It's nothing like in the text books or the case studies. Most ideas and projects are dragged kicking and screaming into the world through hard work, trial and error and coming back from rejection with something better.  No one really cares about the creative brief. At its worse, it's first stage thinking from one person…

So I start a new job today. You'd think my first day as a strategy director at a new place would be vastly different to the first time I walked into work as an account exec, but not that much. It's fair to say that back then I was excited as it was the first…

If you have time, it's worth listening to the Revisionist History podcast. Every episode re-interprets a historic event and finds new evidence or focuses on something previously overlooked.  Now, look at that keyboard on your computer or phone, the one with the QWERTY structure. It's like that because it's not the best structure for fast…

Let's be honest, not everyone thinks there is a point to planners, strategists or whatever the job titles is these days. Even in 'good' organisations, client or agency, there are suits, clients and creatives, media buyers and so on, all thinking they don't anyone else to so own the strategy bit. Sometimes they have a…

      Fall for the latest thing. I know I’ve said don’t read advertising books, but I would say it’s worth reading Paul Feldwick’s ‘The Anatomy of Humbug’. Mostly because he doesn’t really tell you how advertising works, rather it depends on the brief and the client. But also because he shows that most,…

Don't forget, we're all in advertising unless we're on the client side, it's just cool to call it something else these days.   1. Only read marketing and brand stuff. If you only look at industry stuff, which is what everyone else tends to do, you’ll make the same kind of work as everyone else,…