Shame they didnt go for those.
I particularly like 'Save the Humans'

I wholeheartedly agree with you on the airline strategy -the real reason why one travels is to experience something personally, not virtually. The power of looking someone in the eye, shaking their hand, or giving them a hug will never be replicated by virtual presence.

In fact, I liked this idea so much that we used it (at my last agency) as the basis for our 2002 re-launch of Air New Zealand with the strapline "Being There Is Everything".

And it worked, which was nice.

(see http://www.caanz.co.nz/pdf/effie_2003_58.pdf )

Thanks for these, They're a reminder of how clarity can - or at least ought to- seduce.

the science museum one is beautiful and un-obviously so true - just the look at kid's faces when they're amazed by science.

Why the history thing on it though? I would have gone with something about magic being real or everyday...

all very good stuff, thanks for sharing

Thanks ant kind words.

I guess the history thing was just trying to remember that it is a museum at its heart for all the contemporary stuff and the educational role it plays for science in general.

When you see Stevenson's Rocket (the real one mind, the actual thing|) you are witnessing the history of magic. It is no longer amazing as piece of science, its potency is in thinking how awesome, scary and magical it must have seemed to a farm labourer witnessing it pass for the first time.

I think theres an interesting point about how kids/teens think the word science is dull, and that the word museum is dull... but put them together and they often think its fun!

Think you're off with the ING DIRECT one,
but do like Save the Humans.

The Coffee concept is a sure hit one for creative usage.
But since we are dealing with specific brands, it need to be applied to only one.
Find a brand which has more centered caffein dosage.
The Green-peace is amazing. How could they let it go ??

Eddie,

The strategy was developed for the Coffee Council but I always felt it would have been a way to add some guts to the flacid Nescafe thinking and work that pollutes our day to day lives - 'its all about you' bloody hell isn't there a planning hall of shame somewhere?

Firstly - thanks for sharing your ideas. It's not everyone who puts something out there like this. Secondly, I think there are some really great ones in there. I'd be interested in why you think the clients didn't buy them (or maybe they didn't get to hear them).

Thanks Mark,

Reasons why they never made the grade:

1) I think a good planner carries around in their head what I call latent strategies. These are hypothetical strategies either attached to a brand or just category generic which if they ever got the chance they would use. Motehrcare is an example of this. Indeed it amazes me when I inteview planners that most hardly think outside the categories they work on.

2) Sometimes clients are scared of bold strategies - many prefer blander strategies and then leave it to the creative to do all the work with the consumer. As an industry we are far better at nurturing and protecting good work than we are at doing the same with good strategy

3) Sometimes agencies lose their bottle in a pitch and go for a blander option. This double guessing rarely works and this is what happened on ING leaving us all with advertsing featuring orange things and an irritating tune.

4) Sometimes the work doesn't live up to the promise of the strategy or the strategy doesn't actually yeild good work. Our strategy was more interesting than W&K on Wales but I think their work was better.

5) Sometimes you are just plain wrong as a planner - but the process of thinking like this keeps you sharp nonetheless.

hail there, old friend.

A couple of spectacular over head kicks that screamed over the bar from my history.

No one knew how, when or why to drink Campari so...."Campari : the Italian Gin" i.e. drink it after work, with tonic, its red (blooded), its stylish etc. (BTW this completely foxed the Italian clients. Perhaps its a bit like being told when in Rome that Gordon's is the English Campari. Confused? They were...)

And from the era when BMW owned Rover. "Rover : 50% German. 100% British." (apart from the client running a load of old tosh from M&C, it would have been interesting if he had taken the thinking up the line to Munich : they sold the company to Phoenix for a tenner a week after the pitch. Still it was beautiful to dream at the time..)

Jon,

Still use the campari example to this day to show that radical strategies can be incredibly simple - it's possibly my favourite brief from you. the other one was the Sqeezy strategy to make washing up sexy.

Rover is still impressive simply cos no one would have hte balls to pitch that idea any longer now the DLKW's CHI's and VCCP's dominate the business.

Didn't Amnesty use 'save the humans'? Before or after your post?

WH Smith - I know, 'would you like a HUGE bar of chocolate with that?'

Love this sharing idea, a tad concerned that planners could shoehorn in their fave ideas in order to be right, or to be admired

Hmmm, Not sure about the Amnesty thing. Maybe they do use it but rather disappointing if they do. This is about defamiliarisation - if Amnesty say it people think no shit sherlock but it is counter intuitive for Greenpeace to claim they are saving humans rather than the environment the humans are screwing up.

Also the point is that Amnesty may save the odd human but Greenpeace are in the business of saving all 6bn or the whole of humanity in other words.

Don't worry about the shoehorning thing - I think this approach is just about honing ones strategic skills for the day to day.

Resons why they never made the grade:
Point 4) Spot on, the creative didn't do the strategy justice.
Shame, I loved working with you.

It must be the most frustrating bit of a planners job when an excellent strategy isn't realised at creative stage.

you make it sound so simple.
how do you reach these thoughts?
i know what we're seeing here are the end results and there must be a lot of mind maps scribbled along the way.
how do you know which area to explore - do you pick a few that are true to the brand and then develop them as far as you can go to see if they click? or is it a gut feel thing?

apologies if someone has already asked you a how do you plan question which you've answered somewhere on your blog.

by the way i think ing direct is spot on. i can't even remember their uk proposition although the jingle does stick in my head. it's a shame some multinationals are just too scared to recognise cool ideas.

I have mentioned this elsewhere so apologies if I am starting to sound repetitive but my start point is always what is the most interesting strategy this clinet could ever employ and then I go about proving it's right or discarding it. I think its really easy if you try it this way round.

That said I now realise that all my planning comes from somwhere and needs a kick start - I'm not sure that planners are creative geniuses who just come up with stuff out of the blue. By and large this is either a personal insight (I'm a big fan of planning from within) or something I have come across - a quote or a book usually (how many times do I have to say - read weird shit). the ING one was some stuff in an analysts report saying that their revenue model was screwed if anyone phoned them more than 18 times a year. Bingo - consumers love a reason why (note the way IKEA go to such lengths to explain why they can bang out lights so cheaply) and here was a rational for why the interest rates were eyewateringly high - they depended on you lettting them get on with generating interest rather bothering them too much.

We have a recente poster\print coffee campaign going on in Portugal all about "the things you miss when you're sleeping" ... or something like that. I still love Sydney Saatchi's campaign ... opps can't recall the brands'name, but I do remember the message: "Wake up and smell the coffee" and it had a interventive political tone of voice. Nice, different!