Here's Jack the Twitter Volume 1, next to a secret prototype chocolate biscuit. If you haven't ordered your own copy yet, I suggest you do (the book I mean, the biscuit needs work). Feedback from work colleagues has been good.
Shows the power of mimimalist design and intriguing title – most people have picked it up, read a bit, smiled and talked about it.
There's a saying that you should choose your enemies carefully, and if there isn't there jolly well should be. In so many ways, a good enemy can be extremely useful if utilised properly.
I did one or two things to be proud of when I was swimming, yet the thing that gave me the most joy was winning the 12 and under Leeds and District gold medal for 200 medley. Small and local, although being the best in your city isn't that insignificant I guess, I'd kill to be the best tennis player in Leeds, the best physicist, the best cook or even the best planner for that many. Anyhooo…
Being the best in Leeds wasn't that special for me as a swimmer, but beating Leigh Oates certainly was. All the way through junior swimming so far, he kept cropping up. Beat me into second in Leeds, beat me into second in the North East, beat me into second in races abroad. Always just that little bit faster. It drove me crazy (he was a great friend too, but it didn't stop me wanting to beat him more than anything).
Life as a swimmer at that age is hard. Getting up to go swimming in a cold pool before school, racing home after school to do homework, no social life. That's hard. But the simple, searing pain of training is the hardest. There's a Small difference between just training hard and pushing it a little further. It's not much, but it counts for everything. Not so much in fitness etc, but how it makes you mentally hard. There's nothing in a sports competition you should go through that you haven't overcome in training, and just squeezing out an extra one percent in a swimming race is the difference between first and last.
Thinking of finally beating him made that possible. That race was the first time I beat him, and only just. And I made me happier than anything else I've experienced in sport.
Enemies makes things more interesting, they stop complacency, they force you to be better. That's why I love this idea from Nike, it's about a truth.
The truly great athletes have a nemesis to test themselves against. Coe had Ovett, Mcenroe had Borg, Robinson had Duran AND Haggler, Federer has Nadal.
That's why I probably love this Gatorade idea even more…
Enabling old rivals to Settle scores from years ago. Genius. The layers of story to bake into this….
Anyway, a rivalry can make the nobodies feel great for a little while too, even little boys swimming in race only 50 or so people really care about.
It's also a great way to get strategy quick. Find a mortal enemy, don't blindly hate it or discount what it does. Respect it, look at what it does find way to overcome it. That can be a another brand, but it can be something in life too- which is a smart way for big number ones to stay hungry. It keeps you sharp, stops you getting lazy, but fighting the good fight and involving your community is a great way to generate the irrational love and loyalty brands should be gunning for.
By the way, it's easy to get find an enemy to get motivated for the Great North swim, that enemy is watching the last vestiges of youth limp into the distance. No bloody way. Even vanity can be useful in peverse way eh?
I went a big mad on Amazon last week, it's just how I roll sometimes.
As is usual with me, I managed to lace something simple with a flavour of muppetry and embarrassment. How? By forgetting to put my name on the delivery address.
That would have been find if it was just one parcel, but on no sir, not me. I bought from a smorgasbord of third parties, resulting in 7 parcels dripping in over 5 days, all arriving at work's reception with no name, meaning I had to continually do the walk of shame to pick them up, in answer to the 'all users' email, "Has some muppet ordered from Amazon without a name, who isn't Andrew?".
Moving on.
Two highlights. One is Baked In by Bokuskyof Crispin Porter fame. Have a look at their site for 28 recipes for modern marketing thinky stuff. I don't usually read or recommend 'work related' books, but this is worth a look. The site is a good example of 'un-book' too.
Another arrival worth sharing is the book of 'We Feel Fine'. The site is beautiful, but the book is thoughtful, moving and ably demonstrates how screeny, flashy, electronic stuff is all well and good, but there's nothing like touching something real. I love social study type things, this is one of them that works really well.
There isn't much point writing about 'how to do digital' when 'doing digital' really means 'doing advertising' – just thinking about it in a different way, or the way you should have been in the first place.
There's even less point when Faris has done it for us.
One thing I'd like to add to all this is proper involvement, enabling participation and appropriation at every single touchpoint.
Imagine that every single thing you do can be picked up and used by someone that's interested enough and create accordingly. You still have a brand, but it's pushed, pulled and played with by fans, stakeholders etc and evolves accordingly. Even at the level of so called brand guidelines.
Tategets this, They didn't design one logo, they designed a suite with variations on blur and colour, for others to pick up use as they see fit.
Here's the quote from Wolf Ollins who did the work:
“We designed a range of logos that move in and out of focus, suggesting the dynamic nature of Tate – always changing but always recognisable.”
The idea of baking in flexibilty and maleability into the heart of EVERYTHING is probably where brands are going to go. Like I've banged on about in the past, creating an electron smudge, a series of relatively coherent ideas feels more right than neurotic control freakery.
This no excuse for getting people to do your work for you – no amount of crowdsourcing could have come up The Special Theory of Relativity, you have to create something interesting, but not just to watch..to get involved with and in.
Can't resist the temptation to join in with the idea of doing Weeknotes (I'm hardly the first) so I won't.
Looks like Thursday's the best day to do these. Monday's are full of fog, Fridays are all about looking forward to the weekend. Thursday feels like a good day to look back with an eye to looking forward.
I finished some work on pitch that I was quite pleased with. Pitches are always good to do at a newish employer. The accelerated pace forces people to work together, so you get to know people that little bit quicker – not just who they are, but what they're really like to work with.
You really get under the skin of an organisations culture, what kind of work it wants to do, the role of planning in that, the level of suit control freakery and lots of other stuff. I really learned about what people want from planners and the potential and ambition for future work. Some great, some not so great. Planners always have to earn their right to exist, but sometimes you do wish they weren't the only people who had to persuade everyone rather than occasionally tell.
Knowing this kind of stuff is important to me, I've made a decision that quality of life comes first, but career is still just that, it's a career, not just paying bills. I've got a better steer of the kind of things I'll be able to do and what I WANT to do.
At the start of the week, Mum and Dad were staying with us which is always nice. They hadn't seen our baby boy since he started eating, and enjoyed the fun and inevitable mess. He was in hospital last week, so we all loved him just a little bit more if that was possible. He seems to laugh at everything I do at the moment (like his Mum) so this week has been especially hard to leave him.
I've been working with Mother quite a lot recently. It's always nice to see how other agencies operate, but peering into one as secretive as Mother is doubly interesting.
Results of all this mean I'm getting to know quite a lot about biscuits and pizza, which makes a change from womens hair, supermarkets and shower gel.
I also spent too much money on Amazon and began to watch the spoils trickle in. So I got to enjoy some old music I missed first tim around, by way of Curve's Doppledanger, some newish music in the form of Lj Kruzer and some Dadrock courtesy of Paul Weller. There's two months of books en route somewhere and a gazillion (official number for 'lots') albums too.
As you get older, you realise you get better at knowing what really makes you happy, rather than pursuing what you've been conditioned to think should do. For me that boils down to experiences rather than stuff, music and books are a big part of that, I've neglected the music, this is changing and it's making me very happy. When I go to up to great swimming pool in the sky my boy will be left one hell of library.
I both love and hate Amazon.
I hate how they manage to make me spend more than I intend.
But I love how they let catch up on stuff I never got to listen to first tim around for buttons. I love how they're really good at knowing what I like.
I also like the way buying from lots of third parties in one order means stuff trickles in, rather than in one big chunk. I like wondering what will come in first and that element of surprise. There's no joy in purchase at Amazon, but there's lots in the arriving.
I do worry when stuff comes in I forgot I ordered though.
Are you organised? If so I salute you. I am nothing of the sort.
There's many reasons why I wasn't a very good suit (Crippling honesty and low boredom threshold immediately spring to mind), however, the ability to get oneself from a to b without mishap, let alone others, is a particular character flaw that sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb.
And let's face it, an account handler that gets lost, has poor timekeeping and loses things is as useful as a Prime Minister who can't smile in front a camera….oh maybe not.
Just in case you're considering a job in planning though, don't think it's all blogging, coffee and workshops. It's bloody hard work and there's no excuse to behave like a baby. You can't escape being organised, it's just it doesn't have to be a superpower like it does for a suit.
Spidey gets to stick to things, but the Johnny Hornbys of this world can charm the pants of Anne Widdecombe (I imagine) etc, while convincing creatives to make the logo bigger AND juggle a million things at once, while babysitting/ cajoling/bullying everyone else to be on time, sign things off, do up their flies etc.
Some would say that suits are bag carriers, they don't appreciate creativity, they style their hair to cover up the three sixes on their scalp etc, that's not even totally fair or true; the best suits have the annoying skill or being great at everything – being a suits, talking strategy, creativity, the lot. Bastards.
But still, there's a whole vanguard coming behind. But so what? Hurrah! We need them, thanks the inevitable fallout of agencies squeezing profits out by working their staff ever harder for less money – we can't do without them.
In other words, suits are like like Mums, but we'd fall apart if they ever left us alone and stopped interfering like we wish they would. And we love them, we just need to grow up to realise how much.
You can't avoid the fact that advertising in all its forms is part of, and competes with, popular culture. Now more so than ever, thanks to the web enabled, marketing savvy consumer we're dealing with these days (don't you hate the word consumer).
So it makes sense to create campaigns that are relevant to that culture, to real people's lives, not 'the category'. It's not enough to work out where you want to fit in your market, where do you fit in life?
That means cultural relevance as a minimum, but to be honest, cultural significance. Actively setting out to influence culture, get talked about.
Here's some evidence
The IPA Databank has assessed 20 years of Effectiveness Papers and concluded that, not only do campaigns that aim to deliver fame and talkability achieve their business objectives more than any other kind of advertising, with a 72% success rate. They deliver increased penetration AND frequency.
A fame campaign can take different forms, and much of that will depend on the kind of work your agency does.
Develop a brand voice, based on delving into consumer culture and brand culture, do everything from the brand out:
So Lurpak wants to have a conversation with foodies by championing quality ingredients.
This leads to all sorts of stuff, championing proper breakfasts on Saturday, being proud of homemade even if it doesn't look perfect etc.
Nike believes if you have a body, you're an athlete, and wants to create a forum for urban runners to play in.
Then there's the model that cares a little less about a consistent voice and just does what it right for right now, building a loose baggage of feelings and associations. It strives to be more entertaining and populist and overtly focuses on finding out what people are interested in and working back from there. This can be in terms of a playing with a cultural problem or using cultural cues for maximum entertainment and standout. It takes the'fame' argument and pushes it. There's a saying in the beer market, "People drink th advertising". That's kind of the point.
So Oasis has two very different campaigns aimed at young 20 something peoplee, based on the same ideas that it's for 'people who don't like water. Multi-platform storytelling etc. One borrows from japanese manga, one from US teen dramas.
But then the next takes a different tack, from 'entertainment' to pure cultural resonance by championing a decent lunch rather than a limp sandwich at your desk…campaigning on people's behalf.
Crispin Porter's Coke Zero are pure entertainment, built on the truth that it tastes just as good as the real stuff. Taps into cringeworthy, sharp comedy like The Office.
While in the UK Mr Sleep creates fame for Travel Inn by simply being something you find funny, loosely connecting to the obvious truth about hotels, you want a decent nights sleep first and foremost, all else is luxury.
I won't go on.
What I want to say is that you can't escape rigour and best practice. Business objective, correct audience, all that. But when it's always been more commercially effective to create fame and talkability, and it's got harder to do, it makes sense to start with culture and what people are actually interested in and work back from there.
How you then bring that to life will depend on where you work, the clients you have and your own view on how brands work best, but when it gets increasingly difficult to bore people into buying your product, it pays to get very good at delighting.
Agencies can get very self important about their role, but their job isn't to coerce people into buying stuff, it's making them feel great about doing it.
I'll leave you with one of the best examples of this. This ad 'gets' women and the culture around looking great, the joy in feeling beautiful, the confidence and the indefinable sassiness that makes Girls Aloud so brilliant (that the Saturdays don't have making them crap)…the brilliance of sisterhood and the drama of getting ready. All in just under two minutes.
This is brilliant.
If you thought the Thick of It was fiction.
Watch this. Campbell at his dark best.
Because I was born in 1974 my ideal women is a cross between:
and
and
My favourite TV programme is:
And I can't help but smile at:
NORTHERN PLANNER 