NORTHERN PLANNER

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Category: The day job

  • What nine headed mythical beasts means for stammering, chest infections and strategy that solves problems not symptoms

      I knew someone with a stammer once. The person had tried all sorts of voice coaching with only moderate success. It was only when he tried counselling and dealt with the pain and indelible shock of seeing his father die, that the stammer all but disappeared. Because stammering wasn't the problem, not having dealt…

  • Keep it small- why big groups are slow and stupid

    Still on the subject of being fast and good, team structure and process affect this massively. To put it simply, big is stupid and cumbersome while small is clever and nimble. Any sort of team should only be as big as it needs to be and, to be honest, smaller than that. Both the agency…

  • Writing quicker briefs and why it matters

    And after that fast strategy stuff, here's a quick guide to faster briefing. There are two reasons it matters. Firstly, the best internal way to get maximise nimbleness is to follow the three steps outlined before in a closed room with the people on the team that matter. As a minimum, that should be one…

  • A 3 step faster strategy toolbox

    With the reality of modern lead times and client budgets, planning folk nowadays are challenged to get to some sort of strategy and resulting brief quicker than ever. This isn't so bad though, in fact, I think it's probably a blessing in disguise. Here's why. Firstly, on a process level, if anything has changed in…

  • The critical difference between ‘what’ and ‘why’

    In many ways it's wonderful to be working in a creative agency right now, because we have never had so many options open to us. Do a TV ad, fund a TV programme, outdoor, interactive outdoor, page take-overs, live stunts, webcasts, carnivals, Google Earth mash-ups, inventing new sports. Sometimes, God forbid, a press ad.  But…

  • What Hobbits can tell us about what heroes we put in ads and stuff

    I really enjoyed the Hobbit film, mostly because the book means so much to me. I read the book when I was eight and it was magical, I still adore it and look forward to reading it to my kids.   I have to admit I'm a slight geek about Tolkien stuff, but not  so…

  • The only review of 2012 you need to read ( and a decent prediction for 2013)

    TV advertising didn't die The new age of this and that never occured Acres of animatics and scamps died a death of a thousand cuts in research Most people didn't bother participating with brands in social media Digital banners still worked Google retargeting stalked us accross the web without pity 95% of brand communications output…

  • Take the bus, ride or even better walk

    For reasons I won't bore you with I'm spending lots of time in London, which for most visitors means navigating The Tube, to get from a to b as quickly as possible, but for me means getting as close to the people in the streets as possible. For creative (or would be creative) types the…

  • My not quite schtick

     (this is a Howies picture) I don't believe in having didactic rules and proprieraty process for going about strategy – it's quite simple, yet quite hard………. Understand the business issue and our role in solving it What do we know about the audience/culture/market that will help us? What is the core thought? Why is that…

  • Why smartness needs feedback, hooks and mirror neurons

    I did what I thought was some pretty good thinking on something or other. The people with me at the time did too. so I wrote it up, then got lots of feedback from the people who weren't there that clearly showed they didn't get it.Which was my fault not theirs. Because when I looked…