NORTHERN PLANNER

It's no secret that I'm not too fond of brainstorms. 

They are mostly a waste of time. Unless you want to get buy in from members of an external or external team by making feel part of the idea creation. But that, of course, takes very careful meeting design and a masterclass in moderation. 

There's simply too much evidence from all sorts of psychology that they don't work.

I won't bore you with the evidence, but read it here if you're interested. Take it from years of the collective experience of great folks I've worked with – brainstorms should be avoided by the plague. 

There is a school of creativity that's about the solid, hard graft of the individual. Start with stuff that that isn't much good, then continuously work out what's wrong with it until you get something ace. Work that emerges, evolves through sheer patience and determination. 

But there is an easier way. 

If you're in a hurry, take a small amount of people, I mean no more than four, away from the usual office environment for an hour. Clever people who trust each other, with slightly different skills. Present a clear problem and just talk. That's right, a simple conversation. 

Because if you trust each other, you don't have to bother with that, 'any idea is a good idea'. You can be honest about what is ace and what is dreadful – and take rejection on board. 

Because small teams bounce off each other while big groups stifle.

Because a change of scenery immediately invigorates the brain. 

Because it's the sparks that come from people who fill each others gaps that matter. 

And in the longer term, talk about the project all the time with the team. It's the conversations that generate ideas. You just need to the awareness and humility to spot when someone else has a great idea, and the generosity to acknowledge it. 

And, from a personal perspective, I'm rubbish at thinking in my head, but okay at thinking out loud. The act of writing things down too early destroys my thought process, but talking it through seems to when ideas finally come out of my tiny brain. I literally talk ideas into coming out of their hiding places. I suspect I'm not the only one. 

You just need to THEN write them down before they disappear like a puff of smoke. 

It's good to talk as the saying goes. 

I did read David Meerman Scott's Newsjacking, I admit it.

Maybe because I just love anyone who has Meerman in their name, imagine sounding like a mythical half man/half fish everytime you introduce yourself. 

Anyway, I did like the collection of case studies of tactical ads and ideas. 

But let's be clear, Newsjacking is not some crossing of the Rubicon for brands, it's not even a bad attempt at it like, say Lovemarks. It's just using current events in the news to do tactical ads. 

"The rules have changed. The traditional PR model—sticking closely to a preset script and campaign timeline—no longer works the way it used to. Public discourse now moves so fast and so dynamically that all it takes is a single afternoon to blast the wheels off someone’s laboriously crafted narrative.

Enter newsjacking: the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business"

This has been around for ages, as long as advertising itself. It's just that the best brands do the long term and short term very well – and build a constistent story over time with a big idea with 'width' as well as 'legs'

However, perhaps it's more of use since it's fair to say it's harder to cut through than used to be. 

Correction. It's harder to interrupt folks with banal, over focused grouped dross. 

So it makes sense to start in life, culture, or work back. 

But then again, the best examples of this stuff are when a great brand idea is applied to a timely event. 

Perhaps this poster is one of the best examples. It was the World Cup, Rooney was the great hope for England and all the talk was over if he would be able to play after a broken foot. 

The biggest risk with this stuff is that people don't remember the brand. Let us not forget the work of Byron Sharp around memory structures  -be distinctive AND consistent. 

An even bigger risk of Newsjacking in general is mistaking the latest wheeze for something groundbreaking. Especially when it's really a clever (ish) name for a tried and tested tactic. 

I get really uncomfortable if soneone introduces a planner as 'the brains'. 

Especially if I'm that planner. 

First because of the obvious, I'm not very clever, I just read more and then pass off other people's brilliance as my own. 

Second, I get all nervous about the pressure to say something remotely interesting and intelligent, since any colleague who has worked with me will tell you that has rarely, if ever happened. 

Third, I just don't believe in putting strategy folks on a pedestal. Just as I don't believe in putting creative folks, digital folks, suits or even (especially) social media gurus on a pedestal. It's about the magic that happens when collaboration happens. 

Especially strategy folks actually, as the best thing planners can do is surrender their ego, get involved and liberate other's work, rather than be a barrier.

People don't like planners because they're too clever by half, over complicate things and get in the way of getting great stuff out as efficiently possible. 

That means NOT being the brains of the operation or having great, clever ideas, it's about helping others to have them, having the ears and eyes to spot them and the generosity to help them come to life and develop in a way that will work and can be bought by the client. 

So I don't think the role of the planner is just to be the voice of the consumer or make sure the work works, it's to make sure great work works. We know the basics by now, reach lots of people, build distinctive memory structures, build fame.

In other words, suprise and delight people. Get great work made that is also right. 

Anyway. 

1. The silky skills of the best suits mean they can deliver negative feedback or outright criticism and make you feel like you just won the lottery. A common trick is taken straight from marriage guidance counselling – deliver five complements in relation to one piece of negative feedback. 

2. If someone delivers some great news, some wonderful complements or even heated agreement and then says 'but' we all know they didn't mean a word they just said. I has a junior suit who used to say, "I agree completely, but….". He was a bit of a joke. The cunning suit will say, "I agree with you AND…." Hoodwinking the less subtle of us into thinking they're building on your argument rather than destroying it. 

3. They will never speak negatively of anyone behind their back, as they know there is a wierd quirk of psychology that when we do this, the traits we asign to the people we're talking about are actually asigned to us! So what they do instead is pretend to be enthusiastic about the person and find away to be enthusiastic about their deepest flaws. For example, "I love our creative director, it;'s amazing how he managed to overcome that untrue scandal about the scam work". "Oh yes, Jenny, isn't it great how she's managed to not be judged just on the fact her Dad is one a shareholder".

4. They never rise to conflict. No matter how much someone winds them up or tries to shaft them, they kill them with kindness. They evil bastards know that nothing winds an aggressor looking for a fight more than you not wanting them. They know that no one looks more like bigger person in the eyes of others than the one who happily lets others vent spleen and use underhans tactics – they're just extremely cunning in makin sure others know about it (see above). 

5. They never win arguments. They always find a way to con you into thinking you got more out of it than you did, or making think you won, when you lost horribly. And they behave in victory in manner more akin to a loser. 

6. They let everyone else speak first. They know that excitable creatives, planners and clients can't wait to get their word in. They'll let a discussion run it's course and then insert their point like a rapier precisely when it will the most effect, mostly when everyone is exhausted and can't remember what they were talking about. 

7. There are interested. Suits are great at making you feel like the most special people in the world, simply by making you believe they care about what you care about. They can, of course, talk about all sorts of stuff, but they're great at listening a lot, especially when you're talking about things close to your heart. They'll have learned that you love obscure Brazilan cinema and will have developed a working knowledge of it, or got you to teach them. 

8. They never flap. Inside. they might be burning and ready to get a McJob rather than deal with the fact Clearcast have just put a big no on the script it took months to develop, or the fact the client won't pay because they hate the work, but they know they need to lead by example and project an aura of calm and optimism which is infectious enough to pull everyone together to solve the task in hand. 

9. Suits are devious. They always make sure they know the people that really make agencies tick. That means in creative agencies traffic, and in all places the PA's who are the gatekeepers to directors and such, internally and externally.

10. They dress better than you. 

1. The training scenario. You know, where new employees are schooled in the world of excellent service and unparalled dedication.

2. The manifesto  -once the springboard for 1984 and Crazy ones, now the lazy method for laying out a brand purpose. I'm talking to you TBWA/Chiat Day.

3. The 'look at us laughing at how silly advertisig is' route. Once proudly owned in the UK by Ronseal (It does what it says on the tin has become a cultural reference).

Now all too common…