"What's wrong" isn't always right

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Inspired by an observation from Adrian Ho the other day, that his recent posts were on the negative side. (A harsh assessment in my opinion.)

Inspired by the sheer joyfulness of WK London's ‘Welcome To Optimism’ blog.

Inspired by Goldfrapp's latest piece entitled 'Happiness'.

Inspired by the weather finally coughing up a post-50 day.

It’s time to focus on the positive. (At least for a day or two, then we can get back to being hypercritical.)

One of the many famous creative directors I’ve worked under and learned from was Lee Clow. Lee never had a bad word to say about an idea. If he didn’t like it, he didn’t say anything. He’d just move on. OR… he’d find what he liked about it and would focus on that.

People loved working for Lee, and I suspect they still do. He’d help them see the magic in their work.

It’s no different to when we work with a client. Yes, their business has warts – and the person who lives with them everyday is more painfully aware of them than anyone else. There’s much to point at and say ‘eww’. Traction happens when we accent the positive. Accent it and magnify it to outrageous proportions.

And how about our industry at large? There’s plenty plenty plenty wrong. Read all about it in every marketing blog there is, including this one. But what about what’s right? Maybe we should all spend more time focusing on the good stuff.

Pre-roll hits all the wrong buttons

Image by pmilg

On some levels, I accept the pre-roll proposition: you watch my message, I’ll show you something you value for free.

Unfortunately, all the pre-rolls I’ve been subjected repeat the advertising sins of the past. They’re dull and tedious; they say ‘we have you captive so we do not need to worry ourselves with such trifles as engagement’.

But the very pits is when the pre-roll streams instantly, with not a single technical glitch, but the video you wanted to see in the first place strangely does not work.

For decades, we’ve been giving customers ample reason to avoid us. We’re our own worse enemies. And the “consumers” will outwit us every time.

Touchpoint Palace

Image remixed from kohtzy

In Persuasion’s early bootstrapping days, the hotels we’d stay in were more likely to feature crunchy carpets, polyester pillow cases, and previous guests’ takeout food scraps in the closet. But now, thanks to the magic of people paying us for our services, and the transformative qualities of corporate rates, we’ve had the good fortune to stay in a few W Hotels lately.

Is there a richer, more intimate setting for brand communication than a hotel?

Most don’t even try. But W nails it, over and over and over. (Maybe TOO much, but more on that later.)

There are of course the sensuous and playful colors and textures.

They never greet you like a stranger.

There are the mats in the elevator, saying good morning or good afternoon or good evening, so you know that’s a freshly cleaned elevator you’re standing in.

Cross promotions are everywhere, but they’re tastefully communicated and appropriate for the situation. For example, the Whatever/Whenever room service can get you your own limited edition pair of W Purple (hey, that’s Persuasion Purple!) Pumas.

They’ll print out your boarding pass for you in a program called W2GO.

On and on it goes - proactive, supportive and always with a distinctive brand voice.

When can it be too much? Well, when I’m checking in after a long day, and I’m tired and grumpy, and the constant interjection of knowing cheeriness feels more like an amped up waiter between soap roles.

Does everything have to come cloaked in brand. Can’t it just be? Is there really need to do a W song and dance through the menu, asking me things like “Who wants a chef’s special?”

And the word ‘view’ etched into the windows overlooking Lake Michigan. With the ‘w’ being the W. Was that helpful or necessary, or just too cute?

I know, I’m being churlish. Please don’t make me go back to the fleabag bootstrapping days. All in all, we can learn plenty from the way W communicates. Them, and my other favorite Touchpoint Palace, Dunkin Donuts. (Previously in Touchpoints, The Auto No-Show.)

The theory vacuum

Image by acb

Here’s how it goes. Lots of smart people spin out lots of very smart theories, expressed in whiteboard scrawls, in contact reports, in .ppt presentations, in venn diagrams and the like. No one will have a solid understanding of their applicability until they get turned into something real, ie something not .ppt.

But no one can decide which theory to go with, because each competing theory has its advocates and enemies. The conversation eddies around, becoming theories about theories about theories. The theory vacuum.

Creative agencies still believe that using creative to ‘find’ the strategy is a poor use of resources. But in reality, it’s a great way to break the theory vacuum. It's fast for one. But more importantly, it makes theory reality.

We recently did a project for a retailer. Their (very large) agency was stuck on a vexing issue for six months. The theories got headier, the rationales became more detailed, but nothing of actual real physical value got done. The client became so frustrated, they even questioned their own judgment - “maybe there ISN’T an answer”.

We took a different approach. We quickly put together a presentation free of theory. No rationalization. Just multiple, diverse ideas on how the brand could behave in the world. The concrete nature enabled the client to see clearly what would and would not work.

The result:
Client no longer questioning sanity.
Something to point at.
Momentum re-established.

Creativity is powerful. It is brilliant at expressing theories.

Is speed gathering momentum?

Image from macronin47

We’ve been banging on about the value of speed since the day we started work on our business plan.

The people responsible for bottom lines would cheer. The high priests of creativity and planning prognostication would nod politely and back slowly towards the exit.

Never mind that some of the most dazzling examples of imagination are premised exactly on speed. (Groundlings, Second City, Upright Citizen’s Brigade et al.)

Forget that speed is seen as a premium in so many other categories, from automobiles to freight services to internet access.

How about these for some other heartening reference points?

First of all, a formative piece from my friend Lisa Seward, that asks 'Can faster be better?'

And now, none other than the IPA, the UK’s equivalent to the 4A’s, is conducting a conference entitled Fast Strategy this coming Monday.

Here are the details. Cast your eyes upon the subjects to be discussed, and the quality of the people discussing them:

How can you come up with the right strategy fast? A selection of Adland’s finest will be giving practical advice on how to achieve this at the IPA and Times Media Strategy Conference on Monday 28th April.
Speakers will include:
- Tim Lindsay, President, TBWA Group: 'How taking the disruption approach can help you get to the right answer fast.'
- Tim Hames, Assistant Editor & Chief Leader Writer, The Times: 'What planners can learn from those that write the news and the pressures of doing it fast and accurately.'
- Gurdeep Puri, Head of Effectiveness, and Janey Bullivant, Board Planning Director, Leo Burnett: 'How, counter to popular belief, data can help you to get to the answers fast'.
- Jon Wilkins, Founder, Naked: 'Fast strategy in a media environment'.
- Stuart Smith, Head of Planning, Wieden & Kennedy London: 'Strategic and creative dovetailing - Fast'.
- Rob Forshaw, Founding Partner, Grand Union: 'How to develop thinking quickly from a digital perspective'.
These short, sharp and fast presentations will be presented throughout the morning, whilst leading communications consultant Mark Earls; Phil Georgiadis, Chairman of Walker Media; Johnny Hornby, Founding Partner of CHI & Partners, and their respective teams, will be putting into practice what they do best and responding to a highly realistic but fictitious COI brief, set and delivered by Peter Buchanan, Deputy Chief Executive, COI.
You, the audience, will then get the opportunity to vote for who you think is the fastest strategist in town, when these three teams return to the stage in the afternoon to pitch live in front of the audience.
Says Guy Murphy, Chairman IPA Strategy Group and Worldwide Planning Director, JWT, “The most important skill that strategists need to learn in this era is speed. The quality of a strategic answer is now partly determined by the time taken to create it. Slow-baked strategy, no matter how good, can never be great.”
The conference will take place between 9am-5pm on Monday 28th April at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE.

Could it be speed is finally moving from ‘enemy of great’ to ‘definition of great’?

(Special thanks to digicynic for bringing my attention to this gathering.)

How to ensure zero-based thinking

Image from DeFeBa

Sergio Zyman glared across the table at me. "You don't care about my business. Want to know how I know? Because you don't care about my money. This commercial should cost no more than $70,000."

That was quite some time ago, when Sergio was at Coke and I was a CD at one of his agencies.

Sergio, if for some reason you have your name on Google Alerts, and you're now reading this, I have to confess you were right. (Except for the bit about the production budget. There's no way that spot could have cost less than 200k.) No, we didn't care about your money - not in the way you wanted us to, anyway. All we knew was you had a budget, and we passed our days thinking of clever ways to spend it.

As beaten up as it is, there's still a sense of entitlement in the agency world. Specifically, the money is on the table, and the assumption is it is there to be spent. In fact, if you DON'T spend it all, be prepared for a lousy performance review from your boss. So, spend and justify, justify and spend.

The agency's vast reservoirs of ingenuity are applied to thinking up what magazine campaign to run, what website to build. The simple question "should we?" is rarely heard.

The solution: cut the budget to zero. Now what would you do?

Slowly add in layers of funding, and each time ask what new actions are made possible. You'll find the creativity demanded by this exercise is not about the message, but the venues and actions themselves. And that at the end of it, you'll have a much clearer set of priorities.

We've done it for clients, both as an exercise and out of necessity (we love start-ups!). It always leads to surprising and very valuable answers.

I'm collecting examples of zero-based 'we have next to nothing' thinking. Any contributions?

For students of persuasion

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Our friend Tim Brunelle has posted this very helpful compilation of advice for anyone wanting to get into our beloved industry. (And what is it called these days? The advertising industry? The brand industry? Design? Communications? Marketing?)

Anyway, good stuff from Tim, and an interesting sampling of what the creative department gatekeepers believe is important today.