Posts tagged "agency"

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.

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.

Wow what a year. As we tidied away our desks on the 23rd it gave me a chance to reflect on what has been a pretty whirlwind year for us at hive. In place of  a long state of the nation style post (NY resolution No.3) and having had my expense spreadsheet signed off by Jas and sat for our end of year figures with FD Angelo. I thought it would be good to review the year in numbers.

So here goes. 2009 saw;

1 patient centered strategic approach
28 early adopting brand managers, community liasions and communications managers
7 client companies
17 pitches
4 losses
12 wins
1 decision still missing in action
100% of clients retained
1 new technology agency born - ebee
1 new office in Soho, London
1 new office in New York
75 blog posts
16 cases of wine
2 biggie parties
250GB+ of data (new server just installed) 
22 dozen external meetings
19 workshops
10 great newbees
1 huge thank you to everyone we have had the pleasure to work with in 2009

Ps. Would it be to much to add in 4 caipirinhas, and one very wet brazil ? I write this from down the road from Rio, where I am seeing the New Year in with a bang. At last 1 proper holiday  

Have a great New Year, looking forward to catching up with you all in 2010.

Last week we went to Berlin for the Christmas party. It’s because last week was so outrageous that this blog is only being written now.

Jas toiled for weeks on the plan – Bratislava? Devon? Stockholm?, Soho?  Tim’s house? Guillaume’s Circus?….

….We ended up in Berlin. Leaving Wardour Street in the morning, 18 of us piled on to the bus. 18! It’s amazing to believe what a huge family we have become in such a short space of time. All bright eyed and excited, we set out on our German mission.

Arvinder Grewal, of new found fame in channel 4’s The Family just happened to be our chauffeur – we tried to be cool, but we were all starstruck, each requesting  a signed photo.

By the afternoon we were sipping Gluhwein in the Berlin Winter Wonderland, by the evening Jas was shaking booty on the dance floor. Michael had his first night in a legitimate hotel.

It was great to have the two new Claires, Bhupi and Krystal join us for their first Hive party. And, Bhupi in particular taught us how to party – so hard – that when the alarm went off at 7 to catch the bus home, he slept straight through. And when we knocked on his door, he slept straight through, and when we rang his mobile, he slept straight through and when the hotel reception called his room phone, there was still no answer and when our Ryanair flight took off from Berlin he was still sleeping like a baby.

Awesome night. And Bhupi now knows Berlin airport like the back of his hand.

Next year we’ll head to Bognor Regis.

We offered the use of our offices to Epilepsy Action early this year as a handy central location for their weekend chair meetings. In return, we’ve received some key insights from the team as to how patients can be helped to cope with the condition. Since then, we have become firm friends with Barbara, Janet, Marie, Mary, Phil and the rest of their London forum.

We had the pleasure of seeing the group on Saturday as they came to the new Hive offices to hold their end of year meeting. I thought it started well, arriving in plenty of time to let them into the offices…until I realised that I had left the office keys at home. A mad call to Kate hoping she was in town, a mad dash from Kate to drop off her keys! Thanks Kate. We all decamped to Starbucks next door in the meantime.

All dramas sorted, 14 people settled into our boardroom to hold their meeting. My husband Simon and my two boys headed to Hamleys for some hard core toy shopping. Three hours later, I rejoined Barbara and the gang for Christmas nibbles and drinks. It was great to see the guys again and we look forward to sharing our space with them in 2010.

This week has been one of trains, literally I’ve been to Hull and back. Via Colchester. In fact I am on one now – Peterborough is whizzing by my window.

When I get a week with more than a days worth of travel I make sure I have my bag (the new and awesomely well designed Eastpak Pacer available at their delightful Carnaby St. store) packed with a business read.

This week What Would Google Do? Has been my company. I think Google is probably one of only a few organisations we could seriously ask this question of, without answering; ‘be smug and self satisfied’. Its changed business, moved the rules of market places, and I hate the word but I think a paradigm has shifted. Ahhhhhhh!

Anyways, the book looks at the economy, demand and supply and the whole long tail economics thing that we are all familiar with. But the section that shouted out at me was a statement that has prompted something I think we might try.

Jeff Jarvis, author of WWGD, and made famous for Dell Hell, says that in this world of interconnected customers- kill your ad agency. We produce ads, so get your hands off that door knob and cancel the cab. I think Jarvis is referring to the behemoths, the ‘advertising is at the heart of what we do’, 30 sec TVC are the only love guys, you know square glasses and a 7^th floor pool filled with  moccachoccachino.

With this blood on your hands, he suggests re-engineering the model, (please remember to wash bloodied hands prior to handling models) and making customer service the only focus. He shouts at us to consider this the new marketing. For us to strive for the best and let the interconnected market place champion this awesome service. Let the buzz create and drive your brand. In a market where interconnectness is a bit wonky – then I guess you could encourage it. This is what got me thinking.

It’s a good read, I barely remember Doncaster, and it made me wonder whether we could create a way for our clients to assess us publically, after every job, so that we could share the real us, the experience,  and move away from the powerpoint us. Perhaps it could grow and all agencies could be part of this showing the experience of working with them.

I would love a point of view from anyone who uses agencies out there. Is this feasible? Would it be worthwhile? Could agencies bin their ad spends, and rely on a platform of service visibility?

PS. Want a real example of  this new interconnected world? Now this blog has been published, search for ‘Eastpak pacer’. I’m there – bigging it up  Google P1, 6 down. No need for an ad – just a quality product, provided faultlessly with me and my opinion. How cool is that as a demo?

Did you ever visit us on Regent Street? Did you catch any of the guides’ commentary from the tour bus below? Then you know that Soho, a former royal hunting ground, is named for a huntsman’s cry – SoHOOOO!

Now the clarion has called us to W1F.  Monday morning, after convening in a café, we were led through the doors of National House, 60-66 Wardour Street.

We walked into our new office on the 4^th floor. It’s great. Come see.

So much thanks again to Jas, Tim and Ian who chose the premises wisely. And spent all weekend shifting, cleaning, sticking. We have a much larger, shinier foorspace now, art on the walls, lots of light. Plenty of storage. Our own boardroom, a perfect little kitchen and two charming loos. I would happily live here.

The bits
My favourite bit is the nap/ reading area. It’s a quiet corner with about 30 foam cubes that you can arrange into a bed, or a fort.

The faithful pink sofa, that lived at Tim’s when our old premises got too crowded, is back in business

Unfortunately we couldn’t get the vending machine up the stairs/ lift. We are looking into crane hire.

Kinsey is still hankering after a piano. Pipe down girl.

We’ve got a microwave and a sweet dishwasher, and a new fridge called Candy. Michael keeps threatening to bring in his Breville (grease) devil.

1950 steel lockers arrive end of October.
The launch
So we spent our Monday all energized and excited by the new space. It was hard to work with a party flirting at a distance like the brush of an intrepid fox. We’d been told to look sharp, but the evening plans were secret. At 6.30 we went to a cocktail bar. On the way, I looked in the Starbucks window to check my face out. Someone sitting at the counter ducked out of my sight. I thought this unusual, but my attention was diverted to the right by Justin Lee Collins.

Anyway, we had a few cockies and shot the breeze. Two hours later, Tim made some calls behind his sleeve. Time to wend through the streets…back to National House. Our office had been transformed into a restaurant. A handsome silver service situation with candles, flowers, wine. Tim’s wonderful sister Nicky stood by in chef ensemble…guess who was evading my sight in the coffee shop!

Wine was poured, starters delivered:  tuna carpaccio on a futon of baby leaves. Nicky’s walnut bread was stunning. She served up beautiful beef fillet with silky fennel and creamy potato roundels. Two tarts turned up for dessert: passionfruit and chocolate amaretto.

The time, the place, the moon – all perfect.

The office turned out to be a great dancefloor. The nap area came in handy as a chillout space. The cubes tend to separate if used for bouncing.

I got home at 3.30am.

We are still working our way through the cheeseboard, the cakes and the whole honeycomb. Jas threw the biscuits away yesterday. Everyone got the hump so she got more. So in a way, we haven’t stopped celebrating.

We arrived in our offices on Regent St. on January 2, 2008.  We were met by the cable guy, and a chap bearing four desks and a Viking direct man.

The afternoon saw us laying Cat5E  under the floor, relaying it properly and me running around Regent Street looking for someone to make us a giant wall sticker to give our space a little something, a place hive could call home.

Two dozen launches later it’s time to move, and my view is obscured by boxes and bubble wrap and Debbie disappearing under a mountain of shredded paper.

The new office is taken shape, oak, foam, glass, plastic, and dozens of wall stickers being applied. The next 72 hours sees us move from a place we once thought of as a massive office, and now consider to be too small, too cramp and not central enough.

Ten minutes ago we took the over dramatic step of taking the wall sticker down to survey the damage done to the deposit. It took me a little by surprise, but I am a little sad, this office is our first, the street has been good to us, hosted loads of friends, and sheltered our current band of people.

Monday morning sees us unveil the new Soho office to the gang. It’s a jump from what we have got used to – light, windows on all sides, rooftop views, 6 times bigger, much more what the team deserve. I hope everyone loves it, it’s a dramatically different vibe, and having been in charge of build and funkying it up – I am a little nervous –  this lot are a tough crowd.

Give us a day to get settled in – pop in and see for yourself. With our new space we able to go back to our old share-the-space ethos and of course you all are welcome, pop in – the biscuits are on us.

As many of you know we move offices at the end of the week to our new London office in Soho. Not content with the organisation chaos that comes with one office move (ask Tim what a dishwasher looks like these modern days) we have also been finalising arrangements for New York. This is it, our other new office. It’s our first formal entrée into the US. Based in Chelsea, with great views and full agency facilities we now have a lovely space in Manhattan. Many thanks to Roxanna, Kate and Lois for helping us. As ever, you are all welcome to beapart there too. For now though we don’t have people permanently based there so London is still your best bet. But watch this space because we aim to change that very soon.

Ian rocked into the office this morning, fresh from a PM magazine all agencies round table shindig with a number of agency leaders, MDs etc.

These mornings are a feast of fun for us in the office, a usually calm, collected and considered Ian, can barely contain his overnight simmer. He positively is busting for a chat, and Jas and I can almost feel him ready to boil over.

Anyone who encounters Ian will know it’s pretty hard to get a rise out of him (I can lay claim to managing to do this almost once – in an incident, involving my 6^th Nokia N95 in 2 weeks and a pint of cider. Although Vodafone’s dismal approach to customer service is co-culprit)

This need for an outburst lasted all through our first-thing-Friday People meeting until he could take it no longer. No AOB? BANG. The topic of this rare eruption?  Innovation, advertising agencies, the nature of conceptual creativity i.e. the ability to do a different more connective ad, versus innovation – the ability to provide solutions our clients are not expecting. Jas shouted INCOMING and we all hit the deck.

What stuck me – is the clear struggle Ian was having with wanting desperately for the industry, or more specifically agencies to grow up and evolve and stop boring each other with tales of clients, late adoption blah, blah (anyone still awake?), With the pleasure he was getting from seeing innovation being falsely encapsulated by an obsession with the ad, what goes into an A4 page, and whether illustrative style, or a bloody banner can be seen as ground breakingly progressive. blah blah blah.

I think what we were viewing can encapsulated by the term Schadenfreude. In fact I know it is because I have just spent ten minutes on Google trying to spell it. I was eventually able to confirm this is the case and that the term definitely isn’t German for pork chop.

I think one could argue that Communications holding companies buy ‘established innovation’ i.e change that’s margin friendly. Be that agencies that show high levels of creativity, an unusual regional speciality, or  integration model. It certainly was the case with the three I have been under (although I can only speak for healthcare). Their model is set up to buy novel agencies at the top of their game, and make sure that they keep doing what they are good at, never deviating too far from a formula that got them purchased. No risks and certainly no investment without return.

I was told that the agency world’s approach to innovation was ‘bloody stupid’ by a clever  guy, Craig, I often sit  next to at the  Company of Cutlers in Sheffield. He put it a bit like this; his world; the stainless steel industry is split into revenue from commoditized and specialist products. And all the players in the market know this. (To me it’s a bit like artwork, design, traffic and the sexier agency products services). They know that the commodity business is always under margin pressure and threat (when was the last time a page of artwork cost £400?). And they know that the specialist products migrate to becoming the commodised ones (conceptual writers at medical writer rates).

Sheffield steels answer to this reality is to set up R&D, cap the maximum margin and devote the remaining resource to innovation, partner with academia and the great and the good to push constantly what drives ultimate value – providing services and products that are first to market. Find ‘unused to’ products that meet existing needs but do so either more efficiently or in better way.

Given this I couldn’t figure out why agencies don’t have R&D. Why don’t they someone tasked with research, with finding new ways of solving established problems.

Is it because 20% margin and 4 out of 5 on the annual review is fine, and innovation requires investment and less short term returns?

I’ve been sitting here waiting to type this blog for about twenty minutes, trying to decide what to write about the launch of eBee.

I could mention the guerrilla marketing at the digital marketing awards.

I could mention that it was a night of firsts for me – first company I’ve launched, first time I’ve ever used spray paint, first time I’ve been asked to remove it.

I could tell you about all the people who have  made this possible: clients, patients, a team of inspirational, passionate individuals and the 5 months spent pre launch collecting amazing technologies to play with and developing the technical development capacity to make them work for brands.

I could tell you how lucky I feel to have been asked by the founders of Hive (the mothership) to turn a business concept founded on ‘borrowing’ innovation from other industries, making it healthcare relevant and turning them into reality.

But instead I’ll just invite you to visit and you can decide what you’d like to know for yourself

When we started, 4 of us sat in the big room we now find cramped and jammed. We often catch one of us casting a gaze from the photocopier beaming with pride at the people we have and the culture we have built.

As mentioned in a previous blog we move next month, in the mean-time we have more people than desks, and its changing the way we work. Our laptops are becoming our place of business and the location is too often, (for me anyway) Flat White in Brewer Street, a client’s office, a random desk  or even the kitchen table at home.

We are finding our mobile devices are defining how efficiently we work. The availability of bandwidth is trumping office space. We’re all becoming digital nomads. No longer tethered to Ethernet cables but free to work in whatever space we can get hold of or whatever space free our minds most.

The area we work in – Soho is geared for this. Everywhere has Wi-Fi, every table has a laptop, a latte and a nomad. Yesterday saw me grab a table for an hour proposal writing , co-create a tender document with a partner agency in Chiswick, join Kate on a conference call to chat through a web project, and Skype our  illustrators in Kolkata  who are running tight on a deadline due to their freak weather conditions.  How mad is that? All from a wooden table with the best coffee in London.

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…

All ‘new’ industries strive for legitimacy, a movement that is often accompanied by an entire lexicon of terminology and process. For a long time we have been developing terminology and processes that seek to formulate an approach, clarify our position and differentiate our offer. The world of  demand chains,  brand onions and disruption is one that all clients and agencies occupy.

Case in point is the numerous phrases that describe essentially the same thing — brand essence. Some networks have gone so far as to trademark their terms and the processes they use for determination. End result = terminology galore and as much process explanation as strategic clarification.

Spending some time on holiday last week – I revisited Kotler (it was this or be left with a book about a girl in love with a complex man she couldn’t love in the world within which she had to live and her struggle to make do with an empty life with a simple but good man who provided everything he could but not enough for her to be happy) – a comparitively magnificent book on marketing that I first brought to enlighten me when I first came into the industry. It’s a dry read and although wanders into the theoretical it’s pretty refreshing in its lack of terms.

I like Kotler’s steadfast use of the term Unique Selling Proposition (in my mind a potential forerunner of brand essence), a concept developed and named by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company. A 50 year old term that has stood the test of time and been universally adopted. Some argue that with the advent of product parity it has evolved into the Emotional Selling Proposition. ESP is certainly a concept much closer to our common understanding of “brand essence,” as its focus is on the brand’s intangible differentiator. Although I find it hard to believe that me-too products are a recent phenomenon I think that the ‘U’ still stands up whether that be a feature led ‘portability’ or due to some emotional unmet need like ‘popularity’. Either way to be unique emotionally or functionally is still to be different.

This book seems to either have been penned prior to or has ignored the multitude of copyrighted verbs describing the logical processes for develop brands by agencies needing with some irony, you guessed it – a USP. I would love to see each agencies model worked through with their own brand – please someone in procurement construct this legend! Two birds (process understanding & agency offer) with 1 stone. Please, please, discounted please.

Reviewing the alternatives to Rosser’s, here is a collection of words and phrases used to describe what is unique about a brand:  Brand Essence, Brand Soul, Brand Heart, Brand Mantra, Brand Promise, Signature Strength, Core Strength, Core Attribute, Brand Description, Brand Differentiator, Brand Uniqueness, Brand Individuality, Brand Meaning, Brand’s Central Nature, Brand Proposition…

Any more?

 As usual Tom Fishburne’s nailed the process here.

Ps. A note to purists: I admit that there may be shades of difference between some of these terms. You could make a case that brand personality and brand promise, for example, mean two completely different things. My point is that the differences are largely semantical and do little to advance the clarity of the branding process.

We just won a pitch. A product we have been chasing for months. Hive day one started with a call to this marketing manager then I made up 2 office chairs to sit on. Seriously, its been this long.

It’s a biggie, a parent proof product. “Oh I’ve heard of that” replacing “What’s Commerce Anxiety Disorder”. My mum even wanted to star in the behavioural change application mock-up.  She got her dream. She had to be 67 and meek and mild – which caused a few issues as she has been 47 for as long as I can remember.

Today we visited a big glass building with fountains and manicured gardens, went to discuss examples of our work that correlated to their problem. “Makes sense but where has it worked before” – A cry we can now answer with examples and metrics.  Team back at the office nervously waiting. Hoping we closed the deal. Jackets on and shoes all shiny. We got it. This afternoon I made up our 15^th and 16^th chair.

Our new clients mentioned the passion (probably more nerves and need than anything) and about how different our offer is. It got me thinking and wandering around the web on my return in post win daze and stumbled back across a blog I haven’t been to for ages http://headrush.typepad.com/. The blog champions passion in business. The blog that I crashed into covered the difference between what we now consider “old-school marketing” (otherwise known as The Four P’s — product, price, promotion, and placement — heavy on advertising and “branding”) and the “neo-marketing”  which we consider our end of town.

Here are a few ideas on some of the differences all a light read on a Monday am.

I have always loved the Communiqué Awards.

I attended as a young receptionist in 1997, when a last min cancellation led to a free place. Packed with PRs, booze and disco I was awed by the scale of such an event.

>>FastForward a considerably amount of time.

The evolution of our agency can be tracked by our approach to awards do’s. Year 1 saw us crash them all. The SAS of healthcare – business cards in hand, old contacts to be hunted out – driving business, mindful of our outgoings. I even remember being particularly proud of myself when I was thrown into an awards do in Chelsea by the security whilst pretending to be drunk and lost outside. As I brushed myself off and walked into the tent, I saw Jas coming out of the kitchens carrying a tray and Ian vaulting the outside wall, undergrowth-covered suit and all. Brilliant.

This year sees us attend the multitude of do’s a little more legitimately – We even paid for a table! I hope we never lose the ability to act like we did in the early days; efficient, streetwise and none too serious..

The Communiqués this year saw over 300 PR and Med Ed entries received and judged by a panel of communications professionals. One of those entries was for us.

The submission date for Best Small Consultancy landed during a day when it all was happening for us – two pitches, 1 review and a rather boozy board meeting. Staggeringly the resulting page saw us be shortlisted to a list of 4 agencies.

The subsequent interview, held with 15 big hitters, covered such delights as people, differentiation, margin and funding. We emerged eventually, confirmed as finalists. That surreal afternoon –Ian, Jas and I answering questions with seeming sense – was one we have recounted to each other many times. Thoroughly enjoyable – it all made so much sense.

Last night we attended the awards do to hear the announcement of winner. Our whole team was crammed on a table with more champagne than the table could bear. The tension built and the announcement was made and guess what?

WE DIDN’T WIN!

There is nothing worse than seeing a whole table disappointed at a result, gutted. Despite being totally over the moon to be a finalist, and to be highly commended,  it’s still a punch when you lose.

However, we did manage a clear victory in a dance-off with the award winners and will just have to make do with Highly Commended.

We hope being in the finals gives new clients the confidence to try our offer, to pick up the phone and let us share our approach. We really are a little different.

Damn. 

Every now and then we head out to see an individual talk about some mildly relevant subject. Last night – saw us be invited to Super Contemporary and a few hours with Wayne Hemingway – talking to 50 of us about design, inspiration, and life.

The Design Museum has joined forces with Beefeater 24, to bring a series of talks and gin to celebrate the fearlessly progressive spirit of London’s greatest creative minds, past and present. We were lucky enough to be invited along. Read more about Wayne here.  

Wayne was pretty insistent that us in the creative world;

1.  Stick to our guns and hold on to our principles despite the risk of missing out on short term cash. Do what you want to do, not what you need to do. 
2. Know our customer as well as we can. Research them, be with them, and understand them. For God’s sakes don’t hide in the office. See the white of their eyes. 
3. Understand that environments need to be built that fosters creativity. Gives space to make mistakes. Let the kids do it their way. Expect anyone to be able to do anything, give them the freedom to conclude themselves.
4. Champion the evolution. Humans instinctively want something better. They know when they are making do, OK is not a natural human state. But only very few ‘intolerants’ make a difference and change it. So be one.

At no time did regulatory, PI, sales aids or brand planning feature. But the 2 hours was so valuable and a real delight. How can this be beaten? Well – the next one sees us with Paul Smith. We have a couple of tickets spare – shout if you want to come along –  beapart@hivehealth.com.

Guillaume is here, our new art director and a maestro of multimedia and graphic design. He is an inspired artist, working away from the dayjob on a number of digital projects.

Guillaume stood out in interviews as a most talented, kind individual with a fascinating career backdrop. He has worked in places as diverse as Mexico, where he re-designed the façade of the World Trade Centre, to the British Council, where he loitered on the contemporary art scene.

We were  firstly attracted to his digital expertise: what clinched it is that he is also  a fantastic art director. He has worked for the likes of Damien Hirst,  BMW, and some jeans company called Levi’s…and loads more.

He is getting on with some great work for our nascent digital business e-Bee. Thanks Guillaume for joining us at Hive, and for putting up nicely with us calling you “Giam”.

Last night saw us all head up to Taste of London, a brilliant food filled evening. Despite a security alert which caused late opening, all of us celebrated having a great few months filled with cracking work for great brands.

We sampled dozens of dishes, favourites being; the sardine pie, scallop and cauliflower puree from Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, the Pork from the Cinnamon Kitchen. Pretty special English Chapel Down Pink fizz started us off with a dozen or so oysters and Guillaume our digital guru ended us with viognier that was from just down the road from his parents house.

The word is civil, a very English display. We were ready, leaning out the window to see real “anarchists”. A peaceful, orderly, if noisy parade. I particularly liked the man on his chitty chitty bang bang bike with wings, kites and sign saying “love your mum”.

Well it’s been a year and we felt like a new digital wardrobe. Here we are, a more immediate site with a few new-bee elements to help us introduce ourselves to you better.

We have another first – a healthcare agency twitter. A service for visitors helping them to stay connected to us here. In a nutshell it’s a micro blog allowing us to frequently answer one simple question: What are we doing?

We also have file collaboration space to allow more sharing and interaction. Have a wander around and as always tell us what you think.

This week we welcome Helen Scott into the Hive. We have worked with Helen previously and have a deep respect for her account management skills.

With a degree in Pharmacology and Medical Neuroscience (she’s a geek), Helen has long been attracted to healthcare work – blood and needles excluded. She has substantial agency experience with Rx and Pharmacy brands.

Having been here all of two and a half days, Helen is full of enthusiasm for the challenges of working in a start up (evil laugh goes here). She looks forward to working on a variety of projects and accounts and getting stuck in on the new business front.

Helen’s worst job was standing in Sainsbury’s for five days, promoting Nectar Card in a very bad purple outfit. We hope to offer her a bit more stimulation. Also, we’d like to see the outfit if it’s still around?

Her first impressions of Hive are pleasing.  ”Everyone admits when they’re winging it, but seem to have an enthusiasm and experience that means they must be getting it right! ”

Thanks for joining, Helen – undoubtedly you will be a real asset in helping us grow into great shapes.