Creative Agency Secrets

Meeting your heros is easier than you think!

I had coffee with James Cherkoff this week.. I first read his stuff on the Change This newsletter when he and Johnny Moore wrote a great manifesto on co-creation.  Worth a download and review if you haven’t seen it.

What a great, modest guy!  James and I are both working with creative agencies - but he’s with the large above the line ones and my territory is more with below the line / integrated and also the owner-managed businesses. 

He gave me great advice on how to work the embedded code on YouTube (thanks, James!)  I reckon that I am the best ‘idiot’ to test these technologies on because if I can work out how to use it - so can anyone. 

Here’s what we agree on

1.  Business Blogs haven’t found a home yet in the creative agency world.  Some do it and some don’t but many (most) don’t leverage what they could from the effort.
2.  Context plus relevance = trust.  This builds corporate brands.  Actually it builds any advisory business’ profile and gravitas.  [I was quietly proud to have thought this  one up during our chat].

So, subscribe to James’ blog.…

and take a look at Johnny Moore’s as well while you’re at it.

Ogilvy "grande dame" Shelly Lazarus gets a whole long profile in the Economist (reproduced below).

Is this a case of grande dame makes an exit?  Or is this a swan song for above the line?  Interesting her comment about not wanting to pitch if she can avoid it….can you avoid it?

I emailed it to Rory Sutherland at OgilvyOne UK and he said "Something of an overclaim. They pitch for quite a bit…… But she is much keener - and rightly so - on growing the business held with existing clients."

so now you know the truth!

(more…)

An email I just got from Mel Giedroyc… now popular culture is not my strong point.  BUT it’s for char-i-dee and Mel does the fireworks for us at the Vann Fest and so I’m going to do my darndest to support her.

Please assist.

Dearest Gang

I am writing to you to let you know, in a rather embarrassing and self-publicizing way, that I am soon to take part in "Comic Relief Does Fame Academy" on BBC1. Now this involves several things. I have to sing (live) at the launch show which is on Saturday March 3rd, and if I am VOTED IN to the Academy (where I will start paying in sweat) then I will enter its hallowed doors on the following Wednesday, 7th March. I will then have to sing (live) every night to try and stay in if enough people VOTE FOR ME. If people VOTE FOR ME, then I could stay in till Friday March 16th, which is not going to happen because Barry from Eastenders is also doing it and he’s got a well brilliant voice. Now, do you see where I’m going with this? You may have noticed that certain of my words are in capitals.

Got it?

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME

I don’t actually know any of the phone/text numbers but if you watch the shows all will be revealed. And don’t forget, it’s all for Ch-aridee.
Now why vote for me? I’ll keep it brief. I’m regarding this as a mini-break. Bugger going to Riga on some beer-infested bender. I can do it in London and most importantly can get some well-earned kip away from a husband who snores as loudly as the QE2 coming into port, and two children who keep waking me up at 6 in the morning. I’ll say it again

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME

Tell your friends, family, colleagues, co-habitees, staff, teachers, pupils, passengers, bitches, clients, bosses, manicurists, financial advisors, exes, religious advisors, neighbours ANYONE to

VOTE FOR ME. VOTE FOR MY KIP. NOT FOR UKIP. FOR GOD’S SAKE NOT THAT.

I must go now and learn the back catalogue of Earth Wind and Fire

Much love, and just think of the good you will be doing the world when you vote for me.

Mel

I am grateful to Ben Carter at The Accidental Observer blog for this bit of news.  Howies the third largest clothing company in Cardigan Bay, got bought by Timberland.

Here’s what I posted in commentary for his entry.

Ben

How sad…. I love Howies and I’m a huge fan of what they do but I always worry when I hear about multi-nationals taking over small enterprises.  Surely they get swallowed?

I first heard about Howies from Neil Crofts when he’s left Razorfish and was researching what is now his "Authentic" service and books.

My favourite Howies T shirt…."Nandrolone, the choice of  winners".

I give lots of people their T shirts because they are brilliantly irreverent!  I wanted them to do a special for me called "Work Hard: Row Home" but they told me how many I’d need to order before it became commercially viable… and even I don’t have that many rowing friends!

Favourite slogans from Howies T shirts of the past …..
"Baked Beans taste nicer outdoors"
"UK plc; a subsidiary of USA Inc."
and the best of the current crop, "Adrenaline is cheaper than cocaine"

They really should have an archive page of great t shirts from past collections….

I am working for two clients now on setting up a blog for their business.  One has one - but it’s not really hitting the spot and the other has just re-vamped its website and I have persuaded them to add a blog to the whole picture.

So starting from two different standpoints I have a tough job of work.  I want to prove to my clients in a very short space of time that I can effect changes that they will see in the day to day profile of their business.  One, I’ve stuck my neck out and am going to be in there weekly doing the stuff (plus additional hours when I am in my own office) and the other, I’m collaborating with someone else who will be working the content as I don’t know the subject area very well [they are in consumer PR and I am just a lousy, useless non-publicity-savvy consumer when it comes to celebrity and FMCG products.  It just isn’t my bag].

So, I need some help from you guys….
1 - I will be working on structure, links, content.  I am reasonably confident thta I can get this going BUT
2 - I need resources to explain to my client team, as the project continues, what it is that I am doing and get them to understand how blogging works, what it is not (e.g. PR) and what it will do for them.

I have found one great resource from Guy Kawasaki "How to Evangelise a Blog" But sadly he recommends 120 days to do this…. I should have read it before scoping the project!

Any other suggestions?

I attended the 12th Roskill Memorial Lecture last night.  It is in memory of my Grandfather, Stephen W. Roskill the naval war historian.

Lord May had some things to say that were completely new to me… in no particular order…

1.  The language of global warming communiques from the G7 and G8 has changed over the years.  interestingly, the USA did sign the 1995 statement which said words to the effect

‘human-related global warming and climate change [is acknowledged] as a serious problem.
They also acknowledged that scientific uncertainty should be ‘no excuse
to postpone actions’

2.  Pacala & Socolow wrote a powerful paper proposing using existing technologies to mitigate (sequester) carbon and prevent global CO2 rising above the presumed critical level of double the pre-industrial revolution atmospheric Carbon count.  They propose 15 technologies (wedges) and if 7 are activated they claim we can stabilise atmospheric carbon.  Pacala is interviewed by The Climate Group and here’s their original paper in Science Magazine August 2004.

3.  The Stern Report on Economic Impact of Climate Change the
economic estimate of the impact is less precise than the physical
realities. i.e. is economic growth
needed? GDP in 2050 could be 5-7% lower
than today if no health or pollution
changes happen.

The cost of holding the
rise in CO2 to less than double the pre-industrial revolution level is about 1%
of global GDP.  Is this a price we can afford?

4.  Impediments to change

i – Denial.  The effects of our actions today will not be seen for 100 + years.  It takes 2-300 years for sea temperatures to reach equilibrium with the average air temperature.  So I won’t act if you don’t act.
ii.  To act effectively everybody must act together in equitable proportions.  This is the hardest to define and therefore achieve.

5.  Means of effecting change

i.        Human beings must adapt to change and mitigate our impact to reduce consumption.  We can also sequester carbon from burning fossil fuels i.e. rather than allowing CO2 to be released – extract the carbon.

ii.        We must grow alternative energy sources.  We burn one million years worth of fossilised carbon deposits each year.

6.  A side-bar on fundamentalism. 
Looking back at history making sense of the world has been a strong force for stability in the past e.g. draconian gods, rules, monotheistic gods.  The hierarchy and respect for authority has the effect that  dogma trumps objective (scientific) evidence.  Why did ancient peoples believe a volcano erupting meant the gods were angry (because their leaders told them so).  Stable, co-operative situations were a good thing for society in the past.  But the scientific enlightenment started to question this world view and to bring new objective measures to the fore such that we now have individual liberty and consider this to be the modern world view.  Mankind is not good at adapting to rapid change.  We have created these modern, individualistic ways of viewing the world and there have been unintended consequences…. One of these has been a revival (under the stress of modern changes to lifestyles) of older modes of belief that built our society in the past.  For example, fundamentalism is an older mode – not based on individually achieved scientific analysis but on leaders’ dogma.  The rise in fundamentalism (both Islam and Christianity) is not relevant to modern theology of either religion.  The Literal truths lose the compassion of mature religious beliefs.  But in a time of rapid change, literal truths are attractive to those threatened by change. 

I am undecided about whether this is the ultimate send-up or just crass arrogance. Agency.com put a video up on YouTube showing themselves doing a 3 day preparation for a pitch to the sandwich chain, Subway. 

This purports to be the 5 minute video about themselves that the client requested as stage one of the pitch selection process. I do hope that is is not what they submitted. The results

Now, in the UK we lead the world in creative advertising and we try to be deeply professional about how we approach new business and maybe Agency.com is not riding the peak of the creative wave at the moment and this is lost in a transatlantic mis-translation. 

BUT
10 Reasons why this is creatively poorly executed, deeply embarrassing to watch and cringingly arrogant

1.  Put yourself in the client’s shoes… how will they respect your agency’s creativity when the unauthorised ‘viral’ campaign you create gets deeply criticised worldwide, in no time at all?
2.  The pitch process is virtually non-existant - there is no plan, no over-riding simple message about the brand.  It’s all about the agency.
3.  It shows advertising people at their most show-off arrogant.  Great for the industry.  NOT.
4.  It proves that bad viral works really well particularly when posted to key gossip websites and blogs.
5.  Didn’t they think through the implications of what they were doing in the context of trying to win a new client? 
6.  Anyone know if Subway threw them out on their ear or hired them?

working with JFDI, I recently ran a New Business Workshop which was attended by Hattie Matthews from Karmarama the creative advertising hot shop. 

Here's what Ben Bilboul, the Managing Director, had to say about it.

"Thanks for the note - Hattie thought your course was fantastic."

Cheers, Ben. 

We'll be seeing a lot more of Karmarama in the future!

I had a delightedly excited phone call from Emily at BCP yesterday - they have won the Grand Prix award for their region from the CIPR for the second year running!

Naturally, since I work with them, I want to claim my small part of the credit…. but that’s useless posturing.  They did it themselves fair and square.  And I’m delighted for Emily, Sam and the team.

They also told me that they have just won a high profile new client and are working for OC Events, part of Ellen McArthur’s company, OC Group.

Now how exciting is that?

If you read books and occasionally think about getting rid of your old ones….. consider selling them not on Amazon but on a site with a purpose (other than profit).
I choose to use Green Metropolis who support the Woodland Trust through their book sales activity. Here’s their latest newsletter.
Have a think about adding your support.

It’s been a busy few weeks for us here at GreenMetropolis.com.

First we achieved our 100,000th transaction at the end of January! That’s around 130,000 books which have been reused, recycled and saved from dusty bookshelves! So on behalf of the environment and the Woodland Trust, we’d like to thank all our members for helping us achieve this great target.

Secondly, as a result of all this recycling, we’ve just completed upgrading and replacing our aging web servers. Our new servers are significantly faster and have a much greater capacity, making it quicker and easier to find the books you want, it also enables us to continue with our enhancement and expansion plans!

Finally, for those of you, like us, who didn’t receive a Valentines card, we’ve pulled together some of our favourite titles on love, life and romance!