NORTHERN PLANNER

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  • Losing feels so much more intense than winning

    There’s been two pretty big pitches in quick succession, almost concurrent, taking over my life until the end of last week. One was good news, the other not.

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    It’s not often you get to look both success and failure in the eye at nearly the same time, before post-rationalisation and self justification kick in. And loss is always a deeper feeling than the joy of getting the good news.

    In any case, it’s always such an anti-climax. Pitches are things you both love and hate, nothing in this business quite matches the feverish activity before that big date, the fear that the ideas won’t come, the magic when it seems to arrive all by itself, the late night takeaways, those nights when you can’t sleep with the Adrenalin overload and when you do, you dream about the bloody pitch. You form bonds with new people in the agency you don’t usually work with, you get closer to the ones you do.

    And then it’s over.

    At first it’s a relief to get a little of your life back and hurtle through the things you really should have been doing instead of pitching. But then you realise  you miss it.

    When good news comes it’s a pleasure to see all that hard work pay off, but there’s no time to enjoy it, suddenly it’s real, you have to make good on your promises. It never matches that heady brew of fear, expectation, creativity and sheer WANTING. And there’s no time, suddenly it’s real and you have to make good on your promises. 

    Only loss can come close, the bitter, helpless frustration. You know it was great, you know it was the right thing to do. Why can’t they see it? Like the feeling of being dumped by a partner, you have to fight the maddening urge to pick up the phone, even though it will do no good. In a little corner, you’re sure they’ll see sense and realise their mistake.

    They never do.

     

  • Strategic masochism

    Boris Becker was a maddeningly frustrating tennis player. When he was good, he was breathtaking but when his bad was very, very bad. At his best he used a strategy only the very best would ever contemplate. He played to his enemies’ strengths.

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    In most sport, most strategy for that matter, you tend to look for a weakness in your opponents’ armoury and exploit it. Not Becker. Ivan Lendl had the most terrifying forehand in the game, Becker didn’t play to the backhand, he let Lendl pound his trusty forehand at him, firing it back even harder. He wanted to show Lendl that his own forehand was better, ripping him apart by snatching away away the comfort of his best weapon. He usually cut him to ribbons.

    He would play to Edberg’s peerless backhand, beat the graceful Mecir with his own artistry and try stay back at the baseline against Agassi. It took incredible talent and strength of character to use a masochistic strategy like this, but then no one enjoyed bouncing off the ropes more than this German with his famous Wagnerian serve.

    It’s an interesting way to think of brand strategy too. We spend lots of time looking for gaps in the market, finding weaknesses in the competitive set to exploit. But what if sometime you were a little braver? What if you could find a way to make your opponents’ core strengths into liabilities or pure irrelevance? Wouldn’t that be fun? And more long term?

  • I am an idiot

    Morning. Remember me? Haven’t been around for awhile. 2 pitches, one Northern.

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    So I’m really sorry to Account School of the Web entrants patiently waiting for feedback. It will appear tomorrow without fail.

  • Not growing up and the freedom of marriage

    One thing that really shocks you about getting older is how much you don’t change. The insecurity, the juvenility, the crapness with money, the inability to speak to attractive women. When does it all bloody stop? Seems that life over thirty is like being Tom Hanks in Big. Or so it seems.

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    Like the way grown ups seem like giants when you’re five, but you don’t notice them getting smaller – it happens too gradually, you never notice how much you’re changing. If you met yourself 10 years ago, you’d struggle to have a drink with them. Or maybe that’s just me. You do grow up a little bit, it’s just a little hard to notice.

    A big difference between married men and those yet to settle down with the ball and chain is possibility. I’m not sure this is just a bloke thing, but since I’ve never been female (despite leg shaving and the worrying bag incident below) I can’t really comment on that. Anyway, men like having their options open.

    They may be perfectly happy with the partner they have, but that doesn’t stop them imagining life with someone else. Some of that is accepting there will  never be thrill of the chase, the first date, the first sleep over etc, but much is simply that once you settle down, you lose the possibility of meeting someone else. Like the way you browse the job section, or can’t resist accepting calls from headhunters, the possibility can be exciting, even if you’ll never do anything about it.

    It’s only when you get married/settle down that you realise that allowing yourself to be happy with the love of your life is MORE liberating. You have to work at it, don’t get me wrong, but not worrying about this stuff anymore lets you worry about lots of things that matter more. More bandwidth if you like.

    So there you go, I argue that being married is maybe more liberating than not being, it just frees you up for stuff that’s more important. Of course this doesn’t mean you won’t be an immature buffoon with your mates, but it might mean you get to talk about more than exaggerating your feats with the opposite sex.

  • Always travel with a suit

    Had to go to Geneva for a couple of days last week, for something or other. I was quite shocked to find that Mel travel bag was smaller than mine. Poses a big question about my masculinity no?

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    Always good to go travelling with a suit, you don’t have to organise a thing. Mel was like a big sister, herding me in the right direction and feeding me when appropriate.

    It’s important to stress the big sister thing since the hotel booking was cocked up and we had to share a hotel room. The bathroom co-ordination was meticulous, and yes, there were seperate beds.

    We, of course, worked very hard with no time for frivolity. Notice the painting in this airport cafe to give an authentic chalet feel.

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  • Busy

    Busy

    Sorry for not having done the School of the Web feedback. Things are a little bit mental right now. Promise to put something up by the end of the week.

  • Clothes, stealing dressing gowns clothes stories

    This week was a momentous one. I got rid of the dressing gown I’ve had since 1997 in exchange for a big fluffy M&S number. You know, small things, small minds …..

    While I worked out what to do with my life after graduation, I worked in the gymn of a five star hotel training bored, rich women to get fit. It’s more fun than it sounded. Free gourmet food, state of the arm gymn stuff to play with, sauna at lunchtime. Not too shabby for Northern.

    Of course I got bored and left, but before I did I nicked one of the hotel dressing gowns. Very naughty, but was so big, fluffy and comfy I couldn’t resist.

    Anyway, I loved that dressing gown, but Mrs Northern hated it. And quite right, by the time she met me it was full of holes in it, bereft of its former downy softness and carried evidence of tea spilt years ago.Still, I couldn’t force myself to get rid of it.

    It had lived with me through London, Newcastle and then back to Leeds, it had seen more than 6 flats, been worn by different girls (not many I’m afraid) had worn in. It carried my story, it was symbol of a version of me that no longer existed, but I wa still fond of. It was mine in way that the new one won’t be for awhile. 

    That’s the thing about clothes. There’s no point denying the wonderful novelty and possibility they represent on the racks in shops. Every one an idea of another you, a reinvention, a person you want to be. There’s no point denying their power. And it’s not just a girl thing, or a fashion thing- I know plenty of men who fall to pieces over trainers in the same way women coo over Manolo’s.

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    But after a first wear, clothes become truly yours. They cease to become an idea – they mould and stretch to your shape, and the more you wear them, the more they become instrinsically linked to the things you’ve been through. Symbols of all the things you are, or were, familiar friends.

    I’m not sure where to go with this, but guess there’s a lot to be said for celebrating another truth about clothes in  addition to the novelty of fashion.

  • School of the web update

    All the entries are in, looks like people have worked very hard.

    Results and feedback will appear two weeks today (3rd November). Helping on the judging will be Steve Groves, one of the account directors here. Good to get a suit perspective for a change.

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    Steve takes a dim view of planners – as far as he’s concerned, account directors should be able to do strategy, if not they’re just bag carriers that are good at making people like them. In his case he has a point, it’s very hard to tell Steve something he doesn’t know about the clients he works on.

    Expect some honest, but constructive, feedback. Naturally we’ll be doing the judging over a pot that has been properly warmed.

  • Healthy competition

    You may have noticed, like most men born in the mid-seventies, I have  more than a passing regard for Star Wars.

    You may have also noticed that I work in the Manchester bit of TBWA worldwide. Next to London, LA, Paris etc we’re considered a bit of an underdog. I like this, I like catching people off-guard…nimble, quick, able to see the wood for the trees, it’s just harder for them.

    So it’s little surprise I enjoyed being in a pitch yesterday and hearing our Chief Exec liken London to this:

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    While he likened us to this:

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    The fact that he did it in front of our ‘President for Global Brands’ was a little more surprising, but bloody good too.

  • Time’s nearly up for School of the Web Assignments

    Tomorrow’s the last day to get your Account Planning School of the Web assignments in. Glad everyone’s giving themselves enough time to get their stuff as good as it can be, but you’ve only a day left.

    Good luck.