Hive Health

Pull your ad spend, your work is done. Genius

I was avidly watching X-Factor the other night (Go TreyC!) and was delighted to see Yeo Valley’s  TV advertising debut.

Great to see the organic brand – best known for tasty yoghurts – not taking itself too seriously and sending up the rap genre with silver cows on their Massey Ferguson tractors.

For those of you who’ve never been to a sales conference you are missing a treat. There is nothing like the vibe you get from a group of people who sell. They are enthusiastic, skeptical, quick witted, quick judging, delightful, challenging and fun all at once.

In this country the conferences tend to be 100ish, take that to the US and you get upto 350-500. And given they are Americans; it’s like a UK version on speed. It really is an experience. Now, I was invited to such an event last week, in Orlando, the home of entertainment, (or more like merchentainment), which I accepted with a healthy dose of nervousness. “The guy from the agency who made our materials” was my intro. See above for reasons to be nervous!

Now the reason for the blog is not the event itself, but the way the management brought the team together in the evening. How do you get 350 people to work together, compete, have fun, compete, oh, and did I mention compete? The one thing about

sales people is they like to win. Well the answer it turns out is to cook.  Yeah, my reaction too. Imagine this. Everyone given an apron as they enter a room, the colour of your apron is your team (first job done, mix everyone up). Secondly give everyone a set of knives (health and safety a bit more grown up there) and a gas ring. Thirdly give them a chef. Someone who can direct and show, but not do. Now add in a time limit, a limited supply of ingredients and a whopping prize and a bell and its ready steady cook on speed. It was awesome. Now I can’t cook, my wife will vindicate that, but somehow every team had to produce 5 starters and 5 mains from the trolley of ingredients everyone was clambering for. 40 minutes later we produced this:

Now, granted there was a little bit of wine involved and sadly we didn’t win, but the room was buzzing (did I mention honey was the secret ingredient everyone had to use) and the winners gloated and the rest claimed stitch up. I have been to many of these events over the years, but this was by far the best team event I’ve seen. 350 people, common purpose, adrenalin, posturing and then bad dancing. Brilliant.

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?

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.