NORTHERN PLANNER

Righto, it’s back.

Looks like the faculty is Rob, Gareth and Northern. I’m doing this round, then Gareth (his last one was a doozy, look forward to it).

Anyway, this task is about tone of voice.

Creatives find planning types useful for two things; getting the work through the client/research and providing useful stimulus.

Getting the work through starts with a good brief that as many people have inputed into as possible – if someone feels they’ve had a part in developing the work, they’re far more likely to support it..but that’s not what the task is about.

It’s about stimulus. There’s all the critical, non-official conversations around the diarised meetings that help you and the creative teams shape the work – as long they’ll let you in that back door, which requires them to think you’ll be interesting. But the briefing matters too, even more than the brief.

No matter how short, how well written a creative brief is, it is still words. That’s not too great for creatives who think in pictures, associations and metaphor. It’s even worse for tone and manner, which is the part of the briefing (and brief) that usually gets the least attention, yet it’s the most important.

About 95% if human communication is non-verbal, body language, appearance, facial expressions, these are what people react to and subconsciously remember. It’s no different with creative work. The core message that arises from the proposition still matters, but it’s the delivery that really matters – the brand’s body language.

Take Honda. Great ads, built around a brand based on optimism. But that’s just a word, the stimulus that informed the creative process was this:

(Sorry to WK from nicking it from your creds). Imagery, associations and sentiments that brought to life what the brand was about.

I work on ghd, where the brand behaviour is everything – words cannot do it justice – but it’s critical a creative team know what it is – it produces work like this, this and this.

Great brands tend to be built on a consistent view on the world, culture at large – some sort of long term, core organising vision, something that pulls together any objective you may have, put is flexible enough for virtually anything.

Your task is to develop a vision for Yorkshire Tea, perhaps my favourite brand in the whole wide world – and make it real for a creative team. The only mandatory is that it should be done in powerpoint – as guide…analogy metaphor, pictures, video (pasted in or linked to youtube) are what works with creatives, so try and use them as much as you can. Something you would use in  a creative briefing, but also a reference for development.

Don’t worry too much about core Yorkshire Tea short term objectives, or international v UK. Just have a go at creating something interesting, something meaty, something inspiring, something that feels right.

All you need to know for now is that Yorkshire Tea is a premium tea brand sold mainly in the UK. It’s priced well above own label, and more than most tea brands. It does well in most taste tests, it’s a deeper, richer taste than most tea. As with most premium brands, they have to justify their price point, not least in defence against own label. They are proud of their Yorkshire heritage, owned by Taylors of Harrogate, who also own Betty’s probably the best tea shop in the world (based in Harrogate, a quintessential middel class Yorshire town).

This is a hard one, and it’s very open, but I think it’s worth having a go- increasingly, as consumers segment, brands are going to have to be interesting enough to earn attention, rather than forcing things the other way. Developing the voice will be core planning skill amongst the billions of others.

Deadline for entries is October 15th 11.59pm (GMT). Good luck, Any questions, put it in the comments and I’ll answer as we go along.

And while the judges haven’t been appointed yet, it won’t just be me.