Category: The day job

  • Someone asked me to crash out some thoughts on marketing departments and the relevance of marketing in today’s world. What follows is a slightly edited version. But in a nutshell – I couldn’t do  marekting director’s job and I respect people who do. I think that’s the key to lots of things – love the…

  • This is nothing new, you’ll have heard this a million times. But my word it’s useful! Keep a scrapbook! I was in a tight spot last night/this morning. I’ve never worked on a brand that exclusively looks to fashion conscious young women, and I certainly can’t ‘plan from within’. It’s my first creative brief on…

  • It’s my last day here. That means some proper work in the morning, pub at lunch and that’s pretty much it. I’ve a healthy dose of nerves at what’s waiting for me in Manchester, but change is good.Time to do new things, learn new stuff, find out how talentless I really am. But it was…

  • I’m not sure we’re going to cover everything, but I’m doing my best. Next on the list is integration. Now to be honest, it’s nothing new. If you work in the UK and not in London, it’s sort of second nature. In fact, it’s not really new there either. It’s just that every generation thinks…

  • Since I’m off soon, work have got me doing some creative briefing workshops over my last couple of weeks. Hopefully they’ve found it useful. I certainly have since having to teach something makes you think a little harder about how you go about things. And bump across some bad habits you didn’t know you developed.…

  • This week I did my last two significant creative briefings. One was especially fun, since the biggest chunk of stimulus was the funniest interview I’ve ever seen. I’m sort of pleased with both, it seems like there’s lots of potential and they’ll totally lock out the rest of the market. Probably wind them up too. …

  • As promised. We won’t cover the pros and cons of groups, but you’ll come across them at some point, like it or not. It may be useful to know what to expect. We won’t cover the skills you’ll need to uncover true insight rather than mere information. That’s covered elsewhere, and there’s no better place…

  • When I move I’m going to be very busy trying not to fail – plus it will be Christmas and stuff. So I’m going to try to finish that to-do list of planning things before then. I could put it off, but let’s take the path of most resistance shall we? That means covering: Moderating…

  • I’ve been meaning o post about Sainsburys for ages. I don’t usually do reviews of other people’s work since others do it so much better, but this one’s worth it. It’s great thinking that starts framing a brilliant strategic objective that fed right back  into the commercial hardline. Don’t get me wrong, I really admire…

  • Late night, early mornings, other people (clients) in charge of your career, no stratospheric pay, childish trade press. Why would anyone in their right mind want to join agency? Here’s why I have, and will stick around for a little while longer.  The passion that bleeds from every pore. I’ve shared the agony, the ecstasy,…