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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’.
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 (90th 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.
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 18th 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 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.
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.
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.
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’.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A stumbled across Hugh Macleod’s gapingvoid blog whilst looking for a book for a client’s Christmas presents. Hugh is a cut through illustrator specialising in cube grenades – little anarchic illustrations for businesses.
It features a lovely list for those of us who want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever.
1. Ignore everybody.
2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.
3. Put the hours in.
4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
5. You are responsible for your own experience.
6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kinder garten.
7. Keep your day job.
8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
11. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.
14. Dying young is overrated.
15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
16. The world is changing.
17. Merit can be bought. Passion can’t.
18. Avoid the Water cooler Gang.
19. Sing in your own voice.
20. The choice of media is irrelevant.
21. Selling out is harder than it looks.
22. Nobody cares. Do it for your self.
23. Worrying about “Commercial vs. Artistic” is a complete waste of time.
24. Don’t worry about fin ding inspiration. It comes eventually.
25. You have to find your own schtick.
26. Write from the heart.
27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.
28. Power is never given. Power is taken.
29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due even tually.
30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.
31. Remain frugal.
32. Allow your work to age with you.
33. Being Poor Sucks.
34. Beware of turning hobbies into jobs.
35. Savor obscurity while it lasts.
36. Start blogging.
37. Meaning Scales, People Don’t.
37. When your dreams become reality, they are no longer your dreams.
I might paste this into my NY resolutions. Beats the hell out of “go back to the gym”.
Just back from a really inspiring evening held by a client for 250 pharmacists at Wembley Stadium.
Alongside chicken satay and chardonnay was a really fresh approach.
Half way between stand-up and business school the slide presentation avoided a focus on products, ingredients, features or benefits. And elevated the discussion to value and driving an understanding that customer satisfaction was the common ground that existed between the audience and organisers.
The two hour presentation waxed lyrical on the value placed by customers on the interaction and the urgent requirement for pharmacy to wake up to engaging their customers in the non product elements of the consultation.
Delivered in a fresh, unusual and pretty compelling way it’s the first time I have seen this challenging approach and style of presentation given live with customers on a mature brand.
It’s pretty common to train and educate on launch brands during a med ed’ phase, but this focused on Business ed’ and went down a storm. It provided a real opportunity for the company to demonstrate commercial expertise, partnership . Probably most importantly it elevated the discussion from product flogging to a genuine adult to adult dialogue. A business talking to another business for mutual gain, rather than supplier and stockist fulfilling the usual adult child cliché.
I hope to be able to get some footage to show you.
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 7th 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?
Post the PM digital awards last night what I really needed was a dark warm room, a duvet and to be entertained. Fortunately part of this was possible, unfortunately only after having to go to Brighton to hunt down insights into Nurses/virology/technology for 9am. The skedaddle back to Town for 3pm proved all a bit of a blur.
This entertainment came in the form of an afternoon with Paul Smith, sharing his views on inspiration, business, customer satisfaction and being polite. Equipped with wild gesticulations, vivid facial expressions, and a bit of dancing he provided a total inspiration for us. It was hard not to be enthralled by him and totally hit the mark – a perfect replacement for what could have been an afternoon of Murder she wrote.
Paul built his archetypal British label on a foundation of playfulness, an impeccable eye and a steely business sense. Since setting up his first shop with wife Pauline Denyer in 1970 – he’s been knighted, had his own exhibition and owns 230 ‘individual’ stores worldwide. But more than any of this, he proved to be a total gentleman, true to himself, and elegant in his honesty. Classically quirky to the core.
His views on globalization, homogenization, and characterless multinational organisations were bluntly put. He willed us to strive for character and difference, to not just repeat what is successful, and role it out country to country but to strive to build on that success, to challenge it, or risk becoming yesterday.
His views on success and happiness were nicely encapsulated in him recommending we all ask ourselves “what’s the point of you”, defining what we love doing, and doing it. No more complicated than that. Awesome.
Thursday saw us in Manchester launching a biggie campaign to help patients discuss treatments with healthcare teams, solve problems with therapy and understand their treatments better.
We took an art gallery in Manchester’s trendy side and mounted an exhibition showing the issues at hand, the thinking behind the campaign, its development and the execution of some of the work of which we are so proud.
Catherine, who was responsible for one of the best briefs we have seen, was our curator for the evening, introducing how the collateral fits into the world. It’s a totally proud moment when you see your work being presented so fantastically, it brought a tear to my eye.
The show travels to three other venues, where it will be rolled out to community groups, opinion leaders, charities and internally.
It was a resounding success despite the usual courier mishaps, lost packages, countless hours hanging and discarded Dewalt batteries we closed the launch with rounds of applause, a real sense of purpose.
The morning saw us discuss with much mirth Jas dropping a 6ft high flower arrangement an hour before the kick-off! How we all laughed.
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.
If you are in-and-around 30, at some point in the next couple of weeks you have to pay your respects to John Hughes by watching his back catalogue on Sky.
Having watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club this week I was transported back to sunny days, teen angst and North Devon College. Brilliant.
I have just been told by Michael that JH started out as a copywriter working on KFC. Now I know this – I think you can kind of see it. Really sparse scripts that drip with authenticity. Defined characters, superbly handled tone and reality. It smacks of TV commercial talent. That stoned-library-dance-scene still makes me laugh out loud.
I am confident that Ferris Bueller was our James Dean. With this in mind we are giving away a DVD copy of Ferris Bueller’s day off to the best JH film quote submitted via comments.
Digging around for free multimedia content I found this charming little healthcare story. Produced in 1948 by Halas and Batchelor an animation company founded by John Halas and his wife Joy Batchelor two pretty inspirational people. The company started small and grew to be the largest and most influential animation studio in Western Europe. From small beginnings in 1940, they made over 2000 films and earned an international reputation for fine animation extending the medium to explain complex ideas with clarity and humour.
8 1/2 minutes seems crazily long now given our obsession with the 30 sec TVC and the interuptive nature of much or our marketing. But watching this the charm, execution and humour grabbed me way and beyond my usual attention span. It’s pretty interesting to see that COI communications seems to have taken a backward step when it comes to explaining change to the man in the street.
Being alright at business and communication strategy paid off this week.
Ian and I have worked together for years, our relationship is based upon a love of business, strategy, people, solving problems and a really good wrangle. It’s this that got us to Hive – thank god for the wrangle and gardening leave!
Every now and then one of us gets an invite to help a mate out with a business. It usually starts off with – ‘I am a bit stuck with growth/selling/marketing/what we do/core offers/branding etc’. What follows is often a moderately informed conversation taking what we have learnt from pharma strategy and transferring this knowledge to their industry. It’s good for them, and really helps us look at our core skills and apply them to different business – its business case studies in the flesh. The best type of learning.
This time around the company in case was a Helicopter management company. Ian and I invited to an afternoon session with the management team. We were tasked with helping them crystallise sources of growth, audience segmentation, prioritisation and marketing. This company manages a load of £6-11 million choppers owned by big billionaires who are flown all over Europe, or even flown into town to do some shopping.
It’s afternoons like this that I really enjoy and learn loads from. But also it leads to an appreciation of pharma. We often kid ourselves that our industry is very different to others that we forget that we are packed with transferable skills. Knowing how to market to patients and HCPs is pretty much exactly like any consumer or business to business world. What we know is useful to so many.
Anyway, the thoroughly interesting meeting finished, we with a new found understanding of the billionaire aircraft market, and the management team with load of decisions made/avenues to explore. I was getting slightly nervous about trains from Surrey as I needed to get to Camden for a birthday do. 
Across the table came the best offer I have had for a while, ‘we are flying up to town to pick up X’s girlfriend, who is doing some shopping – we could drop you off on the way’. No sooner had it been said I was packed and stuffing diagram filled flipchart paper in my bag.
I left Ian driving back to Hampshire as I boarded the £6 millon Eurocopter, sat reclined in grey leather, followed the river at 165mph and was dropped off just in time to make the first pint in Camden.
Got to love healthcare.
On Wednesday, Kieran and I went to see the BP ‘Classified’ exhibition at the Tate Britain. Two things stood out for me and really got me thinking.
The first was an oil painting by Gillian Carnegie. Using only black paint she’s created an amazing picture of trees, which seems to have more texture and atmosphere than a coloured painting would have had.
But what made her decide to do it in just black?
The second was a collection of sculptures by Jake and Dinos Chapman. At first glance they look like traditional aborigine sculptures, but when you look closer there are numerous references to McDonalds. It’s a comment on our lack of understanding and appreciation of the culture that this type of art originates from, and also on our own culture, and the predominance of huge commercial organisations such as Maccy D’s.
Again, it’s such a clever idea, but what made them think of it?
At Hive, our business is built on doing things differently, thinking in a different way. But it’s all too easy to get stuck thinking ‘differently’ – and then different becomes the same. The challenge is to keep finding the inspiration to think outside an ever-changing box.
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 15th and 16th 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.
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;
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.
Apparently when the Romans used the term Genius they referred to a disembodied thing that lived in the walls of an artists studio. The artist was a channel for this being and when their creativity bombed it took the heat, when they soared they were kept in their place by the assumption that they were part of this process but not the foundation for it.
I found this out via this little gem with Elizabeth Gilbert, a writer and loved her view on ego, creativity, struggle and the role of hard slog and luck.
I have to admit that the first week back from Christmas has never been one that fills me with fun and enthusiasm. It’s too cold, too busy, and I need to wean myself off of days spent eating, and in the fold of family life. I find myself needing some inspiration this early in the year. (Ian thinks this is soft needy nonsense. Bless him)
