NORTHERN PLANNER

Meetings are tough, especially if you're a little shy like I am. Let's face it,this industry (and western business culture at large) seems to gravitate to the confident, eloquent charismatic type, no matter how inadequate their logic or ideas might be.

As always, it's not about the best ideas, it's about people wanting to buy them from you.

There is a way to cut through these situations though. It's the killer question, quietly asked when there is an eventual pause.

One of the best is simply 'What is this brand actually for'. Used to maximum effect in brand babbler meetings, where you've got folks prattling esoteric theory and four page manifestos. The dual nature of this question allows you expose the fact that most brand babblers don't really know how people USE a product, what it means to them or anything like that. Of course, brands having a wider cultural enthusiasm or emotional role is important, but it's got to be linked to the bloody real world. Even if there is real need to define the emotional, cultural territory, it's amazing how many people can't get that down a sentence. I don't mean brand onions, I mean a compression of lots of brand potential, purpose, possibility and genuine human need. For example, all the lovely old Spice Work came from 'Old Spice Gets You Experience'.

An alternative to this, if you've the ugly twin the emotional 'brand babbler' is the rational product benefit peddler. Ask them, 'What business are we really in?'. It's a bit common, but still useful to open the conversation.

Another one that's common, but amazingly not common enough, which is a killer in all agency meetings where there is some squabbling over comms strategy is simply, 'What is the objective?'. This works really well also, when you have creative folks and ad tweaking planners who have crafted a strategy that's really about ground breaking advertising, but won't deal with any fundamental issues that are stopping people buying. Works well when people are trying to fix a brand rather than a business.

Another version is 'What problem are solving here?' This works really well when a strategy type has been exposed too late to a project and a mountain of brilliant work has been done that you can see straight away is all wrong. Works amazingly well when you're in a meeting where the lead agency is a digital agency, a PR agency or, dare Is say it, a media agency. Respectively, clicks, column inches or CPM are not objectives, they're hygiene factors. That goes for creative agencies too – recall, persuasion scores, cut-through etc are things you just do. 

This question can also save you from yourself. Instead of blundering into a projecting you haven't thought about enough yet, or falling for your own preconceptions of what the answer should be, this gives you time to think and other the best possible chance of explaining.

What's the budget? Should be the first question that gets asked, but rarely us.

A real killer when it comes to reviewing content (stuff you choose to watch rather than ads you have to watch or block to get media cheaper,) ideas to spark co-creation, or amazingly high effort tasks to enter promotional competitions, fantastical experiential stuff, is simply, "Would you do it? Would you be interested". Because 90% of the time you couldn't be bothered and nor would anyone else. People in advertising like to think they work in art, cinema or Apple. We don't, we work in advertising. It's really hard to 'not do advertising' and make people care.

These are the killer ones for me. There are others, many are variations of the above, and a score or more tactical ones for a variety of situations.

Another reason to ask questions by the way, rather than telling folks what you think, is that you might the one who is totally in the wrong.

Put more sneakily, when you may on the side of correctness, it's far easier to drill holes in the logic of someone who speaks first, rather than sticking your neck out.

This where some questions that are not questions can help.

Unfairly compress what they said,"So is what your saying that…."

Pick out one flaw in mostly sound point to overturn the whole thing, "Could you help understand the one thing unclear on.."

Or even go all out and go head on,"Could help me understand why is is that (insert you're thinking and compare it to theirs, then ask why it's different).

of course I'm not wholly recommending the cunning routes. I still think the best way to success is to be nice and honest where you can. But sometimes you simply can't bring a knife to a gun fight.

 

Always tricky this, especially in the days when clients like to work with a collective of different specialists. There is no such thing as handbook, but the unwritten rules are legion.

1. Under no circumstances should you offer a direct opinion on a partner agency's work in a client meeting, even if they are not there. If the work is really bad, you don't ever say how bad it is, not only might the client have talked to agency already and really like it, meaning you're criticising the client, you can be rest assured said agency will take their beating with good grace, then wait for the precise opportunity to return the favour with a very sharp knife in the back. If it's really good, you still have the client problem where they might secretly hate it……and if the client likes it, don't make then love it too much, you have your own work you want them to like too. If a client asks you direct, if it's awful, damn it with faint praise. If it's great, find a weakness in it, sow a seed of doubt in the client's mind by picking a small element of the work and praising it…but in way that gives the client second thoughts. Same strategy really,"Really like the bravery of the casting". "Great the media plan is sticking by YouTube despite the recent news on safety".
2. Do people favours. If you want people to do stuff for you, do something for them first. Works in everyday life, works in agency life. Work out what the partner agency really wants, work out how you can help. Just make sure it's something they really want that's neither here nor there to you. You would be amazed if you work in a media agency how much data the creative agency hasn't got. Creative agency types don't realise how bored media planners are, that's why they try and muscle in on creative work, it's because it's far more interesting that deciding where to put the 'x' on an Excel spreadsheet – throw them bone to make them feel they're involved in the creative process…etc, etc.
3. Give it a new name if you want to do a land-grab. There's a blur these days between what agency does what. Officially, that's to do with required new approaches thanks to changes in consumer behaviour. In reality, agencies have been really good at re-branding bits of media and creative so they can steal it from partner agencies. For example, no one does creative work apart from the creative agency, and no one fills up the 'paid media' apart from the ad or digital agency. So media folks hit on the idea of 'content'. From this comes new species like 'content partnerships', or stuff which doesn't quite feel like 'paid for ads'. Content is totally up for grabs. Just like 'advertorials' used to be done by the ad agency, but 'native' content can be done by anyone. It's like 'media planning' is done by the media agency, but 'communications planning' can be done by anyone. Communications planning can also be a new name for brand planning, so suddenly, leading strategy can be done by anyone, depending on what you call and it and what you think the new name means. There's even more exotic agency processes like 'Media Arts' or 'The Demand Chain' which are just genius – no one has a clue what on earth these things are so you can use them to grab any part of the client budget you like. 'Digital strategy' is another of these. Because digital strategy is really a part of overall strategy, it can be done by anyone and be a powerful tool to steal as much client business and you can. Just like 'anything between the consumer and brand is media, so we have the right to have a point of view on everything'. If you're bored just doing 'media' make media mean something else.
4. Let them Run Out of Steam All agency meetings are like watching children play football, they just can't help themselves chase the ball. Everybody wants to talk first, usually cutting against each other, building to passive aggressive verbal dodgeball. Eventually everyone runs out of steam, or forgets what they were talking about. This is where you step in with a dose of intelligent common sense.
5. But Timing is Everything Of course, sometimes you are up against some brilliant operators. if you're not careful, they'll deftly control the agenda, always moving it on before there is any real conclusion, in order to post rationalise the whole meeting later. For this kind of slippery beast you need to have one killer point to make, and one alone. You'll have to interrupt, but you can only interrupt once. Start it with, "What I'd like to understand is…..". Or even better, "Who wants a coffee". Before anyone has a chance to kick off again, post drink, jump in with, "I've been thinking about that last point and……" No agency folk can resist coffee…………..
6. Always supply excellent tea and coffee. The above point means you need to pay people the respect of having stuff folks want to drink. That doesn't mean the space age Ipad coffee machines at places like Twitter, not does it mean a £1,000 espresso maker, or even offering lattes. Tea made in warmed pot, ideally with Yorkshire Tea. Coffee made with freshly ground beans, served in a french press. You can tell a lot about people by how they make drinks, and if they serve biscuits. It's worth treating people well, because when you have all sorts of people on your patch, you can have lots of little conversations, the stuff that actually gets stuff done. Some of that is getting a little extra time with the client, but there is more………..
7. Many conversations, less meetings. Let's be clear, due to much of the above, very little gets done in all agency meetings. If you're lucky, a few things get agreed. In fact, there is usually an unspoken pact to make sure little gets done or agreed. Just like the back room skulduggery that decides most government policy, in any country, like 'sofa government' in the Tony Blair era here in the UK, 'sofa planning' is where things really get decided. Like the inner cabal of most governments, most inter agency groups have a shadowy group who really decide things. In many cases, this group does not include representatives from every agency, indeed, this happens rarely. It is critical you get yourself into this inner circle. Another reasons to watch not just the workings of the meetings, but the flow of how things get communicated and signed off in between. Signed off plans, budgets and whatever sometimes seem to 'emerge'. Only after the event do you find out about a critical call with a client. This means careful forensic work to understand where these alliances lie. Then decipher the means to break into this invisible world. Mostly, that means being not only exceptionally talented and sensible, it also means observing most of the above rules and 'not being a dick'. Then you'll suddenly find yourself having a chat over coffee on the way back to the tube, or chatting in a taxi and, in five minutes, agreeing what wasn't concluded in four hours of agenda points. Sometimes you'll find the secret society really doesn't want new members and it's all sewn up though, this is when you need to pull in the 'do people a favour rule'.
8. Don't get emotional. Psychologists have long known that people make every different decisions when they are emotionally stimulated. Pure arousal makes us do all sorts of stuff and there is a breed of flirty agency suit who is brilliant and making you feel like the only person in the world (either sex I hasten to add). Next thing you know, you've surrendered your budget for some madcap awards chasing caper, or being roped in to delivering bad news to the client that's only bad news to the partner agency, until now that is. There's the brilliant clever planner whom the client loves who calls for a catch up – you're pathetically grateful to be treated as an equal and come off the call you've given away all sorts of thinking and secrets, in exchange for knowing what the caller had for lunch. Just as there are partner agencies (hi Mother) who trade on being quite good, but mostly one being very very cool. Like the characters in The Devil Wears Prada, this means being rude to everyone. It's very easy to get annoyed at people who stare out of the window when you're talking, or deliberately goad you, but you make the very worse decisions when you are angry. And end up looking stupid.
9. Learn the Lingo. Marketing speak is a disease. However, like the common cold, it isn't curable, only the healthiest can mostly stave it off. Every agency group has it's own language and codes. Don't say a bloody thing until you've sat in few meetings and worked it out. The really good groups, and clients, can't be bothered with this, and you'll find the babblers are outside of the 'cabal'. However, in the less righteous groups, the babble happens in the meetings and the common sense only commences in the cabal. Know which is which.
10. Write the Contact Report. No one likes doing this. But the smart agency knows what was agreed in meeting didn't happen unless it's captured in the contact report. You can't change the outcome of a meeting but you can bend it to your will with careful writing. History is written by the winners, but with contact reports, you can win by writing the history.
11. Trust No One. Don't expect anyone to do what they promised to do, even if they're name is against an action the contact report. Don't expect them to get it right, just expect them to blame you when it goes tits up. So politely do people a favour and make sure they're doing what they promised. Take the initiative.
12. Clients are not parents. Squabbling kids are bad at home. Clients can't be bothered to deal with warring agencies. Secretly they quite like some competition, but only if it keeps everyone on their game. No matter how much you hate each other's guts, no matter how much you've fallen out, never EVER let the client see it. Just like they don't expect to organise projects and make sure stuff happens between meetings.
13. Love your lead agency. Being lead agency is a double edged sword. Yes, you get more fee and decide the overall shape of the campaign, but it's also down to you to make other agencies play nicely and make everything happens. It also means that if you decide everything, you get blamed when it all goes wrong. So sometimes just be grateful to be a junior partner, be told what to do,take your fee and move on with your life. What doesn't work is trying to take the lead when it's not your agreed role. Not only will you fall out with the folks who have a closer client relationship that you, if it goes wrong, it's your fault and you didn't get paid for the additional responsibility.
14. Be Patient. If you fancy being lead agency, but you're not, play the long game. Only if the lead agency are there because of great results rather than relationships (hi Mother). No matter how good they are, eventually they'll mess up. The nice people who people like, usually survive this, the hipper Devil Wears Prada folks get fired.It's another reason to not rise to inter agency rudeness, if you are not owed any favours, if no one wants you to do well, one false move and you're out. If people are brilliant AND lovely though, I can't and won't help you….we need nice people to do well in this business, enjoy working with nice people that are probably teaching you something………..
15. Steal generously. I learned more working with partner agencies than I ever did internally. That's nothing against the people I've worked for (mostly) it's rather that when you go into situations not just wanting to win and believing everyone else to be inferior, you pick up all sorts of knowledge, approaches and bits of insight from a wider mix of folks. I'm not very clever and have recycled a presentation from a certain partner agency from a few years ago at least once a year. They know this and enjoy the fact it's done some good.The thinking is my own, the approach is theirs. Let them steal from you too, be generous with your ideas, eventually you'll find them quoting you in meetings and stuff, even better, people they know will want to hire you.
16. Do the table push-back. Sometimes you are dealing with bell ends. No matter how you try to help, they push on regardless. Let them hang themselves with the rope you've given them. Body language here is essential. If you know the client will violently hate what they're presenting, as soon as they start on the intro, get all of your team, and hopefully your other partners, so push away from the table and all sit back. Be as still as gnomes. The client will get you wanted no part of this, but were too grown up to make a bun fight of it. This is especially true of new agencies that want to make their mark (see point 7 about cabals) – make sure you're not that new agency. If you see the 'push-back' when you're talking, it's time to over do the favours bit.
17. Never ever change another agency's deck. In many cases, one agency will sort the slides on a joint agency presentation. Don't change a thing, it's just the way it is.
18. Pay. On all agency nights out, always get your round. Never be the one to go home first, unless you know drinking will make you lose your cool (see point 8) Take your turn buying lunch, take your turn to host too, it's worth it (see point 6)
19. Be nice, life really is too short.
20. It's not fair, toughen the hell up. Your best ideas will get cast aside in the final all agency plan. You'll have to surrender budget to some over thought madcap idea. You'll have been saying the same thing for weeks, then in walks the creative director from another agency on a one off visit, who says the same thing and then it gets bought. Or the media agency brings in someone from Channel 4 and you find your script destroyed in favour of 'content'. Like any uneasy alliance, no one wins completely, sometimes you lose. The best you can hope for, is that by being patient, even handed, self aware and just that little bit sneaky, you mostly win most of the time by trying to help everyone mostly win most of the time. In other words, it's rarely fair, get used to it. It's easy to get frustrated, it's easy to lose your cool. It's hard to play a longer, game, but that's the secret.

If you like food, you'd love my eldest sister. She's one of those people who can look at a few leftovers in the fridge and turn them into an experience to make your tastebuds weep with joy. She never used recipes, even for precise baking, she just makes it up as she goes along.

Or at least it looks that way.

Just like Roger Federer's tennis looks fluid, intuitive and effortless, when it's the result of hours and hours of relentless practice, to the point when he doesn't really think about his forehand, his footwork or his service action, it just happens.

It's the same with my sister. Do you remember Matilda? The precocious Roald Dahl little girl who had read Dickens' back catalogue by the age of four? My eldest sister used to sneak out of bed at 5am and make a chocolate cake before everyone got up at the age of five. Years and years of learning the subtlety of how ingredients work together, the chemistry that makes a sauce thicken at a precise point, knowing when a steak is precisely medium rare. She's got it all stored in her brain and, with all that rigourous knowledge there, all the techniques and natural as breathing, she can invent at will.

Planning is like that really. When I started out I was told it takes five years to really get to grips to working on strategy with confidence, be that media, brand, comms or anything else (and are they really that seperate or is this fed by agencies with different fees to justify?). Seven years to find your own distinctive voice.

Because there is just too much to know and absorb, to many connections to make. Not just the pivotal observation that unites category, brand, product (yes, they are not the same thing), customers and culture…and that's hard enough.

The really good strategy unites the sensibilities of what the client tends to buy, the agenda behind their business as a whole, the agency direction and 'brand' (it's there like it or not), the characteristics of the suits, the kind of work the creative team tends to do and how they like to be briefed, the motivations of partner agencies, the buying preferences of the investment teams in the media agency, what deals have been made, the fact you can't touch Google for a few months right now.

Then there is the really excellent strategy that brings in all that reading and reference you ceaselessly do. Anthropology, psychology, reference from all sorts of cultural touchpoints. For example, you might now that only 2% of UK people believe health claims made by food brands, but then it's worth knowing that humans never believe facts unless you make them emotionally want to believe it – and if you are targeting teenagers, you're more likely to persuade them if you acknowledge they are most influenced by the most popular kid in class, which them makes sense of engaging with Vloggers…as long as you know young folks watch far more TV than YouTube, so you'll need to use them in mainstream media.

You get the picture.

In other words, while creative thinking techniques etc are great to help you get ideas, it all boils down to hard work unfortunately. Doing this for long enough to get to a point where you're always thinking without thinking.

Which is also why my sister finds it hard to share recipes, she's got to a point where she can't explain it, she just does it.

That's actually the point of strategy templates, briefing forms and powerpoint type stuff. Unlike my sister, a planner isn't any good just coming with business building thinking, they need to not explain it to other folks, they need to make them desperate to bring it to life.

Churchill once said his best spontaneous quips had been worked on days, maybe weeks before. It's like I'm afraid, creative thinking and breakthrough ideas are not about sitting on beanbags drinking coffee and having a lovely time. Genius is bloody, rigorous hard work and years of training.

Bugger

I found out last week there is such as thing as iceberg watching as a job. There is a funded, shadowy collective, paid to monitor the world's icebergs for anything about to cause a Titanic-esque shipping catastrophe etc.

I don't know how many catastrophes they've averted, but that's sort of the point, if they do their job, we shouldn't know they exist.

It's like the unsung heroes in agency world. Production, traffic, operations. In media world, there's Ad Ops and sometimes the corner of the insight team that does nothing but TGI runs, Touchpoints Google Trends.

Like the cycling soigneurs, or the aforementioned iceberg watchers, without these folks things would just crumble, but you only appreciate them when they're no longer there, or notice them when things go wrong. 

This Video of a Do Lectures talk is well worth your attention.

Basically, it's about the merits of building a company you don't want to sell.

It's obviously worth it if you are thinking of starting an agency, from those 'what if' conversations you have with people you trust and like, to getting serious and looking for a business loan. 

When you look at the best independent outfits, one thing that always stands out is how much they genuinely love what they're doing. The money comes of course, but it comes by a focus on being relentlessly great (and having a decent financial director) rather than thinking about when you'll sell. Many of these places sell on to successors rather than BDA's (big dumb agencies).

When you look at the best offices in larger groups, they tend to love it too, rather than just the corporate dollar or the vanilla proprietary process. They toes the line of course, they do the numbers, but enthusiasm drives rather than money. Consequently, they're not short of a couple of quid.

As long as, that is, there are some grown ups in the mix as well. An FD who is both mindful of the bottom line and the overall direction of the organisation is a very valuable asset indeed.

When you start taking on pitches because the Eye of Sauron in Morder demands you reach your income target come what may, or you start selling clients stuff they don't need, or you have to fall in line with the group and keep your staff to income ratio precise, it's a slippery slope. Purely money based decisions tend to cost you in the long term. It's funny, when the industry is busy persuading clients to invest in long term metrics and not just clicks and quarterly results, just how short term we can be ourselves.

It's important when you work out what kind of place you want to work at too. Some brilliant agencies work the longest hours, maybe because the people there like it too much and don't get enough work like balance. It depends on what you want. If you want to do the best work of your life, this kind of place should be for you.

Other places tend to be human and focus on the people AND the work – I include my place in this. Especially good for people a little bit older or if you're thinking of being a parent. Just maybe, it's good for decent agency folk, if you only do advertising 24/7 your not likely to be able to chime with the hearts and minds of the customers you're paid to influence.

To be honest, it's amazing how much a task can expand to fill whatever the culture deems to be a working day. Just as it's amazing how much bollocks agencies can put into their client presentations to justify an over-inflated fee, or paper over the fact that every presentation is the same because the question is something like 'How do we make this Disruptive?' 'Have we had the five Media Arts Conversations yet' or 'What's the Demand Chain'.

Of course, some people like to be be in politics, diplomacy or the civil service, rather than advertising. If so, corporate focused organisations might be for you!

I saw a workshop structure recently from a creative agency.

It was nice and simple which was a good start.

The premise was based on the accepted wisdom that people don’t respond to advertising anymore. Let’s gloss over that shall we?

On one hand, the argument went, we’re seeing brands grandstanding – you know, big event advertising that grabs the attention like it or not.

Like what Sony seem to be doing with colour again, all these years after they gave up trying to replicate balls. Or the Cadbury Gorilla.

Both pieces of advertising worked of course, that’s why folks in marketing go on about them now. At least Sony is based on a product truth, although any brand could talk about the colour quality of their telly. Cadbury was about making people feel the brand benefit…joy, but I doubt anyone understood this apart from the folks who had to write the awards.

On the other hand, we’re seeing brands going all ‘native’. Busy infiltrating editorial, getting into the timeline without getting noticed too much…and therefore, not really being remembered too much. So the workshop structure was based on marrying what the brand was about to what people care about….getting noticed but in way people would be bothered about.

Are we really in a world when it’s a proprietary process to make sure you convey something about the brand but reward the audience in some way? When did repackaging common sense become so pervasive? You’ll get ‘talking head’ planners in the press talking about ‘adding to what folks care about’. Too right.

That shouldn’t be news. This is not innovative thinking.

Surely. It should be standard that if you’re doing a sponsorship of football, make sure you’re adding to the experience of football. I you’re paying to reach people on Facebook, respect and add to that context.

If you’re interrupting peoples’ evening telly with an ad, make it worthwhile. That starts with admitting you’re selling something and then making it rewarding enough to appreciate the experience.

Yes, sometimes infiltrating the culture is the right thing to do. But really, it’s about infiltrating the heart to infiltrate the head. So often, common sense gets maligned in the service of a soundbite. Right now, folks are publicly disagreeing with lots of Byron Sharpe stuff. Which is great, received wisdom is the enemy.

But not when it’s based on twisting the words, or even worse, just not getting it. For example, I read about a war between Sharpe’s arguments for ‘salience’ v ‘brand love’. The premise was that salience is simply getting noticed through populism and getting noticed, being distinctive, ‘grandstanding’.

When Sharpe himself has shown that salience is about getting in the head in as many reasons to buy the category as you can. It’s just that you don’t get in the head if you don’t get noticed, and you don’t get in the head if you don’t activate the emotions, which get recalled for longer.

It’s just that love is a crap catch all for being remembered for provoking an emotional reaction that is relevant for what the business needs to achieve.

One thing I don’t agree with Mr Sharpe is this…. He reckons folks can’t tell you why the brands they buy are different. Too right. I can’t tell you why my wife is different, but she leaves a precise emotional imprint on me that feels like no one else. Nike feels different to Adidas, even if few people can say quite how or why.

Ladies and gents, I give you the dear departed David Abbot. The best copywriter who said, ‘Say something about the product in a way that cannot be missed’.

Sometimes you’re task is to be more in tune with the lives of your buyers. Sometimes you’re task is to educate them. Sometimes your task is to get as many people talking about you as you can. But it’s always to create an intangible feeling and be relevant.

Common sense never goes out of fashion.

Don't you just love it when clever people come up with new buzz words.

Like 'post-truth'.

Facts in politics and wider life matter less and less. Trump lied, Farage lied, Boris lied.

But the think is, George Osborne lied with his 'emergency budget', or at best, over-claimed. As did most economists who predicted an immediate, catastrophic recession.

Hillary did some questionable stuff with emails, however this fact was used and distorted.

So yes, it's true that Facebook probably helped people see untruths and believe them for facts.

But boil it all down and it's really simple. If 2017 was some sort of tipping point, it's only this:

Technology has heightened a constant truth. Facts are never enough, you need to make people want to believe them and you need to make it simple. 

Post truth isn't a thing, it's just made not bothering to persuade people next to impossible.

We believe people like us more than others, is just that modern media has created a more closed echo chamber.

If you can tap into a real tension, need, enthusiasm or anger in a credible way, it's the most powerful thing you can do. Corbyn, Trump, Farage, Sanders, all different, all captured the imagination of people so angry and frustrated, that anyone who sounded like they were doing something about it and talked like them (even a billionnaire, Old Etonian and Stockbroker) would be believed and loved, no matter what the detail.

This blog doesn't do politics, which is why it's pointed out white lies from opposing 'sides'. I just want you to take this away:

If you work on a brand, as always, emotion and culture far outweigh facts.

They always have, it's just that, more than ever, you need to make people like you if they're going to listen.

But don't try and bullshit anyone either, no one will want to believe a brand they way they want to believe Trump, what we do just isn't important enough.

And, as always, go out and meet your audience, there has never been more risk you'll mistake them as people that think like you do.

Happy New year.

I'll never forget a comment from former boss in 2008. "I like recessions, it means you can squeeze more out your people".

I'll let you decide on the moral implications of that comment.

But from a more practical perspective, while young people feel they have a strong work ethic, the pay and predictability of working in any kind of agency means it's just not the attraction it once was.

You have to be sure you like working with colourful, you have to like variety and not want to know precisely what you're doing this afternoon, let alone tomorrow. And, as The Rules State, you have to toughen up. Feedback is freely given, deadlines and changes of direction mean there will be out of hours working and stress, that's the job, that's the way it is.

So it needs to be as fun, interesting and fulfilling as possible.

Not made harder.

It's also the job of management to make sure their people are happy, that there is no unnecessary stress and people are allowed to flourish in their own way.

That wasn't the case with this boss and the organisation, which is why it's crawling into obsolescence. It was a place where your face had to fit, where the only way of doing things was One Way, and working 12 hour days was a badge of pride and a way to get acceptance, rather than an admission of not being efficient.

That won't cut it today, and, underneath the rubbish about the death of advertising etc, is why many creative agencies are not the robust species they used to be….they only get to hire one kind of person, the kind mad enough to give up their lives for work. That kind of person is rarer and rarer, and not that good at creativity, as ideas come from drawing new connections between a mind full of experiences and references, not trying a new variety of the same approach.

Our people are our best asset.

Simples.