Northern Planner

GOD HELP ME WORKSHOP MORE (BUT TO LAND IDEAS, NOT CREATE THEM)

I never thought I’d write that headline ever.

When I joined an agency a long a while back I was a little at sea, because of the obsession and process for workshops and brainstorms.

Let’s be clear, I was fairly experienced in planning and running them, but I was unused to a mentality where no one was allowed to have ideas alone, everything had to come out of a crowded room.To make things worse, every session was meticulously planned on a spreadsheet to the very last second.

It did worked well to involve everyone in the process and bond. Clients felt involved and internally, you get to take certain people with you. However, not a single good idea came out of any of it.

All the research shows my experience isn’t unique. Most workshops are breeding grounds for average ideas.

Because we’re afraid to contradict senior people.

Because introverts keep quiet.

Because groupthink makes us agree even with what we know isn’t that good.

Because great ideas are usually from refining average ones.

 

In other words, the point of workshops is really politics.

 

And yet........

It’s been proven time after time that if you warm up the creative side of the mind, it becomes much more receptive to creative or original ideas. Brainstorms are not for generating  ideas, they are for landing the ones you're about to share. 

Obviously…

Before a creative review.

Before a strategy review (assuming you have opened up new possibility).

But also..

It’s a way to win a pitch.

To help ideas to land with clients and partners.

Or to persuade a risk averse agency leadership team.

Basically, any situation you want to land new thinking.

Nothing ground-breaking, just a few minutes generating a few ideas.

 

Workshops are powerful tool for landing ideas, not just politics. Who knew? 

Of course, if your ideas are not any good in the first place, no amount of cunning workshop ploys can help. Sometimes it’s not your audience, it’s you.

GOD HELP ME WORKSHOP MORE (BUT TO LAND IDEAS, NOT CREATE THEM)

I never thought I’d write that headline ever.

When I joined an agency a long a while back I was a little at sea, because of the obsession and process for workshops and brainstorms.

Let’s be clear, I was fairly experienced in planning and running them, but I was unused to a mentality where no one was allowed to have ideas alone, everything had to come out of a crowded room.To make things worse, every session was meticulously planned on a spreadsheet to the very last second.

It did worked well to involve everyone in the process and bond. Clients felt involved and internally, you get to take certain people with you. However, not a single good idea came out of any of it.

All the research shows my experience isn’t unique. Most workshops are breeding grounds for average ideas.

Because we’re afraid to contradict senior people.

Because introverts keep quiet.

Because groupthink makes us agree even with what we know isn’t that good.

Because great ideas are usually from refining average ones.

 

In other words, the point of workshops is really politics.

 

And yet........

It’s been proven time after time that if you warm up the creative side of the mind, it becomes much more receptive to creative or original ideas. Brainstorms are not for generating  ideas, they are for landing the ones you're about to share. 

Obviously…

Before a creative review.

Before a strategy review (assuming you have opened up new possibility).

But also..

It’s a way to win a pitch.

To help ideas to land with clients and partners.

Or to persuade a risk averse agency leadership team.

Basically, any situation you want to land new thinking.

Nothing ground-breaking, just a few minutes generating a few ideas.

 

Workshops are powerful tool for landing ideas, not just politics. Who knew? 

Of course, if your ideas are not any good in the first place, no amount of cunning workshop ploys can help. Sometimes it’s not your audience, it’s you.

Still here

We all look back at things we did and said when we were young a cringe with embarrassment. 

I remember talking to my Dad about the cool agency I was interviewing with (I was 24) crowing to him, "There's no one there over thirty". 

He went very quiet and said, "And you really think that's a good thing do you?", and walked off.

Yep, I thought anyone over thirty were over the hill. 

Now the age of thirty feels a generation ago to me, and it actually is.

That agency, like so many others is no more, but I'm somehow still here at 50. 

Some of this is luck of course, but much of it is, like a Great White Shark, moving forward or die.

I've worked in all kinds of agencies on purpose and learned something at each one, even the agency that did Media Arts. 

I learned something from each boss, even the ones I'd rather forget.

I learned lots from other agencies I partnered with and the great people there. 

I learned even more from the mistakes I made and the many failures. These scars are hard earned, but they're bloody useful. 

I know stuff that can't be learned in books, or the latest LinkedIn profile.

But one of the simplest lessons, that's hardest to learn, is surround yourself with people who can do what you can't. 

I listen to people from different backgrounds, young people who live the life a 5o year old doesn't.

I decided not to have a sell by date, but listen to those who haven't let experience dull their ideas yet. 

I'm not even close to being done.

 

Yet look out into our industry and it's still pretty biased to younger people.

Especially when experienced people are seen as a cost rather than an asset.

Look out even further into the world and the work we make has a tin ear for age.

Brands are obsessed with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, desperate to recruit the next generation. 

And when they do stuff for them, they manage to get it horribly wrong. 

From work making a 5o year look like my Dad.

To horribly patronising thinking that tries to empower me to not grow up.

When growing up is actually ace, you know what you like, you have the confidence to get rid of everything you don't. 

 

Mostly this is down to people doing the work can't relate to theme because they're too young.

Some of it is the natural mentality of the next generation to dismiss the last.

It's how Nike managed to get rid of all the people who know what they were doing. 

But then again, many older folks become unmanageable because they hate anything new.

They dismiss any new thinking and new people and worship a golden age that was never there.

 

I dream of an industry that loves experience, but also loves genuine fresh thinking, instead of a fresh process. 

That would be nice wouldn't it? 

 

 

 

 

 

Brands are stories, the people who lead them need to be sure which one

I used to know someone who went in-house for Nike. The person didn't last a long time as a non-athlete, because as soon as something was up for debate, they were simply asked 'And what record have you set'. 

You might argue the business should be more welcoming, I reckon that commitment to actual sports is what set them apart (maybe today not so much). Nike did well because it got to the real emotional truth behind athletes.

It's shouldn't be hard, but most brands live in a fantasy world.

Most forget why they existed in the first place. 

I was also close to a cycling brand, I knew a lot of the people there, both in leadership and on the ground.

It was flying because it was run by cycling nuts who who did all they could to get more people into the sport they loved.

The brand brought to life the human stories and rich history, while demystifying the complexity lots of elitists created to keep the plebs out. 

While they made cycling clothes that actually looked and felt good - and all sorts of experiences that nodded to fashion and the culture surrounding cycling.

Coffee, cafes, journalism, travel -a rich tapestry of ways to enjoy the sport they loved. 

Now it's lost it's way because those people have gone and the hipsters who took over think its actually a fashion brand, not a cycling brand. 

 

Now it wasn't for everyone and let's be honest, no brands should be, but people that bought it tended to love it.

On a purely functional level, before it came along most cycling gear was truly horrible. It was badly fitting, itchy, sweaty and looked dreadful.

It was quite a thing to have cycling clothes that were a joy to wear (yes I am fully aware that NO ONE truly looks good in cycling gear, especially off the bike, but let's go with it).

On a brand level, while the cost made it exclusive, the overall approach made it very inclusive. A previously impenetrable sport, suddenly became a lot easier to understand, the rich stories behind it were brought to life, you didn't have to join a local club to feel like you belonged. 

Most importantly, it was run by people who adored cycling. The business shut on Wednesday afternoons so staff could do a long group ride, they built up a community of friends to support and build, from bike fitter (people who adjust the bike so it's comfy to ride and won't injure you for life) to journalists, cafes, collaborations with Paul Smith (cycling nutcase)  and eventually even cycling teams. They even helped launch a beautifully written magazine that was a joy to read.

All that love for cycling meant that while they made mistakes, the actual gear was amazing made by people who understood and loved the sport. 

Now many of the folks who run it don't own a bike. 

It's led by people who love fashion and it's lost it's way. The world you enter has gone from authentic and welcoming, to try-hard and elite. They'll killed some of the best loved cycling specific gear and replaced it with bad gym clothes. The actual fit is all over the place and some products just fall apart. 

No one talks about the brand much anymore and when they do, it's about how they 'used to be good'.

 

Every brand needs a clear idea of who they are and who they are for. 

Of course, people move on and founders want to enjoy the results of the work they have put in.

But brands are really just stories.

They add to the story buyers tell themselves.

But the people who own it need to keep their own story grounded in truth, not fiction.

And they change it at their peril. 

Here's to account handlers (not client service)

I’m a failed account handler. Too shy, too disorganised and too easily bored to be successful suit, only surviving thanks to doing planning (yes planning, I still struggle to call it strategy) on the job without realising.

I could write good briefs and coax great work out of creative people, even if I couldn’t get the invoices right. I was even told to get out the industry at one point, however one kind soul told me I was in the wrong department, otherwise I’d be a teacher, an academic or maybe a lawyer right now.

My current colleagues probably wish I was a headmaster or human rights lawyer instead, sorry about that, but at least it means I respect great account handlers, in fact I’m in awe of them.

But I mean account handlers, not client service. The ones who not only make things happen on time and make it look easy, they work in partnership with planners, they have an opinion on creative work, they make ideas people feel safe, make horrible people play nice. They won’t let creatives act like children, yet allow for them being wired differently. They won’t allow intellectual planner wank, but make space for brains to play.

Even better, they ‘handle clients’ they don’t ‘serve’ them. This is no disrespect to clients, I couldn’t do their job either. By handling I mean not just saying yes externally and ‘the client won’t like it’ internally. They build a relationship, not a culture of subservience.

The ones who nurture ideas through their building and then through the client building, not the ones who shut things down.

The ones who partner clients, who look to deliver good advice and help them succeed, rather than the ones who simply say yes and make everything seem transactional.

The ones with more than charm and charisma, they build trust.

Increasingly, agencies have become a lot more about client service than client handling. There are many reasons for this of course, a big one being the increasingly competitive nature of our industry and growing cost pressures.

Yet the agencies we tend to talk about and the work we tend to celebrate, don’t just serve clients they handle them. They make money from delivering ideas clients couldn’t do themselves, even in-house. Not just because of talent and craft, because of positive friction – working on anything for too long makes you snowblind, but outsiders you trust provide the spark you rarely get in house.

Yes, there are great in-house teams, but the internal culture required for work that isn’t a box ticking exercise is the exception not the rule.

And more client service has led to less proper account planning too.

At their best, planners do a lot more than the ‘set-up’ for the creative work. They have a direct relationship with the client, a genuine partner with client services in the relationship.

But that link is increasingly severed, which also severs the most important link of all, the link to the ‘consumer’.

Planners are having less scope to go beyond primary research, to uncover the real truth and show clients possibility not of predictability. There is less of of planning as the first idea, more of planning as the first few slides.

A couple of days to do the set-up for creative work, then not even able to nurture the work itself.

As the relationship with client disappears (partly down to client services jealously guarding it as it becomes their only reason for being, but also because a transactional relationship makes the discipline nothing more than a powerpoint factory) there is more of just putting client research through a process, colouring in the client brief, or even just post rationalising creative work. Now let’s be honest, in many cases, post rationalising great ideas can be a good thing – but you need great ideas first and client service often doesn’t like them so they get filtered out. Or they allow mediocre creative to go unchallenged (but that’s another story).

Strategy was invented to be bridge between research and ideas, it was valued part of the client relationship. If it isn’t this anymore what the hell is it for?

So yes, here’s to account handlers, who do the most amazing job.

I’m obviously grateful because they allow me to do actual account planning.

I couldn’t do their job, but then again, neither could most client service.

It really ain't what you do, it's how you do it

So called flashes of insight are nothing of the sort.

Talent is only table stakes. Character and discomfort are the only safe bets. 

A game changing idea, a revelation that reframes how you look at things.

They actually happen gradually and all of a sudden. 

They are really slow hunches. 

Most leap forwards in any area, culture, the arts, science or whatever.

Are the sum total of the input of other minds that contributed before.

It's why Darwin and Wallace discovered evolution at the same time.

They finished a discussion that has been collectively brewing for a very long time.

Einstein and relativity, that wouldn't have happened without the trials and tribulations of others before.

On the much less important world of brand ideas, and creativity as a whole (strategy is a creative act, deal with it). 

The very best ideas actually emerge from lots of feedback and input.

It's a lot more about incremental gains than Eureka. 

 

That means teams and process allowing for lots of discussion from lots of people.

Yes, that's messier, yes it's harder. Sorry. 

It also means generosity towards each other.

And humility in yourself. 

Succeeding together rather than winning alone. 

How much of that do you see where you work?

Especially from creatives or leaders? 

 

On your own, it's about patience, staying power and curiosity.

Putting the work in to do all the reading.

Getting ok, or just plain bad down.

Then edit, precis distil until good emerges.

Or BANG!

A revelation emerges from the cacophony.

Or do it quicker and talk through it with people you trust.

Even spot something they say and have the lack of ego to move on it.

Stategy might be your responsibility, but it works better when it's everyone's job. 

 

In other words, dramatic success , of course, is about talent and experience.

But it's also about character and embracing discomfort. 

The less ego you have, the more successful you will be.

The more you embrace discomfort and ambiguity, the easier results come.

In an industry dominated by big egos, that still loves charisma over character.

That sells a predictable process over the actual output.

That's something to think about. 

 

You can't get to great without pushing through average

 

I go on about being an athlete a lot, sorry about that, but still

 

I always hated to start to a new year when I was a swimmer

Train for months, reach peak form

Take a few weeks off, then you start all over again

 

It always shocked me how quickly form disappeared

You’d start again a shadow of the athlete you were a few weeks back

And the hard truth was it would take weeks just to get back to average

A place fit enough just to train at a quality level

And then, when form comes, it’s just the end of the beginning

That last ten percent is the hardest to come by

But it’s the difference between winning and losing

It doesn’t get easier, you’re just able to push harder

 

Put another way, great only happens by pushing through average

 

That’s my problem with AI

Anything that saves time is, of course great

And it can be great for average ideas you then finesse into gold

 

But that approach will only get you so far

Because great ideas require the subconscious to do some work

It’s not just about creating average ideas to improve and re-combine

The very act of doing them yourself feeds the brain

It gives the subconscious the raw material it needs

For a flash of insight happens slowly and all at once

 

Great ideas don’t magically appear

They are the result of purposeful hard work

It’s not great news, but a shortcut from A to B is fine, but only that

The actual journey dictates the manner of your arrival

Sorry about that

Those who can't read - pure ideas are hard, but combining them is easy

Because I’m not very good at the job I read a lot.

Mostly stuff that has little to do with planning, brands or marketing.

Partly because everyone else reads the same industry books and such.

Mostly because ideas are really re-combinations of existing things.

So, the wider the raw material, the better chance of an idea.

It’s like an atom smasher.

The harder you push things together.

The more you’ll find undiscovered things falling out.

Soon you’ll find yourself avoiding quoting ‘How Brands Grow’.

No need to go on about the IPA Databank.

You can quote all sorts from real life, not the made up marketing one.

It can be as simple as looking a little sideways at a brief, the category or the industry.

Or having a massive mental scrap book to pull on.

Looking at things way a planner or marketing folk don’t.

For example, if you haven’t read ‘When’ by Daniel Pink you should.

It’s a very well researched book on the power of timing.

Some great stuff on the power of breaks and when you’re at your best in the day.

For most of us, the difference in mental performance, between am and pm.

Is like the difference between being sober and a little drunk.

But a 12pm power nap can make all the difference.

If I was Kit Kat, the ‘Break Brand’ I’d be campaigning for pm Power Naps.

Power naps are even more powerful if you drink caffeine just before.

You wake up like Popeye just after he’s eaten spinach.

Nescafe could lean into this, or Nespresso.

Instead of paid social that interrupts, it could be time targeted to go with life’s flow.

Next thing Kit Kat or Nespresso target the lunch break scroll.

But also, the brain needs time to wake up before your first coffee.

If you leave it an hour after waking up, it makes a massive difference.

So coffee brands could target the bleary eyed first phone surf.

Imagine the cut-through telling people not to use you.

Or drink decaf first.

On the other hand, I read A Theory of Shopping by Daniel Miller years ago.

An ethnographic study of a British supermarket.

It should be obvious, but any shop isn’t really about the product.

It’s the experience it gives – and the people that experience serves.

So suddenly, retail, shopper and in fact anything you’re selling.

Is about how it helps relationships and the role of the shopper in them.

Even when you buy for yourself.

Shaving for example is not the ‘Best a Man Can Get’.

It’s the best a man can be.

Beyond obvious ‘don’t give your partner razor rash’.

To being the best partner.

Which oddly takes me to a book by CS Lewis on love.

(Yes the Narnia bloke).

If you take the religion bit out.

It’s about your partner being the end, not the means.

Not loving how they make you feel.

Loving how you can make them feel.  

Just as a great Dad is a nuts and bolts Dad.

There to nurture and love their children as much as their partner.

You teach your son to shave.

But what else so you teach him?

To be a good man?

What else do you pass on?

Which takes me to sanitary stuff.

Thankfully showing menstrual blood isn’t taboo in ads anymore.

But that first period is one of the first steps in becoming a woman.

That parents need to help their daughter on.

Imagine reframing the first period as the end of the beginning.

I’ll stop going on.

But these are the tensions and real needs people are buying to resolve.

What is really going on beneath the surface.

Anyway.

So yes, when you’re an average planner at best, like me.

Do above average reading.

So you can connect thoughts rather than have them.

Be More Rebel, Less Empire

You may know I love cycling, I’m a MAMIL (middle aged man in lycra)

To the eternal dismay of the people I live with, I also watch it

Tell you what, it’s in a bit of a golden age

After years of the likes of Team Sky grinding other teams down

With one boring strategy.

Death Star teams winning through a repeated formula

There’s a new breed of racer now who wins with panache

You don’t know what they’ll do next

They can win in all sorts of situations

And the old-style big teams can’t beat them because they can only win one way

To misquote Princess Leia

The more they tighten their grip, the more races slip through their fingers

It’s like that for brands and agencies now

The more they tighten their grip, the more buyers slip through their fingers

Now it’s getting harder and bludgeon folks with pre-tested TV

We need more acts, less ads to avoid being filtered out

As PR content, experience and digital become core, not an afterthought

Brands need an in-house writer’s room more than an in house studio

The dinosaurs look at the likes of Liquid Death

And think, yeah, it’s easy when you’re a challenger

Yet the only thing more obvious than agencies quoting Bryon Sharpe

Is quoting Nike, who’ve worked this way for years

It’s why you should take the likes of the IPA databank with a pinch of salt

It’s aggregates average – and follows the agenda of ‘ads not acts’.

When there's never been a better time to find your voice, tell your story

Let the Death Star organisations still build marketing plans like it was the 80s

Let behemoth agencies develop crafted messaged no one cares about

Be one of the rebel strategists

In world where the Empire is trying to tighten its grip

All-rounders as good at PR as they are at broadcast

Good enough at performance AND brand to not need to reinforce a divide

With creative ideas ‘creatives’ hiding behind a mac can’t have

Media ideas media folks obsessed with reach and frequency miss

Less bothered about long term v short term

Obsessed with removing what’s in the way for clients

I’ve seen a lot of brands (bland) agencies

Still with a weird sense of lead agency entitlement

Who look down on the ‘not above the line’ folks

Trying to develop digital first, social work like they do 30 second commercials

They are easy to upstage, by simply just starting with real life, not just data

Real culture, not the second-hand stuff in social listening

Talking to real people, not AI

You don’t have to be an ethnographer, just a human

Able to have ideas people would actually thank you for making

Caring about real people, not personas

So, if you’re not an all-round planner, get some broader skills quick

Get more interesting work by being interested

Be more Rebel, less Empire

50 small bits of advice forged by failure

It's common for people turning 50 to share the fruits of their experience.

I've just reached that milestone but I won't.

Because I know I'm nothing special.

Because most of these kind of posts are edited versions of the truth.

(Like the case studies that help no one)

Because failure is the greatest teacher.

Because it's useful to know that no matter how old or experienced you get, we all make it up as we go along. 

So I'm going to share 50 hard lessons, forged in the furnace of failure and fuck up.

 

Never crash into a the client CEO's car

Never be more than two drinks behind a client in any situation

Never click reply instead of forward to a client email

Never ignore someone who says you'll never make it to account director  because your grasp of detail is shocking

Never agree to lead the agency rebrand or positioning

Never work in an agency where you are judged by how many hours you put in

Never do an all nighter in a converted Church unless you have nerves of steel 

Never join an agency with a bad reputation that tells you it's changing

Never criticise someone else's work in an all agency

Never use pretentious words to look clever, it makes you look dumb 

Never write propositions like headlines, unless you want your brief to be ignored

Never get cross in creative reviews

Never get cross with people in LinkedIn

In fact never get cross, store the energy to do something about it - change what what you can, endure what you can't

Never speak first in a creative review - let others talk crap while you work our what you think

Never speak first in any meeting if you can help it

Never talk about a client on train, you never know who's listening (it lost someone I know a pitch)

In fact don't talk about work on a train full stop

Never stay in a job the moment you think you don't trust your boss

Never write a strategy with an ad in mind

Never write a great proposition, creative will automatically do the opposite - frame a problem instead

Never fail to serve good tea or coffee to visitors - little things say it the loudest

Never turn up to the wrong venue for a key client meeting

Never work with your client's offspring

Never question the research in the research presentation (kill it later)

Never assume a few people liking your blog or LinkedIn content makes you any good at the actual job

Never sell work with 'according to how brands grow'

Never believe case studies, they are the Instagram version of what happens

Never fail to actually try whatever you're being asked to sell

Never fail to actually shop for what you're selling

Never fail to meet your audience in real life (don't go to the zoo, go the jungle)

Never defend a strategy because it's cool

But never fail to persuade if you know when you believe in your work

But then again, never fight a losing battle

Never forget an idea that never made it, ideas are connections make it fit something else

Never refuse to post rationalise creative if you like it, good work is hard to come by

Never forget to be kind to junior suits,  they could end up as you boss, or a client

Never allow people in your team who clearly don't care about the work

Never do a job interview in lycra

Never tolerate a bully (they are still around)

Never fail to defend someone against a bully - one day it could be you

Never criticise another agency's work on LinkedIn

Never tell the client their pitch brief is wrong (let them discover how it inspired you)

Never bother stressing over a pitch until you have wasted half the time (some things never change)

Never write powerpoint without knowing what you want to say

Never lend books to colleagues, yoy never get them back

Never try and look smart - everyone hates smart arses

Never reject the obvious, everyone else does too

Never play contact sport with a client

Never take anything we do seriously, it really isn't life or death 

 

The tortoise Won (or average happens quickly, great takes work, patience and time)

Once upon a time I used to be a swimmer (I may have mentioned this once or twice).

My biggest failing was controlling adrenalin.

I used to start training sessions like a lunatic, crying in agony by at the end of two hours.

Because I'd used my energy far too soon.

I used to go all out at the start of races, then fade into losing misery before the end.

Every body is only has so many bullets and I always used to fire mine too early.

You could say I was a rabbit losing to smart tortoises. 

I love cycling these days and I'm fascinated by time trials.

Where the skill is to stay somewhere just above threshhold for the whole distance without blowing.

It's basically a long, controlled scream.

I won't mention the hares I've seen in agency Xmas do's who have to be sent home early.

Smashed from too much free booze too early. 

But agencies should try and be more tortoise outside of 'culture building' too. 

Less creatives allowed to let rip without thinking first.

Leading to a cacophony of first page ideas everyone is too tired to improve.

Strategy types who immediately feel they have the answer and won't budge even when the overnight test suggests otherwise.

Average happens fast, you have to get through it to get to great.

Most great ideas actually come from relentless improvement of average.

You start, you find little things to correct and improve and greatness emerges.

You could say it appears gradually and all of a sudden.

Yet so many expend all their energy overdoing average.

Too tired to get to great.

So think about two kinds of enthusiasm, cold and hot.

Starting with hot gets you to lots of stuff quick, but you run cold quick.

Cold enthusiasm is a lot more clinical.

Cold knows it needs to get average out the way before working on great.

Cold always holds something back today to ensure tomorrow is possible.

Cold doesn't get defensive about average, cold encourages good.

Cold manages energy levels.

Cold goes home on time and takes breaks.

Cold has a life outside work.

It's been well researched that working over 40 hours or so REDUCES PRODUCTIVITY.

In other words, the tortoise wins.

Be more tortoise. 

All the gear, no idea

I hate gyms, I 'd rather be outside or in water, but I have been in them from time to time.

One of the species of gym bunny I used to find amusing was all the all the gear no idea types.

You know, high on expensive kit, light on actual exercise - usually doing groovy new faddy workouts with little effect.

I see the same species out on the road when I'm cycling.

The most advanced bike, the most technical kit, not able to actually climb a hill.

I see it in all sorts of diet fads based on pseudo science, so people can feel good about not actually doing much.

And if you look around, you can see it everywhere in marketing.

Soothing new evaluation models to get out of having to sell anything.

Amazing brand babbling theory to get out having to grow a business.

Lots of Purpose to avoid marketing having an actionable goal.

Clicks instead of creativity.

It's never been easier to run to stand still.

On the other hand, there's never been a better time to know what you're doing.

 

 

The rage against the fading of the light and embracing average

If you read this blog more than once a year you're probably sick of me telling you I used to be swimmer and cycle a lot.

When I was a teenager being an athlete used to define me, maybe too much  if I'm honest.

But when I swam I felt powerful and capable, I felt special.

When I cycled in latter years, I could put the power the down to feel anything but average.

I never lost the addiction of the deep joy of doing something well.

It's why I love planning, though I may be well below the best in the business.

Because few can really do this job even well, and some have said I can do that at least.

Planners can make magic come out of the seemingly mundane, it's alchemy really.

To me the rush is at intense as a runner's (swimmer's) high - the feeling of pure joy also known as flow.

 

But when it comes to sport.

I'm not young anymore and for the first time, I can feel my body slowing down.

The times I used to do are further out of reach.

My shoulders ache more after a swim.

Hills feel steeper. 

And I hate it.

 

It's tempting to deny it and just push harder, but that's putting off the inevitable.

And making myself ill. 

 

Raging against the fading of the light doesn't alter the fact my body is older.

And it's part of a deeper problem.

I'm not special and neither are you.

No matter what the task or skill and most people believe they better than most.

Even though, by definition, most people are not the best- they are average. 

 

And once you accept you are not special at what you do, or because of what you do.

You're liberated to simply enjoy it.

So I'm learning to be more present in just enjoying doing sport.

Rather than competing against others, or myself.

In the job, I'm beginning to love doing it, not worrying what peers think.

Learning to take the pressure off.

And oddly, when you're less tense about doing your best work.

The best work comes.

Who knew? 

 

Adland as a whole could remember this too.

Because we're paid to connect brands with real people.

To make them popular and sell.

Yet 'selling things' gives many the ice.

Work most people enjoy feels like 'dumbing down' to many.

People are not stupid, but they can't be arses to work out what point you're trying to make.

So take the pressure off and enjoy making your clients popular. 

Loosen your grip and see what happens. 

Ask a silly question....

The worst thing you can do in research is ask people about your brand or product.

Because they really don't think or talk about it in real life.

Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers.

 

Just as when people can, and do, pay to avoid advertising.

Asking them to talk about it in research, is like asking them to define irony.

 

It's not new to say people don't care about brands, they care about life.

But how many of us really set out to research real life?

How many really care?

To make stuff people will actually thank you for making?

 

I saw a funny LinkedIn post about banned insights.

Like 'young people have it tough'.

Yet how many brands have you seen actually helping with this?

 

I LOVE this Travelodge campaign.

 

It deals with the obvious.

Staying in a low cost hotel is still a lot better than the alternatives.

Maybe boring is still better than chaos.

I bet it works because it remembers to actually sell, remember that?

And it gets to the heart of actual real life.

Oh, and I imagine it deals with a commercial problem.

A dip in bookings as people save money - then bitterly regret the consequences. 

 

Obvious insights are amazing to use when adland is too cool to use them. 

When you understand what is really going on, how you could fit in.

The possibilities are endless.

Even so called low interest categories become interesting.

 

The drumbeat of everyday conversations at a very surface level are full of tension right now.

Cost of living, tensions around the world, paying for heating now it's cold. 

These things sound obvious, but how is your brand really relevant to obvious real life?

You could make coffee a way to make tough days more bearable. 

You could make a chat over coffee a way for lonely men over 45 (a genuine real world problem) to make friends.

You could make cleaning the house a way to feel able in world that makes us feel powerless

 

When Daniel Craig became James Bond.

They realised men were a bit confused about their place in the world.

So made him a flawed confused character to reflect the world around him.

 

It shouldn't be a conversation about injecting humour into ads.

I heard a real client conversation about humour being a bit crass in serious times.

When a human being knows in serious times, we all look for ways to cheer ourselves up.

Trust me, parts of the 80s were miserable in the UK.

Unemployment, strikes and, well, Thatcher.

Did everyone stop watching Only Fools and Horses because real life wasn't funny for many?

Don't be a plonker Rodney. 

 

Final point.

Campaign Magazine is out.

With 10 key questions.

All the usual naval gazing stuff.

Do brands mean anything any more?

What do we do about AI?

Obviously, like a great white shark, we need move forward or die.

But the real question is relevance to the only folks that matters, real people who decide to buy things or not.

If can't remember to be relevant to them, we're fish food. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you can't be good all of the time, be great some of the time

The biggest challenge with being a planning/strategy type is that everyone things they can do your job. 

But like many things, it's easy until you actually have to do it.

Let's be honest actually, it's not that hard to be an okay planner these days.

Since many places prefer a process being ticked, rather than brilliantly simple, informed ideas that change things.  

Being a great planner though, that takes great writing, sharp thinking and ideas. 

That is not easy, yet most of our workplace makes it harder.

 

Because doing your best work required you to be at your best.

Yet the actual work is often squeezed in between all the other stuff. 

Status meetings, check in meetings, lots of meetings, meetings about meetings. 

It's often the case you finally do deep work when you're tired out.

Come on.

How can you do your best work when you're brain dead from overlong status call? 

 

The very structure of the working day gets in the way.

Most people are far better in mornings than afternoons.

To the point where the difference in mental performance is as stark as being drunk or sober. 

Yet who gets to escape the Monday morning start the week meetings?

 

To be more precise, hard concentration is much better done in mornings.

But flashes of insight and out of the box ideas are better in the afternoon.

Because the rational brain is too tired to fight the absurd.

 

So in organisations that are supposed to deliver great thinking and fresh ideas.

Isn't it absurd how the working day is shaped to get in the way of the very thing that makes us money?

 

But then there is you.

The brain is a muscle.

When you require other muscles to work, you warm them up.

You leave the usual environments for places like gyms.

You pay over the odds for bits of polyester and plastic called 'kit'.

Cycling men even shave their legs to feel ready for battle.

 

Yet we sit in the same desks to deep work as we do for timesheets.

We click off emails and get straight into it.

The best work takes all we've got.

Yet we tie our own hands behind our backs.

 

We need to change WHEN we work.

We need to change HOW we work. 

But let's be honest, even though they should, most places will not abandon the current situation.

Here's what I do. I hack the system, I hack myself. 

I have to, I'm not naturally very good at this job, I have to work harder at it.

But even if you're naturally brilliant, imagine how much better you could be if you have yourself the chance? 

1. Have a morning routine. I get outside for at least 10 minutes (at least), HiiT exercise for at least 7 minutes, 10 minutes meditation (or just Wim How breathing techniques). All before I start work -and yes, I have children, I just get up earlier. All this gets me warmed up and energised to work well. If you commute, make sure you power walk for some of it, medicate on the train, don't doom scroll. 
2. Consider fasting in mornings, it clears brain fog (coffee reduces appetite).
3. Start work at least an hour before everyone else, in many cases, even earlier. Do the hard jobs that matter first.
4. Do everything you can to avoid morning meetings, put one and two hour blocks in my diary for proper hard work.
5. Work 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off. Little breaks, maximum effort.
6. Block social media, internet and most phone stuff in mornings so my brain is doing one things and getting into flow state.
7. Power nap around lunchtime just 20 minutes, then espresso and 5 minutes exercise -which mitigates a lot of afternoon crapness (naps in an office are tough culturally, a walk is not)
8. But I will have left most admin and low level tasks for afternoons, most meetings will be happening now if I have anything to do with it.
9. If I'm remote working, which I get to do a lot, I'll do an hour's hard exercise - mostly cycling. I have the time because I haven't wasted time. 
10. Then I'll try and re-look at projects when I've done lots of hard work already, but it's just not there yet -  the subconscious will have done lots of work for me, now I let it come out while I'm too tired to fight it. Get it all out, leave the tough work to turn it into gold for later.
11. I'll get a second wind late afternoon, early evening. I have kids, I have a life, but I often have another run at things.
12. I have thinking place and a doing place - just like the act of putting on Nike's to run, I'll sit in a thinking chair - and in an open plan office, switch seats to think rather than do. It's obvious, but it works, just as Bruce Wayne puts on the Batsuit yet doesn't gain any actual superpowers.

Much of this works for me because I'm me, other things will work better for you, but most is based on real science on what works for most people.

It doesn't require more time, just smarter use of it.

It's easy because it's building habits, and habits are what gets us through most days, we just need good ones.

Two final thoughts:

We all use QWERTY keypads. They were designed for old style typewriters to slow people DOWN so the mechanical action wouldn't jam. But we still use it simply because we always have. The 9-5 routine, a rough splodge of activity is like that. But you can hack the system and hack youself. 

It's amazing how much time you have, and how good you are,  when you put your phone away.

 

A good workman is always better with great tools

The title is a poor bastardisation of that famous line. Sorry, I'm not David Abbot. 

'A poor workman always blames his tools'.

The idea that it's the skills, craft and effort of the person that makes or breaks a project.

This is true, up to a point. 

But while tools can't cover up lack of talent or experience, they can enhance them. 

 

I work on a high end cookware brand.

It doesn't make someone a better cook logically.

But the history, craft and sheer stories behind the brand.

Mean that when you use it, you feel you're part of a tribe of capable cooks.

I've seen eyes light up, shoulders straighten and kitchen tasks just flow.

Because when people FEEL capable, they become capable.

 

I worked on a hair straighter brand that was built on female empowerment.

I saw women in qual research, miming running a straighter through their hair like it was a magic wand. 

Women walking out of salons like titans.

No conflict between beauty and brains, beauty makes one feel more powerful.

And there's nothing more powerful than  being underestimated.

 

I layout pad and sharpie doesn't think of ideas for me.

Yet is makes me feel I can have ideas. 

 

I'll let you into a secret. 

I moved from account handling to planning while I was at a small independent agency.

It took a while for others to take the ex-account handler seriously.

It took a while for me to take myself seriously too, despite 'doing planning' was the only way I survived as a suit!!!

But when stole things like the McCann Brand Footprint (still useful by the way).

When I wrote briefs in the same style as W+K Honda briefs I got hold off.

When I thieved the BBH brief structure.

When I mimicked the story of some case studies.

I felt like a real planner, so I actually became a real planner.

Just as cooking with a the cast iron favourite of a generations of great cooks makes you feel like one too.

 

Now, obviously don't confuse a process or framework with actual thinking.

They are useful tool to make the chaos and uncertainty of ideas look predictable to clients. 

Just don't let a process become the point.

 

But while everything you need is already inside.

The right tools bring it out.

Gives great ideas hooks to hang on. 

Form to fog. 

 

So that original quote was right - don't rely on tools, you make it happen.

But tools can be a conduit to get the best out of yourself.

A way to overcome the tyranny of the blank page.

The conduit for ideas that cut through the chaos.

 

You are enough.

But with tools used wisely, you can be more. 

 

Discuss don't dictate

I was in a pitch recently, it went well.

Some of that was the thinking, the work and the things you might expect.

Most of it was down to the conversation.

From the first minute, the meeting was a conversation punctuated by conversation starters, also known as 'slides'. 

Chemistry magically emerged from positive friction.

Now, we've all been in those odd meetings when no one says a word and you almost feel as if you're talking to yourself.

In rare cases, that's the way it is, in others, to get people to talk you only need to give them something to talk about and the room to do it. 

Plan for a series of conversations rather than a monologue. 

 

There are very good reasons to discuss rather than dictate.

I don't know if you've been pitched to, but I can tell you it's intimidating.

A team throwing their best work at you, usually with lots of key points to think about.

It can be hard to take in and too much to respond to in one go.

Yet everyone needs to give some sort of feedback.

On something new, that they haven't got their head around yet.

Which means thoughts will be half formed and not well thought out.

(which is why you should always try and speak last in a creative review, give yourself time to work out what you think). 

But as soon as they have to comment, they won't devoid from that point in order to save face.

Better to take them on journey, building together.

 

Which brings me to the other point - The Ikea Effect.

Conversation makes them feel they are part of making the solution.

And we all love things we've built ourselves.

Agencies are supposed to be the fun bit, so make it fun. 

 

It means you have to think on your feet, which in turn  means being uber prepared.

But it also means looking for connection and agreement.

Rather than  bending people to your will. 

I won't lie, in the meeting I'm talking about, right at the start,  there was a wobble when the client wasn't going to align with our main points.

But there was a turning point when we reframed our direction to align with their thinking and thanked them for the input.

 

So yes, discuss, don't dictate.

Just be clear on the key things that really matter.

In a pitch, clients need to know they can work with you, not just if you're any good.

And no one likes likes working with a smart arse. 

When it comes to content, think like a publisher and less like a strategist

When I was growing up, people used to say "I loved that ad for whatsisname"
No matter how good the ad was, it really wasn't good if didn't build the brand
Yes, I know, low involvement processing etc
But that always struck me as a lazy excuse to not make the logo bigger
Content, PR and social strategists should consider this
It should be obvious that followers and likes and are mostly vanity
That you're most likely reaching people who would buy you anyway
But we're seeing lots of evidence that digital stuff can build brands
It just needs to be good enough to hold attention for a few secs
Not rocket science is it?
Even so, attention is a waste if you don't remember the brand
Then again, if it looks like advertising, it will be ignored
So what to do?
Think more like a media owner and less like a brand
Where a worldview and mindset comes through every piece
You know what to expect when you watch Channel 4
And watching Channel 4 makes you know what to expect
The Guardian, Fox News, The New Yorker
Lots of writers and creators all contributing the same point of view of the world
The collective voice of your audience
Think like an editor and less like a marketer
Be more Channel 4

Use more salt and butter

Obviously, in good restaurants, the food is great because of the craft skills of the chef and the quality of the ingredients.

However, when I was a graduate working in pretty decent kitchen, the head chef was humbly honest.

She said it tasted better because they add levels of salt and butter few dare to at home.

That's a little like strategy. 

You can't do the job without decent ingredients or craft skills. 

Deep knowledge of market, brand, product, audience, context, culture (in my opinion) solving a well honed problem.

All put into a key task, sanded down so it gleams. 

But without lashings of butter and salt: imagination, an idea not a process you have ticked.

Without the seasoning that gets everyone excited.

You have correct, but unremarkable blandness.

People won't care.

Not your colleagues or clients, who decide on emotion, whatever they tell themselves.

Not real people out in the world filtering out most of what they see and experience.

Who buy on feelings more than facts. 

Salt gets the blood pressure up, it gets the heart racing.

Butter adds richness and depth. 

That's not so great for long term health in cooking.

For long term brand health, it's essential. 

When the truth is awkward, but myths are easy, it's a great time to be a real planner

Warren Buffet is a man to be admired. He's obviously a good investor and manages to be a good bloke. 

He's pretty good at the odd turn of phrase like this one, "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful".

It mostly means don't follow the herd, there is huge competitive advantage in not following the trends. 

 

Yet, despite advice from the the man who know to make money better than most.

Most agencies and brands do the opposite. 

Put up pictures of most ads in a category, they all look the same.

Then again, so many briefs seek to 'Disrupt' and shock people into being interested. 

So much work follows the same trends everyone has read.

So the same cool shit becomes wallpaper. 

When life at the moment is more interesting (euphemism) than ever.

Brands have forgotten to be interested in real life.

 

Planners too.

 

Relying on a social listening and masses of data to get a proxy of people.

Instead of seeing the whites of their eyes. 

It shouldn't take this, very important work from Saatchi and Saatchi on Meet the 85% to know how they feel right now. 

Scared, confused, frustrated, knackered. 

Life is full of tension and new habits and attitudes, yet most don't see it.

Betting on Metaverses rather than life. . 

 

Right now the truth is awkward and myths are easy.

Myths that people ever cared about brands rather than real life.

That anyone knows what's going on right now, when it's really chaos. 

That distinctive assets are the way to win rather than making people care. 

That approaching marketing in the same way as the 1950s when economics, media and culture are all different will work. 

That we don't need to understand people anymore, just target then precisely.

That social media followers mean commercial success. 

That 'Gen Z' is a useful audience strategy.

 

But when the the truth is awkward and myths are easy.

It's a great time to be a planner with both old craft skills and new media skills.

With imagination and logic. 

Who's able to get to the real truth about what a client really means in real  life rather than a pen portrait.

Who's brave enough to want to solve business problems instead of brand problems (or drive performance metrics).

 

When best practice has become anything but, and myths and process matters more than truth.

Let's get to work.