her curly hair felt on my cheek when we hugged. 

Her over competitive spirit playing cards.

Her kindness yet frustrating lack of filter. 

So many memories forcing their way out.

She was so worried about me being alone.

I wished she could have met the new person in my life.

Seen my son transitioning into a teenager.

I wish I could have shared the pride and terror of my younger daughter becoming a young women.

Retaining her innocence and joy, yet sharp as a razor. 

Finally I am grieving for her properly. Honouring her memory by remembering her. 

Pain is a part of being alive.

Death is a part of being alive.

Avoidance of pain is dumb.

I miss you Mum. 

Be a brand people wish existed continued

I discussed here the challenges with simply following best practise and precision, beginning to suggest you might do better to focus on being a brand people actually existed. 

I must be clear and honest here, I'm not dismissing the splendid insight we have from years of data. Certainly, I wouldn't tell you to ignore Byron Sharpe. As with most things, you really must become familiar with the rules before you break them. 

Advertising is famously unpredictable, so the luxury of some level of certainty is welcome one. 

But that's the kind of strategy that can be, and increasingly is, done in house. Best practise is there to help you not do anything stupid. In fact, that's not real strategy, the point of which is reaching goals in the most efficient way, hacking the system.

No, that's not good enough.

In a world where people are savvier, harder to reach and numb to the overload of EVERYTHING, let alone marketing, we need to create stuff that connects. Indifference is the real enemy.

Markets have never been more competitive, it's naive to imagine many companies can just sit back and wait for long-term, brand  building effects.

Markets and culture just move too fast, we need to work with its pace, not against it. 

However, they need not endure the hand to mouth treadmill of short-term tactics that never really break through. 

That's why I think it's our obligation to create stuff people actually wish existed.

That doesn't 'disrupt' or make them think hard. No one has the time. 

Do the short term well and the long term will take care of itself.

By working with the pace and direction of real life.

Creating ideas that stand out, yet feel instantly familiar.

That make you react and actually want to buy something, yet remain in your heart for a lot longer. 

That cut through the landfill of pointless, pre-tested crap because they make you feel something.

That you want to have in your life, because they feel part of it.

Yes, build distinctive assets - in other words, consistent look and feel that doesn't constrict ideas.

Yes, build the brand over time - in other words, have a point of view on the world, have a story that every piece of activity builds towards. 

Yes, reach the whole market - in other words, whatever money you have make it go further by making stuff people want to share.

Yes, be make people feel stuff and be creative, but creativity to impress your audience, not awards judges. What they enjoy tends to be vastly different. 

The fact I'm going to share some rules of thumb is risky, you don't want to make advertising (it use that word in the broadest sense) that looks like advertising. 

But here goes..

First COLLIDE things together. Most ideas are re-combinations of things that don't obviously go together, the trick is making them fit. 

A pure example is the Cadbury Gorilla. Ignore the case studies that try and make it look it was about Joy. It was an ad that made no sense - a gorilla drumming and chocolate don't go together. This also shows why you need a real point of view or story - they never pulled it off again because really it was just a stunt. 

Whereas Snoop Dog and Klarna worked well, because the whole thing was about smooth transactions. Yes it's celeb endorsement, but it's a wrong fit made right. 

 

Then there is AGITATION. Tap into an issue in the lives of your audience, just make sure you have a credible reason to do it, that you have the right. 

This example where a supermarket removed foreign goods to show the dumbness of rampant nationalism is just great

 

Love or hate Brewdog, you can't deny they have a voice, something close to anti-establishment. 

 

Of course, it's not right for all, some brands want to be felt more reliable and negativity can backfire.

A safer option is simply 'closeness'. Show a deeper understanding of what's really going in in the daily lives of your audience, involve them, celebrate them, make it a shared story - get into the REAL emotional truth of what you're selling.

I'd love a UK supermarket in the cost of living crisis to go beyond PR and really expose the courage, bravery and kindness with which so many get through scary times right now. Like this plumber who will only charge what people could afford. 

Imagine if ASDA had gone beyond paying top dollar for this Elf Xmas ad, which I imagine will have cut through, and built greater resonance sending out real 'elves' to reward people making something good happen this Christmas. 

Or shooting the Elf out there in the real world with real struggling people. 

Anyway. I have always loved the replay campaign where Gatorade connected with over 30 year old athletes by settling old scores (every one wished they had second chance)

 

This is one of the best shopper activations ever - simply built on the fact we all love the sound of our own names - and probably some data about the need to remind lapsed users they love Coke .

Spotify Wrapped shows us our own data and taps into the tension between respective musical tastes and the slight fear of people knowing what you really listen to. 

I hate that Spotify recommends me Queen because I listen to Under Pressure sometimes but there you go.

Of course, there is pure creativity and magic. However, entertaining people was much easier when, in the UK at least, there was one commercial TV channel, no internet and shops were shut on Sunday. There is too much entertainment for us to consume nowadays. 

So instead, you can build short-term value and long term memory if you create things people wish existed in their lives because they're relevant.

They share a brand point of view, they are relevant to what is holding the brand back today.

While building the brand for tomorrow.

Because they work with the pace and direction of life.

They add to it, not interrupting. 

They stand out from all the dross because they touch something deeper.

Make you feel something so you buy something today and want to tomorrow. 

It doesn't take masses of budget, just masses of thought and enthusiasm for people, not 'segments'.

So yes, best practice is fine, but if you can do more why on earth wouldn't you? 

 

The opportunity in being a brand people actually wish existed

I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase 'give man a hammer and all he'll see is nails'. I think it was Mark Twain. 

So this data should be approached with caution. The claim is that if 80% of brands disappeared at night, no one would care. 

The authors have an agenda to promote 'meaningful' brands (whatever that is supposed to mean). 

Of course, Bryon Sharpe would say light buyers don't care about brands, just make sure you're easy to buy.

But, come on, it makes sense if you think of your own life surely.  We're making too much stuff. No person has the bandwidth to be bothered with it all.

Too much good entertainment, endless stuff on the Netflix list that never gets watched.

To much choice on the grocery store shelf.

Too much stuff from each other on social media.

So that 80% figure makes perfect sense. You'd think people promoting brands would be upping their game to win attention and be one of the 20% wouldn't you?

Sadly not.

On TGI, people who say the ads are better than the programs goes down every year.

This same survey suggest most of us think brand content is poor and irrelevant. 

Coming back to hammers, nails and agendas, that's why the IPA agenda on long and short term is so unhelpful - it fails to consider if any of the output is actually any good. 

You could wring your hands and just say to yourself, ah well, the data says I just need to spend loads of money reaching people and building 'distinctive brand assets'. But not only is that a bit defeatist, when it's getting harder to reach people, even if you HAVE a big budget, surely it makes more sense to actually create content people actually wish existed.

How do you do that? It starts with ideas over precision but there's a lot more to it than that - but that's for another day.

Why a good strategist needs ideas, not just logic - and how to generate them (it's perspiration, not inspiration sorry)

I was ten when Purple Rain came out, so it's fairly natural I've always loved Prince. 

Between 1983 and '88 he created a body of work that was unlike anything that had come before, bursting with new ideas. However, that was only around 10% of his total output - it's just that we got to hear the very best. In fact, some was years old, honed, refined and in some cases, just ready for its time. 

Ideas just poured out of him, he never stopped making music, it's just that his strike rate of greatness as opposed to OK, or even simply forgettable was around one in ten. 

There's a lesson there for all of us when it comes to great ideas. They don't come from sudden flashes of brilliance, it's constant hard work, relentless improvement and the acceptance you have go through guff to get to great. 

This matters to strategy and planning types, especially in a world of in-housing and the way basically everybody thinks they can your job. 

Yes, logic and evidence are essential - otherwise you're just a bundle of opinions. However anyone can follow a process and spend lots of time and money justifying the obvious (it's how consultancies make profit yes?). Our work requires a leap of imagination, a new way of looking something.....an idea. It's creative act those without the right kind of brain or years of learning their craft, or the right attitude, simply can't do. What divides a real planner from those that just carry the title is the ability to have ideas. Not just follow a process.

'A previously unsuspected connection between concepts that leads to non-obvious consequences' - Josh Bernoff.

That's the opportunity in strategy world spending too much recourse overcomplicating the obvious. 

It's obvious to say that lots of men like football. It's less obvious to say that without football, many people would be insufferable to the people around them. 

Ideas are not limited to strategy, creative, tactics or whatever though.

A company is actually an idea, not a real thing. An intangible thing bringing together people. things and thoughts.

Money is an idea, is doesn't exist, it represents a shared value of what something is worth.

A nation state is an idea, an arbitrary border and shares culture, systems and traditions.

Very few things are concrete, we all swim in a sea of ideas everyday.

They are not some flouncy luxury, they are fundamental. 

So it doesn't help having things like concepts, thought starters, territories- they are all over complex names for ideas.

When it comes to strategy, there are really three species of idea: 

Why Ideas

How Ideas

What Ideas

 

Why ideas are leaps that electrify what the opportunity is, what the real problem is. I tend to think this is most important, now only does great strategy get to the crux of an issue, great problems unleash creativity. They frame a challenge in a way that also an opportunity. They show what a business problem looks like in the real world. Strategy is about change in the real world, Why ideas illuminates what that change could be. 

Make the reliability of Honda Desirable instead of dull.

The problem isn't what Skoda buyers think, it's the people around them. 

The beauty industry should make women feel great, but instead it makes them feel inadequate

 

How Ideas clearly solve the problem - closest to a classic 'proposition' or simple task that, if executed properly, they will unlock gold. 

Polaroid is social lubrication

Make Lurpak the Champion of good food

With ghd, beauty can be made, not born

The Times is history's first draft

Make beards uncool (for a shaving brand)

Make Axe part of the morning routine

Kindness is a strength not weakness (for a natural deodorant)

 

What Ideas are more around tactics and execution. Some would tell you to stay away from these, I say let them pour out of you and challenge others to so better. So many ideas these days need to be around media or PR, they are not the sole remit of a 'creative'. 

Ad funded documentary of real Christmas moments

One off TV ad celebrating Commonwealth Games supporters

Use programatic digital to weave Ikea products into the moments they matter the most

What if we got Snoop Dog to change his name for Smooth Dog for Klarna?

Staff as Stars

 

Getting involved in 'what' is essential, just as IDEAS about how and why are so important. The data fluctuates, but the IPA data bank shows that great creative ideas boost payback by a factor of, as much as, 11. Econometrics from a media group (can't share who) show that innovation destroys 'precision' when it comes to ROI. 

That said, don't let creative types tell you that an execution by itself is an idea, be that a line, a visual or even a 60 second film. Sadly,  they many just have tactics, or something that just looks or sounds nice.

There are few lines like 'Just Do It' that just transcend. 

This Cadbury Gorilla was really a big fat stunt that worked to drive impulse. The case study will try and tell you it's about conveying 'joy' - but in truth, it's a one trick pony delivering the element of surprise. When they try to do more 'joy' ads, they mostly failed, because the idea wasn't really about that.

In a creative review, sometimes the best thing you can do is ask 'what is the idea in a sentence'? You'd be amazed how many times they don't kn0w.

 

When it comes to your ideas, like Prince, there isn't a flash of insight, I'm afraid it's all hard work.

James Dyson didn't invent the bagless vacuum, he worked harder than everyone else to get it to market.

A sculpture is the removal of rock to reveal the beauty inside. 

In other words, make a start, get something down, then continually improve it.

Great ideas do not appear, they emerge. 

Ideas are re-combinations of what is already out there.

So fill your brain with as much raw material as you can.

Read more non-marketing books.

Don't just sit there waiting for inspiration that won't come.

When it comes to a project, read stuff that isn't totally about the product or service - but has a tenuous link.  If you're selling coffee, read about commuting, the original coffee salons, how people get together socially these days (let's go for coffee), which leads to stuff about shyness, public speaking, making time for non-screen stuff, the new rhythms of hybrid work, for example. 

It also means injecting newness into your process. Get a change of scenery, take purposeful breaks, do the process in a different way, talk to a stranger.

As long as you've done lots of hard work already, this is where a lightbulb moment actually happens, Stimulating change in the brain and letting the subconscious work while you do something else creates moments of revelation - but not without those first hard yards. 

Most importantly, find your flow. Diarise time without distractions - phone, email, Slack, Teams -wrench free from the web of brain fog -  focus.

Now, of course, it's also your job to help others have ideas.

To be even clearer, I think it's your job to help EVERYONE have a voice. The more experienced people are, the more their ego and fear of losing authority, mean they won't listen to other thoughts, they are more slavish to the process and in general, ideas get less input.

They feel they have they have more to lose by being open. 

It's the challenge in creative reviews where the CD's word is law.

Yet Pixar has daily crit sessions. Their best films are the result of a tortuous process of incremental gains - their films are a result of continuous improvement and collaboration. It doesn't sound very romantic, yet it's what works.

Coming back to Prince, he needed editors - his worse output came when he didn't have a recording contract and put out what the hell he liked.

So, with your own work, forget your ego and talk to as many people as you can about your thinking. Try and get to a First Pass and invite the world and his wife to crit it. Think of every interaction as a chisel getting to the sculpture within.

Listen to what others say, spot the idea in it. 

We all know workshops are trojan horses for bad ideas mostly. However, you should embrace them as ways to blunt the auth0rity of senior people and bring in new thinking. Just don't look for NEW ideas, look for input on thinking already in play - including your own. 

If you really need to do an ideas workshop though- make it so concepts and unrelated areas collide. A quick foolproof agenda:

Lay out the task

Clear out the closet - flush out first ideas

Do a brain game to get the subconscious going

More ideas

What would your target audience do - a day quick day in the life and then GO!

Opposites - what is the very opposite of what everyone else is doing?

Wrongness - what is the wrong thing to do, how do you make it right?

Objects - what's the connection between, say, some animals - what ideas come?

Simple.

 

So yes, ideas. Your lifeblood, not logic.

Be more Energizer Bunny, it's actually about quantity before quality.

Don't be an island, get as much input as you can.

Challenge experience and authority - bigger egos lead to worse ideas.

Be fast, be prolific, embrace imperfection and wrongness - you want others trying to slow you down, not the other way around.

In other words, be a radiator, not a drain. 

 

The importance of client services working with planners and being strategic themselves

Client services is a tough job. Never ending in-tray, no one doing what you need on time, being at the sharp end of client moans. I did it for a bit and failed, so, well, respect.

Having seen both sides, the most successful client services folk are great planners in their own right, especially today, where clients can take things in house. What they really buy into is impartial advice about their business,

Being More Strategic

Strategy isn’t something only people with planning or strategy in their job title do. We can, and do, strategy every day because it’s simply:

Achieving your goals with minimal effort

My strategy to get to the office in Manchester, from Leeds is to save parking/train money and traffic rage by driving most of the way and cycling some of the way

My daughter’s strategy to get around me is to be perpetually cute

You’ll find that impact with clients comes from the advice you give, how you can help them reach THEIR goals with minimum effort

Client services are well placed to do this, because with the closest relationship, you can continually talk to them about their goals and the headaches they must reach them

On a business level

And a personal level

It simplifies every client conversation to always frame it around what we’re trying to achieve and what will it make it easier to get there

It cuts through politics

Subjective opinion

Busy people with too much on their minds

It’s always that simple – what do we need to achieve? How do we get there with the least effort?

Don’t let your strategy team overcomplicate it, push for brutal simplicity of thought

Which brings me to how you can better partner with the strategy folks

Working with The Strategy Team

The goal of the strategy people is brutal simplicity of thought. Cutting through all the clutter to find the simplest and easiest way for clients to reach their commercial goals.

We want to be able to cut through the crap to what really matters and, as we tend to be short of time, needing to do it fast!!!

We also tend to be a little shy and sometimes find it hard to say what we really want, especially in busy meetings with lots of people with the gift of the gab.

That can mean we struggle with client and internal meetings sometimes.

Finally, we’re not a factory. We don’t want to ‘churn out’ strategy. We want to be your partner with the client relationship – give them the EVIDENCE BASED RECOMMENDATIONS they need to use marketing and creativity to reach their commercial goals

So how can you help?

1. Involves us in the client relationship. Let us attend meetings more, not just the ‘strategy ones’ the more we get a feel for clients, the more we can really help
2. But you’ll always have a better understanding of their world and what matters to them – don’t just talk to us about their business needs, talk to us about their relationships in the business, what pushes their buttons, what keeps them awake at night. Like any target audience, the more we know about what makes them tick, the more we can develop recommendations they are likely to buy into
3. Deal us in. Make sure in any meeting we have a clear role and space in the agenda for that role. Look for us struggling to get a word in and help us get into the conversation
4. Involve us early. Most of the real strategic work is defining the issue. The worst thing you can do is give us a brief the client has signed off, that we can’t talk with them about. Involve us as soon as possible, let the client talk us through the brief, give us the chance to ask questions. Client briefs are always too long, and they rarely get to the heart of what is really needed. Too often, the first presentation is when the client tells us the REAL brief
5. If can’t involve us, put the effort into briefing us. Especially how our work will be judged, who is judging it and what you are expecting. Make sure EVERYONE who will approve our work is involved in briefing it where you can. We want to get it right first time
6. Be brutal. Great strategy is about simplicity – be hard on yourself, ask yourself what is relevant, keep conversations about THE GOAL and THE EASIEST WAY to get there. Be brutal about what is a medical job v a strategy job. Be brutal with us, ask us WHAT IS THE GOAL what is the EASIEST WAY TO GET there. If we can’t answer simply, we haven’t done our job
7. But overload us with information and reference- at our best, we spot things and make connections others do not. Give us EVERYTHING you have to read in our own time. Just don’t talk us through it all!!!
8. Be kind. Sometimes we need to talk through things to figure it out as we go. Every good planner has a trusted confidante they can chat to as they work things out. This is important, we love AND hate the start of project when we don’t have the answer, it takes time to work it out and chatting it through really helps
9. Be concise. We do what we can to keep our work simple. In return, we need feedback clear and concise. Where you can, don’t let people feedback in comments, make them join a meeting to talk it through – comments are often contradictory and confusing. It’s ALWAYS quicker to chat, conclude and move on
10. Judge our thinking before our formatting or spelling. It saves time if we share early thinking, it also means we can collaborate better if we share a work in progress. That means you need to not judge how it looks, or typos etc. Let us talk through where we’re going, and you feedback on that. It will save time and make our recommendations better. We can make it client friendly later, first it needs to be good
11. Keep us involved. It’s common to get us to write briefs, but then just attend the odd creative review or development meeting. We like seeing good work happen. We also have a skill to not talk about creative work being good, but how it is working. It saves time in the long run to keep in the development process, the work isn’t just right, it works
12. Make time. Creative reviews and such are CRITICAL. It’s very common for creative reviews to be quick and not allow time for feedback. We need time in these sessions to talk through the work. Please respect our role in the process – quite rightly, our briefs are scrutinised to be watertight, so the work that comes out should be given the same respect.

Act like you've just quit

While our jobs have a measure of uncertainty, we tend to have decent notice periods to cushion unexpected blows

Or give employers time to replace us if we quit

It should go without saying that if you have resigned, you should try leave on as good terms as you can

It's not always easy, believe me I know, yet you should try - it's a small industry and word gets around

Yet there are still two ways people go when they resign

Both linked to being unshackled from the fear of getting fired or at least not progressing

There are the ones that, at best check out or, at worse, become objectionable and burn  bridges

Then there are the ones who carry on with their responsibilities, now longer held back

Held back from hierarchy

'How we do things around here'

Fear of rejection

Making their face fit

That will never work

Staying in your lane

But this isn't our process

Or even just routine

The good ones who can't help but care about the work and the people around them

Who retain respect and the general approach of being a good egg

Suddenly come to life 

With renewed energy

Idea pouring out of them

Challenging those around them, making them think and re-appraise

Getting more done, creating more change in their last weeks or months, than the last couple of years

Which begs the question

What it is about how agencies operate, that means many only  feel free to do their best work once they are leaving?

When they claim to encourage critical thinking, original thinking and interesting people

What can we all do so everyone can work like they've just quit?

Thank god for extroverts

Too much of anything isn't really that good for you.

Even water is toxic if you drink too much.

As introvert, I've often found myself defending the quiet ones in work. 

The ones who need time to think. 

Who feel exhausted by too small talk and need to retreat after too much time in big groups.

They add value because they don't fall in love with their first idea.

They try harder because they can't rely on charisma to persuade.

(Actually that's not totally true, many totally fill a room, you just don't to see the struggles before and after).

But thank god for the introverts, we need them too.

They buy introverts time to think.

Without them, meetings would be full of uncomfortable silences.

Great work would be harder, because no one stuck their neck out to give everyone something to build in.

(Because most great work comes from iteration, not insight).

They keep flagging projects energised.

So here's to the loudmouths.

Just open your ears from time to time please. 

Copying is good - and controversially , so are briefing templates

When I was little I played tennis,  always watching the best players, trying to copy their styles. 

When I was starting out as a planner, I had slightly less of a clue what I was doing than I do now.

So I was grateful for bloggers who would share how they worked and I'd copy their  approach. 

(word of warning, in today's world of LinkedIn and Twitter, quality isn't quantity)

You know what? In both cases it kind of worked.

My serve was better when I tried to do it like Boris Becker.

My fledgling strategy was better when I tried to copy some APG paper or example brief someone shared. 

My first stumbling presentations were less catastrophic when I copied the structure of a TED talk, or the style of the speaker. 

In other words, if you have no experience or craft skills, copy those who have, while you develop some.

I always liked the story of an actor who played Roger Bannister, the first person to break the 4 minute mile barrier (running obviously). He was a below average runner, yet when he adopted Bannister's style, he actually ran faster. Not because the technique was any smoother, it's just his brain thought it was faster, so the body followed.

The placebo effect is everywhere, way beyond medicine, and copying those you want to emulate, tricks your mind into going beyond what it thinks it can do. 

So if you're starting out, or even if you've been doing the job a while and can't crack a problem, or don't know where to start, it doesn't hurt to read a case study you admire and copy what they did, or adopt some approaches someone has shared on a APG talk. Get some examples of briefs or plans and steal. 

I like Mark Pollard's framework for example. 

He's very generous sharing all sorts of hooks to hang your thinking on, with lots of examples. There are others, it doesn't matter which one, just try and do it like someone you think is good, until you find your own voice.

Obviously, these approaches will help you START. Once you're away, make the work your own, but it's a great short-cut to actually beginning and that's usually the hardest part.

Just don't forget the framework or style isn't the point, it's just a hack to get somewhere good. 

Controversially, I think therefore, it's OK to fetishise creative brief templates. They don't make thinking better, apart from forcing compression, but if the author believes they do, who cares?

DO less, BE more

I haven't posted much around here for a while, let's be honest.

Mostly because, like with so much else in life, once you lose momentum, it's very hard to regain it. 

Then again, the trick so writing and posting stuff is to just start and not overthink it.

It's the same for me with writing a creative brief. Of course you ACTUALLY need a strategy first, many forget this (seriously). 

But then the only way I know is to start writing something bad, then figure out how to make it good.

Anyway, there is one thing I thought about while I was away, which is why the break did me good.

It's the need for more breaks, for it to actually be okay to do nothing much.

If you're job is somewhat creative, there's a subtle new pressure to bleed for it.

Meanwhile, every aspect of life is about self improvement.

Meditate first thing, then do some HIIT training. Change your habits in 66 days.

Never just BE, you always have to do.

Yet psychologists have long known the subconscious works wonders when you're having down time.

If you want to have great thoughts, try not having any for a while.

What's more, despite what bubbles on Instagram and Twitter may suggest, real people don't live like this. 

They may do more yoga and log into Headspace, they may be cutting out more meat.

But they still trudge through jobs they don't love that much (more virtually) and relax on an evening with some telly.

They're busy worrying about fuel bills and making ends meet.

I do wonder, in advertising at least (yes I think we should still call it that), we should try to live less like shaman and more like normal human beings. 

Because the very best work immediately connects, no matter how great the creative work is or isn't. 

Real life has never had more drama, fear, hope everyday grace and heroism.

So live it, rather than bothering with the latest debate on LinkedIn about the Metaverse. 

It's hard to listen while you preach.

So I  don't think it's right that a famous agency in London makes a song and dance of going 'on safari' to see muggles in real life.

Just get the bus now and again. Switch your phone off and just soak up real life.

And LIVE real life. Take breaks, do stuff that doesn't matter. 

What some telly that you don't have to think too hard about.

Eat a bag of chips. 

Just sit and do nothing.

In an industry that insists on DO, take some time to BE.