Northern Planner

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.