An International Smoothie

The Only Choice

Fork in the road, image courtesy of i_yudai

I think it's safe to say that recent events such as JWT shutting its Chicago office and the very quiet breakup of Enfantico (in stark contrast to the pomp that greeted the birth of the agency of the future) should only serve as further warning to advertising agencies and indeed marketeers that those who continue to put their fingers in their proverbial ears about the changes in our business do so at their peril.

Gareth has very neatly drawn a spot-on comparison between the changes taking place in the music industry and how we in the communications business are faced with quite a simple choice - perhaps one that some of us have already taken, but still a choice that needs to be revisited with every piece of work that we put our name to.

What do you want to do?

In my mind there are really only two answers to the question, and the answer you take will essentially decide how you and your company, your clients and co-workers will fare in today's world. 

Do you want to make money and beat the dying horse or do you want to make a difference in peoples' lives? 

One will lead to other but one will lead to bland, boring communications that will continue the cycle of pitch, relax, ignore, lose business and re-pitch that so many agencies are stuck in. 

Now we all know this isn't 300, The Last Samurai or Braveheart - we're not doctors, we're the scum of the earth, perhaps part of the most distrusted business in the world. But I still mean make a difference, be a positive force of change. And it doesn't have to be a huge difference, but something that makes the experience truly differentiating and tangible.

Frankly I'm tired of looking at proposals that have USPs galore that would look just as valid if they were produced by companies x, y or z. To steal a line from Hugh Macleod and repurpose it, it doesn't matter what your product does, or more importantly what you say it does - what matters is what people do with it. And what they do with it is where we, as marketers in an amazingly interesting time can channel and play a part in.

There are countless examples of products which were meticulously researched by bored focus groups eager to grab their money and run, painstakingly targeted to a perfectly segmented consumer and in the end the people who most eagerly partook in the purchasing of said product were completely different, if not diametrically opposite to the unholy target group. TGI or no TGI, products like the INQ phone, the entire SUV segment and some would argue even Viagra didn't end up as the companies that make them planned. They were embraced by people with specific interests. And I think that to disregard these communities of purpose and solely turn to often outdated and flawed data is a classic recipe for failure. Our focus should be on finding people who give a shit about something that we can tie to our product and then give them something that makes their day to day life more entertaining, more useful, more meaningful. And then telling them about it.

Some might say it's simple, or common sense. And it is. But it's not being done. And that's fact. Work is getting worse, we cling to our gems of effectiveness (whatever that really means) amidst increasing piles of work that is churned out and logo-swappable (take the logo away and put a competitor's logo on, can you really tell the difference?). Or we blame clients, as if years of being yes men and women has nothing to do with it. One of the most liberating things for me coming into this business was being told that it was my job to do what was best for my clients, not necessarily what they wanted - mediocrity has crept its way into the grand majority of our organizations, mine is no different. And really the only way out of it is to drag our organizations out of this cycle by doing it ourselves. I've given myself until the end of this year to prove to myself that I can do it - otherwise it's just noise. 

Ways of working may be too ingrained in many people to change immediately, what do you then? I'm pretty sure that this isn't the right way, but this is how I'm trying it now:

1) Take cookie cutter work and throw it out: If any client briefs come in that contains words such as 'generic' or 'based on' - throw them out. And give them an alternative that works. Make sure it works :)

2) Do something small for a client, maybe something they're scared of doing - something they said they wouldn't do. Do it without asking, don't tell anyone and if it works tell them, if it doesn't, no-one will know anything.

3) Have no ego. Please, please, please, forget the importance of job titles, of how much you make, of and awards. Industry-wide circle jerking may have its place, but is now the place for it? If you do truly great, truly paradigm shifting work then they will come. Oh and if your agency is in the habit of doing scam work, punch whoever is responsible in the mouth (Take note Y&R India and FP7 Doha). 

4) You have to understand how your company makes money. There is a school of thought that silos every department, allowing them to work supposedly more efficiently - I don't think that you can claim to address anyone's business problems if you don't know how your business makes money and the problems it faces in doing so. For example if your agency has a yearly lease of £4,000,000 there are some serious decisions you need to make about how feasible it is that you can ever be more than just a "doing it for the money" outfit. 

5) Never disregard the experience you have at your disposal. I love the phrase "The old cannot kill the young forever", but it doesn't apply here. To say that I, with 2 years of marketing experience (barely) can solve my clients' communication dilemmas flying solo is ludicrous and hugely debased, you take the good from everyone. Don't burn the building because you don't like one room. 

6) It's in everyone's interests for everyone to do great work. This one is obvious, but I'm still astounded at the insecurity-driven crap from some people pointing out the failings of agency x or y. It's a little callous to rejoice in the demise of any agency. I would love to see a so-called traditional agency really grab the bull by the horns and create paradigm shifting work, because it will start convincing the masses of "me-toos" in adland to try the same. Just as the abstract and pointless dribble of bad work is bad for us, work that makes lives more meaningful is good for all of us.

7) Change the way you acquire new business. This is a separate post in itself (one I probably won't get round to) but there are so many holes in the proverbial vessel of new business that it's unreal we still pursue this as the only method for getting new clients. Find a new way. And tell us all!

8) Remember the power of 1%, do something small, but do it everytime and it will become a beast.

9) Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer. Maybe as someone quite new to the comms business this is easier for me, but any opportunity to showcase your thinking and to add some flava to work should be embraced wholeheartedly. This does a few things: it shows you're not all bluff and no stuff (you have to back the talk up with the goods) and it will win you the respect of your peers, something that is vital in fighting mediocrity. 

10) Ask yourself if you want to make money or to make a difference in peoples' lives. As Paul says, the future of marketing is doing something for people. If you're not prepared to embrace that, not only are you making the wrong choice, but it would probably be better if you find another way to make a living - chances are you may not have a job in advertising for a lot longer. 

And why would you be in advertising for the money anyway? The pay sucks!

The Wrong Questions

Picture via The B@man

An oft-quoted but still understated benefit of being someone getting to grips with working life in the midst of the (often ridiculed) blogosphere is the enormous amount of wisdom that is out there. To be able to work with, befriend, listen to and read the work of amazing people everyday is something that many of us take for granted but remains an enormous privilege and benefit of the fantastic times we live in.

To that end, I must give thanks to (in no particular order) Mark, Hugh, Lloyd, Johnnie, Neil, George, Doddsy, Charlie, Paul and Eaon for their individual and in the end collective inspirations (along with the many many others that sit in the blogroll - I read them all and so should y'all) that have got me to this point, where at 3am on a Wednesday morning I'm grinning like an idiot and unable to sleep. So I blog...

Since starting in the big bag world of advertising (full-time at least) the phrases 'context is everything' and 'everything changes' have been two of the staples that I fall back on. Not just in the advertising framework, but the life framework. We spend so much time at work that trying to break it down from the time when you're 'living' is a futile exercise; either you're living all day everyday or you're dead at work. In which case you really should find some other way to earn your daily bread. Because life is, as we're so often reminded, never as long as we think.

Back to these fantastic times then. Words like convergence, utility, passion and downturn are thrown around, remixed and spat out as if this journey that we're all was either mapped out by some people a hundred years ago and we're just passing checkpoints or we're somehow in a vacuum that means we can ride out the storm without so much as a drop of water on our collective communication industry anoraks. No.

Not a single soul planned for this contingency (where are all the trends and forecasting people now? I haven't heard a single word from them on the collapse of capitalism - either in the form of a prediction or an attempt at the beginnings of a solution) and we can't huddle in our ghettos of Madison Avenue and London's West End waiting for the storm to pass. It's not a storm, it's not a story, it's something we'll all have to adapt to. It's change. And whether you believe in it or not is irrelevant. Because it's here, having crashed through our front doors and it's now sitting in our front rooms, waiting for us to acknowledge its presence.

The fantastic thing about this situation is that no-one knows what's going to happen. Isn't that amazing? We can hypothesize that issuing bonds and throwing more cash a wound that cash caused will only help to salve the wound long enough to surprise us when things crash again - but we don't know. We can say we're going to move towards a simpler way of living and exchanging goods for services - but we don't know. The point is to put ourselves, as self-proclaimed creative businesspeople in a position to shape, learn and be involved in the debate as it unfolds. In that light I find the We20 happenings fascinating and look forward to the great minds that will be present when these meetings begin.

So we know change is coming, how does that affect us in our ivory communications towers? In the last week or so I've been asked to comment on recent comms work for Sony and Toyota - in both instances I've been told that it's great work, or a technological tour de force. Before I had a look at both pieces, I did a quick search for how these companies are performing - because of course at the root of it all, effective communication will solve business problems. I found that Sony's net profit fell 95% in year on year terms and Toyota is widely rumored to be slipping into its first net loss since 1950. Read that last sentence again, these are things you hear about when wars happen, not when downturns occur. Within this context, I find it hard to think about how the cost and effort of organising and producing an ad is at all relevant to how help a slumping consumer electronics giant - or how being able to move your hand in front of a webcam to simulate a test drive is going to convince me, or anyone else in fact to spend money on a new car. It's the advertising equivalent of "mine's bigger than yours". These things may well have their place, but I'll venture a guess that today, these are not the ideal points of focus. When I mentioned this, I was told that it was great work, and great work would always have a place - no matter the economic conditions.

My reply to this was two-fold, this may not just be a condition, it may be a transformation - a paradigm shift if you will and the questions we ask ourselves in the definition of 'great' work may be incorrect. Great work is contextual, in terms of the product, service, market, political landscape and socioeconomic climate. That's what makes it great. That what shows passion. To have the drive to sweat out the small stuff and build upon a solid foundation of knowledge of the world that distills into knowledge of a particular product/service area. Like genius, passion is perspiration followed by inspiration. Every pound/dollar/euro (they're almost worth the same now so I can probably get away with grouping them together) that is spent on marketing is a luxury so we must think and then think again as to how to make it have a lasting positive effect on the company/product/service we are pimping. Not how to get a creative hard-on when we roll statistics of how epic the production was, or how we used a never thought of visual effect to deliver something sexy. Note I'm not saying bells and whistles are superflous. I'm saying if we make them the centerpiece then it's a waste of money. Eaon calls it making every action a service positive interaction - I'm personally not so comfortable with all those syllables but the point remains. Move your brand/product/service forward with everything you do - from a customer's point of view. In the context of our world today.

At NESTA yesterday Peter Bazalgette made an excellent point that sometimes needs repeating more often, particular in hallowed halls of advertising agencies/idea companies/whatever.

"The truth is that not a single media company knows what its model will be in ten year's time"

Again, no-one knows. But they know it's changing. So rather than clinging to the edifices of a brilliant past, ask yourself how will I make the future awesome?

This leads me to my next point on passion and positivity. The words are bandied about all the time. But this is the time when passion will really show. So shut up and show it. Don't talk about it. Live it. Some social media luminaries proclaimed that it's easier to be positive and deluded because dealing with bs is something people can't face up to. Lord Carter yesterday then quite astutely pointed out that "being a pessimist is a national activity". Again I thought some people are just asking the wrong questions.

Yes the world's climate is screwed, the global economy is trashed and wars are ravaging innocent people everywhere. If you can't deal with reality then go to a corner and deal with it. I've said time and time again and it's reinforced even more often by the great people around me that this is an opportunity to exact change. To make something a little better. That makes my juices flow (liquid metaphor placed for Eaon and Neal at Geronimo) more than a Cannes Lion or an invite an awards show will ever do. If you're asking someone why they would even attempt to help make a change then get out of the way and let someone who's asking how they can help show up.

Kd tweeted out a quote that is much more eloquent about it then I could ever be:

"Pessimism is a luxury of good times...In difficult times, pessimism is a self-fulfilling, self-inflicted death sentence" - Evelin Linder

Or as I like to put it: Fuck off and smile.

And it's dawned on me that my last point in all this fits rather nicely. And that's about the awesomeness of those you hang your hat with. I was on my way home and fired up Twitter when the dude next to me pointed to an article he was reading about how the existence of Tweetdeck on my laptop was a clear indicator to a huge lack of self-esteem and a cavernous hole in my soul that was probably down to playing videogames and watching WWF (it was called that back in the day). Aside from the irony of people sitting in designer clothes chastising you about your lack of self-worth, it's not about Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or anything.

It's the people.

The people. The community. The homies. The posse. The whatever word you use to talk about people. I find it hard to start defending my use/lack of use of Twitter or any other tool because the mechanism has very little to do with the motive. It's the people. Those who lay into Twitter/Brightkite/whatever might not understand the point. The point isn't to tell people what you're doing. The point is to learn from others, to push yourself forward and take whatever you can with you. If you don't like it then don't be on it. Everyone finds something that works for them. Do that. But if someone finds meaning in something you don't please don't become a hater. But if you find yourself in the midst of haters, let them hate. It's their job.

So, everyday we should ask ourselves:
How can I be better at what I do in light of what I see around me today?
How can I make the best of myself in these amazing times in preparation for whatever may come?
How can I learn from those better than me?

In spite of our self-appointed grandeur and majesty as custodians of this planet, we still cannot choose when change comes - only how we will react when it does. We haven't been getting a lot of good answers. Maybe we just need to ask better questions.

Crystal Gazification: SoMe Thoughts

Picture courtesy of David Reece via Flickr

I wasn't going to do a "What's gonna be big in 2009" post, partly because I'm always wrong, and partly because no-one really knows what's gonna big in the big '09. But I'd hazard a guess that we can all safely say that the belt of economic woe will tighten around everyone, and as the cliche goes it's gonna get worse before it gets better.

Someone recently said to me that 2008 was the year social media came to the party. If so I'll venture a guess that 2009 will be the year that social media either puts up or gets told to shut up. In the last few weeks I've noticed it becoming painfully obvious that some self-crowned 'social media experts' are dragging the term and the perception of social media as a communications tool the way of the douchebag. How? By coating it in the same fluff that they claim above-the-line evangelists coat TV ads in. By talking about value and reach without any real substance to back it up with. And it all ends up with something that if you substitute 'TV spot' for 'social media' in one of the hayuge number of bullshit presentations floating about (or free e-books - Jeez...), you realise that they are part of the problem.

We are in the business of taking money to solve problems. So maybe that's what we should be focusing on. Solving business problems. And in the climate we're rocking in, we have to make that money go further. It sounds simple because it is.

So here's my 5-point plan to avoid becoming a schmuck who evangelises social media without knowing / doing anything meaningful. I hope.

1. Remember who's paying the bills and their problem(s).
Baron/Baroness Client have a business problem that they would like you to work on and help out with. Everything and anything we do has to be projected from that frame of reference, be it TV spot, Internet advertising, or promo-staff at a train station. Everything. If awards are your focus, how can you really solve the business problems? You can't.

2. Results matter.
With economic woes everywhere and getting the opposite of better all the time, every dime/cent/pence/whatever you're asking for needs to be backed up with 'this is what we get back'. We take it for granted that clients will understand what we're talking about, and when they don't we sigh artistically and proclaim "They just don't get it" - sometimes we just don't explain what we're doing, how it will help, and what we want the outcome to be. We assume. Like asses. Let's lay it out piece by piece and give them a measuring stick that we can compare the results to, it doesn't have to be numbers, it can be like for like case studies or examples that analagous. I bet that if we give clients a clear plan for a social-media led campaign we'll be pleasantly surprised as to how much they 'get'.

3. Your Client's Needs = Your Personal Brand's Needs.
This is related to point numero uno, but this obsession with personal brands can be a step down the slippery slope to douchebagery. If I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing (adding value to my clients' business, making it more worthwhile), my personal 'brand' will be on the way to awesome. If I suck at my job / have my head up my ass / am sanctimonious and protective about my 'way', I'm screwed. Simple.

4. People are smart.
They may not know what Twitter is, but you know what? That doesn't mean shit. Give them some credit and they'll surprise you. Every single time. It's ironic that some 'gurus' of communications who have built their fragile reputations on a thought related to 'calling consumers people' treat people like dirt and insult their intelligence after their moment in the sun. Douchebaggery and stupidity. A classic no-no...

5. Hang out with the smart kids.
Find people smarter than you and learn from them. It's the internet, it's easy. As a start, here are 5 of the 5.99999 billion people who are smarter than me:

Big C
Doddsy
Eaon
Marcus
Paul

Stop the douchebag virus. Cause it sucks (If I was a shit-hot designer, I'd come up with a blog badge or something).

Update: Paul has kindly suggested some more reading for y'all:

John
Faris
Adrian
Gareth
Mark
Rob
Noah
Leland

Check 'em all out.

Farming The Fear - Why The Meltdown Is Adland's Excalibur

Photo courtesy of hoff_john

According to my pristine records, I started this post on the 17th of July, so it's almost 3 months in the making which along with significant upheaval in the life of moi means that it may well be worse than the usual drivel. But the whole point has changed slightly. Of the post that is. Here we go..

We're witnessing the death of a superpower, it's dramatic but it's 97.44546278% true. When the IMF - long the United States' instrument of terror on the poorer nations of the world states that the US economy is (in plain words) screwed...well, it's time to recognise these as extraordinary times. The important thing to remember is that no-one really has a fucking clue what is really going to happen, so anyone who lays claim to certainty about the future is mistaken. As Niels Bohr once said "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future".

Couple this with the presidential election about to take place in the land of the free, and there are quite a few stories brewiing for us all to tell to our grandchildren, should we and the world last long enough for them to bust out onto the scene.

In the context of the communications landscape, this is all Awesome. Yeah, I've heard all the stuff about how jobs will be tougher to come by, budgets smaller and all the rest of it. But it's here and now that everyone's mettle will be tested. And if you're happy to swan into work in jeans and ironic t-shirts, sit through your days happy to follow orders and then revel in the fact that your job is 'creative' then you're in a pile of shit.

But if you really want to push yourself and get better; the coming months and year(s) are the best battleground for you to prove yourself. And I think that as Charlie alludes to here, these are times in which those brands pushing the agenda of quality of experience will come out of this storm stronger than they went in.

It's nothing new of course, to suggest that to capture the hearts of those we target with our spreadsheets and media plans and positioning statements we have to do cool shit and to make their lives better. But history has shown us that often 'cool shit' translates into throwing money at a channel that may look pretty to those with a fetish for Cannes Lions and/or the genesis of a print ad, but to the dudes and dudettes who are buying what you're hawking, it means little and adds even less to their lives. So without the big budgets it's finally time (I hope) for more of us to proverbially grow a pair and offer a positive experience that we can link to our brand.

Because as an industry and as individuals working in this industry, we've grown chubby on the inflated notion that we're creative enough to show disdain for those that talk about creativity and utility as equals, especially those of us (like myself) who are in environments where the hunger for success has made way for the desire to stay where you are. This lack of fear is what I originally intended this post to be about, before the world's financial markets so impolitely and unceremoniously showed that their foundation has been a mirage. So I'll roll with it and insert tenuous linkage here.

Fear then, I tried to think about the first time I felt terrified and although there was this Dark Dream dude in an old He-Man cartoon that scared the crap out of me and my little bro, the breaking of neighbourhood windows also showed itself on the list I made - and it's a little less embarassing so that's the picture I went with for this post.

It's this fear, or more accurately fear of failure that has been missing from a lot of the work that we've all done. And this fear of failure, this hunger to get better and do better is something that I see in all those I admire, be they communicators or otherwise. Entities that are described as 'challenger'; brands, companies, sports teams or whatever use this fear to greatest effect, as an enabler or spurrer to better things. It's the whole backs against the wall mentality. Many start with it, but success often breeds complacency and sometimes a kick in the ass is needed to start the machine again. Personally I've found that being surrounded by those better than me has meant that it's hard to get complacent (unless you're happy with being the dumbest - but hey each to their own).

It will be interesting to see which nations, people and organizations thrive in these changing times. I have a feeling we'll all be pleasantly surprised.

I haven't written for a while so coherence and structure may be lacking, but it feels kinda good...