NORTHERN PLANNER

This book is really useful. It's based on the masses of data in 20 years of IPA Effectiveness Awards proves three points convincingly:

The most commercially valuable objective for a campaign is 'fame'.

Increased share of voice leads to increased share of market.

TV is the most efficient medium to build a brand.

Of course, you already knew that, but there's nothing like hard data to prove your point.

"There are two types of people – those who come into a room and say, Well, here I am! and those who come in and say, Ah, there you are"

 

This is a quote by Frederick L.Collins and I'm relatively sure he means that going 'here I am' is a positive thing, you know, people with charisma, presence all that.

Mostly, he's probably right. If you're a suit it's brilliant to be able to hold a room but if you're a planner, as is usual, it pays to look at this from a different angle.  

If you want to work well with suits, clients and creatives they have to know you won't steal their thunder or take their credit. 

That also means not holding the room in the palm of your hand, but taking the time to let everyone else talk, listening well, and when you do say something, making them think.  

You only have to look at what I wear to see I'm no fashion guru, however I still wear clothes to make some sort of statement about myself, my values and the kind of groups I want to be associated with. We all do, which is why I always think dotcom millionaires with their scruffy clothes and flip flops are funny – that's probably more of a uniform that the dreaded suit.

Anyway, my own personal preference means I wouldn't buy many clothes from All Saints, but I do admire the way they design their stores.

 
You know when you walk over the threshold what aesthetic values the brand has, you instinctively feel something about it, shopping there is an experience, the clothes blur into the surroundings and vice-versa.

Not enough retailers do this well. Take French Connection. I'm not sure I totally like the 'manifesto' stuff they're doing at the moment, but I do know I like the women's version more than the mens.

 
But when you go into the store, apart from a bit of POS, the idea isn't translated into a retail experience. It's just a shop.

Too many premium and semi-premium retail brands forget that it's not enough to make great products, the experience of discovering and buying those products contributes greatly to their success…their is an 'All Saintsness' and a 'French Connectionness' that needs permeate every corner of the experience. I guess it comes back to doing rather than just saying.

 

 

I've always liked Victoria Wood. She's funny, very funny, but it's more than that. She has a very rare gift to be both accessable and clever. That's a rare thing as far as British comedy goes, wher, mostly, it's either rather crass, or you feel it's very arch, edgy and knowing.

There's nothing wrong with either of course, but she's one of those rare commedians that manages to make intelligent stuff that doesn'gt talk down to anyone, isn't too pleased with itself, or conversely, treats you like an idiot.

Two Soups is a classic:

 

 

As is this:

 

 

I think there's something for people in the brand communication game to think about. Most ads and stuff you watch or twiddle with online tend to treat you like an idiot, shout at you or just too clever by half. Some might call them knowing your audience, and for a tightly targeted brand that's mostly fine. The problem is when a big(ish) brand treats people like idiots, or thinks everyone lives in West London, The Village or the equivalent.

In popular culture, when someone bothers to do populist stuff really well, it's still very successful, Look at Lord of the Rings,  look at Harry Potter, look at Outnumbered.

There are plenty of agencies that made lots of money churning out lots of tosh that thinks its audience is stupid, that's been stategised to death and Millward Browned until the pips squeak.

There are less that produce amazing work that is just too clever by half.

A few produce consistently great work that most people like and want to talk about. Step foreward AMVBBDO as probably the best in the UK. Walkers is a great example:

 

 

BMB are successful (in my view) for doing a similar job, like the Mcain stuff:

 

 

And then there's Adam and Eve's John Lewis spot:

 

 

There's all sorts of psychology type research that reckons we're much happier with a job we feel has a point, where we see some sort of end result (what it doesn't take into account is people that derive meaning from what they get outside of work and are happy to just punch in and punch out but there you go). We also appreciate something a lot more if we've had to make some effort to make it or get it – from suffering the Ikea flatpack to Nike ID.

That's why a good planner wants to get involved in the creative process and involves creatives in strategy. They're not creative wannabes, they know that the only point to an agency is making stuff (yes I know that sometimes our best advice can be about nothing to do with creative work, but how often does that really happen unless you work in a brand consultancy – and if you do, how ON EARTH can you live with th fact everything you do is mostly pointless until someone else makes some sense of it) in the end we make stuff,  and there's nothing worse than handing over some thinking you're really proud of and then being told to butt out. Not to mention, because we value what been produced from our own fair hand, creatives will work with a strategy if they feel they've been involved in it.

That's why so many first reviews are exercises in creatives exploring what the strategy should be through different routes – they want to work it out for themselves. Best to let that happen before you burn too many hours

That's also why planners slave over powerpoint charts too much – they want to feel they're making something too.

..and why planners could do well to respect creatives being a bit defensive over their work. Most of it ends up in the bin.