furtherandfaster

Customer service area. .

Thu 01/11/2007 17:12 01112007(004)

So keep out while we serve you! Spotted at Tottenham Hale station.

Signage that cheers me up.

Thu 01/11/2007 16:24 01112007

GB population rises by 300,000 - no problem

I am starting to miss Tony Blair - the current lot just can't cut it. Turns out they've underestimated the number of immigrants coming into the country in the last 10 years - by an amount equivalent to the population of one of our medium sized cities. Is anyone going to resign or apologise? Not at all - its just an oversight. So estimating the number of doctors, school places, housing - that doesn't need accurate data on the number of people needing the services? No not really. Blair would at least have done some handwringing - the minister responsible thought he could get away with saying they had just corrected the figures.

What are they going to do about it? Revisit the guidelines for admitting Bulgarian and Romanian workers and make them even tougher. Commiserations to my Romanian friends - I knew someone was going to have to foot the bill for more government incompetence.

McGregor and Boorman: the buddy road movie starts again

The first episode of the next Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman epic kicked off tonight as they set off for a 15 thousand mile ride from John O'Groats to Cape Town.  Compulsive viewing. I don't know who writes the storyline but these boys are so watchable because they manage to create crises out of very litle while maintaining an air of being resolutely normal - as if one of them being one of the most recognisable and bankable Hollywood stars wasn't a factor. So on the one hand we had crisis number 1 Ewan's wife fancies joining them on the trip on a MOTORCYCLE - she's never ridden one before. Testing their friendship to the limit of course. Then Ewan breaks his leg on Shepherd's Bush roundabout so has to miss out on a last skiing holiday (nobody seemed to think it odd that going skiing just before a huge journey with a load of sponsorship money at stake is probably a lot dodgier than riding your motorbike through Shepherd's Bush.  They  got their visas for Libya with hours to spare but the Americans can't get in. Then Charlie doesn't make it on the plane because he says bomb to the security people at the airport.  On the normal side they managed to drop in on Ewan's parents in Crieff - obviously not as far from Glencoe as I had thought - this trip was swaying from side to side of Scotland and just took you with it waiting for the next thrill or spill.

This is great content creation - because that's exactly what it is - loads of namechecks for the sponsors providing the bikes and the clothing with great storylines to keep you engaged.  Much more interesting than advertising. Why don't more agencies create content like this? Because the business model is plain wrong - we just wouldn't get paid enough money for making it. 

England Nil out of 3 - but winning isn't everything

Now all the results are in its another week of catastrophe for England. Or is it? We don't have to beat ourselves up over coming back from nowhere to nearly win the Rugby World Cup. Or how a rookie didn't quite make it to World Champion but has dominated the season and share of attention to a disproprortionate extent. No one was watching the leaders in the last Grand Prix. We just wanted to know if Lewis could make it to number 5 - which he didn't.

We can write all of this off as another example of English failure - never quite making the grade. But we can also look on it as a remarkably good week in sport which might have ended even better. Perhaps if the England football team took this attitude they might win a little more often and would deserve to as well.

Welsh Whitewash

Sat 20/10/2007 15:21 20102007(002)

On one of the busiest routes on the Brecon Beacons a bilingual sign has the English side painted out. Is it info about safety or tourism? Only Welsh speakers are allowed to know. The Welsh tourism agency spends hundreds of thousands every year trying to persuade people to visit Wales. Which is largely wasted if visitors don't feel welcome when they get there and return home with examples like this. Signs written in such a way that most passers-by can understand isn't cultural subserviance. Its good manners. And good tourism too.

Rugby world cup final day in Wales

Sat 20/10/2007 08:23 20102007

South African and Welsh rugby shirts for sale. No English option. Of course !

Take that M&S outfit - out of the BBC

Was it just me or did I spot a breach in the code on the Jonathan Ross show?  I have no idea if he was primed to mention that they were the face of M&S - upon which the boys started fidgeting with their clothes - so its OK to namecheck brands on the BBC now is it? Promoting your latest book is one thing. But making it abundantly clear who is dressing the stars - well done whatever stylist or PR got that one through: 15 minutes of brand association. On non commercial TV.

Quanta Qualia -

I heard this by accident when I was driving a car set to Classic FM - not my usual practice. But this piece just leaped at me. I think it also reminded me of Chris Barnham's presentation about Qualia at the MRS conference a couple of years ago - using medieval philosophy to explain how qualitative research actually works. But actually there's no connection at all. Its just lovely. Download 01_quanta_qualia.mp3

And here's the Amazon link to it. I'm off on holiday for a week - I think with this as soundtrack. See yous at the end of the month.

The Herd meister

Finally I get around to publishing my podcasts with the Herdmeister Mark Earls and my review of the book which I did back in March when the book came out. There's more to come but this will do for now.

Planning the revolution

There was a meet this evening of conspirators from the Research Liberation Front - remember the fringe event which we ran earlier this year at the Market Research Society conference. Well the race is on to do it again this coming year in London. There were lots of good ideas on the table. Expect more mayhem on March 18/19th. It turns out that several of those who came have also submitted papers for the conference so I anticipate chaos when various speakers from the conference platform try to strike postures in the pub around the corner where we will be holding the fringe event and talk about being marginalised. There's the alternative research scene for you. Naughty but nice.

Handing the asylum keys to the inmates

The key to making Facebook rock and roll is choosing the right add-ons to forward to your 'friends'. Until now only developers were able to create them. But now the asylum keys have been handed to the inmates. If you've got fed up with receiving bogus drinks, fluffy animals and general nonsense then why not prove that you can outviral the pros. By using Dapper you can make your own add-ons. Off you go then.

How do you get local (ie small clients) to pay for planning?

A question I was asked today so I thought I would put a reply on here.

I'm afraid I can't provide a straight reference to a book called Business casing account planning because there isn't one. Planning doesn't guarantee an ROI - but since most clients have no idea what their advertising is doing for them  anyway the perspective that planning can bring to a campaign ought to make it great value for money.

If the client wants to go a la carte - then I would start with the simplest option

a) - they should write the ads themselves and hire a designer to art direct/code

They then have all the risk themselves for the lowest cost. Next up

b) is using a creative hotshop and placing the work themselves but buying in creative ideas. Within this they still have to pay for a production team and an account handler

c) Add a planner - who brings strategic skills (though these are also to be found with good account handlers in ad agencies) - in other words deciding how does the work build the brand and how best to use communications to achieve marketing objectives? The planner also brings a consumer perspective with or without research so will argue about the effectiveness of the ad when the account handler shuts up because if the client is happy then the account handler is happy. The final thing the planner brings is the experience of using different media channels - how the media channels are consumed.

d) Add a marketing consultant and you have a whole new layer of cost, lots of presentations and charts but no better work because they aren't creative people. They would still need an agency to execute.

My argument would be that in the scale of things d) is far too expensive. But I don't think b) gives the client enough value for money. The addition of the planner c) brings in 3 new areas without the client spending significantly more budget. If the client doesn't want to pay for a strategically thought out piece of work which is aimed at customers and which understands how to use the media channels to deliver this then perhaps it is time they were using a studio and doing it all themselves.

An option you haven't mentioned is the client claiming they have already paid for planning once through advertising and don't see why they should pay for it again on dm or digital. That's a toughie!

One of the best things about planning is the contribution it can make across the whole span of business from 200K a year accounts to 20 million. This is primarily because thinking about a piece of business and challenging the existing orthodoxy almost always saves money and helps to make money. And because planning skills are well understood and written down - it isn't just a question of calling in a planning guru and asking if they have any ideas. There are tangible contributions which every planner ought to be able to make even without an IPA effectiveness casestudy and an econometrician.

I was interested in Jon Steel's perspective in the interview which I put on the accountplanning.net site last March. He brought planning to Goodby Silverstein but only used it on new business and on newly won accounts. Over time all clients became users of planning. I don't know if he would take this line but if a client refused to have planning on a pitch for the business then perhaps the agency should withdraw. That way clients understand that planning is integral to the agencies product and if you fire the planning function you may as well fire the agency. Agencies using planning in new business win more pitches than those without. But I think you have to be equally strong so that if planning helps to win the business then the client can't turn around and say they're not going to pay for it.

What does everybody else think?

Brand ideas, activation ideas and contextual platforms

Today I was at Mediaedge to interview Steve Hatch and Jim Taylor the authors behind the book This Rigorous Magic - a way of helping clients to decide what kind of idea they are looking for. And by the way what is usually needed is not an advertising idea. There really isn't another book out there about how to brief communicaiton platforms. Provocative stuff and a very helpful read and what nice blokes they are. I will be posting the interview in the next couple of months.

First agree on a client

Heard this via a 3rd party - a planning director (who shall remain nameless) has been doing long hours on a big international pitch for the IT giant HP. Coming home late one night said his wife trying to be supportive: 'Well you do need to keep it in perspective. After all its only a sauce.' If you're not from the UK the humour of this is probably untranslateable. 

Getting a new perspective

This afternoon Adrian Reith who was a founder of Radioville - the specialist creative boutique sent me the links to a couple of films he had put on Youtube. He and a couple of friends had taken their families for a holiday with a difference on the streets of Durban South Africa with the street children. I had never heard street children covered before by UK children of the same age. It is very powerful. 

The battle of big thinking Round 2

is over and what a lot of fun it was. You can find my account of the day on the WARC site. I have become a guest columnist/blogger there and it should mean that in future I get to a few more events than usual which is nice for me and hopefully beneficial for those who want to keep up with things but can't get to everything. It was great to catch up with friends - a real pleasure to bump into Razvan Matasel deputy MD of Leo's in Bucharest and one of the main movers in getting the planning scene going over there. One of his proteges Elena Ionita is on the APG awards shortlist - a vivid reminder of how international planning has become. So I guess it is time to book up for Awards night the next biggie on the APG calendar.   

Better than it needs to be

Just spotted this post on Russell's blog and its so good that I've wrapped it around me and carted it off to snuggle down in it for the rest of the night. Absolutely spot on - but why do we take such pleasure in things that are better than they need to be?

Better without the postal workers

We're in the middle of what seems like an unending series of 48 hour strikes by the local sorting offices striking according to the bosses because they're refusing to modernise. The on off nature of the strikes is of course chaotic because you have no way of knowing if something has got lost or delayed or what.  It isn't doing much for their image either. The rest of us are modernising why can't they? Being a postal worked can't be that deskilled and surely those who remained might have more skills and would thereby be more secure in their jobs.

Enough union bashing. What it is reminding us is that these jobs on which small businesses largely depend are protected by statute. And we're learning to find ways around them. The posties aren't securing their future they're destroying it. This wasn't the only communication I got in my (E)mailbox this week. Amazon were saying much the same thing - don't worry - we can do it without using the post. Now THERE'S a why better.

Taking a little of my own medicine - writing a creds deck

Coo its a right old caper isn't it this branding lark. It seems very straightforward when you're doing it for other people. But having to sit down and work out what your own proposition is and why a brand manager should buy it - its like pulling hen's teeth! Spending a few happy days assembling casestudies and getting the ducks in a row....

Man from Carphone Warehouse duets with Pavarotti

I came rather late to the story of Paul Potts the awkward man in the cheap suit with the divine voice who won Britain's Got Talent this last summer.  I'm really not going to use this post as a platform to rave about him. Only to point you to this film of him on Youtube mashed with the late great Pavarotti. Wrapped up in the narrative about Paul Potts is the notion that he was so lacking in confidence he just worked in a Carphone Warehouse shop in South Wales. Only half true - he was a manager so he couldn't have been all that shy and retiring but that's the telly for you. And then its the usual reality TV rags to riches narrative.

I have 2 points to make here. What have Carphone Warehouse done about having a member of staff who has probably got one of the biggest human interest stories of the year?  A missed opportunity surely. And secondly look how customer generated content is helping to go on promoting him. And how easy it is for someone who knows how to cut two films together to just get on and do it. I have huge faith in customer generated content - the best of it is so much better than the professional kind. But how do we professionals ride the tiger? Enjoy the clip.

Its nearly time for the battle of big thinking

Which is taking place next Thursday. I've written a prequel to it which you'll find posted on WARC and no doubt will be writing about it afterwards too.  And yup I'll be there.

Media brands - spot the difference

Today I was running the propositions and positioning course at the IDM for the 7th time. What was different this time was that all of the delegates came from the same company - a newspaper.  It became evident in the exchanges how different media companies have become. None of them was involved in the selling of advertising but all in the marketing of ancillary products and services clubs and what have you.  And there's really no reason more non media brands couldn't start to behave the same way. Why sell one customer one kind of product at a time when you could sell them 3?

Good Brand makes good after 10 years

I could only spare half a day to attend the Making Good, the 10 year anniversary of this CSR consultancy. But it was well worth it. Held at the Welcome Foundation a range of speakers from Good Brand and their associates unpacked what CSR is turning into.

I was particularly interested in the two casestudies of Nespresso and Danone's feed a child programme in Poland. Because it was clear that the governance structures were carefullly thought out. Partners included NGOs to keep the initiatives honest. And metrics were a lot more than the hardline on increased sales on the one hand or fluffy feelgood on the other. I was interested that Danone had gone out of their way to keep their branding off the programme. The only way you knew they were involved would have been through word of mouth - of one of the volunteers involved which ultimately would have been more powerful if you were close enough to one of them or the company to hear it on the grapevine.  There was also an interesting balancing act in the example of Nespresso - Increasing the quality of the raw coffee product doesn't of course lead to a rise in prices but since access to Nespresso is limited to those who have bought the coffee maker and signed up to receive the coffee by mail order they have found a way to build a connection between quality and fair trade on the one hand and premium delivery at the far end even though these don't necessarily belong together. They had even got agro tourism together so affluent Europeans could find out where their coffee came from.

I had an interested exec with an Asian PR exec about vountarism and what it entails.  I had some experience of this when researching volunteers for VSO a few years ago. The concept is culturally loaded. Charity, what it is, who does it and who to and why are culturally loaded concepts.  In a multicultural society it is going to get even more confusing. She told me a great story about prioritising a sponsored walk over a festival where her duty lay in going to the big family get together. It was no conflict of interest for her - but she had to argue her corner when she got back home.   

It was a vivid reminder that CSR has really moved on a long way from the early days where it was little more than patronage.   Here's an animation which they started the day with. And the presentations films are due to be posted soon.

TV advertising works - it's official

Anybody else spot the woman who quoted the Quorn commercial when her partner nicked her sausages from the fridge? Screaming Take my pork feel my fork she stabbed the hapless thief. I think she has managed to avoid prison on the grounds that she was rather drunk at the time. How Quorn feel about becoming part of the the script in a scene of domestic violence is not easy to say. But it is worth rememembering that the point of advertising is to be useful - just a shame she didn't use it to remember to buy Quorn.

Stephen King remembered

This evening the APG ran an event to celebrate the publication of a collection of Stephen King's writings. Not to be confused with the horror writer, Stephen King was instrumental in developing the understanding of brands in the UK from bundles of rational benefits to emotional values which have proven to be even more powerful.  He also was one of the first to quantify brand effects in terms of customer preferences -more subtly than just watching the tills. He was one of the founding fathers of account planning. I have written more fully about the evening on the WARC site. If you have access you can read what I posted about the event there.