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. 

 

 

What my sister and a track from a Netflix show tells us about execution

My sister is an amazing cook. She can turn any mixture of ingredients into a great meal, she just has that knack.

Just as in the wrong hands, the most expensive steak in the world can be inedible.

Just as the finest red wine in the world is wasted in a plastic cup.

Execution and treatment are everything.

Basic ingredients can become things of wonder.

The most wonderful raw material can be destroyed without the experience, car and attention to treat them properly. 

I really love this track. Much of it has to do with the context of the final scene of Sex Education where I first heard it.

 

Some of it is to do with the fact I was going through one of two things at that time.

But mostly, it's because the song has the rare power of a deceptive cadence that builds without you realising it, the song is quiet and dreamy and it's only when it ends that you realise that. 

Put another way, the execution - the quiet whispery voice, the gentle strings and couple of deft changes of pace really work for me.

After, I discovered this version. I guess it's the original.

 

Totally different and I can't stand it. Same song, same lyrics, yet one (to me at least) is amazing and the other is meh. 

Which goes a long way to reinforce the point that you really don't have a good creative idea until you start to execute it. 

So it delivers more than a message, or builds on a so called insight.

It connects. 

Just as Sex Education, the truly excellent Netflix show is about much more than the shock value of lots of sex in high school, it's about the confusion of being young (and being old), the thin line between friendship and love, love and lust and tension between being who people expect and who you really are - even though you're still working out who that actually is. 

Here are two ads broadly based on the same message - our cars are reliable.

 

 

The first, the classic VW ad isn't just about reliability, it's designed to resonate with something specific about the culture of the UK in the 80s. Roughly something to do with female independence, while still connecting with the materialistic aspirations of the time. It's also a story. 

The second, less recent, but still a classic Honda, is pure theatre and showmanship.

Both got people talking and generated talk value, with loads of free PR. In very different ways.

Both could have started with same brief - make the car's reliability desirable rather than dull.

The trick is in the execution.

One taps into culture. One tries to create an event.

Just as both these are about dramatising feeling great about saving money.

 

 

The first (in my opinion) rewards the viewer, builds theatre and has deft little executional fairy dust (like the Skeletor laugh at the end).

The second is devoid of any flare whatsoever, sorry. It even proves that even a great track can't save a bad ad.

But the same track can transform a good one into a great one...

 

Our industry still spends millions pre-testing propositions, messages positionings and other abstract concepts that matter far less to the success of marketing communications than the texture of the stuff that actually get's made. Of course, precision in solving the right problems helps, as does delivering the appropriate message, but when you're really competing against Netflix, YouTube, Tick Tock or someone's favourite soap opera, the message is the easiest part.

Transitions

I love and hate this time of year.

There's the ghost of dread as the nights get darker and and edge of coolness in the summer warmth. Yet when it gets to the end of August there's a sense of change and even a fresh start as Autumn beckons.

A childhood of new school years in September and now my children going through the same thing means this point in the calendar often feels as fresh as January (Without the cold, darkness and guilt from over-doing it during the festive season)

This September the transition is greater.

My son starts secondary school, leaving me incredulous it's come so soon, torn between the joy of watching him gain more independence and the pain of that little hand, that used to gratefully reach out to hold mine, begin to slip away.

And I start a new job next week here. I've never worked in healthcare before which makes me a little nervous, but if you have no fear, it means you're not moving forward and at 47, I'm grateful to be doing that again.

In contrast to recent experiences, the culture isn't something they suddenly want to develop thanks to MeToo, nor has is quickly become a veneer in response to shifting expectations provoked by COVID. The people come first. 

In even greater contrast, strategy isn't something they desperately think they want, but then feel threatened by it and seek to undermine its role at every opportunity.

It's central. (While it's paramount for a strategy department to surrender its ego and include everyone and collaborate, it's another thing for everyone else to try and do the job for you. I used to agree that strategy folk need to earn their place in the room, but it's totally exhausting)

And finally, because it's healthcare, it means I get to actually make a difference in the world.

I've never felt particularly troubled about the real nature of the job, namely getting people to buy things they don't really need. Which is why I'm always fearful of 'Progressive brands' or 'purpose' - the majority of which are either there to make marketing folk feel better about the fact their job is sell things people don't really need, or lazy strategists who see trends and think a brand should get involved, with or without any credibility. 

However, the opportunity to actually have an effect on lives, rather than shift a few points on brand health scores feels great. 

There's a lot to learn and much to prove to a stellar team, but nothing easy was ever worth it. 

Why it's unsafe to not talk to strangers if you do strategy

I had a hard time in my first agency, I won't lie.

Much of this was down to the fact I was in the wrong job, maybe the world's worst account handler.

What got me through was actually doing strategy without realising it.

Well nearly through anyway. 

This wasn't the whole story though, much of it was culture.

A creative department and studio who delighted in tormenting inexperienced suits just because they could.

A macho culture built on bullying and pushing their people until they burned out. 

Many of us have been there and probably still carry the scars. 

Thankfully this kind of agency is much rarer these days, however, the pressure to fit in still persists even if the experience is less bruising.

Even today, many of the best agencies are more or less cults, with a very specific culture, a way of behaving and doing things that is pretty inflexible.

They'll say their culture is precious and it's important that new hires don't upset this.

Being 'easy to work with'.

So they end up hiring more people like them.

Which is perverse considering agencies are supposed to be about new thinking and original ideas.

Diversity is important simply because, well I don't really have to spell it out do I? 

It's also very uncommercial, because doing things the same way over and over again leads to the outputs becoming gradually staler and more formulaic.

So when you can, try and work in a different way every time. Inject a little chaos into the routine. 

Muscles get used to being trained the same way, you have to keep then guessing, even the one between your ears. 

From a people perspective, even if your agency is one of those who keeps you in tight teams, or hires for a tight, one size fits all culture.

Inject some diversity into your working practices and projects.

Set up a network of people you know in your life who will tolerate talking about brands and stuff.

Talk to them about your project, about your brand or whatever.

Not only will they not be jaded by all the brand pseudo science, they'll offer a fresh view that will keep you on your toes.

If you have kids, talk to them and listen to them, they haven't learned to not ask difficult questions yet.

Go out and talk to strangers (in a non-weird way). 

This is hard if you're shy like me, but learning to overcome this is no bad thing and you get a constant feed of different perspectives.

Read stuff you don't usually read.

Go places you don't usually go.

Wear stuff which isn't usually your style.

Listen to different music.

The job of strategy was, is and always will be to bring the preferences and lives of real people into the process.

Yes it's a lot more, a hell of a lot more, but the core skill has never been more important.

When creatives chase whatever in fashion in awards land.

Digital specialists don't even see people, they see data points.

When more of us are working from home (a good thing if lets more people do the job of course). 

The more stimulation you can expose yourself to from the diverse, much more interesting world out there.

The more you'll stimulate better thinking and ideas.

 

Diversity -actions v words

I had a conversation with the leaders of a business who were trying to talk a good game on diversity and inclusion in their business.

With one, exception every single one was white, middle aged and male. They were also the only people in the business with parking spaces.

That's right, the ones most able to pay for their own parking were the ones who did not.

It's a small point but it speaks volumes about what they really think.

When I asked why this was, the conversation was immediately shut down. 

This is just one example of actions over words when it comes to REALLY embracing diversity.

Thoughts on Disruption

If there's one thing that's conventional about advertising, it's Disruption. You can't move for briefs asking you to 'disrupt the market', a certain agency had even made Disruption its core positioning. 

Like most ways of working, it has its place, just like nearly every other approach, especially when you're in a market weighed down with complacency and tradition. 

That said, in the wrong hands, it tends to turn into shock tactics or extreme points of view and novelty.

Granted, this might create stand-out advertising, but it's less likely to create long term brand and business value, because while people can't help but notice novelty, anything too far removed from what they're used to gets rejected.

Brands exist to help us think less and remove the risk of buying rubbish product, never forget this. 

So what do you do if you have to work on a disruption brief?

Simple really. 

Find the link between what people care about and what the brand cares about.

Make sure it totally undermines the competition in a way that they can't react too quickly.

But ground the delivery in something they are already familiar with or can relate to. 

Take some of the most famous 'Disruptive' work from Apple. 

Few people will disagree that they like the idea of being creative and, at the time, most hated the clunkiness of computing, while Apple was focused on making computers that were not only a joy to use, they freed up the skills of creative people

Then, there is a reason the 1984 ad was called 1984. It tapped into a very familiar story many could relate to.

Just as 'Think Different' used very familiar figures - and in the west at least, flaws in psychology makes most of us believe we're not average when of course we are. 

 

Now think about shaving.

It's become very conventional for men's shaving brands to go on about male identity, which is kind of fair, because shaving is tied up with masculinity. 

Gillette is supposed to be the best a man can get, so, in their endearingly clunky way, they're trying to tap into new codes for masculinity. 

 

I suspect this will have an effect, but it does feel like a big brand late to the party, or bowing to the new conventions in the market. 

The truth of the matter is, most men HATE shaving, they certainly don't want to spend more on it than they have to, which is why cheaper subscription brands like Dollar Shave Club or Harry's have done so well.

But you know what? I'm tight fisted, so I naturally subscribe to cheapo brand myself, but one day found myself out of blades and bought Gillette to tide me over.

I'd forgotten how good they were, shaved closer, no irritation, no dragging, just better. 

It made me wonder, thinking about disruption and familiarity, maybe the best thing Gillette could do right now is be confident and disrupt the market by simply talking about the fact the their razors shave better - reliability, performance.

Just find a way to execute it that steers as far away from slo mo models and sciencey close ups as they can. 

The convention is tapping into how men feel about being a man, but really, shaving is a necessary evil than men would rather not think about - Gillette delivers the best blades so you can crack on with all the other shit you have to think about. 

And in case you think reliability and commitment to performance is a bit dull, one of the best ads ever basically riffed on how to make reliability desirable rather than dull.....

 

 

This last one is very dated, but I still like how, in classic BMP style, they push the simple benefit to the most extreme outcome. Also, funnily enough, tapping into 'independent women' tropes in a wonderfully subtle way next to heavy handed shaving brands and manliness. 

Anyway, there will be a million reasons why my thoughts on shaving are all bollocks, but still, conventions, disruptions...

In a nutshell, don't be lukewarm, stand our and get noticed - but don't forget to make people want to buy and for Gods sake.

Familiar novelty. 

Anyway. 

It's time to give strategists a break

One of the first things I was taught in this job was a simple, effective truth - no one really wants you in the room. An iron law that I drum into my teams to this day. 

Humility is probably the most valuable character trait for a strategy person, even more important than intelligence and curiosity. When it comes to the people you work with, it's still good practise to be generous with your thinking, let others take credit and see yourself as the liberator of other people's skills.

As with any job, taking people with you is always the best approach, but then again, you have to ask what the do the people running agencies think they're doing? Why do they pay the wages of strategy departments, only to feel threatened and try and undermine everything they do? Why are strategists not supported more?

Why is this the only department who is made to feel like they have to fight for their existence every day? 

Of course, some of this is down to the practitioners themselves. The job requires you to be intelligent, but no one likes a smart arse and trying to make everyone else feel stupid is actually really dumb. This is perhaps far too common and maybe one or two strategists have not only made their own bed, they've made it tougher for everyone else.

Collaboration between teams always works best, it simply does.

And yet...

No other department has to 'take everyone with them' in the same way as strategy does.

We all have to do workshops primarily to get everyone to feel like they've had a hand in the thinking (don't be coy, you know you do).

We've all had the dread of the agency leaders who have read a couple of books and want to 'collaborate'. You know, the kind who reject any proposition or core thought on the basis they haven't thought of it themselves, but can't articulate anything of use on their own. Then they get cross when you reject their thinking, or you get a little frustrated because you just want to be able to do your job. 

There is a difference between surrendering your ego and surrendering your role. 

I think the core of the problem is that strategy looks easy. In fact, it kind of is, the first page obvious stuff I mean.

However, the kind that cuts through the clutter to get to something simple, generous to various channels and yet have that leap of imagination to spark great work - it's hard.

It's tough to do it by yourself, which is why I always advise people in our job to find a sounding board, someone they trust to knock stuff around with.

Just as you should shut your mouth in meetings and listen hard, ready to spot a flash of genius someone else shares. Always be ready for someone else to spot the solution.

However, even then it needs honing and finding the clarity you need isn't helped by a cacophony of people trying to do your job. 

You don't find strategy people trying to do the end of year accounts or negotiate with the landlord, so I don't totally buy the acceptability of everyone trying trying to write the comms strategy.

This isn't the experience in any agency by any means, but I think it's time to give strategists a break.

Or at at least, if you want to do their job, don't hire them.

 

Highs, lows and the numb feeling of success

So it's the Olympics, which I'm enjoying immensely. As an ex-swimmer, Adam Peaty winning the breast stroke has been a highlight, however his comments after really struck a chord.

Basically he was expressing relief rather than jubilation, similar to Victoria Pendleton after her last cycling gold. A release of all that pressure and sheer gratitude to not have messed it up. 

Because losing is a much more intense emotion that winning. You might have found this with pitches, or even just those high pressure meetings and presentations. 

You put so much into it and when you find out you didn't cut it, or you work gets rejected, you feel crushed, so of course a thick skin and the ability to bounce back are pre-requisites for the job.

However I wonder if we should getting at enjoying the highs. 

I can only speak for myself, but I know I'm not alone when I say that winning is often quite a numb feeling. Mostly because of that wave of relief that you didn't lose, however it's not all that. Also, there's the immediate focus on now having to deliver what you presented and the mind moving to that other pitch or project you've got on.

That's the catch with working in agencies, it's rarely dull, but we don't seem to be able enjoy those moments when it all comes together. The end isn't as fun as the start, it's the exploration and development that gets us out of bed I think. Like the disappointment of finishing a great book, it's getting there that's the good bit, but still. 

I suspect it's down to the types who do well in agencies; restless, curious and always wanting to move forward (the good ones anyway). It stops you getting stale but it's shame we can't enjoy the highs as much as we feel the sting of the lows.

What the school holidays prove about marginal gains

So it's the summer holidays, my children are off for five weeks.In between the usual tensions over XBox and Tik Tok, they hang out with their friends, in real life and virtually. There's a lovely cadence to the days where I work, they potter and play and we come together for lunch, or the occasional trip out.

That's the beauty of remote flexible working, it's not just about working when you at your best. It's also working when it's best for everyone. 

All of the above is true of course, but it's not the whole truth, it's the showreel. The highlights that get on Instagram, or the bits that might get put into an ad for Teams over summer, or a house cleaning product.

There is plenty on the cutting room floor. 

There's the big stuff, the sit-downs over too much XBox or not being home when they promised, yet the real challenge is the reverse marginal gains.

Marginal Losses.

The build up of all the things that are just about OK when the kids are out for most of the day. yet add up to horrendous time suckage when they school's out for summer. 

The constant flushing of un-flushed toilets. 

The trails of hay around the house from the daily feeding of guinea pigs.

The socks on the floor.

The glasses and cups around the house. 

If you never believed all that marginal gains stuff, try spending 5 weeks with a couple of pre-teens, a little begins to add up to a hell of a lot, which is worth thinking about if you're thinking of returning to the office and all the little distractions and time thieving that goes on there.

At least the toilets get flushed, or at least I hope they do. 

 

Why strategy is like cycling

Greg Lemond is the only official American winner of the Tour de France (we'll leave out the discussions about a certain Texan). 

He won it three times, even more impressive considering wins two and three came after being being shot by his brother in a hunting accident.

He rubbed many up the wrong way because he could not help but be honest and, to some, over earnest.

But whatever you think I think of thst, I love this very honest quote about what it's like to a pro cyclist.

"It doesn't hurt any less, you just go faster"

This gives comfort to an increasingly creaky boned forty something like me.

Knowing that they may go a hell of a lot faster, but they feel the same agony as I do climbing a steep hill.

It means something else though, which is worth bearing in mind if you do strategy work.

Not only can you not avoid putting the work in, if it doesn't make you suffer sometimes, you're not doing it right.

I don't mean the ridiculous presenteeism culture or sweatshop mentality.

Certainly not the bullying.

(like the false belief that doping has been eradicated in cycling, don't believe for a second that the very real dark side of agency life isn't still there because in many places it still is)

I mean the pain of doing the work really well. 

Don't believe the case studies, it's not easy. There are few ta dah moments, it's mostly banging your head against a brick wall until something emerges. 

The simultaneous fear and love of the blank page.

The knowledge there is a simple idea idea forming but you just can't articulate is yet.

The exhaustion from going over every single piece of information again and again, knowing there is no connection, but it will come.

Strategy directors go through as much pain as juniors, they just hide it better.

Even worse, their instincts and experience are greater.

It becomes seductively to fall in love with your first thought and articulate the shit out of it.

Or recycle a small library of great strategies again and again. 

Many agencies you will know of frequently recommend the painfully obvious but dressed up with clever words and amazing storytelling

Like creative ideas that hide behind the Mac, refusing the exposure of the rough scamp.

Too much strategy hides behind data and cultural reference, avoiding the glare of the simple 'get' 'to' buy'. 

Or 'issue' 'insight' 'idea'.

Working at Pixar is painful. Their best films emerge from constant improvement at the most detailed level.

One of the most creative companies in the world simply works harder on their movies and leaves nothing.

Just as the best sculptors chip away at a stone block for the work to eventually reveal itself.

Hard work and perseverance may be uncool, but they are the only sure ways to excellence. 

It's tempting when you have the option of short-cuts or re-purposing work you did before to just do that.

But it's not like taking EPO or steroids, it doesn't make you better. 

Unfortunately for strategy people, there is no equivalent of doping in our job.

It if it isn't painful to some degree, you're not doing the job as well as you could or should.

What Game of Thrones teaches us about Dogma and not marketing to yourself

I was chatting to some friends this (actually face to face to face, yay!! Even though it was under a canopy and the rain was pouring down, it was ace).

The discussion roamed far and wide, but there was a spirited difference of opinion on Game of Thrones. A minority thought the whole thing was an overrated waste of time, while a real outlier thought the ending was actually quite good (if you haven't watched it, the common view is that the final series was something of an anti-climax). 

It got me thinking, there are plenty of things in popular culture you're expected to love, things that are beyond criticism. There are others you're supposed to hate. 

Take Mrs Browns Boys. Most people I know think it's hateful, but there is a reason the BBC gives it primetime. The so called mass market loves it.

Actually, most people couldn't give a monkeys about Game of Thrones. 

What does this mean for the job?

 

First, know your audience and avoid doing strategy for yourself. 

Do everything to understand what the people you are trying to influence take to the hearts and enjoy, it's not likely to be the same as you. 

Marketing is really a battle for popularity, don't forget that. 

Take time to read weird reference to generate originality and a fresh perspective, but spend even more time watching, reading and experiencing the real day to day of their lives.

They think life is more interesting than brands, so genuinely start with what they find interesting and work back. 

 

Second, be wary of the 'you must like this and hate this' rules in your own job. 

Just as millions of people like U2, Mrs Browns Boys and Venom (panned by the critics), don't be pressured to parrot Byron Sharpe.

Question Mental Availability, it's only part of the story.

Question the relentless 'short-term is evil, long-term is the one true God' agenda. 

Successful digital clients are questioning the focus on digital performance and moving back to brand building, you should too.

But then again, be wary of the 'emotional brand is good, rational persuasion bad' dogma.

Be even more a wary of those who say people want to buy from a brand with a social purpose, but they will be right some of the time. 

 

In other words, it's good to respect the experience and practises of people in the industry, but the reality is, most ways of doing things work some of the time, but not all of the time. 

No one likes to admit that the job is artful dance of doing what will work and what you are expected to do. 

I didn't say it was easy.

And that person who thought Game of Thrones ended well was me!!

 

 

My thing - plan for moments not campaigns

I was looking at some old IPA diplomas for something or other. 

I like many if these, they have so much value to spark thinking and it's obvious the writers have worked very, very hard. 

That said,  I'm naturally nervous of encouraging planners to naval gaze, as the result is often clever rather than practical. 

I'm all for challenging the received wisdom though, as I firmly believe much of the laudable work done by the IPA and Byron Sharpe is in danger of making the data fit the usual beliefs.

Especially the IPA Data bank work, built from a very small sample, relatively speaking, yet taken as gospel.

It did make me ask myself what I thought and what I would say if I had to write one. It might go something like this. Written with brutal simplicity:

I BELIEVE BRANDS SHOULD FOCUS ON CREATING MOMENTS, NOT CAMPAIGNS

We have long known that people remember very little about their own lives, spending most of their days on autopilot, so the brain isn't overloaded. We also know they don't even recall all of the experiences they want to concentrate on - we tend to remember the beginning, the end and the highs and lows in the middle. So it follows that the slavish obsession with 'campaigns' and 'long term ideas' may not the best approach to building brands after all, because people in the real world don't live like that. 

What's more, in world that's making too much stuff, where no person can consume all the content on their 'must watch' lists, let alone bother with the advertising getting in the way, brands will increasingly have to work with the brain and how it makes memories, not against it. 

LIFE COMES DOWN TO A FEW MOMENTS AND SO DO BRANDS

It doesn't matter what the event, life-stage or experiences, most of what we experience get's processed deep into the subconscious. Humans remember beginnings (it's the first day at work is so critical), endings (why film companies focus group closing scenes),  turning points (turning 30, New Year, the transition from Spring into Summer, Darth Vader telling Luke he is his father), low points (it's why you remember the driver that cut you up but nothing else about your drive) high points and magic moments that elevate the ordinary (Wiggle an online retailer puts free Haribo in every delivery, an average hotel in the US has popsicle silver service for kids by the pool and gets stellar reviews). 

It follows that brands will come down to a few moments too. Yet we love to plan for the long term and, when it comes to media, worry about flighting and longevity v reach, when maybe we should worry more about impact and attention.

What if we planned for moments rather than campaigns?

Instead of worrying about the bits in the middle that people forget, what if we only planned for great beginnings, great endings and moments that elevate the ordinary? What if we worked with the flow of life rather than against it? 

THE ANSWER TO SHORT-TERM V LONG TERM IS THE WRONG DISCUSSION 

Maybe the endless discussion on long-term brand building v short term activation misses the point. Business lives in quarters, people live in moments. 

That way we'd make our clients happy and annoy consumers a lot less!

What if we asked what the short term problem is and then solve it in a way that cannot be missed? That doesn't mean inconsistency by the way. Google Pointilism and you'll find a method of panting dot by dot. No two dots are the same, but they make up a consistent, inspirational picture. 

Think of a book, all the chapters are different, yet each one drives the narrative forward. 

This has an advantage for brands living in a time where culture is faster than ever before, where nothing seems to be certain. Those that embrace the marketing at the real speed of culture and the half-life of modern attention spans, can leave the cumbersome, slower competition moving at a glacial pace in the rear view mirror.

There are pioneers. In the UK, few know what Brewdog is going to do next, yet their string of tactics adds up to a very commercially successful whole. Paddy Power kickstarted unprecedented growth through a series of stunts that gave a voice to what sports fans were really thinking.

Amazon destroyed competitors by always doing what they wouldn't, couldn't or didn't dare. Paralysing them with their unpredictability.

Arguably, Donald Trump became President by rejecting relentless triangulation and just firing salvos at Twitter faster than more traditional candidates could respond (unfortunately). 

Back to brands. This kind of thinking has worked for the creative itself.  Snickers is for the when 'you're not you when you're hungry', we thanked Crunchie it's Friday, Guinness used to be about waiting for the pint to settle, with Orangina, you Shake the Bottle to Wake the Drink. 

THEREFORE BRANDS SHOULD PLAN TO BE GREAT SOME OF THE TIME, NOT ALL OF THE TIME

So in conclusion, because we only remember a few moments in any experience, a better way of planning how to build your brands should focus on the moments that matter. How people buy, how they consume it and, most importantly, moments in real life where you can work with beginnings, endings and moments that elevate the ordinary. 

In other words, short term tactics and specific rituals that work with how the brain forms memory to build long term effect.

This approach naturally fuses the skills of data, PR, media and creative, but to be honest, it's just about remembering to be human. Who'd have thought that planning for real life would leave the competition second guessing?

It could be as simple as a Haribo packet in a delivery, owning a moment in the week, making the most boring moment of the month spectacular ...or a hair colour brand only trying to reach people on the first of the month (most women colour their hair at the start of the month, it's a transition and they feel flush!!). 

In other words, brands can win with smaller budgets and firepower, by simply planning to be extraordinary some of the time, instead of being average all of the time. 

 

 

Why the recent Account Planning Survey suggests agencies need to value planners again before it's too late

The Account Planning Group has done a fascinating survey on how planners are feeling right now. 

It's really worth a look to make up your own mind, but what struck me was the fact that nearly one 1 in 3 are less than sure they want to continue as a planner post-pandemic. 

I couldn't tell you if this is higher than this time last year, or if they want to remain a strategy type, just not in agencies, however this is still worrying. 

There will be many reasons why, we re-appraise everything in big turning points - we're living in the mother of turning points right now. 

Naturally, intelligent, curious people will wonder what else it out there at times like these. 

They'll also get some fresh perspective to decide, is it really worth it? The uncertainty that comes with your agency always being three phone calls away from oblivion. Avoiding burnout from the long hours the job sometimes demands. Keeping going when planners often don't feel valued and need to constantly justify their very existence in a way creatives, suits and others do not.

Agencies have always had open bars (phrase stolen from the survey) for planners to a certain degree.

Wearing what you like, being around colourful people, work that is genuinely interesting and varied. That felt more than worth it when most other jobs meant wearing suits, conforming to corporate rules and generally 'working for the man'. Agencies felt like a rare place where curious, thoughtful people who loved solving puzzles, yet also really enjoyed being creative could flourish. 

The trade off between the interestingness and the downsides will seem less attractive to many these days. 

The immediate context is that when you enjoy sparking off a team and being part of a great culture (although this isn't all agencies anyway, many with the grooviest clothes and best designed offices are the most conservative and, in many cases, more intimidating than the Devil Wears Prada), it's worth it. 

You don't get that from endless Zoom meetings. 

There are longer term issues at play here too though. 

In recent years, corporate life has become, well, less corporate and more progressive. More relaxed clothes, more relaxed culture, better work life balance, much better at mental health - better than agencies I'd wager. 

It has also remained relatively secure while agency life has felt more tenuous. After talking to a few planners who work in house, they also seem to feel more appreciated and able to do purer work, because they don't have to then sell it in, or post rationalise something a creative has had in there drawer for few years. 

No wonder there is a slow creep of client companies taking planning in house, no wonder planners are wondering, is all there is?

I loved Drive by Daniel Pink.

The clear theme is that modern employees want autonomy (sense of freedom in their role), mastery (the chance to get better at their discipline) and belonging (part of something bigger than them that they believe in).

If you run an agency, or a planning department, read the survey and ask yourself, do your people really get this?

Do they really feel valued or are they required to conform to that necessary evil cliche?

Do they get the freedom to push things, or are they trapped by proprietary process, constricted by micromanaging suits or even cowered by a rampant creative department?

Most importantly, do they feel they belong? Can they believe in your agency and the work it does? Does your culture really feel that good or is just a corporate sweatshop with better coffee and a few beanbags? 

Even more importantly, ask yourself do you care? These are curious people who want to feel stimulated and valued. If you don't value your planning team, it's increasingly likely they'll escape the open cage to somewhere that will - and it may be your clients. 

Planning is a fantastic job, done by fantastic people, I think its one of the best jobs in the world and more interesting than ever right now- I hope agencies try and hold on to the people that do it before it's too late. 

Right now, many companies known for performance marketing are betting on brand, there's the conflict between long and short term, the demand for creativity for way more than creative work. Every rule in the book is up for grabs now that COVID has shattered any semblance of the status quo, while for years before the pandemic, media was fragmenting, culture was getting faster and more porous and nothing seemed certain.

There has never been a better time for planners to add value, but first you have to value them.

 

 

Do your reps -what the brains of taxi drivers can teach planners and brands about putting the work in no matter how well you're doing

When I used to race at swimming, we were always neurotic about managing form, peaking for the big races, not overtraining, the usual.

What astounded me was the effect of holidays. Just a two weeks off and when you got back into the pool you were just rubbish.

It would take at least the time off to get back to where you were. 

It's why I have a love hate relationship with swimming now. I never want to lose the feeling of doing something well, being able to do something most can't, but it's just not possible to feel how it did when I was training 5 hours a day. 

This is why Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours theory is only half the story. It may take that long to get to expert status, however, if you don't keep practising, your hard won superiority will disappear quite quickly. 

Not just the body, the mind. 

London taxi drivers have been found to have the part of their brain responsible for spacial awareness and navigation much bigger than average. When they retire though, it rapidly goes back to average. 

Just as a swimmer might lose big shoulders, their brains will forget how to swim without thinking and they lose their feel for the water. After just two weeks aways you feel like a balloon. 

Naturally, this means that strategy folks can't afford to sit back and relax once they become a director or whatever.

As soon as you don't write many briefs, you're once tight, inspiration pieces will become bloated and dull - or at least it will take you twice as long to get where you used to.

Looking at lots of information, cutting through the clutter and saying 'it's just about this' will become more of a headache and you'll be more likely to get lost down a rabbit hole of information overload. The complicated will remain complicated. 

Of course, you could decide to be a leader who just guides without getting their hands dirty, but the more you go stale, the less you'll move forward and you'll just be replaced. When so much talk around the job is the craft (maybe too much) those who are not craftspeople will get jettisoned. 

Its great to be modest and let others shine, but eventually you'll be outshone.

You should think about your clients this way. Brands are really habits people have adopted to make life simple. As soon as you switch off marketing, without that continuous presence in hearts and minds, the habit becomes weaker and eventually they'll buy something else that's easier or more exciting.

People need to buy to keep buying and you need to keep reminding them why. 

In other words, no matter if you're an athlete, a planner/strategist or brand, you can never afford not doing your reps. 

Why Obi Wan Kenobi (mostly) knew more about brands than most marketers

"In my experience there's no such thing as luck". Obi Wan Kenobi.

I'm no Jedi Master, but while I only agree with Obi Wan's statement up to a point (the fact I haven't won the lottery proves there are exceptions to his rule), his approach has something going for it. 

Take sport. The point is NOT knowing who will win, but you always know who has the biggest chance. 

I can tell you that when I used to compete at swimming, while there were many variables affecting who won on the day, like how I slept the night before, a bad start, cocking up a tumble turn,  and my confidence that day, luck had little to do with the result.

The same people tend to win more often. 

It came down to talent, naturally, but then the overriding factor was how much you had prepared. How much training had gone in, the quality and specifics of that training and how much you had timed to peak for that race. 

Luck, to be honest, was a minor player.

Of course, you'll be saying, what about sports with more variables?

It's less likely a golfer will win a tournament or a cyclist will win every race. Nevertheless, while the variables may have gone up for both sports, the pattern is the same. Some competitors tend to win, or at least place higher that others more often.

Ask Tiger Woods (about golf, not driving or relationships) or Chris Froome.

Allow for the variables and, once again, the real secret of success is talent and the right kind of training - the amount and specificity. 

One more variable in both kinds of sports though, is innovation and tech. The competitors and teams that continually try new approaches and new equipment, win even more often. 

When Team Sky first came on the cycling scene, everyone laughed at their fancy pants ideas, now everyone copies them. 

Swimmers smashed world records when they wore body suits, some were way ahead of the curve on this. 

So yes, hard work, specific preparation and willingness to innovate ahead of the curve. 

Put another way, great players make their own luck. 

 

So does a great business. 

 

Firstly, for a bet to pay off, you have to actually make it.This is where the innovation bit comes in. 

If you've read Why Most Things Fail (and you should) you'll see on the face of it, that most companies eventually fail, even titan FTSE 100 companies or whatever. Simply because economies are far too complex to predict, there are too many variables.

Because of bloody people.

Despite what many economists would like you to think, all markets are based on the the decisions of people and if there is one thing we know about humans, in the real world, not the theories and pen portraits, they don't decide on logic, they're horribly unpredictable and irrational.

Turns out the only chance you have is to constantly invest in staying ahead of the curve.

Trying stuff, creating behaviour rather than trying to predict it. 

Companies that constantly innovate survive longer. Not because all their bets pay off, but because some bets pay off big. 

The worse bet you can make is hope things stay the same, because nothing does. 

There is no reason that Blockbuster shouldn't have become Netflix, except they realised too late that people would download movies online, even before the next leap that the content makers and delivery platforms could be interchangeable. Arguably, Sky in the UK is way behind Netflix and Amazon on this. 

In fact, the fleet of foot can totally obliterate the big and powerful just by exploiting their cumbersome scale, infrastructure and culture. Barnes and Noble should have stopped Amazon in it's tracks, but culturally, couldn't get their heads around selling books online. Like most things, if you don't care about what you're doing, it won't work. 

Love him or hate him, Trump became President because his opponents simply could not predict what he would do next. While they were busy trying to respond to his latest Tweet conventionally, he was on to the next hand grenade. 

Just as, I believe, Adidas couldn't (and still can't) get their heads around Nike talking about the emotional truths of sport rather than just bland performance.

There's learnings in this for marketers when it comes to short term v long term.

First, think small no matter how big you are. 

Second, stop worrying about short term and long term!!

To be basic, remove reasons not to buy, constantly refresh memory structures (we've all read the book). 

We can do better though.

Just try lots of stuff, not just creative stuff, and see what sticks. The more you do what will confuse the competition the better. 

I don't mean making it up though, there's a way to keep the others guessing while creating sure things.

The source material is easy, it's real life. For some reason, people in agencies and even marketing departments forget to be human when they do the job. Life is more interesting, complex, inspiring, scary and uplifting than anything else. The very best of our work remembers this and embraces it.

When life itself is so uncertain, up for grabs and fast, I think there's never been more opportunity to keep the competition guessing by simply losing your tin ear for what is really going on in the lives of the people who really decide the fortunes of companies: the people who buy their stuff. 

But here's the rub. Coming back to long term training and input, always be building the brand.

The harder you work on this, no matter what, the better your luck will be. Perversely, even more when life is so fragmented. 

When life is this changeable, there has never been a better time to genuinely build a big consistent brand.

Life is more complex, people have more to think about than ever, so surely it's a golden opportunity to be a brand that remembers what it's for - to help people NOT to think.

Let everyone else just chase clicks or think ONLY in weeks or quarters.

Be one of the smart cookies that can make lots of little things add up to a lot.

Create lots of little acts that add up to a bigger story while the dinosaurs spend months researching creative and cool kids focus on stunts that have little shelf life beyond a fleeting headline. 

Just make sure you're addressing an actual business issues, not doing what is cool.

In other words, where are we now, where could we be, how do we get there and how did we do? It's the planning cycle, it's not new. It's just that rather than a cumbersome oil tanker turning around, it should feel like a Catherine Wheel.

Life Moves Pretty Fast (thanks Ferris). Keep up. I'm not sure brands can 'create culture' like they used to, but when culture us so fast, multi-faceted, porous and down right interesting, why would anyone feel they need to?

So, in in a world full of surprises these days, while I hope I've convinced you to think about creating surprises of your own.

However, there has also never been a better time to invest in the one constant you can - a brand with a big idea behind it. 

The trick these days is to find a big idea that helps create lots and lots of stuff, rather than the old school version where the brand police kept everything the same for years, usually only thinking about 30 second films. 

It's not easy, but those that can crack it will be very successful indeed. 

I think Obi Wan had point. But maybe he should have said there is such a thing as luck, but mostly the same people tend to get lucky. 

Put in the long term preparation, but never stop trying to push ahead and keeping an open mind on what's possible. Keep the others guessing. 

To misquote Princess Leia, 'the more you tighten your grip, the more growth will slip through your fingers'. 

 

Why brands should be more Marvel than DC, and more real life and craft than brand purpose

When out for a socially distanced walk, from a 'social distance'  you're able to observe the other atomised bubbles of people.

Their body language, facial expressions and, avoiding looking like a stalker, even a snippet of the conversation.

Naturally, you'll chance upon serious discussion about COVID. However, there will be more banter, gossip, idle chat, bickering or just shooting the breeze.

Because even in these times that suck your soul like a Harry Potter Dementor, the people living them are managing to find little ways to lift each other's spirits. In real life, everywhere we're trying to be cheerful where we can.

Yet in brand land, you can't move for serious minded brand purpose.

Forgetting that much of the popular culture around it is decidedly cheerful.

Advertising is becoming relentlessly serious and 'purpose', rather than good.

And don't get going on 'precision' rather than charm, surprise and delight, that's for another day.

It's been like this for a while. Brands deciding they want to save the world or stand up for human rights, even though their job is to fill you up at breakfast, or hoover the floor. 

Obviously, brands that reflect real culture sell more, but the operative word is real culture.

Nike can serious, do equality, be that race, gender or anything, because those issues are in sport. This IS the culture. Also, they have spent years building an authentic voice built on 'if you have a body, you're an athlete'. 

Axe can do stuff on male identity because the whole point of deodorant is confidence. Then again, look at what happens when Old Spice decides to have fun.

Just as Brewdog finds it easy to build traction just by NOT pretending to be the saviour of all men.

Still, I have a sneaky suspicion that the funny, well crafted beer campaigns of old would piss all over modern stuff. Partly because they were built on product truths and partly, they were all full of light hearted banter - the real culture of what beer is supposed to be about. I wonder if the people in beer marketing have ever actually been to a pub sometimes (current times excepted). 

In fact I know beer ads of old would work, Bud Light is essentially beer ads of old. 

So yes, peanut butter can now be source of strength to get you through a tough life because it's got protein in, when really it's wonderful comfort food (and a source of friction between crunchy and smooth camps). It can even be a way to save the planet if it's sustainably sourced. Apparently. 

Of course, well sustained food should be important, and many buyers choose this way. Not all though. 

And when every brand is has traceable ingredients, how will they be different then?

PG Tips tea bags can save the world because they're 100% recyclable. But I doubt it will shift as many units as Yorkshire Tea doing more ads with Sean Bean about properness, where you feel good about EVERYTHING they do, especially the taste.

I'm sure there is a house cleaning brand somewhere sponsoring giving ex-cons a second chance by wiping the bloody slate clean.

All because people take research at face value, or listen to the lies respondents tell because they think it's what they should say (or they lie to themselves, just we all believe this January really will be a fresh start, or we bought that sports car because of the turbo engine rather than the status we think it gives us). 

People do care about the environment more, thankfully all sorts of issues on equality, race, fairness and health are becoming important to more people. It's fair to say many like to know companies are playing their part in this.

But it's not WHY they buy all the time.

It can be for many kinds of people and many kinds of categories. But even with cars, yes, thank god, eco friendly machines are popular, but let's be honest, an electric powered Porsche is still a penis extension. An MPV is still a mess of sweet wrappers and squabbling kids. 

P&G could do the 'sponsor of Mums campaign' because, while vaguely sexist, loads of their products were used by global Mums - beauty, cleaning and babies (I over simplify but don't let fact ruin a well made point). 

Dove can do The Campaign for Real Beauty because it's grounded in real truths ABOUT the category.

I hope I'm making my point about reflecting the culture around what your selling, rather than pretending to be something you're not.

I think there's a bigger cultural point though. It's become fashionable to try and cut-through by tapping into issues and getting serious about real life. 

Which shows a tin ear for real culture to be honest. Because even in serious lockdown times, so much popular culture is an escape. In fact, Brainjuicer found people getting pissed off with 'we're all in this together' ads bringing reality crashing into moments when people were trying for forget about life for a while.

Great entertainment tends to resonate with what we feel and care about without talking about it direct.

Bond is a confused and man struggling with his place in the world these days, because that makes him relatable to 'nowadays'. He stills shags lots of women and drives ridiculous cars, even if he shows his bruises more.

Look at the mostly tanking DC superhero universe v the soaring Marvel world. DC is relentlessly dark, brooding and heavy. Marvel really makes you feel something, yet manages to be really funny, light and even laugh at itself.

It has strong female characters, LGBT heroes, Thor has obesity issues and drink issues. It's of it's time. 

But it remembers to have craft. They actually bother to create tight stories, great dialogue and develop characters with the relatable conflicts. In other words, it feels like real life even though it obviously isn't. 

It reflects our lives back at us, while helping us forget it. 

Now, cut back to so many of the clunky campaigns out there lazily getting into 'issues' because they think they're doing 'culture' and believe people when they say they buy good deeds more than good products.

They don't half as much as they say, or Amazon would be out of business. 

So few bother to understand the real world around what they're selling, and then the real culture they're interrupting.

I'm saying there is massive commercial power in going back to actually selling products (or at least emotional benefits) rather than just values. 

Or, to be fashioned. Say something about the product in a way that cannot be missed.

Put another way, in when marketers are all going a bit DC, it's time to be more Marvel

The danger of shared agency values and the why people who think you are probably holding you back

There's a certain global FMCG powerhouse 'house of brands' company I've never worked for.

I used to share a flat with someone I did though and used to hang with him and his work colleagues a lot.

It was amazing how alike they were.

I don't mean the usual diversity stuff. They were a broad mix of ethnicity, nationality, gender and everything.

Yet when they go together it was a bit like a cult.

This was a good thing of course, it fostered a shared sense of belonging, there was a clear feeling of shared identity and being part of something.

Yet, somehow they were part of a hive mind that all worked and thought the same way. I sensed they would rarely be exposed to, certainly wouldn't welcome, fresh approaches or ideas that didn't fit some kind of format.

I experienced this at another global company, where you would only survive in meetings if you understood their particular brand of marketing speak. 

It held back a certain hair company that only liked to work with fashionista types. 

Don't think agencies are exempt from this. I've walked into many of the most lauded, creatively 'hot' organisations and experienced lots of people dressing and talking the same way.

It's the problem with company values.

In the wrong hands, companies can have a progressive hiring policy yet they flatten out the mental diversity.  

It's the mix of different ways of thinking and frames of reference that can be so potent for great work. 

Professor Daniel Levin of Rutgers Business School asked more than two hundred executives to reactivate contacts who were relatively dormant.

Some were then asked to to get two contacts to give advice on an ongoing project, while others were asked to get advice from more active contacts.

Overall, they found the most valuable, productive advice came from the dormant contacts.

Why? Because these are the people less likely to share our worldview or think and work like us.

It's so easy to give into the comfort of folks who agree with you, who are easy to work with.

But easy rarely leads to great. 

We need exposure to those likely to surprise us with a fresh approach our jolt our minds out of their comfort zones. 

That shows the power of a mentally diverse workforce, where people who think different are allowed to be themselves.

And encouraged to mix. 

It also shows the danger of hiring for diversity, but then losing out on all the potential from the positive friction, because you then  ask everyone to fit in, work in the same way and behave the same way. 

Cool agencies should look for uncool new hires, then try not to change them. 

Experienced agencies should look for people who don't know what they're doing, they'll offer a brilliantly fresh perspective. 

I love the myth that Weiden and Kennedy, arguably todays most successful independent network started out as a place for people who couldn't get a job anywhere else and worked in Oregon, as far away from the advertising hive mind as possible. 

Strategy and creative types should meet as many people unlike them as they can. Even find a partner that's hard to work with. 

Be careful of only following the profiles of the same industry people.

Read as many different blogs as you can, avoid strategy blogs like this one!!

This is why I like Ted for example, the sheer variety of talks will always teach you something new.

It's also why I avoid industry conferences.

Talking to yourselves is the first sign of madness. 

In other words, the more throw people together who have little in common, the more successful you're likely to be. 

 

Act now, but think long

I love the fact that Corona beer sales have gone up during the pandemic. I'm not sure there has been anything better to prove that much of what we do is about getting a brand front of mind - and it's really efficient to get there by aligning with what's happening in real life. 

In other words, surfing the wave of actual culture is commercial rocket fuel. That's what many PR and social media specialists will tell you. 

But I think that approach alone, is just another example of short term thinking. 

Of course, brands that talk to some sort of tension in real life do well. Life is more interesting than brands, people buy holes, not drills etc. 

However, if all you have is a collection of tactics that don't add up to something bigger, the effect of each one wears off really quick. 

It's no different to constant reliance on promotions. Both are addictive, both feel good in the short-term, both harm you in the longer term, because the biggest profit comes from building brand preference over a longer period.

Which means every single piece of activity needs to be building towards the same direction. Call it story, call is vision or even an ecosystem if you like. 

That's the trick with how things are these days. Life moves faster, you need to react to that and sometimes even provoke.

If you spend months naval gazing, you miss your moment. The nimble and fleet of foot can tie the big boys in knots by keeping everyone guessing.

It just all needs to add up to something.

Think about the great pieces of popular culture out there, what we're really up against.

You know what kind of telly to expect from HBO, there is a 'HBOness' to HBO output. It's the same for Channel 4 in the UK or any media brand. 

I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. 10 seasons in, it's still the story of a man with no filter. It started out dealing with what happens when someone doesn't have a purpose in life. Every season has dealt another theme, including political correctness and even racial tension. Endlessly surprising and inventive, but about one thing.

That's no different to when Paddy Power only did PR stunts. On the face of it inconsistent, but actually, the story of what happens when you give a voice what sports fans are really feeling.

Just as, arguably, Nike always tacks between different expressions of the point of view that 'if you have a body you're an athlete'. Or that nothing should come between people and the benefits of sport. They wrote the most amazing ads about equality in the 80s, they challenged snobbery in tennis and so on. 

When you resolve the tension between acting now and thinking long, you're onto something. 

The dance between consistency and surprise. 

It's not easy, but then again, things that are worth it rarely are.  

What dogs tell you about the dangers of researching like everyone else

I was told a good story about what happened when British planners first went to work in the US. I hope it's true.

Apparently, loads of TV ads suddenly had dogs in them, because the cunning expats knew it was a great way to smuggle creative through research. Show Americans creative with dogs in it and they'll love it. 

It says a lot about creative development research of course, but it also says something about what happens when everyone has the same starting point. 

When everyone uses dogs as their starting point to get work through, all the work has dogs in it, so all the work looks the same. 

That's the problem with doing research the same way as everyone else, or reading the same stuff. Even following the same process. 

All the work ends up in the same place. 

You can see it in the glut of activity out there which is all about a brand doing good in the world, because all the data seems to say people want to know they can trust a brand to be more transparent and share their values.

Not only is this very questionable. I don't see tax dodging, not a nice place to work Amazon losing market share right now. 

When everyone is at it, it loses its potency. 

I don't mean the few who have 'doing good' built into their DNA, I mean those who use it for marketing and nothing else.

Back when we really hated banks for causing the crash and you couldn't move for banking brands looking to build trust and be nice, Halifax saw that people might SAY they want banks to be good, but what really drove them was not wanting money to be a pain in the arse.

The do, not just the say. 

Perhaps, what life was really like, not what journalists wanted it to be like. 

It led to things like guides to asking friends for money back you've loaned them. A moment full of awkwardness and creative potency. It was fresh and human in a market of forced loveliness. 

All it took was dipping into what banking looks like in real life, rather than the news.

Sure, the 'doing good stuff' would have generated PR, but would it have sold? 

It's dead easy to look at the surface, to look a a 'trend'. The real gold tends to be in real life.

The more you live it, the more potent your work will be. 

 

Normal is Enough

There is immense pressure for people to be 'more' these days.

The vogue for side hustles, self-improvement, wellbeing as a project.

You saw it in subtle ways we felt we have to use the last lockdown productively.

It's bloody exhausting. 

You know what I did? I used lots and lots of little hacks and stuff to help myself and the people I care about retain a sense of normality.

I suspect I'm not alone. I can only imagine the piles of books unread, the Netflix lists not watched yet. The aborted Sourdough Starter kits. 

For years there's been pressure on planners to be interesting. In many cases, you won't get your first job unless you can show you've put something interesting out into the world. 

I liked some stuff ThinkBox did on how different people in marketing are to the people they are paid to influence and I suspect it's a real problem for strategy types.

Naturally curious, usually quite clever, but also under constant pressure to say and share interesting stuff. 

I understand there's a role get stimulus into the creative process, to help clients be part of culture rather than interrupt it etc. 

And yet. 

In my experience, the best creatives, or whoever executes don't need much stimulus for 'cool stuff'. What they need is a greater sense of what real life looks like for the people they're targeting.

Some of the very best (in the trade press at least) agencies I've worked with seemed to have a tin ear for what really moved people.

Look at soap operas. There is a reason the good ones last for years and years, they relate to all of use and how we're feeling. 

Planners were invented to bring the real lives of real people into the process. I think we've lost that. 

It's a commercial problem, because the data consistently shows that firing emotions build business effectiveness.

Don't be fooled by 'Fame' Of course, getting the brand famous matters, but famous for what?

Famous like Donald Trump? 

Its a work life balance problem too, because constantly having to be interesting is knackering.

I'm saying that we need more people who want to start with the fabric of everyday life.

Being normal is enough.

You are enough. 

 

What a painful ritual the week before the Christmas holiday taught me about planning and life

When I was a teenager I used to both dread and relish the week we're in now. I used to race at swimming and, the week before we had time off for Christmas, there was an evil tradition called 'Hell Week". 

It was exactly that, seven days of the hardest training our coaches thought we could endure, except even tougher. 

The reasoning behind it was sound. Firstly, it only takes two weeks for the bodies of trained athletes to lose a significant amount of the conditioning they may have built up, so it made some sense to put some pain in the bank before the Christmas break. 

More than that though, most of high level sport is won in the mind, your brain tells you the body is incapable of carrying on before you really have reached your limit. A week of going beyond what you thought you could do, while not sustainable for long, trained the mind to deal with more.

We all used to fear this week. Before, or since, I have never been that tired, never willingly gone through that much physical pain. A killer session before school, another one after. The ache in my arms and shoulders, always a constant companion, genuine hurt that would only go away with more training.

I also used to love it though. I liked to win of course, but I was much more interested in finding out what I was capable of. 'Hell Week' was the week of truth, nowhere to hide. You learned what how far you could go without giving in.

Those weeks didn't just put short term fitness in the bank, they taught me some things that help today.

If you're like me, not the most talented planner, the capacity for hard work doesn't half help. I've seen those for whom great thinking comes easily ultimately fail because when things gets tough, they're not used to having to fight. When you're used to having to battle for everything, you end up doing better work, because you leave no stone unturned. 

That annual ritual also taught valuable lessons for dealing with crisis. Let's be honest, there is lots of pressure in agency life, lots of setbacks and lots moments when you're really up against it. Those weeks taught me that as long as you endure, things will get better eventually, nothing is forever.

Yet, the real learning is that self-reliance can only get you so far. I would never have got through those weeks without the team around me. 

My swim team was incredibly close, yet these shared weeks of real hardship knit us together even more. We encouraged each other, never judged anyone who caved in, we just helped them pick themselves up and go again next time. 

None of us could have done it without each other.

So today, I'm not afraid to ask for help, not afraid to show weakness and only too willing to help others when they day job has some challenges. I also use a crisis to bond teams closer together, so they get through the moment, yet also emerge stronger for it. 

Bollocks to the stupid British stiff upper lip, real strength is admitting you're vulnerable. 

These lessons have helped in life too.

It's been an interesting year.

It would be easy to say that those weeks of learning resilience has made me capable of dealing with anything.

That would be untrue.

There is more than one kind of strength and the macho bollocks, or the British Reserve are probably the weakest.

I've learned that even the toughest times end eventually if you can just find a way to hold on.

More importantly, I know there is no shame in asking for help, that failing isn't failure, giving up is failure. 

Eventually, not now, but at some point, I"ll know the feeling of pride and self-worth from having survived. Able to smile fondly, standing on the edge of the whole you crawled out of, smiling fondly at the bloody claw prints that marked the journey up the walls. Yet profoundly grateful for the footprints next to you, of the people who reached out to pull you up, and the fact you could swallow your stupid pride to let them. 

 

 

Want to a better planner or strategist? Spend more time with yourself

Before I was old enough to do swim races, I was dragged along most weekends to watch my older sisters do it. Whole Saturdays sat by a pool, sometimes Sunday's too. 

I became professional at packing a bag to keep myself occupied. Books, Star Wars comics, pad and pencils for endless drawings. I was a quiet little boy, happy with his own company when forced. Sometimes I would just sit and daydream. 

Nevertheless, I still got bored. Not just on these endless weekends. 

The younger ones among you may not believe this, but once upon a time there was no internet, only 3 television channels, no mobile phones. 

Even with all the playing, the endless Star Wars role-plays, the books devoured, the cavalier risks taken on building sites on our BMX bikes, all the tennis, myself and my friends were bored.

I can remember impatiently waiting for the A-Team to come on every Friday. For the Sunday reveal of who was number one in the music charts.

Even in my twenties, we still got bored. Train journeys without mobiles or laptops meant lots of reading, it also entailed staring out the window. 

We don't get bored these days. We rarely have to deal with the discomfort of not being stimulated. 

When was the last time you were alone without your phone? 

I think this matters. Don't get me wrong, the past was not better. Shops closed on a Wednesday afternoon, popular culture was a bit racist and a lot sexist, the food was a lot worse, Margaret Thatcher ran the country. 

But being bored is a lost art, especially if you want to survive in an agency as a planning type. 

Because it's about confidence. 

Not the bollocks charisma and pretending to be someone you're not.

Having the foundations to withstand the knockbacks, the 'difficult characters', the stress, the uncertainty. 

Being able to put your best work in front of others and have it torn to shreds. 

It's also the secret to being good in meetings and presenting. 

Being yourself, not putting on a show, simply creating belief in others because you belief in yourself and what you're doing. 

The confidence to not be a dick, to be wrong sometimes, to listen to others. To not have to fucking win all the time.

Strategy people don't have to be right, they don't have to be the cleverest (don't forget, no one likes a smart-arse). 

They need to liberate the best in others. It takes self-confidence to sacrifice yourself to make others look good. 

The sure way to improve your confidence is to know who are and be happy with it. 

You need to be able to like yourself, your positives and your very real flaws. 

You need to spend time with yourself to get to this point. 

You have to get bored. 

So you can hear your mind, so you can truly know who you are. 

How you do it is up to you.

Running, gardening, knitting, baking or just sitting down for 20 minutes a day doing nothing. 

Spending time on your own, without distraction is the key.

I can also say that, in tough years like this (and mine has certainly be less than straightforward).

The more solid your foundations, the less likely the storm will blow you away. 

 

 

Gleaming detail

I may have mentioned I've had quite a year. 

If I knew you well enough and I were to tell you the full story, the focus would be three moments.

Ordinary moments or even objects that reveal far more because of their context. 

The moment myself and my two children, on our first holiday as a three, not four, ran into ocean, the cold cleansing our cares and worry away for a bit as it took our breathe away. The same as every year, but with a person missing. 

Doing repeat, steep, uphill repeats on my bike for an hour. Starting with mind broken and body intact. Gradually flipping this with every repeat until it was the body broken and the mind restored. The same as many days for me, but now the context was my mind and what it has been going through,  not the transient pain in my legs or burning lungs. . 

A Christmas tree bought alone.

These moments or images are, according to Bobette Buster, the Gleaming Detail. 

Moments and images of absolute clarity that reveal the absolute essence of a story. 

It's the bicycles in front of the moon in ET.

It's how the first thing women liberated from Belsen did was put lipstick on.

It's 'Luke I am Your Father'. 

It's Rocky running up the steps in Philadelphia. 

So what will be Gleaming Detail in your next presentation? Your next creative briefing? The ideas you're helping build?

 

Side before self, the way of the strategist

Let remind you, if you're a strategy type, you're job is to liberate the skills of everyone else.

The worst thing anyone client say in feedback is 'we really like the strategy, but the work didn't live up to it'. 

Yet it happens a lot.

Of course, you are tempted to bask in the glory of 'your bit' having really gone well.

Or at least dodging blame for the failure.

When actually you have failed the most.

You've let everyone down.

Because either your team didn't understand your thinking or it wasn't possible to execute it.

Even worse, you decided to you wanted to make yourself look good in a meeting rather than let everyone else look good.

There are cases, I know, when the people you are briefing just won't work from your thinking.

Maybe they have a fixed idea of what will work, maybe they are prima donnas.

All of these things are not just possible, I'm afraid they are highly likely.

But the worst thing you can do is write up the original thinking rewardless

Clients do not buy strategy, the but the ideas it generates.

So either change your thinking, or change people's minds.

There is no point strategising in isolation.

 

Even when it's all groovy and folks are building off your thinking, it's easy to look like two teams, not one. 

Whatever kind agency you are in, there's a moment where you hand over some sort of one page brief to everyone. 

Many places, especially in the pitch process will  expect you to turn the strategy into slides straight away.

To get ahead, to save time.

Assuming the people that then actually turn the thinking into action won't move it on.

When of course, at least if your place is any good, that's exactly what happens.

The work should be much, much, better than the strategy and take it to new places.

However, in many cases, the brief will look a little 'first page' next to the work it generates.

That's sort of the point.

So insist on waiting for the first review, or even better, the moment you have work to move on.

Then you can write your bit of a cohesive, compelling story, rather than just writing your own.

Be a midfielder. Why the best strategy for strategists is to generous.

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given for the job was so simple.

No one needs you in the room.

So surrender your ego and be generous. 

This was in a time when 'the people in the room' were  account handlers and creatives, not much more.

They could get on quite happily without planning types.

Creatives thought they could do the strategy anyway, sometimes they were right.

Accounts handlers could advise the client, write briefs and evaluate creative perfectly well. 

Planners were at best an necessary evil. You had to make people want you there. 

Now, you have even more folks who can crack on quite happily without you.

Data folks, experience designers, UX specialists, SEO strategists...all these people in room or wanting to be there.

That's why planning types need to a radiator not a drain.

You can't be drain on everyone's energy, making everything more complex, with more barriers  and hoops to jump through.

You need to radiate energy, make everyone's life easier, be a joy to work with. 

In fact, I'll go further. Don't do anything to make yourself look good, make everyone else look good.

Seriously, make other people look good and you will do well. 

 

If you're starting out, trust me on the following realities.

You're not as good as you think you are yet. 

Most of what you've been taught, or read in books is at best a generalisation or at worst, plain wrong. 

Your attitude and approach will need a LOT of fine tuning. 

There's an easy to way to work on this, attach yourself to people who are already successful. 

As they move forward, so will you and you'll absorb all their knowledge and experience. 

It's not the route to quick glory but it is the route to long lasting success. 

While you put everything into serving them, you suck up all they can teach you. 

I'm not talking about brown nosing, I am talking about pouring all your energy into the success of others. 

This will be a lesson well learned no matter where you are in life as a strategy practitioner.

Because your job is to make everyone else look good.

Insight that can help clients discover new paths to growth.

Ways to unlock the creativity in your peers.

Helping the Clint team reinforce a good relationship. 

Forgive the football metaphor, but you're midfielder. You set up others to score.

Psychologists have long known that the best way to get someone to do what you want is to do them a favour first. 

So scratch their backs first. 

Think of it this way.

Who do you think others want around?

In an agency environment not without egos.

Someone who will compete for credit to attention?

Or someone they believe will help them get where THEY want to be.

 

Do don't be

I had a boss once who didn't do much of value. He read quoted whatever book he read. 

It was easier to feel good about being part of the latest fashionable (but unproven) may of thinking, than actually doing good stuff.

It was easier to feed the ego than craft good work. 

It was easy to recognise because I'd beeb there too in a much smaller way. 

Many, many years ago I had a bit of a wobble. I forgot myself.

It was back in the golden age of planner blogs.

There was a big community, I was part of it and amazingly one or two people liked what I wrote.

I got invited to the odd conference, even to speak.

I was offered jobs by people I'd never met. 

And for a little while it went to my head. The validation from BEING someone meant I focused less on DOING something. 

I became a little entitled. Not much mind, I'm not really that kind of person, I'm the kind who always fears getting found out.

Still.

It was seductively easy to be frustrated when my thinking was questioned, just because a few hundred people liked some post.

It was tempting to just copy a clever post from someone else, rather than putting the work into my own thinking. 

It was so easy to not bother with genuine insight because insights were out of fashion (they were trust me on this). 

Or feel validated by spending Friday morning in a cafe with loads of clever planners, rather than actually working. 

I nearly became a strategic smart arse. 

Thankfully I caught myself, but this was a lesson well learned. 

We all face this kind of choice at some point.

Do you want to be BE something or do you want to DO something.

Are you going to EARN or are you going to PRETEND.

There is so much bullshit in the industry, with so many talking heads ready to share un-earned wisdom, it's really easy to fake it.

Quote a few books, write a few opinion pieces, follow some proprietary process that looks good on paper.

Be the rock star singing songs someone else wrote. 

Let your ego deceive you. 

Of course, if you are more bothered about who you are in life than what you might accomplish, this is fine.

But once you give in a little to your ego, it begins to eat you alive. You begin to BELIEVE you are not pretending.

That's when you're fucked.

Because if you're not compelled to do the very best work and move things forward, you'll be replaced.

Either by someone who talks a better game or someone who can actually do the job. 

Perversely, if you forget about striving for recognition an do things worth recognising, you get the plaudits anyway.

You just know you earned them.

A little fear goes a very long way.

Ego is an eventual dead end. 

Why there are no iron laws of strategy

I get a sports massage sometimes. I cycle a lot, my legs end up in bits.

When someone gets their hands on my legs and makes it hurt, my legs feel so much better after.

Yet I have no idea why.

They used to think it helped blood flow. That's at best questionable based on what we now know.

They used to think it helped get rid of lactic acid. They now think lactic acid build up might be a good thing.

Probably, it's all psychological, but next year they'll change their mind.

In other words, it sort of works but no one really knows why. 

It's like looking at the rules of how marketing and brands work.

For example, in tracking, we seize on data showing that people who have seen a campaign also bought.  

Without checking if people already buy so naturally notice the brand's marketing. 

The received wisdom that 'trust' is the new barometer for brand health.

When Amazon is doing better than ever.

The shrill for TV as still the most effective medium (probably is).

Because so many companies that make up the data put all their effort into TV.

Then there's the endearing arguments over how brands should work.

Publicity, Disruption, the fake war between emotion and function. 

People are complex, markets are complex, life is complex.

So there really are not many rules that work.

Just as a football team that doesn't adapt their tactics for playing against different teams won't win as often. 

Apart from (in my opinion) make sure people remember and recognise you, remove reasons not to buy you, biggest barriers first.

So strategy isn't a science, it really isn't.

The same methodology used over and again will create different results. 

For the same client, let alone different ones.

Don't believe me? Look at any agency client list and case studies.

Rarely will you see case studies for all clients for every year.

Because they only show the stuff that worked. Not the huge proportion that did not. 

So, what iron law can you apply?

You can't.

There isn't the silver bullet to everything being perfect and working.

Your job is to make things less likely to go wrong. 

 

 

The rules of creative reviews (from a planner's point of view)

There are only two questions. Is it on brief? Is it any good?

So make sure there actually was a bloody brief and everyone knows what it was

The first job of a planner type is to feedback if its on brief, how and why

The second is to help discuss how it can be pulled back onto brief - or if the work shows the way to a better strategy

So start with a mindset of what could be, not what is, especially with regards to a brief that's only the start, not the final word

If its any good or not is everyone else's problem

Always try and speak last, because your first response will be wrong, we all resist new stuff, give yourself time to think

Don't be taken in by sparkling Mac work or a great line. Is there as idea that can be expressed in a sentence?

Be kind, 99% if creative work ends up in the bin

But don't accept creative types acting like children

Don't accept suits saying 'it will never work' to the 'the client won't buy it'. Get the best work then work out how to sell it

In fact don't work our how to sell it, if it's really doing to fulfil client objectives it should sell itself

Don't give false hope. If a route needs to die, kill it

If route needs to be saved, save it

Keep it fun, these should be the most fun meetings you have, otherwise why are you in this business?

Never ever give feedback before you're ready, once you speak, you're ego will demand you stick to your guns

Which also means, change your mind, during the meeting or after. It's not weak, it takes courage to admit you were wrong

Don't have them too late when the work it too far down the line, or too early when nothing is formed. Reviews are like Goldilocks

Try and have informal chats before, try and build the kind relationship where this is possible (making coffee helps)

Review as often as you can- think marginal gains not of massive leaps forward. If Pixar benefits from daily crit sessions so will you

Did I say speak last? People can't wait to speak, let them deliver bad news instead of you

Did I say make sure everyone knows the brief? Without a shared criteria to evaluate the work, it all becomes opinion

Listen more than speak, listen fucking hard. It's hard to listen while you preach

This isn't about you winning, its about the best work coming out, then everyone wins

 

 

 

 

How to end, and why it should actually come first

Life really come's down to a few moments. 

We really don't remember most of it.

if you drove somewhere and didn't remember the journey, you'll know what I mean.

We remember the Start, the Good, the Bad and the End. 

It's a good way to think about any meeting or any piece of communication. 

Start brilliantly. 

Throw in flagship moments along the way.

End amazingly.

You don't have to be amazing all the time, just some of the time. 

Arguably, we remember the end the most, so in a presentation, don't just fade out.

End with a thunderclap.

You can finish with a great call to action. We can do this if...

You can end with a choice. Do you want the quarter to be like this or this?

Lessons learned. The moral of this story is...

The answer. Start the presentation with a big question. You end with the big answer. 

Rhetorical question. So do you want to stay as you are?

Whatever you do, make it memorable. 

Make it the thing everything is built around.

In other words, start with the end. 

 

Oscillate Wildly

It's the name of a Smiths track but it's also a way to persuade others about strategy. 

If what you've done is any good, it will resolve a simple tension.

Between where you are and where you could be. 

Much of the the work is defining those two things.

Then how to narrow the gap.

Which means how you present your work could well focus on these two things and only these things. 

To get from here to there, we need to do this..

We want to get here, what is getting in way is....

It's the basis of Luther King's I have a Dream.

Or Obama's Yes We Can.

Or even Vote Leave endlessly repeating take back from control.

I have a dream that one day these things will happen, rather than a world where these things happen.

We want these things which don't happen now, can we do them? Yes we can.

If you want to stop these things in your life happening you need to take back control.

It works for brands and stuff.

Imagine a world where everyone feels able to participate in sport no matter who they are.

Imagine a world where washing powder harms the environment.

Imagine a world where the label doesn't have to say 'may contain nuts'.

Imagine a world where computers are a joy to use.

What if by the end of the year people thought of our biscuits as an everyday treat rather than an occasional luxury?

The trick is then not set up the problem then talk about the solution.

Keep oscillating between them.

The contrast keeps it interesting.

It keeps is consistent.

Because you're only talking about one thing.

Pure strategy.

How to get from where you are to where you want to be.

The magic is how. 

 

Finding your voice and avoiding fancy dress

The sprinter, Michael Johnson, was maybe the best in history over his distance.

His running style looked very wrong, but he didn't change it, it worked for him.

 

John McEnroe's service action was very, very unorthodox.

It happened by accident while he stretched his back to deal with an injury.

At times, it was virtually unplayable. 

 

Wrong is sometimes right.

No actually, that's bollocks.

People will tell you what you do or how you are is wrong. 

Yet if it's you, truly you, it can lead to greatness.

 

It's the same with most things in work and life.

Your voice isn't wrong just because it's unique. 

Where did your voice go though? Did someone take it?

 

It was there once, really it was. 

When you were little and said what you thought, asked questions without fear and played for hours on end. 

It may have been taken by a well meaning parent or teacher who wanted you to be like them, not like you.

It could have been someone at work who wanted to keep you in your place.

It could have been a whole place that made you do everything their way, or destroyed your confidence day by day. 

 

You might spend everyday now,  trying to be someone else's idea of who you should be.

You might make yourself really small because that's what you were made to feel.

You may feel too big and loud and try to tone yourself down.

But the only size that really fits is your size.

 

This matters if you have to present a lot.

If you have persuade others about ideas. 

These days, most of us do. 

Because great presenters really are not made, they are born.

I don't mean the charisma buffoons that say nothing but make it feel 'inspirational'. 

I mean that people respond to people, they respond to people genuinely caring.

They respond to authenticity. 

But most of us keep our selves hidden.

Many of us are hidden from our own selves.

Like Eleanor Rigby, we keep our faces in tge jar by the door. 

 

People smell belief, even more than confidence. 

So great presentations boil down to two things:

Belief in you

Belief in your idea

But you can still get quite far in life by pretending to be something you're not.

Or channelling what others think is right or good. 

Eventually you find it's not only easier to be yourself, it's actually far more successful.

Believe me I've tried both.

I also know it's better to find 'you' as soon as possible, rather than a crisis to force you into it. 

 

Put simply, if you want people to listen to you, listen to yourself. 

 

Now you can say, hang on, this is only presentations.

You're right its not. 

The bests talks and meetings are not about slick powerpoint.

They are about you and what you want to say. 

It's about you. 

 

It's true that when you assume the traits of others, over time they can become your traits.

This is good, this helps, as long this is genuinely who you want to be.

Look at it another way though.

If we all slip on the same mental uniform, we'll all work the same way and end up with the same results.

So when it comes to work, and everyday life, keep fancy dress for parties. 

 

Much of our education system.

Our work places.

Our very British stiff upper lip and emotional illiteracy.

It builds average, sameness, compliance.

It teaches us not to make a fuss.

It doesn't like self expression. 

No wonder we stow away who we really are. 

 

Great companies make us feel something not just buy something..and sell more.

Same goes for presentations.

Nothing is more infectious than enthusiasm and belief. 

 

So, yes, I'm live in the real world, I know you have to conform a lot not get fired.

I know much of your work needs to be ticked.

But never lose that sense of you.

As you get older and more experienced, you still won't have a clue what you are doing, sorry about that.

But you will have more and more freedom to let yourself out.

In meantime, for every project you do, find a way to make it excite you.

Then find a way through peer review.

 

The best scientific break throughs still need layers and layers of compliance and peer review.

That doesn't make them any less important or wonderful.