Archive for 2010

The joys of busy times, means that we haven’t really been out on a big one in a while. Total shame. With this in mind everyone piled into Chez Scorer last night for a hefty feast of ribs, ’slaw and baked starch, followed by 150 brownies and ice cream.

This mammoth calorie intake  saw us up until 3.30 this morning, putting the world to rights (Helen),  talking complete nonsense (Wyndham) and teaching Punjabi (Jas) and Afrikaans (Sheralyn).

I woke this morning to find my brilliant sister, had cleared up all the mess and deposited what must have been a tonne of bones for the bin men. I have since had 2 requests for my secret  rib sauce recipe and now am considered a Levi Roots style Hivey Hivey Sauce range.

Needless to say the office is a little quieter than normal today.

Seth Godin has been described by many as one of the ultimate entrepreneurs for our Age.

Anyone who chomps through business books is bound to have read at least the first half of either  Permission Marketing, Tribes, All Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow. He is healthily intolerant of widgets, NPD, and patents, and lends a good deal of confidence to marketeers striving to achieve the ‘remarkable’.

First off, if you’re busy, close this and come back to it when you’ve got 5 minutes and a cup of tea.

It’s not work, and it’s not urgent, but it is important.

This is a request for your help, and it’s a story about luck.  Let’s start with the story, and some audience participation.  Think of a number.  Got one?  Is it even?  Yes?  Well done, you win. That’s luck – 50:50 chance.  It was odd?  Never mind, you lose, but hey it’s not life or death.  Or maybe it is….

That’s basically the situation I found myself in April 2005, at 26 years old.  In what I thought would be a routine post surgical check up, I was told the suspected haematoma that was removed had turned out to be a fist-sized soft tissue sarcoma – a very rare and very dangerous form of cancer.  Just when I thought I would be told I could go back to play squash, I actually found myself sat in front of oncologists telling me I needed chemotherapy and radiotherapy.   I ended up as a hospital in-patient for 3 or 4 days every 3 weeks for 6 cycles, followed by daily radiotherapy that lasted until the end of the year.

So where does the 50:50 come in?  Well, those are the 5 year survival odds for the advanced type of cancer that I faced, and 2200 people in the UK face similar odds each year.   Bone and soft tissue sarcomas are some of the rarest cancers that exist, and as such have relatively little research devoted to them.  I had the same chance as you picking an even number, or tossing a coin and guessing ‘heads’.  I survived.  A brief look at the Sarcoma Trust fundraising page on JustGiving will tell you many sufferers aren’t so lucky.

There’s really no way to express the gratitude I have for the team that helped me, from the very first orthopod who wouldn’t take the easy option; the surgeon whose impeccable technique removed the cancer that not so long ago would have meant amputation; the medical oncologist whose first visit on landing from holiday was to see his patient; the clinical oncologist whose radiotherapy plan spared enough thigh muscle to be able to walk to radiotherapy across London every day; the wonderful staff at the hospital where I was treated; to the friends, family, and my beautiful girlfriend, now wife, who were by my side the whole time.

Which brings me to the second part of the story.  This part of the story is the plea for your help.  Of course, my survival is not just about luck.  I had a team of spectacular doctors, nurses and just as importantly friends, family and all those other wonderful people that contribute to making someone sick well again.  Without the skills, knowledge, care and love of these people, there’s a very good chance this email would be coming from someone in my memory, not from me. The Sarcoma Trust is a charity that was set up in 2007 to provide information and support to patients and their carers about this rare disease, and to support research leading to better treatment and outcomes for Sarcoma patients.  Sarcoma makes up about 1% of cancers in the UK, and more research means better care and hopefully more people surviving.

That’s where you come in.

Surviving a serious illness affects many people in different ways – it has a tendency to add a little perspective to your life.  Not too long ago I’d have lost the leg.  Now I go by foot or cycle everywhere I can.  On Saturday 18^th of September, exactly 5 years from finishing radiotherapy I will cycle from Purley to Brighton.  That’s 80 km, not a bad stretch for anyone.  Now consider I had a large chunk of muscle taken out of my left thigh.  Sounds tough doesn’t it?  This is a plea not only for you to help improve the lives of patients with this terrible cancer, but very importantly, a plea that you’re going to make the pain of that ride worthwhile!  I’m aiming to raise at least £1500 for the Sarcoma Trust, and I need your help to do it.  And for those with a slightly evil streak – if you can double it – I’ll even take a shot at riding back the next day too.

So how about it?  It’ll take moments – just click here and give whatever you can afford.  Or Paypal me, send me cash, a cheque, postal order, even stamps!  Go on, it’ll make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, I promise.  Then send this on to anyone you think might be feeling generous, put it on Facebook, Twitter it, Blog it…whatever!

50:50 – that was my chance, let’s see if we can improve the odds for someone else.

Thank you

Toby – Cancer survivor.

PS – If you want to show support, and are free on Saturday 18^th September, come and have a beer with me afterwards in Brighton, but let me know you’re interested, and I’ll let you know where.

PPS – if there’s something a little bit wrong with you (like me), and you want to cycle it too – then the more the merrier!  Again, just let me know, and get your friends and family to sponsor us too!”

Prior to starting my work experience with Hive I took a look at their website,( in the hope that it would give me a better idea of what I was letting myself in for!). The cartoon characters and other blogs instantly portrayed the sort of friendly and exciting company that I knew I wanted to be involved with. Before looking on the website I (like many others before me) probably wondered what the hell Healthcare communications was all about, but after a browse of the site, I soon got the overall idea about the great communications work they produce for pharmaceutical companies.

My first Friday morning was soon upon me and I donned an outfit that for most companies out there would be frowned upon (jeans and t’s) but I soon learnt that their enthusiastic approach to dressing down was something that definitely added to the play hard, work hard ethos of Hive.

I had been told that I would be briefed over breakfast at the Wolseley, and that breakfast would be on them, a real treat for anyone, but especially for a broke student like myself. Over breakfast myself and two of the account executives (Clare and Claire) were given our brief: that there are not enough graduates, science graduates in particular, aware of Healthcare communications and in particular Hive. Our aim was therefore to find a way to educate and drive awareness of the industry amongst science graduates as well as about the attractions of an account executives role (the entry level position.)  Over the breakfast meeting we chatted about how the 2 Cla(i)res – both Oxbridge graduates – had got into the industry ; as well as other just general welcoming conversations, our favourite pass times and in particular about Tim’s recent  trout fishing adventure with one of the other directors (Tip : your passion for fishing would be a great topic to bring up in an interview if you want to impress them both!) After finally figuring out how to use the tea strainer (very embarrassing !) we began to look like we ate breakfast here all the time and set about brainstorming a few ideas. The rest of my time at Hive continued in this manner, a lot of good fun, but even more hard work .The energy levels I found within Hive were awesome and I think this shows in the great end products that they produce.

Back in the office I immediately felt fully integrated with the team. For the whole time I was there I didn’t feel like a newbie, but instead someone they were intent on treating as an equal. Whilst on work experience I was never once asked to make a cup of tea, or to do any filling.

Later that day Tim ran through all the stages of the Hive business, firstly so I would get a greater understanding of what was going on but also so that at the end of my time with Hive I would be able to see if I had covered all bases.

Over the next few days in the office I spent my time researching and re-grouping with Clair and Clare. We shared our findings and any ideas we had, before speaking to the creative and copy write teams, who, following our brief, produced two amazing advertising posters for us. Once we were happy with these we set about compiling and then practicing our presentation and this was when the nerves began to set in. After spending  so much time working on this project I didn’t want to let the other girls down, or make a complete idiot of myself in front of the board of directors! Thankfully, they all seemed very pleased with our work and they are currently in talks about the budget that might be set aside for our project.

One of the great things about my work experience at Hive, other than the people( who definitely don’t live up to the typical stereotype placed on some Oxbridge graduates) was that I was able to work on a project from start to finish. I witnessed all the stages within the process, and to see the final result was great. I suspect that there are not many other places where a work experience student would be able to tick off all the departments and work stages at the end of their time with a company.

During my time at Hive I discussed with the team just how hard it was to get the right balance for a person on work experience, in that both the person and the company benefited from them being there. I don’t know how they feel, but I definitely think I got the better deal, but that just seems to be the thing about Hive. Unlike places I’ve heard about from friends, Hive are willing to go that extra mile to make you feel at home, to help you out, and most importantly to provide you with excellent work experience that not only inspires you but educates you as well. So if any of you reading this are even slightly interested in this industry and in particular Hive I would strongly advise you to get in touch with them as soon as possible and sort out some time with them to experience for yourself just what they get up to!

Our management meeting occurred yesterday.  It’s a surprise location each time. Last month saw us climbing walls (Flickr), and this time it’s Jas’s turn to choose a location. We arrived for breakfast at Giraffe on the Southbank, and headed upstairs to Festival Hall.

It’s a vast concert space, open for anyone with no pressure from security or the like to move on – it’s like an urban village green (with free chunky Wi-Fi).  The expectation of architect and owners are that the building is ‘community useful’ not just for concert goers or customers. But the likes of us!? Bloody marvellous.

It’s a place that we got settled into pretty quickly once you have got through the weirdness of having a big meeting out in the open. Adam (Creative Director), Kate (Ebee Managing director), Sapna (Financial Guru) and the three of us directors, (Wyndham’s in Dorset) move around tables and chairs to form our boardroom for the day.  We sat there surrounded by digital nomads, elicit liaisons, disciplinary meetings and during lunch time balloon carrying kids, kids, kids.

Our management meetings are a big day for us. Sometimes we do an activity, more often than not just knuckle down and get through the agenda.  This follows a set format, with us taking about 2 hours discussing each of the individuals within our 28 person strong group. We cover each individual, making sure that each is OK, where we are with development, workload and how each of us can contribute to any aspects of the discussion. It’s our bread and butter.

Following this most important part comes coffee and culture. Always focusing on who we started out to be, the importance of ‘beapart’, where we stand against this and how we steer ourselves in the right direction.  Although we have always pretty good at turning away from things that aren’t us, it’s the grey areas that give us the most discussions, definitions of patient centricity and innovation being yesterday’s chat.

The most rapid sections of these meetings is new business.  July’s pitch reviews, new sources of revenues, organic growth expectations, and linked resource planning all being much more ‘quant’ that the other softer agenda elements.

As you can imagine for an agency that’s growing as steadily as we are, the operational discussions are always exciting ones. Departmentalisation, workflow, the ongoing recruitment of writers and the increased involvement of clients in creativity all form the post lunch hour.

Finally what has been a biggie in the past ‘Group direction and integration’ capped our day. Group business strategy tends to be ourlast agenda item – how do we work together, how do we make sure the group companies are catalytic and where to next all form regular conversations.

It was a great day – one that resulted in a late night text from one of us – saying how “solid it was looking”. It’s made more symbolic by the simple connection with the space we were in. this particular space is very close to our hearts.

Prior to us having an office,  the three of us sat in Festival Hall all the time as the central place for all 3 of us. Jas coming from down river, and Ian and I from the West and North respectively. Festival Hall was our first workspace, where our lay lines met.  Each of us sat at two side by side tables, planning Hive’s point of difference, operational plan, and other early day foundations. Midst operational planning I couldn’t help smile at Ian and Jas – it all seems a long while ago we jostling for our one laptop.

The requirements of agency employment force you sometimes to just get on and do it.

Yesterday saw a classic example of this. Needing a place to mock up some audio. Guillaume decided to build a quick recording studio for some stuff he’s working on.

Apparently it works. Anyone got any egg boxes?

It would seem to me that in most other walks of life you know what you’re getting. I go to the supermarket and come out with £50 worth of food – job done. Go to the pub and get three pints for £10.40 (country prices, not London). Even pay the council tax and know that one day that hole the size of a Roman Emperors ego, outside my house, will be fixed. But why, oh why, when it comes to advertising are we so slow off the mark when it comes to testing whether what we’ve produced has worked? It’s not just down to ads but ideas. That beautiful, carefully crafted idea that we try hard to sell to clients, would surely be easier to sell if we knew that what we had previously developed had in fact worked. I find it a bizarre conflict that us, as pharma agencies, work with some of the best research specialists in the world (clients) – phase 1, 2, 3 and 4 clinical trials, the money that gets poured into it and yet there seems to be little demand to test the agency and their ‘mettle’. Come on – have a go if you think you’re hard enough.

So, my thought for the day, or should that be week, year, infinity is link communication (and ideas) to business performance. Communications are paid for out of profit (or if you get it wrong, loss), so demand to know what has worked and what hasn’t. If nothing else, in today’s lean times it may just be easier to hang onto your budget if you can prove that past activity has benefited the brand.

I have another Hive University Strategy School tomorrow morning for the suits here.

It’s finding me panicking loads, trying to figure out whether we should cover a case study or revisit some old ground with a real life business. Alongside this – I am trying to get hold of an entrepreneur to come and present their business for discussion live by the troops.

As I was sifting through a pile of interesting (but academic) notes on previous sessions and I came across this – a Powerpoint written by a Mark Sniukas a consultant I really like. It’s strategy simplified (well almost) and well worth a quick glance. Kicks off with Costas Markides, Professor London Business School and his frank views on the state of modern strategic discipline.

Visit Presentation

In the Metro today a boy of 5, sweetly outraged of face, displays the object of his indignity: a letter from the NHS.

The letter informs his parents that, at 3 st 13 lb and 4ft tall, Bailey Russell is dangerously overweight.

Bailey’s size looks ‘normal’ to me, so I went to nhschoices.com to check out the child BMI calculator. Online, the NHS places Bailey in a healthy weight category (90^th centile).  There is no numerical reference range given for child BMI. However, further down the page, a colour chart places an arrow for Bailey firmly in the ‘overweight’ area.

Computers and humans do get confused, but Bailey’s mum is outraged. We don’t need this kind of thing in our judicious society, she says.

Should we blame the NHS for being too bolshy in the first place? Note that in 2005, the WHO put the obese population at 1.6 billion people. In 2015 – just ten years later – this is set to top 2.3 billion.

The science of weight is very tricky. Bailey’s story reveals a problem that no government health department in the world has managed to solve. Amid all the finger pointing, there is no proper system for measuring overweight.  We carry on using Body Mass Index even though we know that it often does not correlate with the amount of body fat and the risks to health.

Heart disease and diabetes are the world’s most expensive non-infectious diseases.  If we are going to make a difference, it has to be in finding better ways to measure the problem – methods adapted for different populations of adults and children.

As importantly, leaders need to admit to the public that the best experts in the world have trouble assessing overweight from the outside.This needn’t give people an excuse to ignore clinical norms in weight-related health risks. Rather, it should inspire us to do some independent thinking – asking ourselves if our bodies reflect the healthiest, happiest choices we can make.

So far this week has had its fair share of highlights – last night I was told by one of our clients that I should investigate a career in phone sex (nb. pre multiple espresso Martinis!). However, the stand alone winner is Jas’ epic fail at getting through a door. The added bonus being it has created one of my new favourite photos – as Ian points out, she must have been pulling off a pretty jaunty strut to leave such a special smear pattern.

Anyway, this got me thinking. Our director fails to get through one of our internal doors – hilarious, unexpected, hopefully a bit of a one off (for Jas’ sake); but how can we expect proper new bees to get through our door if they don’t even know it exists?

I fluked upon this industry, this agency, this career. At uni, doing a science degree, I was given 2 career options: Science (of the hard-core lab variety) or the City (of the hard-core bank variety). Neither of which appealled – I’m pretty sure flourescent pink jeans are frowned upon in both settings, whereas at Hive they get called ‘bastard strides’ and prompt Tim to put on some sunnies. Despite knowing there must be something in between, it was bloody difficult to discover and relied on an awful lot of luck.

“What a ridiculous situation!” Hive cries…how can we fix this problem? How can we help young guns find out we exists? As yet we don’t know. It’s a work in progress, some serious thinking is about to be done (thinking hats on). Any thoughts/ideas give us a shout (unfortunately no ipad bribe this time). We’ll fill you in on the the thinking and if you’re really lucky maybe you’ll get an invite to the solution.

I seem to be spending more time in New York these days than here and whilst it’s a great city, getting away from it all for a bit of inspiration can be tough to the uninitiated. I know where to hide in London, where to drink, where to assault my senses and where to protect them. In NY it feels like constant assault.I needed help, so our local agency friends introduced me to life on the High Line. Its 10 blocks of elevated train line no longer used, that has been beautifully designed to become NY’s latest park. It’s an architectural marvel, and it’s amazing what being one level up does to the sound of the city. It’s a great place to work, a greater place to watch, and a place I’ll be spending a lot more time.

Technology is one thing, but the value in it is the application. In light of this and to the 1250 people who read our blog every month here’s your chance to contribute and help us.

We have a competition going on in here. Come up with a great idea that we can put on the ipad and commercialise within the healthcare sector and win the sodding thing.  We thought we’d extend it to everyone. So it’s simple. Send us in your ideas; however straight forward and the best idea submitted wins the ipad. The best way to start is probably to answer the question “what if you/ we could…” It needs to be relevant to what we do, supporting and communicating healthcare and medicines to people, but that’s as tight as the brief gets. We’ll do the judging, we’ll decide who wins, and the judge’s decision is final. Normal competition rules apply; see here for the legal stuff, names of winners published on request etc. Competition closes on the 18^th July so get those grey cells working.

To enter leave a comment here, or send your thoughts to beapart@hivehealth.com.

Competition rules available from http://hivehealth.com/privacy/

The year has flown since I last wrote about the Communiqué awards. Last year saw us hit highly commended as Best Small Consultancy or first of the Losers as we saw it. The previous blog on the Communiques tells our woeful tale.

The process of getting us to the Communiqués is pretty simple. 1. Write award submission, with full knowledge that the date can be extended for a few pounds. This year saw me and a fellow entrant Jan at Lucid, at all-day brand planning for a shared client, both of us confident that we would get it all done in time that evening.  I was also regretting the offer to ‘just leave it with me’ stubborn in me need to right the wrongs of last year. Later and way into the early hours of the morning I finished the subsequent poem, supporting team mime that contribute to our entry – send them to a snoring Ian and Jas for review.  2. Make it through to the next round. We receive the invite to an interview at Royal Society of Physicians – prepare presentation and practice the company song once again. Ian’s ‘bee flat’ joke practiced and delivered with aplomb. The audience was a cross section of agency folk, potential clients, all chaired delightfully. This year’s questions focus on the figures and the business structure rather than last year’s people focus – I guess a function of our recession. Frankly, we could have been better at the presentation. We were presenting at right angles to the screen and it was pretty weird as far as getting it together we could help but compare to our previous losing effort – which was pretty slick – we left the 2009 interview buzzing. We left this one and headed for a grumpy lunch. 3. Make finalist stage – email from the delightful Debbie T, thus far this is a road well trod for us losers. 4. Decide on table – old friends, new friends and bit of both. Last min drop outs (why does this always happen?!), last min replacements. 5. Attend event. Black tie – tied bow ties, dinner, drinks, and nerves. Prosecco shared in the agency. With ’09 in the mind we thought we would repeat last year’s example of film noir. This year we wangled a special pen spy cam courteously of Q-branch (Ebee) with the mind that you blog readers can share the moment with us. You know the beapart bit by now. So here goes;

(Unfortunately the special spy pen – is stuck in Kate’s bag. Film goes here)

WE LOST. WORSE THAN LAST YEAR. At this rate by 2015 we will be not even allowed to buy tickets.  Consistent losers  – I feel like Andy Murray. Congratulations to the winner’s awesome job. Brilliant news on Lucid s highly commended – lovely people.

Jas and I returned to Mayfair to lick our wounds. The rest of the evening saw a big crowd of us dancing until 6am and me getting advice on not taking winning too seriously by a very helpful Lawrence Dallaglio. Jas also had similar sage advice from a Russian dancing chick, who offered “to make good for losing by you spanking my behind”, an offer that remained untaken.

Thanks loads to all the many friends who shared commiserations with us, really lovely to feel us being looked after. Total respect to Bruno’s the location for post club breakfast – who returned my left watch to me this morning.

The life of our work tends to be pretty short. The  world consumes concepts at a startling pace. Although often a visual medium for me  it’s a stretch to compare what we do with the art world where images and messages live for decades and even hundreds of years. In this sense then the ad could be considered to be disposable, there to change behaviour and move on. Tomorrow’s chip wrapping? It’s certainly the case that campaigns seem to be changed more and more, whether that be to meet and deliver against a new insight, or because a change of team requires the ‘done by me stamp’ that we see every few years. I always thought that as ideas migrated up past the A4 / 30 second constraints of ad space that we would drive towards more tactical ads, that felt coherent – but that hasn’t really happened yet.

With this in mind I was fascinated to come across people who consider ads not necessarily art, but culturally worthwhile. We build pieces of communication in such as way often we forget their wider importance once they are out of the door, the process of development being often so painful, denial and memory loss are part of the coping mechanism. (If I was braver and not a man, I would draw a lengthier connection between ad conception and childbirth and the rush of endorphins erasing pain memory and await the Comments with equal amounts of guts and fear).

The study of advertising as part of culture is established. A Google minute provides loads of thesis’s exploring the relationships between cultural dimensions and characteristics of advertisements. Dozens of theoretical frameworks have been developed covering identity, individualism-collectivism, femininity-masculinity, industrialization and even parental responsibilities. All getting (for me) more interesting when put to practical use explaining technique, characterization, appearances and portrayals of people. Loads of these research tomes feature statistical analysis that make the creative product look positively scientific rather than a result of its context.

With this geeky bubbling I have been enjoying visiting the Ghostsigns project, a collaborative national effort to capture, collate, discuss and archive all remaining examples of hand painted wall advertising across the UK. Ghostsigns are the typically faded remains of advertising that was once painted by hand onto the brickwork of buildings. If you live in London or New York  I am pretty sure you walk by a few every day.

This made me wondered whether in 50 years people will be collecting up digital communications as part of a similar project. Then the US Library of Congress announced that it will be acquiring the entire archive of Twitter messages back through March 2006. In the same way that diaries and private journals started to be considered legitimate cultural data sources in the later part of the last century it seems that this is considered an “unprecedented opportunity for discovering patterns of social interaction” This is big!

*With apologies to Bob Dylan. I saw Bob at Hop Farm Festival last weekend. He was not very good but the title is still a big one to steal.

Buzzing.

That’s how I felt after 2 hours hearing from the gurus of Facebook and Google. They have changed our world and they will continue to do so. Search and social media. Without them brands and their web-presence are increasingly irrelevant.

Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

The power of this mission is extraordinary. The passion of those that work there is contagious. There are 400 million active users. Returning regularly. Sharing their favourite things with those they know.  Did you know that your propensity to click on an article or join a group if you know that one of your friends has, is multiplied around 80 times? The joy of “Your friend likes this”. And it’s free! Community networks and social media are more enormous and more powerful than any media that has gone before. Social media can turn a marketing monologue into a consumer dialogue. It can give a brand talkability, shareability. Ignore it and miss out.

Google = Search.

A concept that the global population is very used to. But, the future of search is making the past look antiquated. It’s mobile and almost human in nature reflecting voice, eyes, skin and location by using speaker, camera, touch-screen and GPS to replace the Google search bar.

“Not being top of search in Google is like the modern day equivalent of being out of stock.”  This comment came from one of the most senior marketers at one of the top pharmaceutical companies. And it really stuck in my mind. How often has search been the last thing on the list?

So what can we learn from all this? A lot. Search and Social Media – If no one can find your brand and no one likes your brand, your brand has a problem. But on the plus side, the opportunities these create are endless. Thank you Google and Facebook for changing the world and making it a better and more connected place.

How our industry is seen is a present annoyance for me.  I was forced by to go to a recent boys charity do and with a load of  bankers – I was turned on with multiple questions on the solid nature of what I do. Apparently ‘Media’ (said with a lightness of voice – try Frank Spencer/crossed with Dale Winton) as a sector is just nonsense. Not real work. Staggering my fellow charity goers all are in derivatives traders – pot – kettle – noir I said – infuriating them further.

I can understand this portrayal of what we do as airy-fairy-nonsense. Last night I tried to explain branding to our old IT guy Tony, who errs on the side of functional to say the least.  He just wasn’t convinced. Despite wearing Nike, carrying blackberry, and swearing by Persil, outside The Blue Posts it became apparent that I was never going to convince him on any decision making other that rational. It was the source of some frustration and much cider. But then he loves Carling because its tastes better than any other lager. (A belief I am still staggered by)

Returning to the bankers, it’s possible the view of the man in the (city) street is of the Gucci loafer wearing, Hoxton types, designing for an hour a day in-between their table fussball games that they really object to. I think also it’s the thought of a group of individuals earning  ”footballer wages” (sic), miles always from any market forces that further angered these guys. These guys just didn’t get what it’s all for. Yet when you speak to them about ads – these seem to be a result of some higher power – that clearly has never been near to a fussball tournament or infantile hand shake.

We need to dissect the elements of creativity, how a piece works, which elements are working  which need work. Assessing ideas requires words borrowed from an emotive/artistic dictionary. Which is why a collection of (daft) terms surrounds us and why often this collection of terms makes very little sense to the un-initiated.  We are immersed in tone, value, emotion, function, all elements of an idea that does something to its viewers. Perhaps this is “not the sort of thing anyone believes for a nanosecond in the real world”. but it’s a reality of our life we need the words to do the job.  I have a feeling that these are totally important to us, it’s their public outings that tend to persuade non – industry bods that what we do is just nonsense. Looking around the 5,000 member Facebook group – “Don’t tell my mum I’m in advertising – she thinks I play piano in a brothel” perhaps sums it up. A good indication of the shame those in our industry feel. Perhaps?  Perhaps not?

Why we shy away from just telling it like it is I don’t really know. Basically all that stuff we talk is for one real aim – to better connect in some way with an audience. The creation of an idea is about savings, it’s budgetary. Really it is.  Whether you are a planner, creative or suit, the business is about efficiency. We just seem reticent to tell others that by doing it this way we connect cheaper. We find ways of developing  relationships with audiences and brands that would otherwise cost more. Agree or disagree, I am not sure why the industry continues to be scared of this – hire us we will save you money seems a blinding recessionary position.

Simple as that.

Ps. No rhyming slang has been used in this blog.

We’ve seen some rotten sporting decisions. We’ve touched the shame of Wayne. We admired Fabio in his sharp M&S suit. We watched the neglected Crouchy bobbing around in the warm up area. We met Mick McCarthy. We felt the loyalty of the fans undulating like a Mexican wave. We did it on South African soil, around the very grass that still steams with hot English tears.

Sorry, it’s not a good time to boast. I assure you, the sorrow of England’s crummy demise was ever more excruciatingly felt at close range. But it’s still wonderful being in South Africa. This is my first home, though my tickets were for England.

We got here the morning of the match vs USA. My little old car, now used by my brother in law’s mum, had been returned for my arrival. It was plumed with two flags: a big SA one and a little England one. You soon get used to the mad flapping noise. Everyone has them. The South African supporters also sport little mittens on the backs of their wing mirrors.

In Rustenburg I was almost decapitated by the volume of the vuvuzelas. Them Americans and Englishers can blow like pro’s. I was fresh off a plane, no sleep, wasn’t ready. Then I got my own vuvuzela.

Everyone’s itching to hit the stands. You get in a line, you get on a bus, you wish you’d remembered earplugs. You enter the stadium and arm yourself with a hysterically expensive Budweiser. You talk to people, exchange numbers,  you do a weird American bottom-bumping things in the air. You float in and out of the sponsors’ tents. You get to know the songs. The best one is “Give me freedom”  used by Coke. Is this on in the UK?  You should have seen me getting down. They have a great ad too of a little boy on the shoulders of giant deft-footed robots.

The local war cry is AYOBA which means something like “Hell yeah!” or “Let’s go!” The atmos is tremendous, and then it’s time. Here come the flags, laid religiously on the pitch. Then the streams of the teams and their little marching mascots. Then everything kicks off and actually it’s a bit boring. Then it’s really good. Then it’s a bit boring. But then it’s good.

There are also fan parks. We first experienced one of these in Cape Town. They feel like a tiny concrete festival. They are free to enter, with security as hefty as at the stadiums. The finger of Bud has rubbed the branding off every can of lager. It’s the local Castle lager, with the simple moniker “South African Beer.”

People stand around draped in their flags, cradling their unbranded lager, worshipping the big screens. On the stage, some lunatic in a yellow boilersuit stirs up the crowd. Another guy walks around offering sticks of dried sausage. In half time there are games to play – such as, the screen becomes an interactive pitch, with footballs falling from the top. The crowd waves and jumps to knock the balls into the opponents’ goal.

If you’re not getting a bus back straight away, you walk miles to the pub with your new friends, singing songs by the Smiths and the Jam. Everyone gets along and invites you to come. Met a nice German fellow travelling with two British backpackers. No aggro. I did find the jingoism of some of the English songs a bit distasteful. Far more fun sometimes to stick with the Saffers and watch them convert a vuvuzela into a device for administering pints.  “Smash it down your beak, bru”, is the invitation.  No thanks, pal.

In between games, there is gentle sunshine, wildlife, family, and plenty of food. It’s fantastic in South Africa. You should all visit here most definitively. Until then,  I’m hoping that heatwave is fast evaporating those tears.

There we were, gathered round a TV, looking to see one of our writers, famous for a second on the TV. You see she’s travelled all the way home just to go to a couple of sporting events that coincide with her holiday. Our eyes peeled, the whole office (well a few who understood what was going on and weren’t talking to clients) agreed to hold out for the whole 90 minutes of play just in case she cropped up blowing her vuvuzela. Sadly, no Debbie, we’ll have to try again at her next game. Incidentally, there were a lot of worried faces for the last 10 minutes as a group of highly paid professionals gave us all high blood pressure, but 1 is enough, through to the knock outs. Come on England, we know your there with Debbie somewhere…

It’s that time of year for us here where we finish quick sharpish at 5.30 and head up to Regents Park for the annual Taste of London pilgrimage.

Its a great night, and we would recommend anyone remotely foodie heading there, loading up on crowns (the TofL currency), and chowing down.

Favourite Hive dishes included Fino’s Suckling pig, Club Gascon’s Octopus and scallops, and the Yauatcha’s Dim Sum were mind blowing. As usual Atul Kothhur’s (Benares) Lamb chops were a destination for us all. Minty pleasure.

Also consumed on mass was Sussex Champagne NyeTimber which still kicks the ass of all the French pretenders present, and as always Chapel Down’s, vintage Reserve Brut and accompanying oysters proved a great starting point.

This year saw 25 of us from agency and client side hit the stands hard. We were also joined by two of our new recruits midway through their notice periods who excelled in their first hive experience.

Fuelled by foie gras and bubbles the resulting bag a celebrity chef  photograph competion kicked off. The winners being the boys who managed to bag Gary ‘Lamb’ Rhodes  in what I am sure you will agree is a good side profile poise by Gary.

Viagra burst onto an expectant  market 12 years ago on the 1^st of July. Wow, how time flies!

I was fortunate enough to have been on the UK launch team for Viagra, and we were desperate to ensure that it was promoted ethically and was given enough space to be taken seriously – as a product that met a genuine patient need. One that impacted on the lives of millions of people.

The press went mad, “sex drug” shouted from every red top. Knee jerk Health Secretary Frank Dobson’s fears about rampant demand introduced restrictions, which clamped down treatment provision resulting in only 17% of those men who would benefit getting a prescription. GPs were told to restrict their prescribing to one pill per week. All driven by fears that the NHS would be swamped by demands for the new drug.

It’s all seems ages ago and now strange to think of a Health Secretary wanting to dictate the sex lives of their citizens. ‘Once a week Dobing’ was laughed at by many, but still acceptable.

The category perceptions changed, and ED was forced into the sunlight. Now discussed and treated  in a very different world. Walking in Soho with Debbie I spied this photo, a demonstration that perceptions change, but somewhere some of your audience remains intransient.  How things have moved on!

We need a new finance bee to join our fantastic finance team. This is a wide and varied role spanning a range of tasks and with excellent career progression.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Accurate processing of invoices
• Preparation of payment runs
• Maintenance of expenses
• Petty cash management
• Maintenance of fixed assets register
• Credit control
• Other adhoc duties

We take people development very seriously and you will be developed and mentored through your progression with us. You will get valuable on the job training as well as full study support for the CIMA qualification.

No previous finance experience is necessary; all you do need is at least two B’s at A-Level, a 2.1 in your degree, great organisation and communication skills and above all, loads of enthusiasm.

If you think you want to count beans for Hive please email a copy of your CV with a covering letter to finance@hivehealth.com by 16 July 2010.

I was sent this by a great candidate recently. As a good example of pushing TV a bit further than the usual 30 sec TVC.  Corporate sponsored community improvement – whatever next.

The Let’s Colour Project is a worldwide initiative to transform grey spaces with vibrant colour. A mission to spread colour all over the world.

The project works with local communities across the globe, rolling up its sleeves to paint streets, houses, schools and squares.

Far from it Dulux.

A big event at Ian’s hit the agency hard this weekend as we all descended to the green and pleasant land of Wyck in Hampshire for a Saturday night party.

We were greeted by stunning summers evening, a marque, Harry the flare barman, a sloping dance floor of death and Fabric DJ, and our ace designer Krystal selling her soul with some mean 80’s classics.

The 1980’s themed event resulted in some appalling costume efforts, none more so that Ian’s highlighted hair, pink tee-shirt and linen suit combo. Coupled with eye liner, and a foundation clad face it couldn’t have been more upsetting.

As we danced the night away drinking Cosmo’s and Smurfs (blue Curacao, Vodka, Sloe gin, and Prosecco) it dawned on me that this would make a pretty good blog. All of us enjoying the evening, with different interpretations of an era  - beapart in reality.

It has also spurred me on to sort out a Flickr widget (see below right) – so you can share and view the agencies photos and especially party evenings like this one with us.

I hope you find the pictures suitable upsetting.

The latest instalment of Hive Poly’s (motto - Velle est posse) strategy training sessions discussed leadership, project management and the joys of singing songs. All via  a case study covering Ernest Shackleton and his 1915 ill-fated Antarctic expedition

We reviewed all aspects of the trip, planning,  disaster management and eventual rescue. It’s a great way to review the elements of leadership, how plans must remain flexible, and team culture, alongside a solid direction really helps when you get yourself trapped in ice. Shackleton proved a great example of entrepreneurship, self-promotion and of obsessive dedication.

I found the ad Shackleton use in the The Times to recruit for this expedition – showing also the value of a sense of humour when asking people to take part in difficult adventures. I love the honesty of ’safe return doubtful’.

It was a sunny Thursday evening. It was Soho. It was Hive’s copywriters – me and Debbie – enjoying a nice pint of non-premium, non-Belgian beer at the Coach & Horses. It was bribery with two of (supposedly) the most expensive pints in the country. It was Leffe. It was an impromptu photo shoot, with direction from Nigel. It was a misquote. It was probably the most pointless news story of all time. Cheers, Evening Standard.

I have been reading the views on the campaigns that accompanied the three future PMs this election.  It seemed for the first time that the channel choice was dominated by non-ad comms as much as any other.  Twitter seems alive, as did the online presence of each party that had stepped up light- years ahead of the last elections piss-poor efforts.

After the clear lack of differentiation between the parties none of the campaigns managed either enough love for Dave or enough hate for Gordon. I think one could consider that the £25 million spent by the Conservatives needed to be a little more effective.  It makes me wonder whether during the next election the parties will move further away from the likes of Euro RSCG, M&C Saatchi and Saatchi & Saatchi after what must be a sound case against the broadcast style campaigns driving true differentiation.

Given the lay of the land should we expect money to be shifted to TV debates and teetering marginals, following the usual shift from broadcast to targeted we are seeing across all communications landscapes?  I think we can.

The role of the idea has been well and truly present this week. We have been developing ideas for areas as broad as pain, melanoma and hepatitis.

Despite what you may have been told – idea generation is far from a formal thing – miles from a black box of inspiration, realization or genius. It’s just bloody hard work and very scary. It’s late nights and nervous presentations; checking sanity alongside evolution, scrapping the dull, the inflexible, smoothing the rough and moulding the soft. Its a craft.

At its best it’s all of us hands dirty, at its worse its one of us, sheets of A3 and buckets loads of Coke, weeping into our pencil cases.

Client requirements, agency briefing, wrangling positioning, all have their place in this process, but mostly it’s down to intolerant alliance, a few of us bouncing brains and nurturing waffle.

This drive to idea tends to stop by a few service stations;

Please wait will we connect you…

Our requirement for the idea to connect with its audience is challenging. Subjectivity, culture, and just plain personalities always get in the way. “I know it when you see it”, is a pretty standard approach. But connection tends to be a different thing, healthy doses of empathy and often audience hugging are needed.Seeking connection reminds me of a stand up gig the other day. A female comedian expressing naïve mystery about her husband’s excessive use of Original Source Mint & Tea Tree shampoo. Leaving half the audience completely mystified and the other half aching with connection. Genius. A true connection, no where near big enough for one of our tasks – but a pretty good demonstration?

We seek whoppers

Once we have stumbled across a  wrapper for a brand, its task and audience understanding it all gets a little bit more practical. How can it work in a sales conversation, ad land, could it stretch enough to be experiential, what about a direct mail campaign. A huge expectation from something we often struggle to define. We know it’s wrong when it fails to live in these channels but are often not sure how right it needs to be – or what amount of forcing the idea is allowed before its bin fodder.

Nice and tight

Despite needing to stretch and connect the damn thing also needs to be compact enough to be a saleable, rather than a sprawl of desperation to meet the previous two. This is thesaurus land for many, finding encompassing words to reduce down the flabbiness, and its often this stage that benefits from the creative team honing it as part of the creative process. Encapsulation in visual concept can at times save our bacon.

Finally when something presents itself, and checks the above criteria you allow yourself a moment to exhale. In the meantime the next mountain appears on the horizon; how to make this big thing live in the here and now. Its ridiculous – like having a baby, marvelling for 2 seconds and expecting it to start fitting the kitchen –  the little fella keeps swallowing all the Allen keys.

It’s a far from  linear journey and this week has seen us arrive at a place that we should have started from more than once.

I am sure there are a few more  idea assessments and I am going to endeavor to give this a little more time, and perhaps stop distracting myself from my wodge of A3 paper and scribbles I have in front of me.

Following a training trip to Jerusalem – the West End’s current must see play, Michael and I (2 x Hive writers) found a barman in the West End willing to serve a last minute pint, albeit with attitude. They sit down and begin discussing Rooster, the main character in the play Jerusalem.

D: That ending. Were the giants really coming?

M: No.

D: I think they were.

M: It was the old bill. 200 of them coming to chuck him out.

D: Then why did the trees shuffle so much?

M: Maybe they were morris dancing.

D: It was the footfall of the ancients.

M. Gutsy scriptwriting. Ambiguous.
D: Raw.

M. All nature and roots. Rooster was the only one with roots, even though he was getting moved. He was immoveable.

D: He needed the giants to save him. He was human.  Couldn’t express himself. Couldn’t love his kid properly.

M: Limping around, cough getting worse…

D. Couldn’t jump Stonehenge.

M: Council says no.

D: He was losing hope in the end, bleeding away. As hopeless and human as the rest.

M: But bleeding like the lamb of God.

D: Rare blood.

M: Expensive. I wonder what type?

D:  Wood nymph.

M. (Examining his veins) Do you think my blood could be worth 600 quid a pint?

D: We should get down to the donor place.

M: Yeah, one lunchtime.

D: That needle is very, very large.

M: Square up to it dude. Be the Rooster.

D: Giving life to others!

M: Giving drugs to others.

D: They don’t give you drugs in the blood donor caravan, just tea and a biscuit.

M: No-one was coming to save him. He couldn’t walk away.

D: He would be toppled, break off at the roots. He couldn’t save himself.

M: But he saved the goldfish. And he would rise again like the lamb.

D: Restore the clean and green, like the poem.

M: Burn down the new builds. Call his mates over, drink more.

D: Ah, how beautiful to be English.

M: You’re South African.

D: People were attracted to him but they were scared of him.

M: Because he could tell the future.

D:  Then you admit, the magic was real.

M: Ambiguous.

D: Magic, terror, drugs.

M. Realism. Ugly. A modern plague.

D: Do you think they use the same goldfish every night?

Those of us who saw the leadership debate last night  find new conversation this morning. Our future prime minister touted for trust, policy and statesmanship in what was groundbreaking for UK TV.

Other than Alastair Stewart who seemed to be finding inspiration in the Kilroy-Silk school of presentation. I found the whole event  really fascinating.  Dozens of haggled rules governed the evening, but what seems to wrong foot the speakers most was the lack of audience reaction, every crescendo seemed artificial, and lacking the  feedback that the orators required. Rhetoric  in a vacuum seemed totally at odds with the political process.

It’s great to see comparison – side by side, admittedly we were comparing polish, and its not the best way of getting down and dirty into policy details, but I feel I have an better understanding of the personalities of the leaders.

Alongside this has been the  fascination of the role twitter is playing midst this crazy run up. True democracy in action – not quite, but a voice for all with mobile phones seems pretty cool.

Anyway – with this in mind check out a mature approach to supporting your future PM.

Brand induction materials are normally not known to be the most fascinating of documents. Yet are pretty bread and butter stuff for us here, whether writing them or following their guidance.

I have been reviewing the standard approach to these documents for a pitch coming up on Friday and alongside this forming some ideas about some internal training on branding for us bees. Whilst researching away I stumbled across a stack of materials that I thought were pretty cool.

Those of you who are familiar with the puckerisation of cooking in the last 12 years will know Jamie’s rise from chef, to restaurateur to social benefactor charity man. It’s been a fascinating diversification from TV personality into product, into full fledged global phenomenon. As a case study it could be  great to teach, and even easier when you can review the collateral that accompanies the structure of the Jamie offer. I thought it was pretty interesting.  Have a look and see what you think

Along time ago, when we first started, (well 2 years ago then) we wrote a blog post on the meaning response. An Anthropological concept we were introduced to by one of our very smart planners. Its often, and wrongly as the piece explains, called the placebo effect. Anyway, Eric Mead, a magician, is also fascinated. The difference between us is that he takes it to slightly different lengths. If anyone knows how the end of the lecture works, i’d love to know.

SirAlan has a lot to be blamed for – The Apprentice showed us the ugly side of driven people. Slimy, earless, end-justifies-the-means-bastards covered in the blood of a dozen mid-task cut throats. A show confirming the old folk cliché that business talent isn’t what they used to be. I have always wanted to take each episode (especially that one with the fish stall – arhhhh!) and a group of decent people to review what should have been done – make a short film on what might have been a better approach for the fin haired and over gelled. We could call it ‘Mentor’ and it could be a really useful tool for people learning strategy…but Channel 4 pitches aside.

With learning strategy in our minds the last 2 months have seen us kick off Hive Poly, a collection of lectures, articles and workshops aimed at demystifying the world of strategy, decision making and big business for our nearest and dearest bees. I landed this plum job, having previous as unofficial Head of Graduate Recruitment and Training (HOGRAT) at the old place.

If you were to measure my love of strategy in kilos – I could clearly demonstrate unfaithful infatuation. My office at home is filled with dozens of business books given up halfway through pure boredom. Most having been binned as soon as their predictable lust for lecture-tour-nouvelle-terminology sets in.

I still end up swapping most of the chapters for the fundamentals learned running various dodgy ventures in my youth, or whilst watching my folks and their businesses or from a bizarre hunger for military strategy. This love of all military thinking was discovered when I mistakenly woke up in a lecture on Clausewitz. I also discovered Amy Dinsdale that day – happy days. Clausewitz remained, Amy headed off with some EastEnder from Stoke City Football Club. A lesson in engagement and resources there and then.

Anyway – returning to the point. Planning and teaching strategy is something we have always wanted to do here. In our industry its usual done on the job – or done way too late – shame on us. And as I never found anything that could be cut and pasted; at some point we just had to do it. Getting it right is an illusive goal, where to start? What to cover? Get senior strategists in to talk or MBA style graphs and analyses or buy a market stall and stock it for a week with eager strategy beavers? Learn the old school way with crap products in Berwick Street market.

We took a predictable middle road and kicked off reviewing small local industries (Soho – typically providing court case collateral), their approach to a market, positioning, customer group etc and discussing each case by case amongst a group of us. It has been really interesting for me, watching the tools/terms I use all the time being defined and discovered. I have been forced to give thought to my own clarity. To be party to this new group of critical thinkers and their discussions has been really humbling. I would never get a job here.

Today we have just kicked off on the next bit. Upping the academia, by beginning a series of borrowed Harvard MBA case studies. The Harvard approach is pretty cool, a group sit around in a semi circle and get facilitated agreeing or disagreeing with each other. Educational Gold dust. This week featured a forthright company, a new business opportunity and a pretty big management decision. I was lucky enough to get hold of a film of this case study debate amongst the 2006 MBA graduate class – and the conclusions of the HBS elite and our lots are surprisingly aligned. Except “without the bullshit” to quote one of our most terminological intolerant. Apparently the MBAs termed “bait and switch” strategy is just plain lying, and stupidly short term.

For me, I am getting loads from this, the clear parallels from SEXSEXSEX Ltd. and Harvard, our best and their best is proving really insightful and I hope not a bad way of getting a faster understanding of business decision making.

In an increasingly rich information environment, the format in which information is presented is becoming more and more important. Beauty = Cut Through. But will content be ignored as irrelevant if it’s ugly? Will it be received prejudicially in a positive or negative manner because of how it’s packaged? Does content, in the traditional sense, now play second fiddle to its aesthetic framing? Answering yes to these questions poses some problems . . . The internet is worshipped as heralding the democratisation of knowledge, but is this really the case when money can buy you a slick, good-looking website and potentially a more engaged and susceptible/suggestible audience? As always, we’d love to know what you think.

But, on the upside, this emphasis on impact, interaction and beauty can lend itself to a more easily navigable and digestible information environment. For example, this. It’s a visual, interactive representation of the scientific evidence for popular health supplements. 5 minutes playing with this app reveals more about the evidence base (or lack thereof) for health supplements than 5 days on PubMed. And it looks nice too. I like it.

We are growing steadily and need new bees. Three new bees to be more specific. We work pretty title free here – with all of us doing strategy, people development, and relationship management. But broadly we would love to open up a tin of biscuits with the following;

Client lead. The wonder of working an hourglass structure is upon us once more. Fancy selling a strategic approach that is truly different? Are you the one that stands shoulder to shoulder with clients working on gritty challenges? We imagine this person to be GAD, SAD or CSD level. Or have come through client side, fancy a hop and be at Group level. We need a good collection of people management skills, diverse healthcare communications experience and a good understanding of ‘the disciplines’.

Writer. Tasked with making it all come alive. Can you write the socks off a page? Take a brief and make it sing for audiences as diverse as kids with HIV to 67 year old surgeons? You should have a few years experience, and a broad portfolio of words, written for all over the place. Be warned you are joining a team with fierce music views from Chicks on Speed to Fiery Furnaces. (headphones will be provided).

Innovation lover. For our rapidly growing innovation company eBee. This person should love doing it differently, be intolerant of the status quo and want to drive innovation. eBee is an elite team of techs, designers and planners and needing a project facilitator. Organisational skills to the forefront, we imagine that this angel be a senior account manager currently, with strong healthcare background and having a tidy few digital projects under their belt. Do you yearn for a life with a research and development budget, and a chance to push back on ‘the usual’? If you are the geeky one stuck in an integrated health agency and fancy the next step into getting specialist – this is your role.

If being a part of something new sounds great, or having daily challenges and getting to grips with a new strategic approach is for you get in contact. We are on track, doing it really well, and would love you to make us better.

Not for you? Do you know someone that any of these might be perfect for; click the share this button below,  get them to tell us it it came via you. In the spirit of win/win – we are offering a couple of flights and a long weekends worth of decent hotel accommodation to anywhere in Europe for any referral that results in a new bee.

This time of the year sees Angelo, Sapna and Naila, wrap up and submit the Accounts for 2009.

It signals the time when Ian, Jas and I get the chance to sit all down to run through the year, in terms of strategy, people and bean counting – what last year saw and what 2010 will bring.

We do this with everyone across the group and it proves a bit nerve racking for us as its an audience and subject we hold dear to to our hearts.

This annual general meeting is fuelled with a healthy stack of pizzas to make sure that no one faints midst the adrenaline fuelled profit forecast section.

To sum up 2009 we bashed together this quick and nasty vid’ from the hundreds of photos collected on the Flickr account – made us all smile hope you like it.

It had been ages since I have experienced a real buster moment;  rolling healthcare, understanding and emotive awareness in one.

I saw this poster a little while ago at Maidenhead Station, took a photo to remind me to hunt around and I have finally got around to exploring more.

The associated film is a hard hitting view on Motor Neurone Disease,  has been banned from TV despite being one of the best eye openers I have seen. It seem a terrible shame when the reality of a disease is shelved for the public good.

Alongside this film and poster  the featured sufferer Sarah Ezekiel has a site showing life post diagnosis and provided me with a great example both of human spirit and inspiration.

Most of you will know our entire business revolves around the concept of consumer empowered medicine. Patient centricity. It comes by lots of names, but fundamentally it’s about the future role of us as determinants of our healthcare solutions.

Many of you will also be aware of our enthusiasm for TED lectures, and particularly the TEDMED series which revolves around medicine. This morning on the train I watched on my smart phone a lecture by Dr Topol, (not of Fiddler on the roof fame), but about the evolution of wireless technology in medicine. It is fascinating and worth 16 minutes 58 seconds of your time. We are already using these types of technology for a client in chronic clinics, but this really broadens our ambition and the tech team are on it now. Hope you like it.

Thursday saw us at another awards bash, this time the OTC Bulletin Awards. We were delighted to be nominated 6 times for 3 brands across 4 award categories, and chuffed to pick up 2 of them. But the night belonged to alli, one of our founding clients, and a brand that will always hold a special place as a result.  6 brand awards. Congratulations GSK and to the other award winners for the night.

We make loads of films here and usually have 3 or 4 on the go at any one time. From infomercials featuring a patient promoting a website, to what we know as stealamatics – quick films with borrowed content.

Saturday ended with a little over 60 films in progress from yesterday’s content meeting amongst our Crohn’s development team. And the start of the week saw this little gem, produced to open a ‘Changing nature of expertise’ roadshow being given in to a client across the World. I am dead proud of  Charlie and Tom our film guys and the result, taking a dry subject and making it breath with spirit and individuality.  I would love to know your thoughts.

Thomas Goetz is a journalist and executive editor of Wired Magazine. He’s also a really smart guy. His new book, called The Decision Tree, is all about how people can take control of their healthcare using data and tools which are readily available on the internet. It goes above and beyond most other health improvement books in terms of rigour (it’s based on good science) and readability (it’s easy for me to understand) The big idea is this: Our health doesn’t happen all at once; it’s a consequence of years of choices – some large and some small – that combine to make up our health. Sometimes we’ve chosen wisely and we enjoy good health; sometimes we choose poorly and we suffer the consequences. A decision tree, then is a device that can make these decisions more explicit and more obviously something we are actually choosing – it’s a way to externalise, make a note of, the choices that we otherwise make without much thought at all. Research shows that when we actually engage in a decision (when we think it through, even if just for a moment) we tend to make a better decision, defined both as one that we’re more happy with in hindsight and one that bodes a better outcome. Also, we more likely to commit to our choice, to stick by it when faced with the opportunity to change our minds. By engaging with our health consciously and explicitly as a series of decisions, one leading to another, we can become “smarter” and enjoy better health. Click on the two podcasts below – Highly recommended.

Podcast – Introduction to The Decision Tree

Podcast – Chapter 1 of The Decision Tree

SMART awards last week, which combines karaoke, awards, dinner, and Birmingham.

The SMARTs hold a dear place in our heart, being the first awards do we attended when we set hive up two years ago. This time saw a number of bees attend, more than making up (in terms of expenses) for our absence. As Ian and I were in New York, hosting our own cocktail awards ceremony. (with secret booking number in hand we were lucky enough to get into Minetta Tavern http://www.minettatavernny.com/ – the current NY must get table). From our across-the-pond table we were delighted to hear the results of what was a great night for our clients, the team, two of our brands and a load of our work.

Category wise;

Best educational initiative for pharmacists

Nomination                           Nurofen Academy

Winner                                     Alli

Best educational initiative for Pharmacy support staff

Highly Commended            Alli

Best new pharmacy product

Winner                                     Alli

Most effective marketing – large budget

High commendation          Nurofen

Winner                                     Alli

Best overall brand

Nomination                             Alli

Winner                                     Nurofen

A great night by all accounts. With many celebrating until early in the morning. Judging by the office the morning after – the do still maintains its high hedonistic standards.

This is a version of an article submitted to Pharmaceutical Marketing this week. Having been delightfully asked by the guys at PM for a thought piece on the future of agencies. Post submission –  I find myself being all a little A-level, that feeling when you have just submitted an essay and you wait eagerly for a C+. Anyway have a look at it early;

“My approach to this article is symbolic of much of the way client service business has evolved.  Life’s got full on, busy, juggling drive and discussion. I am desperately keen not to write a piece that’s another repetition – you know the world according to X approach, beginning with a story about how  a pause for thought has been remarkable, leading to a ‘cut and paste’ about globalisation, silos and some boxes and arrows.  To deviate from this course seems quite risky and frankly I don’t want to seem an idiot in front of you.  I don’t want to be the “you’re that guy, the idiot from hive”. My task is to secure succinct biting observation that truly connects.  A couple of scene setters firstly, I have never written a thought piece for a magazine before and only have 6 hours until flight BA185 lands in New Jersey and I have to file this copy. This pressurised environment is further aided when the small world we work in came crashing down on me.  Either side of me on this luckiest of flights are two potential clients. Both of whom I know, and each one is dead keen to read and review this as it’s written.  It’s being termed ‘helping out’.

“The traditional role of sage, always ends in a stuffing” is a phrase I wish my mother said, unfortunately she is from New Maldon so rarely quotable. With this in mind I imagine you having read loads of these. I imagine you’re sitting there, laptop and docking station, lanyard, and mock-ups scattered round a cubicle. Cesar like, thumb ready to be down-ended, at the faintest sign of a hastily written article.

Anyway I have hundreds of words to write all from 10F and two eager editors either side of me. How should  the agency evolve?

The death of the silo

It’s in no doubt that times have changed massively.  I have been lucky enough to work across all the usual silos in both big and small agencies.  I cannot help but think that we all in healthcare have supported and perpetrated a myth. From the agency side the silo simply doesn’t exist in the way many would have you believe. Whether by audience or discipline, the uniqueness and homogenous nature of advertising, medical education, PR is a fallacy. All agencies cross each other when it comes to many of the core activities required by a modern client. I am not talking about getting an ad man to run an advisory board or the PR lead to come up with an ad concept, but in the more grey activities. The communications business has diversified massively since the 1950s and continues to do so. Next time you have an all agency meeting ask who should be best placed to do the patient pack or a speaker meeting direct mailer. Or if you are having a particularly tough day wave the budget busting 100 page monograph artwork and watch the solid nature of silos in action as all clamber for this margin busting cherry of a project. The plain fact is that our silos are converging, with a few distinct specialized projects owned by a specific silo. This post silo confusion where all expect to be able to do everything should be a pretty rough time for all.  Perhaps we all can expect to merge – becoming healthcare communications agencies. Masters of nothing; all offering the same menu of services, competing on price. The onus is on us to realise this and find ways of driving differentiation between us.

The monograph meeting game leads nicely to the need for agencies to understand our businesses better. We in the past have not been very good at it. The rise of procurement and what seems like a new breed of operations director has been brilliant at forcing us to know where we make our money, to transparently cost our business and move away from licked finger and prevailing wind estimations. This is still forcing many to a new sense of honesty to what the business actually is. Our margin should be delivered through selling time, whether that be for thinking, doing or managing processes. Procurement have rightly prevented us from becoming shopkeepers and marking up pass through costs, but still loads needs to be done to professionalise our sources of income. Artwork is now a commoditised service, and for many a great source of income, with some agencies deriving as much as 50% of their margin from this. Is that really right? An output that’s so vulnerable being so crucial? It makes you worry for the business. It’s time for agencies to start transparently outsourcing artwork, operating tiered costing models  and developing  capabilities across the world to reduce down these costs. Enabling clients to do more, with the same budgets and get the value they demand.

Agencies are a diverse bunch ranging from the enveloping borg of the networks to the boutique creative shops.  The need to reengineer the model that we all have grown used to is dead clear. Pyramid shaped agencies that are run by few, with masses of junior implementers have to evolve. Agencies that specialise in knowing audiences need to listen to their clients more. Time and time again we hear from agency changers that they need senior people day to day. Implementation is a given, (you get fired for screwing it up, but not hired for it) but strategic support and decision making mid implementation can no longer be considered second class to the yearly brand plan day.  It’s a pretty straightforward conclusion that if you consider strategy mobile, and it needing to evolve alongside the environment then partners to this evolution need to be present, to support and evolve in real time.  The big kids are needed on, and not just in the business. The current agency approach most adopt drives the best strategists and most senior talent up and inward looking, spending an increasing amount of time managing the business.  Reporting up to the holding company, sorting out operations, succession planning, staff development all moving the most valuable players away from the coal face.

Loads of other industries face this challenge. When you describe the typical agency approach to a partner at a law firm they laugh at you, and rightly so. In the legal world partners are the blood of the business and kept freed up to face clients and drive value 90% of their time. These partners are supported by teams but lead the relationship. Learning is done internally, the machine is set up to front the most valuable, look after the rising stars and discard those who are not going to make this grade. Its food for thought perhaps that there are no B teams amongst the big 5.

The rise of digital has been the cause for dozens of slides delivered to loads of marketeers. Web 2.0, augmented reality, avatars, virtual this and that, ad infinitum. Our digital world and the increasing sophistication of our audiences will force agencies to start to consider digital not as a channel or (at its very worse) a production function, but as glue for everything we deliver. Consumer closeness, tracking and ROI all are facilitated by this rush for 0s and 1s. But we need platforms and integration not things. Those agencies that are going to be mega are going to be the ones who see digital for what it is – a seamless place to embed all activities and facilitate community. The world of digital is moving so fast that risk is inherent in its delivery, as producers of digital the risk must start to be taken in house at agencies. It’s the agencies job to push the boundaries not just borrow what Skittles are doing. Next time you see a presentation touting channel genius ask the biggie question of your crew in this storm; “In this ever changing world of digital innovation how much do you spend on R&D?” If the answer is nothing then you are already behind. Your agency should be sharing risk to deliver their margin and your ROI.

Increasingly our clients are alone. Head count pressure and the change to the model all have produced a new type of brand leader.  Too often under huge pressure, under supported and at risk. The clients we know and love are the ones that know this and want not just stuff done but help and partnership. As the need to differentiate brands theoretically grows we will find that so will the ways we understand problems, and develop solutions.  Move away from off the shelf solutions forces agencies to change and be more open, not have all the solutions, and be happy to open up their teams to work alongside clients to understand and co-create. This is a big ask for an industry that often has pretended that their ideation process is a black box of inspiration and genius – rather that good people slogging hard, and building and idea from humble beginnings. This is so true with more complex projects that result from pseudo briefings, and client/agency development teams working on prototypes for testing with audiences.

I am sure much of the above has been expected. It seems really clear that we need to evolve our model, man up in terms of transparency and define what business we are in. Most importantly for me is that I see great clients, good agency talent striving to do good work, often despite the model they work in. For me the ultimate aim is for agencies to be seen as Trusted Partners, on the inside, rather than service providers on the out. Anything that gets in the way of this simple aim should either be questioned or set alight.

With 20 minutes to land and for the skippers amongst you. In a small bag of macadamia nuts the future of agencies is as the follows; create your own silo, move the pyramid to an hour glass, insist on working with clients not for them, put you best front of house and keep them, fire your B team, jettison the commoditised business, show all how you make your money and be prepared for co-creativity.”

Fingers crossed it gets published.

In marketing and management literature, the space in time when a customer and provider of a product meet is often called the service encounter. This encounter in the world of cars forced BMW to take servicing back into the fold. Desperate to get back an interaction that was far from Ultimate. And it contributed massively to Apple and Nike forming stores that were all encompassing controllable experiences.

With the service encounter increasingly front of mind for us, and in the past viewed as out of our remit, we seem to be spending a load of time understanding the many forms that interaction takes. The insight is being derived from mock-up consultations, anthropology style participant observation, even the more traditional scenarios and advisory boards.

With this geography now within the marketeers remit, it seems ever expanding. Interaction mapping within healthcare is loads more complicated especially in chronic disease treatments. Which prove a minefield of sub optimal interactions interrupting the brand experience.

It all proving interesting stuff. Expert/HCP marketing as an extension of consumer strategy – whatever next!

I plumbed new depths of ‘trusted partner’ yesterday. I grabbed a quick lunch with a client prior to having wash up and 2010 planning meeting on a big web project we have just launched.  The poor chap  had managed to chuck himself down a frozen hill badly fracturing a shoulder and near breaking a wrist. MRIs and many specialists later he finds himself trussed up and pretty incapable.

Lunch saw him in great pain, choosing a suitable starter (queen scallops), and then moving on to sausage and mash. No problems on the starter – ideal for the one armed. His main forced us to new levels of agency / client partnership when I had to cut up his food into bite sized pieces.

His brief to cut up into 3 pieces, was soon taken although those cut into 4 pieces proved much more elegant – a classic example of delivering beyond expectations.

It made me think of a section of a recent online procurement RFI that asked us “what additional non-billable services have we offered clients”.  I shall upload this perfect example next time.

Travelling back this afternoon from meeting to run through pre pitch questions created an unexpected connection.

The pitch deals with a delicate area; pediatric medicine, specifically the care of someone’s baby during a pretty terrible time. We discussed to great and interesting lengths the amount of work that had been done to define audience understanding, and a set of language and terms with which the campaign can rest on. The importance of tone, terminology and permission was pretty front of mind.  The brief requires us to be delicate with the way we approach this. Take our time and get it right. Test everything, consider partnership the only way. Tone down the direct.

Midst this thought, the 4pm train back to Paddington was besieged with school kids heading back home and the proximity of my thoughts and  the similarity of carriage d sprung forth. Everyone around me was enveloped in what was almost a foreign language. It makes me feel old to admit this, (I have an Iphone you know!) but the terminology, slang and banter pushed home a thought. That regardless of audience wrapped around each group is always complex knit of terms, behaviours and permissions that tend to need unpicking prior to outsiders diving in a starting a conversation.

I learnt a couple of new terms that I shall be peppering into conversations with ‘88’ (our newest account member, who happens to have been born about the same time as I was drinking Thunderbird in Rock Park with Claire Argle from Pilton).

The delightful ‘Madgic’ (sic) emphasis on the Madonna, meaning; far from delightful and used by a slutty Gem to describe “double science and citizenship” to Carmine who recounted a fine tale when she ‘did blazer’. Doing blazer referred to when you had hit year 12, went to grab your phone out of your blazer pocket only to realise that you were now in year 12 and wear ‘ohm clothes’, not school uniform. A simple mistake, showing how ‘11’ you still were.

Totally delightful. My  lesson in respecting your audience all on the 4pm from Maidenhead. I am off to sew leather patches on my elbows.

PS. It best not to type ‘Year 12 school girls’ and many other similar terms into Google in the pursuit of images for your blog.

I always want more art in my life. Maybe it’s because I can’t draw. Maybe it’s because my eyes get hungry the way most stomachs do.

Last year saw me being surrounded by more art than ever before and inspired by some extraordinary artists.

Did you see the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Hayward last year? I never went in, but loved each walk over Waterloo Bridge, seeing another isolated statue hidden on a roof top. Inspired, we launched our first Web 2.0 patient site with a mannequin installation around the client’s head offices. Andrew has magnanimously offered to let us keep one here at National House. Thank you so much!

Lichenstein’s Pop Art inspired another great campaign. Characters whose communications were limited to thought bubbles, became the patient voice in the HIV campaign we built.

We’re now working with a famous animation artist in New Jersey – my favourite bit of the day is our lunchtime review meetings. It’s a true art-science collision project. Left Brain. Right Brain. Love it. Satiates eye-hunger like nothing else.

Take a look at this, it’s a parody of a brand with iconic status and iconic ads, from a brand that couldn’t be more different. Its new media meets old in a style all so familiar (that in itself is extraordinary). Brave to do, beautiful in its craft and a minute of your time. I don’t know whether it was commissioned by them or not, but suspect the fact I received this virally suggests it will help both brands. Hope you like it.