NORTHERN PLANNER

I'll be honest with you, when the crash happened in 2008 I was bloody terrified.

I was working for a global creative network, my office had just lost its biggest client. 

We were expecting our first child, like most people our savings wouldn't last us forever.

As usual with the big networks, the Eye of Sauron., brooding in it's tower in New York turned its baleful gaze towards Manchester, it saw numbers that needed to shrink and the consultations began.

I was one of the lucky ones. The sense of relief was overwhelming and yet…..

One the most talented juniors I ever worked with was cut. His boss, my boss, never actually said goodbye to him, he was cast out within an hour by HR. 

It's been shown that laying people off in their first job or so, has lasting damage (believe me I know). My team (not the boss) did everything we could for him. He didn't need help with his career, he's now at one the best and one the best there.

He needed emotional support. Kindness. 

I can only remember feeling the conflict of relief at being one of the lucky ones, at war with over guilt of thinking thank God it's them not me. 

My life is very different now, eldest child is nearly 11, I'm the strategy director, not the minion. It's a very different feeling to worry about your own life, but feel so responsible for all the people who depend upon you at work. 

It makes me judge that boss even more. It's not excusable not to say goodbye to someone who's life you've just turned upside down, its just not.

Two months later, the same boss broke down in a meeting because her dog was ill. 

Her dog.

She was also caught saying she liked recessions because you cab squeeze more out of your people. 

Lots of folks in adland are spouting the usual predictions about how the world will change. At least I guess, unlike the annual January  crystal ball attempts to tell us how this is the year of this and that, it's safe to say that the world is changing profoundly. But no one really knows what will happen.

One theme though is that when this all end, people will judge companies who didn't do their bit.

Yet we're seeing the usual global groups cutting deep as we speak. I don't know their numbers, but I suspect they'll be judged too when they need talent for the upturn and their isn't any.

I hope it might be a time for independent agencies to flourish, by being good AND doing good work. But it's only a hope, I don't know what will happen any more than anyone else. So don't judge me.

If anyone asks me what strategy books to read, one of the top three is always Eating the Big Fish. I still think it's a great way of looking at how a minnow can out think the big boys. 

(Or just read a book on Judo)

But at face value, it's still about single minded repetition of the same position, vision or whatever the brand babblers like to call it these days.

This is good, this is important. Being consistent, in a way that stands out, that helps people not to think too hard about you (they don't want to), that makes them instinctively believe you're better pays back in spades. That's great. 

But it's not the only way. 

And perversely, when you can't move for 'Challenger' or, God help us, 'Disruption' strategies, adopting challenger strategies is pretty, erm, conventional. 

Especially when big companies take a challenger approach to stay ahead. 

 

In other words, it may well be that it's time to challenge being a challenger. 

The other book I'm getting folks to read is the actually a chapter. The bit on 'Winning' in Messy. 

Basically, the quicker you can understand what's REALLY going on and act on it, against slow and ponderous organisations, the better.

If you can keep them guessing while you're at it, disorient them over and over again, you're on to a winner.

It's really why Trump won.

It's how Amazon destroyed Barnes and Noble – and Toys R Us.

All this depends on having the will.

Being up for a different way of thinking about brands and stuff. In fact, scratch that. 

Being up for jettisoning models that approximate real life (that's what brand theory is, come on, be honest) and actually engage in real life.

Because real people don't live life in campaigns or quarters, they live in moments.

They value genuine surprise and delight above predictability.

Just look at the plot twists and rug-pulls in any successful modern drama. Compare that with the formulas of the massive hits of yesterday, like Columbo or even Bond movies. You were watching the same thing over and over again.

We don't want that now.

The trick is to make lots of little acts add up to one big picture.

Some of that is Byron Sharpe's 'distinctive assets'. MdDonalds can do what the hell they like as long as there is lots of red, a golden arch and that sonic 'I'm lovin it thing'. 

Much of it is sticking to the same point of view, the same backstory, no matter what you're doing. 

The quicker you can get into what is really happening in life, removing the layers of research that doesn't tell you anything and needless process, the more successful you'll be.

Because many organisations won't move until the research picture matches the picture they want, not the picture it is.

So if you can remove layers of 'strategy' to justify what they already want to do, and provide clarity on what they SHOULD do, you'll do well.  

I just don't buy the IPA data on the gap the payback for being creative with between long term campaigns v short term campaigns. We all live lives where lots of todays add up to a year, or a decade. The more brilliant today's you create, the more brilliant year you have. 

Anyway

 

So we've all had the massive exhale as February begins. Back to normal. 

As you know, most New Year Resolutions die in January week 3, leaving us with a few days of no money and self loathing before we go back to the routine, whatever that might be. 

Because human willpower is weak, it needs a rest. It's why dieting is doomed to failure.

We all know this deep down, that's real life, the one that happens outside of focus groups and segmentations.

Yet, last month we had all the usual New Year Resolution rubbish. None of it embraced the crapness of real life people failing.

Perhaps the brand owners belief it's more commercially viable to help people lie to themselves. 

Which it is of course in many cases.  

Just as this famous campaign actually knows that Economist readers take in a few articles, ignore most of the writing, but feel a lot cleverer about it (the weekly equivalent to the unread pile of books on the bedside table, or the unwatched content in the Netflix playlist). 

Yet you  will have read the same data as I have. That claims people are but tired of being pressured to look perfect, and actually like brands to look fallible.

In fact, making an idiot of yourself makes you more likeable if you take it with good grace. It's called the pratfall effect (incidentally I've been known to spill coffee on purpose in workshops I'm running).

Imagine if someone actually set out to reach people failing in January Week 3 with a more sustainable alternative (like a 66 day guide to working within your routine) rather than against it. Imagine a campaign celebrating our collective, glorious annual failure. 

Imagine someone saying wait until February, January is hard enough?

Maybe next year, or the year after that. 

Anyway. 

Most people have the good sense to not read this blog much anymore. They're all on LinkedIn now.

However, I still get the odd question from folk who believe I know what I'm talking about. Let's be honest folks, experienced people in this industry are as clueless as you are, they have just got better at hiding it.

That said, along the way, I've picked some stuff up that may be of use from time to time, so I thought I'd sometimes share what people have asked and how I responded.

Step forward, let's call him, Steve. He asked what to do when you've started at a new agency and you are in your very first meeting with a new client. How do you impress them and leave them thinking you're a smart guy they'll want to have around?

We'll Steve, I'm sorry to disappoint you but I can't help you because I'm not a smart guy, like I said at the beginning, I'm pretty clueless.

However, I'm kind of OK with this.

It's actually a great place to be. You remember those famous Avis ads where they tried harder because they were number 2? That's me, never the cleverest person in the room, but the person so afraid of being found out, I'm rarely complacent.

Because I'm not smart, I make sure I'm well informed.

That won't be the case in your first client meeting Steve, you just won't have been given chance to know what's going in with their business.

Having worked on a similar client won't help either. If there is one thing that drives clients and agency people alike up the wall, it's the 'When I was working on (insert brand here)" all the time. 

So the best way to impress then is to hide your lack of knowledge and keep your trap shut. As they say, best to have people think you're stupid, rather than open your mouth and confirm it beyond all reasonable doubt.

Anyway, you're not there to impress clients, your not their to make them inferior, you;re there to add value.

Now clients, deep down, know that the suits only pretend to be interested in their business, when they really care about maximising the fee income.

They know creatives really want to do work that will get them hired by the agency they really want to be at.

They know the media folks want them to spend more on media than execution, or want to to execute themselves. 

They know the PR folks haven't a clue, but can get them tickets for whatever they're into. 

Think about most meetings, especially all agency ones. How many people are really listening? How many people are asking genuine questions? Or are they posing leading questions that push the discourse into their agenda? 

Clients know all this is going on, you don't get to be head of marketing and secure a decent budget without being able to play the game to a certain degree.

So if you want to impress clients, admit you don't know anything and shut up. When you open your mouth, ask lots of questions that show you want to really understand what drives their business. Without agenda. 

You'd be amazed how much clients love someone who is really interested in them. 

So many strategists stride in, intent on proving their intellectual superiority. No one likes a smart arse. No one.

Steve, you'll stand out by simply wanting to understand. It worries me that you're just intent on looking clever, I hope I'm wrong. 

 

A few years ago I was working in a creative agency and found myself in the odd position of working to the lead agency strategy, set by the media folks. 

The same media folks had just appointed a creative director. Now it was, of course, a little difficult to compete over the creative work, but at least they were taking the creative work seriously. They had spent enough time working with good partners to know what to look for. 

It's not like that now. I've found that media agencies don't worry too much about doing creative work, because they don't believe it's really relevant. It's about precision targeting or maximum relevance. There's plenty of innovation, but it tends to be based on tech or partnerships. 

That said, when I was working in a media agency, it used to send me into orbit when the creative folks tried to recommend the core channels (usually TV, or at least AV, they still love making telly).

Then there's loads of creative agencies trying to do best in class digital and digital folks trying to make great above the line.

Then we come to PR.

Much of core PR got taken in house a while back, so PR folks carved out a fee for managing social. Then Facebook changed the algorithm and they finally had to admit organic social is really brands talking to themselves. So they're attempting the lead agency creative thing. Now it's fair to say that creative folks think PR is easy, just make great creative that will get talked about – when of course, you need a PR instinct to know what will get picked up.

But great creative work isn't easy either, any more than media is easy, digital marketing is easy or even getting a journalist to publish your story.

It takes years to learn the craft to develop that instinct for what will really work. You can't just start 'doing TV ads' just as you can't start writing press releases. It's not good by the way getting great people who have the skills into organisations of a different flavour, they'll end up frustrated when no one else really gets their work. 

The job has never been harder, as people get better at ignoring brands, the work we do has to be BETTER than ever.  Everyone has their part to play and they need to be right at the top of their game. 

Understanding what you're good at and focusing on that would be a start, and respecting people who can do what you can't.