Creative Agency Secrets

In response to Lloyds post about WHY

Apparently later (according to Loïc’s daily summary)
she was asking why we do this stuff - what’s in it for us. Good
question. Don’t know the answer, but don’t think I’m not thinking about
it.

…. here is an answer suggested by William Heath (newly unemployed and with time on his hands).

My friend Stefan reminds me of the Polish Marxist philosopher Leszek
Kolakowski’s General Theory of non-Gardening

     The General Theory of Not-Gardening

     A Major Contribution to Social Anthropology, Ontology, Moral Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Political Theory and Many Other Fields of Scientific Investigation

     Those who hate gardening need a theory.  Not to garden without a theory is a shallow, unworthy way of life.

     A theory must be convincing and scientific.  Yet to various people, various theories are convincing and scientific.  Therefore we need a number of theories.

     The alternative to not-gardening without a theory is to garden. However, it is much easier to have a theory than actually to garden.

And I have a reply

I think the same can apply to blogging…..

The General Theory of Not-blogging

A Major Contribution to Social Anthropology, Ontology, Moral Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Political Theory and Many Other Fields of Scientific Investigation

Those who hate blogging need a theory.  Not to blog without a theory is a shallow, unworthy way of life.

A theory must be convincing and scientific.  Yet to various people, various theories are convincing and scientific.  Therefore we need a number of theories.

The alternative to not- blogging without a theory is to blog. However, it is much easier to have a theory than actually to blog.

So there, narrrh!

Just had replies from:

Lloyd Davies - Perfect Path

Marcel Cowan and Darren Shea - Cowan Group
Gary Jacobs - Fox Kalomaski

Hannah Locke - Burst Interactive / MyKindaPlace

Charlie Robertson - Red Spider

Andrew Roberts - Gravity

Gareth Thomas - BPL

Looking forward to it!

Thanks to everyone who’s replied so far.
There is a posting on Ecademy from Vladimir Dimitroff - cheers, Mate!

Attendees:
Nick Fenner - Shoosmiths

Dominic Shales - Paratus Communications
James Hamilton - British Titanium
Kimikawa de Castro - K4 Innovations
Madelaine Cooper - Heroes
Robin Dhara - Gabrielle Shaw Communications

Will get an update from Mark later on.

Niche TV channels are nothing new these days.   But this is the first I’ve seen with a Marketing bent.
Marketing Success

I tried to get in touch, but got this message from the email address printed on the page

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at server1.cre8mm.com.
I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry it didn’t work out.

<enquiries@marketingsuccess.tv>:
This address no longer accepts mail.

So long, Marketing Success!  One way conversation without dialogue has little place for returning visitors in today’s Cluetrain World!

I recently met the InHouse team and they told me that they’d secured an interview with my old boss, Don Peppers for their InHouse Village site.

Well, Don is a key man in my life for having jumped onto cluetrain very early and added the dimension that explained the future of direct marketing was integrated…. and that it needed to be supported by a new principle treat different customers differently.
His methodology for CRM was 4-steps: Identify your customers, Differentiate them by value and need; Interact with them and learn; and Customise your offering to their needs.

in his interview (published in short chapters…. two are up right now), he has developed his theme somewhat.

Key quotes

You can’t un-Google yourself
If your dialogues with customers don’t result in spontaneous replies from the customers - they are not authentic [he fails to add that this is PR not dialogue and that you might examine whether your offering is hitting the ’spot’ with customer needs
The key brand trait today is TRUST.  A company should always act in the interest of its customers and not just in pursuit of profit. [nicely put - and a key part of WOM online]
When considering which brands your agency wants to work with, think carefully how many brands actually do hire an agency to work on their marketing.  Most don’t.  Target your approach.
When he was doing biz dev - Don kept a ring binder with one page of notes for each target brand he wanted to work with.  [A great low-tech means of keeping data to hand, up to date and focused.]

So far in the interview, it seems Don is just saying the same stuff about 1to1 marketing but realising that today’s digital world actually enables a lot of his past-10-years-theorising.  That’s fine.  What I want to know is what are leading companies actually DOING?  Now?

Mark McGuinness and I are hosting a breakfast event on November 22nd in central London.

It may be of interest to anyone who has to go and win new business for their agency.  Here’s the detail.

These days winning a pitch is harder than ever – more agencies, longer ‘short’ lists, time delays. You need every advantage to ensure your pitch gets the best possible chance of succeeding.

One of the factors that may contribute to success is an awareness of the personalities on the client team – so that you can play your presentation to appeal to their comfort zones and core instincts. Your pitch can also be more effective if it appeals to the values at the heart of the client’s company and brand.

Come and hear respected Business Coach Mark McGuinness, in conversation with Rebecca Caroe, talking about the Enneagram system of personality types and core values – and how this can help your team win more pitches.

Breakfast on 22nd November will be at Piccolino, Heddon Street, London W1B 4BG Arrive from 7.45 and we’ll start promptly at 8 am and be finished by 9 with networking until 9.45.

Hosted by Rebecca Caroe, the event will be a conversation during which the issues of successful business development and personality typing will be discussed – followed by your questions. To register e-mail  And we’ll send you all the info, plus Mark’s e-book An Introduction to the Enneagram to thank you for your interest.

If you can’t come but would like a free copy of Mark’s e-book please e-mail us and ask for a copy.

Please feel free to forward this invitation to any agency friends or colleagues who may be interested.

Download enneagramflyer.pdf

[the event invitation]

Mark McGuinness works with agencies to get the best out of their people. Mark is a poet and a business coach specialising in the creative industries. He is a qualified psychotherapist and holds an MA in Creative & Media Enterprises from the University of Warwick. His areas of expertise include creativity and managing and developing creative teams. He uses the Enneagram to help clients with a range business issues.
Mark’s coaching blog

Just setting up my mobile posting. Irritatingly BlackBerry phones don’t synch with the SixApart software and so you can’t use the mobile settings. I am emailing this post as a test.