Hive Health

We’re very excited about our move to Wardour Street in a month or so. Tim is leading the build, making lots of calls and interrupting meetings for last minute eBay bids. He has plastered the walls with whiteboard plastic so that we can display, explain and necessarily defend our suggestions for the new office.

I thought I’d post what what we had in mind and update you later on what made the cut.

Perfunctory: A well-stocked stationery cupboard, meeting room, recycling bins, bicycle storage, colour, generous coat rack, giant teapot/urn, paper store, artwork prep area (glue room), library/ inspiration shelf, showers.

Inspired: Film nights, nap area, magnetic blackboard paint, bubble chairs for do-not-disturb moments, bubble chairs with built-in headphones, lockers, giant lego, colouring books, coffee machine, heat sensitive wallpaper, a very quiet area , a great big vending machine full of….

Fanciful: Picnic benches (but why not?), astroturf, piano, fish tank, juicer, hammocks, naughty step.

Aint gonna happen: Allotment , oompa loompa, kittens, massage area.

You don’t need a whole new office to nip out and get: Drinking squash, a flippin’ great thesaurus.

And who really needs a: Cereal dispenser, sandwich toaster.

Still wide eyed and charged with energy, I would describe my work experience at Hive a bit like spending a week in a sweet shop! I’ll have to calm my sugar rush before I produce any sensible comment.

The week kicked off over a coffee with Tim so I could understand the far reaching benefits of the Hive model. He was kind enough to offer me a choice of experiences and my hesitancy to close any doors too early prompted a somewhat vague answer; “a bit of everything “, I said.

Within the hour I was whisked off to a podcast recording with Helen. Talk about head first into the glamorous side of marketing! This challenging task was a great blend of analytical thinking and creativity that filled the day. To top it, at lunch we celebrated Jas’ birthday at a superb Indian restaurant just around the corner.

During the week I had a taste of the other great activities at Hive, from research to editing. Having spent time with Kieran learning about executing ideas, I fully grasped the idea of a patient focused healthcare agency. However, it was the client side request for the advertising that specifically intrigued me in addition to the innovative solutions at Hive.

It was with this interest in brand planning that I was fortunate enough to speak with Kathryn, who suggested that I would make most immediate use of my experience on the client side of pharmaceutical marketing. This made so much sense considering that my most simulating experiences so far involved understanding the raison d’etre for the various strands of client briefs. I thought to myself, “I want to be the person who writes these briefs!”

It was from this perspective that I continued with my work experience. The week ended even more glamorously than the start; an all day photo shoot! Working with an acute eye for detail for nine hours certainly works cogs, but by the end of the day we had a master piece to show for it!

On my way home from the photo studio, I was clear in my mind that I’d enjoy nothing more than working with the talented creative and strategic professionals at Hive from the client side.

So thank you to the entire team for my short, sweet and incredibly useful time at Hive!

At the weekend a palm reader told me I would write a book someday. That and I’d meet a handsome man with a head of blond hair, a white van and a posh voice, but I digress. I’ve never seen myself as much of a writer but perhaps, after being ‘persuaded’ to write this blog about myself, it might inspire me to action. So bear with me as I grapple with some words and phrases and try vainly to bring these together into a short summary as to how I came to join the Hive team, what I think of them so far (!), and my hopes and aspirations moving forwards; passing my probation could hang on this.

With three and a half years under my belt working in a small Med Ed team in a large agency I was looking for a new challenge. Meeting the directors at Hive quickly confirmed that this could be it. A committed team, with a new approach to healthcare comms; placing patients at the heart of the strategic process with lashings of healthcare professional insight. Also a pharmacist by trade, I’ve seen the effect of poor communication and a lack of consideration for the individual time and again, so this certainly makes sense. Sealing the deal though for me was their evident commitment to innovation and creativity in their approach, whatever the problem. Why do something as you’ve done it before, if it can be done better and in a novel and interesting way?

I’m being asked for my opinion on lots of things. I just hope that they really do subscribe to the “no idea is a bad idea” concept as I cautiously tender my suggestions for the new office…

If you are in-and-around 30, at some point in the next couple of weeks you have to pay your respects to John Hughes by watching his back catalogue on Sky.

Having watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club this week  I was transported back to sunny days, teen angst and North Devon College. Brilliant.

I have just been told by Michael that JH started out as a copywriter working on KFC. Now I know this – I think you can kind of see it. Really sparse scripts that drip with authenticity. Defined characters, superbly handled tone and reality. It smacks of TV commercial talent. That stoned-library-dance-scene still makes me laugh out loud.

I am confident that Ferris Bueller was our James Dean. With this in mind we are giving away a DVD copy of Ferris Bueller’s day off to the best JH film quote submitted via comments.