1/ Best single thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010
Getting my life back so my son will know who I am- from 12 hour days and 4 hours commuting to getting home for 7pm most evenings.
Followed by leading and winning a pitch for my little Sheffield agency to do the digital bit for the most important global product launch a certain engine oil brand is planning in years.
2/ Most shameful thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010
Either this post
Or having to do account planning for telemarketing…never, ever again
Or getting smashed at the IPA Awards, having a rant at my then chief exec about Media Arts and Yorkshire Tea, bumping into an ex client and delighting in telling him what his nickname was in his marketing department, getting into a taxi with another drunken planner and getting him to drive around London at 3 am looking for an open bar, abusing him for failing and claiming the fair on expenses.
3/ Ad industry scandal or scoundrel of the year.
Most people would say Sam Ismael, I won't disagreee
4/ Your overall rating for 2010 out of 10.
[1 = shit / 10 = showoff]
Personally, 7 out of 10. I have a life now but I'm a little bored.
For the industry, I would say 5, a year of averageness. There have been some notable highlights, Old Spice and Write the Future of Course, but lots of just, well, ads. Sony lost it's way, Cadbury became dull, there wasn't much to get excited about really.
5/ What do you think will be the most overhyped advertising related subject of 2011?
The same as every recent year. It's been called 'brand as conversation' 'brand as verb' 'the death of TV advertising' 'the digital age' 'trans-media planning' 'gamification' and even 'post digital' – in essence some idiot guru somewhere will proclaim the 'rise of', 'the age of' or 'the death of' when actually most things don't or won't change that much. Rather, the way clients and their agencies colluded to pretend that brands and advertising works is shown to be mostly bollocks and you can't bludgeon people with repetition or 'share of mind' anymore.
Some of the tools have changed, the balance of power between company and person has shifted a little, but basically, people like being interrupted with something that's either useful, entertaining or delightful and hate being interrupted with patronising, lazy crap.
They'll talk about you postively if you deserve it and slag you off if you piss them off.
In the middle is bulk of irrelevant, unspecial brands no one loves or hates, they're just there, still trying to justify themselves with irrelevant Millward Brown 'brand health' tracking and a couple of half point market share gains, and finding it a little harder every year.
Probably, there will be lots of brands trying to create games, but really just firing more messages ate people.
I tag:
Hidden Persuader
NORTHERN PLANNER 
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