Image courtesy of Fiat Luxe
The start up plays an almost mythical role in the world of advertising. Start ups are not simply an outlet for the professional and material ambitions of the best in the business, they are absolutely essential to the health and vitality of the industry. If advertising has managed to adapt to the changing business, consumer and communications landscape over the past century it has been largely because of its start-ups.
Image courtesy of Liquidrosephotography
Monday this saw the IPA Strategy Group’s fast strategy conference here in London.
All in all a rather splendid occasion.
The high point was the victory of the marvellous Richard Storey in a live head to head fast strategy challenge from the UK Government on Dog Registration. It was a good reminder, if anyone needed it, that Richard is one of the most accomplished creative strategists in adland. The Planning for Good team (Mark Earls, Jon Leech, Ian Tait and Chris Forrest) came second and were outstanding, if not quite as sharp as Richard’s M&C team (here is the wiki they built that morning to help them). CHI was rather out-classed and brought up the rear.
Anyway, the event made me think about my top tips for getting to strategy fast so I thought I’d share them with you. I’ve done 17 since it seems such an unfashionable number. Some stuff will be familiar to regular readers – but when you are creating fast strategy it doesn’t do to reinvent the wheel.
Image courtesy of Combined Media.
This is a little piece I did to publicise the
Image courtesy of Below Zero.
Forgive this self indulgent post but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has helped adliterate stay the course for three years this month, whether commenting, linking or reading. Self evidently I couldn’t do it without you.
In particular your comments that offer a thoughtfulness and intelligence often lacking in the original post! And at best they not only get the debate going but take us somewhere new and far more interesting.
Incidentally looking at the 2420 comments so far, the first was from Rob Mortimer as was virtually the last. That deserves the blogging equivalent of a carriage clock.
Image courtesy of Simon Lord
Every morning as I meander to work in Charlotte Street I fortify myself for the day ahead at the Caffe Nero on Tottenham Court Road.
And every morning as I hand over the cash they parrot the same old question ‘do you have a loyalty card’. And every morning I mumble a ‘no’ and move onto the next question which is about muffins or other items from the pastry selection.
United London’s anti-salt campaign from last year. The four I’s in action.
I have been giving a bit of thought to a planning approach recently. Something that reflects they way I do it at the moment but nothing too heavy and contrived.
Naturally it involves alliteration and specifically the words ‘interesting’, ‘instinct’, ‘insight’ and ‘idea’..
Charlotte Street, spiritual home of London’s ad land. Image courtesy of Chas Folkes
Thought I’d put up two new bits of work from Saatchis in London. Visa is hot out of the edit suite, you may have clocked Carlsberg already.
Image courtesy of
I owe my career in advertising to an ad.
Not to an ad that inspired me but one that I responded to. It was placed by a long gone and deservedly forgotten direct marketing agency trying to find graduate recruits many months after the above the line shops had employed all the good ones. The ad read ‘By the year 2000 90% of marketing will be direct marketing’ and I was sold.
La Danaide by August Rodin. Image courtesy of Jahsonic.
It is one of the least edifying characteristics of planning directors that they spend a lot of time creating a new briefing format for the agency or network. It is what my old boss Jim Kelly would call “displacement activity”.
Image courtesy of Hans van Reenen
A while ago I introduced the idea of brand ecosystems. These are a group of mutually reinforcing brands, usually from different sectors that co-exist and often co-operate with a high likelihood that a customer of one part of the ecosystem will become a customer of the rest of its members.
Well I have been thinking about this a little more recently.
Never surrender to lacklustre thinking, always know you have a better idea. Image courtesy of asboluv
I like Skunk Strategies.
Or rather I like them in the absence of anything else. And you might find the approach useful especially if you are working in a difficult sector, on a difficult piece of business or at an un-inspiring agency.
My father and I were talking recently and he suddenly produced a note he has carried in his wallet for the last 30 years. And this is it, ‘the workers plea’, in all its typewriter written glory.
I thought you might be interested in it whether you are an employer or an employee. It seems to encapsulate a basic code of conduct between people and hell it might even work in other relationships. For what it is worth the conversation we were having was actually about the relationship between the governed and the state.
